Author: Duke1676

Tomorrow, July 1st, starts the first day of the summer long effort to register new voters and aid Legal Permanent Residents in acquiring citizenship. Sponsored by a coalition of immigrants rights activist groups, the We Are America coalition will kick off “Democracy Summer” with events throughout the country. With the debate over immigration reform raging and emotions flaring, immigrants have been galvanized into action. Two groups in particular that are being targeted by the activists are those who have been living in the U.S. legally for years as permanent residents (green card holders) but have until now felt no pressing need to attain full citizenship, and the children of immigrants aged 18-24 who have not registered to vote.

This comes, as eligible longtime residents who have had green cards for at least five years are applying in record numbers to become citizens.

 According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, naturalization applications in the first three months of the year increased 19 percent over the same period last year. And in March, visitors to the USCIS Web site downloaded a record 162,000 citizenship applications. Some immigrants may be driven by fear, others by a desire for full political participation and still others by a wish to petition for relatives living abroad.

Newsweek

According to a recently released report from the Illinois Coalition For Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the number of new voters from the immigrant community could be as high as 14 million. This number is not lost on the immigration rights activists who see Democracy Summer as a means to organize political action that goes beyond marches and demonstrations and can make a significant impact at the ballot box, particularly in the 2008 races.

“Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote”

The Untapped Power of over 14 Million
Potential New Immigrant Voters in 2008

Executive Summary
As millions of immigrants marched across the U.S. in the historic mobilizations for immigration reform this past spring, they chanted: “Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote”. Skeptics dismissed the marchers, pointing out that neither the undocumented nor legal permanent residents (green card holders) can vote. This report finds that there are 14.25 million potential voters among legal immigrants who are currently eligible to naturalize and the 16 – 24 year old U.S. born children of immigrants. This includes 12.4 million potential new voters who can be eligible to participate in the 2008 elections.

The current Republican-led legislative attacks on immigrants and red-hot anti-immigrant demagoguery sparked the spring 2006 immigrant rights marches and are currently driving record increases in citizenship applications by legal immigrants. They are also likely to drive increases in the registration and voting rates of U.S. born children of immigrants. This could dramatically – and negatively – affect the outcome of the 2008 Presidential election for the Republican Party, as well as Republican prospects in numerous state elections.

Findings and Implications:
There are 14.25 million potential voters among immigrant legal permanent residents (green card holders) who are currently eligible for citizenship and 16 – 24 year oldU.S. born children of immigrants who will be eligible to vote in the 2008 elections.

This number includes:

Nearly nine and a half million immigrants who are currently eligible to naturalize, become U.S. citizens, and vote

Almost two million U.S.-born children of immigrants between the ages of 18 and 24 years who are not currently registered to vote.

The almost two million U.S.-born children of immigrants between the ages of 18 – 24 who are already registered to vote.

Another one million U.S.-born children of immigrants who are not yet voting age, but will reach 18 years of age by the time of the 2008 elections, and will be eligible to register and to vote.

There are over 2.6 million Mexican immigrants who are currently eligible to become U.S. citizens.

Read the complete report “Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote!” from the ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS

“We want to capitalize on that movement energy and translate it into a real political voice for immigrants,” says Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change, one of the We Are America coalition groups, whose goal is to produce 1 million new voters before election day 2006 . The Democracy Summer campaign hopes to offer a nationwide network of citizenship schools to help immigrants with their paperwork, civics classes to promote political participation, and voter registration drives.

If successful, the effort to naturalize perhaps millions of legal residents could have far-reaching political ramifications. Some key swing states could experience seismic shifts in voter demographics. Florida in particular is home to a possible 600,000 newly minted citizens. According to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials these new citizens also tend to vote in much higher percentages than native born Americans.  “Our mission is to make good on the slogan, ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote’,” says Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition.

If you interested in helping this effort please check the list of events already scheduled in your area and contact We Are America to lend your services. And remember this effort will go on throughout the summer so if your thinking of organize and event or would like to help in future events in some capacity let the folks at We Are America know.

If immigrant rights advocates are successful in their organizing efforts, come November the newly registered could make the difference between victory and defeat in certain races. Come 2008, a crop of newly naturalized citizens could make their mark on the political landscape. They could very well hold the key to changing the balance of power in some very key states, and set the stage for not only a total reevaluation of the immigration reform issue but also facilitate a shift of political power on a national scale.

From: Migra Matters – Progressive Immigration Reform

On May 1st, millions of immigrants and their supporters took to the streets in cities all over the country to voice their opposition to the “enforcement only” House legislation that would criminalize 12 million and calls for increased militarization of the border and the building of a 700 mile long wall.  As the multitudes assembled in their various staging areas dressed in white shirts and carrying banners and flags, in a conference room in Washington a different kind of immigration advocacy group was announcing its creation. This group was also made up predominately of Hispanics, only their agenda was in direct opposition to the activity taking place in the streets down below. The founders of You Don’t Speak For Me came to the National Press Club to announce that despite what might appear on the TV screens that day,  not all Latinos supported the marchers.

But there was one thing Col. Al Rodriguez, the founder of the group, and the other members of the group forgot to mention that day as they made their rounds of media appearances including those on FOX and Lou Dobbs. This group of concerned citizens of Latino decent did not spring whole from minds of its participants, it was midwifed in its birth by the nations preeminent anti-immigration cabal; the Tanton organization.

According to the You Don’t Speak For Me website the group was the brainchild of Col. Al Roriguez, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran:

You Don’t Speak for Me formed when Col. Al Rodriguez became fed up watching media coverage of the mass protests of April. “Their leaders were saying it was a march for immigrant rights and a Latino/Hispanic movement,” says Rodriguez. “I thought to myself, ‘Hey, those are illegal aliens, not immigrants!'” Col. Rodriguez began speaking out to others saying, “I’m of Hispanic ancestry and those people are acting like they speak for me. Well, you don’t speak for me!”

Col. Rodriguez began asking others to help him reach more people who felt the same way and You Don’t Speak for Me formed from this loose coalition of individuals. It is a group of concerned Americans of Hispanic/Latino heritage, some first or second generation, others recent legal immigrants, who believe illegal immigration harms America and a guest worker amnesty will do the same.

YDSFM! Officers are:
Col. Al Rodriguez, Chairman
Mariann Davies, Vice Chair
Claudia Spencer, Vice Chair
Justin Rangel, Vice Chair
Maria Chojnowski, Vice Chair

You Don’t Speak For Me

Nowhere on the website or in any of Col. Rodriguez’s interviews was any mention made about the Tanton cabals association with You Don’t Speak For Me, but the contact information given on the press page of the website lists Ira Mehlman and Susan Wysoki as the primary contacts for the group. Both of whom have e-mail addresses at fairus.org. The web address for Tanton’s flagship organization, The Federation for American Immigration Reform.

You Don’t Speak for Me is not alone in it dubious creation. FAIR has actively recruited amongst other minority groups as well, creating an organization of “concerned” Black citizens called Choose Black America to speak out against any easing of the immigration laws.

The Tanton web of anti-immigrant, English-only and Nativist groups has been in the making for years and today is the driving force behind the current immigration debate. It was recently revealed that his groups were the driving force behind the recent stalling of the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the House, when 79 Representatives refused to sign in opposition to the bilingual ballot provisions in the landmark civil rights legislation.

