Democratic candidates for attorney general debate

NEW YORK - At Thursday’s debate in front of reporters and editors from the city’s ethnic media outlets, the four men seeking the Democratic nomination for New York attorney general competed over who was the most immigrant-friendly in the group. (The sole female candidate, Kathleen Rice, did not participate.)

The AG’s office was under-the-radar from many New Yorkers until the last two office-holders elevated the profile of the position. Eliot Spitzer used it as a stepping stone to become governor (for a little while) and current AG Andrew Cuomo is attempting to do the same thing.  In 2010 it’s a hotly contested race with each candidate striving to show how progressive he or she is.

The debate was sponsored by the New York Community Media Alliance.  Right off the bat, moderator David Mark Greaves, publisher/editor-in-chief of Our Time Press, asked the candidates what they thought about SB 1070, the infamous Arizona law targeting undocumented immigrants, and the NYPD’s policy on keeping a “stop and frisk” database. Across the board, these Democrats were against both.

Next, the candidates were asked to address how they would protect undocumented immigrants from workplace abuse and exploitation.

“By the time I’m done with being attorney general I hope people regard wage theft in the same way they regard car theft!” said Eric Schneiderman, currently a state senator.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky took a more philosophical approach. “The real question is how can we convince people with undocumented status that the government is there to protect them.” If elected, he promised to pave a path for undocumented immigrants to be able to report crimes without fear of being deported. Political newcomer attorney Sean Coffey concurred. Former New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo also chimed in, adding that language access is really important in the interface between government and immigrant communities.

When the candidates were quizzed on how much effort they’d put into reforming city agencies, Dinallo was adamant, saying “I’m the only candidate who has stood up to Wall Street and health insurers.”

When the floor was opened up to questions from the audience,  Ari Kagan of the Russian-language paper Vecherniy New York jumped up and demanded to know what attention the candidates had paid to ethnic media. He noted that despite high-profile endorsements for other candidates, it had been New York’s ethnic communities that had gotten Comptroller John Liu elected, the first Asian American to hold city-wide office in New York.

Sean Coffey proudly responded that he is the son of immigrants (Irish ones). “So I know all about the immigrant experience,” he said. Coffey told the crowd he has the endorsement of the Irish Voice, and gave his first interview to an Albanian paper.

Brodsky talked about his support in the Russian community; Coffey spoke about being invited to an Albanian luncheon; and Schneiderman about getting an endorsement from El Diario.

A reporter from a Chinese-language daily stood and bluntly asked if the other three candidates feel threatened by Schneiderman, since he’s picked up so many endorsements (including one from the New York Times). Swiftly, Schneiderman looked at her and said in Mandarin, “that’s a good question!” eliciting laughter, and impressed glances, from many in the audience.

Abu Taher, executive editor of The Weekly Bangla Patrika, a Bangladeshi newspaper, brought up the proposed Park51 Islamic center and mosque in downtown Manhattan, and the Bangladeshi cab driver who was recently stabbed after being asked if he was Muslim.

“The nuts feel empowered,” said Brodsky. But the Assemblyman was careful not to say he outright supported the mosque–possibly because it would endanger his support in the Russian Jewish community, which reporter Ari Kagan told Fi2W is almost entirely against the project. The other candidates were clearer in their support for the Islamic center, with Schneiderman saying he’d create a “religious rights division” in his government if elected.

The last questions were about youth programs and the candidates’ relationship with Wall Street. The debate was broadcast live on Manhattan Neighborhood Network.

Voters will choose a Democratic candidate in the New York Primary on September 14.

El Diario/La Prensa

New York’s largest Spanish-language paper, El Diario/La Prensa has launched a strike against the city’s Latino political leadership. The paper published an editorial today supporting Hispanic political newcomers who are challenging two of the most powerful and controversial members of the city’s Democratic Hispanic political elite.  

Gustavo Rivera is challenging State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada.  The state’s most powerful Latino elected official is battling a law suit charging that he siphoned more than $14-million from a network of nonprofit health care clinics he founded. 

Tomorrow, the Reverend Al Sharpton is expected to add his name to the list of leaders and media outlets supporting Rivera.   Today El Diario wrote:

Gustavo Rivera for 33rd Senate District

Rivera has minced no words about State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., the incumbent he is challenging. “When he says that he is the highest ranking Latino in the state, that title doesn’t necessarily show that he has an agenda for Latinos,” Rivera told El Diario.

Rivera believes that leaders should be held to a high standard. He has committed to working with his constituents on the issues that matter most to them—jobs, affordable housing, quality education and health care.

The rising leader is an educator with years of experience in public service. He has worked for the New York State Senate and on both local and national electoral campaigns. As a former staffer for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Rivera says he worked with her policy staff to get her to better place on immigration issues and with immigrant advocates.

The time has come to close the door on the politics of “me” and for the politics of “we” to reign. District 33 has a chance to do this on Sept. 14 by supporting Rivera.

The paper also endorsed Carlos Ramos who is challenging State Senator Ruben Diaz, a conservative Democrat who represents the 32nd State Senate District.

We are impressed by Carlos Ramos’ deep commitment to a community agenda and his readiness to answer a call for responsible leadership.

For years, Ramos has been a quiet but steady force in critical campaigns for Latinos–from voter mobilization, to holding state leaders accountable on Hispanic representation to building momentum for Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation.

Ramos wants to work on job creation, reducing obesity rates and promoting civic engagement in a district that includes Parkchester, Soundview and Melrose.

While the incumbent Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. has received attention for opposing marriage equality legislation, Ramos says that his votes against community interests and silence on notorious landlords are among the other issues that compelled him to run.

Diaz’s narrow mindedness and grandstanding are inadequate for a district that deserves much more. The solid, consistent work of activists like Ramos would build up ample leaders and organizers poised to move a community forward.

Vote for Ramos on Sept. 14.

Earlier in the week, El Diario published an editorial supporting Eric Schneiderman for attorney general and Adriano Espaillat for state senator in District 31, which represents northern Manhattan and the Bronx.

NY’s Primary is September 14, and will largely determine the winner of the general election in this heavily Democratic city.

Internally displaced children in Iraq. (Photo: Dave Malkoff/flickr)

President Obama’s speech to the nation on the official end of the American combat mission in Iraq neglected a major consequence of the war: hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees now scattered around the world.

Refugees International calculates that there are at least 1.5 million displaced Iraqis within Iraq, 500,000 of whom live in slums on the outskirts of cities. About half a million more Iraqi refugees are living in the region, mostly in Syria and Jordan. Though they are not confined to refugee camps, many have been unable to obtain work permits in their host countries, and suffer financially as a result. They’re between a rock and a hard place: scrambling to make a living outside Iraq, but unable to return because they might be killed. Many hope they will make it to the U.S. one day, the country that started the war that drove them from their homes.

In fact, the U.S. has admitted about 50,000 Iraqi refugees, with an emphasis on those who are most vulnerable: women; people who helped the American war effort; and those who suffered intense persecution. But as Fi2W reported, resettlement has been a rough transition, since social services are few for the refugees when they arrive. When speaking of this issue to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the President of Refugees International, L. Craig Johnstone, said,  “Resettlement should be a real durable solution for refugees, not an experience that brings more hardship.”

