El Mañana
Lunes, 05 de Septiembre de 2011
El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas
Con las deportaciones masivas que Estados Unidos efectúa, está construyendo su autodestrucción consideró el padre Gianntonio Baggio, coordinador de la Casa del Migrante en Nuevo Laredo.
NUEVO LAREDO.-Al resaltar el trabajo que los migrantes para el desarrollo de Estados Unidos y que ha repercutido en su economía, el sacerdote calificó como un acto criminal el que ahora a los migrantes se les amenace con encarcelarlos por el simple hecho de buscar una vida mejor.
“No se puede determinar que una persona sea criminal solamente por buscar una vida digna y ya sean criminales y sean encarcelados, solamente porque busca un mejor futuro o desarrollo sin hacerle daño a nadie”, comentó.
“Al contrario, la historia prueba especialmente en los Estados Unidos que los migrantes han hecho el bienestar, la potencia, la belleza de Estados Unidos, fueron los migrantes los que lo hicieron.
Ahora decir que los migrantes son criminales es propiamente una contradicción, es criminal decir que los migrantes son criminales”, agregó.
Indicó que aun y cuando los que provienen de países de Centroamérica u otros estados del interior de México han disminuido considerablemente, todo lo contrario sucede con los deportados.
“Lentamente, poco a poco a poco, durante el años se va registrando la cantidad de migrantes que llegan a esta ciudad para cruzar a los Estados Unidos, y vemos que ha disminuido su llegada, esto desde el 2008 y más durante el 2010; en este 2011 van 3 mil 700 los hermanos que hemos atendido en el albergue”, declaró.
“Todo lo contrario sucede con el número de deportaciones, es triste y lamentable que estas se hayan incrementando, simplemente el año pasado fueorn70 mil los deportados por esta frontera de nuevo Laredo; aquí si se está registrando un aumento”, comentó.
BUENAS NOTICIAS
El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas, racistas y discriminatorias como las deportaciones que han ocasionado la desintegración de familias, también algunos estados como California está aplicando un poco el criterio en caso de deportación.
“También por lo migrantes sabemos unas de las últimas noticias que son buenas para los propios migrantes, como son los casos de migrantes que estudian y no tiene papeles, que tiene sentido común por encima de sus leyes”, dijo.
“Las asociaciones que velan por los migrantes en California está dando fondos para aquellos estudiantes que no tienen papeles para estar en California y que están preparándose, son pequeños indicios y es una muestra de que el sentido común está más fuerte que sus leyes”, afirmó.
Otro de los casos dijo, son casos de deportaciones que no se han realizado por lo propios agentes de migración. “Los agentes (migración) han decidido dar menos énfasis en buscar a menos migrantes, sólo en aquellos que cometen una falta, los que consideran peligrosos y no sólo porque no tienen papeles”, agregó.
“Han habido casos de migrantes que tiene su familia allá, que trabajan y que no tiene papeles, los han detectado, pero no los deportan, lo consideran urgente e importante, incluso le dan la oportunidad de arreglar sus papeles, aplican el sentido común; aun y cuando son casos muy aislados, son buenas noticias para los migrantes”, concluyó.
http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=253421
Showing posts with label Catholic Protests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic Protests. Show all posts
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Acoso contra migrantes termina con ''sueño americano'': Iglesia Nota
Gobernador.com.mx
El obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal dice "que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa."
El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil que se ha creado en EU contra los migrantes.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (03/SEP/2011).- El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil, de zozobra y marginación que se ha creado en Estados Unidos contra los migrantes durante los últimos años, aseveró el obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal, Armando Colín Cruz.
Al comentar la experiencia de la segunda visita pastoral que realizó a comunidades de migrantes hispanos de las Diócesis de Gaylord y Kalamazoo, en Michigan, indicó que esa situación sólo confirma 'que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa'.
Armando Colín describió el ambiente de zozobra, incertidumbre, marginación, pobreza relativa, además del acoso de las autoridades migratorias, cada vez más intenso, que se ha manifestado en la separación de muchas familias de migrantes en el país vecino.
Planteó que al margen de los innumerables estudios económicos que demuestran la contribución de ese sector a la economía estadunidense al tomar trabajos que nadie más está dispuesto a ocupar, lo cierto es que los propios migrantes deberían poner en la balanza los y contras de su situación.
'Algunos sienten que son afortunados porque lograron cruzar, encontraron trabajo y un rincón donde dormir y porque envían dólares a su familia, pero siguen siendo migrantes e ilegales, obligados a desplazarse en busca de trabajo y siempre con el temor de que ese sueño termine trágicamente', externó.
Mencionó que las diócesis visitadas se ubican casi en la frontera con Canadá, donde los migrantes viven mayoritariamente en viejas y deterioradas casas rodantes y cuando llega el invierno a la región de los grandes lagos norteamericanos el trabajo del campo se extingue.
El obispo puso como ejemplo lo que llamó un 'ciclo desalmado' con la cosecha del blueberry (mora azul) en Kalamazoo: 'es un trabajo difícil, los árboles son muy pequeños y sólo se puede recolectar el fruto en horas muy específicas pues si aquel está húmedo no se puede pizcar'.
Comentó que la gente vive atada a los vaivenes del temporal, atenta a la orden para poder pizcar, trabajar muy rápido para poder sacar el día y esperar en el desasosiego que la niebla pueda darles oportunidad de obtener alguna paga.
Mientras, contó, viven expectantes y a salto de mata de las autoridades migratorias y cuando la labor termina recorren el país en el miedo intranquilo por hallar trabajo y no ser deportados.
Colín Cruz señaló que allí se puede observar de primera mano la situación muy compleja de los migrantes, sus tragedias, los peligros de la deportación y las injusticias; todo en medio del arduo trabajo cotidiano.
Subrayó que aun cuando familias enteras lleven más de diez años viviendo allá si los detienen las autoridades migratorias las deportan.
Aseguró que, incluso, entre los proyectos de defensa y protección de migrantes en Estados Unidos hay uno que consiste en difundir entre los familiares de los migrantes que permanecen en sus países de origen que 'el sueño americano no es tal sueño'.
De igual forma, aumenta de manera constante el número de migrantes que regresan a sus lugares de origen más pobres de lo que estaban cuando partieron.
'Allá para vivir cuesta mucho. Algunos logran salir adelante o tener un trabajo medianamente estable, pero son muy pocos, la mayoría no lo logra', recalcó el prelado.
http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2011/319578/6/acoso-contra-migrantes-termina-con-sueno-americano-iglesia.htm
El obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal dice "que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa."
El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil que se ha creado en EU contra los migrantes.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (03/SEP/2011).- El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil, de zozobra y marginación que se ha creado en Estados Unidos contra los migrantes durante los últimos años, aseveró el obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal, Armando Colín Cruz.
Al comentar la experiencia de la segunda visita pastoral que realizó a comunidades de migrantes hispanos de las Diócesis de Gaylord y Kalamazoo, en Michigan, indicó que esa situación sólo confirma 'que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa'.
Armando Colín describió el ambiente de zozobra, incertidumbre, marginación, pobreza relativa, además del acoso de las autoridades migratorias, cada vez más intenso, que se ha manifestado en la separación de muchas familias de migrantes en el país vecino.
Planteó que al margen de los innumerables estudios económicos que demuestran la contribución de ese sector a la economía estadunidense al tomar trabajos que nadie más está dispuesto a ocupar, lo cierto es que los propios migrantes deberían poner en la balanza los y contras de su situación.
'Algunos sienten que son afortunados porque lograron cruzar, encontraron trabajo y un rincón donde dormir y porque envían dólares a su familia, pero siguen siendo migrantes e ilegales, obligados a desplazarse en busca de trabajo y siempre con el temor de que ese sueño termine trágicamente', externó.
Mencionó que las diócesis visitadas se ubican casi en la frontera con Canadá, donde los migrantes viven mayoritariamente en viejas y deterioradas casas rodantes y cuando llega el invierno a la región de los grandes lagos norteamericanos el trabajo del campo se extingue.
El obispo puso como ejemplo lo que llamó un 'ciclo desalmado' con la cosecha del blueberry (mora azul) en Kalamazoo: 'es un trabajo difícil, los árboles son muy pequeños y sólo se puede recolectar el fruto en horas muy específicas pues si aquel está húmedo no se puede pizcar'.
Comentó que la gente vive atada a los vaivenes del temporal, atenta a la orden para poder pizcar, trabajar muy rápido para poder sacar el día y esperar en el desasosiego que la niebla pueda darles oportunidad de obtener alguna paga.
Mientras, contó, viven expectantes y a salto de mata de las autoridades migratorias y cuando la labor termina recorren el país en el miedo intranquilo por hallar trabajo y no ser deportados.
Colín Cruz señaló que allí se puede observar de primera mano la situación muy compleja de los migrantes, sus tragedias, los peligros de la deportación y las injusticias; todo en medio del arduo trabajo cotidiano.
Subrayó que aun cuando familias enteras lleven más de diez años viviendo allá si los detienen las autoridades migratorias las deportan.
Aseguró que, incluso, entre los proyectos de defensa y protección de migrantes en Estados Unidos hay uno que consiste en difundir entre los familiares de los migrantes que permanecen en sus países de origen que 'el sueño americano no es tal sueño'.
De igual forma, aumenta de manera constante el número de migrantes que regresan a sus lugares de origen más pobres de lo que estaban cuando partieron.
'Allá para vivir cuesta mucho. Algunos logran salir adelante o tener un trabajo medianamente estable, pero son muy pocos, la mayoría no lo logra', recalcó el prelado.
http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2011/319578/6/acoso-contra-migrantes-termina-con-sueno-americano-iglesia.htm
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A Catholic's perspective on immigration and US/Mexico relations
Bishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, California, leads the USCCB conference on migration. He spoke at a conference at the Catholic University of America where bishops of Mexico were present, along with Mexico's ambassador to the US.
By Jose H. Gomez
Spero News
Friday, March 25, 2011
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chariman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, made the following presentation March 21, in the context of a conference on the Catholic Church and Migration celebrated at The Catholic University of America. Other speakers in the panel included Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz of Tijuana, chairman of the Mexican Episcopal Conference’s Migration Commission, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan of Mexico and Assistant Secretary of State Eric P. Schwartz, of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Archbishop Gomez's remarks follow:
I want to say thank you to Archbishop Romo, Ambassador Sarukhan, and Assistant Secretary Schwartz for your participation in tonight’s program.
We are at an important moment in the relationship between Mexico and the United States. I want to talk about that relationship tonight as it relates to migration between our two countries, and especially the debate over immigration here in the United States.
I have three basic goals tonight: First, I want to outline what I believe to be the root issues with U.S.-Mexican migration. Second, I want to explain the Catholic Church’s approach to these issues. Third and finally, I want to make some suggestions and observations about the current debate in light of Catholic principles.
To start, I need to say two things. First, this issue is personal for me. I am an immigrant myself. My people come from both Mexico and America. I was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. My ancestors have been in what’s now Texas since 1805, when it was still under Spanish rule. I still have family on both sides of the border.
I am also a proud citizen of the United States. I love this country and I love the values that it was founded to defend and promote.
I also need to point out something obvious. I am not a politician or a diplomat or an expert in the global economy. I am a Catholic archbishop. That means I am a priest and a pastor of souls. In everything, my concern is to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to defend and promote the dignity of the human person who is made in the image of God.
I don’t have technical solutions or statistical analysis to offer. But I do think the Catholic Church has a unique and important perspective to offer on these issues.
But before I talk about that I want to outline briefly what I think are the root issues underlying the immigration crisis facing our two countries.
For me, the issue is rooted in the processes of economic globalization.
Globalization has expanded opportunities for businesses and for workers. But it has also created new problems in the relationships between our nations. The biggest problem is that while we have developed laws and policies to govern the flow of capital and money, we have no standards for the movement of laborers.
For instance, the North American Free Trade Agreement eliminated tariffs and many restrictions on trade and business in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. But it didn’t include a treaty concerning the mobility of persons.
Money, capital, and other resources now flow more freely between our nations. But human beings — the men and women who do the work — cannot. In the new global economy, there are many safeguards for businesses and financial institutions but very few for workers.
Globalization has exposed — and in some cases made worse — the economic inequalities that exist within and between our nations. To put it very simply: As long as workers can earn more in one hour in the U.S. than they can earn in a day or a week in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, they will continue to seek, by any means necessary, to migrate to this country.
That’s my first point. The primary issues effecting migration between our two countries are economic. People are not so much fleeing tyranny or persecution as they are seeking work and a better future for their families.
My second point is this: The Catholic Church’s approach to immigration is not about politics or economics. It is rooted in the vision of human society that was taught to us by Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church, from the time of the first Pentecost, has been a family of nations. By definition, the Catholic Church is "universal," one family of God drawn from all nations, peoples, and languages.
In fact, the Catholic Church in the United States is a kind of microcosm of what Jesus intended his Church to be. We are in this country a Church of nearly 60 different ethnic groups — from Asia, Africa, the Near East and Latin America. More than one-third of the Catholics in our country today are Hispanic.
The point is that in the Catholic Church and in the eyes of God, no one is a stranger or an alien. Practically speaking also, U.S.-Mexican immigration for us is a religious and family issue. Because the vast majority of the immigrants we are talking about are Catholics, they are our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
The Church’s approach to these issues starts from Christ’s command to preach the good news of God’s love for all peoples. It starts from Christ’s call that we transform the city of man into the family of God.
What many people don’t realize is that Jesus Christ himself was an immigrant and a refugee.
This is how the Church understands the account in the Gospel of how Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced into exile in Egypt when Herod sought to kill Jesus.
Pope Benedict XVI has said this:
In this misfortune experienced by the family of Nazareth, obliged to take refuge in Egypt, we can catch a glimpse of the painful condition in which all migrants live. … The hardships and humiliations, the deprivation and fragility of millions and millions of migrants. …. The family of Nazareth reflects the image of God safeguarded in the heart of every human family, even if disfigured and weakened by emigration.
Those are beautiful words of concern. And they reflect a long tradition in the Church that goes back to the Gospels.
Christians have always practiced hospitality. The Church has always worked to defend the stranger and care for the immigrant. Even the Roman emperors, who hated the Christians, were amazed by their "benevolence to strangers."
Catholics care for immigrants because Jesus commanded it. Because he told us that we must seek God and serve God in the least of our brothers and sisters. Jesus said that when we serve those who are hungry and homeless, in prison and sick, we are serving him.
He even made a point of talking about immigrants and refugees. He said: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me . . . As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:35, 40).
