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Student visa fraud rampant
Canada places so few restrictions on foreign students and the schools that attract them that it has left the student-visa system open to widespread abuse and fraud, according to an internal government review obtained by The Vancouver Sun. Canada places so few restrictions on foreign students and the schools that attract them that it has left the student-visa system open ... more
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Government help Immigrants Cheat System
The Government were applauded for introducing a citizenship test to insure that foreigners had an understanding of life in Great Britain and to weed out those that had little desire to integrate or settle in to this country. The Government were applauded for introducing a citizenship test to insure that foreigners had an understanding of life in Great Brita... more
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Cho Rejected By Koreans
Margaret Cho recent was chosen "Korean of the Year," but her relationship with the Korean community has not always been so positive for her.
You can see Margaret in "The Cho Show" on VH1. Margaret Cho recent was chosen "Korean of the Year," but her relationship with the Korean community has not always been so p... more -
Ike lays bare immigration paradox
Debate rages on fate of undocumented workers in hurricane-hit areas
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Spain pays jobless immigrants to leave
Move comes as government grapples with downward-spiraling economy
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Tens of thousands of Iraqis to be welcomed in U.S. in '09
The United States has surpassed its goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year and expects more, perhaps tens of thousands, next year, the State Department said on Friday.
The United States expects to admit a minimum of 17,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal 2009, which begins October 1, the department's senior coordinator for refugees said. Thousands more Iraqis and their family members could arrive via a special visa program for people who worked for the United States or its contractors.
(Read the Rest at Link...) The United States has surpassed its goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year and expects more, perhaps tens of thousands, nex... more -
Florida tomato agribusiness giants plead guilty to enslaving Mexican and Guatamala...
"The successful prosecution of five Immokalee residents on slavery charges is satisfying, but the brutal details of their treatment of farm workers show how warped the agricultural labor system is...
This is among six slavery cases the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has helped prosecute, freeing more than 1,000 people. Coalition member Gerardo Reyes asked Tuesday, "How many more workers have to be held against their will before the food industry steps up to the plate and demands that this never - ever - occur again in the produce that ends up on America's tables?"
Also, click here to read the US Department of Justice press release announcing the convictions.
UPDATE #1: US Sen. Bernie Sanders issues a statement on the convictions! Here's an excerpt:
"... I applaud U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy and his staff for successfully prosecuting this case. I also want to congratulate the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for their on-going efforts to protect some of the most exploited workers in our country...
... As a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee I intend to introduce legislation in the very near future which will end a loophole in current law which enables growers to avoid taking responsibility for what happens on their fields when workers are being enslaved.”
September 3, 2008: Yesterday, at federal court in Ft. Myers, FL, farm bosses from Immokalee pleaded guilty to "numerous charges of enslaving Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, brutalizing them and forcing them to work in farm fields." ("Five to plead guilty on charges of enslaving immigrant laborers," Ft. Myers News Press, 9/2/08).
According to the News-Press report:
"The 17-count indictment in the case -- one of the largest slavery prosecutions Southwest Florida has ever seen -- was released in January. It alleges that for two years, Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat agricultural laborers, chained them up, locked them in boxes and trucks on the family property while keeping them in ever-increasing debt.
Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy has called it "slavery, plain and simple."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What words are there in the English language or any language to describe the disgust for this? This is America? I am very disturbed at not knowing what has transpired to get food to my table!
The CIW issued the following statement to press about the convictions:
"The facts that have been reported in this case are beyond outrageous -- workers being beaten, tied to posts, and chained and locked into trucks to prevent them from leaving their boss. How many more workers have to be held against their will before the food industry steps up to the plate and demands that this never -- ever -- occur again in the produce that ends up on America's tables?"
"What's most frustrating is that there is a solution. As US Senator Bernie Sanders said when he visited Immokale, 'Slavery is the extreme. The norm is a disaster.' If we can improve the norm -- guarantee fair wages and humane conditions for all Florida farmworkers -- then we can eliminate the extreme. And there are now several retail food industry leaders who have agreed to do their part to promote social responsibility in Florida agriculture. Yet the leaders of Florida's tomato industry -- who are holding their annual meeting this week at the Ritz Carlton in Naples -- continue to stand in the way of progress. The FTGE needs to start working with Yum Brands, McDonald's, Burger King, and the other major tomato buyers who want to put an end to exploitation in Florida's fields."