As the U.S. adjusts to ending the war and bringing our troops home, its important that we pay attention to the Iraqis who have no other home now besides America.

Attorney Merit Salud (left) assisting a Filipino woman. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

NEW YORK–An American man and his Filipino wife sought advice on how to legalize the woman’s immigration status…an out-of-status man is in detention and his wife wanted to know what his options were…a licensed physical therapist couldn’t find an employer who would sponsor her for a work visa–should she just pack up and go home or wait for the visa allotment to increase-–and for how long?

These were some of the questions that immigration lawyers of the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF) tried to answer in their first community outreach session.  The Philippines is sometimes joked about as a country with way too many lawyers, but here in Manhattan, it seems there aren’t enough to go around.

About 30 Filipinos saddled with immigration problems took advantage of FALDEF’s offer of free legal advice on August 20, touted as the first of its kind in the community. In the 2000 Census, the FilAm (Filipino American) population in New York City was estimated to be more than 62,000, the fourth largest Asian ethnic group in the city. Lawyers said current estimates put the number at nearly 300,000 Filipinos in the New York tri-state area. One-third of them may be undocumented.

The top issues was looming deportation, revealed FALDEF President J.T. Mallonga. Many of those who came to seek legal advice had relatives who were either in detention or in hiding after an order of deportation had been issued by the courts.

Filipinos are held in detention centers all over New York and New Jersey, said Mallonga.  His group plans is to visit penitentiaries to find out if there are Filipinos in need of representation by lawyers working pro-bono.

“Many Filipinos facing deportation would rather go home than seek legal representation,” said Mallonga. “They’d tell family members, ‘go to the consulate and get me a passport. I’d rather go home.’”  That’s because deportees would rather save up the money than use it to pay exorbitant legal fees when getting them out of jail is not even guaranteed.

“I can’t blame them,” Mallonga commiserated. But he added that sometimes, immigration lawyers can appeal a case or find an acceptable compromise that would allow the deportee to stay in the country longer.

Ultimately, said FALDEF Vice President for External Affairs Merit Salud, “Only a Filipino can help a fellow Filipino.”

WHY NOW?

A volatile immigration environment and Arizona’s  statewide crackdown on undocumented immigrants prompted the founding  of FALDEF last year. Lawyers said they would be willing to travel across the country to defend Filipinos who may be picked up as a result of racial profiling.

“We’re willing to go to any place, including Arizona, to assist Filipinos who are unable to afford lawyers,”  Mallonga said. “We want to be their go-to place.”

Salud wishes Filipinos were more proactive about their legal status, and wouldn’t wait for deportation orders to be handed down before taking legal action.

“Anyone with immigration problems should consult a lawyer right away,” he said. “Usually, it’s too late when they come to us.”

The lawyers said they would like to see a legal defense fund like FALDEF in every state. Right now, FALDEF’s New York office has a dozen volunteer lawyers and about 15 community volunteers. They will be hosting a free legal clinic every month.

Some immigrants at the session also brought to the lawyers’ attention the long waits for family petitions to be approved. It takes 22 years for sibling petitions to be completed–an indication, Mallonga said, of the country’s “broken immigration system.”

A number of Filipino physical therapists were there for advice on the shrinking number of visas available to foreign-born health care workers. A FALDEF lawyer said while physical therapists are in the demand in the U.S., many skilled Filipinos cannot find jobs because visas are not available.

Salud vowed to help low-income Filipinos. “No member of our community will be left on his own,” he said.

NY Assembly candidate Francisco Moya with (from left) Joan Millman, Liz Krueger, Nydia Velasquez, Julissa Ferreras, and Diane Savino. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

NEW YORK–Should he win the Sept. 14 Democratic primary for New York State Assembly’s District 39 (Jackson Heights-Corona), Francisco Moya could become the first Ecuadorean-American to be elected to office in the U.S.

Moya, who took a leave from the public affairs division of Cablevision in order to run for the seat vacated by current State Senator José Peralta, is not taking the race lightly. The 36-year-old businessman, community activist and life-long Queens resident is bracing for battle against the politically-experienced Hiram Monserrate, and counting on supporters to turn up at the polls.

“I’m sure we will win,” he told Fi2W. “We are prepared, but we need to get everyone out there to vote.”

Moya’s opponent was expelled from the N.Y. State Senate after he was convicted of a misdemeanor assault on his girlfriend with a broken wine glass. Before that, Monserrate defected to the GOP (eventually returning to the Democratic Party) in a coup engineered with fellow Democrat Pedro Espada, antagonizing many in his party. He is attempting a comeback via the Assembly election.

Moya has the backing of the Working Families Party, and has received support from those who were horrified at Monserrate’s domestic violence conviction. At an August 28 rally near the Jackson Heights post office, Democratic women leaders closed ranks and called on women in the community to show their power by sending Moya to the Assembly.

“Moya is committed to women’s issues,” said State Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan, citing his record on leading the creation of a women’s health clinic at Elmhurst Hospital. “His is a record on women’s issues we can be proud of.”

“He is the breath of fresh air we need in Albany: young, handsome and hardworking,” U.S. Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez said. “He was brought up to respect the dignity of women.”

NY Assembly Candidate Francisco Moya, holding his niece. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

New York City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras’ presence at the rally was particularly significant. She and Moya battled in the City Council election of 2009. All that’s in the past, she said, as she urged women of the community to get “smarter” and “not to allow the wrong person to get elected.” She said Moya has worked to get better healthcare for women in his district.

Assemblywoman Joan Millman hailed Moya as a true Democrat: “one who will not flip flop, who will not be this one day and that the next.”

While the women leaders conceded that Moya enjoys huge popularity, they said it should not be a reason to stay complacent and take the primary for granted. Velasquez said voter turnout will define the election.

“If you stay home, we get the status quo,” she warned. “It is important for Latinas on Sept. 14 to, instead of watching soap operas and telenovellas, go out and vote.”

There was no mention of Monserrate’s name throughout the rally. Millman made the facetious reference to him as “he who shall not be named.”

State Sen. Diane Savino of Staten Island said, “If you want to know how an official will treat women, look at how he treats the women around him, his wife, his mother. Francisco Moya treats his mother, his wife with respect.”

Moya introduced his mother Maria to the crowd, praised her as the woman who taught him “great values.” He pledged to restore dignity and integrity to the New York Assembly and to continue being an activist his Queens district and Ecuadorean community could be proud of.

“I hope to be the first Ecuadorean to be elected in the state and in the whole country,” he told Fi2W.

Moya said his community involvement began at age 15, when he led a street cleaning project with the Corona Gardens Neighborhood Association.

A former aide to Governor David Paterson, Moya is running on a platform of job creation, increased funding for schools, quality health care for seniors and justice for immigrant families. He is an advocate for Latino immigrant rights, and spoke out against the fatal 2008 racially motivated attack on Ecuadorean immigrant  Jose Sucuzhanay of Brooklyn.