In the course of 2,000 years, the Church has developed a body of social teachings that are based on the principles of reason and the values of the Gospel. I wish more people knew the Church’s social teaching — including more Catholics. Because this teaching is a real contribution to human civilization. It offers us a powerful vision for how human society can function for the common good and the dignity of all people.
On immigration, the Church has formed three basic principles.
The first principle is this: The human family is one, although we have different ethnic origins and we are spread across different continents, regions, and national boundaries. God has made us to be one family.
And God did not create the good things of this earth — its natural resources and opportunities — only for the privileged few. Or only for people in certain countries. God intends the good things of his creation to be shared by all, no matter where we are born or where we find ourselves living.
The second principle is the sanctity of the human person and the family. Our right to life comes from God. That right does not depend on the whims of politicians or powerful people. That right does not depend on economic or political forces. Our rights come from God. And no man, no institution, and no set of circumstances can justify denying those rights.
On this point of the inalienable rights of the person, we should notice that the Church’s teachings are consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and also with the charter of liberties in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
For us, the universal human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness imply the right to emigrate — to leave our country if we must, to seek a better life for our families and ourselves. In a world divided by war, famine, persecution, and economic dislocations, immigration becomes a crucial guarantee of our right to life.
The Church’s third principle is that governments have the right to control migration into their countries and to defend their borders. This is important. It means that nations must look at their security and their economic interests in making decisions about who and how many people they allow into their countries. It means that immigrants must respect the laws of the countries they emigrate to.
But the Church also teaches that national sovereignty should never be used as an excuse to deny the rights of needy and decent people who are seeking their livelihood. No country can deny this basic human right to migrate out of exaggerated fears for national security or selfish concerns about threats to domestic jobs or standards of living.
Those are the Church’s principles. Based on these on these principles, the American bishops have supported a comprehensive reform of our immigration policies that would secure our borders and give undocumented immigrants the chance to earn permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
Also based on these principles the bishops have started our "Justice for Immigrants" campaign. And back in 2003, the U.S. and Mexican bishops wrote an important joint pastoral letter called "Strangers No Longer."
All of these initiatives are intended as a thoughtful response to the crisis facing our two countries. I recommend them to you. I believe you will find in them many concrete proposals that could be embraced by all people of good will.
As my final point tonight, let me offer a some observations on the current impasse we have reached in the debate over immigration in this country.
I understand the political frustration over this issue. There has been a failure of leadership — and this failure of leadership cuts across party lines. The reasons for the stalemate on this issue are understandable — from a political standpoint. But from a moral standpoint, the results are intolerable and inexcusable.
Again, I am not a politician, but a pastor of souls. As a pastor, I am deeply concerned about the costs of this impasse in the lives of millions of men, women, and children.
Not just the souls of the 12 million without papers who are living at the margins of our society. I am worried about their physical, moral, and spiritual health. When you are a stranger in a strange land — and unwanted — you are easy prey for exploitation. But more than that. When you are a stranger who is despised, it gets harder every day to hold onto your cultural identity, your moral compass, your religion, your dignity. You start to believe what people say about you — that you are no good.
But I’m also worried about our social fabric and civic debate. Right now in this country, there are a lot of people — a lot of good people — who are saying things they know they should never be saying about immigrants. Their anger and frustration is understandable. But their rhetoric and many of their political responses are not worthy of America’s proud history as a beacon of hope for the world’s poor and persecuted.
Our current policies of enforcement — workplace raids, detentions, and deportations — are a humanitarian tragedy. We are destroying families in the name of enforcing our laws.
It is true that many immigrants are in our country illegally. That bothers me. I don’t like it when our rule of law is flouted. And I support just and appropriate punishments. But right now, we are imposing penalties that leave wives without husbands, children without parents. We are deporting fathers and leaving single mothers to raise children on little to no income.
We are a better people than that. We have always been a nation of justice and law. But we have also been a nation of mercy and forgiveness. We can find a better way. I think it begins with the Catholic perspective. It begins in seeing immigrants as human beings. As mothers and fathers. As children of God.
Practically speaking, I would like to see a moratorium on new state and local immigration legislation. And, as the U.S. bishops have called for, I would like to see an end to the harsh federal work-site enforcement raids and the severe deportation policies.
We need to push for protections of the most vulnerable migrants — children and women, who often fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers and others. We also need reforms in how we issue visas, especially for immigrants and people here illegally who have families.
I also would like to see our two governments begin to talk about some of the underlying issues. We need to find ways encourage economic reforms and developments throughout Latin America, especially in the poorest countries in the region. We need to find ways to target economic development so that far fewer Mexicans will feel compelled to leave their homes to seek jobs and money in other countries. It is especially important that we work to promote small business and agriculture.
All of these measures would make a real difference in the lives of millions of people. But they are only temporary. We need to muster the political will to fix our broken immigration system. We need to find a way to make the strangers in our midst our fellow citizens. I believe that today’s immigrants — like generations of immigrants before them — are the hope for tomorrow’s America.
I appreciate your attention tonight, my brothers and sisters. And I am grateful for all that you are doing — and will continue to do — to promote the cause of human dignity and the common good in every aspect of the relationships between our two countries. I look forward to continuing our conversation.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=34&idsub=158&id=50992&t=A+Catholic%27s+perspective+on+immigration+and+US%2FMexico+relations
By Jose H. Gomez
Spero News
Friday, March 25, 2011
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chariman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, made the following presentation March 21, in the context of a conference on the Catholic Church and Migration celebrated at The Catholic University of America. Other speakers in the panel included Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz of Tijuana, chairman of the Mexican Episcopal Conference’s Migration Commission, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan of Mexico and Assistant Secretary of State Eric P. Schwartz, of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Archbishop Gomez's remarks follow:
I want to say thank you to Archbishop Romo, Ambassador Sarukhan, and Assistant Secretary Schwartz for your participation in tonight’s program.
We are at an important moment in the relationship between Mexico and the United States. I want to talk about that relationship tonight as it relates to migration between our two countries, and especially the debate over immigration here in the United States.
I have three basic goals tonight: First, I want to outline what I believe to be the root issues with U.S.-Mexican migration. Second, I want to explain the Catholic Church’s approach to these issues. Third and finally, I want to make some suggestions and observations about the current debate in light of Catholic principles.
To start, I need to say two things. First, this issue is personal for me. I am an immigrant myself. My people come from both Mexico and America. I was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. My ancestors have been in what’s now Texas since 1805, when it was still under Spanish rule. I still have family on both sides of the border.
I am also a proud citizen of the United States. I love this country and I love the values that it was founded to defend and promote.
I also need to point out something obvious. I am not a politician or a diplomat or an expert in the global economy. I am a Catholic archbishop. That means I am a priest and a pastor of souls. In everything, my concern is to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to defend and promote the dignity of the human person who is made in the image of God.
I don’t have technical solutions or statistical analysis to offer. But I do think the Catholic Church has a unique and important perspective to offer on these issues.
But before I talk about that I want to outline briefly what I think are the root issues underlying the immigration crisis facing our two countries.
For me, the issue is rooted in the processes of economic globalization.
Globalization has expanded opportunities for businesses and for workers. But it has also created new problems in the relationships between our nations. The biggest problem is that while we have developed laws and policies to govern the flow of capital and money, we have no standards for the movement of laborers.
For instance, the North American Free Trade Agreement eliminated tariffs and many restrictions on trade and business in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. But it didn’t include a treaty concerning the mobility of persons.
Money, capital, and other resources now flow more freely between our nations. But human beings — the men and women who do the work — cannot. In the new global economy, there are many safeguards for businesses and financial institutions but very few for workers.
Globalization has exposed — and in some cases made worse — the economic inequalities that exist within and between our nations. To put it very simply: As long as workers can earn more in one hour in the U.S. than they can earn in a day or a week in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, they will continue to seek, by any means necessary, to migrate to this country.
That’s my first point. The primary issues effecting migration between our two countries are economic. People are not so much fleeing tyranny or persecution as they are seeking work and a better future for their families.
My second point is this: The Catholic Church’s approach to immigration is not about politics or economics. It is rooted in the vision of human society that was taught to us by Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church, from the time of the first Pentecost, has been a family of nations. By definition, the Catholic Church is "universal," one family of God drawn from all nations, peoples, and languages.
In fact, the Catholic Church in the United States is a kind of microcosm of what Jesus intended his Church to be. We are in this country a Church of nearly 60 different ethnic groups — from Asia, Africa, the Near East and Latin America. More than one-third of the Catholics in our country today are Hispanic.
The point is that in the Catholic Church and in the eyes of God, no one is a stranger or an alien. Practically speaking also, U.S.-Mexican immigration for us is a religious and family issue. Because the vast majority of the immigrants we are talking about are Catholics, they are our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
The Church’s approach to these issues starts from Christ’s command to preach the good news of God’s love for all peoples. It starts from Christ’s call that we transform the city of man into the family of God.
What many people don’t realize is that Jesus Christ himself was an immigrant and a refugee.
This is how the Church understands the account in the Gospel of how Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced into exile in Egypt when Herod sought to kill Jesus.
Pope Benedict XVI has said this:
In this misfortune experienced by the family of Nazareth, obliged to take refuge in Egypt, we can catch a glimpse of the painful condition in which all migrants live. … The hardships and humiliations, the deprivation and fragility of millions and millions of migrants. …. The family of Nazareth reflects the image of God safeguarded in the heart of every human family, even if disfigured and weakened by emigration.
Those are beautiful words of concern. And they reflect a long tradition in the Church that goes back to the Gospels.
Christians have always practiced hospitality. The Church has always worked to defend the stranger and care for the immigrant. Even the Roman emperors, who hated the Christians, were amazed by their "benevolence to strangers."
Catholics care for immigrants because Jesus commanded it. Because he told us that we must seek God and serve God in the least of our brothers and sisters. Jesus said that when we serve those who are hungry and homeless, in prison and sick, we are serving him.
He even made a point of talking about immigrants and refugees. He said: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me . . . As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:35, 40).
In the course of 2,000 years, the Church has developed a body of social teachings that are based on the principles of reason and the values of the Gospel. I wish more people knew the Church’s social teaching — including more Catholics. Because this teaching is a real contribution to human civilization. It offers us a powerful vision for how human society can function for the common good and the dignity of all people.
On immigration, the Church has formed three basic principles.
The first principle is this: The human family is one, although we have different ethnic origins and we are spread across different continents, regions, and national boundaries. God has made us to be one family.
And God did not create the good things of this earth — its natural resources and opportunities — only for the privileged few. Or only for people in certain countries. God intends the good things of his creation to be shared by all, no matter where we are born or where we find ourselves living.
The second principle is the sanctity of the human person and the family. Our right to life comes from God. That right does not depend on the whims of politicians or powerful people. That right does not depend on economic or political forces. Our rights come from God. And no man, no institution, and no set of circumstances can justify denying those rights.
On this point of the inalienable rights of the person, we should notice that the Church’s teachings are consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and also with the charter of liberties in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
For us, the universal human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness imply the right to emigrate — to leave our country if we must, to seek a better life for our families and ourselves. In a world divided by war, famine, persecution, and economic dislocations, immigration becomes a crucial guarantee of our right to life.
The Church’s third principle is that governments have the right to control migration into their countries and to defend their borders. This is important. It means that nations must look at their security and their economic interests in making decisions about who and how many people they allow into their countries. It means that immigrants must respect the laws of the countries they emigrate to.
But the Church also teaches that national sovereignty should never be used as an excuse to deny the rights of needy and decent people who are seeking their livelihood. No country can deny this basic human right to migrate out of exaggerated fears for national security or selfish concerns about threats to domestic jobs or standards of living.
Those are the Church’s principles. Based on these on these principles, the American bishops have supported a comprehensive reform of our immigration policies that would secure our borders and give undocumented immigrants the chance to earn permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
Also based on these principles the bishops have started our "Justice for Immigrants" campaign. And back in 2003, the U.S. and Mexican bishops wrote an important joint pastoral letter called "Strangers No Longer."
All of these initiatives are intended as a thoughtful response to the crisis facing our two countries. I recommend them to you. I believe you will find in them many concrete proposals that could be embraced by all people of good will.
As my final point tonight, let me offer a some observations on the current impasse we have reached in the debate over immigration in this country.
I understand the political frustration over this issue. There has been a failure of leadership — and this failure of leadership cuts across party lines. The reasons for the stalemate on this issue are understandable — from a political standpoint. But from a moral standpoint, the results are intolerable and inexcusable.
Again, I am not a politician, but a pastor of souls. As a pastor, I am deeply concerned about the costs of this impasse in the lives of millions of men, women, and children.
Not just the souls of the 12 million without papers who are living at the margins of our society. I am worried about their physical, moral, and spiritual health. When you are a stranger in a strange land — and unwanted — you are easy prey for exploitation. But more than that. When you are a stranger who is despised, it gets harder every day to hold onto your cultural identity, your moral compass, your religion, your dignity. You start to believe what people say about you — that you are no good.
But I’m also worried about our social fabric and civic debate. Right now in this country, there are a lot of people — a lot of good people — who are saying things they know they should never be saying about immigrants. Their anger and frustration is understandable. But their rhetoric and many of their political responses are not worthy of America’s proud history as a beacon of hope for the world’s poor and persecuted.
Our current policies of enforcement — workplace raids, detentions, and deportations — are a humanitarian tragedy. We are destroying families in the name of enforcing our laws.
It is true that many immigrants are in our country illegally. That bothers me. I don’t like it when our rule of law is flouted. And I support just and appropriate punishments. But right now, we are imposing penalties that leave wives without husbands, children without parents. We are deporting fathers and leaving single mothers to raise children on little to no income.
We are a better people than that. We have always been a nation of justice and law. But we have also been a nation of mercy and forgiveness. We can find a better way. I think it begins with the Catholic perspective. It begins in seeing immigrants as human beings. As mothers and fathers. As children of God.
Practically speaking, I would like to see a moratorium on new state and local immigration legislation. And, as the U.S. bishops have called for, I would like to see an end to the harsh federal work-site enforcement raids and the severe deportation policies.
We need to push for protections of the most vulnerable migrants — children and women, who often fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers and others. We also need reforms in how we issue visas, especially for immigrants and people here illegally who have families.
I also would like to see our two governments begin to talk about some of the underlying issues. We need to find ways encourage economic reforms and developments throughout Latin America, especially in the poorest countries in the region. We need to find ways to target economic development so that far fewer Mexicans will feel compelled to leave their homes to seek jobs and money in other countries. It is especially important that we work to promote small business and agriculture.
