44 “Do-Nothing” Senators Reject Children’s DREAMs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 24, 2007
CONTACT: Marisa McNee 917-733-2351

44 Senators Reject Children’s DREAMs
“Do-Nothing” Senators Obstruct Practical Solutions…Again
Washington, DC – Today, a procedural vote in the Senate that would allow some children of undocumented immigrants to get on the path to legal status through hard work, education and military service was defeated. The following is a statement by Clarissa Martinez, Campaign Manager for the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

“Today’s vote in the Senate is just another indication that Washington cannot get its act together and provide practical solutions to our problems. Although a majority of the Senate voted in support of DREAM today, Senators who voted no have signaled that they are more interested in excuses, obstructionism and politics than in rolling up their sleeves and finding solutions to the nation’s challenges.

And sadly, a majority of Republicans have decidedly taken a stand against children today, so they can continue stirring up anti-immigrant sentiment for political calculations. They’ve been aided and abetted in this misguided approach by several Democratic members. What shame.

These “do-nothing” Senators are determined to prevent conscientious members of both parties from coming together to address issues—even when it comes to a narrowly crafted piece of legislation that has had broad bipartisan support for a decade or more. They have chosen once again to pass the buck to states and local communities who are left to deal with Congressional abdication of responsibility.

And they try to cloak their do-nothing attitude with excuses about process and what not. Some of these excuses are outright laughable:

Some argue that we need is a comprehensive approach – yet they fought to obstruct and defeat that approach every step of the way.

Some are upholding White House statements – some of the very same who opposed the White House during the reform debate.

Some have repeatedly expressed their support for DREAM – so far as they did not have to cast a vote for it.

And yet others have argued they’ve had no time to deliberate the issue.

But let’s be clear that the DREAM Act has been debated extensively and received broad bipartisan support – for years. This is a carefully and narrowly crafted piece of legislation that Senators from both parties have supported, even in its previous version which was much broader in scope. This legislation even received a successful 16-3 vote in a Republican controlled Judiciary Committee. And today, a majority still voted for this measure. There are more than a few Senators who will have to wear the badge of shameless flip-flopping, lack of leadership and outright obstructionism.

Our country needs Senators who are willing to get back to the business of governing and solving the nation’s problems rather than fear-mongering and playing politics. This vote was an opportunity for them to show their true character, and 44 of them have shown their lack of it.”

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The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR) is a campaign powered by the strategic, coordinated activities of immigrant advocacy, civil rights, faith-based and labor organizations across the United States and Capitol Hill. Our central purpose is to achieve passage of workable comprehensive immigration reform legislation that serves our nation.

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DREAM Act headed for a vote--CALL NOW!!!

CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW AND TELL THEM TO VOTE "YES" ON THE DREAM ACT!!!

The DREAM Act will likely come up for a vote on the Senate floor this Wednesday.

IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ALL DREAM ACT SUPPORTERS TO CALL YOUR SENATORS, send an e-mail message and fax them, do it all over again on Wednesday morning first thing.

SHUTDOWN THE SENATE SWITCHBOARD WITH YOUR CALLS!

CALL 202-224-3121

Last week, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) re-introduced the DREAM Act as a new stand-alone bill, S. 2205. Most likely this Wednesday there will be a "cloture" vote on whether the DREAM Act can be debated and ultimately voted on. This will mark the first time that the DREAM Act has ever come to a clean vote on the Senate floor.

The provisions of S. 2205 are similar, though not identical, to S. 774, the version of the DREAM Act that was filed by the Senators Durbin, Hagel, and Lugar earlier this year. Like the earlier version, S. 2205 would provide a 6-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for individuals brought to the U.S. more than 5 years ago as undocumented children if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service.

The cloture motion will require 60 votes to pass. If it fails, the DREAM Act will be pulled from the floor. If it passes, there will be more votes on the DREAM Act as well as on possible amendments. The outcome of these votes will determine the fate of the DREAM Act for this Congress.

OUR RESPONSE MUST BE UNPRECEDENTED!

If you care at all about the future of DREAM Act students who have grown up here, then you must make your calls today and tomorrow, then forward this message, and then get on the phone to make sure that everyone you know does likewise. There will not be another chance.

