December 2009
62 posts
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Trying to Build Bonds With Immigrant Stories →
via the New York Times: Over rice and gumbo, about two dozen members of Mills Grove signed letters to Bay Area members of Congress endorsing immigration law change, an issue that President Obama is expected to revive in 2010. The letterhead, quite deliberately, consisted of a verse from Deuteronomy: “Therefore love the stranger, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.” Mrs....
Dec 27th
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US Citizen Children Go Without Health Benefits... →
via Immigration Prof Blog: “The new Arizona Law, HB 2008, which requires the Department of Economic Security DES employees  report anyone in the country without authorization and who tries to apply for public benefits,  is being applied to undocumented parents who has sought health benefits for their US citizen children. Click here for the story in the New Media. The law’s chilling...
Dec 25th
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The Immigration System Is Broken; What Are You... →
This week’s guest post on Change.org’s Immigration blog comes from Carl McGinnis, a citizen of the United States, who has seen the horrors of immigrant detention after ICE detained his legal immigrant friend.
Dec 25th
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Book review of From Every End of This Earth by... →
Nancy Trejos reviews Steven Roberts new book in the Washington Post: Roberts focuses much of the book on children like me — Generation Next. “Being a child of immigrants can be a complicated way to grow up,” he writes. “Generation Next is often pulled between the past and the future, between celebrating their own tradition and creating their own identity.”
Dec 24th
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A Stamp in a Passport Ends a Long Struggle for... →
The New York Times reports: Six years ago, Osserritta Robinson, a Jamaican immigrant, lost her husband of eight months in the fatal Staten Island ferry crash. Four years ago, at her interview for permanent residency, she learned that her husband’s death had disqualified her application because of the “widow penalty” — the government’s practice of annulling foreigners’ applications for...
Dec 24th
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"Home Sweet Home!" says Returning U.S. Citizen,... →
Jacqueline Stevens writes in her blog ‘States Without Nations’ about Johann Francis: Ten years after being illegally banished from his country, U.S. citizen Johann Francis was reunited with his mother and two sisters in an Atlanta airport early Sunday morning. (For background, please go here.)
Dec 24th
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Deported adults are leaving their citizen children... →
From the Charlotte (NC) Observer: In the five months since immigration agents knocked on her door, Norma Villeda has sold her home and furnishings and shuttered her husband’s business. She now sleeps in the living room of her sister-in-law’s trailer, what’s left of her possessions packed into three suitcases. But the biggest loss has yet to come. When she is returns to her...
Dec 23rd
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Part 2 of Interview with Jenny Hwang, co-author of... →
David Swanson continues interview with Jenny Hwang about questions raised by her book, Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate.
Dec 23rd
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Interview with Jenny Hwang, co-author of... →
David Swanson interviews author Jenny Hwang who works for World Relief in Maryland as the director of advocacy and policy for the Refugee and Immigration Program.
Dec 23rd
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via Racialicious blog: CIR ASAP - Working Toward a... →
Latoya Peterson writes: “Alongside the Health Care bill, another major piece of legislation working its way through the United States Congress is The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009. Designed to rectify a litany of concerns facing those currently immigrating or tangled somewhere along the way in our legal system.” [Read...
Dec 22nd
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Dec 22nd
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Immigration Reform is Critical Part of the Road to... →
Article on Huffington Post by Eliseo Medina and Joe Hansen: “The legislation upholds our values as a nation of immigrants and embraces the vitality and diversity that are the fabric of a vibrant and strong society. It truly could not have come soon enough for America’s workers — both immigrant and native born.”
Dec 22nd
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“When I was able to quiet my body and listen to my heart, I could tap into the...”
–  On Sunday November 22nd, Jason Lydon, the Congregational Director of the Community Church of Boston, joined religious and secular supporters to stand with immigrants being targeted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Unitarian Universalists were there in force. Read his moving blog post,...
Dec 21st
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Author of The Snakehead "consulted an impressive... →
Ted Conover reviews Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book “The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream”. “… we finally have a satisfying, comprehensive account of the Golden Venture debacle and its place in the larger story of people smuggling and US immigration policy.”
