Subject: OBAMA IMMIGRATIION ENFORCEMENT MORE EFFICIENT THAN BUSH'S
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 22:31:07
From: Mexican American Political Association <newsletter@mapa-ca.org>
To: <pedro_ruiz21@yahoo.com>
OBAMA IMMIGRATIION ENFORCEMENT MORE EFFICIENT THAN BUSH'S
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August 01, 2009
Greetings!
OBAMA IMMIGRATIION ENFORCEMENT
MORE EFFICIENT THAN BUSH'S
Protests against President Obama's immigration
enforcement policies are beginning to sweep the
country. In some areas the protests are directed at
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano, the instrument of the enforcement policy
execution, and in other areas President Obama is
clearly the target. Some activists have argued that the
main criticism and advocacy for a moratorium of such
enforcement should be directed at Napolitano, the
cabinet member responsible for defining the policy
and taking it operational. Others argue that Obama is
ultimately responsible for the policy and has in his
hands the executive discretion to immediately put a
stop to such rampant enforcement. The growing and
pressing demand is for an ENFORCEMENT
MORATORIU until fair and humane immigration
reform is enacted.
No other presidential administration since 1986 has
enforced employer sanctions through the named I-9
audits of personnel files of employers as broadly and
efficiently as has the Obama administration. The
system of employment verification, short-named
eVerify, which allows employers to verify the legal
status of their employees against federal government
databases, has taken on a new vigorous life under
Obama. The fall-out of such enforcement has been
massive terminations of long and short-term
immigrant workers from their employment during the
worst economic down-turn in the country since the
1930s. In one company alone, American Apparel, the
largest clothing manufacturing firm in the U.S. with
over 10,000 employees, an estimated 1,800 workers
are listed for termination. The multiplier factor of
Latino family size results in a devastating economic
impact on close to 10,000 lives in the Los Angeles
region.
Some have exclaimed that the efficiency of
these "desk-top" ICE raids and deportations under
this administration mirrors the efficiency with which
candidate Obama ran his presidential campaign.
These raids are more pervasive, sweeping,
pernicious, and devastating in terms of the numbers
of individuals impacted than anything executed under
President George Bush.
To the degree that the Obama administration declares
that it is a crime to work, and pursues and persecutes
those workers who are employed in millions of
companies throughout America - making incredible
economic contributions by their labor and paying the
corresponding taxes - than the policy of this president
is one of criminalizing immigrant workers and treating
them as nothing less than common criminals. This is
anathema to all that candidate Obama promised on
the campaign trail, which now clearly contradicts the
actions of President Obama. Which Obama is to be
believed?
Obama loses immigration allies
Activists picket, feel betrayed by administration
policies
By Stephen Dinan (Contact)
Originally published 04:45 a.m., July 30, 2009,
updated 03:01 p.m., July 30, 2009
Three years after President Obama marched
alongside Hispanic and immigrant rights activists,
they took to the streets Wednesday to march against
him, saying he has betrayed them by embracing
George W. Bush administration efforts to stem illegal
immigration.
Activists marched in Los Angeles and picketed
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's
appearance in New York, angered over the
administration's recent embrace of an electronic
verification system for employers and a program that
allows local police to enforce immigration laws.
The protests highlight the tough political spot Mr.
Obama faces: He enjoyed strong support from
Hispanics in last year's election, but activists say he's
now risking their support in the future.
"I see the sense of betrayal creeping up," said Chung-
Wha Hong, executive director of the New York
Immigration Coalition, which organized the protest
against Ms. Napolitano.
The coalition said the administration is using the right
words on immigrant rights but taking the wrong
actions to boost enforcement.
"A lot of people see the actions of Secretary
Napolitano going in the opposite direction of the
reform President Obama promised," she said.
The protests erupted as a report by the Center for
Immigration Studies says stepped-up enforcement
since 2007 has helped cut the illegal immigrant
population in the United States.
The group advocates the reduction of illegal
immigration through strong enforcement measures.
The report, being released Thursday morning, says
the illegal immigrant population peaked at 12.5
million in summer 2007, or just as Congress was
debating a legalization program, but has since fallen
to 10.8 million.
Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius, the report's
authors, said the fact that legal immigration has not
declined shows that enforcement, not the economy, is
responsible for the decline in illegal immigrants.
The authors said the electronic employment
verification known as E-verify and the police
enforcement program were among the key
enforcement tools that expanded after 2007 and
contributed to the drop.
