(07-26) 18:37 PDT -- The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months.
Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars. An aunt helped him track down his father's birth certificate and his own, his parents' marriage certificate, his father's school, military and Social Security records.
After nine months, a judge determined that he was a citizen, but immigration authorities appealed the decision. He was detained for five more months before he found legal help and a judge ordered his case dropped.
"It was a nightmare," said Veloz, 37, a Los Angeles air conditioning installer.
Veloz is one of hundreds of U.S. citizens who have landed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and struggled to prove they don't belong there, according to advocacy groups and legal scholars, who have tracked such cases around the country. Some citizens have been deported.
By law, immigration authorities have jurisdiction only over noncitizens. Citizens, whether native-born or naturalized, cannot be deported.
As ICE increased its collaboration with state and local police and prisons under changes to immigration laws and policies in recent years, some detainees who have had a run-in with the law drop through a trapdoor from the criminal justice system into deportation proceedings.
In immigration detention it falls to the detainees to prove their citizenship. But detainees don't have the constitutional protections, such as the right to legal counsel, that would help them prove their case.
And many of those who wind up in immigration custody are frequently those who might have the most difficulty proving their citizenship. Many were born abroad and acquired citizenship through a U.S.-born parent, like Veloz, or a parent who became a naturalized citizen. Some have mental health problems. And frequently they are poor, as those who can afford a lawyer get out more quickly.
"These are people who are the most vulnerable," said Judy Rabinovitz, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants Rights Project. "People are being locked up without bond hearings, often for long periods."
A growing chorus of legal experts says these detentions are unconstitutional.
"The constitution is the same that applies to U.S.-born citizens as to naturalized citizens," said Sin Yen Ling, an attorney at San Francisco's Asian Law Caucus. "Detaining these folks is creating a third category of people with a different set of rights."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials insist they would never knowingly detain or deport a U.S. citizen.
Asked about citizens winding up in immigration detention, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who oversees ICE, told The Chronicle: "We're always concerned about that. If there's an error made, we want to rectify it as soon as possible."
In April, after The Chronicle reported on a Modesto man in immigration detention, ICE released him and dropped its deportation case against him. Douglas Centeno was born in Nicaragua but derived citizenship when his father naturalized while he was a boy. He was jailed for four months.
lack of rights
People charged in the criminal justice system have a range of constitutional rights, including the right to a speedy and public trial before an impartial jury and the right to legal counsel even if they can't afford to hire a lawyer. Criminal detainees have the right to a telephone call, to be brought before a judge, usually within 48 hours, and to be told of the charges against them.
Immigration matters, however, are civil, not criminal, so those protections do not apply. Still, the U.S. Constitution is designed to protect citizens from detention without due process. But citizens in immigration detention are not being afforded that due process, advocates say.
Immigration detainees are routinely shipped to remote jails where free legal aid is unavailable, their families are not notified of their whereabouts, and they are often denied access to telephones, mail and even medical care, according to a March report by Amnesty International and several federal audits.
"Throwing people into a system where they're sitting 3,000 miles away without a lawyer and trying to prove they're a citizen - they're making people make their arguments with two hands tied behind their back," said Nancy Morawetz, a professor at New York University School of Law and an expert on deportation law.
In January, Napolitano ordered a full review of ICE detention and removal operations. ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett said she did not know when the review would be completed or whether its findings would be made public.
Immigration officials must balance civil liberties against security concerns, some observers say, and wrongful detentions are rare.
"ICE is not going to pursue anyone unless they can really justify the cause for it," said Janice Kephart, national security director at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.
ighting the system
That's not what happened to Hector Veloz.
Before his birth, Veloz's U.S.-born father was sent to Vietnam, so his pregnant mother stayed with relatives in Mexico and Veloz was born there. Months later, the family returned to the United States and has lived here since.
Veloz was automatically a citizen at birth, though his parents never obtained his certificate of citizenship.