John Tanton has been credited for single-handedly creating the modern anti-immigration, English-only and Nativist political movements in the United States. Over thirty years he has managed to create a network of think tanks, advocacy groups and fund raising organizations that not only shape public opinion, but public policy. His experts testify before Congress and reports and studies by his various groups are used to formulate legislation. His pundits appear in all forms of media to pontificate and propagandize. By his own admission he says, “I would certainly have no reservations about claiming credit for being the guy secretly manipulating U.S. immigration policy.”

Although he claims to do so only because he believes that “the overwhelming majority of Americans … want to see immigration levels reduced,” his motivations seem to stem from a firm belief that America is in peril due to a worldwide trend of third-world populations taking over the wealthy first-world nations. His philosophy contains a strange mix of environmentalism, protectionism, xenophobia, eugenics, and racism. A philosophy he has been able turn into a political movement though his network of organizations. This network includes both organizations founded by Tanton himself and those started by others that he takes under his wing and then integrates into his network and funds

link

A look at the founding principles of You Don’t Speak For Me reveals a striking similarity to those of many of Tanton’s other anti-immigration groups such as FAIR, ProEnglish, NumbersUSA, and CIS.

Our Principles

We are Americans of Hispanic heritage who believe in America. We believe in the governmental institutions and laws that make this country the greatest in the world. It is because of this strong belief in the principles of freedom, individual liberties, the rule of law, and democracy that we formed You Don’t Speak for Me!: American Hispanic Voices Speaking Out Against Illegal Immigration.

American Hispanic voices are being shouted down by the hate and race-directed rhetoric of those who do not appreciate the laws of our country. We of You Don’t Speak for Me! give voice to those without a voice and those whose opposition to illegal immigration is drowned out by illegal aliens and their supporters marching in the streets demanding undeserved “rights” of U.S. citizens.

We are standing together to say to the those who come here illegally and those who would give amnesty to those who have broken our laws, you are wrong and you should not be claiming to speak for all American Hispanics. You Don’t Speak for Me!

Our principles are simple:

All immigration should be legal
Illegal immigration hurts everyone, while carefully planned legal immigration helps. We believe in stopping illegal immigration and securing the national and economic future of our nation.

Illegal aliens from any country should never be rewarded with benefits or privileges
Becoming an American citizen is a unique and wonderful privilege. The legal route to becoming a citizen is not easy and requires patience and hard work. Those who break the law and come illegally should not be granted any benefits or privileges. No driver’s license, no welfare benefits, no free health care, no in-state tuition – simply put . . . no state or federal benefits!

No amnesty – no way!
Amnesty is rewarding people who break the law. From past experience we have learned that granting amnesty only leads to increased illegal immigration. Those here illegally are taking advantage of our compassion. We say No Amnesty-No Way!

Secure our borders now and fully enforce immigration laws
The best way to stop the flow of illegal immigration coming across our borders is to build a high security fence along the length of our southern border where the majority of illegal traffic takes place. We must also vigorously enforce our existing immigration laws. Local and state law enforcement should be free to enforce immigration laws. Employers who hire illegal workers should be heavily fined and if a pattern of practice is established their owners/corporate officers should be fined and jailed for the offenses and the corporate charter revoked. Identification documents must be limited and strong security measures like biometrics applied to documents of foreign workers. American citizens driver’s licenses are now secured by the Real ID Act, non-citizens should be required to present documents not susceptible to fraud and counterfeit, and include biometric security measures – especially for work purposes.

Learn and speak English
Learning the language of this country is the very least an immigrant can do. Learn and speak English. Learn the history of this country. Learn the Constitution and civics. Learn and practice the principles that make America the greatest country in the world.

You Don’t Speak For Me

FAIR and the Tanton cabal have not been satisfied with their effort to form a puppet organization within the Hispanic community. They have also reached out to the Black community to start  Choose Black America a group that believes that, “Mass illegal immigration has been the single greatest impediment to black advancement in this country over the past 25 years. Blacks, in particular, have lost economic opportunities, seen their kids’ schools flooded with non-English speaking students, and felt the socio-economic damage of illegal immigration more acutely than any other group.”

As in the case of You Don’t Speak For Me, the contact information for the group lists Mr. Mehlman and Ms. Wysoki. Unlike it’s Hispanic counterpart, FAIR is also listed as a contact. This is perhaps because the philosophy put forth by FAIR and the rest of the Tanton cabal might find a more receptive audience in the Black community than the Hispanic, where it would be universally reviled.

Choose Black America argues that black Americans have already been severely damaged by decades of uncontrolled illegal immigration and stand to lose even more if 12 million, or more, illegal aliens are granted amnesty. The coalition also formed in response to the failure of black elected officials to represent the interests of African Americans.

“Mass illegal immigration has been a major impediment to black advancement in this country over the past 25 years,” declared Dr. Frank Morris Sr., chairman of Choose Black America “All Americans are harmed by rampant illegal immigration, but it is blacks, in particular, who have lost economic opportunities, watched their kids’ schools flood with non-English speaking students, and felt the direct impact in countless ways. Our government has failed us, our elected officials have failed us, and now they are prepared to compound the damage with an amnesty and guest worker program that will set black Americans back a hundred years.”

Choose Black America

Tanton and his web of closeted xenophobes and racists, not satisfied with infiltrating much of the mainstream discourse about immigration and immigration reform, have now engaged in a campaign to foster division in the Hispanic community. But perhaps more importantly they are attempting to make sure that any hope at an alliance between the nation’s two largest minority groups can be prevented. They are cleverly turning one group against the other, playing to some underlying concerns in the Black community, to make sure that the warped Tanton worldview will prevail. I wonder what the Black leaders, who have unwittingly joined their crusade, will think when they find out that the Tanton cabal has been willing to sacrifice the Voting Rights Act on the alter of their nativist cause. Hopefully they will see the hypocrisy that permeates Tanton and his followers worldview, and come to understand the true motives that lay just beneath the surface.

 Click Here To see video of “You Don’t Speak For Me” Spokesperson Claudia Spencer On FOX May 1, 2006 predicting violence would occur if immigrants continued with their “extremely disgusting” demands for rights.

From: Migra Matters – Progressive Immigration Reform

While the immigration issue seems to have reached a roadblock in Washington for the time being, the fact that it will most likely be resurrected just in time for the November elections should not be forgotten.  Although it appears that the Congressional Republicans who first initiated the debate have no intention to press the issue at the current time, it can not be forgotten that the key focus of the debate has always been the creation of a distraction and a wedge issue to insulate themselves from the failures of the last few years.

Over the Summer they plan to keep this issue in the public mind by holding sham “hearings” to “get the pulse” of the American people. Like a Bush campaign rally, these “hearings” will be heavily orchestrated to make sure that the positions of the extremist right-wing get the most exposure possible. Along with the usual array of “experts” from far right organizations like CIS and FAIR, we can probably count on a mix of minutemen and other closet white supremacists groups to send representatives also.

Between their mock hearings, and the media campaign waged every day by the FOX, Lou Dobbs and a myriad of other right-wing front men, the American people will be fed a constant diet of anti-immigrant rhetoric all summer long, while there will be no voice of opposition coming from the other side.

BUT there is one way to offset this campaign of hatred and lies. By making sure that come November, by shear force of numbers, the right wing hate machine is shut down. We can turn the tables on them. We can help to make sure the power of the immigrant community is felt at the ballot box.

Two things MUST be done:

Assist Legal residents to apply for citizenship

Register ALL the eligible Latino and other ethnic voters as possible

The number of eligible legal residents who could apply for citizenship is estimated to be as high as 8 million. The number of unregistered voters whose voices must be heard is even greater than that. In the key swing state of Florida alone 600,000 new voters could join the rolls. What would those 600,00 voters have meant in 2000? What would a million or more new voters today mean in November?

