Immigration

Immigrant Voter Registration Booms

Adam Doster — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:02:10 -0700

Today, the Tribune provides an update on the voter outreach taking place in immigrant communities throughout the region:

During the last three months, immigrant groups in Illinois have registered about 24,000 new voters, part of an aggressive last push to influence next month's elections. [...]

A campaign in Illinois and six other states launched last week to register 1 million new Latino voters hopes to sway 46 Electoral College votes, organizers said. In solidly Democratic Illinois, activists are targeting suburban areas where potentially close congressional elections could lead to more support in Congress for Immigration reforms. Nearly 200,000 voters in Illinois have registered since January, bringing the state total to 7.4 million, Illinois State Board of Elections figures show.

As we noted in our feature last week, the Illinois Campaign for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) is a leader in these campaigns, registering many of those 24,000 voters through its Democracy Project Fellows program. Their work isn't stopping at the October 7 registration deadline, either. The Tribune reports the organization is launching a $500,000 get-out-the-vote effort next week featuring phone banks, mailers, and offers to drive voters to polling sites Nov. 4.

Fate Of Agriprocessors Detainees Uncertain

Angela Caputo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:07:24 -0700

The bad news goes on and on for some former Agriprocessors employees who, after nearly five months, are still detained in Florida on criminal charges since being swept up in a federal raid on the Postville, IA meatpacking plant last spring.

Yesterday, the U.S. Labor Department appealed to a federal judge to allow the agency to depose nine men to aid in an investigation of illegal labor practices at the plant. The call for cooperation is a last-ditch effort to pump the men for information before they're deported on October 10. They, along with roughly 131 other former Agriprocessors employees, were sentenced last spring after a judge found them guilty of falsifying work documents.

The Labor Department appears to be building a case around the pay (or should we say lack-of-pay) practices at plant. The raid didn't scare Agriprocessors management into improving it's workplace practices. Instead, a subsequent child labor investigation ensued. Then a wage-garnishing scheme was cooked up to attract new low-wage workers. Testimony from the detainees appears crucial to the Department's ability to bring charges against the company, The Iowa Independent reports:

“The petitioner … is presently unable to bring the action [against Agriprocessors] because additional evidence from employees regarding hours they worked without pay is needed,” Andrea Christensen Luby, attorney for the (U.S. Labor Department) agency, wrote in the motion filed Tuesday.

In question are employment details, including hours worked, wages, job duties, and the availability of protective gear. Should the government choose to use the men as part of an ongoing investigation, it's unclear what their fate would be.

Lake County Crackdown Leaves Immigrants On Edge

Angela Caputo — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:15:19 -0700

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran has sent a shock wave through an already fearful immigrant community by announcing that he intends to step up measures to have undocumented people deported. By releasing the outcomes of internal audit of the county's prison population - which revealed that roughly 20 percent of inmates are foreign born - Curran expressed hope that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will give priority to the county's application for "287(g)" status.

That designation would allow local authorities who are investigating violent crimes, human smuggling, gang activity, sex offenses, drug smuggling, or money laundering cases to initiate the deportation process typically handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So far, 50 municipalities across the country have been awarded the status. While Waukegan and Carpentersville have also applied, Lake County is hoping to become the first here in Illinois.

The audit findings were presented with a jarring message from Curran who said he's ready to put an end to "the terror inflicted by many of these illegal aliens," which he blamed, in part, on Mayor Daley and Cook County officials who have advised local authorities to stay out of immigration issues. After interviewing a majority of Lake County's 137 foreign-born inmates, federal authorities found that only 75 had committed offenses or had an immigration status that was relevant under 287(g).

"Sheriff Curran is lumping together murderers and people who were caught driving without a license ... That concerns me," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "He's messaging that all immigrants are dangerous and waste taxpayer money."

Here's the breakdown on offenses among the Lake County inmates by offense and origin, per Curran:

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol (DUI) 25; Aggravated DUI 24; Sex Offenses 22; Drug Offenses 18; Murder 7; Burglary 7; Gun Offenses 4 (not including murders); Theft 3; Home Invasion 3; Robbery 2; Other offenses 7 (...)

