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Stealth Initiative Threatens California Youth, Immigrants
With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting the first non-white man in the White House.
The Runner Initiative – or the “Safe Neighborhood Act” – is the single worst thing that could happen to California youth since the passage of Proposition 21 allowed 16 year-olds to be tried as adults. Prop. 6 does Prop. 21 one better – it would allow 14-year-old “gang members” to be tried as adults.
This “son of Three Strikes” (Prop. 184) – Prop. 6 was written by Three Strikes author Mike Reynolds -- is like the Stealth Bomber of laws, cruising at the speed of sound past California voters with a payload of nukes aimed at youth and undocumented immigrants. I sat in a roomful of journalists last week and not one had heard of it. This speaks to the lack of beat reporters in California as the newspaper industry implodes. Hundreds of journalists have been laid off or bought out, leaving the public ill-informed about this impending legislative hurricane.
One of Prop. 6’s most troublesome aspects is the gang enhancement stipulation that would add time and other penalties to those identified as gang members.
California’s gang database CAL/GANG, the largest statewide gang database in the country, lists more than 100,000 names. The data is so untrustworthy that former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer refused to forward them to federal authorities. He told the San Francsico Chronicle: “This database cannot and should not be used, in California or elsewhere, to decide whether or not a person is dangerous or should be detained.”
Young people who have been unfairly labeled as gang members would now face the harshest of penalties through a system that is already broken and flawed.
The proposition would prohibit undocumented immigrants charged with certain offenses from being released on bail or on their own recognizance, pending trial. Already under tremendous social pressure from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state and local governments, this is just one more nail in the coffin of immigrant rights in California.
It would create temporary prisons in counties that are currently experiencing overcrowding. Imagine tent prisons housing the overflow of inmates that the Proposition would create. The California prison system is already under fire over everything from inadequate health care to overcrowding caused by mandatory minimum sentences.
Funding priorities would be switched from mental health, drug treatment and community programs. All monies would have to pass through county probation departments before reaching mental health and drug treatment programs. Prop 6 stipulates that the funding “shall be distributed…to assist counties for the expense of housing juvenile offenders.”
The implication here is that money for anything other than housing would be in jeopardy. Rehabilitation programs could be wiped out.
Prop. 6 significantly increases expenditures for criminal justice programs, including net program costs likely to exceed $1 billion, and is estimated to cost an additional $500 million a year after that. This new spending comes during a period in which the state of California is facing a budget crisis of historic proportions, prompting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to ask for steep cuts the Democratic controlled state legislature is refusing to pass. Services like child care centers and nursing homes are feeling the crunch during the impasse.
The state is already on the hook for billions going to prison health care and new education mandates that will require students to pass algebra by the eighth grade.
California simply can’t afford to take money from the general fund – mainly education – to pay for this ill-conceived initiative. With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting ... more -
Iraqi Kurd detainees continue hunger strike in Oxford detention centre
Detainees at an immigration removal centre are beginning their second week on a hunger strike.
About 30 people are refusing food at Campsfield House, near Oxford.
The strike is being led a group of Iraqi Kurds protesting at the threat of being deported back to Iraq, where they say their lives will be at risk.
The UK Border Agency has said it is committed to its policy of removing people who have no legal basis to stay in Britain.
That's funny because Britain has no legal right to be in Iraq.
How about not going invading places if you don't want to deal with refugees? Detainees at an immigration removal centre are beginning their second week on a hunger strike. ... more -
A Dangerous Crisis of Invisible Refugees
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is on track to meet its 2008 goal of taking in 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of next month. That's the good news about the worst refugee crisis in the Middle East in 60 years.
The bad news is that 12,000 people represent a tiny fraction of the vast exodus of Iraqis driven from their homes by the violence and ethnic cleansing unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion. Estimates of their number vary. The widely used figure of 5 million is about one in five. To get that into context: relative to the size of the population, it would equal the forced displacement of almost 60 million Americans.
Why does a crisis of that magnitude barely register in public discourse in the U.S. and make few headlines? For one, the refugees are virtually invisible. There are no Darfur or Rwanda-style refugee camps that produce television images of shock value. More important, the refugees have not fit into the political agenda of the governments in Washington and Baghdad. The narrative is that Iraq is returning to normal.