All of these measures would make a real difference in the lives of millions of people. But they are only temporary. We need to muster the political will to fix our broken immigration system. We need to find a way to make the strangers in our midst our fellow citizens. I believe that today’s immigrants — like generations of immigrants before them — are the hope for tomorrow’s America.
I appreciate your attention tonight, my brothers and sisters. And I am grateful for all that you are doing — and will continue to do — to promote the cause of human dignity and the common good in every aspect of the relationships between our two countries. I look forward to continuing our conversation.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=34&idsub=158&id=50992&t=A+Catholic%27s+perspective+on+immigration+and+US%2FMexico+relations
Friday, February 11, 2011
Prelates say words from Scripture should guide treatment of immigrants
By Catholic News Service
February 9, 2011
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- In speeches the same day, Los Angeles' cardinal and its coadjutor archbishop talked about immigration in the United States, with one calling some of the rhetoric about the issue "not worthy of the Gospel," and the other saying the current system "is an immoral system that thrives upon the weakness and suffering of those without a voice."
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told an audience at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill Feb. 2 that the ethical injunctions of Scripture require "compassion for the stranger, the alien, and the worker. Whatever economic, political or social policies we discuss -- and whatever discussion of constitutional rights and liberties -- we cannot turn our backs to this biblical legacy of hope."
Taking up the question of whether undocumented immigrants are good for the economy, Cardinal Mahony traced the roots of the word economy to its Greek origins, where the principal focus was not monetary but how a household is ordered.
"God's household, God's grand economy, is one in which holiness and truth, justice and love, and above all, peace ... prevail," the cardinal said. "In my view, what makes for a good economy is the full flourishing of everyone who is part of God's economy, household or community."
He said that no other commitments can trump the biblical tradition of compassion for the stranger, the alien and the worker.
"Whatever economic, political or social policies we discuss -- and whatever discussion of constitutional rights and liberties -- we cannot turn our backs to this biblical legacy of hope," he said.
Speaking the same day in Naples, Fla., to Legatus, a Catholic business leaders organization, Coadjutor Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles also drew on Scripture to explain that "the church's approach to immigration -- like the church's approach to every social issue -- is never about politics. It is about preaching the good news of God's love for all peoples. It is about transforming the city of man into the family of God."
As coadjutor, Archbishop Gomez will take over as head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, when Cardinal Mahony retires, which is expected to be in late February.
Noting he is among those who are bothered by the illegal immigration status of some people, the archbishop said, "I don't like it when our rule of law is flouted. And I support just and appropriate punishments."
However, he added, "right now, we are imposing penalties that leave wives without husbands, children without parents. We are deporting fathers and leaving single mothers to raise children on little to no income.
"We are a better people than that. We have always been a nation of justice and law," said Archbishop Gomez. "But we have also been a nation of mercy and forgiveness. We can find a better way. It begins in seeing immigrants as human beings. As mothers and fathers. As children of God."
Archbishop Gomez said that as an immigrant from Mexico himself, he understands well that "family means everything for Hispanics," who make up the majority of new immigrants. "The Hispanic idea of community is a family of families -- great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And always, family is connected to the Catholic Church and to God."
That's why current enforcement policies "workplace raids, detentions and deportations are such a humanitarian tragedy," he said. "We are destroying families in the name of enforcing our laws."
In his speech in North Carolina, Cardinal Mahony told stories of families torn apart by immigration enforcement -- including that of three North Carolina children left by the side of the road for nine hours after their Honduran undocumented immigrant mother was taken away for not having a driver's license.
He also described his own experience of an immigration raid at his family's chicken processing plant when he was a child.
"It was an extremely terrifying and intimidating moment for those employees, all of whom had papers," he said. "I will never forget the terror that those men with their guns created in the workplace that day.
"These are American stories," he said. "Do these stories reflect who we are, who we want to be, and how we want to be remembered by future generations? Is this who we are at our best? In a word, no."
After elaborating on the economic model of God's household, the cardinal said that in Catholic thought people don't serve the economy, the economy serves humanity, "so that each person and his or her family can live in dignity and without want and can move, if needed, to find the place of hope."
"Our laws should be configured to ensure that even the low-skilled laborer, who sits at the bottom of the economic ladder, reaps the fruits of their labor in dignity and with full rights in the society," he said.
As today's system operates, however, "we accept their labor, their separation from family, their taxes, and their purchasing power, yet we do not offer the undocumented population the protection of our laws," said Cardinal Mahony.
"To restore order to God's household, we must ensure that all are welcome to the table," he said, meaning immigration reforms that protect those on the margins of the economy.
Calling current immigration laws unjust, the cardinal said society gladly accepts the toil and taxes of the immigrant work force, "but look the other way when they are exploited in the workplace, die in the desert, or are arrested and deported for the most minor of civil violations, like jaywalking.
"When convenient politically, we scapegoat the immigrant without acknowledging our complicity," he said.
He noted that of the nearly half million immigrants who enter the country without permission or stay beyond the limits of their visas, nearly 90 percent get jobs within six months, but there are only 5,000 visas available annually by which they might come in legally.
"This is a disordered system," he said. "hardly the arrangement of a household according to a plan where there is room enough for all at the table."
END
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100540.htm
February 9, 2011
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- In speeches the same day, Los Angeles' cardinal and its coadjutor archbishop talked about immigration in the United States, with one calling some of the rhetoric about the issue "not worthy of the Gospel," and the other saying the current system "is an immoral system that thrives upon the weakness and suffering of those without a voice."
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told an audience at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill Feb. 2 that the ethical injunctions of Scripture require "compassion for the stranger, the alien, and the worker. Whatever economic, political or social policies we discuss -- and whatever discussion of constitutional rights and liberties -- we cannot turn our backs to this biblical legacy of hope."
Taking up the question of whether undocumented immigrants are good for the economy, Cardinal Mahony traced the roots of the word economy to its Greek origins, where the principal focus was not monetary but how a household is ordered.
"God's household, God's grand economy, is one in which holiness and truth, justice and love, and above all, peace ... prevail," the cardinal said. "In my view, what makes for a good economy is the full flourishing of everyone who is part of God's economy, household or community."
He said that no other commitments can trump the biblical tradition of compassion for the stranger, the alien and the worker.
"Whatever economic, political or social policies we discuss -- and whatever discussion of constitutional rights and liberties -- we cannot turn our backs to this biblical legacy of hope," he said.
Speaking the same day in Naples, Fla., to Legatus, a Catholic business leaders organization, Coadjutor Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles also drew on Scripture to explain that "the church's approach to immigration -- like the church's approach to every social issue -- is never about politics. It is about preaching the good news of God's love for all peoples. It is about transforming the city of man into the family of God."
As coadjutor, Archbishop Gomez will take over as head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, when Cardinal Mahony retires, which is expected to be in late February.
Noting he is among those who are bothered by the illegal immigration status of some people, the archbishop said, "I don't like it when our rule of law is flouted. And I support just and appropriate punishments."
However, he added, "right now, we are imposing penalties that leave wives without husbands, children without parents. We are deporting fathers and leaving single mothers to raise children on little to no income.
"We are a better people than that. We have always been a nation of justice and law," said Archbishop Gomez. "But we have also been a nation of mercy and forgiveness. We can find a better way. It begins in seeing immigrants as human beings. As mothers and fathers. As children of God."
Archbishop Gomez said that as an immigrant from Mexico himself, he understands well that "family means everything for Hispanics," who make up the majority of new immigrants. "The Hispanic idea of community is a family of families -- great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And always, family is connected to the Catholic Church and to God."
That's why current enforcement policies "workplace raids, detentions and deportations are such a humanitarian tragedy," he said. "We are destroying families in the name of enforcing our laws."
In his speech in North Carolina, Cardinal Mahony told stories of families torn apart by immigration enforcement -- including that of three North Carolina children left by the side of the road for nine hours after their Honduran undocumented immigrant mother was taken away for not having a driver's license.
He also described his own experience of an immigration raid at his family's chicken processing plant when he was a child.
"It was an extremely terrifying and intimidating moment for those employees, all of whom had papers," he said. "I will never forget the terror that those men with their guns created in the workplace that day.
"These are American stories," he said. "Do these stories reflect who we are, who we want to be, and how we want to be remembered by future generations? Is this who we are at our best? In a word, no."
After elaborating on the economic model of God's household, the cardinal said that in Catholic thought people don't serve the economy, the economy serves humanity, "so that each person and his or her family can live in dignity and without want and can move, if needed, to find the place of hope."
"Our laws should be configured to ensure that even the low-skilled laborer, who sits at the bottom of the economic ladder, reaps the fruits of their labor in dignity and with full rights in the society," he said.
As today's system operates, however, "we accept their labor, their separation from family, their taxes, and their purchasing power, yet we do not offer the undocumented population the protection of our laws," said Cardinal Mahony.
"To restore order to God's household, we must ensure that all are welcome to the table," he said, meaning immigration reforms that protect those on the margins of the economy.
Calling current immigration laws unjust, the cardinal said society gladly accepts the toil and taxes of the immigrant work force, "but look the other way when they are exploited in the workplace, die in the desert, or are arrested and deported for the most minor of civil violations, like jaywalking.
"When convenient politically, we scapegoat the immigrant without acknowledging our complicity," he said.
He noted that of the nearly half million immigrants who enter the country without permission or stay beyond the limits of their visas, nearly 90 percent get jobs within six months, but there are only 5,000 visas available annually by which they might come in legally.
"This is a disordered system," he said. "hardly the arrangement of a household according to a plan where there is room enough for all at the table."
END
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100540.htm
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Uproar Over ‘Mass Firings’ At Minn. Chipotle Restaurants
CBS News, Minnesota
December 9, 2010
ICHFIELD (WCCO) – A Minnesota immigration rights group is protesting what it calls “mass firings” of Chipotle workers. According to the group, around 50 of the restaurant’s Latino workers have been fired in the last week.
The Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committeee (MIRAC), a local group that fights for the legalization of undocumented workers, says employees at local Chipotle stores came forward, saying they were fired over questions about their immigration status.
“We started to piece together there was something larger going on than a few people fired at one store,” said MIRAC member Brad Sigal. “It appears to be a statewide attack on immigrant worker who are longtime employees most of them been working there for years.”
Brad Sigal says his group confirmed that more than a dozen workers at the Chipotle store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul were let go, along with nearly dozen more at a Richfield Chipotle. He also heard from fired employees at locations in downtown Minneapolis (Skyway and Seven Corners), Golden Valley, Coon Rapids, Stillwater and Hudson, Wis.
Sigal says he suspects it’s the result of a federal immigration audit.
“It is an I-9 audit,” said Sigal. “They check the paperwork and fire anyone who can’t immediately prove they have the right to work. An action like this on a mass scale before the holidays is not consistent with the image they have cultivated.”
In a statement, Chipotle said, “We are fully cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minnesota in connection with a document request they have made.”
ICE officials have not yet made a statement.
Customers leaving Grand Avenue Chipotle offered conflicting views.
“I happen to be someone who is struggling to look for a job and I believe in fair practice,” said Tasha Scott, a St. Paul resident. “If I am eligible to work, and I have all the status and things required by law, I should have a job here.”
“I am an ethical vegan, I care about animals and humans,” said Melissa Swanson, a St. Paul resident who says she hopes she learns the truth. “If it doesn’t fit my ethics, we won’t be coming back.”
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2010/12/09/uproar-over-mass-firings-at-minn-chipotle-restaurants/#
December 9, 2010
ICHFIELD (WCCO) – A Minnesota immigration rights group is protesting what it calls “mass firings” of Chipotle workers. According to the group, around 50 of the restaurant’s Latino workers have been fired in the last week.
The Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committeee (MIRAC), a local group that fights for the legalization of undocumented workers, says employees at local Chipotle stores came forward, saying they were fired over questions about their immigration status.
“We started to piece together there was something larger going on than a few people fired at one store,” said MIRAC member Brad Sigal. “It appears to be a statewide attack on immigrant worker who are longtime employees most of them been working there for years.”
Brad Sigal says his group confirmed that more than a dozen workers at the Chipotle store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul were let go, along with nearly dozen more at a Richfield Chipotle. He also heard from fired employees at locations in downtown Minneapolis (Skyway and Seven Corners), Golden Valley, Coon Rapids, Stillwater and Hudson, Wis.
Sigal says he suspects it’s the result of a federal immigration audit.
“It is an I-9 audit,” said Sigal. “They check the paperwork and fire anyone who can’t immediately prove they have the right to work. An action like this on a mass scale before the holidays is not consistent with the image they have cultivated.”
In a statement, Chipotle said, “We are fully cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minnesota in connection with a document request they have made.”
ICE officials have not yet made a statement.
Customers leaving Grand Avenue Chipotle offered conflicting views.
“I happen to be someone who is struggling to look for a job and I believe in fair practice,” said Tasha Scott, a St. Paul resident. “If I am eligible to work, and I have all the status and things required by law, I should have a job here.”
“I am an ethical vegan, I care about animals and humans,” said Melissa Swanson, a St. Paul resident who says she hopes she learns the truth. “If it doesn’t fit my ethics, we won’t be coming back.”
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2010/12/09/uproar-over-mass-firings-at-minn-chipotle-restaurants/#
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
1,000 at rally call for overhaul of immigration
By Bruce Lieberman
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
Monday, June 7, 2010
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO — Students terrified their parents will be deported. Day laborers afraid to call police because they lack green cards. Routine traffic stops may lead to deportations.
These were among the stories shared with more than 1,000 people calling for comprehensive immigration reform at a rally Sunday.
The gathering was coordinated by the San Diego Organizing Project, a faith-based community group.
Sunday’s demonstration followed a rally Saturday at City Hall organized by the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition, a conservative political group.
“So many people from (Mexico) ignore our rules and come on in,” said Leslie Eastman, a spokeswoman for that group, who said about 100 people attended. “I would like to see enforcement so we can have people here legally.”
The rally on Sunday at Chicano Park was followed by a march to St. Joseph Cathedral.
An Arizona law aimed at curbing illegal immigration has reignited the national debate on the issue. Demonstrators said the law has created a culture of fear among undocumented immigrants. They called for reform to reunite families separated by deportations, among other changes.
“We came together united as a people of prayer … that our system can be fixed,” said the Rev. Henry Rodriguez of St. Jude’s Shrine. “That above all the politics, rhetoric, anger … there is a more concrete way to address this issue.”