In an effort to register at least a million new voters this summer, We Are America, a coalition of immigrants activists groups is initiating “Democracy Summer”, a voter education and registration drive that will take place in all fifty states.

On July 1st, grassroots organizations all over the country will launch Democracy Summer – a coordinated effort to strengthen the power of immigrant communities and our allies at the ballot box.  We will engage our communities to register voters, help eligible immigrants to become citizens, learn about immigration reform legislation and engage students, parents, teachers neighbors and clergy like never before.

Democracy Summer is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate and participate in our democracy.

Here is an opportunity for average Americans of good conscience, of every ethnic and national background to get involved in the true meaning of Democracy. Assuring that all those who are eligible to have their voices heard in the great debate are indeed heard. We have the opportunity to prevent the far right from once again perverting our electoral process by forcing red herrings and strawmen to the forefront of political debate, while the real issues, the issues that effect every Americans future are left out of the discussion.  The politics of hate, fear and lies must end … and we have the power to help make that happen.

To help contact:
We Are America

You can organize an event in your area, volunteer to help with one, or just help spread the word. Talk with neighbors and friends let them know how important this issue is.  Volunteer to help tutor eligible legal residents so they can pass their citizenship tests. There are a multitude of ways , both large and small that you can take part in this effort. There is much talk about taking back America … here is one opportunity to actually participate in that activity.

Action Tools:

The following action tools are available at We Are America’s website:
HERE

Teach-In Curriculum:

Teach-In Design
Teach-in Agenda
Bill Becomes Law Powerpoint
Bill Becomes Law Printable
House/ Senate Bills Compared

Citizenship Workshop Materials:

Developing a Workshop
Workshop Diagram and Process
Intake – Spanish
Intake – English
Agreement – Spanish
Agreement – English
Stop Sign Spanish/ English

Voter Registration Toolkit:

Voter Registration Training
Voter Registration Deadlines

From: Migra Matters – Progressive Immigration Reform

I’ve been a little tied up with “real world” stuff this past couple of weeks and missed out on some great diaries here. I checked out Man Without A Counties  piece on Peak Blogging and there was an interesting discussion in the comments about the immigrant’s rights marches and the fact that the organizing of those marches had no real blog or internet component. How they managed to put millions in the streets through radio and how “none of the demonstrators in Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere ever even heard of Daily Kos or any of the other blogs, let alone read them or participated.”

I figured y’all might be interested in how the organizing was really done. A little secret, that through dumb luck on my part, I’m somewhat privy to.

The notion that the immigration marches were fueled through Latino radio is somewhat of a misnomer that I believe came about because the MSM missed the whole story until it happened and figured the “media” component must have been something traditional … hence they stressed the importance of Latino radio. Although they played a large role, the radio stations came quite late to the party and played a much larger role in motivating than organizing.

In fact a large percentage of the organizing was done online.

 Here’s how it was done … at least the online component.:

Weeks before the marches the national organizers would set up websites… giving out minimal info, a date and a time for one or two rallies. But the important part was that they would ask for volunteers to be local organizers.  Over the following weeks one by one local grassroots efforts would join in. They would post up all the information about local rallies and include the contact info for each of the local cities organizers. E-mail addresses, websites, even home phone numbers were included in the info. One by one all the various marches and rallies joined the list.  

From there the effort branched out. Graphics were posted up for posters and signs in English, Spanish, some in Korean or Chinese for many of the individual marches and rallies. These are the signs many of us saw in shop windows and on lampposts.

The next step was spreading the word. Much of it was done by e-mail, text messaging, blogs and through Myspace. Myspace was huge. Many of the children of immigrants, communicating through Myspace got the info to interpret for their parents. In fact the school walkouts were organized exclusively with a combination of Myspace and text messaging.

That’s how everyone knew to wear white, where to meet, what time, the march route … it was e-mailed, blogged or Mypsaced across the internet.

By the time the radio stations got in the show, the show was already on. They played a big role in reaching many, but they were not the driving force behind this stuff.

I know this all because I watched it unfold.

Before the first march in Chicago in early March, about a week before to be exact, I noticed tons of traffic coming to my site from Chicago. All of it going to a page that explained HR4437 (it was just dumb luck, because since no one was really covering the issue at that time, I ended up being on the top of the 1st page of a Google search for “HR4437”). I went from 50 hits a week to 300 a day. In fact the Wednesday before the march I told met wife that something bizarre was going on in Chicago,but I didn’t know what. Until the march happened.

After that I started watching this stuff. Watching to see who was hitting the site and from where. A few days before the LA march on 3/25, I stumbled on the organizing site and started posting up their info. I put up a front page with their graphic and listed all the march info. During that period my blog traffic went crazy looking for info on HR4437 or the march. This is how I found out about the Myspace link. Kids all over were sending links from my site to their friends. Sometimes up to a hundred an hour.

The same thing repeated itself during the big National protest days, first on April 10, and then culminating in the May 1 Boycott. In fact for that one the organizers contacted me through e-mail weeks in advance to see if I would post up their info and list the various protests and contact info. Since I was already showing up on google searches due to all the linkage from the LA marches and was getting close to 2000 hits a day leading up to that march, they figured I could help spread the word. So my blog became part of their “network”

They managed to set up this network within a few weeks that allowed people to google up “immigration march yourcityname” or “el gran paro” and get back numerous sites with the info they needed to participate in the rallies and marches.  They were very tech savvy that way, they followed the linkages, they watched the search engines and site meters, and they knew how to work the internet to their advantage. They knew how to target their message.

So it was all pretty much a matter of dumb luck on my part, but it allowed me to see first hand how this whole movement worked and was organized. It was amazing and totally grassroots based … I mean can you imagine people posting up their home phones and saying “call me if you want info” … well they did, and it worked.

There is also a huge network of Latino blogs, many in Spanish, some in English, some in both. A lot of them are not political, but rather plain old personal blogs, but covered this stuff from day one and did much to spread the word. Again, I found these by tracing back links to see where I was getting hits from.

I guess my point for writing all this is that for progressives the rallies can teach us very important lessons. This movement provided a blueprint for organizing real world events through a combination of both old and NEW technology. We can learn much from how this movement operates.

For me it was pretty amazing to watch … even if much of the watching was done through a computer screen.

Promoted by Chris

Today there is much discussion about what many are terming an “immigration crisis” in America. Undocumented immigrants flood over the borders daily risking their lives, and sometimes losing them, in order to find work and security in the United States. Perhaps upwards to a million undocumented people each year find a way, whether it be by overstaying a visa, or crossing hundreds of miles deadly desert, to enter this country in hopes of making a better life.

Americans of all political stripes are concerned about this situation and there is great division on exactly how to solve the problem. Some have advocated a tightening of security and closing of the porous border as a solution. Others have promoted a method to regulate and legitimize the flow of the undocumented. But there is one thing missing in both of these strategies. Neither contains any analysis of why this problem exists, and more importantly, why at this time in our history this influx of new immigrants is causing such great concern for the American people. Neither group seems concerned with root causes.

The number of immigrants has not really changed
Throughout our history we have encountered many waves of immigration. In fact all of us can trace our roots back to foreign shores. The number of new immigrants who come today, both entering through proper channels and the undocumented, is no greater as a percentage of population than at many other times during our history. From the mid-nineteenth century, through the first thirty years of the last, immigrants represented about13% of the total population; today that number is 11%.  Certainly our earlier immigrants were not rich, and most had limited education, but they like our current crop of immigrants, had the drive and determination to seek out a better life. This influx of new vitality and ambition has been a cornerstone on which the nation was build. So why today do we find ourselves in the middle of what some would term a crisis?