At the height of the bloodshed, in 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said 50,000 people a month were fleeing from their homes, either to safety across the borders or inside Iraq. While violence has sharply subsided since, political and sectarian divisions remain and there has been no mass return. Only a trickle have been granted permission to settle in the U.S. - a paltry 134 a month in 2007...
by Bernd Debusmann
Complete article: http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService4/idUSI... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is on track to meet its 2008 goal of taking in 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of next month... more -
Boat With 120 Migrants Reported Stranded off Libya
A boat carrying some 300 would-be immigrants arrives on Italy's Lampedusa Island on March 16, 2008. A similar vessel is reported stranded at sea. (Mauricio Esse/AFP/Getty Images)
A boat carrying an estimated 120 illegal immigrants has been reported as stranded without fuel or water between Libya and Malta and no country has so far sent rescuers, a U.N. official said on Thursday.
Neil Falzon, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Malta, said a person on the boat phoned a UNHCR representative on the Italian island of Lampedusa using a satellite phone early on Thursday.
Approximately 25 women and six children were among those on board the vessel, the person told the UNHCR.
Falzon told reporters that authorities in Libya, Italy and Malta had been informed.
"So far it looks like nobody is going out to help them but since they are in the Libyan rescue region, this is primarily a Libyan responsibility," Falzon said, adding the boat was located about 150 nautical miles south of Malta.
Every year hundreds of people, mostly Africans, are believed to drown as they attempt perilous sea crossings to reach Europe in the search of work and money.
Malta has so far this year received 1,800 illegal migrants, almost twice the number of arrivals in the same period of 2007. Malta's government has complained that other EU countries have not stepped in to help by taking some of the migrants whose intention often is to reach mainland Europe.
Emergency services in Italy last week warned that crowded holding centres in that country were near collapse, aggravating a state of emergency declared by the Italian government over the number of immigrants arriving on its shores. A boat carrying some 300 would-be immigrants arrives on Italy's Lampedusa Island on March 16, 2008. A similar vessel is reported ... more -
HIV-positive transgender immigrant died of neglect while chained to bed in US dete...
23-year-old Victoria Arellano, an HIV-positive transgender Mexican immigrant, spent two months succumbing to infections in a US migrant detention centre. She did not get to see a doctor and was not given the appropriate medicine.
Her mother, Olga Arellano, and fellow inmates begged for help after Victoria started vomiting blood in their holding cell, where 105 detainees were crammed onto bunks and mattresses in a space designed for 40. However, the pleas were to no avail and Victoria Arellano died, chained to a hospital bed, three days later.
According to rights activists, Arellano's death shows the failure of immigration officials to deal humanely with HIV-positive inmates among the 30,000 migrants held in detention centers across the United States. Often, HIV-infected migrants are not given their medicine regularly, which is crucial to their survival. As soon as the medication regimen is interrupted, the virus rebounds and causes the immune system to crash.
In Arellano's case, the failure to provide medical help was fatal. According to mother Olga Arellano: ''She [Victoria] told me after a month in detention that she still hadn't seen a doctor. I told her I could send her more medicine, but she said they would not give it to her. They were mostly giving her Tylenol.''
''Her foot was chained to the bed and when she tried to turn over, it would hurt her,'' Arellano said. ''That made it twice as hard. It was so humiliating. No human should have to live their last days like that.' 23-year-old Victoria Arellano, an HIV-positive transgender Mexican immigrant, spent two months succumbing to infections in a US migran... more -
Town struggles with fallout from immigrant's fatal beating
By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth.
Blows had struck the 25-year-old Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore.
His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police.
After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later.
It took almost two weeks for arrests to be made. But on July 25, Colin J. Walsh, 17, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation.
Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged as an adult with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation and an unnamed juvenile was also charged with assault. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that its civil rights division has opened a criminal investigation.
Defense attorneys for two of the teens say Ramirez responded to the name-calling with his own insults, which escalated the confrontation into to a fight that got out of hand.
The words allegedly hurled at Ramirez, and the perceived sentiments behind them, led prosecutors to label his death a hate crime.
Without the ethnic intimidation charges, many in Shenandoah believe the case would not be drawing attention to this depressed northeastern Pennsylvania coal town of 5,000. Residents question whether the attack was racially motivated or just an alcohol-fueled confrontation among kids.
Ramirez was taken off life support two days after the fight. His body was flown back to his mother in Guanajuato, Mexico, with donations from parishioners from Annunciation Church in Shenandoah.
"There's outrage among Anglos and Latinos over what happened, and I think that's representative of the attitude here," said the Rev. George Winne, who is in charge of Hispanic ministries at Annunciation.
