Despite Community Effort, Judge Orders Brooklyn Resident Deported

The much-anticipated meeting to craft comprehensive immigration reform finally took place on June 25, whereby President Barack Obama commitment to pass immigration reform by 2010. Meeting with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, the debate touched on issues of legalization, border security and workplace enforcement.

But last week’s discussion has left the case of at least one Jamaican immigrant from Brooklyn on the fringe. Charged with minor drug convictions nearly two decades past, Roxroy Salmon, 52, has crossed an administrative threshold barring him from legally remaining in this country. Under the 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, minor offenses such as shoplifting are reason enough to deport immigrants whether documented or not. The 1996 laws passed under the Clinton administration applied retroactively to those already convicted of misdemeanors, making Salmon’s drug convictions in the ’80s reason enough for deportation.

On July 7, around 40 of Salmon’s supporters gathered outside 26 Federal Plaza awaiting the final decision by the immigration judge on whether Salmon could remain in the U.S. with his four American-born children.

Singing songs and holding hands in prayer, members from Families for Freedom, The New Sanctuary Movement and First Presbyterian Church congregated at 8 a.m. for over four hours.

Inside, after a 30-minute hearing, Salmon was ordered deported but allowed to return home for the time being.

“It was the best outcome we were realistically expecting,” said David Wilson, member of First Presbyterian Church. “We were just hoping they weren’t going to seize him on the spot.”

Salmon has been fighting his deportation case since 2001, joining Families for Freedom, an organization for immigrants facing deportation.

Coming out of 26 Federal Plaza, teary-eyed Salmon was received with warm applause and cheers. “I’m just going to go about doing what I do everyday — raising my family, being a father, being a grandfather, being a husband, being a member of my community,” said Salmon. But with a deportation order on his head, Salmon will continue living in a state of uncertainty. “[ICE] can pick me up any time and do what they want to do,” he said.

“The judge today ruled the only way she had a legal option to rule in this case because after the 1996 legislation, the judge no longer has discretion,” said Wilson. “[The judge] can’t take circumstances into account, can’t take the impact on the rest of the family into account.”

Community organizers and Wangyong Austin, Salmon’s attorney, are continuing the struggle to keep him here. Now that Salmon has a deportation order, Austin will file for deferred action status to Christopher Shanahan Field Office Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Salmon’s application fro deferred status includes a letter of support from House Representative Edolphus Towns, from the 10th Congressional District of New York, a petition signed by more than 1,200 supporters and letters of support from faith leaders, community organizers and students.

Under deferred action, Salmon’s deportation order would not be enforced, granting him temporary relief from deportation. “He would be allowed to remain in the United States, pending good behavior and would be allowed to stay with his family and support his family,” said Wang, “but it wouldn’t give him any right to become a citizen.”

Families for Freedom is also campaigning for the Child Citizen Protection Act (CCPA) introduced by Senator Serrano in January. “Where there are U.S. citizen children involved,” the CCPA would “let the judge, judge,” says Wilson. “In a case like [Salmon's], a judge could look at the whole picture, not just check the box and say o.k., they’re out of status, and they have criminal convictions.”

A Mother’s Nightmare: A Senegalese Woman Struggles to Save Her Daughters

Having survived female genital mutilation when she was three years old in Senegal, Fatoumata does not want her four U.S.-born daughters to face the same violence. But as an undocumented immigrant at risk of deportation, the past Fatoumata fought to leave behind might be catching up to her children.

Fatoumata, who requested that her last name be withheld, is fighting her case in U.S. immigration courts. If her application for political asylum is denied, then she faces the unenviable dilemma of either separating from her children, who have U.S. citizenship, or moving them back to Senegal where her family is demanding her daughters undergo the traditional genital cutting.

“What we see is that the U.S. asylum system at present is widely inconsistent in resolving gender-based claims,” said Jeanne Smoot, director of public policy at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nongovernmental organization that works to protect women and girls from gender-based violence. “There really is a lack of recognition, a lack of clear compassion for the fact that obviously a fear of persecution to one’s children really is a fear of persecution to oneself.”

More than 14 years ago, Fatoumata arrived in the United States with her husband and settled in New York City. Her husband immediately applied for political asylum, listing her for “derivative status,” a provision that helps protect spouses and children. His application was denied. Fatoumata’s lawyer could not comment on the case.

Fatoumata and her husband, however, remained in the United States illegally and began a family. Thirteen years and six children later, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Fatoumata’s husband on July 20, 2007. She said that ICE arrived at their home in the middle of the night, taking Fatoumata and her children by surprise.

