Thread: Cresitello debates immigration advocacy groups over 287(g)

Cresitello debates immigration advocacy groups over 287(g)
VANESSA VERA • DAILY RECORD • May 2, 2009

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MORRISTOWN — Mayor Donald Cresitello defended his proposal to have local police enforce federal immigration laws during a forum Saturday that included a panel of immigration lawyers and advocates.

Held at St. Margaret Church, the forum was sponsored by Wind of the Spirit, a local immigrant resource group, and other organizations. It focused on Morristown’s application to be included in a federal program called 287(g), which would deputize local police officers to enforce immigration laws.

Wind of the Spirit held two previous forums on the subject but this was the first time Cresitello was invited to present his position, said Stuart Sydenstricker, 53, a Wind of the Spirit board member.

Cresitello told the panel and about 75 people in the audience that he supports legal immigration and “strong border enforcement through 287(g).â€

“If I don’t have papers, how am I going to call the police?,â€

[quote]Panelist Aarti Shahani, who teaches immigration history at NYU, said local police often misuse the powers of 287(g), targeting day laborers and those who commit traffic violations. She said the program is not intended to target those groups. The implementation of 287(g), Shahani said, makes “a broken (immigration) system more broken.â€

Here's her e-mail, send her a 'loving' email. I did

http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2004/09 ... ahani.html
She became an immigrant rights organizer after her uncle was deported to India and her father was placed in deportation proceedings.

aarti@familiesforfreedom.org

http://www.nyu.edu/gallatin/about/bios/ ... ahani.html

B.A. 2002, Chicago
Aarti Shahani's teaching and research interests are immigration and race, deportation and policing, law and lawyering, organizing and power, and communications as a tool of movement. As a community organizer, Shahani cofounded New York's first defense network by and for immigrants facing deportation. She coauthored Deportation 101, an extensive popular education curriculum used to train thousands of leaders nationwide, and "Families for Freedom, Against Deportation & Delegalization" (forthcoming in a Columbia University Press anthology). Shahani has contributed to various publications, including El Diario, Caribbean Life, Gotham Gazette, ColorLines, LeftTurn, and New American Media, and she has been an ongoing source for immigration coverage in various local and national media outlets. Shahani received the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University and a New Voices Fellowship from the Academy for Educational Development.

Wow, what an educator, she even gets rewarded with a fellowship for her work.

http://www.nyu-apastudies.org/event.php ... ent_id=117

Continuing our examination of race and immigration, A/P/A Studies partners with the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law to present a panel discussion on the impact of post-9/11policy shifts on immigrant communities. We Are All Suspects Now, a new book by Tram Nguyen, tells the stories of those who were detained and deported, who abandoned entire neighborhoods in their flight from the United States, and whose family lives were unjustly disrupted in the crackdown on immigrants after 9/11. From a community of Somali refugees in Minnesota to self-styled vigilantes who patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, We Are All Suspects Now examines the domestic impact of misguided policies associated with the “war on terrorâ€

Aarti Shahani - Is she a Naturalized Citizen or here as a guest worker? If not ICE needs to deport this foreign invader.

http://newvoices.aed.org/fellows/Aartiprofile.html

Name: Aarti Shahani
Location: New York, NY
Fellowship: National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
Role: Organizer/Advocate

Aarti Shahani works on behalf of hundreds of families like her own, people who are caught up in an often incomprehensible and seemingly arbitrary deportation system. Her efforts have gained special relevance since the overzealous enforcement of immigration laws post-September 11.

Born in Morocco, Aarti Shahani came to the U.S. as a toddler and grew up as a new American in Flushing, Queens as part of a close-knit Sindhi family. To make a living, her father swept streets in Times Square and her mom sewed wedding dresses. Over time, the family gained financial stability, opened a wholesale electronics business in Manhattan, and saved enough to buy a house.

The family’s newfound success was short-lived. In 1996 Shahani’s father and uncle were charged with improper cash transactions connected to the family business. They pleaded guilty under pressure. Because of their convictions for the first time offense, Shahani's uncle was ultimately deported and her ailing father currently faces deportation.

Those convictions gave birth to a young activist who now devotes herself to reform of an immigration system that can separate families at will.

As a New Voices Fellow with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Shahani started Families for Freedom, a grassroots network that has quickly become a driving force in advocating for the rights of detained immigrants and immigrants facing deportation. She pushes for reform of immigration laws and educates both immigrants and the public about the immigration removal system.

In 2003, she provided backup legal support for more than 150 immigration cases and helped gain the release of a young Mexican woman faced with a final order of deportation. She also has written legislative materials and crafted responses to Department of Justice immigration regulations. The outspoken activist has authored educational materials and conducts legal clinics and workshops for immigrant advocates and families facing deportation. She organizes Caribbean, Latino and South Asian families throughout New York City facing deportation.

"The heightened enforcement against immigrants does not serve American communities. It targets our vital informal economies, and reaps fear across our working class communities of color," says the activist. She also visits county jails on a regular basis to document, advise, and lend support to immigrants who are detained for months or years for violations as petty as permitting their visas to expire.

While a student at the University of Chicago, Shahani’s passion to fight for the rights of immigrants grew as she served as regional administrator for Citizens and Immigrants for Equal Justice. Once a New Voices Fellow, Shahani credits the program with providing her financial support and space to be creative in a demanding job that is considered cutting edge. "It gives a leadership space for people who are young or new," she explains. "I’m fresh out of college and the fact that I am leading my organization in trying to go out and communicate with immigrant groups and bridging gaps—and the fact that I am taken seriously—I think has a lot to do with the fact that I am funded as a New Voices Fellow."

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Does our Congress screen for FARA Registration?

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/
Foreign Agents Registration Act
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA is a disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents. The FARA Registration Unit of the Counterespionage Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act.

Should read, "As a "New Voices Fellow" ...Shahani is a paid, radical, liberal, America-hating, progressive intent on advocating for those, who like her family, abused the privileges of their immigration by committing crimes, including tax evasion, etc. and now dedicates her sponsored time to assisting illegal alien criminals and their families in obtaining as many public benefits and freedoms as citizens and legal residents ....without ever having to go through the process of adherence to racist American immigration laws.