NY Times -Immigrant Children in Legal Limbo

Room for Debate in the New York Times examines the situation of young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children with their parents and were raised and educated here. The article on the topic will appear over the weekend.

You will see Nick from the DREAM Act Portal and Prerna from The Sanctuary as two of the contributors.

Click here to read it.

Republicans Show Their Hatred of Legal Immigrant Children

The SCHIP battle continues and this time Republicans hate immigration so much they are brazenly going after innocent legal 4 year old immigrants. As outlandish as that sounds, it's the sad truth. Ugh. What happened to that party?

1) Many of these same people love to say they are only opposed to "illegal immigrants" when in reality they are opposed to all immigrants, including the majority of legal immigrants. Former President Bush had this say, "well, Republicans don't like immigrants." Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's the image that came out". I think it's a pretty fair and accurate image.

2) They're children! What kind of society are we that we turn a sick child away at the emergency room? Keep in mind, immigrants do not qualify for most public services yet pay taxes just like everyone else. They aren't "leaches" as some Republican Law makers might lead you think. They pay their fair share. This isn't a act of charity, rather one of fairness and justice.

Myth #1: The DREAM Act Will Reward Parents

If you catch someone saying this, flick their forehead for me, they have no comprehension of how current immigration laws work.

1) Only American citizens who are at least 21 and can prove they can financially support their parents can sponsor them for a green card. DREAMers will have to wait 6 years plus a few years of paperwork processing before they can become citizens.

2) More importantly, the parents they sponsor cannot have entered the country illegally. This would disqualify most parents.

A DREAMer Thrown in Jail

This is the story of a DREAMer who was jailed for alleged immigration violations she had no control over as a child. I still can't believe we jail children for the actions of others (non-criminal actions that normally don't warrant incarceration) in the United States.


Click here for Rasha's story

Senator Stevens - Seven Time Convicted Felon Has No Sympathy for Law Breaking Toddlers

Senator Stevens is a law man. A year ago Stevens even voted to punish children for the actions of others by voting against the DREAM Act. According to Stevens, those toddlers should have known better when they were being carried across the border.

Anyways, Stevens was found guilty of not one but SEVEN felonies today. Yet, he expects everyone to ignore this and let him continue doing his job of making laws. He's asking for......what's the word I'm looking for? Am-something.......Amnesia? Amnesic?...wait AMNESTY.

It's safe to assume a toddler who is carried across the border or a 5 year old who overstays his visa is innocent. They most likely had no idea what was happening and even if they did, they have no say over the action. Yet Senator Stevens keeps referring to these kids as criminals. Unauthorized presence in the U.S. is not a crime, and crossing the border as a child is not a crime. Under no definition of the criminal justice system are these children guilty, yet they face the punishment and jail time in detention facilitates which are known to sexually and physically abuse minors.

Senator Stevens on the other hand is guilty of knowingly committing an actual crime, 7 felonies.Yet Stevens wants amnesty for his crimes. If he has the nerve to ask for amnesty for his seven felonies. I think he should find it in his heart to give it to innocent children who aren't guiltily of any crimes.

Stevens, you are not above the law. You were not a child when you violated U.S. laws and you knew perfectly well what was happening. You have a pretty strict interpretation of the law when it comes to poor immigrant children, I guess you're more forviging when it comes to corrupt U.S. Senators.


Related Scum: David Vitter, Pete Domenici

NC Attroney General Does A 180

"In a reversal of its former advice, the state Attorney General's Office said Friday that no law bars illegal immigrants from community colleges.

But it's not clear when or whether those illegally in the United States will again be admitted to North Carolina's 58 community colleges.

Scott Ralls, president of the Community College System, said Friday that its board must decide whether to allow students who cannot prove legal status. He made no promises, even though he and members of the board have said in the past that they would like to admit illegal immigrants."

Click here for the whole story

Let's make one thing clear, these students would pay out of state tuition. First, it's not their fault they are undocumented, most were brought here at a young age though no choice of their own and most importantly it's not going to cost the state any money and a large number of these students stay and adjust into legal status and eventually become citizens. The state needs to decide now if they want well educated productive citizens in 5- 10 years or citizens with no job skills. It's not going to cost anything now but if they don't allow them in, it sure will in 10 years when those same kids are citizens.

Third World Invasion of Our Olympic Team

Just in case you have any doubts, I'm being sarcastic. The anti-immigration crowd loves to complain about non-European immigration to the U.S. and what you're about to read must kill them.

The three people representing the U.S. for the 1500 meter run all have one thing in common. As the nativists put it, they're all part of the "importation of the third world". Those third worlders are doing pretty well for themselves and dare I say even better than some native born Americans. GASP, how dare they!