Unconscienable... but do Americans on the whole care? "The successful prosecution of five Immokalee residents on slavery charges is satisfying, but the brutal details of their treatme... more -
Migrants die on Canaries journey
The bodies of 13 African migrants have been found in a boat off Spain's Canary Islands, local officials said.
Coast guards spotted the boat, also with 46 survivors on board, about 2km (1.2 miles) off Gran Canaria and escorted it to Puerto de Arguineguin.
In a separate incident, 85 migrants were rescued from a rubber dinghy about 160km south of Malta.
The migrants told their Maltese rescuers that five people had died on the journey and been put overboard.
Switch to dinghies
Spain's interior ministry said some of the migrants who arrived off Gran Canaria told police they had left the west African state of Guinea more than a week ago.
The Spanish Red Cross said it appeared that the fishing boat had lost its way several times and suffered engine problems.
The 13 victims probably died from hypothermia, the Red Cross spokesman said.
Two of the migrants were taken to hospital. The survivors included two women.
Every year thousands of Africans attempt treacherous journeys to the Canary Islands in overcrowded boats.
However, many are now being turned back following increased surveillance of African coastal waters by local and European vessels.
In the second incident, the Maltese army said it had received an alert about the rubber dinghy and diverted a tanker to go to its assistance.
The tanker crew gave the migrants water and food and transferred them to a Maltese army patrol boat.
The 85 migrants included 13 women and a nine-month-old baby.
Observers say illegal migrants from Libya are now using large rubber dinghies able to take up to 80 people, rather than small fibreglass boats with a capacity of 20 people. The bodies of 13 African migrants have been found in a boat off Spain's Canary Islands, local officials said. ... more -
The REAL American Dream
Illegal Immigration.
What is it?
The term wasn't necessarily heard of before this century, or at least it wasn't very important.
It comes from the term "migration". Migration is a basic law of nature that cannot be changed and occurs when times are tough and beings just basically move.
Immigration is like migration, except the migrant moves to stay.
Now we are all hearing that this is made illegal, people are being deported in the hundreds every day. Normal people like us. People who work, who live on this land, who want to actually make something of themselves. People who quite possibly do not know or remember any other land but ours.
This country was founded by immigrants searching for a better life. These fellow immigrants are now making it impossible for other immigrants to do just that. The American Dream has been lost.
There are people out there who are trying to make a difference. Look at it this way:
remember the migration thing? It being a basic law of nature?
When this country becomes tough, people will go where it is nice or do something about it, that's just how it is. Apparently problems in other lands are larger than anyone can deal with right now. In the U.S. there is still a chance. There is talent here. There are people here who can make a difference.
The only problem is that the government has labeled them "illegal".
Join us to make our voices heard. You have to take small steps first before you can get somewhere you want.
Stop the limitation. Support the Dream Act, support The REAL American Dream. Illegal Immigration. What is it? ... more -
Stealth Initiative Threatens California Youth, Immigrants
With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting the first non-white man in the White House.
The Runner Initiative – or the “Safe Neighborhood Act” – is the single worst thing that could happen to California youth since the passage of Proposition 21 allowed 16 year-olds to be tried as adults. Prop. 6 does Prop. 21 one better – it would allow 14-year-old “gang members” to be tried as adults.
This “son of Three Strikes” (Prop. 184) – Prop. 6 was written by Three Strikes author Mike Reynolds -- is like the Stealth Bomber of laws, cruising at the speed of sound past California voters with a payload of nukes aimed at youth and undocumented immigrants. I sat in a roomful of journalists last week and not one had heard of it. This speaks to the lack of beat reporters in California as the newspaper industry implodes. Hundreds of journalists have been laid off or bought out, leaving the public ill-informed about this impending legislative hurricane.
One of Prop. 6’s most troublesome aspects is the gang enhancement stipulation that would add time and other penalties to those identified as gang members.
California’s gang database CAL/GANG, the largest statewide gang database in the country, lists more than 100,000 names. The data is so untrustworthy that former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer refused to forward them to federal authorities. He told the San Francsico Chronicle: “This database cannot and should not be used, in California or elsewhere, to decide whether or not a person is dangerous or should be detained.”