Others in town pull over their cars at the sight of a stranger and recite a litany of attacks allegedly perpetrated by Latinos against Anglos. They refuse to give their names but acknowledge that Ramirez did not deserve to die. They say violence has been brewing between the races for some time.
Attorneys for two of the teens deny Ramirez was targeted because of his race.
"Let's call it what it was it was -- a street fight, a chance encounter with a tragic outcome," said Frederick Fanelli, who represents Piekarsky.
Fanelli told CNN he plans to investigate whether Ramirez has a criminal background. He also questions why the engaged father of three was walking on the street with the girl, and the nature of their relationship. Ramirez' fiancee says he was walking her younger sister home.
A lawyer for Walsh said he is equally skeptical about the ethnic intimidation charge. "They called each other names. The victim was calling them obscenities, vulgar names, and they said things back to him that would hurt him," Roger Laguna said. "It just means it was a foul-mouthed argument, not ethnic intimidation."
Ramirez died just as things were falling into place for him and Crystal Dillman, 24, the woman he planned to marry. By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth. ... more -
MUSLIM GIRLS KILLED IN AMERICA?
It is 2008, and here we have this very archaic way of life. I am not one of the millions of Americans that believe all Muslims want is to praise Allah thru various forms of extreme violence. But, a Father handling his female offspring this way has got to go. I have read that if a Muslim girl is say "raped" her family will still consider her at fault for being a victim. and im sure there are numerous other things in that religion and way of life that are throughly behind the times. but this happened on American Soil.
"The killing occurs because these girls have allegedly brought shame on their family. The paradox is that these are individuals who have emancipated themselves.
"These girls embody the American dream. They want to become self-reliant - deciding who they marry, when they marry and how many children they will have."
***
"The Yemen Times just last week published an article insisting that violence against women is necessary for the stability of the family and the society, and invoking Islam to support this view."
"ON July 6, police say, a Pakistani named Chaudhry Rashid strangled his 25-year-old daughter San- deela Kanwal with a Bungee cord in her bedroom because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. This "honor killing" came not in Pakistan, but in Jonesboro, Ga. - a suburb 16 miles outside Atlanta."
"The United Nations estimates that the world sees 5,000 honor killings a year - overwhelmingly in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, but increasingly among Muslim immigrant communities in Europe." It is 2008, and here we have this very archaic way of life. I am not one of the millions of Americans that believe all Muslims want i... more -
A.L.A. (African Living Abroad)
Unique Aritiste, Wunmi, Afro beat Punk Rocker talks about her new album A.L.A. (Africans Living Abroad) while shooting the videos "Crossover" and "Keep it Rocking" Unique Aritiste, Wunmi, Afro beat Punk Rocker talks about her new album A.L.A. (Africans Living Abroad) while shooting the videos ... more
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Food incompatible with history or with our race?
The Northern League (Lega Nord), the xenophobic Italian party which advocates secession from the south -and part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition- proposed to restrict from Lombardy’s historic centers the businesses that are “incompatible with the historical context” -such as Chinese restaurants, kebabs, or any other commercial activity that could clash with their historic districts.
The question would be: are they trying to protect the uniqueness of its heritage intact, or is simply denying the possibility of opportunity to ‘outsiders’? The League is famous for its anti-immigrant -and clearly racist- speeches, interviews, banners and proposals.
For example, one mayor wants to ban illegal immigrants from getting married, another to ban them from being eligible for school scholarships, another to limit Italian citizenship to foreigners with a perfect knowledge of Italian and of the Constitution, and how to forget the recipe for racial harmony proposed by the councillor of the city that me -an outsider- love and consider my second home: if an immigrant commits a crime against an Italian, ten immigrants should be punished for it. The Northern League (Lega Nord), the xenophobic Italian party which advocates secession from the south -and part of Prime Minister Sil... more -
Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?
Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas. With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.
Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian. Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas. With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High dr... more -
Immigrants Find Solace After Storm of Arrests - NYTimes.com
"Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest (Father Ouderkirk). Federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors factory, arresting nearly 400 workers, most of them men, for being in the United States illegally. Within minutes of the raid, with surveillance helicopters buzzing above the leafy streets, the wives and children of Mexican and Guatemalan families began trickling into St. Bridget’s Church, the safest place they knew."
