Thread: WA: Criticism for border agent at ferry terminal

Criticism for border agent at ferry terminal
MANUEL VALDES; The Associated Press Published: June 19th, 2008 01:00

AMA Washington state ferry worker has denounced the Border Patrol for
using a plainclothes agent to monitor activity at the Anacortes ferry terminal, the same location where the federal agency has been widely criticized for conducting security spot checks of domestic ferry runs.

John Norby, who works at the terminal directing traffic, said a plainclothes Border Patrol officer approached him in April and asked him if he’d be interested in sharing “intelligence.â€

One border patrol agent and 49 arrests? Where can we find more like him?

Funny isnt it, that the same OBL folks that demand we cater to spanish only speakers (signage, interpreters, labeling) have a problem with a border patrol agent (of hispanic decent no less) that speaks spanish. Go figure.

My Black grandfather who was naturalized was born Danish on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He became a local police officer under the Danes and remained one under the Navy between 1917 and 1927. He became a citizen in 1927 when the US Government opened to citizenship to former Danish Virgin Islanders. His mother my great grandmother was from the British Virgin Islands to the east which was the largest point of origin for illegal aliens. My grandfather was made Federal Deputy Inspector of Immigration in 1927. Not only did my maternal grandfather have no qualms about arresting and deporting British Virgin Islanders. He arrested and deported relatives foolish enough to try to work in the US Virgin Islands without papers.

Funny isnt it, that the same OBL folks that demand we cater to spanish only speakers (signage, interpreters, labeling) have a problem with a border patrol agent (of hispanic decent no less) that speaks spanish. Go figure.

Makes alot of sense doesn't it. They don't want ANY enforcement at all for ANY hispanics. Any person enforcing the law, even a hispanic, bi-lingual, of their own community isn't good enough. I think they figure if they get hispanics in at every job it's a guarenteed free ride and no enforcement of any rules. Boy these people have alot of growing up to do and being hispanic is no guarentee of no enforcement of the law.

*
HATE FREE ZNE*
**
***
***
Who We Are**
*
*
*
**
Hate Free Zone Staff
*
LEADERSHIP TEAM


Pramila Jayapal, Executive Director

Pramila Jayapal is the founder and Executive Director of Hate Free Zone. An activist and writer, Pramila has been actively involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 12 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically with immigrant and refugee communities in Washington state. From 1991-95, she was the Director of the Fund for Technology Transfer at PATH Seattle, overseeing a $6 million revolving loan fund for socially responsible health projects in developing countries. From 1995-97, Pramila was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. From 1997-2001, Pramila was a consultant to several organizations on immigrant and refugee issues, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections Initiative. She speaks frequently at universities and community events on issues of gender, globalization, development and community. She currently serves on the national board of The Interfaith Alliance and Hedgebrook Women Writers' Retreat, as well as Advisory Boards and Steering Committees for University of Washington's South Asia Center, Detention Watch Network, The Rights Working Group, and Northwest Workers Justice Project.

Pramila has a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a B.A. from Georgetown University in English and Economics. She is also the author of Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland (Seal Press, 2000). She is currently working on a second book about immigrants in America. Her articles and essays have been published widely, including in Orion, Yes! Magazine, The Seattle Times, and Gray's Sporting Journal. She was born in India, and raised in India, Indonesia and Singapore. She is the proud mother of a 9-year old son.* See her full bio here.



Candace Inagi, Deputy Director

Candace Inagi joins our leadership team as Deputy Director after having joined our Board in 2005 and becoming Vice-Chair of the Board for 2007. Most recently, she managed Government & Community Affairs and served as chief lobbyist for SEIU Healthcare 775NW, a union of 30,000 low-wage home care and nursing home workers. In that capacity, she provided leadership within the organization, at the state capitol and in the community to help deliver their historic first contract for 23,000 individual provider home care workers, lead the State Labor Council's Labor-Neighbor political program in 2004, bring 3,000 new workers to the union through employer alliances, improve funding for high-Medicaid nursing homes and develop a world-class workforce development program for long-term care workers. Candace's dedicated, skilled, and thoughtful organizing and advocacy has helped lead to meaningful social change in WA state.

