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01-21-2009, 04:04 PM #1
Immigrant Activists March on ICE on Day After Inauguration
New America Media, News Analysis, Marcelo Ballvé, Posted: Jan 21, 2009
Editor's Note: Immigrant advocates wasted no time in pressing their agenda of reform, organizing a march the day after Pres. Barack Obama's inauguration to counter what they anticipate will be an aggressive campaign by opponents. NAM contributing writer Marcelo Ballave explains the issues at stake.
Even as the masses celebrating President Obama's inauguration dispersed, a new crowd gathered Wednesday for a day-after march to place immigrant rights atop the president's agenda.
Immigrant advocates know their nativist opponents plan to deploy online organizing and viral communication to counter any attempts at immigration reform this year. They intend to seize every opportunity to build momentum on their side.
The pro-immigrant activists, many immigrants themselves, marched on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters to remind the fledgling administration of their demand for a "just and humane" immigration policy.
"It's an opportunity to celebrate, but also to point forward to the great need for immigration reform in the months ahead," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
Immigrant advocates believe Pres. Barack Obama will stick to his promise to begin work on comprehensive immigration reform in his first year in office. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the immigration system is "broken." And even before a major overhaul is proposed, activists hope for changes to some of the most criticized aspects of current immigration policy.
These may include the huge backlog in naturalization requests, the workplace raids that have sown chaos in immigrant communities, inhumane detention centers, or the "287(g)" program, which delegates immigration enforcement to state troopers, county sheriffs or local police.
The activists that gathered outside ICE headquarters were guided by interdenominational religious leaders in a "ceremonial cleansing," marking what they hope will be the agency's shift away from what they deem an "enforcement-only" approach.
The event was organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a coalition of state-level and national groups working for comprehensive immigration reform. FIRM also ran an ad campaign on signs atop Washington, D.C. cabs that showed real immigrants' faces and said: "Mr. President, count on me." Also distributed were T-shirts and signs bearing the slogan, "I am immigrant America."
FIRM's blog on Inauguration Day noted that in his inaugural address, Obama "spoke of a country that ensures freedom for all… Now, it’s our time to make sure that the same freedom and the same values include the immigrants of America."
The post-inaugural march is only a beginning. Immigrant advocates spoke about the need for maintaining momentum in the first months of Obama's administration. Though they perceive the new administration as sympathetic and staffed with some prominent supporters of their cause (most notably Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz, a veteran of the immigration reform movement) they don't want to let their guard down.
Across the country, advocates plan for more actions, coordinated through an increasingly sophisticated communications network, to build a groundswell in favor of reform. For example, on Jan. 22 on Long Island, a hotspot in the immigration wars, the ecumenical Council of Churches plans to release a major statement on the need for "immigration solutions."
High-ranking elected officials, including Republicans, seem to be echoing activists' renewed call for an immigration overhaul, despite the country's economic woes and the failure of an immigration reform law in the U.S. Senate as recently as the summer of 2007.
Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state, has said the failure of immigration reform, which she considered important to national security, was her biggest regret. Republican senators Mel Martinez and John McCain have both said they feel their party must tone down some members' hard-line rhetoric on immigration in order to be competitive among immigrant voters.
Meanwhile, the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has placed what looks to be a sketch of a comprehensive immigration reform bill on its list of 10 pieces of legislation with which it hopes to kick off Congress under the new president, according to American Prospect magazine.
Any immigration reform package is expected to include some sort of path to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, even if it is after they are made to wait at "the back of the line"-- behind those who applied through the usual channels.
For this reason, those who favor strict immigration restrictions typically oppose any attempt to change immigration laws, even if the new legislation also includes tougher border security and enforcement measures. They see reform as an excuse to deliver amnesty to illegal immigrants. The restrictionists, as they are known, who are at least as well-organized and politically savvy as the pro-reform activists, have successfully torpedoed past attempts to overhaul immigration by jamming legislative phone lines and inboxes with their petition and letter-writing drives.
The result of this year's immigration wars may come down to which side puts in place the more robust and technologically sophisticated grassroots political network.
Grassfire.org is one online group already established to fight Obama's agenda. It has begun organizing around specific immigration-related campaigns, such as the group's petition to Congress to finish the border fence, with close to 280,000 signatures. Grassfire's omnibus petition declaring resistance to Obama's agenda reads in part, "I resist ... open border anarchy, including amnesty for illegal aliens and promotion of multi-nation 'unions.'"