105 were from Mexico; 5 were from Poland; 4 were from Puerto Rico (UST); 3 were from El Salvador; 2 were from Canada; 2 were from Honduras; 1 was from the Philippines; 1 was from Columbia; 1 was from Vietnam; 1 was from Pakistan; 1 was from Guatemala; 1 was from Cuba; 1 was from Russia; 1 was from Germany; 1 was from Barbados; 7 inmates were unable or unwilling to provide their birth country to booking staff.

Latinos -- which make up the bulk of Lake County's foreign born inmate population and comprising roughly 19 percent of the population -- increasingly feel under attack in Illinois, Hoyt said. The anxiety even extends to those living in Cook County, which is designated an immigrant sanctuary.

"They're feeling very fearful and they think the country has turned on them," said Hoyt. Anxiety has been heightened by a series of federal sweeps, including one in the Chicago where 144 undocumented were detained earlier this week. A report released by the Pew Hispanic Center yesterday noted that the sentiment in Chicago follows a national trend. The public policy research institution found that 57 percent of Latinos surveyed worry that they, a friend, or a family member will be deported, up from 53 percent last year.

Feds "Sweep" Up 144 Chicago-Area Immigrants

Angela Caputo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:27:28 -0700

The number of immigrants detained by the Chicago office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) grew by 144 this week -- bringing the total since last October to 1,597. The Associated Press reported on the latest round of Chicago-area "sweeps" this afternoon, but details remain sketchy.

What's known is that federal officers targeted 110 undocumented immigrants who failed to appear for hearings or who were ordered by a judge to leave the country. It's unclear why an additional 34 illegal immigrants were targeted for detention. All of the people taken into custody were from the Chicago area or Northwest Indiana.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) released the following statement this afternoon condemning the detentions:

ICIRR questions what good can come to our country from such operations, especially when the targeted immigrants may have U.S. citizen families and other stakes in the community which are disrupted with each arrest.

ICIRR also expressed concern that the current round of sweeps is just the beginning of more raids, which could ultimately target 457,000 immigrants in the region for failing to show up to court.

And it's not without good reason.

Federal efforts to scoop up large groups of undocumenteds have become so widespread that social workers and activists have begun counseling immigrants on how to put together kits -- including passports for U.S.-born children, attorney numbers, and other legal information -- to give them a better chance of not being separated from their families.

Iowa Meatpacker May Lose Kosher Certification

Adam Doster — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:31:50 -0700

There's more fallout from the recent revelations that Iowa-based Agriprocessors Inc. -- the nation’s largest kosher meatpacker, which gained notoriety after a vicious Immigration Customs & Enforcement raid in May -- allegedly hired child laborers.

Via the New York Times, the company now might lose its kosher certification:

Rabbi Menachem Genack, who is in charge of kosher supervision for the Orthodox Union, the major kosher certifying organization in the United States, said he had set a deadline of “several weeks” for Agriprocessors to name a new chief executive, or the group would suspend supervision of kosher production at its plants.

“Because of the new charges in the state of Iowa, we believe it is in the best interest of the kosher consuming public to have new management with a new C.E.O., that will give people a new sense of confidence that all laws and regulations are being completely complied with,” Rabbi Genack said in an interview on Wednesday.

Losing the designation could destroy the company, which sells an estimated $80 million worth of kosher products annually. For more on the controversy in Postville, check out the ongoing reportig by Lynda Waddington, who has been covering the story closely for the Iowa Independent.

As Fees Go Up, Citizenship Applications Plummet

Angela Caputo — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:44:22 -0700

Higher fees have led to a sharp decline in the number of people applying for citizenship, according to a report released by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) today.

The proof is in the numbers, said ICIRR executive director Joshua Hoyt (right) at a press conference this morning. He pointed out that the number of citizenship applications fielded by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has, on average, dwindled by more than 50 percent during the first six months of this year when compared with the same period in 2007.

During the three years prior to 2007, there was actually an uptick in the number of people seeking citizenship in Illinois. Perhaps that's because the state has been a leader in crafting immigrant-friendly policies, like the New Americans Initiative, as was pointed out in a report by the Progressive States Network (PSN). Asked yesterday about the group's research, PSN policy director Nathan Newman told us: "It seems that [Illinois officials] aren't so far from remembering where their grandparents came from."

For starters, ICIRR is calling on the federal government to scale back the current citizenship application fee of $655 a person. They want to see the fee set at $200 a person, which is the equivalent of a week's pay at the federal minimum wage. (To put in context, the fee was only $225 when Bush took office less than eight years ago).