Speaking in New York to the Council on Foreign
Relations, Ms. Napolitano defended the White
House's decision to move forward with a crackdown
on illegal immigration.
"We are expanding enforcement, but I think in the right
way," she said.
In particular, she defended the local police
enforcement program - known as 287(g) because of
the section of law that authorizes it - saying it was
created by the Clinton administration but went astray.
She said the Obama administration has taken steps
to add accountability and protections to the program
and to push local police to focus on dangerous
criminal illegals.
As former governor of Arizona with experience
handling this thorny issue, Ms. Napolitano is
supposed to help Mr. Obama navigate immigration by
helping him craft an enforcement strategy in the near
term even as she helps him push Congress for a
broader bill in the long term.
Mr. Obama has called for a broad immigration
agreement that legalizes most illegal immigrants. He
voted for both legalization bills in both 2006 and 2007,
and during last year's presidential campaign Mr.
Obama repeatedly told Hispanic audiences that he
was proud to have marched with them during the
nationwide immigrant rights marches on May 1, 2006.
Immigrant activists suffered a similar disillusionment
under Mr. Bush, who supported the 2006 and 2007
efforts to overhaul immigration but, after they failed,
said he would instead boost enforcement.
Ms. Hong said the Obama administration is using all
the right words about backing a broad immigration bill
but is taking "massive enforcement actions."
She also said stepping up enforcement
of "dysfunctional and unenforceable" laws is not a
solution, and said the activists hope to push Mr.
Obama away from enforcement and back toward his
campaign promises.
"Today was the one event that we didn't want to have,"
she said. "We didn't want to be protesting President
Obama's immigration policy and Napolitano's policy, it
really pains us to be picketing."
One immigrant rights group said it expects
Democratic senators to introduce legislation this
week rolling back some of Mr. Obama's new
enforcement plans.
Republicans have had mixed reactions to Mr.
Obama's immigration efforts, but on Wednesday they
praised him after the New York Times reported that
his administration would not issue rules that would
allow immigrants being detained to challenge the
conditions of their detention.
"This decision will prevent a flood of frivolous lawsuits
aimed at paralyzing the detention system," said Rep.
Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the
House Judiciary Committee.
But Ms. Hong and other activists blasted the move,
saying that if Mr. Obama continues to pile up
enforcement without any action on legalization it will
cost him politically.
They pointed to several recent studies that questioned
the costs versus benefits of the local police
enforcement program and that accused U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement of violating
immigrants' rights in home raids.
Frank Sharry, executive director of advocacy group
America's Voice, said frustration with the Department
of Homeland Security is growing, adding that while
Ms. Napolitano has taken some positive steps "she
needs to pay attention to the growing chorus of
voices ... that are calling for reform of current
enforcement strategies and swift action on
comprehensive immigration reform."
"Not doing so could carry a heavy political cost for the
administration," he said.
Enough is enough!
Tell Secretary Napolitano that it's time for real reform!
Imagine waking up to pounding on your front door, you
and your kids forced to the floor in your pajamas,
heavily armed agents rifling their way through your
home as the kids scream out in terror.
Now, imagine armed federal agents barging into your
home without legal consent.
Last week, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
called the government's pre-dawn immigration raids
on family homes "unconstitutional" and said that
a "cowboy mentality" over at the Department of
Homeland Security has been doing serious harm.
So far, Homeland Security has refused to investigate
or acknowledge these and other serious charges.
Watch a new video by our friends at America's Voice,
and Sign the petition to Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano saying, "Enough is enough!"
It's time for real immigration reform, not
more "cowboy" enforcement tactics.
When you sign, you will be joined by communities
from California to New York, whose leaders will hand-
deliver all of the signatures to Secretary Napolitano's
offices across the country.
Thank you for speaking up and helping to spread the
word.
Join us in this prolonged campaign for driver's
licenses
and visas for our families. The first step in making
change is to join an organization that pursues the
change we desire. We welcome you to our ranks.
Other organizations leading this movement include:
Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, Mexican
American Political Association (MAPA), MAPA
Youth Leadership, Southern California Immigration
Coalition, Liberty and Justice for Immigrants
Movement, National Alliance for Immigrant's Rights,
and immigrant's rights coalitions throughout the U.S..
CONTACT:
Nativo V. Lopez, National President of MAPA (323)
269-1575
Join the Mexican
American Political Association mailing list
Email:
Sincerely,
Mexican American Political Association
email:
nativolopez@mapa-ca.org
phone:
323-269-1575
web:
http://www.mapa.org
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