CALL BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM: "PLEASE VOTE FOR THE DREAM ACT SO THAT IMMIGRANT STUDENTS BROUGHT HERE AS CHILDREN CAN REALIZE THEIR POTENTIAL"

Your Senators' phone numbers are online: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

OR

CALL THE SENATE SWITCHBOARD 202-224-3121

To send an e-mail message to your Senators please go to: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/NILC/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12129

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The immigration propaganda machine

By John Aguirre ,Executive Director
Oregon Association of Nurseries
Digger, October 2007

Many of us learned that the word propaganda describes the kind of political rhetoric Adolph Hitler and his henchman Joseph Goebbels used to stir popular support for the Nazi party and to justify the mass incarceration and deportation of Jews. American history has its own propagandists, such as Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose skillful theatrics and word choice convinced many Americans the “Red Menace” meant communists were working at all levels of government, the media and in the film industry to undermine American values.

With the benefit of time and the analysis of historians, we’ve come to understand how effective and dangerous were the most famous propagandists. Today, we face a propaganda machine as daunting and as chilling as that of Hitler and McCarthy. Anti-immigrant groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) rely on radio personalities Lars Larson and Michael Savage and television news host Lou Dobbs to spew hate-filled rhetoric aimed at immigrants.

On April 14, 2005, Lou Dobbs reported, “The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans.” To buttress his point, Dobbs introduced a CNN correspondent, Christine Romans, who reported there have been 7,000 cases of leprosy (aka Hansen’s Disease) in the United States in the last three years, compared with 900 cases in the previous 40 years. This is a lie.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2005 there were 166 new cases of leprosy, and 70 percent of 120 cases interviewed identified themselves as non-Hispanic white. Clearly, leprosy is not an epidemic born of our immigration problems. However, this is one example of the systematic mischaracterization and dehumanization of people who have immigrated to our country to work for a better life.

The attempt to dehumanize and demonize communities of other people is a standard ploy of propagandists. Lars Larson and his ilk like to refer to immigrants who work on our nation’s farms, construction sites and restaurants as “illegals” and “reconquistas.” By doing so, Larson wants us to think of these people as agents of harm, like guns trained at the heart of our nation, rather than as people who live in our communities and contribute to our economy and quality
of life.

Dobbs and Larson like to chant, “What don’t you understand about illegal? Illegal is illegal.” This calculated rhetoric is meant to shift the reference point of their listeners — from viewing immigrants not as people, but as dangerous criminals. This type of speech supports other tools of the propagandists: appeals to fear and to prejudice. Larson and Dobbs argue that immigrants generate a disproportionate amount of mayhem and violent crime. Dobbs said on his show that
illegal immigrants represent one-third of inmates in the federal prison system. But, according to the U.S. Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens, compared with the 7 percent they represent of our total population.

A highly authoritative 2005 study by Kristin Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Rutgers University, respectively, shows that immigrants are institutionalized (in jail, prisons and mental hospitals) at much lower rates than native-born
Americans. This is an astounding revelation, when considering most immigrant workers have less education and lower incomes than native-born Americans. The native-born population of lowincome, non-Hispanic whites who lack high school educations commit more crimes and are incarcerated at higher rates than Mexican immigrants. This makes sense; people don’t make the arduous immigration journey to the United States to commit crimes. They come to work.

Ultimately, the arguments of the most virulent anti-immigrant propagandists converge on a single point: the appeal to racist sentiment and the fear of change. FAIR’s Web site reveals many examples of appeals to racism. In a June 26 news release, FAIR President Dan Stein said of a compromise immigration reform bill, which later died in the Senate, “It will alter irrevocably what it means for our children and grandchildren to live in America.” Why is that? Will Mexican-Americans really destroy us?

FAIR attributes all manner of social and economic ills to immigrants: overpopulated towns and cities, violent crime, rising welfare costs, traffic congestion and environmental degradation. And according to FAIR, these horrors seem to be the exclusive province of Mexican and Latino immigration.

In 2006, activist Irish immigrants here illegally began protesting for legal status. It’s estimated the U.S. is home to about 50,000 illegal Irish immigrants. Despite highly public efforts by this group — including demonstrations on Capitol Hill and in New York City — I’ve seen no outpouring of venom their way from anti-immigrant propagandists. Even when Irish immigrants in the United States were known to provide financial support to the Irish Republican Army (a terrorist group), no significant opposition to illegal Irish immigrants ever materialized.

