Two immigrant mothers stood outside the downtown Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office holding a sign that read, s “They have a Dream.” The women stood in silence — they shouted no slogans and sang no chants. They didn’t need to. The lyrics to a song being performed live right in front of them told their story and that of so many others l…
2013 Proposed Immigration Reform Bill
It’s no secret that a quota of 400, order 000 deportations per year drives immigration enforcement in the United States. Will federal immigration reform change this? Will deportations decrease, remain the same—or worse, increase? The strongest federal bill would, of course, qualify all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country for relief. However, the Obama Administration’s discredited deportation programs, like “Se Communities” (known as S-Comm), remain as the biggest obstacles in getting us there. S-Comm turns every police officer into a gateway for deportation by using pre-conviction arrest data to conduct immigration checks. As a result, thousands of families have been torn apart for offenses as minor as driving with out a license and immigrant communities across the country live in constant fear of interacting with local police because of their key role in funneling people into the deportation and detention system.
Outline of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 by tpmdocs
By David Montgomery, Source: WashingtonPost.com
For a buzz-magnet of a bicultural, ambitious young Los Angeles band, La Santa Cecilia had some strange habits. The members didn’t like to travel far by car. Nor did they like to fly. They avoided certain states, especially Arizona. Invitations to gig in foreign countries were a mixed blessing.
When they did venture too far out of their geographic comfort zone (ground zero: historic Olvera Street, “La Placita Olvera,” in downtown L.A.), the lineup tended to change. Someone instead of co-founder Jose “Pepe” Carlos would play the accordion.
“For us it was like, if something happens to this guy, what are we going to tell his parents?” says Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez, the lead singer.
But as of Wednesday in Washingon — 25 years after Carlos’s family brought him to the United States illegally from Mexico at the age of 5 — he and the band are done hiding and pretending. La Santa Cecilia plans to arrive in town before noon — by plane, after a show in Tucson — and perform at an afternoon rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol, where organizers say “tens of thousands” of demonstrators will call for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
The just-released music video from Los Angeles-based La Santa Cecilia shares the anguish that the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants experience in the United States because of their precarious status. For the band members, “ICE El Hielo,” is more than just a heartfelt song tells of their community. La Santa Cecilia’s vocalist,…
hen the band La Santa Cecilia and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network approached filmmaker Alex Rivera to create a new music video a few months ago, he jumped at the chance. “El Hielo” translates to “The Ice” in English—and references the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, also known as ICE, and its actions that split families apar…
They toiled to repair and rebuild the homes, s apartments and businesses that Hurricane Sandy damaged. They ran into areas where danger lurked — contaminated water, downed power lines, hidden debris capable of puncturing skin. And while the day laborers of Bay Parkway Community Job Center helped in the recovery of Hurricane Sandy, their own facility laid in shambles. Sandy’s angry, unforgiving winds shook the old center, an 8-by-12 wooden shack, off its foundation, blowing it 100 feet away, causing major damage. But with grants from several foundations and the work of the laborers, the center was brought back to life. It is a renaissance of sorts for the center — now a 40-foot trailer the workers painted in red and yellow, the colors of the old shack — and also a new incarnation for the laborers and their place in the larger community.
If the current congressional push for immigration reform were to fail, however, a presidential pardon for undocumented immigrants with no criminal history might be Obama’s last ditch alternative to prosecutorial discretion. Rather than scaling back on detentions, Obama could instantly–and permanently– legalize millions of illegal immigrants….
As Congress considers major revisions to federal immigration laws, legislators in a few states are trying to block the federal government’s power to deport immigrants who land in their jails. The efforts to pass so-called Trust Acts are essentially the polar opposite of laws passed in Arizona and elsewhere to encourage illegal immigrants to leave t…