the reality tunnel

It’s dangerous to oversimplify what are ultimately complicated policy issues, like immigration, not to mention the huge variety of experience that immigrants face, but most of the public debate on this, and many other issues, seems founded on information, that, even at a basic level is pretty misinformed.  This diagram about different pathways to legal residency and citizenship is an example of helping people understand the basics of policy in a really clear way.

I’ve  always loved things like this.  Recently, I saw a great breakdown of the different positions of McCain in Obama that really concisely summarized the candidates rhethoric, their voting record, and analysis from non-profit issue advocacy groups.  This was in Glamour magazine, but it’s the kind of coverage that I think has been sorely missing in other media I’ve seen.  I’d rather see lots more of this issue-based breakdown, rather than being overwhelmed with manipulative identity politics or Monday Night Football-style coverage of campaign strategy.

As a kid, I read Zillions Magazine, who, like many other print publications, has since gone out of print.  It had a lot of similar diagrams that broke down the dynamics of finance and marketing for youth, trying to help make them critical consumers.

Seeing this flowchart got me pretty stoked and made me start thinking about a How do people get and stay incarcerated in Monroe County flowchart.

Here are two new instances of technology (both via boingboing) that seem to really aid social justice movements.

Cause Caller is a VOIP tool that lets you define a cause and contacts related to that cause (for instance, congressional representatives on a panel investigating a particular issue).  Users can then enter their phone number and the application will call them back and connect them with the different contacts.

ICED (I Can End Deportation) is a video game made by the human rights group Breakthrough that, according to Breakthrough’s website:

puts you in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights. These laws affect all immigrants: legal residents, those fleeing persecution, students and undocumented people.

In researching the details of a museum that my father wanted to go to on our trip in San Francisco, I read this.  It’s crazy that, more than 100 years later, the motivations for limiting immigration and the use of legislation to exclude certain classes of immigrants persists.  The faces of the undesireable immigrants is all that has changed:

During the 1870s, an economic downturn resulted in serious unemployment problems, and led to politically motivated outcries against Asian immigrants who would work for low wages. In reaction to states starting to pass immigration laws, in 1882 the federal government asserted its authority to control immigration and passed the first immigration law, barring lunatics and felons from entering the country. Later in 1882, the second immigration law barred Chinese, with a few narrow exceptions. Imperial China was too weak and impoverished to exert any influence on American policy. This law was originally for 10 years, but was extended and expanded and not repealed until 1943, when China was our ally in World War II. However, only 105 Chinese were allowed in legally each year, so the exception process actually continued into the 1950’s. Chinese were not on a equal immigration footing with other nationalities until immigration laws were completely rewritten in the mid 1960’s.

link

We stayed in a hotel last night, under really random circumstances.  A friend of friends from DC was at the show.  She had recently moved to Las Creces to work as a union organizer doing community and university outreach in an attempt to improve wages and working conditions for workers at the state university in New Mexico.  The union had put her up in a local hotel and she shared it with us.  She was telling us a little about the work that she did and how she had encountered something called colonias, which are exploitative real estate sold largely to immigrants that are totally without hookups to electrical, water, and sewer grids.  The first thing I found was this FAQ by the Texas state government that describes more about Colonias.

I stumbled across this quote on the Internet.  It’s from Karl Rove, allegedly uttered at a Republican Women’s convention when talking about the benefits of Bush’s immigration policy.  I came across the quote in the context of an editorial on the conservative National Review website.

The editorial’s commentary is pretty interesting:

It is precisely Rove’s son (and my own, and those of the rest of us in the educated elite) who should work picking tomatoes or making beds, or washing restaurant dishes, or mowing lawns, especially when they’re young, to help them develop some of the personal and civic virtues needed for self-government. It’s not that I want my kids to make careers of picking tomatoes; Mexican farmworkers don’t want that either. But we must inculcate in our children, especially those likely to go on to high-paying occupations, that there is no such thing as work that is beneath them.

…

This is why the president’s “willing worker/willing employer” immigration extravaganza is morally wrong — it’s not just that it will cost taxpayers untold billions, or that it will beggar our own blue-collar workers, or that it will compromise security, or that it will further dissolve our sovereignty. It would do all that, of course, but most importantly it would change the very nature of our society for the worse, creating whole occupations deemed to be unfit for respectable Americans, for which little brown people have to be imported from abroad. In other words, mass immigration, even now, is moving us toward an unequal, master-servant society.