Long-time District 39 resident Michael Anaya agreed that Moya is indeed the more popular candidate, but said Monserrate cannot be ruled out just yet. Anaya said Monserrate continues to enjoy the support of older-generation Latinos as well as religious leaders because of his faith-based platform.

“Many believe the incident between Monserrate and his girlfriend was a private matter, something between the two of them,” Anaya said. It is these demographics, he added, that are usually motivated on election day.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican candidate Humberto Suarezmotta, who is an immigrant for Colombia.

This election season, the Republican party is trying to walk a fine line between attracting tea-party conservatives, many of whom are rabidly anti-illegal immigration, without alienating their committed Hispanic members. On Monday, conveniently 24 hours before major GOP primaries in Florida and Arizona, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele told Univision that Arizona new immigration law SB 1070 doesn’t define the GOP.

Here’s an English transcript of the interview which was conducted in English, but broadcast in Spanish by Univision.

CMF: How do you say that Hispanics are relevant (important) for your party, when you just approved a law in Arizona against immigrants?

STEELE: Well, let’s be clear. The actions of one state’s governor is not a reflection of an entire country, nor is it a reflection of an entire political party. The governor and the people of Arizona made a decision that they thought was in their best interest, and that’s the beauty of a republic, that’s who we are.

CMF [Cutaway]: For Steele, the Arizona law against immigrants is not a reflection of our nation, and it is not a reflection of the Republican Party.

STEELE: We hope, now that this debate is in full bloom, level heads will prevail and that we’ll reach a common sense solution with regards to immigration.

Steele’s words felt hollow on Tuesday, as Republican primaries in Florida and Arizona were won by outspoken critics of illegal immigration and vigorous supporters of SB 1070.

Even so, some Hispanic Republicans who oppose SB 1070 took comfort in Steele’s statement, and insist Sen. John McCain (R-AZ),  remains a “folk hero” to Hispanics, despite his support of the law.  McCain came out in support of SB 1070 during his primary campaign.

But not all Hispanic Republicans are eager to forgive and forget.  In the Florida GOP gubernatorial primary, the two candidates seemed to be in a contest to see who could sound more anti-immigrant.  Less than 17 percent of Florida’s Miami-Dade Republican voters (the heart of the Cuban-exile community) cast ballots in the race between Bill McCollum and Rick Scott, compared to an overall 31% Republican turnout in the state.  Fernand Amandi, executive vice-president of the research firm Bendixen & Amandi told the Orlando Sentinel that most Cuban Republicans in Florida couldn’t bring themselves to choose either man.

In another instance of a high profile Republican trying to distance himself from the mainstream party rhetoric, Alberto R. Gonzales, former U.S. attorney general in the Bush Administration, wrote an op-ed piece in last Sunday’s Washington Post, taking issue with GOP members of Congress who are calling for a change to the 14th amendment to the Constitution in order to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from obtaining birthright citizenship.

It’s usually Democrats who have difficulty holding together a hodgepodge of interest groups and constituencies.  Over the last decade, the Republican party has been much more successful at party discipline. Could immigration be the issue that fractures the GOP?

SB 1070 is a defining issue this election season. (Photo: Fibonacci Blue/flickr)

Tuesday’s primary results are in and many Republican candidates who emphasized opposition to illegal immigration in their campaigns are now winners.

Senator John McCain, the former GOP presidential candidate who is running for re-election in Arizona, won with 56% of the Republican vote after a rough few months battling J.D. Hayworth, a conservative former talk show host. Hayworth came down hard on McCain for his previous support of a path to legalization for the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrants. McCain was so intimidated he switched course, supported Arizona’s strict law SB 1070, and released an ad in which he championed border enforcement, declaring, “complete the danged fence.” McCain’s reading of the conservative political tide in Arizona was successful, but he’s changed his position on immigration so many times now it’s unclear what he really thinks, or what he’ll do if re-elected.

Also in Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer, who gained nationwide notoriety for signing SB 1070 and vigorously opposing undocumented immigration, sailed to victory with a whopping 87% of the Republican vote. SB 1070 was her ticket to success at the polls–before it became her signature issue there had been talk of a Democratic knock-out this November, an outcome that seems very unlikely at this point.

In Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary, long-time politician Bill McCollum was not so lucky. His challenger, a wealthy health care executive, Rick Scott, painted McCollum in TV ads as being soft on illegal immigration. In return, McCollum, the current state attorney general, who initially said SB 1070 wouldn’t work in Florida, changed course and proposed his own, even harsher version of the law, saying “Arizona is going to want our law.” But that wasn’t enough to convince Florida’s conservatives, who chose Scott over McCollum 46% to 43%. If Scott is ultimately elected he is somewhat of a wild card, since he has never held office before. He’ll be facing Democrat Alex Sink in the general election.  Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, says she is against laws like SB 1070.

Illegal immigration is guaranteed to be a major issue in the race to fill Florida’s open U.S. Senate seat as well. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who beat billionaire Jeff Greene last night to become the Democratic nominee, will be facing tea-party favorite Republican Marco Rubio in November as well as Governor Charlie Crist, who is running as an Independent. Meek and Crist have spoken out against SB 1070, but Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, supports it.

And lastly, in another primary race Fi2W was following closely, the replacement for Meek’s congressional seat in District 17, State Senator Frederica Wilson defeated eight other candidates, including four Haitian-Americans, who split the vote.

Clean-up workers in the Gulf of Mexico find oil in the sand. (Photo: Annie Correal)

FI2W reporter Annie Correal spent two weeks this summer in Louisiana covering the impact of the oil spill on Hispanic workers. The culmination of her work for El Diario/La Prensa, ‘Trabajo Sucio,’ or ‘Dirty Work,‘ incorporates video, podcasts, slide-shows, maps and other interactive graphics about the BP spill, all from the perspective of oil spill clean-up workers. She gathered testimonies from oil spill migrants, women, and fishermen-turned-clean-up workers, all of them Latino immigrants.

In videos and podcasts, these workers explain how they came to do this work, what it entails and how they feel about it. One worker describes what happened when Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities arrived at her clean-up site, a visit which Correal discovered and revealed to the nation.

The project places these workers’ accounts in the context of the larger environmental crisis, with an animated graphic that shows how oil spread across the Gulf of Mexico, as well as an animated graphic that shows exactly how clean-up work is performed. The multimedia package also provides an introduction to the oil spill clean-up industry, which has strong ties to the oil industry.

On this trip, Correal also produced a number of radio pieces about the clean-up effort and told stories of the immigrants working on the Louisiana bayous, boats and beaches in the months following the spill.

The BP oil spill story is by now well known, the voices of these workers are what make this project new.

Visit El Diario/La Prensa’s web portal for ‘Trabajo Sucio,’ or ‘Dirty Work’

Radio stories reported from the Gulf of Mexico by Annie Correal:

Hard, Dirty Work: Latino Workers Clean Up the Gulf of Mexico
Aired 8/13/10 on Latino USA

The Life of Dominican-American Women Cleaning Up BP’s Oil Spill
Aired 6/23/10 on PRI’s The World

Slipping Away: Livelihood and Way-of-Life Fade for Immigrant Fishermen in the Gulf
Aired 6/18/10 on Latino USA

Cuban boats on Florida shoreline. (Photo: Seamoor/flickr)

Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary in Florida is a face-off between newcomer Rick Scott, a wealthy health care executive, and the state’s attorney general Bill McCollum, a political veteran. The winner will ultimately compete against Democrat Alex Sink, Florida’s chief financial officer, and independent Lawton “Bud” Chiles, the son of a popular governor and U.S. senator.  An Aug. 19 Quinnipiac University poll showed Sink with a slight edge over both GOP candidates, but that might just be due to Republican infighting.

