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9 Multimedia Reports on Immigration Reform You Can’t Miss
by Carlos Macías
The push for and against immigration reform in the United States is not ebbing. However, multimedia journalists keep documenting the struggle from both sides of the debate. These reports encompass titanic efforts to keep an honest account of how America deals with the future of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants and its inevitable transformation. Let’s take a look of 9 multimedia projects that stand out for their depth, breath and creativity:
1. Blood on the Tracks by ForeignPolicy.com
2. National Guard at the U.S. -Mexico Border by The Arizona Republic
3. Immigration Detention in Arizona by Time.com
4. Arizona Racial Profiling Law: Show Us What You Think by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
5. Rallies Fueled by Anger Over Arizona Law by The New York Times
6. As Arizona Immigration Reform Takes Effect, Local Tensions Start to Boil by The Washington Post
7. An Anti-Illegal Immigration Crusade by The Miami Herald
8. Horses Play a Vital Role in American Border Security by BBC News
9. Fotos de Alonso Castillo by Nuestra Mirada, La Red Social de Fotoperiodistas Iberoamericanos
To learn more about immigration reform in the United States, visit the following resources:
White House page on immigration
National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
National Immigration Forum
Pew Hispanic Center on Immigration
The New York Times’ immigration topics page
Feet in Two Worlds blog
Original article was published on the Being Latino blog.
Round Five for the DREAM Act AS/COA Online 04/03/09
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| Enactment of the DREAM Act would allow some undocumented students to gain legal status. (AP Photo) |
In a first step to bring immigration reform back to the front burner, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Rubin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) in the Senate on March 26. A similar bill called the American Dream Act was submitted in the House of Representatives in a bipartisan effort. Yet, despite domestic debate over immigration in recent years, the controversial initiative has not reached the national spotlight. As an example, during President Barack Obama’s interactive town hall meeting held on March 26, none of the top ten questions voted on by more than 3.5 million people were related to immigration reform.
The DREAM Act offers a two-step legalization process for children described as “1.5ers.” As Washington Post columnist Marcela Sanchez explained in a 2007 article, “One-point-fivers are neither first-generation immigrants, adults who immigrated to the United States; nor are they second-generation, children born here of immigrant parents.” According to the National Immigration Law Center, students who came to the United States before turning 16 at least five years before the bill’s enactment could gain conditional permanent resident status if they have clean criminal records and attain high school graduation or college acceptance. To upgrade from conditional to permanent status, participants must then finish two years of college or serve a minimum of two years in the U.S. military.
How many people would benefit from the measure? Research from 2003 by the Pew Hispanic Center published in a Congressional Research Service report estimated that “each year 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate high school who have lived in the country for more than five years.” In 2006, the Migration Policy Institute calculated that roughly 360,000 undocumented high school graduates would benefit from the measure that year alone. The Center for Immigration Studies reported in 2007 that 2.1 million could qualify for legal status under the DREAM Act.
The legislation was first introduced in 2001 and rejected four times. But the fifth round may be the charm. As the Orlando Sentinal’s “Hispanosphere” blog points out, “[N]ow Democrats have control of U.S. Congress with a president who has expressed support and voted in favor of this legislation in the last go-round.”
Whether consideration of the DREAM Act represents near-term action on comprehensive immigration reform remains unclear. In a recent visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that immigration reform is “a high priority” for Obama’s administration. “We believe strongly that there have to be changes made, and we hope we will be able to pursue those in the coming months,” she said. In early March, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a San Francisco church crowd that “we cannot wait any longer for fair and just immigration reform.” However, during this week’s visit to Costa Rica, Vice President Joe Biden warned Central American leaders that the ailing economy hinders immediate action on U.S. immigration reform.
Read the article as originally published at the AS/COA website.
Recession Strikes Immigrant Jobs, Remittances AS/COA Online 12/12/08
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| Immigrants struggle with fewer employment options. (AP Images) |
In the midst of a financial storm, the U.S. labor market lost more than half a million jobs in November alone. While unemployment affects all segments of the population, legal and undocumented Latino workers have been particularly hard hit. The Hispanic unemployment rate hit 8.8 percent in October, outpacing the national figure of 6.5 percent.