National polls show most Americans support the Arizona law, despite the legal challenges.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/07/1000-at-rally-call-for-overhaul-of-immigration/
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
Monday, June 7, 2010
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO — Students terrified their parents will be deported. Day laborers afraid to call police because they lack green cards. Routine traffic stops may lead to deportations.
These were among the stories shared with more than 1,000 people calling for comprehensive immigration reform at a rally Sunday.
The gathering was coordinated by the San Diego Organizing Project, a faith-based community group.
Sunday’s demonstration followed a rally Saturday at City Hall organized by the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition, a conservative political group.
“So many people from (Mexico) ignore our rules and come on in,” said Leslie Eastman, a spokeswoman for that group, who said about 100 people attended. “I would like to see enforcement so we can have people here legally.”
The rally on Sunday at Chicano Park was followed by a march to St. Joseph Cathedral.
An Arizona law aimed at curbing illegal immigration has reignited the national debate on the issue. Demonstrators said the law has created a culture of fear among undocumented immigrants. They called for reform to reunite families separated by deportations, among other changes.
“We came together united as a people of prayer … that our system can be fixed,” said the Rev. Henry Rodriguez of St. Jude’s Shrine. “That above all the politics, rhetoric, anger … there is a more concrete way to address this issue.”
National polls show most Americans support the Arizona law, despite the legal challenges.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/07/1000-at-rally-call-for-overhaul-of-immigration/
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Advocates question choice to halt deportations into Mexican border city
By David Agren
Catholic News Service
Thursday, May 13, 2010
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (CNS) -- The Ciudad Juarez Migrant Shelter used to fill beyond capacity on the days that U.S. officials would send deportees back across the Rio Grande.
However, the shelter has often been empty since early March. That is when the U.S. government stopped discharging large numbers of deportees into Ciudad Juarez, where a turf war between drug cartels and their affiliated gangs has claimed at least 750 lives this year.
But the shelter director, Dominican Brother Gerardo Arias, and others working with migrants say that even with the rampant violence, discharging deportees into Ciudad Juarez is not an entirely foolish proposition -- especially since other ports of entry to the southeast such as Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros can be more dangerous for migrants.
"In many ways, Juarez is a safe city for migrants," said Brother Arias, director of the Ciudad Juarez Migrant Shelter. In his city, he added, criminal gangs are not kidnapping and extorting migrants.
The March decision to stop discharging so many deportees into Ciudad Juarez was meant to spare migrants any exposure to the ongoing violence, but it came after intense lobbying from the municipal government and Mexican officials.
Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz blamed the influx of deportees -- many of whom had been in U.S. prisons -- for aggravating the city's crime problem by ending up in either one of the warring cartels or the gangs carrying out such crimes as extortion, robberies and kidnappings.
"Previously Ciudad Juarez was the destination for all those leaving (U.S.) prisons," said Mauricio Rodriguez, spokesman for the Ciudad Juarez municipal government.
Rodriguez was unable to say if the crime rate had diminished since deportations were scaled back.
Reyes told reporters in late March that the number of deportees fell by 80 percent to as few as 6 per day -- mostly migrants caught trying to pass into El Paso without the proper documents.
Organizations working with deportees and migrants in Ciudad Juarez reject claims from the municipal government that those being sent back to Mexico join gangs in especially large numbers. Brother Arias said most of the deportees with U.S. criminal records were sent back for nonviolent crimes such as illegally entering the United States or driving without a license.
However, he agreed with the mayor that an influx of returning migrants had been straining resources.
His shelter welcomed approximately 2,000 guests in 2008. Arias says the figure exploded to approximately 7,000 guests in 2009 -- a result of increased deportations and a focus on discharging deportees into Ciudad Juarez. In 2010, the figure reached 1,700 before the change of policy, he said.
Others working with migrants say the city -- despite the violence -- has an established migrant-support infrastructure such as shelters, while a municipal program would provide those anxious to leave the city with money to travel home.
"The federal government has said it wants to have safe and orderly deportations for the young migrants," said Diana Rodriguez, director of a human rights center affiliated with the shelter.
"We definitely don't believe that they're doing it securely or orderly if they're sending (migrants) to other border crossings that are just as dangerous or worse than here," she said.
Rodriguez cited the border crossing at Ojinaga, Mexico -- which borders Presidio, near the Big Bend region of Texas -- as a municipality that lacks a migrant shelter and other services, although it is receiving deportees.
Further east, in Nuevo Laredo, Father Gianantonio Baggio, director of the Nazareth Migrant Shelter, has noticed a change in the type of migrants passing through northeastern Mexico.
Father Baggio said his shelter now serves a diminishing number of Central American migrants -- who are avoiding northeastern Mexico because of the rampant kidnappings and violence -- while the number of deportees has doubled over the past two months.
"The dangers of the journey (north) and the border have increased," Father Baggio said.
The northeastern border region of Mexico "is just as dangerous" as Ciudad Juarez, he added.
Father Baggio said the Mexican and local governments have attempted to make deportations safer in his part of the country by having more deportees quickly transported away from the border region to either their hometowns or the north-central city of San Luis Potosi, a nine-hour drive south of Nuevo Laredo.
"This help a lot," Father Baggio said, but he added, "there isn't enough money" to return all the migrants to their hometowns.
Copyright © 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catholic News Service
Thursday, May 13, 2010
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (CNS) -- The Ciudad Juarez Migrant Shelter used to fill beyond capacity on the days that U.S. officials would send deportees back across the Rio Grande.
However, the shelter has often been empty since early March. That is when the U.S. government stopped discharging large numbers of deportees into Ciudad Juarez, where a turf war between drug cartels and their affiliated gangs has claimed at least 750 lives this year.
But the shelter director, Dominican Brother Gerardo Arias, and others working with migrants say that even with the rampant violence, discharging deportees into Ciudad Juarez is not an entirely foolish proposition -- especially since other ports of entry to the southeast such as Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros can be more dangerous for migrants.
"In many ways, Juarez is a safe city for migrants," said Brother Arias, director of the Ciudad Juarez Migrant Shelter. In his city, he added, criminal gangs are not kidnapping and extorting migrants.
The March decision to stop discharging so many deportees into Ciudad Juarez was meant to spare migrants any exposure to the ongoing violence, but it came after intense lobbying from the municipal government and Mexican officials.
Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz blamed the influx of deportees -- many of whom had been in U.S. prisons -- for aggravating the city's crime problem by ending up in either one of the warring cartels or the gangs carrying out such crimes as extortion, robberies and kidnappings.
"Previously Ciudad Juarez was the destination for all those leaving (U.S.) prisons," said Mauricio Rodriguez, spokesman for the Ciudad Juarez municipal government.
Rodriguez was unable to say if the crime rate had diminished since deportations were scaled back.
Reyes told reporters in late March that the number of deportees fell by 80 percent to as few as 6 per day -- mostly migrants caught trying to pass into El Paso without the proper documents.
Organizations working with deportees and migrants in Ciudad Juarez reject claims from the municipal government that those being sent back to Mexico join gangs in especially large numbers. Brother Arias said most of the deportees with U.S. criminal records were sent back for nonviolent crimes such as illegally entering the United States or driving without a license.
However, he agreed with the mayor that an influx of returning migrants had been straining resources.
His shelter welcomed approximately 2,000 guests in 2008. Arias says the figure exploded to approximately 7,000 guests in 2009 -- a result of increased deportations and a focus on discharging deportees into Ciudad Juarez. In 2010, the figure reached 1,700 before the change of policy, he said.
Others working with migrants say the city -- despite the violence -- has an established migrant-support infrastructure such as shelters, while a municipal program would provide those anxious to leave the city with money to travel home.
"The federal government has said it wants to have safe and orderly deportations for the young migrants," said Diana Rodriguez, director of a human rights center affiliated with the shelter.
"We definitely don't believe that they're doing it securely or orderly if they're sending (migrants) to other border crossings that are just as dangerous or worse than here," she said.
Rodriguez cited the border crossing at Ojinaga, Mexico -- which borders Presidio, near the Big Bend region of Texas -- as a municipality that lacks a migrant shelter and other services, although it is receiving deportees.
Further east, in Nuevo Laredo, Father Gianantonio Baggio, director of the Nazareth Migrant Shelter, has noticed a change in the type of migrants passing through northeastern Mexico.
Father Baggio said his shelter now serves a diminishing number of Central American migrants -- who are avoiding northeastern Mexico because of the rampant kidnappings and violence -- while the number of deportees has doubled over the past two months.
"The dangers of the journey (north) and the border have increased," Father Baggio said.
The northeastern border region of Mexico "is just as dangerous" as Ciudad Juarez, he added.
Father Baggio said the Mexican and local governments have attempted to make deportations safer in his part of the country by having more deportees quickly transported away from the border region to either their hometowns or the north-central city of San Luis Potosi, a nine-hour drive south of Nuevo Laredo.
"This help a lot," Father Baggio said, but he added, "there isn't enough money" to return all the migrants to their hometowns.
Copyright © 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Thursday, April 29, 2010
24 Arrested in Chicago for Blocking Migrant Deportations
Latin American Herald Tribune
April 28, 2010
CHICAGO – Twenty-four pro-immigrant activists were arrested Tuesday in Chicago for blocking undocumented immigrants from being taken away for deportation for almost two hours.
The act of civil disobedience was organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR, and other groups as a protest against deportations and in solidarity with undocumented aliens in Arizona, where a new law makes being in the country illegally a misdemeanor.
“We’re tired of the federal government’s inaction,” Tania Unzueta, of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, told Efe.
Among those arrested outside the Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago were ICIRR Executive Director Joshua Hoyt, several members of the clergy, and students, according to Unzueta.
She said that around 6:00 a.m. they sat down in two rows in the street in front of the main entrance to the center where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processes undocumented immigrants, and blocked several vans from taking people to where they would be deported.
“They were there almost two hours until the police arrived and moved them without violence,” Unzueta said.
Those in custody were to be fined and then released several hours later.
The activist said that the protest was the first step in a national civil disobedience movement to protest against the government policy of arrests and deportations for undocumented immigrants “without there being a path to legalization.”
Several hours before, a vigil of some 250 people was held in front of the Broadview Detention Center to demand that President Barack Obama issue an executive order putting an end to raids and deportations.
The ICIRR said Tuesday’s action was also a gesture of solidarity with immigrants in Arizona and a response to the recently passed SB1070 law that “criminalizes undocumented immigrants.”
Arizona’s move is a direct consequence of the Obama administration’s failure to push for immigration reform, the ICIRR said.
In a separate act, the Rev. Jose Landaverde, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Episcopal Church in Chicago’s La Villita neighborhood, said that “stopping this bad example of racial profiling in Arizona” is an urgent matter.
“We will come out in protest, without worrying about whether we end up in jail, to show that the resistance movement is growing,” he said.
The ICIRR insisted that by April 30 the U.S. Senate must begin debating an immigration reform bill, which must be voted on by June 15, under threat of more street protests and civil disobedience.
On Saturday, May 1, there will be a march and rally in the square in front of Chicago city hall, together with the May Day celebrations, with participants carrying photos and other mementos of family members who have been deported.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=356082&CategoryId=12395
April 28, 2010
CHICAGO – Twenty-four pro-immigrant activists were arrested Tuesday in Chicago for blocking undocumented immigrants from being taken away for deportation for almost two hours.
The act of civil disobedience was organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR, and other groups as a protest against deportations and in solidarity with undocumented aliens in Arizona, where a new law makes being in the country illegally a misdemeanor.
“We’re tired of the federal government’s inaction,” Tania Unzueta, of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, told Efe.
Among those arrested outside the Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago were ICIRR Executive Director Joshua Hoyt, several members of the clergy, and students, according to Unzueta.
She said that around 6:00 a.m. they sat down in two rows in the street in front of the main entrance to the center where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processes undocumented immigrants, and blocked several vans from taking people to where they would be deported.
“They were there almost two hours until the police arrived and moved them without violence,” Unzueta said.
Those in custody were to be fined and then released several hours later.
The activist said that the protest was the first step in a national civil disobedience movement to protest against the government policy of arrests and deportations for undocumented immigrants “without there being a path to legalization.”
Several hours before, a vigil of some 250 people was held in front of the Broadview Detention Center to demand that President Barack Obama issue an executive order putting an end to raids and deportations.
The ICIRR said Tuesday’s action was also a gesture of solidarity with immigrants in Arizona and a response to the recently passed SB1070 law that “criminalizes undocumented immigrants.”
Arizona’s move is a direct consequence of the Obama administration’s failure to push for immigration reform, the ICIRR said.
In a separate act, the Rev. Jose Landaverde, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Episcopal Church in Chicago’s La Villita neighborhood, said that “stopping this bad example of racial profiling in Arizona” is an urgent matter.
“We will come out in protest, without worrying about whether we end up in jail, to show that the resistance movement is growing,” he said.
The ICIRR insisted that by April 30 the U.S. Senate must begin debating an immigration reform bill, which must be voted on by June 15, under threat of more street protests and civil disobedience.
On Saturday, May 1, there will be a march and rally in the square in front of Chicago city hall, together with the May Day celebrations, with participants carrying photos and other mementos of family members who have been deported.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=356082&CategoryId=12395
Friday, September 25, 2009
Loving Thy Neighbor: Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith
By Sam Fulwood III
September 22, 2009
Center for American Progress
As a fresh immigration reform debate gears up in Washington, D.C., a wide range of faith groups are showing a new, unexpected, and grassroots-led social activism that’s rooted in theological and moral ground. While loud and shrill anti-immigrant voices dominate much of the media attention regarding immigrants and especially the undocumented, faith community activists are caring and praying in the shadows of public attention.
These groups have worked for many years and across the country on immigration issues and as strong advocates for undocumented workers and their families. Their efforts include creating citizenship projects, offering educational and support services, fighting discrimination and exploitation, bridging gaps between immigrant and nonimmigrant communities, providing sanctuary for immigrant families, supporting comprehensive legislative reform, and more.
Hundreds of diverse faith communities have been active independently and within larger organizations. Mainline Protestant denominations, Catholic parishes, Jewish congregations, and others, along with groups such as PICO, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Sojourners, Catholic Social Services, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Families United, and Gamaliel have stood up and spoken out on behalf of immigrants and their families.
But lately, these efforts are gaining new energy and spreading around the country as people of faith are championing the cause of immigration reform. This is an important development because it heralds a sweeping grassroots movement that will support political leaders in Washington who join their cause.
The ancient scriptures describe the stories of immigrants—people cast out of their native land who wander in the world’s wilderness and seek refuge in foreign places. It’s an epic saga, filled with struggle and conflict, despair and deliverance. Little wonder that present-day people of faith find parallels in the lives of immigrants in this country.