In 2006, Veloz was convicted of receiving stolen property after purchasing a car that had been stolen. He served eight months and was about to be released from prison when he was turned over to ICE.
"I said, 'I'm a U.S. citizen, why am I being put through deportation?' " he recalled.
At the ICE prison in Arizona, the paperwork stated that he had entered the country illegally and that his father was a Mexican citizen.
"It was all incorrect information," Veloz said.
Immigration lawyers say locking up Veloz and others like him violates the 1971 Non-Detention Act, which says the U.S. government cannot detain citizens without an act of Congress.
ICE's presumption that everyone in immigration custody is an alien undermines the act, said Holly Cooper, a professor of immigration law at UC Davis.
"The system is set up so even if they believe you, you have to prove it in court. It could take six months to five years to prove it and you're detained in the meantime," said Cooper, who helped Veloz win his freedom on appeal. "You give up your citizenship at the prison door."
ough to prove
A person who is born abroad to U.S. parents, as Veloz was, is a citizen at birth. And a foreign-born child automatically derives citizenship when a parent naturalizes, though they may not realize it. Without documentation at hand, or an attorney's help, however, it can be tough to prove.
"I don't carry my birth certificate around with me and I bet you don't," NYU's Morawetz said. "ICE ought to know the law. Individuals might not, but the government is supposed to. They're the experts."
ICE's Bassett said that officials work hard to ensure that they deport only aliens. In rare instances, she said, the government might detain an actual U.S. citizen because that person claimed to be an alien.
"With somebody who misrepresents their true identity and makes a false statement to an ICE officer, it creates a problem for the government and for themselves," she said.
The number of people in detention has tripled over the past dozen years. Immigration authorities now detain more than 400,000 people a year. Analysts say that is leading to more citizens wrongly detained by ICE.
A study by the nonprofit Vera Institute, conducted for the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review, found more than 700 people at several detention facilities between 2006 and 2008 who said they planned to pursue claims of U.S. citizenship.
Jacqueline Stevens, A UC Santa Barbara professor of law and society, said she had identified 160 cases of people who had been detained or deported but whose U.S. citizenship was later affirmed by the federal government or a jury. And several immigrant legal aid groups have helped free dozens of other citizens in recent years.
In addition to U.S. citizens, there are other inmates in immigration detention who may not be deportable, legal analysts say. They include lawful permanent residents who have committed crimes that are not grave enough for deportation, and asylum seekers locked up until their cases are decided.
The fact that citizens are imprisoned in a system designed to deport them points to potential problems for these other detainees, said Chuck Roth, litigation director for the National Immigration Justice Center in Chicago.
"If it can happen to U.S. citizens, you can imagine how few procedural protections are available to everybody else."
This article has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.
Deportation sagas: Citizens tell their harrowing stories of detention and deportation by ICE. A9
rotecting rights
A bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, seeks to ensure fair and humane treatment of people in immigration detention.
It would codify the policies governing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention standards and would encourage the agency to make wider use of alternatives to detention, such as releasing a person on bond or with an electronic ankle bracelet to track his movements.
The bill would also guarantee that detainees have access to telephones and medical care; require that detainees who do have legal counsel not be transferred to jails far from their lawyers; and that all detainees get legal orientation from an outside group.
In the Senate, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez plans to introduce a bill later this summer intended to protect citizens from winding up in ICE detention.
That bill would require that detainees are screened to identify people with citizenship claims and notify them of free nonprofit legal services; encourage the use of alternatives to detention for people who don't pose a flight risk or a danger to public safety or national security; and create an ICE ombudsman to investigate complaints.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/27/MNGQ17C8GC.DTL
[Posted by:Gloria Jimenez]
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Return to Sender: The Feds, Fueled by Local Anti-immigration Hostility, Are Draining Talented Undocumented Youth into Mexico
Return to Sender: The Feds, Fueled by Local Anti-Immigration Hostility, Are Draining Talented Undocumented Youth into Mexico
Share By Malia Politzer
Published on January 12, 2010 at 4:37pmMalia Politzer
Subject(s):
DREAM Act, Arizona DREAM Act, road to citizenship
Twice a week, Teresa has a nightmare.