What is different today then during past immigration waves?
Historically there have always been a small minorities of the closed minded who’ve oppose immigration for xenophobic or racists reason, but generally we as a people have accepted new immigrants with open arms and absorbed them into society. Yet, today we find this harder and harder to do. Many believe the new immigrants are putting undo pressures on our economy, creating stresses on a tight job market, and stretching already taxed social services and education systems. Why today do we find it so hard to absorb these new immigrants?  Why at a time in our history, when we have never been richer as a nation and more educated as a population, do we find these new immigrants putting such great stresses on our society? Perhaps we need to look at some of the changes that have taken place over the last twenty-five or so years to find the answer.

The systematic assault on working and middle class Americans
Over the past twenty five years it appears that there’s been a systematic assault upon the working and middle classes of this nation which now leaves many vulnerable and in a position where they must compete for an ever decreasing pool of resources. At one time, a family could live comfortably on the income of one earner, but today it takes two just to make ends meet. A guaranteed pension for retirement is no longer the norm. A union card no longer guarantees a lifetime of job security. Health insurance costs have become an overwhelming concern for both workers and employers and forty five million Americans in fact go without any. A job with one of the nation’s largest companies no longer means yearly raises and increased benefits; in fact it doesn’t even guarantee job security. An advanced degree no longer means a career in your chosen field. Today working and middle class Americans can expect plant closings and layoffs, pay cuts and increased hours, loss of benefits and outsourcing. They can expect economists to talk about “jobless recoveries” and increased productivity. It is no wonder that many working class Americans are feeling the added stresses of our new modern global economy. It is also no wonder that they are ready to lash out against those they feel they must now compete against. Our nation is sick, and current “immigration crisis” is not the cause of this national illness, but just another symptom of it.

Who is responsible for this situation?
Who or what could have caused our national illness? The answer is simple … the economic and social policies of those who claim to be Conservatives.  Of course, many working class Americans might scoff at this idea. Certainly a philosophy of smaller government, personal responsibility and free market economics sounds appealing to many, and on face value alone is quite in line with the principles on which our nation was founded. But in practice, what these so called Conservatives have done with this philosophy has been the antithesis of what the founders had in mind. These Conservatives have used this philosophy to consolidate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. They have turned the ideals of fair play and Christian charity upside down and transformed them into grotesque parodies. They have taken two hundred years of struggle to raise the standard of living for the average American and thrown it to the winds in the name of “fiscal responsibility” and “smaller government.”  All along being neither fiscally responsible nor providing smaller government.

How did they do this?  
How did these self-proclaimed Conservatives wage this war on the working and middle class?  It started in the eighties with two policies; deregulation and union busting. Then continued with more failed and flawed policies right up until our present day.

Union Busting
Starting with the firing of the air traffic controllers in 1981, Conservatives have set forth an agenda through legislation and judicial decisions to slowly disassemble the American labor movement. At the time many Americans supported the idea, feeling that unions had become too powerful, corrupt and greedy, but the results of this policy have had devastating effects on American workers. Ever since then the number of union households has been steadily declining. At the beckoning of corporate interests, Conservatives have managed to take what was once the bulwark of working class America, the very entity that allowed millions of American workers to move themselves or their children into the middle class, and render it powerless.

Deregulation
Under the guise of increased competition and lower prices through free market forces, Conservatives began a campaign of deregulation. They would no longer allow the government to regulate business, but rather leave it up to the free market.  Again, on paper this practice looked reasonable, but under their control we have ended up with the reverse. Instead of government controlling business, we now have business controlling government. We have allowed business combinations that rival any of those of the Robber Barons of the late nineteenth century. We have seen regulated monopolies in the energy, telecom, airline and other industries destroyed, only to recombine into unregulated monsters like Enron. We have seen the merger of mega oil companies that are larger than those of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, who make profits that would make King Midis blush, while the average American can’t afford to fill up his gas tank.

Globalization and outsourcing
The next logical step after deregulation for Conservatives was globalization and the taking of their idea of the free market economy, without any government regulation, to a global scale.  Conservatives passed legislation and trade agreements that allowed their huge multinational masters to operate with impunity throughout the world. They have allowed companies like Halliburton to set up shadow entities on foreign soil to avoid paying taxes. They’ve  allowed American businesses to sell American jobs to the lowest bidder on the global market all on the name of free market economics.

Rewriting the tax codes and starving the beast
Conservatives often say that the only thing wrong with government is government, and promise to lower taxes, reduce the size of government, and be fiscally responsible. Yet, after years of Conservative leadership we have the largest government in US history, a record federal deficit and a record national debt reaching 9 trillion dollars. The only part of their philosophy they seem to be able to stick too is tax cuts. They have systematically worked over the last twenty-five years to shift the tax burden from both big business and the top 1% of the nation’s wealthiest people and place it on the middle and working class. They have consistently rewarded corporations and the rich with larger and larger tax breaks. Through cuts in funding to education, health and human services and many other state and local programs they have managed to shift the tax burden down to the local level so that now average Americans pay more in real estate, state and local, use and sales taxes than ever before. They have not given the American people “back their money” as they claim, but rather forced them to just pay more to other government agencies.

The other aspect of the Conservative tax cutting agenda has been to use cuts as a means to, as they term it; “starve the beast”. It’s been conservative policy to try to assure that social programs for education, childcare, healthcare and the poor are “starved to death” due to the lack of available federal funds. Their philosophy has resulted in huge benefits for the rich while programs that working and middle class Americans rely on are cut. The best example of this is public education, where Conservatives have consistently cut funding while placing ever more increasing demands upon the system.

Healthcare
Another big concern for average Americans is healthcare and its skyrocketing costs. Conservative deregulation and free market philosophies have influenced this also. While fighting vehemently against any form of a national healthcare program, they have through legislation and governmental agencies, allowed large pharmaceutical manufactures and healthcare conglomerates to set the agenda. National health policy has been allowed to be written by insurance companies and other corporate interests rather than physicians and medical professionals.

But what does all this have to do with immigration?
These Conservative policies have had devastating effects on the working and middle classes, yet in order to remain in power Conservatives have tried to shift the blame. Every problem that is claimed to be a result of the “immigration crisis” can be seen to have its roots in Conservative economic and social policies. Conservatives have been trying to convince the American people that it is the immigrants who put all the stresses on education, social services and healthcare institutions and that they take jobs from American workers and drive down wages. But it must be understood that while immigrants do highlight the problems of working class Americans, they haven’t caused them. All these problems can be seen as direct results of twenty-five years of Conservative policy. This is obvious when you look at the ROOT CAUSES.  The Republican controlled Congress for the last ten years has exacerbated the situation by rubber-stamping every Conservative policy that has come down the pike. With each passing year they have taken more and more from working Americans and given it to their corrupt corporate masters. Now there is nothing left, and the American working man and woman knows it. They just need to stop buying into the Conservatives “blame game” and look at the ROOT CAUSES of their problems.

What can we do?
We, as a nation need to stop letting those who don’t have our best interests at heart to control the agenda. We must not allow them to divide us along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender. We must not allow then to misdirect us or mislead us with appeals to our patriotism or national pride. We must not let them blame the symptoms rather than the disease. The “immigration crisis” is just another symptom of a far greater disease … the disease of a Conservative agenda that favors the rich and big business over average Americans. Immigrants certainly put added stresses on society and highlight the problems of the now decimated social programs, education and health care systems, but they did not cause the national illness.