Of course, the travails of people fleeing poverty-stricken Latin America or the war-ravaged Middle East to come to the United States are very different from the patriarchs’ journey to Egypt in search of food or the exile of Israelites after their homeland fell to Assyria and Judea fell to Babylon. Or are they?
The specific details may vary, but the plight of an immigrant is as old as humanity. From biblical antiquity to the 21st century, the response of people of faith remains constant, following the admonition to ease the burdens of strangers in their midst.
This report is a collection of present-day immigrant stories. Unlike the more familiar narrative of oppression in a foreign land, these are stories of faith in the flesh, of people filled with the conviction of their religious beliefs and pushed to act in defense of needy neighbors in their community.
The report also intends to be an antidote to the mistaken belief that ordinary people of faith are not involved in political advocacy or shy from pressing their influence in national debates and policies affecting immigrants. As these stories demonstrate, many efforts sprang up at the grassroots, independent of each other and often without awareness that anyone or any other group was concerned about this issue. People of faith pitched in to help fellow humans whose lives seemed very different from their own, and they were spurred on by a sense of moral outrage at the detentions of undocumented immigrants in their communities.
Several of these stories haven’t been widely told and therefore aren’t a part of the media chatter in the debate over immigration reform. This must change if comprehensive immigration reform is to earn broad and popular support. Faith-based activism must become part of the public debate.
This is especially important to counteract media portrayals of immigrants, many of which are unabashedly negative.
For instance, a recent Brookings Institution report concluded that “the U.S. media have hindered effective policymaking on immigration for decades, and their impact has been increasing in recent years as a result of an ongoing evolution in the media industry.” That report, released before last year’s presidential election, painted an unflattering portrait of both the media’s role and the public’s embrace of the worst view of immigrants:
Deeply ingrained practices in American journalism have produced a narrative that conditions the public to associate immigration with illegality, crisis, controversy, and government failure. Meanwhile, new voices of advocation on the media landscape have succeeded in mobilizing segments of the public in opposition to policy initiatives, sometimes by exaggerating the narrative of immigration told by traditional news organizations. The combined effect is to promote stalemate on an issue that is inherently difficult to resolve and that is likely to resurface on the public agenda when a new administration and a new Congress take office in January 2009.
The overlooked and untold story in the media is one of a revitalized and aggressive progressive movement of faith-based activities—town hall meetings, prayer vigils, potluck suppers and, in one dramatic case, a 143-mile pilgrimage—taking place in small towns and urban centers, spreading almost virally from community to community across the United States:
* Between January and July of this year more than 25,000 people gathered in churches to call for immigration reform and an end to the separation of immigrant families as part of the Families United Tour. Led by Hispanic Evangelical churches, the tour brought together clergy and people of faith from numerous faith traditions in 24 cities around the country, highlighting the stories of local families who had been torn apart due to the broken immigration system.
* In February, at the invitation of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, a network of religious groups working on immigration reform, people of faith gathered at 167 events in 133 cities for prayer vigils to protect immigrants and their families and to persuade congressional members to enact comprehensive reform.
* In April, during the Congressional Passover/Easter recess, people of faith conducted more than 50 “neighbor to neighbor” in-district visits with members of Congress in 24 states.
* In May, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Agriprocessors Inc. plant raid in Postville, IA (see below) more than 40 commemoration events were held in 15 states.
* In August and September, people of faith in 29 states led congressional visits, circulated petitions, and gathered at prayer vigils and potluck dinners—more than 100 events in all.
This wave of momentum from people of faith was spawned by the failure of political leaders in Washington to pass immigration reform that would bring 12 million immigrants and their families out of the shadows.
Recent attempts at federal immigration reform have fallen short due to the success of anti-immigrant activists in whipping up fear and blaming immigrants for everything from taking jobs to using benefits to committing crimes. Some anti-immigrant activists and policymakers go as far as condemning immigrants as a danger to national unity and public safety. Such views ignore the complexities of immigration and the reality of immigrants’ lives, not to mention the fact that for most of the nation’s history, limits on immigration did not exist. We are a country of immigrants whose institutions, economy, and culture have come from the labor and contributions of immigrant men and women.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/09/loving_thy_neighbor.html
September 22, 2009
Center for American Progress
As a fresh immigration reform debate gears up in Washington, D.C., a wide range of faith groups are showing a new, unexpected, and grassroots-led social activism that’s rooted in theological and moral ground. While loud and shrill anti-immigrant voices dominate much of the media attention regarding immigrants and especially the undocumented, faith community activists are caring and praying in the shadows of public attention.
These groups have worked for many years and across the country on immigration issues and as strong advocates for undocumented workers and their families. Their efforts include creating citizenship projects, offering educational and support services, fighting discrimination and exploitation, bridging gaps between immigrant and nonimmigrant communities, providing sanctuary for immigrant families, supporting comprehensive legislative reform, and more.
Hundreds of diverse faith communities have been active independently and within larger organizations. Mainline Protestant denominations, Catholic parishes, Jewish congregations, and others, along with groups such as PICO, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Sojourners, Catholic Social Services, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Families United, and Gamaliel have stood up and spoken out on behalf of immigrants and their families.
But lately, these efforts are gaining new energy and spreading around the country as people of faith are championing the cause of immigration reform. This is an important development because it heralds a sweeping grassroots movement that will support political leaders in Washington who join their cause.
The ancient scriptures describe the stories of immigrants—people cast out of their native land who wander in the world’s wilderness and seek refuge in foreign places. It’s an epic saga, filled with struggle and conflict, despair and deliverance. Little wonder that present-day people of faith find parallels in the lives of immigrants in this country.
Of course, the travails of people fleeing poverty-stricken Latin America or the war-ravaged Middle East to come to the United States are very different from the patriarchs’ journey to Egypt in search of food or the exile of Israelites after their homeland fell to Assyria and Judea fell to Babylon. Or are they?
The specific details may vary, but the plight of an immigrant is as old as humanity. From biblical antiquity to the 21st century, the response of people of faith remains constant, following the admonition to ease the burdens of strangers in their midst.
This report is a collection of present-day immigrant stories. Unlike the more familiar narrative of oppression in a foreign land, these are stories of faith in the flesh, of people filled with the conviction of their religious beliefs and pushed to act in defense of needy neighbors in their community.
The report also intends to be an antidote to the mistaken belief that ordinary people of faith are not involved in political advocacy or shy from pressing their influence in national debates and policies affecting immigrants. As these stories demonstrate, many efforts sprang up at the grassroots, independent of each other and often without awareness that anyone or any other group was concerned about this issue. People of faith pitched in to help fellow humans whose lives seemed very different from their own, and they were spurred on by a sense of moral outrage at the detentions of undocumented immigrants in their communities.
Several of these stories haven’t been widely told and therefore aren’t a part of the media chatter in the debate over immigration reform. This must change if comprehensive immigration reform is to earn broad and popular support. Faith-based activism must become part of the public debate.
This is especially important to counteract media portrayals of immigrants, many of which are unabashedly negative.
For instance, a recent Brookings Institution report concluded that “the U.S. media have hindered effective policymaking on immigration for decades, and their impact has been increasing in recent years as a result of an ongoing evolution in the media industry.” That report, released before last year’s presidential election, painted an unflattering portrait of both the media’s role and the public’s embrace of the worst view of immigrants:
Deeply ingrained practices in American journalism have produced a narrative that conditions the public to associate immigration with illegality, crisis, controversy, and government failure. Meanwhile, new voices of advocation on the media landscape have succeeded in mobilizing segments of the public in opposition to policy initiatives, sometimes by exaggerating the narrative of immigration told by traditional news organizations. The combined effect is to promote stalemate on an issue that is inherently difficult to resolve and that is likely to resurface on the public agenda when a new administration and a new Congress take office in January 2009.
The overlooked and untold story in the media is one of a revitalized and aggressive progressive movement of faith-based activities—town hall meetings, prayer vigils, potluck suppers and, in one dramatic case, a 143-mile pilgrimage—taking place in small towns and urban centers, spreading almost virally from community to community across the United States:
* Between January and July of this year more than 25,000 people gathered in churches to call for immigration reform and an end to the separation of immigrant families as part of the Families United Tour. Led by Hispanic Evangelical churches, the tour brought together clergy and people of faith from numerous faith traditions in 24 cities around the country, highlighting the stories of local families who had been torn apart due to the broken immigration system.
* In February, at the invitation of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, a network of religious groups working on immigration reform, people of faith gathered at 167 events in 133 cities for prayer vigils to protect immigrants and their families and to persuade congressional members to enact comprehensive reform.
* In April, during the Congressional Passover/Easter recess, people of faith conducted more than 50 “neighbor to neighbor” in-district visits with members of Congress in 24 states.
* In May, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Agriprocessors Inc. plant raid in Postville, IA (see below) more than 40 commemoration events were held in 15 states.
* In August and September, people of faith in 29 states led congressional visits, circulated petitions, and gathered at prayer vigils and potluck dinners—more than 100 events in all.
This wave of momentum from people of faith was spawned by the failure of political leaders in Washington to pass immigration reform that would bring 12 million immigrants and their families out of the shadows.
Recent attempts at federal immigration reform have fallen short due to the success of anti-immigrant activists in whipping up fear and blaming immigrants for everything from taking jobs to using benefits to committing crimes. Some anti-immigrant activists and policymakers go as far as condemning immigrants as a danger to national unity and public safety. Such views ignore the complexities of immigration and the reality of immigrants’ lives, not to mention the fact that for most of the nation’s history, limits on immigration did not exist. We are a country of immigrants whose institutions, economy, and culture have come from the labor and contributions of immigrant men and women.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/09/loving_thy_neighbor.html
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Religious leaders call for humane treatment of immigrants | Local News | Star-Telegram
By DIANE SMITH
September 23, 2009
Fort Worth Star Telegram
A network of religious-based groups is advocating for an overhaul of the immigration system and using prayer vigils, pilgrimages and church potlucks to build empathy for the undocumented.
"These are strangers we need to embrace," said the Rev. Dean Reed, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Stephenville, whose efforts are detailed in a new report by the Center for American Progress.
Loving Thy Neighbor: Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith was rolled out this week and describes how faith-based groups across the nation are working for the rights of immigrant workers and their families from a theological foundation.
Immigration raids, anti-immigrant laws and deportations prompted faith-based grassroots movements in communities in Texas, Iowa, Washington, New York and New Jersey. Faith leaders said they also want to counter the harsh tone that sets in whenever any public discussion centers on people who are living and working in this country illegally. "We are advocating that immigrants be treated humanely," said the Rev. Mike Blevins, pastor of Calmar United Methodist Church in Iowa, where raids at a meatpacking plant disrupted the community.
The pastors discussed their work Wednesday during a teleconference organized with the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank headed by John Podesta, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.
Participants said comprehensive immigration reform needs to include a path to citizenship, family reunification and permission to work in jobs that are difficult to fill. They also stressed the need to reform detention policies and deportation processes. The push for change includes Methodist, Catholic and Jewish advocates.
Angela Kelley, vice president of immigration policy and advocacy at the center, said immigration reform must also include a solid employment verification system that isn’t prone to errors and can handle changes in data.
Kelley, who moderated the conference, said the groups are hoping immigration reform legislation will be introduced early next year. She said a planned congressional committee hearing on the faith-based immigration movement holds promise.
Gloria Gonzalez, a Fort Worth resident whose husband was deported last December, wants immigration reform so she can reunite her family, but she feels hopeless.
"We have no voice," Gonzalez said. "We have no resources. There’s no help."
Reed and Lori Stafford, a member of United Methodist Women (a group that fights for social justice), are trying to make a difference through the Welcoming Immigrants Network. The group aims to move comprehensive immigration reform from debate to a congressional vote. They worry that too many families are torn apart by deportation.
The network, also known as WIN, started a Facebook page and has held a series of events to promote education and empathy. In August, the group organized "Breaking Bread and Barriers," an event in which immigration supporters shared ideas and a meal. They also held a prayer vigil. Another prayer vigil is planned for Sunday at the Polytechnic United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. That event will also include testimony from immigrants.
WIN organizers said they believe they make ground by telling the immigrant story to everyone to move beyond rhetoric to toward solutions.
"We need to remove the fear and hate," Stafford said. "We do that through education."
http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1632768.html
September 23, 2009
Fort Worth Star Telegram
A network of religious-based groups is advocating for an overhaul of the immigration system and using prayer vigils, pilgrimages and church potlucks to build empathy for the undocumented.
"These are strangers we need to embrace," said the Rev. Dean Reed, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Stephenville, whose efforts are detailed in a new report by the Center for American Progress.
Loving Thy Neighbor: Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith was rolled out this week and describes how faith-based groups across the nation are working for the rights of immigrant workers and their families from a theological foundation.
Immigration raids, anti-immigrant laws and deportations prompted faith-based grassroots movements in communities in Texas, Iowa, Washington, New York and New Jersey. Faith leaders said they also want to counter the harsh tone that sets in whenever any public discussion centers on people who are living and working in this country illegally. "We are advocating that immigrants be treated humanely," said the Rev. Mike Blevins, pastor of Calmar United Methodist Church in Iowa, where raids at a meatpacking plant disrupted the community.
The pastors discussed their work Wednesday during a teleconference organized with the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank headed by John Podesta, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.
Participants said comprehensive immigration reform needs to include a path to citizenship, family reunification and permission to work in jobs that are difficult to fill. They also stressed the need to reform detention policies and deportation processes. The push for change includes Methodist, Catholic and Jewish advocates.
Angela Kelley, vice president of immigration policy and advocacy at the center, said immigration reform must also include a solid employment verification system that isn’t prone to errors and can handle changes in data.
Kelley, who moderated the conference, said the groups are hoping immigration reform legislation will be introduced early next year. She said a planned congressional committee hearing on the faith-based immigration movement holds promise.
Gloria Gonzalez, a Fort Worth resident whose husband was deported last December, wants immigration reform so she can reunite her family, but she feels hopeless.
"We have no voice," Gonzalez said. "We have no resources. There’s no help."
Reed and Lori Stafford, a member of United Methodist Women (a group that fights for social justice), are trying to make a difference through the Welcoming Immigrants Network. The group aims to move comprehensive immigration reform from debate to a congressional vote. They worry that too many families are torn apart by deportation.
The network, also known as WIN, started a Facebook page and has held a series of events to promote education and empathy. In August, the group organized "Breaking Bread and Barriers," an event in which immigration supporters shared ideas and a meal. They also held a prayer vigil. Another prayer vigil is planned for Sunday at the Polytechnic United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. That event will also include testimony from immigrants.