— Bernard Lagat came to America to attend college at Washington State from Kenya.

— Leo Manzano was driven across the Mexican border by friends already living in the U.S. and posing as his parents when he was 4.

— Lopez Lomong was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," the name given to young refugees of the grisly civil war in Sudan who made it to the U.S.

A Kenyan, a former DREAMer, and a refugee are the top milers in the country - can't get more American than that. I love it!

Oh yeah and that former DREAMer Manzano, hasn't forgotten where he came from, I found this.

What are your hobbies outside the sport of running?
"Yeah, I've been in a couple of organizations on campus. Last semester I was in this Longhorn program. I advocated for the Dream Act. It's for immigrants that are raised in the U.S, went through the public school systems, who have completed their degrees and have a good moral character. Really it's a pathway for these kids to gain their citizenship, to having their education, and having good moral standards. At the same time there is another way which you can gain your citizenship, it was a bill that never became a law. It was actually denied. I really try to advocate for that and it was going on last semester. I was with that organization and trying to advocate for the Dream Act."

Good luck to you all and we'll see you in Beijing!

Check out my Olympics tag

This American Life

What is wrong with this country?

This is Allie Mulvihill a 15 year old from Allentown, Pennslyvania . She was adopted from Guatemla by her parents at the age of 2 and since then USCIS has been trying to deport the girl.

No one but the USCIS (present day INS) is challenging Allie's adoption. Not the Guatmealn Goverment nor anyone but USCIS. Allie will soon be 16 and it may be too late for the adoption to be recognized. She will join the ranks of DREAMers across the country.

Allie has lived in this country since she was 2, she knows no other country. Her family is here, it's cruel and inhumane to try to deport her to a forgein country.

Allie is part of a growing number of DREAMers with citizen parents. Many like Allie, had adoptions that went wrong or aged out when their parents become LPRs and then citizens.

The DREAM Act Portal is full of people who were raised by U.S. citizens but are without a status. Allie go to www.dreamact.info/forum to find other people in the same situation as you. You may find it helps in knowing you're not alone. They can also provide help in applying and attending college as an undocumented student.

The Anchor Baby Myth

Lesson #1. There is no such thing as an anchor baby.

If a person jumps over the border and has a kid, they must wait until the kid turns 21 years old and must return to their native country for 10 years. I doubt when someone comes here, they're thinking, " Hey, if I have a kid right now, in only 31 years I can become a legal U.S. resident".

Stop calling babies derogatory names, only monsters do that.

This is America's Biggest Threat

This is Camila, she's a Florida college student who is currently sitting in jail for a crime she did not commit and the government knows it. Worse than sitting in jail for something she didn't do, she will most likely be deported. She will never see her home, friends, or the country she calls home EVER AGAIN.

We can stand there and cry and pray for people who lose their homes in a disaster. What if you not only lost your home but everyone and everything you ever knew and could never see them again? This is what the U.S. government is doing to this innocent girl.

Our tax dollars are spent ruining this poor girl's life while dangerous criminals roam the country because of a lack of resources. Yet they seemed to find the money to arrest and jail this girl for something she didn't do.

If you haven't already, sign the DREAM Act petition which would spare kids like Camila.

Child's Dying Wish Going Unfulfilled

I don't do this very often but this story has nothing to do with immigration. Just like the phrase "anchor baby"and the rabid response by many nativists to the DREAM Act this story highlights how our society has forgotten the humanity in children. Hug your kids tightly tonight because their innocence doesn't count for much these days.

The heartbroken family of a 10-year-old Nebraska girl diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, who is not expected to live through the end of the month, say the Federal Bureau of Prisons has denied the child's dying wish: that her incarcerated father be furloughed to be by his child's bedside when she dies.

Her father is serving the final year of a five-year sentence for a drug conviction in a minimum security prison camp in South Dakota, three and a half hours from his daughter.

'I Am Sorry'

He's offered to serve double that if they'll only let him be with his daughter when she dies,

Fighting for her life since she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 3, seven years ago. But in the past six months, she has taken a severe turn downward. Doctors declared her condition terminal in October. Last month, they found they couldn't transfer her to a children's hospital closer to her Lincoln, Neb., home because they said she wouldn't survive the trip, Lori Yaeger said. As Jayci's health has see-sawed from stable to the brink-of-death time and again in the past few months, her parents have been filing request after request for either a temporary furlough or at least a transfer to the halfway house facility an hour from the child's beside. Jason Yaeger is currently serving time at South Dakota's most minimum security federal prison, a former college campus in the middle of town in Yankton. There is a two-foot fence surrounding the facility, and inmates move freely around the facility, he said.

Click here for the full story

English Only On School Buses

I hope everyone remembered to do their part in stopping the Schuler - Tancredo Bill, if you haven't yet click here

It only takes 2 min.