Young people who have been unfairly labeled as gang members would now face the harshest of penalties through a system that is already broken and flawed.
The proposition would prohibit undocumented immigrants charged with certain offenses from being released on bail or on their own recognizance, pending trial. Already under tremendous social pressure from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state and local governments, this is just one more nail in the coffin of immigrant rights in California.
It would create temporary prisons in counties that are currently experiencing overcrowding. Imagine tent prisons housing the overflow of inmates that the Proposition would create. The California prison system is already under fire over everything from inadequate health care to overcrowding caused by mandatory minimum sentences.
Funding priorities would be switched from mental health, drug treatment and community programs. All monies would have to pass through county probation departments before reaching mental health and drug treatment programs. Prop 6 stipulates that the funding “shall be distributed…to assist counties for the expense of housing juvenile offenders.”
The implication here is that money for anything other than housing would be in jeopardy. Rehabilitation programs could be wiped out.
Prop. 6 significantly increases expenditures for criminal justice programs, including net program costs likely to exceed $1 billion, and is estimated to cost an additional $500 million a year after that. This new spending comes during a period in which the state of California is facing a budget crisis of historic proportions, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to ask for steep cuts the Democratic controlled state legislature is refusing to pass. Services like child care centers and nursing homes are feeling the crunch during the impasse.
The state is already on the hook for billions going to prison health care and new education mandates that will require students to pass algebra by the eighth grade.
California simply can’t afford to take money from the general fund – mainly education – to pay for this ill-conceived initiative. With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting ... more -
Iraqi Kurd detainees continue hunger strike in Oxford detention centre
Detainees at an immigration removal centre are beginning their second week on a hunger strike.
About 30 people are refusing food at Campsfield House, near Oxford.
The strike is being led a group of Iraqi Kurds protesting at the threat of being deported back to Iraq, where they say their lives will be at risk.
The UK Border Agency has said it is committed to its policy of removing people who have no legal basis to stay in Britain.
That's funny because Britain has no legal right to be in Iraq.
How about not going invading places if you don't want to deal with refugees? Detainees at an immigration removal centre are beginning their second week on a hunger strike. ... more -
A Dangerous Crisis of Invisible Refugees
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is on track to meet its 2008 goal of taking in 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of next month. That's the good news about the worst refugee crisis in the Middle East in 60 years.
The bad news is that 12,000 people represent a tiny fraction of the vast exodus of Iraqis driven from their homes by the violence and ethnic cleansing unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion. Estimates of their number vary. The widely used figure of 5 million is about one in five. To get that into context: relative to the size of the population, it would equal the forced displacement of almost 60 million Americans.
Why does a crisis of that magnitude barely register in public discourse in the U.S. and make few headlines? For one, the refugees are virtually invisible. There are no Darfur or Rwanda-style refugee camps that produce television images of shock value. More important, the refugees have not fit into the political agenda of the governments in Washington and Baghdad. The narrative is that Iraq is returning to normal.
At the height of the bloodshed, in 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said 50,000 people a month were fleeing from their homes, either to safety across the borders or inside Iraq. While violence has sharply subsided since, political and sectarian divisions remain and there has been no mass return. Only a trickle have been granted permission to settle in the U.S. - a paltry 134 a month in 2007...
by Bernd Debusmann
Complete article: http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService4/idUSI... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is on track to meet its 2008 goal of taking in 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of next month... more -
Boat With 120 Migrants Reported Stranded off Libya
A boat carrying some 300 would-be immigrants arrives on Italy's Lampedusa Island on March 16, 2008. A similar vessel is reported stranded at sea. (Mauricio Esse/AFP/Getty Images)
A boat carrying an estimated 120 illegal immigrants has been reported as stranded without fuel or water between Libya and Malta and no country has so far sent rescuers, a U.N. official said on Thursday.
Neil Falzon, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Malta, said a person on the boat phoned a UNHCR representative on the Italian island of Lampedusa using a satellite phone early on Thursday.
Approximately 25 women and six children were among those on board the vessel, the person told the UNHCR.
Falzon told reporters that authorities in Libya, Italy and Malta had been informed.