The rising joblessness coincides with slowing remittance rates, delivering another blow to Latin American economies—particularly in Mexico and Central America—that depend on emigrant money flows. Remittances slowed down worldwide from a 16 percent annual increase in 2007 down to only seven percent in 2008. In October, the Inter-American Development Bank forecasted that this year, for the first time since 2000, remittances to Latin America would decrease in value when adjusted for inflation.
Given the circumstances, Latin American migrants to the United States find themselves contemplating the idea of returning home, faced with the difficulty of holding down jobs in hard-hit sectors such as construction as well as stiffer immigration enforcement that includes random workplace raids. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports about Latin American immigrants moving home, and notes that even circular migration across the border may drop as Mexicans return home permanently. A Pew Hispanic Center report from October found that the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States dropped from 800,000 per year between 2000 and 2004 to 500,000 per year in 2007. Additionally, immigration officials claim that tougher enforcement has helped reduced illegal immigration; more than 290,000 illegal immigrants were deported in 2007, which they say has induced others to consider the option of returning home.
Those who return or remain must also contend with economic consequences. NPR covers the struggles of poor residents in the Mexican state of Michoacán receiving fewer remittances from their relatives. The report also envisions problems for local governments if, for example, 10 percent of migrant workers decide to return. “No, there’s no work…there are some serious complications. This is reality,” State Legislator Antonio Garcia says.
However, the Associated Press reports that remittances to Mexico rose by $2.4 billion in October compared with $2.2 billion a year ago as Mexican immigrants sending money ahead of the Christmas season and cashing in on the declining value of the peso. That means more purchasing power in the hands of millions of families already strained by a weak economy. Despite this positive glimpse of recovery, the Economist explains that many workers might be sending home their savings in advance of their planned return.
In the United States, the immigration debate became a lesser issue in the 2008 presidential race and could be relegated to the back burner of Barack Obama’s presidential agenda, given the pressing need to confront the financial crisis. During his campaign, Obama promised to secure U.S. borders, reform existing immigration laws, and “bring illegal workers out of the shadows.” The recent nomination of Arizona’s Governor Janet Napolitano to the secretary of Homeland Security post by Obama is perceived as a strong sign that the next administration will eventually tackle immigration reform, given Napolitano’s expertise in border issues and immigration law.
The Migration Policy Institute recaps the top 10 immigration issues of 2008 and suggests which issues to keep an eye on in 2009.
Read AS/COA coverage on how the financial crisis has hit immigrant pockets this year.
En español.
Read the article as originally published at the AS/COA website.
Facing the Integration Challenge AS/COA Online 07/24/08
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| New U.S. citizens take the oath of citizenship on July 4, 2008. (AP Images) |
Since U.S. Congress failed to approve comprehensive immigration legislation last year, states and local governments have proposed or passed a myriad of immigration laws. While the typically strict laws fall short of providing a national policy to resolve the fate of roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants, legal residents also face setbacks and hurdles to integration. Immigration raids occurring in factories and companies across the country have affected legal and undocumented workers alike, even as business leaders warn of a dearth of workers.
Reports of citizens and legal immigrants wrongfully detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) have increased in the last six months. USA Today reported last month that 114 citizens have sued the federal government because they were wrongfully arrested during a raid in a California factory in February. A letter sent to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff and ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law accuses ICE with the “blatantly unconstitutional use of ‘group detentions’” during such raids. The Dallas Morning News recaps a sampling of situations through February 2008 in which citizens or legal residents—usually of Mexican background—were arrested and even deported in some cases.
But not only offended citizens respond to the repressive methods used by ICE or punitive laws approved (44 state legislatures approved immigration laws in in the first quarter of 2008 alone). A recent article in the New York Times examines how business leaders are fighting to soften harsh anti-immigrant laws in states such as Arizona and Oklahoma, where employers face a shortage of unskilled labor. They also express frustration with the controversial E-Verify system put in place by the federal government to check the authenticity of workers documents, saying the system is prone to errors based on faulty information in the databases from which it draws information.
In addition to the anxiety created by raids, legal immigrants face other obstacles that hinder their advancement in the workplace and in their communities. Many Hispanic immigrants must overcome limited English proficiency, modest financial literacy, and a lack of cultural familiarity. A new white paper as part of the AS/COA’s Hispanic Integration Initiative documents private sector best practices in workforce and community integration and serves as an opportunity to build support for their expansion. Presented at bipartisan Capitol Hill event on July 24, the white paper demonstrates a collective commitment by private sector leaders to integrating immigrant communities. The Hispanic population—the biggest and fastest growing U.S. minority—has a collective purchasing power that surpassed $800 billion in 2007. This year, the nearly 2.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses are expected to generate an estimated $389 billion in revenues.
