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The National Immigration Forum

Unscrupulous Employers Robbing Latino Wages

Gaps emerging in US census outreach to immigrants

In Their Boots - Military Families affected by Immigration System

CNN Reports on High Suicide Rate of Latina Youth

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The National Immigration Forum

Established in 1982, the National Immigration Forum is the leading immigrant advocacy organization in the country with a mission to advocate for the value of immigrants and immigration to the nation.  The Forum uses its communications, advocacy and policy expertise to create a vision, consensus and strategy that leads to a better, more welcoming America – one that treats all newcomers fairly.

Ultimately, our vision is to create US immigration policy that honors our nation’s ideals, protects human dignity, reflects our country’s economic demands, celebrates family unity and provides opportunities for progress. 

For over two decades, the Forum has occupied a unique role, knitting together alliances across diverse faith, labor, immigrant, non-immigrant and business constituencies in communities across the country. 

These alliances come together under the Forum’s leadership to develop, execute and evaluate legislative and administrative advocacy strategies. 

Recently, the Board of Directors completed a strategic positioning process to ensure the Forum is strong in the years to come. Under the leadership of Ali Noorani, the Forum’s new Executive Director and only the third director in the organization’s 27 year history, the Forum’s Strategic Goals are to:

1. Develop relationships and an understanding of disparate views and, taking those views into account, craft a cohesive strategy across a range of issues;
2. Provide trusted information, analysis and advocacy strategy to key audiences shaping immigration policy and regulation across a range of immigration issues;
3. Engage a wider set of pro-immigration voices across constituencies, regions and ethnicities;
4. Implement targeted campaigns, based on the guidance of our Immigration Policy Council, to advance the overall strategy of the pro-immigration alliance; and,
5. Develop the institutional capacities and structures of the Forum needed to achieve its mission.

The Forum is prepared to build broad and cohesive coalitions, execute a highly disciplined legislative strategy, and witness and celebrate the passage of immigration legislation that positively impacts the lives of millions of Americans and New Americans.

To read more information about the forum click here

Source: www.immigrationforum.org

Unscrupulous Employers Robbing Latino Wages

(CNN)  Low-income Latinos are routinely discriminated against in the South, a  report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center says.  The study’s author and others say the problem exists nationwide, with millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants living “beyond the protection of the law.”

The report, released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.

“Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South” details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect’s victim was an undocumented immigrant.

Forty-one percent of the people surveyed said they had experienced theft of their wages by employers. Forty-seven percent said they know someone who was treated unfairly by police. Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed said they have been sexually harassed by bosses, many saying that bosses used their immigration status as leverage.

“This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law,” said Mary Bauer, author of the report. “Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South.”

But such discrimination is also rampant nationwide, she said. The human-rights law center focused on the South because that’s the area the Montgomery, Alabama-based group knows best, she said.

Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, has heard thousands of discrimination complaints from Mexican immigrants during the past two decades.

“It’s absolutely correct that there’s generalized discrimination,” he told CNN. “There’s a general feeling that discrimination is valid because these people are illegal, because these people have no right to be here.”

But the attitude toward discrimination has changed throughout the years, said Maus, who was also the Mexican consul general in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001.

“The big difference from previous years is that there were discriminatory acts before, but not the belief that discrimination is allowed,” he said.

Bolstered by what Maus called “an ultraconservative element,” some people “realized they could have open aggression against a group of people who could not defend themselves.”

Bernardo Mendez Lugo, Mexico’s deputy consul in Tucson, Arizona, said he sees three main forms of discrimination: racial profiling by law enforcement officers, problems in the workplace and difficulties in the rental housing market.

In the workplace, he said, employees often find they are passed over for promotions despite their qualifications or length of employment. The abuse, Mendez Lugo said, is generally aimed at undocumented workers.

“They are told, ‘I’m going to call immigration [authorities] if you keep asking,’ ” Mendez Lugo said.

Federal officials say there are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Most of them come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The center urged the federal government to strengthen labor laws and crack down on racial profiling.

“We’re talking about a matter of basic human rights here,” said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. “By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we’re creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country’s fundamental ideals.”

Source: CNN

Gaps emerging in US census outreach to immigrants

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the government is fumbling some efforts to assure immigrants that U.S. census data won’t be used against them, including gaps in outreach and foreign language guides that refer to the decennial count as an investigation.

With the launch of the head count weeks away, the Census Bureau’s outreach has been falling short in at least a dozen major cities, such as Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Jose, Calif., and Seattle, according to a report released Monday by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Many of their states are on the cusp of gaining or losing U.S. House seats and face a redrawing of legislative boundaries that may tilt the balance of political power.

The report generally praises the Census Bureau for improved efforts since 2000. But noting the large ramifications of even a small undercount, AALDEF is critical of the Obama administration. The legal group cited the government’s refusal to give fuller assurances that census data would be kept confidential and to suspend large-scale immigration raids during the count , as was done in the 2000 census. AALDEF said it wasn’t ruling out legal action to get stronger guarantees.

“We are running the risk of a real undercount,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “The next few weeks will be critical.”

The Census Bureau is printing instruction guides and sample forms in dozens of different languages for use in community help centers, since one in five residents speak a language other than English at home. But there have been errors due to poor translations, including material for Vietnamese speakers that describe the census as a “government investigation.”

Other gaps included a lack of specialists for the Bangladeshi community in Detroit; the nation’s third largest Korean-American population in Chicago; and the south Asian and Cambodian groups in Philadelphia and Rhode Island. In Virginia, when groups cited a need for census specialists for their Korean and Vietnamese communities, the agency responded by hiring someone who spoke Chinese.

