Recent Articles

The National Immigration Forum

In March We March!

Voces Inocentes- A Film depicting El Salvador’s Civil War from a Child’s Experience

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

In March We March!

March 21, 2010

By Deepak Bhargava Executive Director of the Center for Community Change

Source: Reform Immigration For America

A broad coalition of national and local groups have announced a massive mobilization, “March for America: Change Takes Courage,” which will bring tens of thousands of people to Washington on March 21 to [show support for]comprehensive immigration reform for new American families.

Throughout American history, only big and broad social movements have produced big change. From abolition to women’s suffrage, from the New Deal to civil rights, the one major lesson of American history is that it is only when thousands and thousands of people take their destiny into their own hands that entrenched special interests can be defeated and progressive policies enacted. The last year has demonstrated again that we can’t expect politicians to grow spines all by themselves, and we can’t sit back and hope for bold leadership from the people we elected to serve the country’s interest. We must instill courage and insert backbone in our leaders through massive, sustained grassroots pressure. This is the only path forward.

I have heard too many people bemoan a broken political system, and complain about how hard change has been to achieve over the last year. Despair and passivity are luxuries our communities cannot afford. There is nothing surprising about Washington’s resistance to change, and we know the formula to break the gridlock. It’s our time to step up. It’s our time to lead and take responsibility.

This is a pivotal moment in the history of America. We are faced with a choice. We can do nothing, and watch as new American families are torn apart by the broken immigration system; watch as profiteers continue to take advantage of people desperate for work; and watch as all American families struggle to find good jobs and make ends meet. Or we can stand up and stand together for our families and our communities.

To everyone who believes in comprehensive immigration reform for new American families and an economy that works for all American families, we need you so that together we can show our collective power and energy. Join the March for America. Mark your calendars for Sunday, March 21. Events begin at 1 p.m. on the National Mall. I’ll see you there.

Get more information and sign up at: www.WeMarchforAmerica.org.

You can also join our cell phone network by texting the word “justice” to 69866 to receive the latest updates on the march.

Follow Deepak Bhargava on Twitter: www.twitter.com/communitychange

Voces Inocentes- A Film depicting El Salvador’s Civil War from a Child’s Experience

Multi Award Winner - Based on the true story of screenwiter Oscar Torres’s embattled childhood, Luis Mandoki’s Innocent Voices is the poignant tale of Chava (Carlos Padilla), an eleven-year-old boy who suddenly becomes the ‘man of the house’ after his father abandons the family in the middle of a civil war. In El Salvador in the 1980s, the government armed forces are already recruiting twelve year olds, rousting them out of their classes at the local middle school. If he is lucky, Chava has just one year of innocence left, one year before he too, will be conscripted to fight the government’s battle against the peasant rebels of the FMLN. Chava’s life becomes a game of survival, not only from the bullets of the escalating war, but also from the dispiriting effects of daily violence. As he hustles to find work to help his mother pay the bills, and experiences the pangs of first love for a beautiful classmate, Chava’s tiny home village becomes both playground and battlefield. Armed ony with the love of his mother (Leonor Varela) and a small radio that broadcasts a forbidden anthem of love and peace, and faced with in imoossible choice of joining either the army or the rebels, Chava finds the courage to keep his heart open, and his spirit alive, in his race against time.

To see the trailer click here.

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