You no need no steeenking documents!

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/states-immigration-efforts-should-promote-equity/2012/04/25/gIQAJIPegT_story.html

By Andrew Friedman and Nisha Agarwal

Wednesday, April 25, 5:32 AM

The Washington Post

Andrew Friedman is executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy and an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. Nisha Agarwal is deputy director of the center and a lecturer at Columbia School of Law.

The legal issue before the Supreme Court this week is whether to uphold certain provisions of Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation. S.B. 1070, which passed in 2010, requires local law enforcement to determine people’s immigration status and arrest individuals suspected of being undocumented.

It would be a devastating blow to equality and civil rights in this country if the justices allow Arizona’s law to stand.

Laws such as Arizona’s are part of an explicit strategy of attrition through enforcement designed to make life in this country close to impossible for immigrants, particularly Latinos. They are akin to Jim Crow-era laws that cultivated a climate of fear in communities of color throughout the South.

State and local laws, many of which are hostile to those new to this country, have sprouted. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported in December that in the first 11 months of 2011 about 1,600 bills and resolutions related to immigration were introduced in the 50 states and Puerto Rico, and more than 250 of those were enacted.

But there is no reason state and local interventions on immigration must be punitive. Some jurisdictions have begun to shape their laws to create more welcoming communities for the governed. Cities such as New York and Chicago and smaller places such as Santa Clara, Calif., have opted to resist federal immigration enforcement by prohibiting local law enforcement from subsidizing federal policy.

The Arizona case underscores the urgency for even more state and local efforts. Steps should be taken to expand integration of immigrants, improving access to health services, for example.

Advocates of immigrant and civil rights should be asking: What, and where, is our anti-"Arizona legislation"? If the Supreme Court approves of states’ rights to legislate in this area, it is essential that supporters of equity and inclusion reclaim this terrain. Defending immigrant communities from racial profiling is not enough. We must create the welcoming society.



For citizens and illegal immigrants alike, Arizona law hits hard

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57421501/for-citizens-and-illegal-immigrants-alike-arizona-law-hits-hard/

(CBS News) - In 2010, Arizona passed an aggressive law designed to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they'd choose to leave. Most of the Arizona law is on hold while the court makes its decision. But even so, the law is changing lives.

CBS correspondent Brian Rooney explains how.

Leticia Ramirez and her husband are both illegal immigrants from Mexico. He did not want us to identify him.

"Sometimes I'm afraid when I see my husband leave in the morning that he might never come back," said Leticia Ramirez. "That when I take my kids to school, that I might get stopped even walking."

Residents told CBS News that they have noticed stores closed and less traffic in immigrant neighborhoods.

Some say crime is down. But by how much and why is a matter of debate.

Crime in Arizona was trending to a 30-year low before the law was signed by the Governor.

American citizens like Jim Shee say they have also felt the law's impact. Shee was born in America to Chinese and Hispanic parents and says he's been pulled over twice and asked for, in the words of the police, "his papers."

Last year, some 56,000 people were deported and another 18,000 so far in 2012. That's on top of tens of thousand who have left voluntarily.


Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions for you
I wonder if you can
No tolerance of your greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing some of the world...

You may say I'm a schemer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will serve as one


My Rainbow Race

One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It's too soon to die.

Some folks want to be like an ostrich,
Bury their heads in the sand.
Some hope that plastic dreams
Can unclench all those greedy hands.
Some hope to take the easy way:
Poisons, bombs. They think we need 'em.
Don't you know you can't kill all the unbelievers?

Go tell, go tell all the little children.
Tell all the mothers and fathers too.
Now's our last chance to learn to share
What's been given to me and you.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fup2J_llT0I/TTg7Bbvz8aI/AAAAAAAAAfc/ryPKDz36A9s/s1600/smurf-RAINOW.jpeg

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[brother number three]

http://www.rudebadmood.com/badges/madre.jpg

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Mexican-American Store Owner Considered Mexican Race Traitor for Checking Employee ID

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mi-pueblo-20120917,0,3214757,full.story

SAN JOSE — When customers enter Mi Pueblo Food Center to do their weekly shopping, the goal is to make them feel at home.

Each of the grocery chain's 21 outlets, which are scattered throughout the Bay Area, Monterey Bay region and Central Valley, is styled to emulate a distinct Mexican region. Boisterous rancheras stream from the stores' speakers. Vivid primary colors and architectural references cover the walls: the adobe church of San Juan Nuevo, Michoacan, in San Jose's flagship store; the Maya pyramid of Chichen Itza in the Salinas market.

Mi Pueblo's employees, all bilingual, wear name tags that list their hometowns.
It's a formula that helped turn the business founded more than two decades ago by an illegal immigrant from the town of Aguililla into a $300-million enterprise.

"Those of us who don't speak English, we come here because we're comfortable," Yoselina Acevedo of San Jose, a 53-year-old immigrant from Michoacan, said while shopping one recent day.

So the company's announcement late last month that it was participating in a voluntary federal program that checks the immigration status of all new hires elicited anger and confusion from workers and customers alike.

Community organizers have pledged to launch a shoppers' boycott Oct. 8 if Mi Pueblo founder Juvenal Chavez, who is now a legal U.S. resident, does not change his mind.

"He says he has suffered the pain of being an immigrant. I don't believe it," said Rogelio Marquez, 37. “We support the economy of this country. Why is this man now checking papers?"

The controversy has highlighted long-standing questions about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Department, decides which businesses to audit — and how aggressively agents are pushing the computerized E-Verify program behind the scenes.

In 2009, the Obama administration announced it would shift its emphasis from deporting undocumented workers to punishing firms that hire them. Although less splashy than workplace raids that resulted in deportations, the reach of the investigations arguably was broader.

According to ICE, there have been 3,764 workplace probes in fiscal year 2012 so far, more than double the number in 2009. In the last year, ICE has fined employers nearly $20 million; 133 company managers were convicted of immigration-related crimes.

Critics contend that the probes hurt businesses that depend on low-wage immigrant labor, forcing them to scrap entire workforces.

In 2011, California legislators passed a law that forbids local governments from instituting E-Verify requirements. Yet pressures nevertheless are mounting for companies with immigrant labor pools to sign up.

Julie Pace, an Arizona attorney, said that even in states where E-Verify is voluntary, ICE agents conducting audits have “dinged” businesses that aren't on board — and promised leniency to those who agree to sign up.

Statistics show that enrollment has grown to nearly 400,000 employers nationwide, about 7% of U.S. businesses. In California, about 30,480 firms are enrolled, up from 11,514 in 2009.

ICE officials said workplace investigations generally originated with tips, whether from business competitors or disgruntled ex-employees. But critics say reliance on those with an ax to grind can put immigration enforcement in the middle of labor disputes.

"We see E-Verify as another campaign to put undue fear into the workers who created this community, who created this store and who buy from this store," Stan Taylor, a board member of San Jose's Interfaith Council on Economics and Justice, said during a recent protest.

Customer Marina Perez, 58, said news of the company's increased immigration enforcement was disheartening.

"Here of all places? Que pasa?" Perez, originally from Michoacan, said outside the San Jose store. "It's bad. There are so many people who live here without papers. I think I will change where I shop."

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