Scott and McCollum are waging a fierce battle of TV ads, in which they try to out-do each other in opposing illegal immigration. It was Scott’s fierce attacks that pushed McCollum to switch his position on SB 1070,  Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. McCollum initially said he didn’t think Florida should enact a similar law, but ultimately came around to proposing an even harsher measure for the Sunshine State.  Rubén Funes, the editor of La Prensa, a Spanish-language newspaper in Central Florida, says McCollum hadn’t really touched the immigration issue before his campaign for governor.

“The reaction of immigrants here in Central Florida was complete surprise, because they didn’t consider McCollum an anti-immigration guy,” said Funes.

In an effort to court Florida’s Republican constituency, particularly in a region where the Tea Party movement is gaining influence, McCollum chose the politically expedient thing to do, and that was to sound off about undocumented immigrants.

“It’s no coincidence that McCollum’s change in position resulted in his rise in polls,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

But even as McCollum’s strong anti-illegal immigrant stance won support among conservative white voters, it took a number of Hispanics in Florida by surprise, and cost him support among some Latino GOP leaders. The Miami Herald reports that McCollum was criticized by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, an outspoken conservative Republican from Miami.

“I’m disappointed and was blindsided by Bill’s decision to promote this, and I encourage the candidates to focus on plans that will improve Florida’s economy, bring jobs to our state and jump-start our tourism,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “I fail to see how promotion of this issue will accomplish that, and I was taken aback.”

The GOP has a history of strong support by Hispanic voters in Florida, mainly among the Cuban exile population in the southern part of the state.  Ros-Lehtinen is Cuban American, and her reaction to McCollum’s immigration is notable, since many Cuban-Americans are critical of undocumented immigration.  Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American who is running to represent the state in the U.S. Senate has spoken about the country’s “runaway illegal immigration problem.”

Though older Cuban voters tend to be hard-line Republicans, in Central Florida, people of Puerto Rican descent account for about 40% of Hispanic voters, and they are largely Democrats. A recent National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) breakdown of the state’s evolving electorate showed that overall, 39% of the state’s Hispanic population is Democratic, while 32% is Republican and 29% identifies as “other.”

Central Florida is often the region that swings state elections, and Funes noted he’s seen growing unease about racial profiling among Puerto Ricans who live there. If McCollum or Scott’s immigration proposals were to be enacted, local police would be required to check the status of individuals they suspect of being undocumented.

“Even though they are legal, they are thinking now they might be affected by immigration law because they look Mexican. A lot of them are realizing that they might be asked for papers and they don’t like that,” Funes told Fi2W.

But the editor of La Prensa says that despite all the media attention, it’s “unlikely” a law like SB 1070 would pass in the Florida legislature, and he considers McCollum’s immigration proposal political posturing more than anything else.  “I was surprised by McCollum, I’ve known him for years, and I thought he was a sensible guy, but I guess when you think you’re going to lose anything can happen,” Funes said.

Republican lobbyist and fundraiser Ana Navarro, also told the Herald she could no longer support McCollum after his immigration proposal.

“I will not campaign against McCollum but will also not lift a finger or raise one additional dollar to support his campaign,” she said. “Though I believe McCollum is far better prepared to be governor than Rick Scott, I cannot bring myself to cast a vote for either.”

The NALEO report shows a new influx of Central and South American immigrants into both South and Central Florida, as well as a second generation of young Cubans who have less of a connection to the Republican party. But even though the new immigrants, many of whom are undocumented, may have the most at stake when it comes to immigration laws, their clout at the polls is muted. Hispanics make up 21% of the state’s total population, but only 13% of its registered voters. Yet the report also shows that Hispanics are the fastest growing group of voters in Florida.

Polls suggest a close race for governor in the general election, regardless of who wins Tuesday’s primary.  The candidates’ stand on illegal immigration could help swing the Hispanic vote. Latino independents and Democrats may rally to support Sink because they see her as pro-immigrant. And if the reaction by Republican Hispanic leaders to McCollum’s immigration proposal is any indication, rank-and-file Hispanic Republicans may stay home on election day, giving Sink an extra advantage.

(Photo: Ferret111/flickr)

Florida could be on the verge of making history by electing the first Haitian American to Congress. Four out of nine candidates vying to win the Democratic Primary in the 17th Congressional District are of Haitian descent.  The winner in the overwhelmingly Democratic district in South Florida is all but certain to go to Washington in 2011.  The only opposition is coming from attorney Roderick Vereen, who is running without party affiliation.

The abundance of Haitian American candidates reflects the district’s population–it has the largest concentration of Haitians in the country, and by some estimates they account for a quarter of the vote.   The seat is being vacated by Kendrick Meek (D-FL), who has held it since 2003.  Meek, who is running for the U.S. Senate, took over from his mother, Carrie Meek, elected to the seat in 1992, after the district was redrawn.

Over the past 10 years Haitian Americans have made gains in the Florida legislature.  And while this is the first time they have a shot at a congressional seat, some in the Haitian community fear the four candidates may be their own worst enemies.

Community leaders say there’s a lot of momentum among Haitian immigrants in the district to elect one of their own, but with four to choose from, its quite possible the vote will be split–and the candidates, all popular, will cancel each other out.

Gepsie Metellus, executive director of Sant La, a Haitian American community center in Miami, says an initial effort to unify the community around one candidate was unsuccessful.

“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t convince the four of them that they needed to make a sacrifice for the benefit of the community,” she said. But Metellus believes the failure to unify was a natural growing pain that many immigrant communities go through as they mature into a political force.

The four candidates are state Rep. Yolly Roberson and former state Rep. Phillip Brutus (who used to be married to each other), long-time community leader Marleine Bastien and health care entrepreneur Dr. Rudolph ‘Rudy’ Moise. Four of the remaining five candidates are African-American, and one is white. The Miami Herald has endorsed Shirley Gibson, the mayor of Miami Gardens who, like Rep. Meek, is African American.

Rudy Moise has raised and spent the most money on the race by far, and has bought a tremendous amount of radio and television ads. Yves Colon, a Haitian American journalist and lecturer at the Miami School of Communications, says the fact Moise is running complicated the race for the other candidates–who in the past sought him out for campaign contributions. “People used to hit Rudy up for money, but now he’s running,” he said.

Colon says the four Haitian American candidates have similar positions on the issues–but the community tends to vote based on personality rather than issues. “In the Haitian community everybody has partisans, everyone has fans, it’s like Facebook friends,” Colon said.

Dessalines Ferdinand, who hosts a radio show and is editor and publisher of Le Floridien, a Haitian newspaper in South Florida, agrees. “Most Haitian Americans don’t vote on your program, they are more focused on your relationship with leaders in the Haitian community.” The problem, Ferdinand says, is all four of these candidates are popular.