It is almost always the same. She and her husband, Michael, are driving home in their gray Chevy pickup, sleepy and content after a long day with family. It is a cool, clear night. Their chatty 2-year-old daughter, Adrianna, is buckled snugly into her car seat. Teresa's husband speeds up as they approach the highway on-ramp, narrowly cutting off another car. There is the wailing of a siren, the flashing of red and blue lights. Her heart begins to thump as her husband pulls over onto the gravelly shoulder.
A police officer ambles up to the car window. He is the tallest man she has ever seen — pale, with dark hair, and opaque aviator glasses. She cannot see his eyes, just her own frightened expression, and her husband's boyish face reflected back at her. Her husband rolls down the window, and the officer asks him for his driver's license in a flat, uninflected voice. Then he asks for her identification.
She does not have it, of course, though she frantically searches through her daughter's diaper bag. She tries to explain her situation: "I've lived here my entire life. I don't even remember Mexico!" But he acts as if he cannot hear her. The police officer puts her in the backseat of the patrol car, gets into the driver's side, and starts the engine. She can hear her daughter crying for her as the police cruiser begins to pull away. The last thing she sees is her husband, looking angry and helpless. A terrifying thought snakes through her mind and sticks: What if I never see them again?
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-01-14/news/return-to-sender-the-feds-fueled-by-local-anti-immigration-hostility-are-draining-talented-undocumented-youth-into-mexico/
Posted by [Yessenia Garcia]
Share By Malia Politzer
Published on January 12, 2010 at 4:37pmMalia Politzer
Subject(s):
DREAM Act, Arizona DREAM Act, road to citizenship
Twice a week, Teresa has a nightmare.
It is almost always the same. She and her husband, Michael, are driving home in their gray Chevy pickup, sleepy and content after a long day with family. It is a cool, clear night. Their chatty 2-year-old daughter, Adrianna, is buckled snugly into her car seat. Teresa's husband speeds up as they approach the highway on-ramp, narrowly cutting off another car. There is the wailing of a siren, the flashing of red and blue lights. Her heart begins to thump as her husband pulls over onto the gravelly shoulder.
A police officer ambles up to the car window. He is the tallest man she has ever seen — pale, with dark hair, and opaque aviator glasses. She cannot see his eyes, just her own frightened expression, and her husband's boyish face reflected back at her. Her husband rolls down the window, and the officer asks him for his driver's license in a flat, uninflected voice. Then he asks for her identification.
She does not have it, of course, though she frantically searches through her daughter's diaper bag. She tries to explain her situation: "I've lived here my entire life. I don't even remember Mexico!" But he acts as if he cannot hear her. The police officer puts her in the backseat of the patrol car, gets into the driver's side, and starts the engine. She can hear her daughter crying for her as the police cruiser begins to pull away. The last thing she sees is her husband, looking angry and helpless. A terrifying thought snakes through her mind and sticks: What if I never see them again?
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-01-14/news/return-to-sender-the-feds-fueled-by-local-anti-immigration-hostility-are-draining-talented-undocumented-youth-into-mexico/
Posted by [Yessenia Garcia]
illegal immigrants spend millions extra on tuition
Illegal immigrants spend millions extra on tuition
by Jonathan J. Cooper - Aug. 9, 2009 10:19 AM
Associated Press
PHOENIX - More than two years after Arizona voters passed a law denying in-state college tuition and other state-funded benefits to illegal immigrants, thousands of people are still applying for those services and being turned away.
Supporters of the law say the numbers are evidence that the measure is working, saving money that the state shouldn't be paying to educate people who came here illegally. Opponents say the numbers show thousands of bright young people are being denied the opportunity to improve their lives through education and contribute to society.