"So far it looks like nobody is going out to help them but since they are in the Libyan rescue region, this is primarily a Libyan responsibility," Falzon said, adding the boat was located about 150 nautical miles south of Malta.
Every year hundreds of people, mostly Africans, are believed to drown as they attempt perilous sea crossings to reach Europe in the search of work and money.
Malta has so far this year received 1,800 illegal migrants, almost twice the number of arrivals in the same period of 2007. Malta's government has complained that other EU countries have not stepped in to help by taking some of the migrants whose intention often is to reach mainland Europe.
Emergency services in Italy last week warned that crowded holding centres in that country were near collapse, aggravating a state of emergency declared by the Italian government over the number of immigrants arriving on its shores. A boat carrying some 300 would-be immigrants arrives on Italy's Lampedusa Island on March 16, 2008. A similar vessel is reported ... more -
HIV-positive transgender immigrant died of neglect while chained to bed in US dete...
23-year-old Victoria Arellano, an HIV-positive transgender Mexican immigrant, spent two months succumbing to infections in a US migrant detention centre. She did not get to see a doctor and was not given the appropriate medicine.
Her mother, Olga Arellano, and fellow inmates begged for help after Victoria started vomiting blood in their holding cell, where 105 detainees were crammed onto bunks and mattresses in a space designed for 40. However, the pleas were to no avail and Victoria Arellano died, chained to a hospital bed, three days later.
According to rights activists, Arellano's death shows the failure of immigration officials to deal humanely with HIV-positive inmates among the 30,000 migrants held in detention centers across the United States. Often, HIV-infected migrants are not given their medicine regularly, which is crucial to their survival. As soon as the medication regimen is interrupted, the virus rebounds and causes the immune system to crash.
In Arellano's case, the failure to provide medical help was fatal. According to mother Olga Arellano: ''She [Victoria] told me after a month in detention that she still hadn't seen a doctor. I told her I could send her more medicine, but she said they would not give it to her. They were mostly giving her Tylenol.''
''Her foot was chained to the bed and when she tried to turn over, it would hurt her,'' Arellano said. ''That made it twice as hard. It was so humiliating. No human should have to live their last days like that.' 23-year-old Victoria Arellano, an HIV-positive transgender Mexican immigrant, spent two months succumbing to infections in a US migran... more -
Town struggles with fallout from immigrant's fatal beating
By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth.
Blows had struck the 25-year-old Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore.
His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police.
After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later.
It took almost two weeks for arrests to be made. But on July 25, Colin J. Walsh, 17, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation.
Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged as an adult with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation and an unnamed juvenile was also charged with assault. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that its civil rights division has opened a criminal investigation.
Defense attorneys for two of the teens say Ramirez responded to the name-calling with his own insults, which escalated the confrontation into to a fight that got out of hand.
The words allegedly hurled at Ramirez, and the perceived sentiments behind them, led prosecutors to label his death a hate crime.
Without the ethnic intimidation charges, many in Shenandoah believe the case would not be drawing attention to this depressed northeastern Pennsylvania coal town of 5,000. Residents question whether the attack was racially motivated or just an alcohol-fueled confrontation among kids.
Ramirez was taken off life support two days after the fight. His body was flown back to his mother in Guanajuato, Mexico, with donations from parishioners from Annunciation Church in Shenandoah.
"There's outrage among Anglos and Latinos over what happened, and I think that's representative of the attitude here," said the Rev. George Winne, who is in charge of Hispanic ministries at Annunciation.
Others in town pull over their cars at the sight of a stranger and recite a litany of attacks allegedly perpetrated by Latinos against Anglos. They refuse to give their names but acknowledge that Ramirez did not deserve to die. They say violence has been brewing between the races for some time.
Attorneys for two of the teens deny Ramirez was targeted because of his race.
"Let's call it what it was it was -- a street fight, a chance encounter with a tragic outcome," said Frederick Fanelli, who represents Piekarsky.
Fanelli told CNN he plans to investigate whether Ramirez has a criminal background. He also questions why the engaged father of three was walking on the street with the girl, and the nature of their relationship. Ramirez' fiancee says he was walking her younger sister home.
