THIS WEEK, two comprehensive reports on the health of immigrant detainees were released by Human Rights Watch and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. let there be no doubt that in the custody of ICE, immigrants are, literally, “dying for decent care.”
THERE ARE NO VOICES, YET, advising us on why we should be content in 2009 to watch complex issues of society be reduced to issues of force and more and more of our society handed over to military control. While Congress signals change (perhaps) in some areas of our approach to immigration, in other areas we seem poised to repeat old mistakes.
NANCY PELOSI made statements in San Francisco’s mission district on Saturday that seem to signal a new direction on immigration issues. While advocates for reform have been on pins and needles wondering when the Obama administration would make a move to show that his administration will undertake this, this may be the first clear signal that they will.
THOUGH WORKING TO CLOSE Guantánamo, peppering his speech with talk of law and order, and restoring US image to the world abroad, Obama still risks muddying up his accomplishments with a blatant hypocrisy: we cannot lead the way on liberty or justice when investing in detention systems from Arizona to Iraq.
NCLR: ESCALATING IMMIGRATION RAIDS and local police crackdowns over the past eight years have spread indiscriminate terror among millions of people who pose no threat to the United States and who have lived peacefully and productively within our borders for years.
IT MUST BE FRUSTRATING FOR ICE when they are reminded that there are laws that protect the vulnerable. After all, moving about under the radar of mainstream concern, it must be easy for them to feel unbound, unchecked, all-powerful, and unstoppable. But perhaps we see signs now that the honeybucket period is ending.
THE NATION’S EYES are fixed upon a trembling economy. It affects our ability to survive, to thrive, and even think rationally. This crisis impacts the lives of immigrants on multiple levels, be it through provisions to the economic stimulus bill, individual lawmen exceeding the bounds of their office, or a scrambling Pentagon viewing immigrants as easy fodder for the war machine.
LAW OUGHT TO MATCH IDEAL. If Law means anything at all, it is because it is a symbol of Truth. On this week’s Immigration Wire, we examine approaches to immigration that do nothing to synchronize real-life America with the America in songs and storybooks.
NO MATTER WHAT your position on immigration law happens to be; no matter how many generations your family has been rooted in this soil, these kinds of abuses are unacceptable. Treating our fellow humans in these ways simply is not, as they say, American.
HERE IS THIS WEEK’S VIDEO complement to the TMC blog I wrote Thursday. Articles covered include the many actions being taken across the nation as people demand movement on this issue. Also, I speak on why we need immigration reform and now. There will be a YouTube version, but from now on there will be a window of time after I post videos on the XOLAGRAFIK site.
ALL OVER THE NATION, communities are clamoring to be heard. In this worsening economic landscape, migrant communities are being terrorized by violent raids, families are destabilized, wage earners are jailed or detained, and xenophobic pundits continue to fuel a rising wave of hate crimes against Latinos. The stakes could not be any higher.
WE ALL LOOK TO THE NEW SEASON of politics with hope and with relief and many of us, joy. But as much as we want to simply admire the new bloom and leaf and ray of sun, let us remember (and Never Forget) that you do not plant a garden in active rot if you want a healthy harvest.
A VLOG featuring various headlines on current Immigration News. Border Guards sentence commuted, violence in Mexico now even disturbing economic bloggers, Immigrants and allies march on ICE headquarters—with original footage of the march itself.
HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO I put together for The Media Consortium, highlighting issues like the DREAM Act, the new TV show Homeland Security USA, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s latest swipe at any visible legal protections for today’s undocumented population.
IT IS AS IF WE GET COMFORTABLE and forget our own histories. The tales of struggle and dreaming and working and persecution—is this not America? Are these not our stories? Would we throw our own past into prison?
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
