DHS to suspend deportation of DREAMers, others

A BIG VICTORY FOR OUR MOVEMENT! 
DHS to suspend deportation of DREAMers, others

We are pleased to pass on the great news that all of our collective phone calls, faxes, emails, letters, marching and rallying have paid off.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security and officials from the Obama Administration announced that they will be suspending deportations of individuals who fit low-priority categories as outlined in Prosecutorial Discretion memos released in June. Those who fit the “low-priority” category include DREAMers – or individuals who were brought here as children, pregnant women, elderly, disabled, veterans, and long-term Permanent Residents, PROVIDED they do not have felony convictions. Those that do fit the “low-priority” category will be allowed to apply for a work visa.

“Today’s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws.” - Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat.

This change in policy will only affect non-citizens who are in deportation proceedings and will not apply to individuals who are not currently in removal proceedings. In fact, DHS has not even established any mechanism for individuals to be considered under this process if they are not already in the process of being deported 

As President Obama has deported nearly one million people in just two years, we remain cautiously optimistic about today's announcement and hope that these policies are implemented quickly and as promised.  Only with these new policies changes can we see families spared the horrors of being forcibly torn apart.

After all of our hard work, we finally have a BIG VICTORY we can celebrate together. We still have much more difficult work to do like continuing the pressure on the Administration to end the fatally flawed and destructive “Secure Communities” Program and pushing Congress forward on reforming our broken immigration system.

To continue this momentum, we need your help.  As CAUSA’s work is only as strong as the community that supports us, please take a moment and help us ensure that we will see an end to harmful policies that tear families apart and hurt our communities.

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PHOTO: Oregonians call for an end to deportations and killings on the border

Oregonians stop traffic in front of the Portland Office of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and call for an end to deportations, the separation of families and killing of immigrants on the U.S-Mexico Border by U.S. Border Patrol Agents.

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Rev. David Ostendorf: ICEing the White House

Rev. David L. Ostendorf is the managing editor for Imagine 2050. Contributors to the Imagine 2050 include activists, immigrants, artists and students who are invested in a future nation that embraces multiculturalism and tolerance.

ICEing the White House

July 15, 2009

By Rev. David L. Ostendorf
www.imagine2050.net

Let’s face it. With the expansion of the 287(g) program, the new employer audit initiative, the growth of the Border Patrol, and the relentless, unconscionable construction of the border fence, the Obama Administration has completely succumbed to the ICE (and Democratic Party) enforcement agenda.

The new and expanded agreements that enable local and state law enforcement agencies to act as ICE surrogates build on a program (287(g))that has wreaked havoc across the country. In those jurisdictions where the agreements prevail, no immigrant has been safe from zealous law officers who turn a minor traffic stop, for example, into a wider deportation roundup. Instead of curbing the practice, the White House is expanding it into even more jurisdictions.

Continue article at http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2009/07/15/iceing-the-white-house/

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Stop the War on Immigrants

Over this last week of anti-war demonstrations, a new sign was being carried by a significant number of people at events throughout the nation protesting the 5th Anniversary of the War in Iraq. In addition to the usual signs urging a stop to War in Iraq, there were ones calling for a stop to the “War on Immigrants”. Although similar signs have always been present at anti-war demonstrations since the start, this is the first time they have been carried en masse by demonstrators.

Why are these signs being carried? March organizers and demonstrators maintain that after 911, Somalis, Sikhs and Arab Americans were targeted for physical assault, verbal harassment, bullying in schools and housing and employment discrimination. These actions, they say, continued to heighten as the bombs fell over Iraq and as part of the larger “War on Terrorism”. Since 911, there has been a steady increase in racist rhetoric, scapegoating and hate crimes against immigrants of many nationalities.

Blacks and Latinos in the U.S. have always suffered pervasive racist oppression and exploitation. Now with profiling and detention of Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians as an acceptable part of the war on terrorism, immigrants in the United States from almost every part of the world are at risk.

Demonstrators believe that with the war continuing in Iraq, the criminalization of entire immigrant communities is out of control. “The atmosphere we see that has been created by the federal government, anti-immigrant groups and conservative talk radio depicting immigrants as terrorists, vermin and enemies of America is disgusting and shameful”, one demonstrator at a march in Portland, Oregon said. “Really, just look at the verbal attacks and hate we hear on talk radio in Oregon alone. Need I say more?”

Another concern of those wanting the Iraq War to come to an end, is one that Immigrant Rights advocates have been discussing for years. That is the large amount of immigrants that are being used to fight in Iraq, but often are treated as second class citizens or less when they return to the United States.

Since the start of the war five years ago, many parents of U.S. soldiers fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been deported. In one well publicized incident, after 20 year old Private Armando Soriano died fighting in Haditha, Iraq, his father was deported. Official statistics show that more than 68,000 foreign-born military individuals are serving the U.S.—many of which have parents that could be facing the same fate.

The unmistakable link between the war on Iraq and the domestic “war on terrorism.” many believe is shown clearly in immigrant detentions, deportations, racial profiling, and other civil rights abuses under the Bush administration. These, anti-war demonstrators believe, violate the Constitution and gravely endanger American principles and character.

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