“My children were in the bed that time,” Fatoumata said. “They were shaking,” because of “the way ICE was acting, yelling, screaming. They have flashlights, they carry the guns, they were going all over the house.”

The house raid, and subsequent deportation of her husband four months later, left Fatoumata struggling as a single mom with six kids. Without legal status to work, Fatoumata has no means of earning a steady income and has recently moved into the New York City shelter system, relying on $731 in food stamps a month to feed her family.

“We came so we can make a family and a better place, that’s our dream,” Fatoumata said, “but I don’t know. It’s getting worse for us.”

Although female genital mutilation is illegal in Senegal, enforcement is very weak, explains Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of Equality Now, an international human rights organization dedicated to women’s rights. “It is such a strong cultural tradition and it’s also very difficult for the child to go and complain,” Bien-Aimé said.

PROTECTING HER FAMILY: Five of Fatoumata’s six children hold her tight. Having already lost their father, they say they are afraid their mother will be deported, too. To protect her identity, Fatoumata covers her face. PHOTO: KAREN YI

Although the procedure varies in each country and village, Bien-Aimé described a typical scenario of female genital mutilation: “A number of women hold the girl down — one at her head, one at each arm. They open her legs and then they just take whatever they have available — a razor, a sharp knife, sometimes a stone — and they start slicing. It is generally done without anesthesia and in very unsanitary conditions.” The procedure involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia.

This scene could await Fatoumata’s four daughters, 6, 9, 11 and 13 years old. Facing heavy pressure from her family back in Senegal to have her daughters subjected to the cutting, Fatoumata fears the worst. “If I go back [to Senegal] I don’t have any power to stop them,” she said.

Female genital mutilation is most commonly performed between the ages of four and eight, but it can take place from infancy to adolescence. It is considered one of the worst violations listed in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Amnesty International estimates that, as of 2005, more than 136 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of genital cutting.

If Fatoumata is not granted political asylum, she could be deported back to Senegal. Rather than leave her six children in foster care, Fatoumata says she’ll take them with her. But with the safety of her kids on the line, Fatoumata is fighting for a way to stay here, and she is not alone.

A coalition of immigrant rights and faithbased groups have formed a defense committee for Fatoumata, providing advocacy and resources and promoting public awareness. Two years ago Fatoumata filed a motion to reopen her asylum case. The motion was denied by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and is currently waiting to be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Joshua Bardavid, Fatoumata’s pro-bono immigration attorney, said he expects her case to be denied based on a procedural hurdle established by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Under the 1996 laws, a person cannot reopen his or her case more than 90 days after the case is decided.

Bardavid, however, is working on a new motion to reopen her case based on evidence that asylum status is needed in order to protect her daughters.

While the 1996 case of Fauziya Kasinga established female genital mutilation as a reason for political asylum, Smoot said, “The law at present doesn’t provide a clear means for parents seeking to protect their children to be granted asylum.”

“Fatoumata’s case is really emblematic of what’s wrong with the system,” said Janis Rosheuvel, director of Families for Freedom, an immigrant rights organization.

“To make the impossible choice between those two terrible extremes — either to place their daughters at risk but keep their families together or remove that risk only by surrendering those girls to grow a world apart from them, in our opinion, effectively threatens to create a foster class of girls who are left behind here and families that are separated in order to secure the girls’ protection,” Smoot said.

Since the United States approves the applications of just over 20 percent of the political asylum cases each year, Fatoumata faces an uphill battle. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, the Immigration Courts granted about 10,700 of about 47,400 asylum cases in fiscal year 2008.

“When I think about why Fatoumata not deserves, but needs, to stay here, I can just count to six … her six kids who are all U.S. citizens,” Rosheuvel said.

Politics and Popcorn

Gearing up for his final deportation hearing, Jamaican immigrant Roxroy Salmon together with Families for Freedom sponsored an event on May 5, to talk about immigration politics — with a mouthful of popcorn.

Families for Freedom, a New York City based organization fighting against the deportation and subsequent separation of families, hosted the event “Politics and Popcorn” at First Presbyterian Church to educate the community about the immigration system and tell the story of one immigrant facing deportation and separation from his American born children.

Having been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, Roxroy Salmon risks being sent back to Jamaica for minor drug convictions from 20 years ago. Under the 1996 immigration laws, minor crimes, including drug offenses, are an automatic reason to deport immigrants — illegal and legal — and curtail the immigration judges’ discretion to take other factors, such as family ties, into account.