All of the candidates are talking about immigration reform, and finding a solution for the thousands of Haitians who have applied to come to the U.S. after the devastating earthquake that shook Haiti in January.

What to do about undocumented immigrants in Florida (many of whom are Haitian) has become  a major issue in the state’s Republican gubernatorial and senate primaries, also taking place on August 24.  In the GOP gubernatorial race, State Attorney General Bill McCollum and his challenger Rick Scott are battling to be seen as the most hard-line on illegal immigration.

Though she says it will be difficult, Metellus remains hopeful that voters will choose an advocate for the Haitian community next Tuesday. “It would be an historic victory, a historic moment for the Haitian diaspora.”

(Photo: Nate Hofer/flickr)

Hispanics are getting fed up with Obama’s “broken promise,” on immigration reform, Univision’s Jorge Ramos told Politico.

“If he was able to get 60 votes for financial reform, if he can get 60 votes to extend unemployment benefits, how come he can’t get 60 votes for immigration reform?” Ramos asked. “So many Latinos feel there is a lack of leadership, and he is not fighting for immigration reform with the same intensity that he fought for health care reform.”

Ramos, an extremely influential figure in Spanish-language media, conducted an interview with Obama in 2008, in which the president promised to work on a reform bill during his first year in office. That broken promise has withered Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics, currently at 54%, according to the latest Gallup poll. That’s a drop of 28 points from its 82% high in May 2009.

But it’s unclear how this disappointment will actually affect Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.

“They know they are in trouble with the Hispanic community, and the problem in November is the Hispanic vote may be up for grabs again,” Ramos said. “My fear is they might not vote. They don’t feel protected or supported by either party.”

Despite Hispanic disenchantment with the Democratic party, a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) survey of voters in four states (California, Colorado, Florida and Texas) with large Hispanic populations shows that a majority (61%) will “definitely” vote in the November midterm elections. Immigration is the top issue for these voters.

Ramos told Politico he never expected much from the Republican party, but held Democrats in Congress to a different standard. Meanwhile Obama upset Hispanic voters yet again last week by signing a $600 bill to strengthen enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t worried. He recently told an audience of Hispanic voters, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK,” Reid said. “Do I need to say more?”

Reid is facing off against Tea Party-backed Sharron Angle in Nevada this fall, who opposes the DREAM Act and has questioned the 14th amendment providing birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants.

Mounted police officers patrol Castleton Avenue in Staten Island. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

STATEN ISLAND,  New York – On a recent weekday morning the corner of Castleton and Port Richmond Avenues was like any New York City neighborhood that routinely wakes up early. Deli shops served coffee to a stream of people, commuters raced to catch the bus that would take them to the ferry terminal,  day laborers chatted on the sidewalk.

This is where a series of brutal assaults against Hispanic immigrants – 11 incidents over a five-month period, according to reports – have been committed. The most recent victim was Christian Vasquez, 18, who was mugged July 31 on Port Richmond Avenue on his way home from work at a Manhattan restaurant. Vasquez said his attackers shouted hateful anti-Mexican slurs. A Liberian immigrant has been arrested in the case and could face up to 25 years in prison.

Mario Billegas, a Mexican immigrant on Staten Island. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

Mexican immigrant Mario Billegas, 40, preferred to sit inside the safe space of El Centro de Hospitalidad Community Center on Castleton Avenue and watch TV with fellow construction workers. He was enjoying a free breakfast of black coffee and buttered bread.

“It’s terrible,” he began. “They blame us because we always work.”

Billegas, a father of four was airing his thoughts on bias crimes being committed against Hispanics in the community. His wife is freaked out over the Vasquez case, he said.  She worries about their four sons, two of them teens, 14 and 17 years old.

“She wants to pull them out of Richmond High and transfer them,” he said shaking his head. “She says something might happen.”

Billegas said he knew a couple of the other victims. They are ordinary family men like him, “always working, because if we don’t work where will we get the money to support our family?”

“I was mad,” he said when he learned of the most recent assault, “but there’s nothing I can do.”

El Centro – founded five years ago by the Latino Civic Association, Project Hospitality and St. Mary’s of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church — offers free breakfast to low-income families, and extra clothing during the winter. On Thursdays, there’s free food all day, courtesy of local pizzerias, donut and deli stores, and there’s more than enough beans and rice for everyone, said Billegas.

Jose David Carillo, 37, who manages El Centro, said people are often afraid to go to the police to report an incident.

“They don’t say anything, they’re just quiet,” he said.

El Centro de Hispanidad Community Center. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

It’s only when the beatings are serious enough to land them in the hospital that immigrants grudgingly make a police report, Carillo said.

While the Latino community reels from the shock of serial attacks on their menfolk, the visibility of uniformed police around the neighborhood has increased. Three NYPD officers stopped by El Centro to chat up the day workers in Spanish and to distribute fliers on “Nightlife Safety Tips.” The handout urges people to:

• Always carry a cell phone;

• Never leave a bar or club with a stranger;

• Use the buddy system, walk with a friend and always watch each other;

• Always carry enough money for a cab;

• Always inform a family member/friend of your whereabouts;

• Be familiar with surroundings (street names and landmarks) – information that will be needed to locate you;

• Use well-populated, well-lit streets, stay away from deserted blocks, head for an area where there are people or open stores.

Outside the center, a female police officer paced back and forth near a bus stop with a long line of commuters, while mounted officers patrolled nearby. The day workers taking a break at El Centro were quick to support the increased police presence.

Cops checking in at El Centro, a Hispanic community center. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

“They’re OK,” said Billegas. “They don’t harass people. As long as you have IDs, you’re OK.”

These day laborers generally work project-to-project and receive IDs from their employers. Typically, they wait on street corners for a van to transport them to job sites. (That’s in contrast to other types of day workers who loiter outside construction stores waiting for small, odd jobs to come their way.)

The men on Castleton and Port Richmond say they are generally paid “on the books” $400 to $500 a week, but they only find work three days a week, at most.

“We pay taxes,” said Billegas, who works in construction, says he likes his boss, and pays $1,200 monthly rent for his apartment.

Police said many of the suspects in the attacks are African American. Some journalists speculate the rise in racial tension here is due to the increased competition for dwindling jobs during the recession. Others say Hispanics are easy targets because they are known to be quiet and uncomplaining.

Sam Marcucci, a barber in Port Richmond. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

But a July 28 community rally in Port Richmond was organized to send a message that Hispanics can no longer remain passive.

“If the attacks continue, Mexicans will defend themselves, and the situation could become even uglier,” said Ana María Archila, executive director of Make the Road New York, which organized the rally. “We have to act decisively to avoid this happening.”

Anti-immigrant feeling is by no means universal in the neighborhood. Sam Marcucci, whose barbershop is just across from El Centro, said Hispanic immigrants never caused trouble for his business.

“They come here, get a haircut, they pay, they leave,” he said. “If they can’t pay, they promise to come back with the money–and they do come back with the money.”