How do we “fix” immigration?
Fixing our broken immigration system will not be easy, and it will be a long hard process. Again just as in the case of working Americans, one key must be to look for the ROOT CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM.  We must look at the reasons why millions of people every year risk their lives to come here?  What is it about their countries of origin that make them so desperate to leave? Particularly in the case of Mexico, it’s a nation that has the 13th largest economy in the world, ahead of 167 other nations. They also are the second largest recipients of direct investment by US companies in the hemisphere. On top of this Mexico has vast amounts of untapped natural resources and oil reserves that rival those of any Middle Eastern power. So why do their people live in poverty? Why must they come here simply to survive? Could it be precisely because they are the second largest recipients of direct investment by US big business?  Could it be because Conservative trade and economic policies have been crafted to favor the business elite and the rich of Mexico, just as they favor them here?  Could it be because Conservative policies help perpetuate a system that leaves 55% of the countries wealth in the hands of 20% of its people?  These are all things that need to be addressed when looking at the “immigration crisis”.

A new plan
In order to fix our nations problems we need to stop treating symptoms and start treating the disease. No “immigration plan”, be it a wall, arrests or amnesty is going to ever solve the “immigration crisis”. Only when the American people begin to demand a change in the paradigm will solutions be found. Only when government is returned to its rightful role as protector of the rights and interests of ALL Americans, not just the privileged few, can we begin to fix the problems that face us. It is only then that we can do something about the root causes both here and abroad that have brought on this “immigration crisis.

From: Migra Matters – Progressive Immigration Reform

Promoted by Chris

They gathered early in the morning as the sun first began to peak over the horizon, like so many others before them. Quickly checking water bottles and backpacks to make sure all the provisions for the long journey ahead were in place. It was a scene repeated a thousand times a year in border towns in the desert southwest. As the early morning purples and reds began to give way to bright blue, the group of about seventy-five travelers gathered on the dusty road outside of Sasabe and looked out over the vast expanse of sand and rock, knowing the journey ahead would test them body and soul. It would not be long before the temperature, reaching the triple digits, would start to slowly take its toll on their bodies. As the hot sun began beating down on them relentlessly, they were all well aware that this was the same burning sun that had taken the lives of eighty five other travelers in the past seven months. For seven days they would be traveling through terrain that looked more like that of the moon than earth, trying to keep pace with the group. At 12 to 16 miles a day they would hopefully reach Tucson by weeks end.

A young boy of thirteen when asked about the journey and why anyone would risk life and limb to cross the scorching desert on foot replied, “Nobody would do this for a little extra money,” he said. “This isn’t about buying a nicer car. It’s about putting food on your family’s table.”  Within days, 37 year old Joann Quintanilla would no longer be able to keep up with the group, her legs cramping up from a combination of heat and exhaustion. Another woman would be nursing feet covered with blisters and bandages.

As they walked, they followed a path well worn by thousands who came before them.

About two weeks before, 25 year old Edith Rodreguez, a native of Veracruz, had also left Sasabe to take a similar journey. With a group of eight or ten others led by a coyote, Rodreguez with her 3 year old son, began the long trek through the Arizona desert on May 11th.

The coyote, hoping to keep the group moving, handed each of his charges a Sedalmerk tablet before their journey began. Sedalmerk is a Mexican over-the-counter drug containing caffeine, Tylenol and ephedra – an herbal amphetamine-like drug that was banned in the US. Because of its tendency to accelerate dehydration, the drug would prove to be deadly when combined with the desert heat and arduous journey.

Within two days the boy began to suffer the signs of dehydration and could no longer keep up. Rodriguez began to carry him, but as they started to fall further behind, the coyote made the decision to leave the young woman and her child behind to fend for themselves in the hot desert sun. On May 13th, as they continued their journey north through the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation the boy finally lost consciousness, but Roderguez continued on, carrying the limp body of her son.

The mother and child trekked on for one more day, but after a while she was unable to continue and placed her baby under a paloverde tree for shade and went to look for help. A few hours later she stumbled upon Highway 86, which runs through the center of the Indian lands and on the afternoon of May 15 was picked up by Border Patrol agents. Frantic, she begged the agents to send help to find her son.

In the early morning hours of May 16th, , after hours of searching and tracking Rodreguez’s footprints, Border Patrol agent Dan McClafferty smelled an all too familiar smell as he approached a paloverde tree. It was the smell of death. There under the thorny branches lay the body of the small boy, covered with a jacket, his arms crossed over his chest just as his mother had left him.

The medical examiner placed the time of death between May 13 and May 14.

For Joann Quintanilla, the woman with the leg cramps, the story ended much differently, even though she admits that, “If I was in a group with a coyote, he would have left me.”

She wasn’t with a coyote, in fact when her cramps got bad she was ushered to one of the many support vehicles, loaded with donated food, water and medical supplies that accompanied her group on trek through the desert.

Quintanilla and the others in her group were part of the third annual “Migrant Trail” walk to draw attention to the plight of migrants who die by the hundreds trying to cross the desert each year.

The walk which began on Memorial Day was intended “to draw attention to the increasing number of migrant deaths along the Arizona-Sonora border,” said Kat Rodriguez with Derechos Humanos, one of the sponsors of the effort along with Community groups such as the Migrant Trail Walk Committee, American Friends Service Committee, BorderLinks, Casa Maria, the faith-based No More Deaths coalition, the Samaritans, Witness for Peace, Coloradans for Immigrant Rights and the West Coast Mennonite Central Committee. “One way or another, the deaths need to stop,” Rodriguez said.

“Migrant Trail” began in 2004 with 25 participants and has grown ever since. This year perhaps there is even more urgency to their message as Washington discusses further closing of sections of the border with fences and increased military patrols.

Since 1993, when the Clinton administration began a crackdown on border crossings in San Diego and El Paso, more than 3,500 people have died trying to cross into the United States through desert. And, as officials work to put more patrols and fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant advocates fear there will be more deaths among the tens of thousands who attempt the trip.

Most of the deaths so far — 959 since Oct. 1, 2001, according to local government statistics and the Mexican government — have been in Arizona, where the landscape comprises mountains, ranches, Indian reservations, military proving grounds and endless miles of cactus-filled desert….

Border Patrol statistics show that while the death toll mounts annually, the number of those apprehended while crossing the border has not changed significantly since 1993. But because federal agencies have tightened the border in urban areas, smugglers who move the men, women and children seeking to enter the United States illegally have funneled them onto increasingly perilous trails where temperatures are high, water is scarce and danger is abundant.

“All the evidence is that increased enforcement on the border has achieved no benefit at all except in additional employment of Border Patrol agents,” said John Fife, a Tucson pastor and founder of No More Deaths, a coalition of charities devoted to stopping deaths during desert border crossings. “What has changed is the devastating elements of this policy. You have a number of deaths that surpasses the number of American deaths in Iraq. And yet still we are determined to persist and redouble our efforts.”

Washington Post

Back on May 15th, President Bush gave his nationally televised speech on immigration, outlining his plan to send 6000 National Guard troops to the southern border.

As Bush spoke, Agent Dan McClafferty was tracking footprints through the desert in search of Edith Rodreguez’s missing boy. He was getting nowhere fast in his search. By his account there were thousands of tracks in the area, making it impossible to find those of the boy’s mother. Finally the Border Patrol office in Nogales faxed over an image of Rodreguez’s shoeprint. McClafferty found the prints and tracked them for seven hours as they weaved and circled through the desert. “We figured she was in bad shape,” McClafferty said. “She was walking around in circles. She went for help then went back to her son but couldn’t find him.”