Hispanics find themselves targeted not only for their growing economic might, but also their electoral power. Even in this area, legal immigrants face hurdles: Delays in processing immigration documents could keep tens of thousands of Latinos awaiting citizenship from voting in November presidential elections. Though immigration reform remains a political hot potato that many politicians remain reluctant to handle, presidential hopefuls have been courting a Latino vote that could serve as a decisive. Some swing states that previously voted Republican appear to lean toward presumptive Democratic candidate Barack Obama, based on a recent poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. NPR provides extensive coverage on the Latino vote and its importance for both candidates.
In the Summer 2008 issue of Americas Quarterly, President of ImmigrationWorks USA Tamar Jacoby analyzes the current immigration reform conundrum and advocates for restructuring the U.S. visa system to avoid perpetuating a cycle by creating another generation of undocumented workers.
Read AS/COA’s analysis of the ongoing campaign to secure the Latino vote and how the state legislatures tackle immigration.
Read the article as originally posted at the AS/COA website.
State Legislatures Tackle Immigration AS/COA Online 05/02/2008
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| Several new state laws require employers to verify the legal status of immigrant workers. |
The size of this year’s May Day pro-immigration rallies paled in comparison to the massive demonstrations held across the United States in 2006. Yet the large number of state-level immigration laws under consideration demonstrates the issue’s continued importance. Earlier in the week, Arizona’s Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed state legislation that would have mandated all state police and sheriff departments to enforce immigration laws. The bill raised concerns about ethnic profiling and the likelihood of imposing a heavy burden on the state’s already overloaded crime-fighting capacity. A New York Times editorial applauded the governor’s decision, saying that a “rational immigration system will not be resolved by simplistic, predatory enforcement schemes.”
But Arizona is not alone. In early March, Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour signed a far-reaching law obligating employers to use the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic system to verify employees’ legal immigration status. Furthermore, the law makes it possible to charge an undocumented worker with a felony for holding a job. South Carolina and Rhode Island recently approved comparable laws. Immigration legislation gains consideration on local levels as well; an employee verification law proposed in Long Island’s Suffolk County was recently placed on a hold by a court injunction. An editorial in Newsday examines the impact of anti-immigration legislation in Riverside, New Jersey, where the flight of migrant labor harmed not only the local economy but also the town’s reputation.
In a report prepared for the Migration Policy Institute, immigration law expert Christina Rodríguez assesses (PDF) the legal validity of state and municipal-level immigration measures. In many cases, these states and counties are new immigrant destinations. “The traditional American story of immigrant enclaves in the heart of major cities has been fundamentally altered with the restructuring of the U.S. economy, the decentralization of cities, and the growth of the suburbs as major employment centers,” according to a Migration Information Source analysis.
The arrival of immigrants in new parts of the United States is just one factor behind anti-immigration legislation; the foundering U.S. economy is another. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, James Riley comments that immigrants become scapegoats when economic concerns loom, and in this day and age. “Today, it means blaming Latinos,” he writes. He argues that immigrant workers keep labor markets flexible, benefiting employees and employers alike.
The U.S. economic downturn also shows signs of affecting immigrants—and the communities they send money to. A recently released Inter American Development Bank poll conducted in February 2008 showed that only 50 percent of immigrants send money home on a regular basis compared to 73 percent two years ago. The report attributes the slowing remittance flows to not only the weakened economy, but also the “harsher climate against immigration in this country.” An AS/COA analysis examines the remittance slowdown.
At the recent North American Leaders’ Summit gathered in New Orleans, Mexican President Felipe Calderón emphasized the importance of addressing the immigration problem “with respect and responsibility.” U.S. President George Bush also voiced his support for comprehensive immigration reform and closer ties with North American Free Trade Agreement partners. President Bush will serve as a keynote speaker at the 38th annual Washington Conference on the Americas: The Globalization of the Americas.
Although little progress is expected on federal immigration reform before a new U.S. president takes office, Democratic and Republican presidential candidates share common views on immigration-related matters; they support comprehensive immigration reform and tougher penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers. They also voted for raising a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Read the article as originally published at the AS/COA website.
Carlos Macías Web 