Supporters of Salmon have been on a rolling fast since March, where one person fasts every day in solidarity with his struggle. “It’s to help us have a sense of what sort of loss we’re talking about, what is the extremity of the system we’re talking about. In the end of the day it’s to help us show the system that there are a hell of a lot of people in this community that want him to stay here,” said Janis Rosheuvel, director of Families for Freedom.

Salmon has been actively fighting his deportation order since 2006 in order to stay with his three American citizen children in Brooklyn. “I’m no terrorist, I’m a member of this community. I live in the neighborhood, I’m the next-door neighbor, I’m the person that sit beside you on the train, that walk down the block and say ‘hi.’ I’m not no criminal or no terrorist, I love this country,” he said.

During the event, David Wilson author of The Politics of Immigration debunked some of the myths of the immigration system, attributing the problem to “the idea that people in this country have that immigrants are criminals.” Wilson said now is the time to reach out and re-educate people. “People are more open to new ideas than they’ve ever been…because they’ve been told things that aren’t true,” he said.

Part of the outreach by Families for Freedom is to rally support for the Child Citizen Protection Act. Introduced by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in 2008, if passed, the bill would allow discretion for immigration judges when deciding deportation cases that involve the separation of families. As the system stands, “the judges hands are tied,” explains Rosheuvel.  “All the judge can look at is his status and his criminal convictions are. For someone who’s been here for over 30 years, should they not have a chance to have a judge actually judge? It’s a very clear and precise intervention that we’re asking for.”

The bill has so far garnered 16 co-sponsors and is in the House Judiciary Committee.

Edolphus Towns, U.S. Representative of the 10th District of New York was also honored for having been a leader in the fight for immigrant rights and a co-sponsor of the Child Citizen Protection Act. Samuel Pierre, a representative from Towns’ office said “65 percent of the cases that come out of the 10th congressional district deal with immigration, so we take this very seriously.”

“It’s not just about hosting an event; it’s about looking at the fate of an immigrant and 32-year Brooklyn resident from a political, legal, and personal standpoint,” said Rachel Soltis, coordinator of the New Sanctuary Coalition, an interfaith organization working with Salmon’s case.

Salmon’s final deportation hearing is scheduled for July 7. “While I am fighting, I am going to campaign on others’ behalf because what is going on in our communities is uncivilized, it’s oppression,” said Salmon. “We have to put a stop to it now.”

Families for Freedom will host a children’s vigil at Union Square on June 20 at 11 a.m. to urge support for the Child Citizen Protection Act.

For more information on Salmon’s case visit: www.familiesforfreedom.org.

Sonia Sotomayor and the Status Quo

An unprecedented nomination by President Barack Obama has opened the gates for not only a woman, but a Nuyorican Latina to serve as the 111th Supreme Court Justice. As a daughter of Puerto Rican parents, Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s story from rags to riches and possibly to the highest court of the nation, has sparked pride across Latino communities and a heated debate about identity politics.

Introducing Judge Sotomayor in the East Room of the White House, President Barack Obama said, “Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice.”

Judge Sotomayor responded, “I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.”

From growing up in a public housing project near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx to graduating from two of the nations most prestigious universities — Princeton and Yale — for some, Sotomayor has reinvigorated the idea that the American Dream is indeed alive and kicking.

“I think it speaks to what people can become in this country; regardless of where the family is from, they have opportunities in this country,” said Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of Latino Justice PRLDEF. “It has interesting historical grounds,” he added, “people that left Puerto Rico were the poorest of the poor that could not survive, and today are beginning to play important roles that actually affect the lives of the people in Puerto Rico.”

Yet statistics show that Sotomayor’s success story is a rarity amongst the Latino experience. Fast-forwarding 30 years from Sotomayor’s Yale graduation in 1979, and Latinos are still facing educational disparities. Comprising 25 percent of students in grades K-12, Latinos have the highest high school dropout rates and are half as likely to complete college as white undergraduates.  Recent numbers from the National Center for Children in Poverty show that more than 60 percent of all Latino children live in low-income households.

While Sotomayor’s success against provides a model for Latino youth, it also underscores the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Angelo Falcón, co-founder and president of the National Institute for Latino Policy and assistant adjunct professor at Columbia University said Sotomayor is a product of “community struggles to open up those institutions.” He added, “Her struggle, her story of growing up in a housing project, all those things came about as a result of struggle — even the struggle for fair housing.”

Still awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Senate, Sotomayor would replace Justice David Souter who announced his retirement at the end of the court term. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush, Justice Souter firmly established himself among the court’s liberals. With a hard to characterize judicial record, Sotomayor seem to be right in line with her would-be predecessor.