A lawyer for Walsh said he is equally skeptical about the ethnic intimidation charge. "They called each other names. The victim was calling them obscenities, vulgar names, and they said things back to him that would hurt him," Roger Laguna said. "It just means it was a foul-mouthed argument, not ethnic intimidation."
Ramirez died just as things were falling into place for him and Crystal Dillman, 24, the woman he planned to marry. By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth. ... more -
MUSLIM GIRLS KILLED IN AMERICA?
It is 2008, and here we have this very archaic way of life. I am not one of the millions of Americans that believe all Muslims want is to praise Allah thru various forms of extreme violence. But, a Father handling his female offspring this way has got to go. I have read that if a Muslim girl is say "raped" her family will still consider her at fault for being a victim. and im sure there are numerous other things in that religion and way of life that are throughly behind the times. but this happened on American Soil.
"The killing occurs because these girls have allegedly brought shame on their family. The paradox is that these are individuals who have emancipated themselves.
"These girls embody the American dream. They want to become self-reliant - deciding who they marry, when they marry and how many children they will have."
***
"The Yemen Times just last week published an article insisting that violence against women is necessary for the stability of the family and the society, and invoking Islam to support this view."
"ON July 6, police say, a Pakistani named Chaudhry Rashid strangled his 25-year-old daughter San- deela Kanwal with a Bungee cord in her bedroom because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. This "honor killing" came not in Pakistan, but in Jonesboro, Ga. - a suburb 16 miles outside Atlanta."
"The United Nations estimates that the world sees 5,000 honor killings a year - overwhelmingly in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, but increasingly among Muslim immigrant communities in Europe." It is 2008, and here we have this very archaic way of life. I am not one of the millions of Americans that believe all Muslims want i... more -
A.L.A. (African Living Abroad)
Unique Aritiste, Wunmi, Afro beat Punk Rocker talks about her new album A.L.A. (Africans Living Abroad) while shooting the videos "Crossover" and "Keep it Rocking" Unique Aritiste, Wunmi, Afro beat Punk Rocker talks about her new album A.L.A. (Africans Living Abroad) while shooting the videos ... more
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Food incompatible with history or with our race?
The Northern League (Lega Nord), the xenophobic Italian party which advocates secession from the south -and part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition- proposed to restrict from Lombardy’s historic centers the businesses that are “incompatible with the historical context” -such as Chinese restaurants, kebabs, or any other commercial activity that could clash with their historic districts.
The question would be: are they trying to protect the uniqueness of its heritage intact, or is simply denying the possibility of opportunity to ‘outsiders’? The League is famous for its anti-immigrant -and clearly racist- speeches, interviews, banners and proposals.
For example, one mayor wants to ban illegal immigrants from getting married, another to ban them from being eligible for school scholarships, another to limit Italian citizenship to foreigners with a perfect knowledge of Italian and of the Constitution, and how to forget the recipe for racial harmony proposed by the councillor of the city that me -an outsider- love and consider my second home: if an immigrant commits a crime against an Italian, ten immigrants should be punished for it. The Northern League (Lega Nord), the xenophobic Italian party which advocates secession from the south -and part of Prime Minister Sil... more -
Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?
Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas. With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.
Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian. Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas. With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High dr... more -
Immigrants Find Solace After Storm of Arrests - NYTimes.com
"Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest (Father Ouderkirk). Federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors factory, arresting nearly 400 workers, most of them men, for being in the United States illegally. Within minutes of the raid, with surveillance helicopters buzzing above the leafy streets, the wives and children of Mexican and Guatemalan families began trickling into St. Bridget’s Church, the safest place they knew."
"At a practical level, Father Ouderkirk has hired four temporary staff members to help track the court cases and distribute food and financial aid to the affected families. Along with other religious leaders around Iowa, he had been preparing for a march in defense of immigrants’ rights. St. Bridget’s parish, which has only about 350 members, is spending $500,000 in the relief effort, he said."
In light of many stories that highlight awful religious leaders, I'd like to post this article to simply remind the Current Community the potential an organized church has in furthering social action and change. Churches have organized numbers and motivation (God) on their side, and while many leaders are exploiting that, there are places that not only do good things, but become movements (Dr. MLK Jr's Ebenezer Baptist). "Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest (Father Ouderkirk). Fede... more
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Immigrants