Why the difference in attitudes?

The answer is skin-deep.

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RELEASE: CAUSA Joins Area Groups in Denouncing Local Hammerskin Nation Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2007

Contact:
Erik Sorensen, Communications, CAUSA (503) 789-8213
Aeryca Steinbauer, Coordinator, CAUSA (503) 984-6816

CAUSA Joins Area Groups in Denouncing Local Hammerskin Nation Event
Salem, OR - Starting today going through Sunday, The Hammerskin Nation, a neo-Nazi skinhead organization will be holding it's 20th anniversary celebration in the greater Portland Area. The group is hoping to attract hundreds of hard-core racists to Oregon for it's three day event it calls "Hammerfest 2007". With local anti-immigrant websites, organizations and conservative talk radio hosts continuously fanning the anti-immigrant flames along with the recent racial charged beating of two Latino immigrants in the Clackamas County, Portland appears to be a perfect location for racist groups like the Hammerskins to hold their event.

According to the Anti-defamation League (ADL), The Hammerskin Nation is the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States. A number of its members have been convicted of harassing, beating or murdering minorities. Many popular racist rock bands are affiliated with the Hammerskin Nation, and the group regularly sponsors concerts. Though internal dissension and a civil lawsuit currently threaten its continued strength, the Hammerskin Nation remains active and dangerous.

The upcoming Hammerskin Nation event in Oregon was planned in conjunction with Volksfront, a Portland-led white supremacist group with links to Kenneth Mieske and Kyle Brewster, two of the killers of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw in a 1988 racially charged crime. The October Hammerskin Nation gathering is currently being openly advertised on Hitler-admiring and outward racist websites.

CAUSA, Oregon's Immigrant Rights Coalition, joins with Portlanders and other organizations in denouncing The Hammerskin Nation, their members and the three day hate-based event they intend to hold in Portland this weekend.

In response to the Hammerskin event, a community gathering and rally will take place Saturday, October 6 at 1 p.m. in Lents Park, on the corner of SE 92nd and Holgate. The rally intends to expose white supremacist groups in the Pacific Northwest, as well as to bring diverse communities together in a stand against fascist organizing, violence and hatred.

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RELEASE: Oregonians Visit D.C. to Urge Passage of AgJOBS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2007

Contact:
Erik Sorensen, Communications, CAUSA (503) 789-8213
Ramon Ramirez, President, PCUN (503) 989-0073


Oregonians Visit D.C. to Urge Passage of AgJOBS

Salem, OR--This week, a delegation of Oregonians joined over one hundred farmworkers from around the nation in Washington D.C. to talk with members of Congress about important legislation impacting Americas farmworkers and the industry in which they work. The farmworkers, along with growers, explained to members of Congress and their staff the urgency of passing AgJOBS (the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, S. 340/H.R. 371).

The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act (AgJOBS) of 2007 would create an earned adjustment program for undocumented farm workers who would be eligible to apply for temporary immigration status based on their past work experience, and could become permanent residents upon satisfying prospective work requirements. The legislation would also streamline the existing H-2A foreign agricultural worker program while preserving and enhancing key labor protections.

The majority of farmworkers in America are undocumented. Increased immigration enforcement by the Bush Administration will drive undocumented workers further underground, leaving workers even more vulnerable to exploitation and further destabilizing the farm labor force. The best solution is AgJOBS. This compromise which was negotiated by a bipartisan group in Congress, the United Farm Workers and key agribusiness representatives, would provide America with a stable farm labor force and would help ensure that farmworkers are treated fairly.

The week long schedule of events around AgJOBS was a collaborative effort organized by United Farm Workers, Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (Oregon), Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), Rural & Migrant Ministry (NY), ICAN (Idaho), CITA (NY), CATA (NJ/PA), Florida Association of Farmworkers, National Farm Worker Ministry, the Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and Farmworker Justice.