The law, known as Proposition 300, was approved in 2006 by more than 70 percent of Arizona voters. It requires state agencies to verify the immigration status of applicants for state-funded services such as child care and adult education, along with in-state tuition and financial aid for college students.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/08/09/20090809immigrationbenefits.html
posted by [Yessenia Garcia]
by Jonathan J. Cooper - Aug. 9, 2009 10:19 AM
Associated Press
PHOENIX - More than two years after Arizona voters passed a law denying in-state college tuition and other state-funded benefits to illegal immigrants, thousands of people are still applying for those services and being turned away.
Supporters of the law say the numbers are evidence that the measure is working, saving money that the state shouldn't be paying to educate people who came here illegally. Opponents say the numbers show thousands of bright young people are being denied the opportunity to improve their lives through education and contribute to society.
The law, known as Proposition 300, was approved in 2006 by more than 70 percent of Arizona voters. It requires state agencies to verify the immigration status of applicants for state-funded services such as child care and adult education, along with in-state tuition and financial aid for college students.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/08/09/20090809immigrationbenefits.html
posted by [Yessenia Garcia]
Monday, January 25, 2010
In Drug War, Tribe Feels Invaded by Both Sides
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: January 24, 2010
SELLS, Ariz. — An eerie hush settles in at sundown on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which straddles 75 miles of border with Mexico.
Few residents leave their homes. The roads crawl with the trucks of Border Patrol agents, who stop unfamiliar vehicles, scrutinize back roads for footprints and hike into the desert wilds to intercept smugglers carrying marijuana on their backs and droves of migrants trying to make it north.
By the bad luck of geography, the only large Indian reservation on the embattled border is caught in the middle, emerging as a major transit point for drugs as well as people.
A long-insular tribe of 28,000 people and its culture are paying a steep price: the land is swarming with outsiders, residents are afraid to walk in the hallowed desert, and some members, lured by drug cartel cash in a place with high unemployment, are ending up in prison.
“People will knock on your door, flash a wad of money and ask if you can drive this bale of marijuana up north,” said Marla Henry, 38, chairwoman of Chukut Kuk district, which covers much of the border zone
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/us/25border.html
[posted by Chanvathei Lonh]
Published: January 24, 2010
SELLS, Ariz. — An eerie hush settles in at sundown on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which straddles 75 miles of border with Mexico.
Few residents leave their homes. The roads crawl with the trucks of Border Patrol agents, who stop unfamiliar vehicles, scrutinize back roads for footprints and hike into the desert wilds to intercept smugglers carrying marijuana on their backs and droves of migrants trying to make it north.
By the bad luck of geography, the only large Indian reservation on the embattled border is caught in the middle, emerging as a major transit point for drugs as well as people.
A long-insular tribe of 28,000 people and its culture are paying a steep price: the land is swarming with outsiders, residents are afraid to walk in the hallowed desert, and some members, lured by drug cartel cash in a place with high unemployment, are ending up in prison.
“People will knock on your door, flash a wad of money and ask if you can drive this bale of marijuana up north,” said Marla Henry, 38, chairwoman of Chukut Kuk district, which covers much of the border zone
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/us/25border.html
[posted by Chanvathei Lonh]
More fleeing cartels in Mexico, seeking asylum in U.S. Mexicans' plight may widen eligibility limits
By: Daniel González
The woman lowered her head and looked away, her shoulder-length dark hair covering her round face.
More than a year had passed since her uncle, a former Mexican state police commander, was kidnapped along with eight soldiers and beheaded by hit men working for a drug cartel. But she still could not bear to look at the gruesome newspaper photos of the killings her lawyer had just spread on a table.
One showed a close-up of the headless corpses lying side by side. Another showed the black plastic bag filled with their heads. Another showed the ominous, handwritten warning from the drug traffickers: "For every one of us you kill, we will kill 10."
