Senate “Gang of 8” releases framework for CIR – organizations respond

Democratic Senators Dick Durbin (c.) and Chuck Schumer (r.) are among a bipartisan group of legislators leading the comprehensive immigration reform negotiations. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Today, the bipartisan group of Senators released their framework for immigration reform. It includes few details, but has both promising and alarming elements.

Here we provide links to the full text of the framework, as well as links to articles that provide feedback and critiques of the framework.

Breaking immigration news

Any expansion that CIR might include of immigration enforcement programs working with local law enforcement means more family separations and violation of civil rights. CIR should be about family unity, not expanding violation of human rights.

Update: The Senate “Gang of 8” has also release the framework that the bipartisan group will be working with. Read the Senate framework here and a response to the framework by our partners at the ACLU here.

Start taking your vitamins because the fight for comprehensive immigration reform is right around the corner.

Reports have just come out that President Obama will debut his plans for comprehensive immigration reform this Tuesday. The President will call on Congress to create a road map to citizenship for immigrants without papers.

Read the breaking news here.

In the past weeks, we have told you how important the fight for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) will be for the members of LUPE. We want to make sure that CIR includes legalization and a pathway to citizenship for as many of the 11 million undocumented Americans that contribute to the greatness of our nation.

Help us take 50 LUPE youth to Austin and DC to advocate for immigration reform! Make a gift by clicking here.

This is central to our struggle. There are already “immigration reform” proposals that would make citizenship next to impossible and other positions that would bar immigrants without papers from citizenship.

But a pathway to citizenship is not the only issues important to our members. Also topping the list are family unification and protection of the civil rights and liberties of residents of border communities. Every time immigration reform comes up, politicians use the opportunity to further militarize our border, extend the border wall, increase Border Patrol, and increase use of drones and other military technology along the border. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute notes that the U.S. spends roughly $18 billion on federal immigration enforcement, more than it spends on all other law enforcement efforts combined. Along with this increase in spending come increased reports of abuse by immigration agents. We are calling for increased accountability of immigration enforcement and protection of the rights of people along the border.

Our work for CIR will be redoubled in the coming weeks. Our members will travel to Austin to join folks from across the state who will march for CIR that includes a pathway to citizenship and protects the rights of border residents. We want to send a bus full of Dreamers who have received Deferred Action to march and share their stories. We will be calling on our supporters in the coming days with ways that you can help.

Just and Humane Immigration Reform! Si Se Puede!

Help us take 50 LUPE youth to Austin and DC to advocate for immigration reform! Make a gift by clicking here.

International Human Rights Day: Our Declaration of Human Rights

Declaration of Human Rights

Convention Equal Voice for Human Rights
November 30, 2012

Community Center, Precinct #2
1429 S Tower Rd
Alamo, TX 78516

The power of human rights lies in the simple but profound idea that we all have basic rights solely by virtue of our humanity. Each individual, family and community should live in equality, dignity and freedom, with the power to participate and shape government policies and institutions that affect our lives.

Love is an emotional need that we all have. Love for thy neighbor and mutual aid leads us to the point that we all take responsibility to defend and take care of each other.

The right to have good jobs with fair wages is important because it is necessary to provide healthy food, decent housing and opportunities for the family.

It is very important to have immigration reform. We deserve to have our families united and that is why we reject separation of families. As part of reform, we should have equal access to the services we need for a dignified life, regardless of immigration status. For example, a driver’s license, an education for our children and our parents, health care and public services.

Education is important to develop intellectually, for both youth and adults. A good education opens the doors to opportunities we need to live a dignified life.

To live a dignified life, we have to live in decent housing. We need proper housing with adequate infrastructure to protect us from floods and other natural disasters.

As each and every one of us lives on this planet, the right to live in dignity also means that the environment has to be cared for. It is not fair that some enjoy a healthy natural environment when others lack this.

Health is very important because with good health, we are ready to serve our families and communities. This is why we need comprehensive medical care, of the body and mind.

Our faith guides us in our daily lives. And because we are different people with different beliefs, the right to religion should be protected in our community.

We have the right that our representatives respond to our requests and take actions to ensure our needs are met. Representatives should represent everyone, regardless of socioeconomic level, sex, gender, religion, race, or immigration status.

As an organized community in dialogue with our neighbors and loved ones, we recognize that many of our basic needs are not taken into account.

Therefore, although each and every one of us has dignity, the fact that our needs are not taken into account affects our ability to live a dignified life. We believe that a just society should ensure a decent life for every individual, family and community.