The use of the phrase “educated elite” gives me the fear, and the editorial’s ultimate conclusion seems  to call for a more closed-bordered approach to immigration.  Also, the idea that we don’t already have a master-servant society and attributing this toward mass immigration (um, slavery, colonialism anybody?) seems to make this argument rather rethorical.  Still, it shows that immigration is a complicated issue, even within Republican ranks.  Rove’s comment is disgusting and describes, for me; the desire to preserve resources and privilege for those who have it, at all costs, that I find so frightening.  However, I’m also really uncomfortable with the editorial’s idea that you could equate labor that a young, wealthy person could do voluntarily and temporarily, with the labor reality of many undocumented workers.  I’m not denying that in the history of many families with wealth, there is a working class history, and individuals who made some significant sacrifices for their families.  However, the rags to riches mythology that many conservatives (and punk kids for that matter) use to justify the preservation of resources and privilege is an incomplete narrative.  There are a lot of reasons why some people have been able to accumulate and preserve wealth while others have not, beyond just personal industriousness.  If we’re going to value hard work as a culture, we owe it to ourselves to do that in the open context of those other, often unfair and ugly, factors.

Link

According to a Jan. 2 ACLU news release from the ACLU, the discussion will contain a “panel consisting of specialists on central aspects of the current national debate over immigration to the United States and their rights and responsibilities.”

Link to a Bloomington Alternative article about the forum

Here’s some stuff that I got over e-mail talking about upcoming national days of action for immigrants rights and about some of the proposed immigration legislation. I’m not sure if its all still current or not.

*******National Protest*******
May 1st and April 10th:

Stop the anti-immigrant House resolution 4437

Stop all attacks against all immigrants

Stop criminalization of immigrant communities

A path to citizenship, not a temporary guest worker program without amnesty

Family reunification measures

Worker protections

Protest leaders are asking for Latinos and all affected by immigration
reform bills to remain as idle as possible for the day, no shopping, no
going to school, work, social activities, this is a day for the
government to realize our impact on the community so as to help alter
the immigration reform bill proposals to acknowledge the nation's
dependency on our productivity.
Full rights for all immigrants!

********S.2454********
*Sponsor: *Sen Frist, William
H.http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/?&Db=d109&querybd=@FIELD(FLD003+@4((@1(Sen+Frist++William+H.))+01336))>[TN]
(introduced 3/16/2006)

*Related Bills:*
H.R.4437http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR04437:>
*Latest Major Action: *4/4/2006 Senate floor actions. Status: Considered by
Senate.

*SUMMARY AS OF:*
3/16/2006–Introduced.

Securing America’s Borders Act - Provides for increases in the numbers of
federal immigration enforcement-related positions and technological assets
for use along the borders, including Department of Defense (DOD) equipment.

Provides for: (1) border control facilities construction; (2) land border
port of entry construction and improvements; (3) border patrol checkpoints;
and (4) fencing, barrier, and road construction and improvements in the Yuma
and Tucson sectors.

Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to develop: (1) a
comprehensive land and maritime border surveillance plan; (2) a National
Strategy for Border Security; and (3) a southern border study.

Directs the Secretary of State to: (1) report to Congress on improving the
exchange of North American security information; (2) work with Canada and
Mexico to assist Guatemala and Belize in border security activities; and (3)
work with appropriate countries to share information and track Central
American gang members.

Provides for biometric data (including entry-exit data collection),
document, and other border security enhancements.

Makes all aliens inadmissible on terrorism-related grounds ineligible for
asylum. Increases the class of aliens ineligible on security-related grounds
for cancellation of removal or voluntary departure.

Makes alien members of criminal street gangs inadmissible and deportable.
Denies temporary protected status to gang members.

Revises alien smuggling provisions. Directs the Secretary to establish the
American Local and Interior Enforcement Needs (ALIEN) Task Force to respond
to the use of government transportation infrastructure to further unlawful
alien trafficking.

Provides a mandatory minimum sentence for carrying or using a firearm during
an alien smuggling crime.

Revises illegal entry, reentry after removal, and related criminal penalty
provisions. Makes it a crime to knowingly be illegally present in the United
States.

Revises passport and visa provisions. Criminalizes: (1) trafficking in
passports; (2) executing a scheme to defraud a person in connection with any
federal immigration matter; and (3) knowing use of any immigration document
issued or designed for use by another.

Makes an alien convicted of a passport or visa violation inadmissible and
removable.

Revises and increases penalties for marriage fraud.

Continues the institutional removal program (IRP) and authorizes its
expansion to all states.

Revises voluntary departure provisions.

Prohibits the knowing sale of firearms to, or the possession of firearms by,
an alien parolee.

Establishes a ten-year statute of limitations for specified
immigration-related offenses.

States that no provision of law shall be construed to provide immigration
benefits to an alien who poses a security threat, is under investigation for
removal, or for whom background checks have not been completed.