Responding, the Census Bureau has emphasized it is devoting a large amount of its $133 million ad campaign to racial and ethnic audiences, including television spots in 28 different languages. It also worked with more than 150,000 business and community groups, hoping to build trust in its message that filling out the 10-question census form is safe and easy to complete.

To encourage participation, Census Director Robert Groves on Monday visited neighborhoods along the U.S.-Mexico border near Laredo, Texas. As many as half the residents were missed there in 2000 because they had little knowledge of English and feared being turned over to immigration agents.

Other trouble spots:

Latino groups are worried the Census Bureau’s ad campaign may neglect communities with higher numbers of immigrants in poverty. Census-takers also may be less adept in navigating some areas because of an agency requirement that employees be U.S. citizens.

In 2000, the Census Bureau noted for the first time an overcount of 1.3 million people, due mostly to duplicate counts of more affluent whites with multiple residences. About 4.5 million people were ultimately missed, primarily lower-income minorities.

To read the complete article click here

Source: www.philly.com

In Their Boots - Military Families affected by Immigration System

In keeping with the recent spate of independent films coming out about our broken immigration system, the folks over at Brave New Foundation (a great organization focusing on making media to raise awareness for social justice) have released a revealing documentary about two military families being torn apart by our immigration laws. “Second Battle” chronicles the struggles of Francis Barrio and Hota Ferschke, both immigrants and the wives of servicemen that fought in Iraq, now facing removal from the United States, despite their husbands’ service.

The film is part of the IN THEIR BOOTS documentary series, a BNF project that seeks to raise awareness of the sacrifices of American service members and their families. It’s a worthy project, and it’s great to see a film like “Second Battle,” which incorporates the struggle of many immigrants into that narrative. As the film points out, the likelihood of falling in love with and marrying a non-US citizen is a common scenario for many military members.

The inherent arduousness of life as one of today’s military families is clear enough, but when families like the Barrios and the Ferschkes also have to fight against antiquated and plainly illogical immigration laws, they are being torn apart. It’s a powerful film–heartbreaking, but also inspiring for all of us working for immigration reform that will keep families like the Barrios and the Ferschkes together. Check out the trailer above, then head over to the IN THEIR BOOTS page, to view the episode in its entirety.

Source: www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org

CNN Reports on High Suicide Rate of Latina Youth

Trapped between two worlds, Francisca Abreu became depressed. At 12, she says she wanted to kill herself.

“I was crying; I was very depressed. I had written a note to myself,” Francisca remembers. “I just said I can’t do this anymore. I want to kill myself.”

Francisca’s school called home, and her mother, Isabel Valdez, learned for the first time that her daughter was in serious trouble.

“I never told her,” says Francisca. “I never bothered her; she probably never bothered to notice.”

Such a disconnect between mothers and daughters is what Dr. Luis Zayas, a psychologist at Washington University, suspects is leading an alarming number of Latina teenagers to want to end their lives.

One out of every seven Latina teens, or 14 percent, attempts suicide according to a 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of high school students. And Latina high school students have higher attempted suicide rates than white non-Hispanic (7.7 percent) or black non-Hispanic (9.9 percent) girls their age, the CDC reports.

Zayas has spent the last 25 years trying to find out why. He says the typical Latina teen who attempts suicide is 14 or 15, the daughter of immigrant parents, lives in a low-income setting and is caught in an intense battle with her mother over Latino and American cultures.

Research conducted by Zayas has found the girls’ parents hold strictly to traditional Latino values, while teens who grow up in America learn “very different models about what girls should do, can do and are permitted to do.”

Zayas is nearing completion of a five-year study of more than 200 Latina teenagers who live in New York City. More than half of those studied have attempted suicide, including Francisca Abreu, who is now 15.

Francisca says life with her mother in the Bronx wasn’t what she thought it would be. Her mother worked three jobs, and Francisca barely saw her.

As she spent time with her new American friends, the distance grew between Francisca and her mother. When her mother wasn’t at work, Francisca says they were fighting.

“There are many girls who are well-behaved,” Isabel says. “But there are others who are on the wrong path. They like to flirt. They like hanging out. They like to stay out late. These are not the friends I like for my kids.”

Francisca says her mother wanted her to stay home, learn how to cook and clean the house. She says she wasn’t allowed to hang out with her friends.

The conflict between mothers and daughters is what Zayas says is driving many of the Latinas he has studied to the brink.

“Teenagers have certain freedoms; they don’t need to consult with their parents to make certain decisions,” Zayas says. “That’s the culture that’s here, and inserted in that is the Latino family that says the family is much more important than the individual.”

Trapped between two worlds, Francisca says she fell into a deep depression.

“I would cry about my dad, not being with him. How I missed my country.

Trying to escape the pain, Francisca made a desperate choice and decided to take some of her mother’s pills.

“I was tired of being another burden in my mom’s life,” Francisca says.

But the pain didn’t go away. A year later, Francisca was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after a teacher found the note she wrote at school. Three days later she was released and started counseling.

Today with the help of therapy Francisca says she’s learning to cope with her depression. In June, she shared her experiences about growing up Latina at a fundraising gala for her counseling center. Before hundreds of people, she thanked her mother.

“All she did was be a good mother, sacrifice her life for us,” Francisca says. “That’s all she did.”

To read the full article click here.

Source CNN.com

Author: Courtney Yager