"Citizenship shouldn't be only for the rich and the educated," said Flavia Jimenez, who authored the ICIRR report.

More money also needs to be set aside for classes that prepare future citizens for the tougher citizenship exam that's set to go into circulation in October, Hoyt said.

He further stated that it's about time that Congress began catching up with the Land of Lincoln. While Illinois and other states with large immigrant populations have made progress in opening the door to education, health care for immigrants, Hoyt said that regressive federal policies -- such as citizenship fee increases -- have "paralyzed immigration reform."

Child Labor In Postville

Adam Doster — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:13:46 -0700

Earlier this year, immigrants rights advocates voiced their outrage over the shameful treatment of 400 undocumented workers who were arrested by Immigration Customs & Enforcement during a raid of Agriprocessors, a Postville, Iowa kosher meatpacking plant. The detainees were separated from their families and herded like livestock into a cattle ground. Sadly, these immigrant workers were no stranger to human rights violations on the day of the raid. The AP has the story:

The owner and managers of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant were charged Tuesday with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging that they hired minors and in some cases had children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws, meat grinders and power shears. [...]

"All of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens. It was likewise shared knowledge among the defendants that many of those workers were minors," the affidavit said.

Amazingly, these violations were all amassed over an eight-month stretch and none of the employees were paid wages for overtime.

Anti-Immigration Talk Is Cheap, Study Finds

Angela Caputo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:37:06 -0700

Despite all the tough talk, the wave of anti-immigration rhetoric at the national level in recent years has done little more than play politics in the name of the undocumented, according to a report by the nonprofit Progressive States Network.

In their state-by-state look at recent immigration-related policies adopted across the country, the group found that lawmakers dealing with some of the smallest undocumented immigrant populations themselves have imposed the most punitive anti-immigrant measures. On the flip side, lawmakers in states with large immigrant populations -- such as Illinois -- have established some of the most progressive laws to protect workers and make health care and education accessible.

From the report, The Anti-Immigrant Movement That Failed:

The current hype around anti-immigrant policies is, unfortunately, about electoral politics. The media largely fell for the tactics of political opportunists who hoped to use the issue of immigration as a "wedge” issue, much as they have used gay marriage and other social issues to undermine progressive coalitions and support rightwing politicians during elections. Yet the result has largely been political failure for rightwing politicians trying to play the anti-immigrant political card. [...]

The bottom-line is that despite much media hype, the supposed wave of anti-immigrant politics has amounted to a few punitive laws in a handful of states, even as most states have quietly been moving forward with positive, integrative approaches to new immigrants in their communities.

The report lists both the "integrative" and "punitive" immigration policies implemented in each state. Scroll down to Illinois to see how we stack up.

Self-Deport Program Scrapped

Josh Kalven — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:47:35 -0700

Yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it would not expand a pilot program that encouraged undocumented workers to simply turn themselves into their nearest federal immigration office. Apparently, the three-week trial period -- conducted in five cities, including Chicago -- yielded a total of eight volunteer deportees.

Eight.

Unfortunately, Jim Hayes, acting director of detention and removal operations for ICE, seems to be taking the wrong lessons from the program's failure, saying that it "proves the only method that works is enforcement." From the AP:

The initiative drew skepticism, even ridicule, from many immigration activists who have criticized ICE's increasing raids on homes and businesses.

Hayes said lack of support from those activists shows they are unwilling to accept any enforcement.

"They want amnesty, they want open borders, and they want a more vulnerable America," he said.

It's easy to minimize the work of immigrant rights advocates by saying that they simply want "open borders." But the truth is they're seeking new polices -- not no policies. Here's Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights director Josh Hoyt discussing this issue on the Huffington Post Chicago a few days back:

I would like the Bush administration to stop its chest-thumping enforcement actions and publicity stunts; to stop ruining families and terrorizing communities; to end the racial profiling of Latinos, and to get serious about real immigration reform. We need realistic immigration laws, not showy attempts to plug up the holes in sinking ones.

Mr. Hayes, in America we change broken and stupid laws - that is how women got the vote and Jim Crow segregation was ended. We will have enforcement that works only when we create legal avenues for workers to come to the U.S. to do the many entry-level jobs our economy has created and only when we legalize the 12 million undocumented workers who are already contributing to our nation with their sweat.