Prior to coming to Washington, Candace developed her political and coalition building skills in the 1990's in California as Urban Affairs Director for the California League of Conservation Voters. There she helped mainstream environmental groups and politicians shift focus and resources to issues of environmental justice that disproportionately affect low-income communities of color and immigrant communities. She also brings with her five years of private sector experience from Travelers Insurance Company in workflow design, business process improvement, and technology training. She has served on the boards of Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice (a legal aid non-profit), Communities for a Better Environment, and Liberty Hill Foundation Environmental Justice Fund.



Maureen Emerson Feit, Development Director

Maureen's professional experience combines fund development, donor relations and strategic communications with a long-standing commitment to immigrant rights. She comes to Seattle via the southern United States, where the legacy of civil rights gave her hope for a more just world. For many years, she worked with the Vietnamese refugee community in the Seattle area and their family members who remain in Vietnam, earning a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. Maureen is honored to be on staff at Hate Free Zone, building a broad network of allies who share Hate Free Zone's vision of a more just and democratic society. She lives in Seattle with her family.



Jackie O'Ryan, Communications Director


Jackie O'Ryan joins Hate Free Zone's leadership team as Director of Communications after serving in that position at the Seattle City Council and at United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21. She served as Director of Communications for the Seattle Archdiocese and was Public Affairs and Advocacy Director for Catholic Community Services and the Archdiocesan Housing Authority for over seven years. She was Senior Communications Director for a national initiative to change the face of Public Health in America at the University of Washington, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

As a broadcast journalist for Seattle's PBS and CBS affiliates, O'Ryan won numerous national and regional honors including an American Women in Radio and Television Award, two Regional Television EMMYs, First Place awards from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the San Francisco Film Festival's Golden Gate Award. O'Ryan has a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Washington.

*
*
SENIOR STAFF

*
Abdullahi Jama, Special Adviser to the Executive Director

Abdullahi has an MPA in Criminal Justice from City University in Bellevue, Washington and a Bachelor of Law degree from the Somali National University. A Somali Native, Abdullahi combines his passion for social justice with his deep knowledge of and community organizing and coalition building work. He originally joined Hate Free Zone in 2004 to oversee the Muslim voting project in partnership with the Council of American Islam Relations (CAIR). He now coordinates the Community Leadership (CLC) council forums and serves an invaluable role providing outreach to and leadership in diverse African communities. Abdullahi is married with six children living in Seattle.



Shankar Narayan, Policy Director

Shankar comes to Hate Free Zone with a breadth of experience in the public and private sectors. Prior to Hate Free Zone, he worked at Preston Gates and Ellis LLP, focusing on technology and intellectual property law. He has also worked at the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project, the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre in New Delhi, and Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria, South Africa. Shankar is president-elect of the Asian Bar Association of Washington, and has served as a past president and board member of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington and a past co-chair of the Ethnic Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the King County Bar Association. Shankar holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.S. in Economics from Bates College. He was born in the former Soviet Union, grew up in the U.S., the Maldives, India, the former Yugoslavia, Thailand, and Russia, and enjoys climbing, travel, and writing.



Heather Hallman, Community Programs and Organizing Coordinator

As the Community Programs and Organizing Coordinator at Hate Free Zone, Heather is motivated and inspired by the stories of immigrants and refugee community members. Heather envisions a greater public discourse and public policy that weaves the threads of each of these human stories. Heather received her Masters in Social Work at the University of Michigan with a focus on community organizing. Heather's experiences range from coordinating a summer program with energetic youth in Southwest Detroit, teaching eager students a foreign language in Ecuador, and working to strengthen families in Buffalo, NY. She is excited to be doing this important work in the Northwest.