Among the individuals that participated in Congressional meetings with Oregon's Senators and Representatives were Ramon Ramirez, President of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (PCUN), Craig J. Regelbrugge, Vice President for Government Relations & Research of American Nursery and Landscape Association, Michael Gempler, President of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, Francisco Espericueta and Moises Ibanez with Latinos Unidos Siempre, and Leodegario Vallejo and Carmen Gonzalez, both Oregon farm workers. A representative from California Farm Bureau also joined the group during their visits with Oregon Legislators.

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PUBLIC HEARING TO CREATE CESAR E. CHAVEZ BLVD.

PUBLIC HEARING TO SUPPORT A GRASSROOTS EFFORT TO CREATE CEASAR E. CHAVEZ BLVD

Wed. Oct. 3rd. & Tues. Oct. 9th.
6:30-8 pm Ockley Green Middle School, 6031 N. Montana Ave (@ Interstate Ave)

In order to honor the legacy of the great labor and civil rights leader, Cesar E. Chavez, founder and first president of the United Farm Workers (UFW AFL-CIO), and to honor the on-going struggle for social justice and dignity for all people that he embodied, please support the proposal that Interstate Avenue in Portland, Oregon be renamed Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard.

Sign the on-line petition and send letters of support -- especially organizational letters -- to City Council members and the Mayor. The Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard Committee may be contacted at elcochito21@verizon.net

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RELEASE: Court Extends Order That Blocks Government From Implementing Flawed Social

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2007

CONTACT:
Lauren Mendoza, AFL-CIO, (202) 637-5212
Maria Archuleta, ACLU, (212) 519-7808 or 549-2666
Stella Richardson, ACLU-NC , (415) 621-2493
Marielena Hincapié, NILC , (415) 845-3403

SAN FRANCISCO - After a hearing today, a federal judge extended for 10 days an order that temporarily stops the government from implementing a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule that would cause U.S. citizens and other authorized workers to lose their jobs, and which would illegally use error-prone social security records as a tool for immigration enforcement. The judge's order also stops the Social Security Administration(SSA) from beginning to send notices to approximately 140,000 employers across the country notifying them of the new rule, which would impact approximately eight million workers.

"We are pleased that the judge saw the need to continue to block this rule that would lead to increased exploitation of workers," said John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO. "More than 70% of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens but the DHS regulation would encourage employers to fire any worker based on these erroneous discrepancies, especially if she has an accent or is perceived to be foreign born."

Today's extension of the temporary restraining order comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in August by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County along with other local labor movements. In the lawsuit, the groups charge that the misguided rule violates the law and workers' rights, imposes burdensome obligations on employers, and will cause discrimination against workers who are perceived to be immigrants.

For years the SSA has sent "no match" letters to employers if the name and social security information reported by a worker on a W-2 form does not match up with the information contained in SSA databases. The "no match" letters were never considered reason to believe that an employee did not have permission to work in the U.S, and currently employers who receive "no-match" letters are not required to take any action. In fact, there are many innocent reasons for such discrepancies such as clerical mistakes, name changes due to marriage and divorce, and the use of multiple surnames that are common in many parts of the world.

Under the new DHS rule, employers receiving "no match" letters might be required to fire employees whose SSA discrepancies are not resolved within 90 days after the "no-match" letter is received. If the employer does not respond to a "no-match" letter, DHS may conclude that the employer had "constructive knowledge" that an employee was not authorized to work in the U.S. and prosecute the employer accordingly.

Today's extension was handed down in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

In addition to the AFL-CIO, which is represented by the law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP, other parties bringing the lawsuit include the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California, and NILC, as well as the San Francisco Labor Council and the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, represented by Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld.

Lawyers on the case include Scott A. Kronland, Stephen Berzon, Jonathan Weissglass, Linda Lye and Danielle Leonard of Altshuler Berzon LLP; Jonathan Hiatt, James Coppess and Ana Avendaño of the AFL-CIO; Lucas Guttentag, Jennifer Chang, Mónica M. Ramírez and Omar Jadwat of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project; Alan Schlosser and Julia Mass of the ACLU of Northern California; Marielena Hincapié, Linton Joaquin and Monica Guizar of NILC; and David Rosenfeld and Manjari Chawla of Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld.

The complaint, a complete list of plaintiffs, and other information about the lawsuit can be found at: www.aclu.org/nomatch

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