Charitable Work May be Punishable under SB1070

Today, my dear friend H could be detained, arrested and accused of harboring undocumented immigrants while transporting kids and young adults to their dental appointments. H has arranged pro-bono visits with a prominent dentist for children that lack dental coverage due to poverty and their immigration status. Most of them have never seem a dentist in their lives and some have complicated cases that require immediate care. I guess the dentist can also been accused of "harboring".

This is the Arid Zone where charitable work to the "least of these" is stigmatized and punishable.

SB1070 will not be implemented as a whole today Thursday, July the 29th 2010. Thanks to a ruling by judge Bolton, sections of the law signed by Governor Jan Brewer have been stopped from implementation through an injunction.

I continue to be really upset and troubled.

I do not understand why is people happy in the immigrants' rights community and the Mexican-American community.

This are the portions that has been stopped:

• The requirement that police officers investigate the immigration status of all individuals they stop if the officers suspect that they are in the country unlawfully;
• The mandatory detention of individuals who are arrested, even for minor offenses that would normally result in a ticket, if they cannot verify that they are authorized to be in the U.S.;
• The new statute imposing state criminal penalties for non-citizens failing to register with the Department of Homeland Security or failing to carry registration documents;
• The provision for warrantless arrest of individuals who are deemed by state or local police officers to be "removable" from the U.S.; and
• The new state statute making it a crime for alleged undocumented immigrants to work.

Left are provisions that criminalizes the solicitation of employment on public streets or the one that forbids local police agencies from adopting policies that limit or restrict enforcement of federal immigration laws, the so called Sanctuary cities. The section about harboring undocumented immigrant is still there.

There are poison pills on the sections that are still standing so forgive me if I'm not in the mood for a high five.

Unafraid in Las Vegas

Photo credit: Carmen Cornejo

The summer of courage continued in Las Vegas during Netroots Nation, a convention of progressive bloggers, where DREAM Act activist protested during the q&a session by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Netroots Nation took place July 22-25, 2010.

Dressed in caps and gowns Lizbeth Mateo, Matias Ramos, Prerna Lal and Yahaira Carrillo were unafraid to remind Harry Reid of the presence of undocumented students and young professionals who have been growing up as Americans without legal status.

Their protest was respectful, silent but powerful. They represented DREAM Act students as leaders in society, creators of new forms of activism so much that they conducted a seminar titled "Illegal Organizing" where described the use of internet tools, and iteractive websites as media for organizing for the DREAM Act. During their presentation to other bloggers, internet users and activist talked about dreamactivist.org, The DREAM is Coming.com and other internet " real state" they have created for youth organizing.

Harry Reid reminded the audience of his commitment for immigration reform as a package but specifically talked about the need to bring the DREAM Act as soon as he has " 60 votes".

After Senator's Reid's presentation, the DREAM Act professionals and activists gave interviews to media and bloggers present in the event.

The DREAM Act is a narrow tailored, short legislation in the USA Congress that will provide a path to legalization to undocumented students that have come to this country as children and fulfill certain requirements, among them finish high school, have good moral character and commit for at least 2 year of post secondary education or 2 years serving the armed forces of the US.

Courage

Yesterday July 20th, 2010, over 20 undocumented immigrant youth from all over the country were arrested and risk deportation as they staged peaceful sit-ins at various congressional offices in Washington D.C. in order to urge congressional leadership to take action and pass the DREAM Act.

Our own Arizona Dreamers Dulce and Erika participated on this courageous action were the young professionals confronted their own biggest fear: The fear of identification as an undocumented person, arrest, detention, possible mistreatment in an immigration detention center and possible deportation to homelessness in a strange country away from friends family.

Would you blame them for resorting to peaceful civil disobedience? They have try it all. We have try it all. We have called the attention of Congresspersons and Senators in Arizona and nationally on the difficult human rights situation that the students have confronted for years.

We had face to face meetings, wrote letters, faxed histories, used the media to convey our messages, sought alliances with religious groups, academic groups etc. for years and nothing. Some Congressional offices had choose not to hear what happens in the community and many have misinformed immigration "experts".

Crass political calculations always derail the passage of the DREAM Act year after year. Politicians give more validity to the hysteria of the "illegal is illegal" crowd than real human rights.

One political party criminalizes us immigrants the other makes political calculations of our electoral work, support and vote.

Peaceful civil disobedience seems to me the next logical step.

At least 65,000 undocumented immigrant youth graduate from high schools every year, and many of them struggle to attend institutes of higher education and the military. The DREAM Act will grant youth who immigrated to the United States before the age of 16, a path to legalization contingent on continuous presence in the country, good behavior, and the attainment of at least a two-year university degree or a two-year commitment to the armed forces.

According to recent surveys by First Focus, 70% of the American public supports the DREAM Act,

According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, there are approximately 114,000 DREAM Act-eligible youth in Arizona . For many students, the situation in Arizona is not changing, politicians are not listening, so they have decided to take the cause of their lives to Washington D.C. The immigrant youth participating in today’s action hail from Illinois, Virginia, New York, California, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, and Michigan.

Anti- immigrant Hate Monger of the Week: Barry Wong

The Arid Zone is apparently in this mad contest of who is the politician who says the most inhumane, outrageous, anti-immigrant statements in order to gain points in a cheap and crass quest for votes.

Since each week we are shocked with a new low, and to record for internet history the dirty tactics of the opportunistic, I have created a section on this blog reserved for the Anti- Immigrant Hate Monger of the Month. This month that precedes the Four of July Holiday the "honor" is granted to Barry Wong, the Republican Candidate for the post of Corporation Commissioner.

Mr Barry Wong stated on the Arizona Republic : "Is power or natural gas or any type of utility we regulate, is that a right that people have? It is not a right. It is a service."

"Cutting electricity, water, natural gas, even telephone lines at the homes of illegal immigrants", he said, "would lower costs for the rest of the state's customers".He believes the population spike caused by illegal immgrants forces the state to build new power plants and then raise rates for customers.

So Mr. Wong vowed to cut electric power to undocumented immigrants in the Arid Zone where temperatures soar close to the 115 F in July if he is elected.

His statements created an uproar at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce were Glenn Hammer, President and CEO, blasted Mr. Wong for "his not only inhumane and opportunistic comments, but his lack of sense of business". "To deny someone access to electricity based on his or her immigration status is not only a wrongheaded policy proposal, it’s just cruel" he stated."Your claim that your proposal is somehow consumer-friendly is absurd. The costs of implementing your plan would be borne by ratepayers, never mind the hit taxpayers would take as police and fire departments would increasingly be responding to heat-related emergencies", continued Mr. Hammer.

Mr. Wong stance is another example of political zealots wanting to impose disastrous laws, and in this case completely inhumane,to create unfunded mandates that does not consider the role of the immigrant as a consumer, payer, tax payer and supporter of services.

Mr. Wong does not even make business sense.