COMMUNITY PROGRAMS & ORGANIZING TEAM:

Martin Vallen, Immigrant Rights Organizer

Martin comes to Hate Free Zone from the world of Adult Education, formerly coordinating a Citizenship and ESL Tutoring program that which served low income immigrants and refugees in greater King County of Washington. Born in Burma and raised in Southeast Asia, Martin immigrated to the United States with his family in 1994. Through his own personal experiences, he has a firm understanding of the circumstances, challenges, and barriers that immigrants and refugees face in the U.S. And as an individual who can empathize with the feelings of being marginalized, he carries forth awareness, understanding, sensitivity and the respect and rights to which we are all entitled. Martin graduated with a B.A., double majoring in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Washington. Martin is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi "be the change that [he] want[s] to see in the world".



Deena Ledger, Human Rights Associate

As a Human Rights Associate, Deena is working to expand Hate Free Zone, and the Northwest's regional capacity, to utilize international human rights standards and strategies. She will be focusing her work on conditions of immigration detention in partnership with the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University. She is a 2006 graduate of the Seattle University School of Law. Previously, she clerked with the Public Interest Law Group, working on civil rights and employment discrimination litigation.



Sunny Choi, Community Programs Organizing Associate

Sunny deeply connects her passion to stand for social change and commitment to building power within immigrant and refugee communities from her personal background as a foreign-born immigrant and her previous experiences in providing technical support and assistance for various immigrant communities. Sunny received her Masters in Social Work at the University of Washington with dual concentrations in policy practice and community organizing. She hopes to utilize organizing approach in her work with HFZ to build a common understanding and trusted relationships through cultural relevance, respect, by and creating space for accountability and a deeper understanding of institutional and structural power. Sunny enjoys being a homebody, traveling, cooking and consuming lots of donuts and pastries.



*
Shana Roth-Gormley, Community Advocate

Shana is a graduate of Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Policy Management with a minor in French. Her previous experiences at other human rights, good governance, and anti-discrimination community organizations have deepened her interest in social justice work. She is working at Hate Free Zone this year as a Community Advocate through QUEST, an Americorps program sponsored by the University Friends Meeting. She is excited to be advocating for communities and empowering individuals to be effective self-advocates. A recent arrival in Seattle, Shana is enjoying exploring the city and getting lost on Seattle's bus system.



CIVIC ENGAGEMENT TEAM:

Hannelore Ferber, Voting Rights Organizer
Hanne's work at Hate Free Zone focuses on increasing immigrants' participation in civic life. A native of Ecuador, she joins our staff via Idaho, where she attended Boise State University and earned a B.A. degree political science with minors in German Literature and Russian Studies. Her previous experiences range from working as a constituent liaison to the Latino community for a U.S Senator, to providing legal and naturalization assistance to immigrants and refugees, and assisting survivors of domestic violence in rural Idaho. Hanne is excited to combine her interests in politics and social justice in her work to empower individuals to affect positive change. She is passionate about art, travel, and the study of foreign languages.
Kwong Fan, Data Assistant



DEVELOPMENT:

Annalisa Perez, Development Associate

Annalisa works as Hate Free Zone's Development Associate, assisting in various fundraising efforts and coordinating the Annual Dinner. Her passion for Hate Free Zone's important work is inspired by her family and close mentors who sparked her involvement and interest in political and community organizing, cultural awareness and revitalization, youth empowerment and nonviolence education, and labor union movements. As a graduate from Seattle University with a Criminal Justice major and Journalism minor, Annalisa is working towards a career where she can combine her concern for justice and government with her interest in communications. When she has a chance to pursue some ever-elusive downtime, she enjoys creating and experiencing poetry and other arts, trying new recipes, skydiving, and being walked by her family dog, Louie.
*
ADMINISTRATION
Sarah Ahmed, Executive Assistant
**
*
*
*
HELPLINE:* 1 (866) HFZONE1****
1 (866)439.6631****
*
*
*
*
*
*
*******
*

[quote]“Most people, if they’re just asked where they’re from, especially in your native language, they just say where they’re from,â€

[quote] [size=150]“Most people, if they’re just asked where they’re from, especially in your native language, they just say where they’re from,â€

My 7 year old granddaughter lives on those islands.....beautiful area......My daughter-in-law is thrilled with my involvement on this site....she says that it is really pro illegal there....