State and national civil liberties advocates have compelled a rural Nevada school district to roll back a policy prohibiting high school students from speaking Spanish on the bus.

The guideline was approved at an October school board meeting and affected about a dozen children from Hispanic families who ride a school bus more than an hour each way between Dyer, in Esmeralda County, and Tonopah High School, over the Nye County line. Most of the Hispanic children are from immigrant families drawn to the area to work its cattle ranches and alfalfa farms.

Click here for the link.

This policy shows how ignorant people are. Children are learning English!! It is very easy for children (far, far, easier) to pick up new languages than adults. Go to any immigrant community and try to find a child who has grown up here that doesn't speak English fluently. They don't exist!

You know who thinks children of immigrants don't speak English, people who don't know any children of immigrants. I'm sure some of them know that these kids speak English in addition to Spanish but their bigotry against Spanish speakers got the better of them. God forbid we have kids that are bi-lingual.

On another note
When did it become acceptable for elected officials to target children in their hate mongering? What is this country coming to?

Scumbag of the Week - David Vitter

Senator David Vitter of Louisiana is a strong opponent of "amnesty". I don't think Vitter understands the definition of the word.

Amnesty : a period during which offenders are exempt from punishment

Vitter claimed the DREAM Act was amnesty and that it would reward criminal behavior.
The DREAM Act would have allowed innocent children who through no choice of their own became undocumented immigrants to become documented. Many of these children do not even know they are undocumented. They committed no crime yet face the punishment such as Jail while being held in detention or worse yet deportation to a country they haven't seen since they were toddlers with decade to lifetime bans on re-entering the U.S., the only country they have ever known.

I think it's safe to assume a toddler who is carried across the border or a 5 year old who overstays his visa is innocent. They most likely had no idea what was happening and even if they did, they have no say over the action. Yet David Vitter keeps referring to these kids as criminals. Unauthorized presence in the U.S. is not a crime, and crossing the border as a child is not a crime. Under no definition of the criminal justice system are these children guilty, yet they face the punishment and jail time in detention facilitates which are known to sexually and physically abuse minors.

David Vitter on the other hand is guilty of knowingly committing an actual crime. Sexually exploiting a woman, using the "services" of a prostitute is a crime (not to mention morally despicable). Yet Vitter was amnestied for his crime. Prostitution has a statute of limitations. If we can give amnesty to a criminal such as Vitter, I think he should find it in his heart to give it to innocent children who aren't guiltily of any crimes.

Vitter's Senate number: (202) 224-4623

Tell Vitter you are opposed to amnesty, especially for men who violate prostitution laws and that your tax dollars shouldn't be going to these criminals.

More on Vitter from the Wonkette.

Movie - Under The Same Moon

If you're having trouble viewing the trailer click here for a QuickTime version from apple trailers. It's supposed to be a good kids movie, when it comes to theaters, I'll take my little cousin to see it.

UNDER THE SAME MOON (LA MISMA LUNA) tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico. Unexpected circumstances drive both Rosario and Carlitos to embark on their own journeys in a desperate attempt to reunite. Along the way, mother and son face challenges and obstacles but never lose hope that they will one day be together again. Riggen’s film is not only a heartwarming family story; she also offers subtle commentary on the much-debated issue of illegal immigration.

The fact that it was picked up by Fox Searchlight means it will be shown in theaters nation wide and because it received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival I think it will be good.
IMDB link to cast & other info

Sister and Brother, One Undocumented, One Legal

Click here for the Story

This is the story of Julia and Gustavo who came here at age 11 for her and at age 18 for him. Gustavo is a legal immigrant now after marrying his wife who was an American citizen. (just like our ex-undocumented Australian and Irish American Idol contestants). Like many immigrants that overstay their visas, they come from a well educated family that fled instability and violence in their native country.

Since getting his green card, Gustavo likes to make jokes. Bad ones. He'll say something like, "What are we gonna do with all these illegals?" and smile.

Though they came to the United States on the same flight, Julia and Gustavo have adapted to the caprices of immigration policy and undocumented life in starkly different ways: she, by working hard in school and trying to attend college; he, by marrying an American citizen.

Julia is not rewarded

And while Gustavo can laugh about it, Julia is looking for someone to blame. "I know other kids, American kids, they've been here all their life," she says. "They could care less about going to college. But I can't go to school. I can't work. I can't do pretty much anything."