In the end it was the smell that led McClafferty to the boy.

As the “Migrant Trail” walkers trekked through the desert two weeks later, they too followed the same path. They walked in those same thousands of footprints that Agent McClafferty had tracked only weeks before. Perhaps in the very same footprints as Edith Rodreguez while she carried her then dead baby boy to his final resting place under the paloverde tree

This year, like in years before, they walk in the footsteps of migrants. They walk in the footsteps of ghosts … they walk in the footsteps de los fantasmas.

You can help by contacting:
No More Deaths
Derechos Humanos
Border Action Network
Humane Borders.org

From:Migra Matter – Progressive Immigration Reform
Also available in Orange

Originally designed as a means to access medical records, track Alzheimers patients or tag pets, the RFID technology made by Florida based Applied Digital may now be used as a method to keep track of the thousands of immigrant guest workers. According to Applied Digital’s Chairman and CEO, Scott Silverman, he has been in contact with “key congressional leaders” about the application of his Radio Frequency Identification microchips as a “technology platform for the guest worker program.”

Applied Digital’s implants, which are about the size of a grain of rice, contain a sixteen digit ID number. That number, once scanned, currently can be linked to a database to provide the name and address of a pet owner or access the medical records of a critically ill patient. Some implants have also been used in nursing homes to monitor people with Alzheimer’s in an effort to keep them from wandering off. Silverman believes the technology can easily be modified for use not only at the border, “but it could also be used for enforcement purposes at the employer level.”

In a interview with RFID Connections, an industry publication, Silvermen explained his pitch for the use of his microchip technology in tracking guest workers:

But being able to communicate a new application, potentially, for the VeriChip technology as it relates to the Guest Worker Program and the new immigration bill that came out of the Senate yesterday, I think it’s a relevant technology that can be used amongst other technologies to properly ensure that guest workers coming in and out of this country are properly registered, and that the enforcement that’s necessary to make the law work and the Guest Worker Program work can also take place at the employer level.  So whether it’s biometrics, whether it’s a smart card of sorts, a tamper-proof visa or a VeriChip related to those things, I think the VeriChip is a very logical technology to use for that…

Silverman’s company, which has lost millions of dollars over the last few years trying to sell their invasive product to a wary North American market, has been waiting for just this kind of opportunity. With the addition of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to their Board of directors in July of 2005, Applied Digital gained an important inside the beltway contact to help sell their plan. Thompson in fact is so taken with the technology, he announced he planned to have one of the companies medical “VeriMed” tags implanted into his arm. Normally, the chip is injected below the skin into fat tissue above the triceps muscle on a person’s upper right arm

Thompson is not the only one lobbying for the use of the microchip technology. According to Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA), Columbian President Alfaro Uribe actually floated the idea of placing chips in Columbian migrant workers wishing to become guest workers in the US. In a meeting with Specter in early April of this year Uribe is reported as telling the Senator “he would consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted into their bodies before they are permitted to enter the United States to work on a seasonal basis.” Specter replied that he “doubted whether the implantation of microchips would be effective since the immigrant worker might be able to remove them.” Specters staff would not confirm whether or not microchip technology was being discussed as a part of immigration reform.

When asked if the government had in fact contracted to buy the system Silverman replied that, “No, they have not. We have talked to many people in Washington about using it as an application for a guest worker program. But we cannot say today that they have actually bought it for immigration purposes.”  But he is hopeful.

Migra Matters – Progrssive Immigration Reform

Having spent some time reviewing the leaked conservative talking points on immigration reform put forward by Republican spinmeister Frank Luntz, one can only be awestruck by the right-wings’ ability to frame and manipulate an issue. “Respect for the Law &Economic Fairness: Illegal Immigration Prevention” is a brilliant piece of political propaganda. In twenty-five pages Luntz manages to hit upon a multitude of tried and true conservative frames. He starts with some classic “mom and apple pie” themes, such as Security, Law and Order, Personal Accountability and Respect for the Rule of Law.  He then adds in some of the conservatives favorite  “hidden” themes like racism, the economic victimization of average Americans by liberal policies, minority abuse of social services, minorities receiving “special privileges” or treatment, fear, and of course the new favorite; terrorism.  In the end he manages to draw a clear line from Reagans “welfare queen”, through George Sr.’s “Willie Horton” right to Tom Tancredo’s “invading hordes” all without once having to stoop to ever having to say the words, or true meanings behind the inferences.

Contained in Luntz’s blueprint is a virtual laundry list of societal and economic woes he directs his conservative brethren to blame squarely on the influx of “illegal aliens” coming over border.
It comes as no epiphany that the whole “immigration crisis” is for the most part a fabrication of the right intended to distract the American electorate from their growing disenchantment with Republican and conservative policy. Luntz’s polling shows that thus far the campaign has been quite effective in misdirecting the American people’s wrath. According to Luntz, “While a majority of Americans believe it is the economic consequences of illegal immigration that is doing the most damage, it’s the “principle of prevention” that the public sees as the most important solution.”  But if we look at exactly what the “economic consequences of illegal immigration” are, we see a series of failures of conservative policy.

Herein, might lay the Achilles’ heel in the conservative armor. Almost without fail every problem they wish to put at the feet of “illegal aliens” is in fact a result of failed conservative policy for the past thirty years. Job loss, deficits, a failed healthcare system, failing schools, failed social safety net, inequitable tax system, the downward economic spiral of working and middle-class Americans, lack of regulation of business, lack of security, and the increased competition for ever decreasing economic resources by those at the lower end of the economic scale, can all be seen as the direct results of conservative policies.

Perhaps to counter Luntz’s strategy we need to reexamine how we have been dealing with this issue so far. Up to now we have done pretty much what we always do when the conservatives lie and misdirect the American people: we try to educate them. When Tancredo says “illegal aliens, don’t pay taxes and collect welfare”, we counter back with statistics, and studies to demonstrate the opposite. We explain that undocumented immigrants don’t qualify for most government assistance, and in fact there is no “welfare” anymore. We rely on facts … we remain card carrying members of the reality based world. We firmly believe that we will eventually break through and the American people will see the truth. But that strategy has failed us for thirty years.

Perhaps it’s time for a little Sun Tsu thinking.

When we try to argue the merits of comprehensive reform or the impracticality or inhumanity of the conservatives immigration plan, we are not attacking their weakness, but rather the shield they are using to deflect the discontent caused by their own failed policies. We need to stop attacking the shield and instead focus on their true weakness. The root causes of the peoples dissatisfaction. That is the weapon for which they have no defense.

When Lutnz says:

“I think it’s important when we discuss illegal immigration to do so not out of anger but out of compassion.  Out of compassion for people who came here legally, out of compassion for American citizens who’ve been here for generations and watch as their kids have to suffer through overcrowded schools, as they have to deal with overcrowded hospitals, as they have to face overcrowded streets and highways.

I do have compassion for illegal immigrants, but if I have to choose, I’m going to choose American citizens first, and we need to hold the system and the government accountable if they cannot get control of the borders.”

or:

Economic revitalization starts with immigration reform.
“Our huge deficits are driven in part by the increased costs of social services for illegal immigrants who don’t pay their fair share. In fact, nearly 60% of those polled believe that illegal immigrants “use more in services than they pay in taxes so they are partially responsible for the deficit.” Fix the immigration problem and we begin to fix the economy. Fix the immigration problem and we reduce the cost of government. Fix the immigration problem and taxpayers get the break they deserve.”