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Undocumented Students Raise Voices Online for DREAM Act
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http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vi ... 35c1f5097b
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01-21-2009, 05:51 PM #2Any immigration reform package is expected to include some sort of path to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, even if it is after they are made to wait at "the back of the line"-- behind those who applied through the usual channels.
The restrictionists, as they are known, who are at least as well-organized and politically savvy as the pro-reform activists, have successfully torpedoed past attempts to overhaul immigration by jamming legislative phone lines and inboxes with their petition and letter-writing drives.
The result of this year's immigration wars may come down to which side puts in place the more robust and technologically sophisticated grassroots political network.
um I have been called a lot of things in this fight, but this is the first time I have heard the term 'restrictionist". Does it sound like a really negative term to anybody else?Proud American and wife of a wonderful LEGAL immigrant from Ireland.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." -Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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01-21-2009, 06:46 PM #3FIRM's blog on Inauguration Day noted that in his inaugural address, Obama "spoke of a country that ensures freedom for all… Now, it’s our time to make sure that the same freedom and the same values include the immigrants of America."RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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01-22-2009, 01:19 AM #4
- Join Date
- Jan 1970
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- Mexifornia
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They're NOT IMMIGRANTS! THEY'RE ILLEGAL ALIENS!! And WHAT THE HELL is "THE NEW AMERICAN MEDIA??"
These people are bona fide _ _ _HOLES! I'd respect them more if they'd just be honest about their agenda and quit lying and playing games!! Why don't they just come right out and tell the truth, about how they know if they come here they'll be given the keys to the city along with free medical care, subsidized living, not only for them but everyone else they bring here with them! Social Security for aged parents or grandparents who have NEVER paid a dime into it, a baby that becomes a Jack Pot Baby, yeah, who wouldn't run over here for all that, besides people of no moral character, self respect or pride..
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I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
~Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
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01-24-2009, 02:15 AM #5
Immigration Activists Demonstrate For End To Illegal Alien Raids
By Maria Peña
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hundreds of activists from all over the United States, led by religious leaders, on Wednesday staged a spiritual "cleansing" demonstration in front of the offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement here and urged new President Barack Obama to end the raids to round up illegal immigrants.
The march was held one day after the first black president of the United States was inaugurated. Obama during his election campaign had promised Hispanics that he would get a process of comprehensive immigration reform under way.
The activists hailed the arrival of Obama in the White House, but they also asked him to order a moratorium on the "inhumane" raids to nab undocumented migrants, most of whom are subsequently deported back to their home countries and could be barred from reentering the country, even legally.
In 2008, ICE deported a little over 350,000 people, many of them discovered in workplace raids to turn up illegal immigrants.
"We're human beings and it's unfair that we're treated like criminals. We want the same thing as the rest: education and work," Erica Ayala, a 17-year-old student from California, told Efe.
The activists marched from Banneker Park to the ICE facilities, where they performed a ritual "cleansing" of the building.
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, from an Islamic center in northern Virginia, said that Obama "has the power to put an end to the illegal raids that destroy immigrant families."
Marking the four points of the compas and gesturing with the smoke from an "ancestral" incense-burner and a condor feather, Salvadoran indigenous leader Margarito Esquino called on the spiritual powers that be to "clean the negativity that exists in the (ICE) facilities."
Spreading the incense smoke about the area, Esquino also dispatched prayers, at least one of them in an Indian dialect, against wars, "bloodiness" and torture.
Other leaders held an African ceremony on the renewal of the cycle of life using a small plant that they watered with a glass filled with grape juice.
The Rev. Jamila Woods-Jones, pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church in La Plata, Maryland, told Efe that she joined the immigrants' protest because "there's no division between blacks and Hispanics."
"We're all immigrants, although we came (here) in different ways. My people fought for the same equal rights for which the immigrants are now fighting," she said.
The protest, organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement and the National Capital Immigrant Coalition, was attended by around 500 activists from California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois and the entire Washington metropolitan area. EFE
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Article ... ryId=13003
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01-24-2009, 11:08 AM #6"We're human beings and it's unfair that we're treated like criminals. We want the same thing as the rest: education and work," Erica Ayala, a 17-year-old student from California, told Efe.RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
Laura Loomer - Woke up this morning to a @nytimes article...
03-27-2024, 11:36 PM in General Discussion