As the first Latina Justice Sotomayor will make history, but will she leave a politically progressive mark on the court?

“I think that perhaps Obama missed an opportunity here,” said Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on May 29 on Democracy Now! “I’m thrilled that there will be the first Latina on the Supreme Court,” said Cohn, “but I really would have liked to have seen a real progressive counterweight to radical rightists on the court.”

“She basically, politically, maintains the status quo of the court,” said Falcón, who describes her as “pragmatic, centrist, with very moderate positions.”

The symbolism and importance of Sotomayor needs to serve as a way “motivate people to organize and continue to press as opposed to feeling comfortable that we have arrived,” said Falcón. “With all the hype you got to get defensive around something like this,” he said, “when you take an overall picture of the situation within the Latino community there’s a long way to go.”

Permits Please

MORE JOBS ON THE STREETS: Street Vendor Project co-director Michael Wells addresses more than 40 vendors who rallied April 28 at City Hall to advocate City Council to pass a resolution dramatically increasing the number of street vending licenses and permits. “We are asking Mayor Bloomberg to serve the needs of everyday, average New Yorkers,“ Wells said. PHOTO: KAREN YI

For 19 years, Mustafa, an immigrant from Senegal, has been waiting to receive a vending license from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. According to the Street Vendor Project, he is one of 13,000 people on the waiting list. After years of waiting, Mustafa has begun selling art in lower Manhattan without a license.

The city caps merchandise vending licenses at 853 and food permits at 3,100 — the same level since 1979 — leaving small entrepreneurial New Yorkers with few alternatives but to sell their products without a license.

More than 40 street vendors rallied on the steps of City Hall April 28 urging the New York City Council to pass the bill, known as Introduction 324, which would create more than 10,000 legal jobs by increasing the number of vendors allowed on the streets, raising numbers for general merchandising to 15,000 and food permits to 25,000, with a provision to increase the number by 5 percent each year afterward.

Intro 324 was introduced in 2006 by Councilmember Charles Barron (D-East New York) and so far has 11 co-sponsors. But even after its Council hearing in November 2008, the bill still has not been passed.

Workers at the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project say they are getting a record number of calls requesting assistance in getting street vending licenses. With the current economic recession, they say, now is the time to push the bill to the forefront.

“Each day we deliver the disappointing news to dozens of cash-strapped New Yorkers … that they are out of luck,” said Michael Wells, co-director of the Street Vendor Project, composed of more than 750 street vendors working together to create a movement for permanent change.

Vendor advocates also raised concerns over a bill (S04045) introduced by state Senator Daniel Squadron (D-25th District) April 8 that would allow police to fingerprint vendors caught selling products without a license.

This legislation concerns Ivet Bandirma, executive director of Esperanza Del Barrio, an organization that serves to empower street vendors in New York City. Bandirma said that S04045 is “a direct attack on the immigrant population.” It is estimated that more than 80 percent of street vendors are immigrants.

Fingerprinting immigrant vendors puts them in direct contact with the criminal justice system, explains Bandirma, and once immigrants are in the system, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is contacted.

Having met with community groups opposed to the bill in the past several weeks, Squadron has made it clear that this is not an anti-immigrant bill, but rather a way to allow the city to enforce its laws better.

“There is no question the current system is not working for anyone — vendors, local businesses, pedestrians, or communities,” Squadron said. “That’s why I’m working with advocates and others for comprehensive vending reform that is fair, protects the rights of immigrants and improves the system for everybody.”

But protecting immigrants is just one concern, vendor advocates explain. “It’s just wrongheaded,” said Ali Issa, an organizer with the Street Vendors Project. “The approach has nothing to do with the causes of the problem at all, of why people vend without a license.”

“We have some hard-working people, and all they want is the opportunity to work,” said Douglas Lasdon, executive director of the Urban Justice Center, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of New York City’s most vulnerable communities. “There really is no legitimate policy reason for them not to have that opportunity.”

From the Chicken to the Table

Greg Anderson, 47, moved to New York with his family in 2001 and has since been involved with his community garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Twelve members take care of the garden, growing any vegetable in season, from carrots to tomatoes. A year ago, Anderson, the president of the Dean Street Community garden, a two-building wide lot of land between a row of apartments, decided to add a unique twist to this urban garden: chickens. The community garden has about seven chickens that lay anywhere from one to over 20 eggs a day. Anderson and four others take care of the chickens. The eggs are distributed throughout the community and among the garden members. Anderson works with the youth at Queens Community House, a non-profit that provides services to Queen’s diverse population.