We need to deconstruct Luntz’s assertions and attack their root causes.

For example when he blames undocumented children for overcrowded classrooms, we need to turn the argument around. We should be replying:

Every parent and educator in America knows our education system is failing. In some states and cities undocumented children do put some added stress on that failing system. Yet, they only represent slightly over three percent of the school-aged population in this nation, but overcrowding, and a lack of resources due to government under funding can be seen throughout the country. Conservatives have continually cut funds for education in the name of fiscal responsibility, while they run up record deficits. They have shifted the burden down to the municipalities increasing local taxes. They have mandated costly federal programs, yet fail to fund them. Our schools are indeed suffering, but not because 3 out of 100 little children are undocumented, but rather because conservatives have abandoned our education system
 

When Luntz speaks of overcrowded hospitals and emergency rooms, we should use the same model. We should reply:

All Americans know our health system is in shambles. Skyrocketing costs, the price of prescription drugs, and a growing number of uninsured only demonstrate this fact. Undocumented immigrants do add to the problem but they are not the root of it. There are over 45 million Americans who lack any health insurance. These Americans are forced to rely on emergency rooms as their primary health care providers, often only going when easily treated conditions have become serious and expensively treated ones.  Skyrocketing insurance costs have driven down real wages for American workers and have forced businesses small and large to lay off workers and in some cases close. Conservatives have ignored our healthcare system for years, instead choosing to work hand in hand with big drug companies and healthcare providers, giving them sweetheart deals and tax breaks at the expense of average working Americans. Our healthcare system is broken, but not because undocumented immigrants join millions of uninsured Americans in our overcrowded emergency rooms, but because conservatives have chosen to side with big business over average Americans.

As to Luntz’s assertion that “Our huge deficits are driven in part by the increased costs of social services for illegal immigrants who don’t pay their fair share … Fix the immigration problem and we begin to fix the economy. Fix the immigration problem and we reduce the cost of government. Fix the immigration problem and taxpayers get the break they deserve.”

This one is almost laughable … in fact if confronted with it, any Democratic spokesperson should do just that….laugh. The reply is easy:

Conservatives over the past six years have taken a $230 billion dollar surplus and turned it into well over an 8 TRILLION dollar deficit, mostly underwritten by hostile foreign nations. To try to shift the blame for such gross mismanagement of our nation’s economic future on undocumented immigrants who make up only 4% of our population is ridiculous. They would have had to EACH use BILLIONS of dollars of public services to even make the SLIGHTEST meaningful contribution to such a large debt. Conservatives have created the largest, costliest, and most inefficient government in all of history. This cannot be blamed on 12 million, hardworking, people looking to make a better life, but rather on the failed policies and mismanagement of our conservative leaders.

The rest of Luntz’s talking points should be treated in the same manner:

On “Security” we should reply: The “border” extends well beyond the area between San Diego and El Paso, it stretches all along thousand of miles of coastline from Maine to Florida, from Washington state to Baja California, across the north with Canada and Great Lakes and includes our seaports and airports. None of these areas have been secured by conservative leaders. 2.5 billion tons of uncheck cargo enter our nation yearly both by sea and air. When given the opportunity they chose to turn over our port security to foreign companies. Our conservative leadership now chooses to concentrate all efforts and resources on preventing undocumented immigrants from crossing our southern border at the cost of true security.  Security is important, but conservatives have not focused on it for the five years since 9-11, and now want to concentrate on migrants crossing a deadly desert looking for work rather than terrorists who fly here first class to attack our country.

On “Rule of Law” we should reply to quote Luntz: “Those who flaunt the rule of law should be held accountable.” Accountability applies to all Americans not just immigrants who cross the border illegally. Our Conservative leadership has recently shown a flagrant disregard for the Rule of Law.  From Corporate boardrooms where CEO’s steal millions from hardworking Americans while working hand in hand with conservative politicians,  to Washington where a culture of corruption prevails, we have seen in the last six years of conservative leadership complete lawlessness and a lack of accountability. The American people want everyone to have respect for the rule of law. This goes for the migrant worker who sneaks across the border to pick fruit all the way up to the highest leadership in the halls of power.

While I’m no evil political genius like Luntz or Rove, I do believe there is method to defeat their spin.  I think the key to dealing with Republican talking points is:

*    Continually use their own words against them.

*    Always turn the issue into one about their failures

*    Republican ALWAYS equals “conservative”

*    Conservative ALWAYS equals failure

*    Play by their rules, not ours. Don’t try to educate

*    Facts are good, emotion is better.

*    Don’t let them scapegoat, it’s always about them … not their victim

I think if we followed these simple rules we might just be able to take some of the steam out of the great right wing noise machine.

On the eve of a possible vote in the Senate to finalize an immigration reform bill, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate the wisdom of having career politicians, and by default their corporate sponsors, making the decisions on the nut and bolts of US immigration policy. Anyone who has watched the negotiations going on in the Senate is painfully aware that the Senators have played politics, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”, and traded apples for oranges all in the name of coalition and compromise. In the end they have managed to produce a bill that pleases neither those looking for true comprehensive reform, nor those looking for strict enforcement.

With it’s odd mix of concessions to those at polar opposite ends of the political spectrum regarding this issue, this Senate bill represents not a failure of the spirit of cooperation, but rather demonstrates that on some issues, with subtle and intricate components, the Senate chambers my not be the best place to work out policy. We still must deal with the next step after this bill passes Senate muster, moving on to even more negotiations and compromises with a hostile House.

Perhaps there is a better way to formulate such important and complicated policy. Perhaps we need some sort of independent “immigration policy board” that is free of elected officials, made up of experts in immigration, economists, labor and immigrants right advocates, that could be charged with the responsibility of formulating certain aspects of immigration policy.
For those on all sides of the issue perhaps the most crucial aspect of this debate going forward is how to determine what a reasonable level of immigration for the future is to look like. For some, it is unlimited, for others it’s next to none. I would argue that the true number exists somewhere in the middle.

Herein lays the key to the whole problem of immigration reform. If in fact we had an immigration policy that better reflected the true levels of immigration that could be reasonably absorbed, both economically and socially, it would go a long way to alleviating the concerns on both sides of this issue. It would allow for more legal immigration, while at the same time reassuring those honestly concerned about job loss or economic impact issues, that the level of immigration had no detrimental effects.

Our current policies simply do not meet those criteria.

• They allow for FAR to little legal immigration, hence you end up with “illegal” immigration.
• They are driven by forces that are FAR too political and beholden to business interests.
• They are essentially unjust and to some extent racist and favor the wealthy.
• They in no why reflect our nations realistic need for workers, particularly unskilled workers.

Of course there are many other considerations, but the bottom line is if we were to set a reasonable, humane, practical, and realistic level for immigration going forward we could in fact solve a lot of this problem.

The question is how we set that level.

At present it’s basically a decision made by politicians. As we’ve seen in the negotiations going on in the Senate, they seem to pull numbers out of thin air, check with “business” leaders, take some foreign policy considerations, think about sound bites, spin and firing up the base, then put it all in a big bowl and mix it up and serve it to the American people as policy.

This is politics as usual, but it doesn’t have to be.

What if there could be something set up independent of elected government, something similar to the way the Federal Reserve is set up, and manages interest rates? An independent “immigration policy board”, charged with setting the immigration levels and working out policy. They could be the ones to determine how many of each visa class to issue each year, or how many green cards etc. rather than our elected officials.