Decapitations like this used to be associated with terrorists in the Middle East, but they have become the hallmark of a vicious drug war that has been raging in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006. The escalating violence has claimed more than 15,000 lives, including those of hundreds of police officers like the woman's uncle. It also has terrorized the population and led to a dramatic increase in the number of Mexicans seeking a legal safe haven in the United States. Their success, however, hinges on pushing the boundaries of U.S. asylum law...
Full Article: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/01/24/20100124asylum0124.html
[Posted by: Evelyn Ramirez]
The woman lowered her head and looked away, her shoulder-length dark hair covering her round face.
More than a year had passed since her uncle, a former Mexican state police commander, was kidnapped along with eight soldiers and beheaded by hit men working for a drug cartel. But she still could not bear to look at the gruesome newspaper photos of the killings her lawyer had just spread on a table.
One showed a close-up of the headless corpses lying side by side. Another showed the black plastic bag filled with their heads. Another showed the ominous, handwritten warning from the drug traffickers: "For every one of us you kill, we will kill 10."
Decapitations like this used to be associated with terrorists in the Middle East, but they have become the hallmark of a vicious drug war that has been raging in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched a major offensive against drug cartels in 2006. The escalating violence has claimed more than 15,000 lives, including those of hundreds of police officers like the woman's uncle. It also has terrorized the population and led to a dramatic increase in the number of Mexicans seeking a legal safe haven in the United States. Their success, however, hinges on pushing the boundaries of U.S. asylum law...
Full Article: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/01/24/20100124asylum0124.html
[Posted by: Evelyn Ramirez]
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Arizona law to criminalize undocumented immigrants
INQUIRER.net First Posted 08:19:00 01/24/2010
Filed Under: Laws, Migration, Americas - Canada
PHOENIX, Arizona, United States—Arizona could become the first state in the country to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
A bill moving fast through the Arizona Senate would allow local police to arrest and incarcerate someone for “trespassing” into the territory of the state.
“The federal government is not doing its job so we’re going to do it,” said Senator Russell Pearce (Republican-Mesa), author of the bill, which is called the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act.
On Wednesday, the Senate Public Safety and Human Services Committee approved SB 1070. Pearce said he is confident that the bill would clear the legislature and have the support of Governor Jan Brewer.
During her State of the State speech, the Republican governor mentioned specifically that she would be working with Pearce to “enhance the existing penalties for any criminal alien who returns to our state.”
Article Continued...
[Posted by: Denise Chan]
Filed Under: Laws, Migration, Americas - Canada
PHOENIX, Arizona, United States—Arizona could become the first state in the country to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
A bill moving fast through the Arizona Senate would allow local police to arrest and incarcerate someone for “trespassing” into the territory of the state.
“The federal government is not doing its job so we’re going to do it,” said Senator Russell Pearce (Republican-Mesa), author of the bill, which is called the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act.
On Wednesday, the Senate Public Safety and Human Services Committee approved SB 1070. Pearce said he is confident that the bill would clear the legislature and have the support of Governor Jan Brewer.
During her State of the State speech, the Republican governor mentioned specifically that she would be working with Pearce to “enhance the existing penalties for any criminal alien who returns to our state.”
Article Continued...
[Posted by: Denise Chan]
Friday, January 22, 2010
Immigration law ignites fear in Arizona
Reporting from Tucson - Cristina, an illegal immigrant living in South Tucson, recently went to a government office to sign up her children for a state-run Medicaid program.
The boy and girl, ages 7 and 3, respectively, are U.S. citizens and entitled to the benefits. But Cristina, who spoke on condition her last name not be used, was fearful. She'd heard of a new state law requiring public workers to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement when illegal immigrants apply for benefits they are not legally entitled to.
So when workers asked Cristina, 32, for identification, she fled. She now says she has no way to treat her daughter's liver problems or her son's asthma and impacted tooth.
Cristina, a single mother and part-time house cleaner, is even reluctant to take her children to a hospital emergency room. "I feel so alone," she said.
The new law has terrified the immigrant community here, leading to agonized discussions at schools, churches and community meetings about whether it is safe to get government help in Arizona. The author of the law, state Sen. Russell Pearce, is happy about that.