Dec 20th
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WatchWatch
American Stories via Center for American Progress: Hilda L. Solis, Secretary of Labor and Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce on Immigration
Dec 18th
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"An important goal of our immigration system is to... →
Mary Kenney writes in a post for the Immigration Policy Center about some fixes to our broken immigration system that can be made now without waiting for Congressional action.
Dec 17th
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"St. Bridget's has helped the [immigrant] families... →
Link above to article: After 19 months of detention following an ICE raid on an Iowa meat processing plant, about a dozen immigrant women continue to wear tracking devices on their ankles while federal officials decide their fate.
Dec 17th
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WatchWatch
National Immigration Law Center reflects on 30 years of advocacy.
Dec 16th
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Dec 16th
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Dec 16th
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Dec 16th
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More on article about New Jersey church from... →
Immigration attorney David Bennion critiques the recent New York Times article on a New Jersey church, its Indonesian members who were detained and their experience with Homeland Security.
Dec 16th
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"On the first Sunday of each month, the Interfaith... →
Minnesota Public Radio reports on Immigrant detention growing in Minnesota and the local community’s response. “Loren McGrail is a United Church of Christ minister and one of the lead organizers of the Interfaith Coalition on Immigration. McGrail hasn’t had any contact with the detainees inside. Her group is negotiating with Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher to allow...
Dec 16th
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Dec 15th
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Why I dream of change from anjamd
I’m Puerto Rican, so I can’t call myself an immigrant. But I have lived as an immigrant abroad, I have been the other, the outsider looking in, and know very well how hard it is, getting used to life in a place where everything is strange. If you’ve not lived it you really can’t understand that it’s not some kind of extended vacation. It’s learning a new language,...
Dec 14th
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25 Days In Federal Prison For Littering? Border... →
Link above about Walt Staton via Alternet
Dec 14th
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Keep ugliness out of immigration debate →
Link above to Ruben Navarrette Jr.’s commentary on CNN.com
Dec 14th
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Dec 14th
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NY Times: Church Works With U.S. to Spare... →
Click link above for article and here to see slide show. Also read a critique of the article by immigration attorney David Bennion.
Dec 13th
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The Visual du Jour – Immigration in the US →
nonprofitblogs: Via Graphic Sociology (click on the image for humongous version),
Dec 12th
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Dec 11th
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Public Opinion Polls and the Future of Immigration... →
via the Immigration Policy Center
Dec 11th
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“The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the one born among you,...”
–  via Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Dec 10th
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Dec 10th
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From Awearness blog: "Happy Jane Addams Day!" →
Click on link above for more.
Dec 10th
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Please Tell the Senate to Reform Hardship Waivers →
Via American Families United: When U.S. citizens sponsor their husbands and wives for immigration, too many become trapped in the unthinking and counterproductive web of administrative violations that separate them from each other and their children or from America. Please sign the petition (link above) at and ask your friends and family to do the same.
Dec 10th
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New immigration detention reports confirm reason... →
Statement from Bob Hildreth, steering committee chair of the National Immigrant Bond Fund.
Dec 10th
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WatchWatch
Speech by Bishop Gerald Kicanas exploring Immigration from a Border perspective. See two more videos here.
Dec 10th
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Dec 10th
“His foreparents came to America in immigrant ships. My foreparents came to...”
–  from ImmigrationProf Blog “Great Quotes About Immigrants” November 20, 2008
Dec 10th
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Dec 10th
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Dec 9th
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“Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible....”
–  from American Apparel “Legalize LA” website
Dec 9th
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WatchWatch
A brief portrait of a young humanitarian aid worker on the US/Mexico border.
Dec 9th
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"To deny our immigrant brothers and sisters basic... →
Click on link above for OpEd by Roger Mahony, the cardinal archbishop of Los Angeles.
Dec 9th
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Dec 9th
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Health benefits of volunteering →
Click link above for commentary by Harvard’s Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in the America on a recent New York Times article “In Month of Giving, a Healthy Reward”.
Dec 9th
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From Racialicious blog: "When Allies Fail, Part... →
More from Tami on allies in social justice movements. Today, Tami talks about “the responsibilities of marginalized people who want to work with allies. ‘Responsibilities of marginalized people’…already I am hesitant to speak about allied relationships this way.”
Dec 8th
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Dec 8th
2 notes
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Immigrant Rights book group on GoodReads →
Join this group and share your favorite immigrant rights books!
Dec 8th