How did this community garden begin?

The garden has been here since the late ’80s. There were two houses here that burnt down here. The city leveled everything down, so the community started a green thumb garden.  Probably, like most communities, [the garden] started because it was an empty space [where] trash was building up and people were starting to hang out. So that’s the best way to save the area, to bring in a community garden.

And when did the chickens come?

The chickens came last year. It was me and my wife’s idea.

How did you come up with this idea?

I grew up with chickens. I grew up in Selma, Alabama, and as you get older, you start missing things that you had in an early life. So I started missing being on a farm. We were going to do it first in our backyard. But after researching and seeing how much work is involved and seeing the different benefits of having chickens, and since we were part of the [community] garden, we thought it would be better to do it in the garden. That way, we could use the chickens to educate the community about food source and about the benefits of having chickens.

How is the economy affecting what you’re doing here?

We do spend less time in the garden off-season. But last year we didn’t have as many members as we do now. I’ve seen a lot more members interested in the garden.

Why is this?

Food is more expensive. People are more conscious of their health now and understand that the less processed your food is and the more whole foods that you consume, the better off health-wise you are and even mentally.

Do you think there’s a trend towards community supported agriculture, farmer’s markets and community gardens?

Huge trend, huge trend. I’ve seen it grow in the past five years. We would go to conferences where it would be a few 50-60 people there. But this year going to conferences, they were packed. There were a lot of people interested in working together to do more local growing, that way the food doesn’t have to travel as much. That equals less pollution. People also are looking for a different type of lifestyle, a lifestyle that’s not as busy. Money comes and goes, but when you create a sustainable lifestyle, you find that you don’t need as much money because you can barter for whatever you need; you can grow your own food. Just because you live in an urban area, doesn’t mean you can’t grow your own food or raise your own livestock.

Are these eggs better than what you get at the grocery store?

To me they’re even better than the organic eggs you can get in the store. These are local; these are fresh. My omelets were made with eggs that were laid fresh this morning, you can’t top that. From the chicken to the table, you can’t beat that.

Gearing Up for May Day, Diverse Groups Take to Queens Streets

Against a backdrop of multi-colored flags from Filipino organizations and amidst indigenous music from the Ecuadorian group Raices, day laborers, immigrants and community activists came together to demand dignity and rights for all workers in a protest on April 19 in Woodside, Queens. The march began at 11:30 a.m. as protesters marched along Roosevelt Avenue, chanting “The People United, Will Never Be Defeated!”

Gearing up for the May 1 rally, day laborers and Filipino worker and human right organizations came together to demand an end to deportations, raids and workplace discrimination. Filipino organizations such as the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE), Philippine Forum, and BAYAN NY/NJ marched with primarily Ecuadorian and Mexican day laborers in a show of solidarity against increased police harassment towards day laborers in Woodside.

“Although the geographies and the locations are different, our communities, and the immigrant workers in our communities, are suffering the same kind of exploitation,” said Valerie Francisco, chair of the Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE).

Day laborers say that jobs are becoming fewer and far between while police in the area are stepping up harassment. Jornaleros Unidos de Woodside say police are ticketing day laborers without reason. “We have been affected by the economic crisis, we don’t need increased harassment by police,” said a member from Jornaleros Unidos de Woodside, “but this is not just, all we want is jobs.”

The protest was also a cry against the arrest of 10 day laborers in Oct. 2008 for standing on 69th St. and 37th Av. looking for work.

“We cannot be silent, when our brothers and sisters do not have basic human rights, jobs, security and the ability to support their families,” said Krystle Cheirs, a representative of Gabriela USA. “Together we can combat these injustices in the city we helped build.”

With the unemployment rate at 8.5 percent for March, community organizers are demanding the federal bailout include job creation for the undocumented. “In the stimulus package there’s a lot of money being funneled into workers,” said Francisco, “but jobs for America has to include the plight of immigrant and undocumented workers.”

“We all have different languages, we all have different names, we all come from different countries,” said a representative from NYCHRP addressing the crowd, “but I can guarantee you we have one thing in common, if our home countries, or our parents’ home countries, or our grandparents home countries could offer us jobs, we would not have to be here today. We live in a world where migration is not a choice, it is the only option.”

Working to Reclaim May Day

The government has committed trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street in less than a year. And as the Obama administration and the corporate elite bicker over what money goes where, those most affected by the economic crisis have been seemingly shut out of negotiations.