Full article found here
[Posted by Marwin Yeung]
The boy and girl, ages 7 and 3, respectively, are U.S. citizens and entitled to the benefits. But Cristina, who spoke on condition her last name not be used, was fearful. She'd heard of a new state law requiring public workers to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement when illegal immigrants apply for benefits they are not legally entitled to.
So when workers asked Cristina, 32, for identification, she fled. She now says she has no way to treat her daughter's liver problems or her son's asthma and impacted tooth.
Cristina, a single mother and part-time house cleaner, is even reluctant to take her children to a hospital emergency room. "I feel so alone," she said.
The new law has terrified the immigrant community here, leading to agonized discussions at schools, churches and community meetings about whether it is safe to get government help in Arizona. The author of the law, state Sen. Russell Pearce, is happy about that.
Full article found here
[Posted by Marwin Yeung]
Thursday, January 21, 2010
RIGHTS-US: Panic Erupts in Wake of New Anti-Immigrant Law
By Valeria Fernández
PHOENIX, Arizona, Dec 4, 2009 (IPS) - Arizona community activists and religious leaders are trying to mitigate fears over a new law that would require state employees to denounce undocumented immigrants.
"There's panic in the community," said Pastor Magdalena Schwartz from the Disciples of the Kingdom Free United Methodist Church.
Authorities should realise that the confusion is endangering public safety, said Schwartz, because parents are afraid to take their children to the doctor even when this law shouldn't affect them.
"This is particularly scary now that we're in the middle of influenza season," she added.
Arizona is considered a testing ground for immigration laws for the rest of the nation. Over the past five years, Republicans have enacted legislation that ranges from banning scholarships for undocumented students to denying bail to undocumented people charged with a crime.
HB 2008 – which took effect on Nov. 24 - requires state, city and any government employee in Arizona to report to immigration authorities any undocumented immigrants who request a public benefit. Government workers could face up to four months in jail if they fail to make a report.
The law also gives taxpayers the right to sue a state or city agency if they believe the law is not enforced properly.
While the new regulation doesn't affect emergency healthcare, police and firefighter services, there's growing concern and distrust.
"When it comes to my daughter's health, I won't play. I'll take her to the doctor," said José, an undocumented father whose daughter - a U.S. citizen - is getting treatment for a liver transplant.
"But I feel between a rock and a hard place. If I get deported, then how am I going to care for her?" he told IPS.
Jazmin, an undocumented mother, hasn't taken her son - again, a U.S. citizen - to see the doctor in three days because she fears she could be deported.
She's also afraid of sharing her identity because she thinks immigration authorities might come after her since she has a pending application to renew the state healthcare insurance of her child.
Recently, she came in contact with a church group that is helping her.
Pastor Jesús Garza from the Assemblies of God church, "Centro de Alabanza Judá", has been aiding dozens of fearful immigrant families to attend doctor appointments.
Civil rights attorney Daniel Ortega said pro-immigrant groups are fighting the fear with information through Spanish media.
"We've come to the conclusion that as long as people don't admit that they are in the country illegally, they don't have anything to worry about," Ortega told IPS. And if they are undocumented immigrants, then they know they shouldn't be applying for public or state benefits, he added.
Government agencies themselves have questions about how the law should be implemented. The Arizona Department of Administration requested a formal opinion from the Attorney General's Office with over 13 questions about its enforcement.
Thursday, the Department of Economic Security (DES) that administers several of the benefits impacted, including food stamps and healthcare insurance known as AHCCCS, issued information to the media regarding procedures the law applies to.
"We're going to continue enforcing state and federal law like we've been doing," said DES spokesperson Steve Meissner. "Failure to produce documents is not admission that you're in the country illegally."
Supporters of the bill argue it follows the will of Arizona voters who in 2004 approved Proposition 200. The impact of the initiative, aimed at denying public benefits to undocumented immigrants, was limited to five programmes by an attorney general's decision.