Provides reimbursement to states and local government for costs associated
with: (1) processing undocumented criminal aliens through the criminal
justice system; and (2) immigration enforcement training.

Authorizes grants for Indian tribes with lands adjacent to an international
border of the United States that have been adversely affected by illegal
immigration.

Revises alien registration provisions.

Requires, with exceptions, mandatory detention of an alien apprehended
illegally seeking to enter the United States at a U.S. port of entry or land
or maritime border as of October 1, 2006. Provides that during the interim
period an alien must post a bond of at least $5,000 for release pending a
removal hearing.

Includes in the definition of aggravated felony a third drunk driving
conviction.

Requires expedited removal of an illegal alien apprehended within 100 miles
of the border and within 14 days of entry.

Prohibits certain sex offenders from sponsoring an immigrant applicant.

Affirms state law enforcement authority to assist (including transfer to
federal custody) the federal government in enforcing U.S. immigration laws
during the normal course of law enforcement duties. Provides for related
federal reimbursement of state costs.

Provides for listing of immigration violators in the National Crime
Information Center Database.

Makes it unlawful to: (1) knowingly hire, recruit, or refer an unauthorized
alien; or (2) hire, recruit, or refer a person without complying with
identification and employment documentation verification requirements.

Directs the Secretary to implement, and sets forth the provisions of, an
electronic employment verification system.

Establishes in the Treasury the Employer Compliance Fund.

Provides for visa backlog reductions. Authorizes unused visa number
recapture. Exempts immediate relatives of U.S. citizens from the annual cap
on family-based immigration. Increases: (1) employment-based green cards;
and (2) per-country limits for family-sponsored and employment-based
immigrants. Reallocates immigrant visas.

Revises student visa and advanced degree visa provisions.

Makes the J-1 visa (medical services in underserved areas) program
permanent.

Consolidates immigration appeals into the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit.

Authorizes the Board of Immigration Appeals to reverse an immigration
judge’s removal decision without remand.

Eliminates judicial review of visa revocation.

Authorizes reinstatement of a prior removal order against an alien illegally
reentering the United States.

Requires an alien applying for withholding of removal to establish that his
or her life or freedom would be threatened in the country of return, and
that race, religion, nationality, or political or social group would be a
central factor in such threat.

Subjects removal appeals to an initial certification of reviewability
process by a single judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

Limits attorney awards in final orders of removal.

Requires, with exceptions, the Board of Immigration Appeals to hear cases in
three-member panels.

********H.R.4437********
*Title:* To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen
enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for
other purposes.
*Sponsor: *Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James,
Jr.http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/?&Db=d109&querybd=@FIELD(FLD003+@4((@1(Rep+Sensenbrenner++F.+James++Jr.))+01041))>[WI-5]
(introduced 12/6/2005)
Cosponsors http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR04437:@@@P> (35)
*Related Bills:*
H.RES.610http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00610:>
, H.RES.621 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00621:>,
S.2454http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN02454:>
*Latest Major Action: *1/27/2006 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read
twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

*SUMMARY AS OF:*
12/6/2005–Introduced.

Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of
2005 - Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to: (1) take all
appropriate actions, including development of a national border strategy, to
maintain operational control over the U.S. international land and maritime
borders; (2) report on cross-border security agreements with Mexico and
Canada; (3) provide for biometric data enhancements; (4) report on the One
Face at the Border Initiative; (5) increase port of entry inspection
personnel and canine detection teams; (6) report on the airspace security
mission’s impact on the National Capital Region; (7) reimburse private
owners along the border for certain property damage; (8) establish at least
one Border Patrol unit for the Virgin Islands; (9) report on Central
American gang travel across the U.S.-Mexico border; and (10) deploy
radiation portal monitors at U.S. ports of entry to screen inbound cargo for
nuclear and radiological material.

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) with respect to alien
smuggling and illegal entry and presence to: (1) revise the definition of
aggravated felony; (2) provide mandatory minimum sentences on smuggling
convictions, and expand seizure and forfeiture authority; (3) make illegal
U.S. presence a crime; (4) increases penalties for improper U.S. entry and
for marriage and immigration-related entrepreneurship fraud; (5) provide
mandatory minimum sentences for aliens convicted of reentry after removal;
(6) impose on smugglers the same sentences that the aliens they have
smuggled would receive; (7) include among smuggling crimes the carrying or
use of a firearm during such activity; and (8) revise voluntary departure
provisions.