Caught in between the finger-pointing and bank bailouts are the communities that are absorbing the brunt of foreclosures and rising unemployment. But this May 1, the unemployed, the homeless and immigrants are taking their demands to the streets.

The New York May 1st Coalition, a committee of more than 40 immigrant and worker rights organizations in the New York region, will rally at noon at Union Square to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day) and to hold President Barack Obama accountable on his 100th day in office.

STANDING TOGETHER: Members and supporters of the New York May 1st Coalition. PHOTO: THOMAS MARCZEWSKI

May Day is a holiday to honor the social and economic achievements of labor movements worldwide, and is a day to rally for ongoing struggles. The day was immoralized by the chaos and violence during a massive labor rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square May 4, 1886. The holiday, however, has since lost much of its significance within the United States.

In 2006, 120 years later, factory workers were joined by social justice advocates and immigrants in what became known as “A Day Without an Immigrant.”

“It was almost natural for the immigrant rights movement, that was basically a working-class movement, to have chosen that day, and almost resurrected it here in the U.S.,” said Juan Gonzalez, co-host of Democracy Now! and columnist for the New York Daily News, who has written extensively on immigration issues.

On May 1, 2006, thousands of stores were closed and factories were halted as millions of immigrants across 200 cities boycotted work and marched into the streets. This outpouring helped defeat the Sensenbrenner bill (H.R. 4437), which would have made it a felony to be in the United States without documents and applied criminal sanctions against anyone who provided services to the undocumented.

“In 2006 we were victorious,” said Teresa Gutierrez, a coordinator with the May 1st Coalition and Workers World Party Secretariat member. “We did stop the Sensenbrenner legislation.” But the following years brought only reprisals from the Bush administration, said Gutierrez. “There was further repression through raids, deportation, the empowerment of local law enforcements to hunt down immigrants, [engage in] racial profiling and so forth,” she said.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that 349,041 immigrants were deported in 2008, up drastically from 195,024 in 2006.

This year, immigrant rights activists hope to make Obama fulfill his promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The May 1st Coalition is demanding an end to raids and deportations, and the legalization of the more than 12 million estimated undocumented immigrants in the United States.

But this year, in light of skyrocketing unemployment numbers, waves of foreclosures and the state of the current economy, immigrants will not be marching alone. “The economy will help mobilize more people because they need to express their unhappiness with the current situation,” said Carlos Canales, an organizer at the Workplace Project, part of the May 1st Coalition.

“Additional forces are coming out with immigrant workers,” said Sara Flounders, coordinator at Bail Out the People (BOTP) and also a secretariat member of Workers World Party. “It’s not entirely an immigrant rights demonstration.”

On April 3 and 4, BOTP organized protests on Wall Street, urging the government to bail out the people, not the banks. “That [day] was the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination and his demand for jobs for all working people,” Flounders said. “He didn’t make a distinction. And in that same spirit [we] take the next important anniversary, which is May 1, as a workers’ day and use it to build solidarity.”

But while the economy may help build coalitions that cut across racial and class divides, challenges remain. “The predisposition of the U.S. populace to support a just immigration reform is not going to be very deep,” said Roberto Lovato, a contributor to The Nation magazine and New American Media, a national collaboration of 2,000 ethnic news organizations. Lovato is the former executive director of the Central American Resource Center, a Los Angeles-based organization focusing on social and economic empowerment for immigrant communities.

Still, activists are seeking to better unify various communities of color. Larry Hales, national organizer at Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) and Workers World newspaper contributing editor, is coordinating student walkouts trying to bridge divisions between the African-American and Latino community.

“These are our brothers and sisters,” Hales said, who is working primarily with students at City University of New York (CUNY), “and especially in this kind of environment, we fight for everyone’s rights so there’s no one left to exploit.”

Activists are reaching out to non-immigrant workers to build a broad-based social movement capable of pressuring the economic elite. “Race and immigration are used as wedge issues to drive similarly disadvantaged communities apart and lower overall support for policy they might benefit from,” said Maya Wiley, director of the Center for Social Inclusion.

ILLUSTRATION: ANDREA COGHLIN

The Obama administration announced if would begin talks on immigration reform in May. While the details have yet to be revealed, officials say the legislation would favor a process for the legalization of undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, while increasing enforcement of the border and cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers.

This approach equals “trading off legalization for increased militarization, increased deportation and increased jailing,” Lovato said. “If you limit the discussion of immigration within these borders, you’ve already lost. It’s a false approach, when in fact there’s global factors that are fundamental.”