I also like how this article discusses marriage, undocumented students, and the reason why they came to the U.S. Many people have no choice but to flee their native countries. Also, too many people think it's as easy as marrying an American citizen. Julia is 18 and has never had a boyfriend. Think back and try to remember who you were dating at the age of 18. Think if you married that person. shudders. For most of us, it's a scary thought. 18 is too young to get married and Gustavo being married at the age of 21 was too young as well but forced into it by his situation. It's no surprise it didn't last. An undocumented student once told a reporter that her boyfriend asked her to marry her after a few weeks of dating in an effort to help her become legal. She wouldn't do it because she considered it form of prostitution. To many people especially immigrants, marriage still means something.

Plus, not everyone can simply become legal by marrying a citizen. Immigration laws are complicated and depend on the situation. Click here and here of examples of spouses not being able to adjust to legal status.

Children In Prison

Click here to read the story of an innocent 19 year old girl jailed by immigration officials for over 7 months.
Click here for a post regarding the sexual abuse of minors in immigration dention faciitles.

The Lost Children -article in the New Yorker

Vigil for Sarjina Emy

Sarjina Emy is a 19 year old teenager who has been detained at the Broward Transitional Center for over seven months. Sarjina came to this country when she was four years old. Her parents have already been deported. The family's lawyer Dr. Petia Knowles has a case pending in Federal Court to keep Sarjina and her brothers here, but is asking ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to release them to their friends and family while their cases are pending. This vigil is to ensure that ICE knows how much Florida cares about Sarjina's family.

Before all this happened to me I had a good life, good people around me,and a good family, We never did anything to hurt anyone. But now I feel we have lost everything. My family is torn apart. I haven’t seen my mom in 7 months, since the day they took us and split us up. I can only see my brothers for an hour and a half every week, even though they are in the same facility. I spent my birthday and every holiday in jail (Broward Transitional Center).

Date:	Friday, February 22, 2008
Time:	12:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:	In front of Broward Transitional Center
Street:	3900 N. Powerline Rd.
City/Town:	Deerfield Beach, FL

Sarjina did nothing wrong yet she is being jailed for over 7 months for something she unwittingly did as a four year old. If Florida residents have any sense of justice, they will come out and support her.

If you would like to learn more about the conditions in detention facilities click here and here.

Her brothers Sam and Rumy were also brought here as children. Since their detention, Rumy is expecting his first child with his wife Solange, a US Citizen. Sam's wife, Munmun, a Legal Resident soon to become a citizen, has lost her home because she could no longer afford to live there due to her husband's detention.

Here is a statement from Sam's wife.

"All that I can say is I really want my family back. I have no support here. I didn't work before. My husband was the one that supported me. Since my husband has been detained I have been really sad and depressed. I can't sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night with bad panic attacks. I even had to go to the hospital and even saw a psychiatrist. I have to take sleeping pills to sleep. I work every day to support myself. Last month, we lost our home because we couldn't afford it. I feel like we have been left with nothing. I really hope my husband can come back home. I really wish we can all be a family again. "

Click here for a news story on Sarjina.

Angleina Jolie Looking Out For Migrant Children

Sen. Brownback -left, Angelina Jolie- center, and Sen. Feinstein right

A few days ago I did a post on the sexual and physical abuse unaccompanied minors face in the hands of our immigration services. I forgot to mention that these children are not completely forgotten and the abuse might not have come to our attention if wasn't for certain measures taken by some very compassionate people.

In 2005, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) launched the new National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children (Center). The Center wad funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees through a generous grant from actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie.

Just last year Jolie renewed her commitment to the cause.
Angelina Jolie, once again contributed $150,000 to (USCRI) to support the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children (The Center). The mission of the Center is to provide pro bono legal and social services for unaccompanied immigrant children as they navigate the U.S. Immigration Courts. "This money will be used to protect the most vulnerable of populations. Each year, over 7,000 unaccompanied immigrant children arrive in the United States. Many of the children that we see are coming from areas where they have been subjected to trafficking, persecution or domestic violence. I applaud Ms. Jolie's efforts to alleviate the dire plight of these children. I wish we had more humanitarians like her."

Links
More on unaccompanied immigrant children

Sexual abuse of these children in U.S. detention facilities

Senator Feinstein's Website on legislation she worked on with Sen. Brownback to help these children.

The Story of Sarjina Emy

Migrant Children Sexually Abused at Detention Center

Nine immigrant children were repeatedly sexually molested and beaten last year while housed in a government-operated youth detention center near San Antonio, and their cries for help were covered up by administrators and state and federal officials, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.
Click here for more.

Immigrant children who enter the U.S. without parents or guardians are repeatedly denied access to legal counsel and often dumped into detention facilities with criminals. In a survey of detention facilities, Amnesty International found that immigrant children are subjected to a number of callous treatments, including the excessive use of force, restraint and strip searches.
Click here for the full article

Thanks to the DREAM Deferred Blog

For more on this topic click here, here, and here.