“I came to Staten Island from Italy 52 years ago,” said Marcucci, 66.  He doesn’t think it’s right that Hispanics or any immigrant group should be singled-out for the current economic difficulties.

“We are all immigrants. We should all get along.”

Victor Cariás, a supervisor on an oil spill clean up crew in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Annie Correal)

Listen to the radio story on disaster migrants Annie Correal produced for Latino USA.

[Visit post to listen to audio] PORT FOURCHON, LOUISIANA—There’s a white sand beach that stretches for miles here. Pelicans fish above the water and occasionally, a dolphin crests over a wave. It’s hard to believe, but as the nation has watched all summer on TV, the biggest spill in history is still washing up oil here.

Victor Carías, 22, is the supervisor of a twenty person clean up crew. He’s originally from Guatemala, but has been living in South Carolina and Louisiana for the past few years. He directs the workers to isolate and remove the shiny patches of crude oil underneath the top layer of sand.

“So what they’re doing is they’re digging and the good sand they put away,” Victor explained. “They’re trying to catch the oil and put it in the bags.”

Victor followed his parents to the U.S. when he was 18, and soon after, he found work cleaning up oil. He’s now bought his mother, father, brother and sister to work on the clean up. Like many of the crews, his group started working together within days of the disaster, and they’re all Latino.

Most workers are from the Dominican Republic, but there are also people from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Honduras and Guatemala. Victor’s boss is a Colombian Woman named Martha Mosquera. Her company, Tamara’s Group, has a contract to supply workers to clean up camps in Louisiana and Mississippi, and she says they’re 90 percent Hispanic. It’s likely this scenario is repeated all along the gulf coast, but BP says it isn’t tracking race and ethnicity of the clean up crews.

The Latino workers in Port Fourchon come mostly from new immigrant communities around New Orleans–Kenner, Bridge City, Gretna–and this summer they’re staying in rentals and tent cities on the coast as they do this difficult work. Many came to Louisiana to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Then some began to make a living cleaning up after oil spills, like Victor. One of his first was in 2006, when two ships collided on the Mississippi.

“From Chalmette to Belle Chasse, we been cleaning up all the area over there, just trying to keep the oil out,” he said. “And I been on Tulsa, Oklahoma – one of them oil plants have explosion and the water came and all the oil came through the city and I was over there and our job was pretty much to pressure wash the oil to the house, clean it up and get ready for demolition.”

Victor is what you could call a disaster migrant. The BP spill is the fourth oil spill he’s worked on. He said that normally, days after a spill, contractors show up at churches to recruit workers. But this time, everyone knew what had happened immediately.

“I never been, I never seen something like this happen before. All the oil spill sites I worked before, if you put them all together they’re not even one quarter of this,” he said.

Clean up workers in the Gulf of Mexico find oil in the sand. (Photo: Annie Correal)

Victor and his crew members say they realize that there are health risks involved in this line of work. After all, they have to wear boots and gloves and have to be decontaminated when they leave the site. Already, at least two workers have died from heat stroke. But they say that in this economy, it’s worth the risk. They make $12 to $15 an hour, plus overtime, and they get temporary housing and $30 a day for meals.

“All of them, if they’re here, it’s for a reason and it’s that they need this job. Everybody here to make a living,” Victor said.

In early June, the U.S. Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, visited Victor and his crew.

“My purpose here is to assist the workers with respect to safety and protection and the fact that we’re protecting all workers regardless of migration status, because that’s the federal law. If there are complaints of people not being paid adequate wages or loss of overtime or wage theft, or if they feel that they’re in a harmful situation where they may be exposed to contaminants or something that might cause them fear or a health risk, then they should call our OSHA office,” Solis said.

At the same time, there’s a strong message here that only people who have legal immigration status can apply for work. Latino men mill about pick-up spots and job centers looking for clean up work–some have come all the way from Texas–but most are turned away when they reveal they’re undocumented. So Victor feels lucky:

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that there is a lot of people that they don’t have documents and they don’t have a job for the same reason. And I know that they would be so happy if they get a chance to come and do this job, but BP got rules and the government got rules.”

At Port Fourchon, all the workers are documented and have passed E-Verify, the government’s electronic status check. Nevertheless, the sight of Latinos being bussed into remote clean-up sites here and all along the coast has aroused suspicion–in one case leading a local sheriff’s office to call in Immigration and Customs Enforcement to verify that the workers were documented.

Victor Cariás and his oil spill clean up crew in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Annie Correal)

The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security Office insisted the reason behind the visits was to make sure the jobs BP created were reserved for the local work force, but they upset some of the workers on Victor’s crew.

Junior Ayvar, an oil refinery worker when he’s not cleaning up oil spills, said this is not the moment to crack down on undocumented immigrants. Junior, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, thinks the government should take into consideration that this is a national emergency and these are workers who are protecting the country’s environment.

If there’s one thing these workers know, it’s that even in the worst catastrophe lies opportunity. For the country, the BP oil spill may be the opportunity to support the people who do it’s hardest, dirtiest work.

Wong Kim Ark, subject of a federal immigration investigation case conducted under the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) of the United States.

The evolving fracas swirling around illegal immigration is currently focused on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the young people disparagingly called “anchor babies.” It’s not the first time the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th amendment has been in dispute. 112 years ago, the Supreme Court took on the case of United States vs. Wong Kim Ark.

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco at some point between 1868 and 1873 to Chinese immigrant parents who were not U.S. citizens. Wong’s parents returned to China in 1890, but Wong stayed in California, where he was working as a cook. After a little while, Wong decided to travel to China to visit his parents.

The first time he traveled back and forth, in 1890, he reentered the U.S without much trouble. But the second time he returned from China, in 1895, U.S. Customs officials stopped him at the port and refused him entry, claiming that even though he was born in San Francisco, he was not a U.S. citizen because his parents were Chinese. This was due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first law to significantly restrict immigration to the U.S. It was designed to keep Chinese people out (and if they were already inside the U.S., the law stopped them from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens) until 1943. But Wong stood firm, and argued his way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1898 ruled 6-2 that even if his parents weren’t U.S. citizens, California-born Wong was a U.S. citizen on the basis of the 14th amendment.

Wong’s case has new relevance today. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently said that “birthright citizenship” is a mistake, and he wants to fix the broken border “so people can work here, earn a living, and go back home after a couple of years,” just like Wong’s parents. If Graham has his way, Wong’s modern counterparts would not be considered U.S. citizens.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

A recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center that revealed that 8% of the newborns in the U.S. have at least one undocumented parent has enraged the anti-immigration camp.

If Lindsey Graham and his supporters succeed in overturning the 14th amendment, would Wong Kim Ark, and all those who have come after him, be stripped of their citizenship?

U.S.-Mexico Border. (Photo: wonderlane/flickr)

People in the U.S. who live near the border with Mexico overwhelmingly say they feel safe as they walk and drive in their neighborhoods, according to a new poll.   The results of the survey were released yesterday, just as the U.S. House approved an additional $600-million for border security, including 1,000 added Border Patrol officers.

The results of the New Opinion Poll of Border Residents on Safety prompted local law enforcement officials and immigration advocates to argue that there no need to further amp up border security.