Analysts say comprehensive immigration reform must take into account the economic, social and political forces that cause migration. U.S. policies “drive businesses to set up their factories in China, in India, in Mexico and Vietnam, [which] is the same impulse that is driving workers from those countries to the West to seek higher wages,” Gonzalez said. “The problem is that [the financial elites] want to lower barriers for capital while increasing barriers to labor.”

“These periods of anti-immigrant hysteria and fervor are not uncommon in American history,” Gonzalez said. “The main difference this time is the massive response and protests by the immigrants themselves.”

With the global crisis disproportionately affecting workers and immigrant communities, this year’s May Day will be an opportunity for change to come from below.

“The change will come when more and more workers — both immigrant workers and non-immigrant workers — realize the only potential is organization,” said Flounders. “That’s the only possibility, making organized demands.”

This story was the first of a 3-part series on immigration published in The Indypendent.

Dreams Day-By-Day

Clusters of immigrant day laborers gather on the fringes of Green-Wood Cemetery in central Brooklyn, looking for work as early as 6 a.m. every day. They take any job they can get — construction, painting, gardening — but lately, they wait for hours only to come home empty-handed.

Raúl is a Mexican immigrant who lost his job three weeks ago and has worked only two days since. “There’s nothing. There’s no movement, there’s no money here,” he says.

With four kids back in Puebla, Mexico, Marcelo, who has been in the United States for five years, just wants to go back home. But between rent, remittances and food, “I can’t make enough to go back,” he says.

“It’s not the same as before,” says Vicente, an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, who just went days without finding work. “But as bad as things are here,” he says, “it’s always worse back home.”

Many say they have stopped sending money back to their home countries; others are borrowing from friends or living off their meager savings, crowding into apartments with friends and family.

The New York Immigration Coalition estimates New York City area day laborers number 10,000, with more than 117,600 nationwide. With the economic downtown and unemployment reaching 8.5 percent in March, immigrant workers who used to work full time are increasingly turning to day labor.

In Woodside, Queens, day laborers gather around Roosevelt Avenue between 65th and 73rd Streets. “There used to be about 100 of us,” says Alan, an immigrant from Mexico, who was laid off five months ago. “Now there are about 800.”

“Day laborers are one of the most affected classes,” says Ligia Guallpa, coordinator for the Latin American Workplace Project. “They work informally without any structure and there’s no way workers can protect themselves from unemployment.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in March, the unemployment rate for whites is 7.9 percent, while 13.3 percent of African-Americans and 11.4 percent of Latinos are unemployed.

“People of color have been hardest hit in every economic downturn this country has experienced,” says Maya Wiley, founder and director of the Center for Social Inclusion. “Part of this is because people of color are the last to be hired and the first to be fired.” And historically, it has been people of color who have been politically marginalized.

“But have you seen anyone from Congress here to help us?” asks José, a day laborer from Cuenca, Ecuador, who has been in the United States for more than nine years. “Either way they blame us — the immigrant — for coming here. They don’t care about us, we are the illegals.”

Tired of worksite exploitation, unemployment and heavy anti-immigrant sentiment, some day laborers are organizing around International Workers Day (May Day).

Roberto Meneses, founder and president of Jornaleros Unidos (United Day Laborers), says this economic crisis is an opportunity to unite, educate and find commonalities among all workers.

“Other workers look at us as the rivals,” Meneses says, “but they don’t realize we are victims of the same system. In our countries, we were also fired, because the crisis began a long time ago in our country.”

Organizing workers with no stable jobs, set hours or common work sites provides a unique set of challenges; a majority of the day laborers The Indypendent spoke to at Green-Wood Cemetery were unaware of May Day or organizations such as Jornaleros Unidos.

And even for those involved in organizing, participation in May Day is not certain. Alan, a member of Jornaleros Unidos says he’s not sure he’ll attend the marches on May 1. “It’s one day of work and sometimes you only work once a week,” he says.

“The system has brainwashed us,” Meneses says. “They teach us to think individualistically, not collectively.” He adds, “We learn to think that way — but now look where we are. We are the first ones affected and the ones with the least defense. It’s important for us to organize.”

The New York City May Day rally will begin at noon in Union Square, followed by a march to Federal Plaza at 5:30 p.m.

This story was published on The Indypendent. To read the full story here click here.

Injustice Behind Bars

An undocumented immigrant from Cameroon, Pauline Nbzie landed among the inmates of the Hudson County Correctional Center in New Jersey late last year due to her “illegal status.” Despite having no criminal record, Nbzie was detained for almost four months.