WIN organizers said they believe they make ground by telling the immigrant story to everyone to move beyond rhetoric to toward solutions.
"We need to remove the fear and hate," Stafford said. "We do that through education."
http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1632768.html
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Pastors call for an end to detentions and deportations that break up families, at Morristown vigils
By Jamie Duffy
NJ.Com
September 16, 2009
More than four million children born in the U.S. live with one parent who is an illegal immigrant and could be deported.
There are another 1.5 million children who are living here illegally themselves, but have siblings who are citizens.
In the last ten years, more than 108,000 illegal immigrants have been deported leaving behind families.
Some people want this to stop.
"God is the father of all, documented and undocumented. No one is illegal," said Father Hernan Arias, pastor of St. Margaret's of Scotland R.C. Church on Speedwell Avenue in Morristown.
"Stop taking our fathers and mothers in prison. Stop breaking our homes," he said, before numerous candles were lit on a table signifying The Day of the Children/El Dia de Los Ninos, a state vigil organized by a group of churches and non-profits like the Salvation Army and the American Friends Service Committee.
In Morristown, it was the immigrant rights group Wind of the Spirit that served as the main organizer, providing signs that proclaimed "No Human Being is Illegal," in English and in Spanish.
At the St. Margaret's Vigil, Amparo Guevara tearfully related how her husband had been deported June 27 after two lawyers had failed to get it right. One even lost the papers.
Once they were found, she got another lawyer who will work on the case. But her husband is now back in Colombia.
At the United Latin American Pentecostal Church on Spring Street, where a later vigil was held, there were at least two cases where deportation has been threatened. For Pastor Antonio "Tony" Arias, deportation is close to home. His own brother is currently incarcerated and has deportation orders.
His mother and father came to the front of the church with organizers and other church members to send up a prayer to God for help and for illumination for Donald Cresitello, the outgoing mayor of Morristown who still is working hard to implement 287(g), the federal program that deputizes police officers as immigration officers. He faces a new hurdle: The police union must now approve the measure.
In July, Morristown was chosen as one of 11 new municipalities to participate in the program, with the proviso that the PBA must approve it.
Both the Democratic mayoral candidate, Tim Dougherty, and Republican candidate Jimmy Gervasio have said they do not back the proposal. Opponents argue that the measure divides the community and makes undocumented workers avoid reporting crime.
"I get so frustrated when people call them criminals, when they're only coming because they're forced to provide for their families," said Brother John Skrodinsky, who leads the migrant ministry of the Diocese or Paterson.
Skrodinsky told one story, in Spanish and English, of a Mexican couple who are here illegally. The man came first and then returned, because he hated being separated from his family. With both spouses working, they still couldn't afford to buy soup.
"That's really what forces people to come," he said.
http://www.nj.com/morristown/jamieduffy/index.ssf/2009/09/pastors_and_people_call_for_an.html
NJ.Com
September 16, 2009
More than four million children born in the U.S. live with one parent who is an illegal immigrant and could be deported.
There are another 1.5 million children who are living here illegally themselves, but have siblings who are citizens.
In the last ten years, more than 108,000 illegal immigrants have been deported leaving behind families.
Some people want this to stop.
"God is the father of all, documented and undocumented. No one is illegal," said Father Hernan Arias, pastor of St. Margaret's of Scotland R.C. Church on Speedwell Avenue in Morristown.
"Stop taking our fathers and mothers in prison. Stop breaking our homes," he said, before numerous candles were lit on a table signifying The Day of the Children/El Dia de Los Ninos, a state vigil organized by a group of churches and non-profits like the Salvation Army and the American Friends Service Committee.
In Morristown, it was the immigrant rights group Wind of the Spirit that served as the main organizer, providing signs that proclaimed "No Human Being is Illegal," in English and in Spanish.
At the St. Margaret's Vigil, Amparo Guevara tearfully related how her husband had been deported June 27 after two lawyers had failed to get it right. One even lost the papers.
Once they were found, she got another lawyer who will work on the case. But her husband is now back in Colombia.
At the United Latin American Pentecostal Church on Spring Street, where a later vigil was held, there were at least two cases where deportation has been threatened. For Pastor Antonio "Tony" Arias, deportation is close to home. His own brother is currently incarcerated and has deportation orders.
His mother and father came to the front of the church with organizers and other church members to send up a prayer to God for help and for illumination for Donald Cresitello, the outgoing mayor of Morristown who still is working hard to implement 287(g), the federal program that deputizes police officers as immigration officers. He faces a new hurdle: The police union must now approve the measure.
In July, Morristown was chosen as one of 11 new municipalities to participate in the program, with the proviso that the PBA must approve it.
Both the Democratic mayoral candidate, Tim Dougherty, and Republican candidate Jimmy Gervasio have said they do not back the proposal. Opponents argue that the measure divides the community and makes undocumented workers avoid reporting crime.
"I get so frustrated when people call them criminals, when they're only coming because they're forced to provide for their families," said Brother John Skrodinsky, who leads the migrant ministry of the Diocese or Paterson.
Skrodinsky told one story, in Spanish and English, of a Mexican couple who are here illegally. The man came first and then returned, because he hated being separated from his family. With both spouses working, they still couldn't afford to buy soup.
"That's really what forces people to come," he said.
http://www.nj.com/morristown/jamieduffy/index.ssf/2009/09/pastors_and_people_call_for_an.html
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Carcieri stands by immigration order at last panel session
Karen Ziner
The Providence Journal
Sep 01, 2009
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Carcieri's advisory panel monitoring his 2008 executive order on illegal immigration met for the last time Tuesday, with Carcieri reiterating that the issue "was a tough one, a complicated one," but one that he had no regrets about tackling.
"What I'm trying to do in a measured, limited way, is to begin to deal with an issue that has an enormous impact on our state and our nation, and awaken our federal legislators that something's gotta be done," the governor said.
The order directed Rhode Island State Police and corrections authorities to forge agreements with the federal government that would give them some limited immigration-law enforcement powers, and called for state executive departments to screen potential employees through a federal E-Verify system to determine their work eligibility. It also called for state vendors to use the E-Verify system.
A report the panel issued in January said the order had created "an overriding sense of fear" among all immigrants -- whether legal and undocumented. Among its recommendations were that Carcieri clarify the intent of his order, and that the state determine its costs.
Carcieri said he knew that some people had labeled him as "anti-immigrant" after issuing the order, but "nothing could be farther from the truth."
One member, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, said the panel "served a very important role" by "diffusing a very volatile situation a year and a half ago" when Carcieri issued his order..
But the head of the Providence Diocese added, "I still personally believe that the executive order was a mistake, and I still can't think of one good thing the executive order has done for this state. The only thing was to create divisions which were not helpful, and that raised the rhetoric" about illegal immigration.
Carcieri said his intent was to effect "process and procedure" of determining how many illegal immigrants were in state custody, and expediting their transfer to federal immigration custody rather than put them back into the community. And, a so-called 287(g) agreement would give state police to access ICE data bases.
The intent "was never for state police nor local law enforcement to conduct raids," said Carcieri, but noted the "unfortunate" timing of a federal raid of state courthouses as the panel met for the first time last year. Carcieri reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the raid.
Carcieri said state police have been "grossly unfairly been painted by people with an agenda" to have engaged in racial profiling, and expressed confidence in that agency.
He said that over time, the public would see that neither state police nor local law-enforcement agencies will use the executive order to engage in immigration raids.
He also said he believed that requiring state executive departments to use E-Verify system is a prudent one, and noted "the current (Obama) administration has chosen to go forward to use that system."
http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/09/caricieri-advis.html
The Providence Journal
Sep 01, 2009
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Carcieri's advisory panel monitoring his 2008 executive order on illegal immigration met for the last time Tuesday, with Carcieri reiterating that the issue "was a tough one, a complicated one," but one that he had no regrets about tackling.
"What I'm trying to do in a measured, limited way, is to begin to deal with an issue that has an enormous impact on our state and our nation, and awaken our federal legislators that something's gotta be done," the governor said.
The order directed Rhode Island State Police and corrections authorities to forge agreements with the federal government that would give them some limited immigration-law enforcement powers, and called for state executive departments to screen potential employees through a federal E-Verify system to determine their work eligibility. It also called for state vendors to use the E-Verify system.
A report the panel issued in January said the order had created "an overriding sense of fear" among all immigrants -- whether legal and undocumented. Among its recommendations were that Carcieri clarify the intent of his order, and that the state determine its costs.
Carcieri said he knew that some people had labeled him as "anti-immigrant" after issuing the order, but "nothing could be farther from the truth."
One member, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, said the panel "served a very important role" by "diffusing a very volatile situation a year and a half ago" when Carcieri issued his order..
But the head of the Providence Diocese added, "I still personally believe that the executive order was a mistake, and I still can't think of one good thing the executive order has done for this state. The only thing was to create divisions which were not helpful, and that raised the rhetoric" about illegal immigration.
Carcieri said his intent was to effect "process and procedure" of determining how many illegal immigrants were in state custody, and expediting their transfer to federal immigration custody rather than put them back into the community. And, a so-called 287(g) agreement would give state police to access ICE data bases.
The intent "was never for state police nor local law enforcement to conduct raids," said Carcieri, but noted the "unfortunate" timing of a federal raid of state courthouses as the panel met for the first time last year. Carcieri reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the raid.
Carcieri said state police have been "grossly unfairly been painted by people with an agenda" to have engaged in racial profiling, and expressed confidence in that agency.
He said that over time, the public would see that neither state police nor local law-enforcement agencies will use the executive order to engage in immigration raids.
He also said he believed that requiring state executive departments to use E-Verify system is a prudent one, and noted "the current (Obama) administration has chosen to go forward to use that system."
http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/09/caricieri-advis.html
Saturday, August 29, 2009
HIGHTSTOWN: Prayer vigil set to support anti-deportation bill
By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
August 27, 2009
HIGHTSTOWN — Members of the St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church community will hold a prayer vigil next month in support of federal legislation that would give immigration judges more discretion over deportations when families and children are involved.
The church’s Social Justice Group, along with the Trenton Diocese Justice Steering Committee and a number of other local churches and synagogues have planned the vigil at the St. Anthony’s church building on Franklin Street for 7 p.m. Sept. 15. The gathering will be to support a bill now in the U.S. House of Representatives, HR-1176, called the “Child Citizen Protection Bill.”
If signed into law, it would grant immigration judges more leeway when deciding the fate of the undocumented if children and families would be affected by deportation.
“The goal of this vigil is to make people aware that we’ve got close to 4 million U.S. citizen children who lived in families where one or two parents lack documents,” said Lenore Isleib, co-coordinator of the Social Justice Group with her husband, Leigh.
“These people are at risk of being detained or even deported,” she added.
The church’s pastor, The Rev. Patrick McDonnell, agreed.
“Some families live here with no safety or security at all,” he said. “If you just take a parent away and send them back to their native land, you are fracturing a family. Anything we can do keep these families safe and together is worth our prayers.”
The vigil will feature a prayer service that will be based on the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Ms. Isleib said. Afterward, anyone in attendance will have the opportunity to sign letters the group will be sending to legislators in support of the bill.
HR-1176 was sponsored by Rep. Jose Serrano, D-NY, and introduced into the U.S. Congress in February. It awaits action and debate in three separate committees before it reaches the House floor.
http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/08/27/windsor_hights_herald/news/doc4a96e49e16f0c251345015.txt
August 27, 2009
HIGHTSTOWN — Members of the St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church community will hold a prayer vigil next month in support of federal legislation that would give immigration judges more discretion over deportations when families and children are involved.
The church’s Social Justice Group, along with the Trenton Diocese Justice Steering Committee and a number of other local churches and synagogues have planned the vigil at the St. Anthony’s church building on Franklin Street for 7 p.m. Sept. 15. The gathering will be to support a bill now in the U.S. House of Representatives, HR-1176, called the “Child Citizen Protection Bill.”
If signed into law, it would grant immigration judges more leeway when deciding the fate of the undocumented if children and families would be affected by deportation.
“The goal of this vigil is to make people aware that we’ve got close to 4 million U.S. citizen children who lived in families where one or two parents lack documents,” said Lenore Isleib, co-coordinator of the Social Justice Group with her husband, Leigh.
“These people are at risk of being detained or even deported,” she added.
The church’s pastor, The Rev. Patrick McDonnell, agreed.
“Some families live here with no safety or security at all,” he said. “If you just take a parent away and send them back to their native land, you are fracturing a family. Anything we can do keep these families safe and together is worth our prayers.”
The vigil will feature a prayer service that will be based on the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Ms. Isleib said. Afterward, anyone in attendance will have the opportunity to sign letters the group will be sending to legislators in support of the bill.
HR-1176 was sponsored by Rep. Jose Serrano, D-NY, and introduced into the U.S. Congress in February. It awaits action and debate in three separate committees before it reaches the House floor.
http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/08/27/windsor_hights_herald/news/doc4a96e49e16f0c251345015.txt
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Catholic bishops urge immigration reform
Michael Paulson
June 18, 2009
The Boston Globe
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting this week in San Antonio, today called for immigration reform. The statement from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who is the president of the bishops' conference:
"On behalf of the United States Catholic Bishops, gathered in San Antonio, Texas, at our annual spring meeting, I would ask President Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties to work together to fashion and enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the end of the year.
It has been clear for years that the United States immigration system requires repair and that reform legislation should not be delayed.
We urge respect and observance of all just laws, and we do not approve or encourage the illegal entry of anyone into our country. From a humanitarian perspective, however, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.
Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections. As a moral matter, we must resolve the legal status of those who are here without proper documentation so that they can fully contribute their talents to our nation’s economic, social and spiritual well being.
Only through comprehensive reform can we restore the rule of law to our nation’s immigration system.
We urge President Obama and congressional leaders to meet as soon as possible to discuss and draft comprehensive immigration reform legislation, with the goal of making it law by the end of 2009. The Catholic bishops of our country stand ready to assist in this effort."
June 18, 2009
The Boston Globe
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is meeting this week in San Antonio, today called for immigration reform. The statement from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who is the president of the bishops' conference:
"On behalf of the United States Catholic Bishops, gathered in San Antonio, Texas, at our annual spring meeting, I would ask President Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties to work together to fashion and enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the end of the year.
It has been clear for years that the United States immigration system requires repair and that reform legislation should not be delayed.
We urge respect and observance of all just laws, and we do not approve or encourage the illegal entry of anyone into our country. From a humanitarian perspective, however, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.
Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections. As a moral matter, we must resolve the legal status of those who are here without proper documentation so that they can fully contribute their talents to our nation’s economic, social and spiritual well being.
Only through comprehensive reform can we restore the rule of law to our nation’s immigration system.
We urge President Obama and congressional leaders to meet as soon as possible to discuss and draft comprehensive immigration reform legislation, with the goal of making it law by the end of 2009. The Catholic bishops of our country stand ready to assist in this effort."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/06/catholic_bishop_4.html
Monday, May 18, 2009
Postville priest pushes for immigration reform
By JENS MANUEL KROGSTAD
THE WATERLOO COURIER
May 17, 2009
POSTVILLE - The Rev. Paul Oudekirk first noticed early signs of progress in his relentless advocacy for immigration reform one month ago.
He was speaking about the humanitarian and economic fallout of last year's immigration raid on Agriprocessors, Postville's kosher meatpacking plant, in Rochester, Minn. when a man confronted him over his work.
"One of our first questions that comes to us, 'You're working with criminals, that's illegal. You shouldn't be promoting the breaking of our laws,'" he said.
For a moment, Oudekirk, a former Hispanic minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Marshalltown, was stunned. Faith leaders at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, where Oudekirk currently ministers, have criss-crossed the Midwest for much of the past year on a fervent mission: To use Postville as a bully pulpit for comprehensive immigration reform.
Until then, he had never encountered resistance to his message. Upon further thought, he realized the momentum for reform gained by President Barack Obama's pledge to pursue the issue in 2009 had made immigration reform again within reach.
The main players lobbying for change say Postville will play a central role in a heated debate that produced 500,000-person marches just three years ago and thousands of impassioned phone calls to members of Congress.
"I can assure you that Postville has become a symbol of why we need to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform. Postville is a perfect example that there are humanitarian consequences, economic consequences and security consequences when you fail to act," said Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo.
The polarizing debate seems to leave little room for middle ground. Opponents of immigration reform applaud the efforts in recent years to increase the visibility and number of immigration raids.
They too see Postville as the poster child for a failed system, but through a prism of lost jobs and suppressed wages caused by illegal immigration.
"Postville was a high profile case of an unscrupulous employer and illegal aliens working in the plant. How can that be an example of some sort of benefit of a mass amnesty? That was not exactly the finest hour for the illegal alien lobby," said Bob Dane, director of communications at FAIR, Federation for American Immigration Reform.
But the main players in the push for immigration reform think they have found room for agreement: Secure the nation's borders, and allow undocumented workers a path to citizenship after they pay a fine and face other consequences.
Most importantly, it appears Americans will support a plan that follows that outline: A Washington Post/ ABC News poll in March found 61 percent of respondents support giving illegal immigrants legal status if they pay a fine and meet other requirements. Two years ago, only 49 percent of respondents favored the idea.
Other independent polls have found similar levels of support, said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director at America's Voice, a Washington-based group lobbying for reform.
Besides Obama's repeated promises to address a broken immigration system, Tramonte sees another major reason for hope. Last month, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, two of the nation's most powerful union groups, hammered out a list of immigration reform measures they will support.
They include providing full access to labor, health and safety laws to all workers, immigrant and native-born, to reduce the exploitation of all workers. They reason a robust enforcement of workers' rights will ensure immigration does not depress wages and working conditions. Like other plans, unions support an independent commission to manage immigration levels to meet the needs of the U.S.
"Both parties need to learn the lesson of the November election. American voters want progress on tough problems; they want practical policies. Immigration has become symbol of how Washington doesn't work," Tramonte said.
But Dane, the FAIR spokesman, said the last major immigration overhaul produced a long trail of broken promises: More border patrol agents, increased employer sanctions and a work authorization system that never materialized.
That's why the only solution he will support is increased enforcement, which he said produces some self-deportation. He said some disputed evidence exists that increased enforcement works, but nothing definitive, because past economic downturns have also produced lowered immigration levels. Like those who favor reform, he believes he has the support of the American public.
"Even under Bush's term two years ago, we were doing pretty well - we at least had the illusion of prosperity - even then, there was such blow-back from the American public," he said.
Braley admitted quelling vocal opposition in tough economic times will be one of the main obstacles to passing immigration reform.
A successful effort, he said, will focus the debate on developing a system that shows respect for the law, considers existing employment needs and acknowledges the more than 12 million undocumented workers living in the country. If that is done, he said, immigration reform will not harm the American worker.
The promise of a better life for all workers is what keeps Oudekirk, the Postville priest, going. Last week he wore a shirt with the message, "justicia ahora" - justice now - scribbled in permanent marker.
At 77 years old, he does not want to wait any longer for reform, so he'll continue to pile up the miles on his Ford Focus, building support one Midwestern community at a time.
"We're constantly told by politicians the reason why they didn't get a new law when Bush was pushing it was because the number of calls was 10-to-1 in favor of more strict laws. So we're telling people, 'Hey, let's change that ratio,'" he said.
http://www.timesrepublican.com/page/content.detail/id/516723.html
THE WATERLOO COURIER
May 17, 2009
POSTVILLE - The Rev. Paul Oudekirk first noticed early signs of progress in his relentless advocacy for immigration reform one month ago.
He was speaking about the humanitarian and economic fallout of last year's immigration raid on Agriprocessors, Postville's kosher meatpacking plant, in Rochester, Minn. when a man confronted him over his work.
"One of our first questions that comes to us, 'You're working with criminals, that's illegal. You shouldn't be promoting the breaking of our laws,'" he said.
For a moment, Oudekirk, a former Hispanic minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Marshalltown, was stunned. Faith leaders at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, where Oudekirk currently ministers, have criss-crossed the Midwest for much of the past year on a fervent mission: To use Postville as a bully pulpit for comprehensive immigration reform.
Until then, he had never encountered resistance to his message. Upon further thought, he realized the momentum for reform gained by President Barack Obama's pledge to pursue the issue in 2009 had made immigration reform again within reach.
The main players lobbying for change say Postville will play a central role in a heated debate that produced 500,000-person marches just three years ago and thousands of impassioned phone calls to members of Congress.
"I can assure you that Postville has become a symbol of why we need to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform. Postville is a perfect example that there are humanitarian consequences, economic consequences and security consequences when you fail to act," said Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo.
The polarizing debate seems to leave little room for middle ground. Opponents of immigration reform applaud the efforts in recent years to increase the visibility and number of immigration raids.
They too see Postville as the poster child for a failed system, but through a prism of lost jobs and suppressed wages caused by illegal immigration.
"Postville was a high profile case of an unscrupulous employer and illegal aliens working in the plant. How can that be an example of some sort of benefit of a mass amnesty? That was not exactly the finest hour for the illegal alien lobby," said Bob Dane, director of communications at FAIR, Federation for American Immigration Reform.
But the main players in the push for immigration reform think they have found room for agreement: Secure the nation's borders, and allow undocumented workers a path to citizenship after they pay a fine and face other consequences.
Most importantly, it appears Americans will support a plan that follows that outline: A Washington Post/ ABC News poll in March found 61 percent of respondents support giving illegal immigrants legal status if they pay a fine and meet other requirements. Two years ago, only 49 percent of respondents favored the idea.
Other independent polls have found similar levels of support, said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director at America's Voice, a Washington-based group lobbying for reform.
Besides Obama's repeated promises to address a broken immigration system, Tramonte sees another major reason for hope. Last month, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, two of the nation's most powerful union groups, hammered out a list of immigration reform measures they will support.
They include providing full access to labor, health and safety laws to all workers, immigrant and native-born, to reduce the exploitation of all workers. They reason a robust enforcement of workers' rights will ensure immigration does not depress wages and working conditions. Like other plans, unions support an independent commission to manage immigration levels to meet the needs of the U.S.
"Both parties need to learn the lesson of the November election. American voters want progress on tough problems; they want practical policies. Immigration has become symbol of how Washington doesn't work," Tramonte said.
But Dane, the FAIR spokesman, said the last major immigration overhaul produced a long trail of broken promises: More border patrol agents, increased employer sanctions and a work authorization system that never materialized.
That's why the only solution he will support is increased enforcement, which he said produces some self-deportation. He said some disputed evidence exists that increased enforcement works, but nothing definitive, because past economic downturns have also produced lowered immigration levels. Like those who favor reform, he believes he has the support of the American public.
"Even under Bush's term two years ago, we were doing pretty well - we at least had the illusion of prosperity - even then, there was such blow-back from the American public," he said.
Braley admitted quelling vocal opposition in tough economic times will be one of the main obstacles to passing immigration reform.
A successful effort, he said, will focus the debate on developing a system that shows respect for the law, considers existing employment needs and acknowledges the more than 12 million undocumented workers living in the country. If that is done, he said, immigration reform will not harm the American worker.
The promise of a better life for all workers is what keeps Oudekirk, the Postville priest, going. Last week he wore a shirt with the message, "justicia ahora" - justice now - scribbled in permanent marker.
At 77 years old, he does not want to wait any longer for reform, so he'll continue to pile up the miles on his Ford Focus, building support one Midwestern community at a time.
"We're constantly told by politicians the reason why they didn't get a new law when Bush was pushing it was because the number of calls was 10-to-1 in favor of more strict laws. So we're telling people, 'Hey, let's change that ratio,'" he said.
http://www.timesrepublican.com/page/content.detail/id/516723.html
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Cardinal Francis George: End immigration raids, he tells President Barack Obama
George calls issue 'matter of conscience'
By Gerry Smith
Tribune Reporter
March 22, 2009
Cardinal Francis George on Saturday called on the Obama administration to end Immigration raids across the country and pushed for passage this year of "comprehensive Immigration reform" that is "fair and compassionate."
"Such reform would be a clear sign this administration is truly about change," George said before several hundred people inside Our Lady of Mercy Church in Albany Park.
The prayer forum, organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago and several religious and immigrant rights groups, took place amid a renewed national push for federal Immigration reforms.
Last week, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Barack Obama and left hopeful Obama would tackle the issue this year. But the president did not say he would order a moratorium on enforcement measures that have separated thousands of families in recent years, according to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who attended the Obama meeting and the Saturday prayer forum.
With concerns over the economy taking precedence in Washington, efforts to re-ignite the contentious debate over Immigration reform in Congress have been met with resistance.
George sought to cast the issue in moral terms, calling it "a matter of conscience" and an important step to creating a more peaceful society.
"We cannot strengthen families when people live in fear from day to day," he said.
Elizabeth Rodriguez, 18, said she recently graduated from high school and was accepted on a full scholarship to Stanford University, but cannot attend because she does not have a Social Security number. She and her family have been waiting 11 years since arriving from Mexico to become legal residents, she said.
"The university won't wait for me because there are other students in line," said Rodriguez, who attends a local community college. "This is going on with millions of students."
She sat in the pew listening to George, who talked about the devastation raids have had on families while noting that a culture of hate has festered in the absence of better border enforcement.
"May this be the year that raids and separation of families stop," George said. "May this be the year that our legislators pass comprehensive Immigration reform."
Outside the church, about 30 people held a protest organized by the Chicago Minuteman Project. They argued illegal Immigration takes jobs away from American workers who are desperately seeking them.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cardinal-george-immigration-mar22,0,6467782.story
By Gerry Smith
Tribune Reporter
March 22, 2009
Cardinal Francis George on Saturday called on the Obama administration to end Immigration raids across the country and pushed for passage this year of "comprehensive Immigration reform" that is "fair and compassionate."
"Such reform would be a clear sign this administration is truly about change," George said before several hundred people inside Our Lady of Mercy Church in Albany Park.
The prayer forum, organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago and several religious and immigrant rights groups, took place amid a renewed national push for federal Immigration reforms.
Last week, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Barack Obama and left hopeful Obama would tackle the issue this year. But the president did not say he would order a moratorium on enforcement measures that have separated thousands of families in recent years, according to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who attended the Obama meeting and the Saturday prayer forum.
With concerns over the economy taking precedence in Washington, efforts to re-ignite the contentious debate over Immigration reform in Congress have been met with resistance.
George sought to cast the issue in moral terms, calling it "a matter of conscience" and an important step to creating a more peaceful society.
"We cannot strengthen families when people live in fear from day to day," he said.
Elizabeth Rodriguez, 18, said she recently graduated from high school and was accepted on a full scholarship to Stanford University, but cannot attend because she does not have a Social Security number. She and her family have been waiting 11 years since arriving from Mexico to become legal residents, she said.
"The university won't wait for me because there are other students in line," said Rodriguez, who attends a local community college. "This is going on with millions of students."
She sat in the pew listening to George, who talked about the devastation raids have had on families while noting that a culture of hate has festered in the absence of better border enforcement.
"May this be the year that raids and separation of families stop," George said. "May this be the year that our legislators pass comprehensive Immigration reform."
Outside the church, about 30 people held a protest organized by the Chicago Minuteman Project. They argued illegal Immigration takes jobs away from American workers who are desperately seeking them.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cardinal-george-immigration-mar22,0,6467782.story
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Joliet rally seeks end to deportations
Joliet rally seeks end to deportations
March 18, 2009
By BOB OKON
The Heralds News
JOLIET — Churches and organizations advocating an end to deportations based on immigration status expect about 1,000 people for a rally and prayers Saturday in Joliet.
The United Families tour will gather at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to tell stories about families broken up by deportations and advocate in favor of changes in immigration laws.
Similar tours have been held across the country. The movement is led by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who will be in Joliet and at a similar rally earlier on Saturday in Chicago.
Gutierrez is calling on President Barack Obama to push for changes in immigration laws and end deportation raids on workplaces.
"President Obama promised to pass immigration reform in his first term," said Ashley Moy-Wooten, suburban organizer for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The organization is based in Chicago, but Moy-Wooten works out of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be the destination point for three marches from other Joliet churches, Moy-Wooten said.
Those churches are St. John's Catholic Church on Hickory Street, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church on Benton Street, and My House of Prayer on Columbia Street.
The marches start at 6:30 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.
There have already been 10 similar stops on the United Families tour since Feb. 27 in Rhode Island, Georgia, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Texas. Four more are planned through April 4.
All the events are held at churches and include prayers as well as stories of families broken up when relatives are deported because of their immigration status, Moy-Wooten said.
"These are stories of citizens who are affected by the lack of immigration reform," she said. The rallies at some locations have met with opposition protests from members of the Minuteman Project, which advocates stricter immigration laws.
The Chicago Minuteman Project will be at the rally in Chicago but has not decided whether to protest in Joliet as well, said Rick Biesada, director of the organization.
