About 100 day laborers, find their families and others gathered Tuesday at the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center for a Thanksgiving celebration. Workers took a moment to listen to Jose Calderon, emeritus professor of sociology at Pitzer College, who spoke about the Thanksgiving holiday, said Suzanne Foster, the executive director of the center, which
El huracán Sandy constituyó el desastre natural de mayores proporciones para la comunidad mexicana en la historia reciente de Estados Unidos, aseguró hoy el cónsul de México en Nueva York, s Carlos Sada. En una reunión con la secretaria del Trabajo del gobierno federal de Estados Unidos, Hilda Solís, el diplomático mexicano prometió por ello que con
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis visited a day worker center on Staten Island that has been involved in cleanup efforts after Sandy. She toured the Midland Beach neighborhood on Thursday. Solis said the federal government is trying to reach different parts of the population to let them know about opportunities arising through recovery efforts following Sandy. “The President … reiterated the importance and significance of us working on a broader scale to make sure that we really reach the vulnerable populations, online that we really provide jobs, ” she said. “This is an opportunity to help build back infrastructure, housing, and to help provide incentives for more economic development.” The Department of Labor gave a 27 million dollar grant to the New York State Department of Labor to assist with cleanup and recovery efforts earlier this month.
A San Francisco state lawmaker plans to introduce a revised version of the TRUST Act, the measure that would restrict the ability of law enforcement agencies in California from enforcing federal immigration laws. Governor Brown vetoed the original bill in September. San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) intends to unveil the new Trust Act on Monday. His office has not yet said what revisions have been made. Activists have billed the TRUST Act as an “anti-Arizona” law aimed at keeping undocumented immigrants arrested for minor offenses from being turned over to immigration officials for deportation. The proposed law was intended to counter the federal Se Communities program, which shares law enforcement fingerprint data with the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It would require local police to release people who have been arrested once bond is posted, as long as they have no serious convictions.
Gavino Hernández observaba con tristeza ayer lo que quedó en el interior de una pequeña casita roja de madera donde logró encontrar trabajo como jornalero durante varios años. “Nos sentimos en la ruina. No nos queda nada”, murmuró el mexicano indocumentado, más conocido como “Camilo” y quien hace trabajos esporádicos de construcción. “Queremos que los compañeros sigan aquí todavía. En las esquinas, haciendo de jornalero, uno corre mucho peligro”. Hernández hablaba de “la casita”, una diminuta estructura de madera con una puerta amarilla que alentó a cientos de jornaleros durante más de una década en el barrio de Bensonhurst, en Brooklyn. Allí se reunían pronto por las mañanas, se organizaban y eran recogidos por empresas de construcción que necesitan mano de obra barata durante el día. Los vientos huracanados de la supertormenta Sandy, sin embargo, arrancaron de cuajo el pequeño centro y lo trasladaron unos 50 metros al norte, en el centro comercial de Ceasar Bay.
Decenas de organizaciones defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes en California comenzaron a presionar al gobernador Jerry Brown para que firme el Acta de Confianza, y la ley pueda entrar en vigor en enero. El proyecto de ley AB1081 vetado por el gobernador en septiembre pasado, treat volverá a ser presentado por tercera vez. Aún no se conocen los detalles de la nueva versión pero Carlos Alcalá, portavoz del asambleísta demócrata de San Francisco, Tom Ammiamo confirmó que será este lunes cuando se reintroduzca de nuevo. En septiembre pasado, el gobernador vetó el Acta de Confianza, un proyecto de ley que hubiera permitido que las cárceles locales no mantuvieran detenidos a petición del Servicio de Migración y Aduanas a los inmigrantes indocumentados a quienes no se les encuentran delitos. Al mismo tiempo buscaba poner freno a los excesos cometidos por el programa federal Comunidades Seguras (S-Comm)
As Los Angeles and California are set to lead national reform, lessons learned from Chicago and elsewhere Saturday Event Featuring Cook County Commissioner Garcia, MALDEF President, and Legal Experts Make Case for Local Policy What: Loyola Law School Forum: Immigrant Communities, Policing, and Safety When: Saturday, December 1, 2012. 12:00pm – 3:00pm Where: Loyola Law School,…
A dozen day laborers gathered on a recent evening at an immigrant day worker center in Staten Island’s Port Richmond neighborhood. Some have already started doing clean-up and repairing people’s homes in Sandy’s wake. Others expected to do so in the coming weeks and months. They were at the center to take part in a training session. “We want to ma
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office’s application for the federal 287(g) program still is pending but could be placed on the back-burner due to a lack of funding. “We’ve got an application on file, but it’s still pending in Washington,” Sheriff Roger Garrison said. “But the Atlanta office told us that, currently, there’s not enough funding for new programs, so the application still is on file.” Garrison said he still hopes to be approved for the federal program, which is part of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The program gives state and local law enforcement the authority to perform functions of immigration law enforcement through an agreement. When it was first implemented, Garrison wasn’t interested in the program, because the county doesn’t have the capability to hold illegal immigrants for extended periods. It was through communications with another sheriff in North Carolina that Garrison found out that a clause can be added to the agreement that would require Immigration
The net cast for illegal immigrants in Sonoma County shrank dramatically in the past year — with far fewer people turned over to the federal government for being in the country without permission. The reasons for that change are hard to pinpoint. But it corresponds chronologically to a decision that local law enforcement agencies — urged on by advocates for illegal immigrants’ rights — made last year to accept Mexican consular cards as valid identification. That meant officers in the field who were confident of the identity of a person they contacted could check them against records, and did not always have to take that person to jail to find out if they were wanted or otherwise posed a threat. Since the new policy took effect, local authorities have turned over just under half as many people as they previously did to Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the federal agency’s Se Communities program, according to data the agency provided.