A plan for immigration reform? This blogger knows what we need to do.

There have been 74 immigrant detainee deaths since 2004, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times this week. All of these individuals passed through ICE at some point. The ACLU has stepped forward asking for more investigations, and notes that there have been only two investigations to date. Both victims had pre-existing conditions. The ACLU has found that the # 1 factor contributing to these deaths is a lack of medical care and serious "medicial deficiencies" including delayed or denied care.

Senator Robert Menedez (D-NJ) has introduced a bill to establish procedures for timely delivery of health care, and to report all deaths to the inspector general and to Congress.

The editors at Citizen by Choice went to go see the recently released movie, The Visitor, over the weekend. It is one of the best movies we have ever seen.

The movie generally centers around Walter, a lonely middle aged man whose wife is deceased and whose son is off living in London. Sent to a conference to present a paper to which he had contributed little, Walter stays at his other home in Connecticut where he had not been in a long time. He finds a couple living there.

This is where Walter’s journey begins. He becomes personally involved and emotionally connected to a young Arab Muslim man. They connect through music, specifically, African drums. The movie takes viewers through the immigration system and its ugly aspects - deportation centers, immigration lawyers, and the current immigration laws. The movie’s producer crosses almost every boundary one can think of — national, racial, religious, gender, age. The ending was deeply moving. Films like this one come around too infrequently.

My only critique is that the movie does not explore Walter’s internal emotional landscape. It is what makes a person tick that makes them human, i.e. what deeply moves them or where their pain lies, however much others may or may not share in that experience. I also envisioned a slightly different ending, one that many of you will probably also imagine when you see the movie. For some reason, the producer decided not to go there.

I urge you to see this movie!  

Courtesy of Hogar Hispano, a program of Catholic Charities:

Immigrants: Know Your Rights! Hogar Hispano Conducts Workshops To Educate
The Immigrant Community

“If I am detained and deported, who will take care of my children?”

“Can a police officer stop me on the street because I look Hispanic?”

“What will happen to my house and all of my things if I am deported?”

“Can I really remain silent when I am confronted by a police officer?”

An Urban Institute study asserts that the number of undocumented immigrants arrested in workplaces nationwide increased more than sevenfold from 500 to 3,600 between 2002 and 2006. Effective January 1, 2008, Prince William County police will implement a new ordinance that gives police officers the authority to question the legal status of those stopped in routine policing efforts. The collapse of comprehensive immigration reform in Congress combined with the actions of local governments as they attempt to enforce immigration law in their own jurisdictions, has translated to an increased threat of immigration-related arrests in homes, workplaces, and public spaces.

Since August of this year, Hogar Hispano has been involved in a collaborative effort with other immigrant services organizations in the D.C. metropolitan area to form a rapid response plan to raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These agencies, in coming together to dialogue, discovered that the needs of a typical family affected by a raid are far-reaching and cannot be serviced by one agency alone. Certain agencies exhibit strength and capacity for providing legal services throughout a client’s detention process. Others’ mission is to lobby for the interests of Latino immigrants. Still others offer social services and childcare, meet emergency needs for food and shelter, and provide mental health counseling and treatment in response to psychological trauma. The comprehensive needs of a client can only be well-attended if service agencies are in good communication with each other and have access to the most current news and information regarding the political climate.

The first course of action has been to compile a pamphlet of information in English and Spanish which includes advice on how to handle oneself during a raid and before officials. The pamphlet also addresses what to do if detained by immigration and how to locate a loved one who has been detained, and includes contact information for Latin American consulate offices and legal service providers. The goal of the coalition is to disseminate this information far and wide through a “Know Your Rights” outreach campaign in order to empower immigrants with an understanding of their constitutional rights and quell fears that come from ignorance and misinformation about the immigration enforcement practices in place. Hogar Hispano began its educational campaign with a workshop for ESL students and parishioners at Christ the Redeemer Church in Sterling in early November. Know Your Rights Workshops were also held at All Saints parish in Manassas and Our Lady of Angels in Woodbridge. Community partners who contributed included Fransico Henriquez of Tenants and Workers United, Lisa Johnson-Firth of Immigration and Human Rights Law Group PLLC, and Edgar Arranda of the Virginia Justice Center. Hogar Hispano and Catholic Charities would like to thank these parishes for their gift of space and for providing a safe and trusted environment in which these important issues could be discussed.

To further address in its workshops the fears that immigrants face, Hogar Hispano offers guidance in the creation and implementation of a family emergency plan in households with one or more undocumented adult. For example, to families with children, a detailed plan can be especially vital in ensuring that a trusted family member or friend will assume the role of caregiver for a child who may be left behind. A study commissioned for the Urban Institute by the National Council of La Raza compared three U.S. communities who experienced large-scale workplace raids within the past year in an attempt to analyze the impact of such raids on America’s children. The study found that on average the number of children affected by worksite raids is half the number of adults arrested. National data has shown that two-thirds of these children are U.S. citizens and that a large majority of them are infants, toddlers or pre-schoolers. Children in the study suffered significantly at the sudden disappearance of their parents, “experiencing feelings of abandonment, showing symptoms of emotional trauma, psychological duress and mental health problems.” Hogar Hispano and the coalition of immigrant service agencies acknowledge this as one of the most grave consequences of such enforcement actions, and encourages parents, as well as community organizations, to take steps towards creating stable transitions for these children.