“In the last 14 years we’ve been rated the second safest largest city in the country by a non-profit group,” said El Paso, Texas Sheriff Richard Wiles at a teleconference announcing the release of the poll. “It is concrete evidence that crime rate is low in El Paso,” he continued. “The feeling of residents that they feel safe and enjoy the quality of life the community has to offer is important from a law enforcement perspective.”

Pollster Russell Autry of the Reuel Group, which conducted the study, said the poll was conducted July 14 and 15 i n 10 communities along the U.S.-Mexico border: Douglas, Nogales and Yuma in Arizona; El Centro and San Diego in California; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo and McAllen in Texas. The 1,222 respondents were asked four questions, one of which was, ‘Do you feel safe as you walk and drive in your neighborhood?’  Autry said a significant percentage responded positively–87.5 percent overall.  In El Paso, the positive response was 85.4 percent; in Nogales, 90 percent; and in Yuma, 94.5 percent.

The El Paso-based advocacy group Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) commissioned the study.

Executive Director Fernando García of the BNHR said the portrayal of the border  as an “area of war, mayhem, chaos and fear” is clearly not reflected in the poll. He was referring to a statement made by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer who spoke of “murder, terror and mayhem” on the border.

“This poll sets the record straight and challenges the artificial debate happening right now,” Garcia told the press conference. “People are saying they feel safe at the border.”

Garcia said the real reason Congress has been appropriating more money  for border security is to advance partisan interests and to promote the agenda of xenophobia.

“Enough is enough,” Garcia continued. “Communities are safe.”

Yesterday’s House vote is in addition to the 1,200 National Guard troops and $500 million the president pledged to the border earlier this year.

“I do think resources are misdirected,” said Sheriff Wiles.  “Now is the time to look at true issues and put the resources toward issues important to citizens, such as security in neighborhoods.”

Wiles made the distinction as he explained how El Paso has dealt with the “spillover effect” of crime (drug smuggling and human trafficking, rapes, crimes against undocumented immigrants, etc.)  originating from Juarez, Mexico.

While El Paso is relatively a safe city–“only two homicides this year,” said Wiles–the same cannot be said of Juarez.

“We’re in luck that we have a large law enforcement, our officers are paid well, they receive good training, there’s an infrastructure of support,” he said. “Unfortunately, Juarez is not like that. They don’t have the infrastructure of support  behind them, they’re not paid well, there’s corruption at all levels.”

That might be one reason why the majority of crime hasn’t spilled over the border.

“They’d much rather commit the crime over there where there’s a better chance of getting away with it,” he said.

Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema said there has been no escalation of violence along the border.

“Heated rhetoric on border violence has escalated fear but ignores the reality on the ground,” she said. “We need a comprehensive solution to border security and immigration.”

The “scapegoating has to end,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, based in Washington D.C. Instead of listening to politicians and pundits, he said Congress should listen to people who live on the border. He maintained the deployment of more troops “is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Mexican and American Restaurant on Staten Island, NY. (Photo: Julia Manzerova/Flickr)

NEW YORK–The recent wave of attacks on Mexican immigrants living on Staten Island has led to increased law enforcement activity, as well as increased examination of the causes of the attacks among residents and government officials.

Some of the best reporting on this issue has appeared in ethnic media. New York’s leading Spanish-language paper, El Diario/La Prensa, has covered the assaults closely.  Over the past week, the paper published three in-depth articles written by Manuel E. Avendaño, investigating the motivation behind these ugly crimes.

Last week, a Staten Island grand jury indicted Derrian Williams, 17, on four counts including hate crime charges, for assaulting, robbing and yelling racial slurs at 18 year old Christian Vasquez while he walked home after working a night shift as a busboy in Manhattan. It was at least the 10th attack on a Mexican immigrant since April that police in the New York City borough have treated as a hate crime. But it was the first in which a grand jury indicted a suspect on hate-crime charges.

Though many residents say hate crimes have been occurring for years on Staten Island, the involvement of the Mexican Consulate and recent media coverage has finally led to action on the part of authorities. In July, 130 police officers were dispatched to patrol Port Richmond, the neighborhood where most of the attacks have taken place, in addition to an FBI team. Even the Guardian Angels sent a group to patrol the area.

Most of the attacks have been committed by young African American men. (The New York Times reports that Derrian Williams is actually originally from Liberia, and is now an American citizen.) It’s unclear what their motivation has been–in a number of cases it seems that violence was the main objective, since the victims were left carrying cash and items of value.

The first installment in the El Diario series, “Se destapa el odio racial en Staten Island” or “Uncovering hate crimes on Staten Island,” looked at the many different theories about the reasons for the attacks: a belief that undocumented immigrants are stealing jobs; the fact that many undocumented Mexicans on Staten Island are easy targets because they are paid in cash and are reluctant to call the police; and racism towards Hispanics, possibly connected to the national controversy surrounding SB 1070 in Arizona and rising anti-immigrant sentiment across the nation.

In Avendaño’s second article, he looks at the changing demographics of Staten Island. Mexican immigrants are the largest immigrant group in the borough, with a population of 8,682 (9%) recorded in 2008. But they are newcomers–most have arrived over the past decade, attracted by the low cost of living and jobs in gardening, construction and restaurants. The immigrants tended to move into neighborhoods that were predominately African American, inciting racial tension.

In the final article of the series, Avendaño explores how Mexican immigrants have revitalized the economy of Port Richmond and other neighborhoods that were in crisis in the 1970s. He interviewed Mexican small business owners who are firmly established on the island, and say they will not budge in reaction to the recent wave of hate crimes. María Morales, whose restaurant was vandalized two years ago in a spate of attacks on Mexican-owned businesses, told Avendaño, “Nadie nos mueve de aquí. Esta es nuestra comunidad y no nos van a meter miedo.”

“No one will move us from here. This is our community and they’re not going to make us afraid.”

Border fence marking the U.S. - Mexico border at Border State Park in California. (Photo jlantzy/flickr)

Even as the Obama administration asks Congress to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform and the president says he is in favor of a path to legalization for law-abiding immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is deporting more people now than under the Bush administration: around 400,000 a year.

The current era is one of contradicting messages and promises from the federal government. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it prioritizes the removal of immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes (even green card holders can get a deportation order if they have been convicted of an aggravated felony) but the majority of deportees have committed no crime outside of crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visa. And new data shows that the vast majority of those who were convicted of crimes were guilty of minor offenses, including traffic violations. Only 1 in 6 have committed serious crimes.

These are the latest numbers, courtesy of Deportation Nation and TRAC:

• ICE has deported 279,035 immigrants in 2010 compared to 254,763 at this same point last year.
• The number of non-citizens deported in the first nine months of FY 2010 is up 10 percent from 2008, the last comparable year under the Bush administration.
• The pace of deportation for immigrants convicted of crimes is an an all time high: 60 percent more than the last year of the Bush administration, and 37 percent above Obama’s first year in office.
• Still, more than half of those deported so far in FY 2010 – 51 percent – had no criminal record.

There are over 1,000 deportations a day in the U.S. So what does it look, sound, and feel like during an immigration bust?