This seems to be a logical alterative to the current system. We do not allow elected officials to set the Fed interest rates because they lack the neccesary expertise to do so and we know they’d set them at 0% in election years, and 30% in off years. The same should be true with immigration policy. Between of pressure from big business, the natural tendency for politicians to pander for votes, and other political calculations, perhaps elected officials are not the best choice for formulating immigration policy.

This immigration policy board could be comprised of; 2 or 3 economists, a representative or two from business, one or two from labor, maybe someone from an immigrants right/humanitarian group, a couple of people from the judiciary, maybe a sociologist or other social scientist, someone with expertise in foreign and global affairs, etc. Simply put; people with relevant expertise.

They should be appointed for LONG periods of time so they face no political pressure, and they answer to no one. Similar to the Fed Chairman.

Their mission would be to gather information, listen to testimony, call in experts, listen to lobbyists, immigrants advocates, etc., then make their recommendations for the following years “quotas”. Each year they would then adjust them according to economic conditions, world events, the previous years successes and/or failures, unemployment rates, etc.

This way the whole affair is taken out of the hands of both the politicians and the business interests that control them. If Bill Gates wanted to lobby for more H1b visas… he would present his case before the panel. The same would be true for Tyson or other big businesses. If there’s a Civil War in Guatemala, or an earthquake in Chile, this body would take that into account and adjusts immigration levels accordingly.

Right now we admit approximately 2 million immigrants a year both legally and “illegally”. As long as the economy can continue absorb them, unemployment remains low and there is job growth there is no reason to change that significantly. This body would be the ones to decide the who, how and why of immigration. If they determined more of a certain category of immigrants could easily find employment and be absorbed by society – they would be allowed to enter legally… If they determine that we were allowing too many in different category they could adjust the levels downward for a year or two. The same would be the case with humanitarian situations. If due to natural disaster, war, economic collapse etc. there needed to be adjustments made to immigration policy, the panel could do it quickly and effectively.

Once we determined levels of immigration that are practical, and all immigrants could enter the country legally at reasonable rates, the flow of “illegal” immigration would slowed to a trickle, if even that.

The difference with having an independent agency working out policy is that immigration would be controlled, not by politicians and businessmen making decisions behind closed doors, but by a panel of experts whose sole purpose is to regulate the flow of immigration to best serve not only the best interests of the American people, but also the immigrants trying to find a better life.

Although such a plan far from solves all the problems of our current immigration system it would go a long way towards letting those from both sides of the debate meet on some kind of neutral middle ground. By allowing policy to be set by experts, rather than at the whim of political forces, we would surely have a more fair and equitable system for all concerned.

[this post expands on the ideas first explored in What comprehensive immigration reform should look like. from 5/16]

Let’s face facts. No one actually believes anymore that a wall is a viable answer to border security. That bubble burst with the sight of a Prada clad Anderson Cooper navigating his way through 2,400 feet of tunnel running from the Tijuana airport to a warehouse in San Diego. In the light of the hanging incandescent bulbs stung every few feet, the sight of the GQ anchorboy making his way under the nations premier border security wall, was enough to make even the most hardened xenophobe realize the futility in trying to seal the border with cement, iron, bricks and mortar. In fact Ms. Vanderbilt’s son was making his way through only one of the 43 tunnels discovered under the US border in the past five years.

No matter how many times Tom Tancredo or JD Hayworth tout the virtues of wall building, or claim how successful the current walls have been at thwarting the invasion from the south, the American people are not that naïve, they know that a ten foot high wall only fosters increased sales of twelve foot ladders at Home Depots in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Nogales.

So why this vote now?

The Senate called Wednesday for at least 350 miles of new triple-layered fencing on porous sections of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to crack down on illegal immigration and smuggling.

The $1 billion proposal, approved by a vote of 83-16, is less extensive than a 700-mile fence proposed by the House of Representatives, but it puts both chambers of Congress in support of building expanded barriers across the southwestern border.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said that his amendment tracks a plan by the Department of Homeland Security to construct fences in areas frequently used by smugglers and illegal immigrants.

The department would determine the locations, but Sessions indicated that much of the fencing would be in Arizona and California and would be linked to a 20-mile fence already constructed near San Diego. The plan also calls for 500 miles of additional vehicle barriers.

Link

It’s all about the symbolism. It says numerous things on many different levels. It certainly says to our neighbors to the south that not only are they not welcome, but that we are willing to go to great lengths to assure that we can remain separated from them not only physically, but socially and economically.

But perhaps more importantly for those advancing the wall building agenda, they hope to send a message to their constituents and followers that they are tough on “border security”. That they are working hard to “protect” them from whatever it is they fear is coming over the border on a daily basis, whether that be “terrorists”, “Mexicans” who “steal their jobs”, or just plain scary brown people.

Politically, it sends even another message. It says that the only way to deal with the “immigration issue” is to put up barriers, be they physical, legal or economic.

So in the end it really doesn’t really matter if the wall or fence is 350, 700, 1000 or 2 miles long. The mere fact that a wall is being build gives the “enforcement only” advocates a moral and symbolic victory. It negates the idea that this “problem” must be solved comprehensively and that we must look beyond mere “border security.” That we should search for a practical long term solution that not only deals with immigration going forward, but also the root causes of the migration or the need for workers to supplement a shrinking US workforce. In fact, it raises questions of whether we will remain a vibrant nation with a diverse ethnic and cultural mosaic, or retreat into xenophobic isolationism.

So with all this at stake, how is it that those in Washington who support a comprehensive approach to immigration reform were willing to surrender to such a monumental symbolic defeat on this issue?

Only the politically naïve would believe that as the Hagel-Martinez compromise moved through the Senate on it’s way to reconciliation with the draconian House bill, it would remain pristine. It was inevitable that the right-wing within the Senate would start to chisel away at it in order to weaken it somewhat in advance for their House brethren. But why concede core principles this early on, leaving nothing for the Senate members of the Conference Committee to work with? In fact, all of the known members of that group with the exception of Kennedy (D-MA) voted in favor of the wall building amendment.

YEAs —83
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reid (D-NV)
Roberts (R-KS)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs —16
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Sarbanes (D-MD)

Not Voting – 1
Rockefeller (D-WV)

Link

The only strategic rationale for a move like this would be if Reid, Frist, Specter, and the rest of the comprehensive reform coalition feel that if they give in on enough “small” concessions before going to the House they will leave Sensenbrenner and Tancredo with no real ammunition, forcing them to dig in and try to defend hardnosed positions that reek of racism and xenophobia, such as opposition to a path to legalization for the twelve million. Perhaps Reid and the boys believe that having Tancredo on the nightly news trying to sell his “attrition” plan to the American people would be a non-starter for xenophobe zoo crew from the House, and in the end the main provisions of the Senate bill would pass through the House gauntlet intact. If this is in fact the strategy, it seems risky at best and downright foolish at worst.

Having now yielded the high ground in this debate, and given into the concept of “enforcement” as a solution, Reid and the compromise gang have opened a window of opportunity that has the potential to leave them snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Although leaving the sour taste of disingenuous political pandering in my mouth, Bush’s Monday primetime immigration pallooza appears to have played well in the heartland. Polls that had already shown strong support for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform rose even more after his speech. Before this vote it looked as if Team Tancredo were starting to lose serious ground.

Now Reid’s Compromise Crew have given the xenophobe wing a huge symbolic victory with this vote. As Bush poses for his photo-ops this week with Border Patrol officers and National Guardsmen against a backdrop of a steel and concrete wall, a message will be sent that will warm the hearts at the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus … they have moved that much closer to achieving their goal.