In addition to worries about children, the family emergency plan addresses concerns about the maintenance of immigrants’ financial assets, such as homes and other personal property. The pamphlet includes the recommendation that an immigrant grant power of attorney to a trusted adult to take on this responsibility. More suggestions include storing important identification and documents in a safe place to which multiple people have access, keeping plenty of money in the bank for emergencies, carrying or memorizing important phone numbers, and finding a lawyer who specializes in deportation cases and will take on a case in the event of an individual’s detention.

Hogar Hispano will continue to provide educational opportunities to its students, clients, and the immigrant community in accordance with its mission to welcome the stranger among us. If you believe there is a need for this information in your parish or community and are interested in holding a workshop, please contact Cindy Brown at cbrown@ccda.net.

You may read the National Council of La Raza study entitled “Paying the Price: the Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children” at http://www.urban.org/publications/411566.html

Technorati Profile

The Wall is there for a reason:

The Great Wall, the Berlin Wall and all other Walls

The Wall is there for a reason:

A serious obstacle to understanding

The Wall is there for a reason:

To stay on the defensive

The Wall is there for a reason:

To let the weak feel strong

The Wall is there for a reason:

To keep animals fenced in

The Wall is there for a reason:

To stop the other people from getting in

The Wall is there for a main reason:

To let the world know how badly you want it!

**inspired by the lecture of Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon Professor who is dying from pancreatic cancer. The full video can be found here.

Immigrants and Health Care — At the Intersection of Two broken Systems

by Susan Okie, M.D.

Reprinted with Permission

At a primary care clinic in Montgomery County, Maryland, where I volunteer, the patients are uninsured immigrants from Latin America or West Africa. Many are day laborers, house cleaners, or construction workers; most do not speak English. Several months ago, I saw a middle-aged Hispanic baker with profound weakness, fatigue, limb swelling, and severe muscle pain, who had to be hospitalized for myxedema. Fortunately, a local charity agreed to pay most of her hospital costs, and she’s now receiving thyroid hormone–replacement therapy — but with regular care, her hypothyroidism could have been diagnosed earlier and hospitalization averted. Another day, I tried to persuade a reticent West African man who had been tortured in prison…More Here

Elvira Arellano, a Mexican illegal immigrant, was arrested and deported this week, sources say. Avellano was facing deportation in 2006 when she sought refuge in a Chicago Church. The 32-year-old mother of one held press conferences from the church pressing for immigration reform. To some Arellano had become a symbol for the immigration rights movement.  According to the Pew Hispanic Center, over 3 million children in the United States have a parent who is here illegally. This means that a child could come home and find that his or her caretaker has been arrested.  Parents and children could be permanently separated if the child is American born and the deported parent decides that the child should stay in the U.S., with relatives who are here legally. Both parent and child miss out on interaction while the child is growing up. The child might only see his or her parent again if upon reaching age 18 the child decides to travel back to family’s home country or if the caretakers of the child choose to travel to that country to visit.

We were moved by this experience, written by Andrea, at Peanut Butter Burrito:

"A bond hearing for me didn’t materialize, but my clinic asked if I could come help with cases anyway. I was there about five hours today, working the phones. Calling the El Paso Immigration Court, calling Catholic Social Services, calling the worlds fastest-speaking Ecuadorian to check with her about documents for her husband’s hearing.

But most of my time was spent making "personal" calls to the family members of men who were still detained. One of the lawyers met with a dozen of them this weekend and asked if there was anything they needed, anyone we should talk to. "We’re doing this legal stuff for them," she told me, "but I wanted to offer to do something human, too." One man almost cried as he asked her to check on his wife and kid and see if they had enough money to pay bills and eat, now that he was gone. Two asked if we would call their mothers in El Salvador and just let them know they were okay. So that’s what I did - I called people’s families and said, "He wants you to know he’s okay. And we’re working on his case."

The lawyer tried to apologize to me that it wasn’t legal work, but I wouldn’t let her. We’re not just lawyers and law students, we’re people. Right? People want their mothers to know that they’re okay. So I called. I called Central America, and talked to a total stranger, and a rooster crowed in the background, and I told her that she might not have heard, but there was an immigration raid in Massachusetts, but he’s okay and he has a lawyer. And hung up the phone, and felt…how do I explain? Frustrated, confused, hopeful, human. (Really glad I spoke Spanish.)

On days like this I think that this is what legal services (and its brother, indigent defense) is really about - it’s about the personal,
letting people know they’re okay and you’re in it with them, even if it turns out wrong. And then I bury my face in my hands, because it’s hard. ICE is moving as fast as they can to deport some of the MA people on Friday. The lawyer I worked with said, "My heart is in freefall." I wanted to cry.

And outside our door, probably the toughest, most tenacious lawyer in the clinic laughed a fake laugh and said to someone, "I just feel so defeated, you know? It’s like they hold all the cards…"

Then she rushed to court. The bond hearings and motions to reopen and faxes and calls and referrals go on. Even if it turns out wrong."

Hogar Hispano, a program of Catholic Charities, is now accepting NEW immigration cases. New clients are accepted Tuesdays and Thursdays only from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. The consultation fee is $50.  Attorneys will be available to advise clients regarding permanent residency (green card) through family petitions, consular processing, NACARA, VAWA, TPS applications, naturalization assistance, and work permits. Hogar Hispano is located in the 7-corners area, next to Sears and across the street from Shoppers market. The address is 6201 Leesburg Pike, Suite 307, Falls Church, VA, 22044.

Hogar Hispano provides assistance to immigrants of all nationalities and religions. Services offered include English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, legal counseling and representation, and naturalization assistance.