A Bush administration proposal would have resulted in mass firings of workers just in time for Christmas. But an effort by the labor and immigration movements has led courts to intervene and halt the plan -- for now.
   
David Bacon | September 10, 2007 |   
   
Merry Christmas! You're fired.

This could be the scenario for over eight million workers this coming holiday season, if a new regulation announced by the Bush administration goes into effect. But within days of a Washington press conference making the rule official, a federal judge stepped into the fray and stopped the administration from going through with its plan -- at least for the moment.

In San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney ruled in favor of unions, along with the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center, which have drawn the line on tactics the Homeland Security Department is using for immigration enforcement. At issue is a proposal that would have required Social Security to send out letters on September 4 to over 160,000 employers, listing the names of at least eight million workers. The letters would have listed those employees whose numbers don't match Social Security Administration (SSA) records. Workers would then have had 90 days to come up with new numbers.

The 90 days would have expired near Christmas. Employers would then have been required to fire any worker who could not produce a number the SSA could verify. Judge Chesney's order stopped the SSA from sending the letters, and further hearings will take place to decide whether or not to make the temporary prohibition permanent.

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By David Bacon
The American Prospect, web edition, 7/24/07

In Worthington, Iowa, a federal prosecutor gets a grand jury indictment against Braulio Pereyra-Gabino, union vice-president at the local Swift meatpacking plant. He's accused of not turning his undocumented members in to Homeland Security. In Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano signs a draconian immigration enforcement bill, criminalizing work for those without papers and ordering state agents to enforce the prohibition with a vengeance. Since Congress wouldn't pass the recent Senate bill with the same sanctions, she says Arizona has no choice.

The Senate's failure is used as well in Prince William County, Virginia, to justify a local ordinance ordering all public officials to check immigration papers, even teachers, nurses and librarians. They're forbidden to help anyone lacking them. Meanwhile, immigration agents continue detaining and deporting people by the hundreds in workplace and community raids around the country.

Some DC supporters of the recent Senate bill are still floundering about what to do in the wake of its failure. Outside the beltway, though, the immediate need is obvious. Organize and fight back.

 

 

By Eddie Garcia
Article Launched: 07/20/2007 01:31:28 AM PDT

In his book about immigration, a prominent American writer and thinker cautioned that American principles are "endangered by the present state of our current naturalization laws." Although this cautionary statement is consistent with the thought of anti-immigrant commentators Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan, neither one can take credit for its authorship.

The author is Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of Morse Code and staunch supporter of the anti-immigrant American "Know-Nothing" Party. In 1854, he published "Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States Through Foreign Immigration," creating fear about the damaging effect immigration would have on American culture. With continued immigration, he warned, our institutions would be overrun by foreign influences and cease to exist within a generation. History would prove him wrong.

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The Real Political Purpose of the ICE Raids

New America Media, Commentary, David Bacon, Posted: Mar 30, 2007


BERKELEY, Calif. - For the last several months, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have carried out well-publicized immigration raids in factories, meatpacking plants, janitorial services, and other workplaces employing immigrants. ICE calls the workers criminals, because immigration law forbids employers to hire them.

 

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CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen 

 

Apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen at the same time border deaths have risen, and critics caution that the dip in apprehensions may be temporary.

 

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‘Immigrants Bring Crime’ Is a Myth 

New America Media, Commentary, Walter Ewing, Posted: Feb 22, 2007

 

Among the many troubling aspects of the public debate over immigration is the power of myths over facts. One of the most enduring myths about immigration, despite literally decades of evidence to the contrary, is the belief that immigrants are more likely to commit crime than the native-born.

 

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Published: February 18, 2007

Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. “We Are America,” their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned.

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UA develops clearer way to count deaths on border
    CLAUDINE LoMONACO
    Tucson Citizen

University of Arizona researchers have developed a test for counting border deaths of illegal immigrants and recommend the federal government and medical examiners in border states use it.

 

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Which Side Are You On?
    By David Bacon
    t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

    Monday 29 January 2007

    Oakland, California - Of all the supporters of corporate immigration reform, Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff is the most honest. The day of the notorious raids at the Swift and Company meatpacking plants, he told the media the raids would show Congress the need for "stronger border security, effective interior enforcement and a temporary-worker program." Bush wants, he said, "a program that would allow businesses that need foreign workers, because they can't otherwise satisfy their labor needs, to be able to get those workers in a regulated program."

 

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Servitude?  Sure.  Accountability?  Never...

 

Two co-defendants in the north Florida farmworker abuse case -- in which workers were held in what prosecutors termed "a form of servitude" – received lengthy sentences in federal prison last Friday. Earlier in the week, crewleader Ron Evans received a 30-year sentence for recruiting workers from homeless shelters across Florida, enticing them with promises of good pay and housing, and holding them in debt through a combination of low wages and charges to the "company store" for everything from rent to crack cocaine.