“They make you feel like you’ve killed so many people,” said Nbzie, whose hands, feet and waist were shackled when she was taken into detention. “I’ve been here [in the United States] for 20 years and I never committed a crime, I always pay taxes. But I was treated like a criminal.”

Stories like Nbzie’s are not uncommon. On an average day, more than 30,000 immigrants are held by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is approximately triple the number in custody 10 years ago. ICE projects that about 440,000 will be detained in 2009, up from 311,213 detained in 2008.

A single mother of three, Nbzie was torn from her children and held in detention from October 2008 to January 2009. She was denied medical care, verbally harassed by guards and placed in substandard conditions. Suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes, Nbzie waited for two weeks before receiving medication. Forced to share a room with 40 other women, Nbzie said the food and living conditions were inhumane. She was given a uniform, two pairs of underwear and two bras for four months. “It was wash one, wear one,” Nbzie said. “It makes you feel less than a person.”

The healthcare conditions in immigration detention facilities have come under fire Human Rights Watch and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, both organizations released reports on the topic in March.

And, according to Amnesty International, asylum seekers, trafficking victims, children and even U.S. citizens are detained under conditions that violate their human rights. A March Amnesty report, Jailed Without Justice, takes issue with the lack of separation between immigration detainees and convicts, “unnecessary and excessive” use of restraints, and inadequate access to legal council, healthcare and physical exercise.

Being undocumented is a civil offense, yet detainees are subject to mandatory detention without the right to judicial review. “No one in removal proceedings has a right to paid counsel,” said Kerri Talbot, associate director at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), “They don’t have the same rights people have for criminal proceedings.” According to Amnesty, 84 percent of detainees are not able to attain legal aid.

“Immigrants are being persecuted under the full force of the Constitution of the laws, but they don’t have legal access or any of the rights under the constitution,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, director of organizing at Youth Ministry for Peace and Justice.

“It’s the criminalization of immigrants,” said Alfonso Gonzales, a Latino Studies professor at New York University. The Migration Policy Institute found that 73 percent of detainees have no criminal records. “Naturally attributing and normalizing criminal characteristics to immigrants [is] the organizing principle behind all of this,” Gonzales said.

The Clinton administration widened the range of deportable offenses in 1996 through the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. Minor offenses became grounds to deport both illegal — and legal — immigrants.

“That’s what allows more raids, border expansion [and] militarization,” Gonzales said, “It’s the assumption that the people that are [immigrating] are indeed national security threats.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, immigrants were cast as a threat to national security, resulting in the USA PATRIOT Act, the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and increased funding for programs like 287(g), giving local law enforcement the power to act as immigration agents.

The case of permanent resident Tirso Jose highlights the relationship between ICE and local jails and the trend toward the privatization of detention centers. Detained for possession of marijuana, Jose was sent to Rikers to serve a three-day sentence. While detained, ICE officials questioned his immigration status, putting him through four additional days of “hell” at Rikers, then transferred him to Varick Immigration Detention Center in Chelsea.

Locked up in a room with 53 other men, Jose was only allowed to leave the room for meals — three times a day. Forced to wear orange jumpsuits, detainees had 6 a.m. wake-up calls and solitary confinement as punishment and endured freezing room temperatures. Jose suffered from a heart condition, yet spent a week without his medication, dropping 35 pounds during the four months he was held. “They treat you like an animal,” he said, “it’s a business, they don’t care about you.”

Detention Watch Network (DWN) reports that there are more than 350 detention facilities nationwide. “ICE only owns and operates seven of them, about 16 are run by private prison corporations, and the rest are county or local jails which ICE contracts for bed space,” said Andrea Black, coordinator for DWN. Black says county and local jails hold 67 percent of all immigrants in detention.

With the decline in the number of incarcerated people, private prison corporations like Correction Corporation of America, GEO Group, Cornell and Management Corporations are turning to providing detention beds for ICE. The government gave ICE $1.7 billion for detention and custody in 2009. And the average cost per detainee is $95 per person per day. “When profit motives are involved in the process,” said Black, “it’s hard to look for alternatives.”

“[Detention] temporarily keeps this population silent — out of sight, out of mind,” said Chia-Chia Wang, coordinator at American Friends Service Committee, “but doesn’t address the real problem.”

“To have a truly humane system, we have to decriminalize immigrants by humanizing them and recognizing people’s rights to move freely across borders,” Gonzales said. “How can you have economic integration in the free movement of goods [with free trade agreements], but then criminalize the free movement of people? It’s a total contradiction.”

This story was published in The Indypendent. Read it here.