That group is opposed to more lenient policies on deportation, Biesada said.
"Deportation is a remedy for a person entering our country illegally," he said. "Deportation is not a penalty. We return them to their country of origin."
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1481575,Joliet-rally-end-deportations-jo031709.article?plckCurrentPage=1&sid=sitelife.suburbanchicagonews.com
March 18, 2009
By BOB OKON
The Heralds News
JOLIET — Churches and organizations advocating an end to deportations based on immigration status expect about 1,000 people for a rally and prayers Saturday in Joliet.
The United Families tour will gather at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to tell stories about families broken up by deportations and advocate in favor of changes in immigration laws.
Similar tours have been held across the country. The movement is led by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who will be in Joliet and at a similar rally earlier on Saturday in Chicago.
Gutierrez is calling on President Barack Obama to push for changes in immigration laws and end deportation raids on workplaces.
"President Obama promised to pass immigration reform in his first term," said Ashley Moy-Wooten, suburban organizer for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The organization is based in Chicago, but Moy-Wooten works out of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be the destination point for three marches from other Joliet churches, Moy-Wooten said.
Those churches are St. John's Catholic Church on Hickory Street, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church on Benton Street, and My House of Prayer on Columbia Street.
The marches start at 6:30 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.
There have already been 10 similar stops on the United Families tour since Feb. 27 in Rhode Island, Georgia, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Texas. Four more are planned through April 4.
All the events are held at churches and include prayers as well as stories of families broken up when relatives are deported because of their immigration status, Moy-Wooten said.
"These are stories of citizens who are affected by the lack of immigration reform," she said. The rallies at some locations have met with opposition protests from members of the Minuteman Project, which advocates stricter immigration laws.
The Chicago Minuteman Project will be at the rally in Chicago but has not decided whether to protest in Joliet as well, said Rick Biesada, director of the organization.
That group is opposed to more lenient policies on deportation, Biesada said.
"Deportation is a remedy for a person entering our country illegally," he said. "Deportation is not a penalty. We return them to their country of origin."
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1481575,Joliet-rally-end-deportations-jo031709.article?plckCurrentPage=1&sid=sitelife.suburbanchicagonews.com
Sunday, February 1, 2009
"I'm Not Dangerous": Immigrants Treated Like Criminals
"I'm Not Dangerous": Immigrants Treated Like Criminals
By Danny Postel, Commonweal Magazine
February 1, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/123906/
The past few months have seen three of the largest workplace immigration raids in U.S. history. In May, the rural Iowa town of Postville was convulsed when 900 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stormed a kosher meatpacking plant and arrested 389 workers. In August, ICE agents descended on an electrical equipment factory near Laurel, Mississippi, detaining nearly 600 workers. And in October, the scene was repeated in Greenville, South Carolina, where 330 workers were swept up at a chicken-processing plant.
The humanitarian costs of the raids, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, were "immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society." Children were separated from their parents for days. Those arrested were not immediately afforded the rights of due process. And local communities were, in the words of John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City and chairman of the Committee on Migration, "disrupted and dislocated." These raids, he said, "strike immigrant communities unexpectedly, leaving the affected immigrant families to cope in the aftermath. Husbands are separated from their wives, and children are separated from their parents. Many families never recover; others never reunite."
The bishop called on the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is an agency, on President George W. Bush, and on then-candidates John McCain and Barack Obama to "reexamine the use of worksite enforcement raids" as an immigration-enforcement tool. He noted that immigrants "who are working to survive and support their families should not be treated like criminals."
Having visited Laurel after the ICE crackdown, I must report that is exactly how the workers there have been treated and made to feel. The majority of the immigrant workers caught up in the raid were taken immediately to a holding facility in Louisiana. ICE released a number of women, some of them pregnant, on "humanitarian" grounds. But many of them were shackled with ankle bands equipped with electronic monitoring devices (pictured above). Several expressed their humiliation and shame -- not to speak of their physical discomfort -- at having been branded this way. For days, one of them told me, she avoided going out in public or to the grocery store. "It makes me look like a criminal, like a dangerous person," she lamented. "I’m not dangerous."
This woman told me she had come to the United States out of sheer desperation. She said she was unable to feed her children in her home village in Mexico. Now, with deportation imminent and no means to pay her bills, she and her coworkers were facing a further harrowing fate.
Immigration raids, even large, media-covered ones, are selective and symbolic in nature. They are orchestrated to send a political message that the government is willing and able to enforce the law. But why penalize the least among us -- hardworking people who earn very little and endure some of the harshest conditions in the American workplace? The Postville and Laurel plants both have long histories of taking advantage of their workers. Iowa’s attorney general recently filed charges against the Postville meatpacking plant for more than nine thousand labor violations. In July, religious and labor leaders joined more than a thousand marchers in the town to show solidarity with those seized in the ICE raid.
Indeed, religious communities have been playing a pivotal role in the aftermath of these raids. Catholic parishes have been safe havens for families scrambling to feed their children amid the turmoil. Immaculate Conception Church in Laurel and Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hattiesburg worked virtually round-the-clock to feed and provide for the affected families.
To remedy what the U.S. bishops call "the failure of a seriously flawed immigration system," they "urge our elected and appointed officials to turn away from enforcement-only methods and direct their energy toward the adoption of comprehensive immigration reform legislation." That is now up to the new administration and to Congress.
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/123906/%22i'm_not_dangerous%22:_immigrants_treated_like_criminals/
By Danny Postel, Commonweal Magazine
February 1, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/123906/
The past few months have seen three of the largest workplace immigration raids in U.S. history. In May, the rural Iowa town of Postville was convulsed when 900 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stormed a kosher meatpacking plant and arrested 389 workers. In August, ICE agents descended on an electrical equipment factory near Laurel, Mississippi, detaining nearly 600 workers. And in October, the scene was repeated in Greenville, South Carolina, where 330 workers were swept up at a chicken-processing plant.
The humanitarian costs of the raids, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, were "immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society." Children were separated from their parents for days. Those arrested were not immediately afforded the rights of due process. And local communities were, in the words of John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City and chairman of the Committee on Migration, "disrupted and dislocated." These raids, he said, "strike immigrant communities unexpectedly, leaving the affected immigrant families to cope in the aftermath. Husbands are separated from their wives, and children are separated from their parents. Many families never recover; others never reunite."
The bishop called on the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is an agency, on President George W. Bush, and on then-candidates John McCain and Barack Obama to "reexamine the use of worksite enforcement raids" as an immigration-enforcement tool. He noted that immigrants "who are working to survive and support their families should not be treated like criminals."
Having visited Laurel after the ICE crackdown, I must report that is exactly how the workers there have been treated and made to feel. The majority of the immigrant workers caught up in the raid were taken immediately to a holding facility in Louisiana. ICE released a number of women, some of them pregnant, on "humanitarian" grounds. But many of them were shackled with ankle bands equipped with electronic monitoring devices (pictured above). Several expressed their humiliation and shame -- not to speak of their physical discomfort -- at having been branded this way. For days, one of them told me, she avoided going out in public or to the grocery store. "It makes me look like a criminal, like a dangerous person," she lamented. "I’m not dangerous."
This woman told me she had come to the United States out of sheer desperation. She said she was unable to feed her children in her home village in Mexico. Now, with deportation imminent and no means to pay her bills, she and her coworkers were facing a further harrowing fate.
Immigration raids, even large, media-covered ones, are selective and symbolic in nature. They are orchestrated to send a political message that the government is willing and able to enforce the law. But why penalize the least among us -- hardworking people who earn very little and endure some of the harshest conditions in the American workplace? The Postville and Laurel plants both have long histories of taking advantage of their workers. Iowa’s attorney general recently filed charges against the Postville meatpacking plant for more than nine thousand labor violations. In July, religious and labor leaders joined more than a thousand marchers in the town to show solidarity with those seized in the ICE raid.
Indeed, religious communities have been playing a pivotal role in the aftermath of these raids. Catholic parishes have been safe havens for families scrambling to feed their children amid the turmoil. Immaculate Conception Church in Laurel and Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hattiesburg worked virtually round-the-clock to feed and provide for the affected families.
To remedy what the U.S. bishops call "the failure of a seriously flawed immigration system," they "urge our elected and appointed officials to turn away from enforcement-only methods and direct their energy toward the adoption of comprehensive immigration reform legislation." That is now up to the new administration and to Congress.
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/123906/%22i'm_not_dangerous%22:_immigrants_treated_like_criminals/
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Rally calls for end to immigration raids
Rally calls for end to immigration raids
More than 300 attend event in Green Bay
By Tony Walter
twalter@greenbaypressgazette.com
January 24, 2009
More than 300 people crowded into the St. Willebrord's Catholic Church parish hall in downtown Green Bay Thursday night to hear pleas for immigration reform and an end to raids by Immigration Customs Enforcement officials.
"In Green Bay, many people are on edge, even those who are documented," said the Rev. Ken DeGroot, pastor at the church where a Hispanic ministry began 19 years ago. He said efforts are needed to ask President Barack Obama to end the raids until a comprehensive immigration law can be passed.
The event was sponsored by Justice Organization Sharing Hope and United for Action.
Erika Sanchez, 23, who emigrated from Mexico five years ago with her family, urged the members of the audience to sign petitions that will be sent to Obama next month.
"I have hope," Sanchez said. "I think he's going to solve a lot of issues. My hope is that a lot of people can come out of the shadows."
Bishop David Ricken of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay said immigration reform can help many people regain or preserve their dignity.
"We have the fundamental human gift of life," Ricken said. "There is a built-in right to life and dignity. We must practice what we preach as people of the Catholic faith, to reach out and make sure the fundamental needs are being met."
DeGroot cited the impact of ICE raids on families, saying they were leading to the "breaking up of families as well as the destruction of the integrity of the individual."
Dionis Montero, who came to the United States 16 years ago from the Dominican Republic and became a U.S. citizen six years ago, talked about the frustration he has encountered trying to bring his brother to this country.
"You cannot make it here legally," he said, adding that he has consistently followed legal steps and been denied. "We make this country better. We work hard."
Green Bay Alderwoman Celestine Jeffreys said a resolution from a recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors included a resolution seeking immigration reform while maintaining the laws.
"The mayors really want this to be fixed," Jeffreys said.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090124/GPG0101/901230543/1207/GPG01
More than 300 attend event in Green Bay
By Tony Walter
twalter@greenbaypressgazette.com
January 24, 2009
More than 300 people crowded into the St. Willebrord's Catholic Church parish hall in downtown Green Bay Thursday night to hear pleas for immigration reform and an end to raids by Immigration Customs Enforcement officials.
"In Green Bay, many people are on edge, even those who are documented," said the Rev. Ken DeGroot, pastor at the church where a Hispanic ministry began 19 years ago. He said efforts are needed to ask President Barack Obama to end the raids until a comprehensive immigration law can be passed.
The event was sponsored by Justice Organization Sharing Hope and United for Action.
Erika Sanchez, 23, who emigrated from Mexico five years ago with her family, urged the members of the audience to sign petitions that will be sent to Obama next month.
"I have hope," Sanchez said. "I think he's going to solve a lot of issues. My hope is that a lot of people can come out of the shadows."
Bishop David Ricken of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay said immigration reform can help many people regain or preserve their dignity.
"We have the fundamental human gift of life," Ricken said. "There is a built-in right to life and dignity. We must practice what we preach as people of the Catholic faith, to reach out and make sure the fundamental needs are being met."
DeGroot cited the impact of ICE raids on families, saying they were leading to the "breaking up of families as well as the destruction of the integrity of the individual."
Dionis Montero, who came to the United States 16 years ago from the Dominican Republic and became a U.S. citizen six years ago, talked about the frustration he has encountered trying to bring his brother to this country.
"You cannot make it here legally," he said, adding that he has consistently followed legal steps and been denied. "We make this country better. We work hard."
Green Bay Alderwoman Celestine Jeffreys said a resolution from a recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors included a resolution seeking immigration reform while maintaining the laws.
"The mayors really want this to be fixed," Jeffreys said.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090124/GPG0101/901230543/1207/GPG01
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Feds: Men admit forging citizenship papers
Feds: Men admit forging citizenship papers
December 16, 2008
By PATRICK ORR
Boise Idaho Statesman
16 men were charged in a Dec. 4 raid at a Nampa-area business; the remaining 3 await a jury trial.
Thirteen of the 16 men arrested earlier this month for being in the U.S. illegally and working at a Nampa-area wood framing business have admitted to forging citizenship documents, federal officials say.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say all 16 men formerly employed by Idaho Truss are from Mexico. ICE has accused them with multiple federal crimes, including possession of counterfeit alien registration receipt cards, misuse of Social Security numbers, and illegal entry or re-entry after deportation.
The raid at Idaho Truss occurred Dec. 4, and all 16 men were taken into custody that day. They were later indicted by a federal grand jury. ICE officials say 13 of those men have already entered guilty pleas.
Idaho Truss & Component Co. President Kendall Hoyd said earlier this month he was shocked to learn that 16 of his employees were suspected of working illegally. The Idaho Community Action Network and Catholic Charities of Idaho have denounced the raid, saying it likely was tearing families apart.
According to ICE reports, the Dec. 4 raid was part of a yearlong investigation that began with a review of the employment records of workers building military housing at the Mountain Home Air Force Base.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/103/story/605278.html
December 16, 2008
By PATRICK ORR
Boise Idaho Statesman
16 men were charged in a Dec. 4 raid at a Nampa-area business; the remaining 3 await a jury trial.
Thirteen of the 16 men arrested earlier this month for being in the U.S. illegally and working at a Nampa-area wood framing business have admitted to forging citizenship documents, federal officials say.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say all 16 men formerly employed by Idaho Truss are from Mexico. ICE has accused them with multiple federal crimes, including possession of counterfeit alien registration receipt cards, misuse of Social Security numbers, and illegal entry or re-entry after deportation.
The raid at Idaho Truss occurred Dec. 4, and all 16 men were taken into custody that day. They were later indicted by a federal grand jury. ICE officials say 13 of those men have already entered guilty pleas.
Idaho Truss & Component Co. President Kendall Hoyd said earlier this month he was shocked to learn that 16 of his employees were suspected of working illegally. The Idaho Community Action Network and Catholic Charities of Idaho have denounced the raid, saying it likely was tearing families apart.
According to ICE reports, the Dec. 4 raid was part of a yearlong investigation that began with a review of the employment records of workers building military housing at the Mountain Home Air Force Base.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/103/story/605278.html
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