"Nothing changed, this is what the voters wanted," said Republican Rep. Steve Montenegro. "We're going through difficult economic moments in Arizona. We're having to cut for so many different areas. It's only correct to make sure that people that apply and receive benefits are qualified to do so," he added.
Opponents of the law say it hurts the children of undocumented immigrants whose parents fear being deported if they request a benefit for their kids.
"I don't believe that rhetoric, that's what they always said. But the emergency rooms empty for a while and they're filled again," said Valerie Roller, a member of Riders U.S.A., a local organisation that opposes the legalisation of undocumented immigrants.
Roller also believes the children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. shouldn't be entitled to become citizens.
Lydia Guzmán, president of the pro-immigrant group Somos America, is receiving concerned phone calls from social workers. They fear they could lose their job if they fail to denounce someone who is illegally in the country.
There is growing concern about migrants who are caught in the middle, like Jazmin.
"The help I need is not for me, it's for my children," the 24-year-old woman told IPS.
A number of legal challenges in the works might bring the law to a halt.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit asking for a stay on the law's implementation filed by the Arizona League of Cities and Towns. The suit questioned the way the law was created. The association is deciding whether to file the challenge again in a lower court in the next two weeks.
Other groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) are getting ready to challenge the substance of the law.
"MALDEF and I are ready to file a lawsuit in the event there's a denial of benefits that shouldn't have been denied, or a prosecution of an employee who shouldn't have been prosecuted," said civil rights attorney Ortega.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49549
[Posted by: Gloria Jimenez]
PHOENIX, Arizona, Dec 4, 2009 (IPS) - Arizona community activists and religious leaders are trying to mitigate fears over a new law that would require state employees to denounce undocumented immigrants.
"There's panic in the community," said Pastor Magdalena Schwartz from the Disciples of the Kingdom Free United Methodist Church.
Authorities should realise that the confusion is endangering public safety, said Schwartz, because parents are afraid to take their children to the doctor even when this law shouldn't affect them.
"This is particularly scary now that we're in the middle of influenza season," she added.
Arizona is considered a testing ground for immigration laws for the rest of the nation. Over the past five years, Republicans have enacted legislation that ranges from banning scholarships for undocumented students to denying bail to undocumented people charged with a crime.
HB 2008 – which took effect on Nov. 24 - requires state, city and any government employee in Arizona to report to immigration authorities any undocumented immigrants who request a public benefit. Government workers could face up to four months in jail if they fail to make a report.
The law also gives taxpayers the right to sue a state or city agency if they believe the law is not enforced properly.
While the new regulation doesn't affect emergency healthcare, police and firefighter services, there's growing concern and distrust.
"When it comes to my daughter's health, I won't play. I'll take her to the doctor," said José, an undocumented father whose daughter - a U.S. citizen - is getting treatment for a liver transplant.
"But I feel between a rock and a hard place. If I get deported, then how am I going to care for her?" he told IPS.
Jazmin, an undocumented mother, hasn't taken her son - again, a U.S. citizen - to see the doctor in three days because she fears she could be deported.
She's also afraid of sharing her identity because she thinks immigration authorities might come after her since she has a pending application to renew the state healthcare insurance of her child.
Recently, she came in contact with a church group that is helping her.
Pastor Jesús Garza from the Assemblies of God church, "Centro de Alabanza Judá", has been aiding dozens of fearful immigrant families to attend doctor appointments.
Civil rights attorney Daniel Ortega said pro-immigrant groups are fighting the fear with information through Spanish media.
"We've come to the conclusion that as long as people don't admit that they are in the country illegally, they don't have anything to worry about," Ortega told IPS. And if they are undocumented immigrants, then they know they shouldn't be applying for public or state benefits, he added.
Government agencies themselves have questions about how the law should be implemented. The Arizona Department of Administration requested a formal opinion from the Attorney General's Office with over 13 questions about its enforcement.