Therefore we declare:

We all have human rights because we are all human beings.
We strive for:
• Fair jobs with just wages,
• An immigration reform that will treat us like human beings,
• An education that recognizes our diverse needs to develop intellectually with access to technology,
• Adequate housing that will protect our families
• Protection to our communities so they can live in peace with space to play and exercise
• Adequate and affordable health care, regardless of immigration status or socioeconomic levels

To achieve this new society, we need to start by making our commitment to work for it. We recognize our rights because we need them. However, we are denied them. That is where our participation comes in, to demand that our human rights are respected. We commit ourselves to work to create a society that respects our rights. We are guided by these principles as we aspire to a better world – universality, equality, protection of public goods, participation, transparency and accountability.

In the same manner, we welcome other members of the community, representatives of our city, county, state, and nation, businessmen and women, leaders of faith, and each person with sincerity, to also take the opportunity to make their commitment to work for human rights.

Approved and ratified on November 30, 2012, by participants of the Equal Voice for Human Rights convention.

Menendez (D-NJ) bill “for show” but with improvements over Schumer framework

The Washington Independent reported yesterday:

Like Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced an immigration bill last night just before the Senate shut down for its pre-election recess. There was little time to act on the bills — each was referred to committee — and they will likely both die there. But being on the verge of unveiling his own immigration legislation didn’t stop Hatch from criticizing Menendez’s timing: “Anything done in this time period is just for show,” he told Politico Tuesday.

While Menendez’s bill is most likely a political stunt to attract Hispanic voters and reconfirms the notion that the Democrats would rather play politics with immigration than put the weight of the party (or the administration) behind real reform, the bill does offer important improvements over this spring’s Schumer framework and is evidence that the increased organization of border communities and grassroots immigrant rights groups are having an effect on our representatives.

Last spring’s Schumer proposal could barely be called reform. Though it included AgJOBS and DREAM Act and provided limited avenues for legalization, the vast majority of the framework was enforcement heavy and furthered the Republican and Democrat-backed trend of criminalizing immigrant communities.

While Menendez’s bill keeps many of the enforcement provisions, it also includes key recommendations from border communities that limit the power of immigration authorities, improve Border Patrol training and provide for some level of oversight and abuse reporting.

Also notable is the reevaluation of Operation Streamline, a program that has funneled federal dollars towards prosecuting hardworking men and women who’s only crime was crossing the border without documents, while allowing real criminals to evade prosecution and conviction.

The bill also includes the DREAM Act, AgJOBS and the Uniting American Families Act.

While this legislation will probably not go any where, we must keep pushing for these improvements from our representatives in both parties and in the Obama administration. These improvements must not die with this bill.

As I wrote yesterday, if we are to see a serious effort for CIR that fixes our broken immigration system and upholds human rights and dignity, it will be a result of the immigrant rights movement’s increased power and influence through broadening our use of popular education, creating inclusive and broad analysis, and the development of creative tactics. The Menendez bill is evidence that we are going in that direction, but much more organizing is needed if we are going to push our representatives to back a serious reform effort and not just play politics with the hopes and dreams of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Immigrant Farmworkers Say: Go Ahead, Take Our Jobs

Yesterday the United Farm Workers launched a new campaign meant to expose the unjust characterization of undocumented immigrants as taking jobs from U.S. citizens and legal residents.

In inviting native-born and eligible foreign-born workers to get a job as a farmworker, the Texas Tribune reports, the campaign “Take Our Jobs”

underscores what [UFW President Arturo] Rodriguez said is the unjustifiable label thrust upon farm and livestock workers, many of whom earn about $12,000 annually. Agriculture workers have been unjustly targeted as scapegoats during the current immigration debate, he said, and the tongue-in-cheek approach is meant to address the hypocrisy.

This messaging strategy may turn out to be genius, drawing out comments like this one from critical online commenters (and possibly talking heads?), who normally berate undocumented immigrants:

“Oh, yes! Let me sell my home, leave my family and move out west where at 64 years of age I can run a tractor, slaughter beef or plant vegetables.”

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Join the 9th Annual Cesar Chavez March Celebrating 50 Years United in the Struggle! March 31, 2012. Click above for more info.

Comments like these say what reporters are not: immigrants and citizens generally are not in competition for jobs. This effort may force both critical online commenters and reporters to recognize this fact. And readers to rethink their support for AgJobs, the bill that would provide farmworkers legal status provided they continue working in the fields.

And with such a simple challenge that almost no one will take up, it will be hard to cover this story unfavorably to immigrant workers and their dreams of access to documents. Already this story has run favorably to immigrants on the front page of today’s edition of the Monitor, a paper known in this region for being considerably anti-worker and with little favorable coverage of immigrant issues.

You can read more about the campaign on the Texas Tribune website.

And consider helping our work for humane immigration reform by making a donation today.

Consider helping our work for humane immigration reform by donating today.