WNYC radio producer Marianne McCune gives us a window into the daily work of one of ICE’s Fugitive Operations teams, and speaks to one Moroccan immigrant couple they are trying to deport. Listen here:

South Asian Street Festival in Queens, NY. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

NEW YORK–Under the arching branches of a maple tree, Asian musicians sang indigenous songs, as vendors and activists sold merchandise and promoted an array of political causes.

At the July 25 South Asian Arts and Activism street fair in Queens, immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan gathered to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Chhaya, a grassroots organization for South Asian communities with immigration and housing concerns.  New York’s dynamic South Asian community is estimated to be around 280,000 strong, representing more than 30 percent of the city’s total Asian population.

Amid the ear-splitting music, the aroma of curry-puff samosas, and a rainbow of sari scarves fluttering from a clothing kiosk, South Asians found themselves relishing their shared culture.

“It’s all about having fun,” beamed a relaxed looking Seema Agnani, executive director and founder of Chhaya. Her group advocates for low-income South Asian homeowners facing foreclosures and mortgage troubles. This is the group’s first time to celebrate, she told Fi2W. “Hopefully, we’ll be around another 10 years.”

Fair-goers occupied one block of 77^th Street in Jackson Heights strolling, watching the musical program, or making small talk with fellow immigrants from the Indian subcontinent while they sipped from cans of ice-cold coconut juice.

Tibetan musicans performing at the South Asian Street Festival in Queens, NY. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

“I’m here with a couple of friends, just checking out the music – and the food,” chortled student Nikita Dass.

An Ecuadoran father and daughter were on their way home, but were lured by the blaring music and the red and yellow balloons. They took a detour to a table serving watermelon chunks and enjoyed a classic summer moment.

But some of the booths were manned by organizers who were there to talk about issues more serious than good food. Student Tenzing Sherpa was standing behind a booth for Adhikaar, a non-profit for Nepali immigrants.

“Many of the people we serve are domestic workers,” he told Fi2W and others who dropped by for a leaflet or a quick question. “Nepali immigrants also come to us for English classes and other services.”

Turning Point, an organization serving South Asian victims of domestic violence. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

The battle against domestic violence was front and center with booths run by Turning Point for Women and Families and the New York Asian Women’s Center (NYAWC).

“Violence against Muslim women is on the rise, unfortunately,” declared Turning Point volunteer Rabya Rafiq. “We’re here to let the community know that help is available.” The group offers counseling, crisis intervention, and support groups for abused women.

Fronthy Nguyen, outreach coordinator of the NYAWC, said some battered Asian women are culturally hindered from seeking help due to feelings of shame. But she said NYAWC has confidential hotlines women can call, and emergency centers that offer a safe place when lives are threatened.

The Bangladeshi band, Grammyo, played country music with a spiritual theme, and was followed by a Tibetan duo singing in their native language.  Costumed women performed a traditional dance, young men showed off their break dancing skills, and a much-awaited Bollywood dance number courtesy of SALGA (South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association) pumped up the crowd. At one point, the crowd suddenly erupted into a bhangra dancing mass, and 77^th Street was transformed into a scene out of Slumdog Millionaire.

Jai Ho!

International newspapers. (Photo: Ricardo Francone/flickr)

It’s hard these days to open a newspaper or read the news online without coming across stories about immigration.  The recent federal court injunction against Arizona’s SB 1070 (on the eve of the law’s effective date) has been a huge factor in keeping the issue in the headlines.

Now the focus is shifting to a new Republican-led effort to repeal the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The idea targets the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants by removing the constitutional guarantee that anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen of this country, regardless of where their parents were born.

But who is doing the best job of reporting on immigration? Where can you find the most insightful coverage?

NewsTrust, a website that “helps people find and share good journalism online” has just announced the results of its Immigration News Hunt.  They spent the final two weeks in July “look(ing) for good journalism about immigration — with a focus on Arizona’s controversial law.”

Among the favorites are stories by the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the Arizona Republic.  Other pieces that got high marks on the NewsTrust site are from the Cato Institute, Wikipedia, Fox News and USA Today.

But wait, there’s something missing: Newspapers and websites that serve immigrant communities, especially Latino readers, began covering this story long before it became the focus of national media attention.  But neither NewsTrust, nor any of its members who nominated stories for the Immigration News Hunt deemed coverage in ethnic media worthy of mention.

So, here are some of our suggestions for recent outstanding coverage of immigration.  In the interest of full disclosure, some of the pieces we highlight here come from friends and partners of Feet in Two Worlds.

The Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion put together a terrific multi-media presentation on SB 1070.  You can see it at Impre.com. In addition to giving the history of the law (it would have given police in Arizona sweeping powers to detain people they suspect of being in the state illegally), the site reports on the boycott against Arizona and presents stories of families impacted in the run-up to the law’s implementation.  The site also offers advice to anyone who is detained in Arizona under the new law.

Colorlines this week published a frank discussion of the boycott of Arizona to protest SB 1070, and whether it is still relevant.

The Arizona law has gotten lots of attention in New York.  It’s understandable, considering the city’s huge immigrant population. For a good sampling of both news reports and editorials on the subject published in New York’s ethnic and community media, see Voices That Must Be Heard, the website of the New York Community Media Alliance.

If it’s raw coverage you’re looking for, check out video shot by members of the PUENTE movement, an immigrant rights group based in Phoenix.  It may not be journalism in the tradition of the New York Times, but it sure conveys a sense of what it feels like on the streets of the Arizona capital city these days.

Finally, Hispanic News offers tons of Arizona coverage and opinion.  The site even has a column suggesting that bringing the World Cup to Arizona would help heal the wounds created by SB 1070.  Maybe, but is the soccer world ready to sacrifice its finest players to heat exhaustion under the blistering Arizona sun in the name of political reconciliation?  We’ll have to wait and see.

This is not a complete list, but it gives you an idea of the variety and quality of journalism that’s available in ethnic media at this critical moment in the debate over immigration.

U.S. Constitution. (Photo: Chuck Coker/flickr)

Republicans in Congress are so desperate to capitalize on the anti-immigration vote this fall that they are proposing to change the U.S. Constitution.

The effort to overturn the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., is being championed in the Senate by GOP minority leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) the Republican whip, John Kyl (R-Ariz) and in a complete 180, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) (who once, in a galaxy far far away, supported bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform).

Mr. Graham told Fox News that “birthright citizenship was a mistake.”

“People come here to have babies,” said Graham. ‘They come here to drop a child. It’s called drop and leave. To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child is automatically an American citizen. That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.’”

The Hill reports that the Republican legislation is popular in the House as well, and has 93 co-sponsors. It is aimed at denying citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants.

Immigration-rights advocates were quick to respond to the proposal, and the Immigration Policy Center launched a web portal devoted to defending the 14th amendment.

Yet the likelihood of overturning an amendment that was adopted in 1868 and has been fundamental to American identity over the the last century and a half is unlikely. The amendment reversed the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in the Dred Scott case that denied citizenship to African-Americans. Getting rid of the amendment would require the support of two thirds of both houses and would need to be ratified by three-quarters of the 50 states.