Directs the Secretary: (1) and the Secretary of Defense to develop a plan to
increase the availability of Department of Defense (DOD) surveillance
equipment along the U.S. international land and maritime borders; (2) to
assess border security vulnerabilities on Department of Interior land
directly adjacent to the U.S. border; (3) conduct a training exercise on
border security information sharing; (4) establish a Border Security
Advisory Committee; and (5) establish a university-based Center of
Excellence for Border Security.

Authorizes the Secretary to permit the use of DHS grants for border security
activities.

Expresses the sense of Congress with respect to border security cooperation
with sovereign Indian Nations.

Requires the mandatory detention of illegal aliens apprehended at a U.S.
port of entry or along the U.S. land or maritime borders. Permits release
with notice to appear only if the alien: (1) is not a security risk; and (2)
provides a specified bond. Denies admission to the nationals of a country
that refuses or delays acceptance of its nationals ordered removed from the
United States.

Requires that the Secretary place an alien (other than from Mexico or
Canada) who has not been admitted or paroled into expedited removal if
apprehended within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of
unauthorized entry.

Directs the Secretary to take specified actions to ensure coordination of
DHS border security efforts.

Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish in DHS an Office of
Air and Marine Operations whose primary mission shall be to prevent the
entry of terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism,
narcotics, and other contraband into the United States.

Directs the Secretary to transfer to United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement all functions of the Customs Patrol Officers unit operating on
the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation (the “Shadow Wolves” unit). Authorizes
the Secretary to establish within United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement additional Customs Patrol units to operate on Indian lands.

Bars an alien: (1) deportable on terrorist grounds from receiving
withholding of removal; (2) convicted of an aggravated felony, unlawful
procurement of citizenship, or domestic violence, stalking, or child abuse
from admissibility; (3) convicted of an aggravated felony from refugee or
asylee status adjustment; (4) removable on terrorist grounds from becoming
naturalized; and (5) from being naturalized while in removal proceedings.

Revises and enhances detention provisions for certain dangerous aliens
subject to removal, including establishment of a detention review process
for cooperating aliens.

Increases penalties and sets mandatory minimum sentences for aliens who fail
to comply with removal provisions.

Makes an alien deportable for: (1) three or more drunk driving convictions;
and (2) social security number and identification fraud.

Authorizes (and reimburses) local sheriffs or sheriff coalitions in
specified counties along the southern border to enforce the immigration laws
and to transfer illegal aliens to federal custody. Establishes in the
Treasury the Designated County Law Enforcement Account.

Makes an alien inadmissible for U.S. entry if: (1) such alien has been
deported for criminal street gang participation; or (2) the consular officer
or the Secretary knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that such alien
is a member of a criminal street gang seeking U.S. entry in furtherance of
gang-related crimes or activities, or is a member of a designated criminal
street gang. Makes an alien deportable who: (1) is a street gang member
convicted of committing or attempting to commit a gang crime; or (2) is
determined by the Secretary to be a member of a designated criminal street
gang. Authorizes the Attorney General to designate a group or association as
a criminal street gang. Requires mandatory detention of alien gang members
subject to removal. Makes such aliens ineligible for asylum and protection
from removal to certain countries.

Authorizes expedited removal for aliens inadmissible for security or
criminal grounds.

Makes sexual abuse of a minor an aggravated felony for immigration purposes.

Directs the Secretary to establish, and sets forth the provisions for, an
employment eligibility verification system. Expands the employment
eligibility verification system to include: (1) previously hired
individuals; and (2) recruitment and referral. Sets forth civil and criminal
penalty provisions for noncompliance.

Provides for: (1) voluntary employer verification utilizing such system two
years after enactment of this Act for previously hired individuals; (2)
mandatory employer verification three years after enactment of this Act by
federal, state, and local governments, and the military for employees not
verified under such system working at federal, state or local government
buildings, military bases, nuclear energy sites, weapons sites, airports, or
critical infrastructure sites; and (3) mandatory employer verification six
years after enactment of this Act for all employees not previously verified
under such system.

Makes employer participation in the basic pilot program mandatory two years
after enactment of this Act.

Authorizes the Board of Immigration Appeals to reverse an immigration
judge’s removal decision without remand.

Eliminates judicial review of visa revocation.

Authorizes reinstatement of a prior removal order against an alien illegally
reentering the United States.

Requires an alien applying for withholding of removal to establish that his
or her life or freedom would be threatened in the country of return, and
that race, religion, nationality, or political or social group would be a
central factor in such threat.

Subjects removal appeals to an initial certification of reviewability
process by a single court of appeals judge.

Requires all nonimmigrant applicants to waive any right to: (1) review or
appeal a determination of inadmissibility at port of entry; or (2) contest,
other than through asylum, any action for removal.