Thursday, the Department of Economic Security (DES) that administers several of the benefits impacted, including food stamps and healthcare insurance known as AHCCCS, issued information to the media regarding procedures the law applies to.
"We're going to continue enforcing state and federal law like we've been doing," said DES spokesperson Steve Meissner. "Failure to produce documents is not admission that you're in the country illegally."
Supporters of the bill argue it follows the will of Arizona voters who in 2004 approved Proposition 200. The impact of the initiative, aimed at denying public benefits to undocumented immigrants, was limited to five programmes by an attorney general's decision.
"Nothing changed, this is what the voters wanted," said Republican Rep. Steve Montenegro. "We're going through difficult economic moments in Arizona. We're having to cut for so many different areas. It's only correct to make sure that people that apply and receive benefits are qualified to do so," he added.
Opponents of the law say it hurts the children of undocumented immigrants whose parents fear being deported if they request a benefit for their kids.
"I don't believe that rhetoric, that's what they always said. But the emergency rooms empty for a while and they're filled again," said Valerie Roller, a member of Riders U.S.A., a local organisation that opposes the legalisation of undocumented immigrants.
Roller also believes the children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. shouldn't be entitled to become citizens.
Lydia Guzmán, president of the pro-immigrant group Somos America, is receiving concerned phone calls from social workers. They fear they could lose their job if they fail to denounce someone who is illegally in the country.
There is growing concern about migrants who are caught in the middle, like Jazmin.
"The help I need is not for me, it's for my children," the 24-year-old woman told IPS.
A number of legal challenges in the works might bring the law to a halt.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit asking for a stay on the law's implementation filed by the Arizona League of Cities and Towns. The suit questioned the way the law was created. The association is deciding whether to file the challenge again in a lower court in the next two weeks.
Other groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) are getting ready to challenge the substance of the law.
"MALDEF and I are ready to file a lawsuit in the event there's a denial of benefits that shouldn't have been denied, or a prosecution of an employee who shouldn't have been prosecuted," said civil rights attorney Ortega.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49549
[Posted by: Gloria Jimenez]
Ground Zero for Immigration?
By Valeria Fernández
None
Nothing better reflects the social tension and cultural clashes of the immigration debate in Arizona than the sidewalk across from Pruitt’s Furniture store on the corner of Thomas Road and 35th Street in the heart of Phoenix.
On a Saturday morning, the old-West, two-story building with white-rimed balconies was fortressed by a wall of eight large delivery trucks. A dozen armed deputy sheriffs secured the empty parking lot. Traffic slowed down. American flags and Che Guevara T-shirts, mariachi and country music collided and sometimes merged on a single sidewalk. “Sí se puede,” “No se puede,” “Deport them all” and “No human being is illegal” were shouted across the street by two antagonistic crowds.
The protests had begun when the business owner, Roger Sensing, hired three off-duty deputy sheriffs in November 2007 to patrol the area and keep day laborers off his property. Latino activists launched an economic boycott and a string of weekly protests.
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=279
[posted by Alejandro Jimenez]
None
Nothing better reflects the social tension and cultural clashes of the immigration debate in Arizona than the sidewalk across from Pruitt’s Furniture store on the corner of Thomas Road and 35th Street in the heart of Phoenix.
On a Saturday morning, the old-West, two-story building with white-rimed balconies was fortressed by a wall of eight large delivery trucks. A dozen armed deputy sheriffs secured the empty parking lot. Traffic slowed down. American flags and Che Guevara T-shirts, mariachi and country music collided and sometimes merged on a single sidewalk. “Sí se puede,” “No se puede,” “Deport them all” and “No human being is illegal” were shouted across the street by two antagonistic crowds.
The protests had begun when the business owner, Roger Sensing, hired three off-duty deputy sheriffs in November 2007 to patrol the area and keep day laborers off his property. Latino activists launched an economic boycott and a string of weekly protests.
http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=279
[posted by Alejandro Jimenez]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