"At a practical level, Father Ouderkirk has hired four temporary staff members to help track the court cases and distribute food and financial aid to the affected families. Along with other religious leaders around Iowa, he had been preparing for a march in defense of immigrants’ rights. St. Bridget’s parish, which has only about 350 members, is spending $500,000 in the relief effort, he said."
In light of many stories that highlight awful religious leaders, I'd like to post this article to simply remind the Current Community the potential an organized church has in furthering social action and change. Churches have organized numbers and motivation (God) on their side, and while many leaders are exploiting that, there are places that not only do good things, but become movements (Dr. MLK Jr's Ebenezer Baptist). "Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest (Father Ouderkirk). Fede... more -
Immigration harming communities?
Rapid immigration has damaged community relations in parts of England, a report by the Commons communities and local government committee says.
In three areas with high immigration - Peterborough, Burnley, and Barking and Dagenham - community cohesion is among the lowest in the country, the MPs say. In their report, Community Cohesion and Migration, the MPs say many migrants make "significant contributions" to local communities - working in the NHS or other public services. But it said there was "significant public anxiety" in some areas about immigration, which it warned "cannot simply be dismissed as expressions of racist or xenophobic sentiments". Some concerns arose from "practical concerns" - such as overcrowded accommodation and pressure on public services - such as sharp rises in the numbers of primary school children who do not speak English well.
The Local Government Association has repeatedly called for a £250m contingency fund to be made available for under-pressure councils. But Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, of the Institute of Public Policy Research, said he was disappointed by the committee's "negative conclusion".
"We're risking turning everything that migrants do into a problem and forgetting that they are dynamically contributing to the local economy and to the country because they are working and paying taxes," he said.
For the Conservatives, shadow minister Baroness Warsi said the report was an "indictment" of the problems caused by the government's "failure to control the numbers of migrants coming into this country" and by their "inability to know where migrants are living and to fund local authorities accordingly". The Conservatives say it shows annual limits on economic migration are needed to ensure communities and public services can cope.
(Excerpts / BBC News) Rapid immigration has damaged community relations in parts of England, a report by the Commons communities and local government commit... more -
Price of Admission for Migrant Women
Along the border, sexual assault has become routine.
The darkness lifts, and daybreak nudges into the desert. For northbound migrants, this sunrise may signal a time to find shade and dodge the Border Patrol. Or it could mark the start of a white-knuckle dash to catch rides bound for the interior. From there, god willing, the migrants may disappear into a world offering more hope than the one they left behind.
But for other border-crossers, daybreak brings only the flat hardness of reality - a time for noting what's already been lost in the desperate trek north. For women in particular, that loss can be brutal, because even if they reach some safe house in Tucson or Phoenix or points afar, some of them certainly don't arrive whole. According to experts, rape is now considered "the price of admission" for women crossing the border illegally.
But this scourge goes largely ignored, and is suspected to be vastly underreported. Not surprisingly, few women care to describe their ordeals to authorities in stark government detention facilities. And if they do, it's often as they're already being deported back across the border - sometimes back into the very situations where the assaults occurred.
This grim scenario played out in early May, when three women - ages 16, 17 and 20 - reported having been raped by masked men. A few days later, two more women were found alive but badly beaten near Arivaca, south of Tucson. That same week, yet two more women reported having been raped. The reports didn't slow deportation proceedings against them.
Further complicating matters, it's often difficult to determine whether the assaults occurred on U.S. soil or in Mexico. But such details probably matter little to the victims. Civilian border-watchers tell of hearing these women's cries.
"I thought the wailings we heard at night were the coyotes barking at the moon," one volunteer told The Washington Times. "I didn't know until later that those sounds were the cries of women being raped in the Mexican desert, some less than 100 yards away from the border. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it."
The rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies.
Beyond such haunting anecdotes, hard numbers are tough to come by. According to the United Nations, up to 70 percent of women crossing the border without husbands or families are abused in some way. But the flood of stories leads humanitarian aid workers such as Michelle Brané to consider these crimes even more pervasive. Brané directs detention and asylum programs with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, based in Washington, D.C.
"Nonprofit groups and even the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement - which has custody of unaccompanied children - estimate that the vast majority of women and female children encounter some sort of sexual assault en route to the United States," she says. "It's become the norm, and in many cases with female children, they just assume that there's been some sort of incident."
In this situation, survival often requires extreme steps, she says. "A lot of times, women, because they know what's coming, will align themselves with one man in the group" of smugglers or coyotes. "Whether you consider that assault or not, I guess it's a blurry line."
This speaks to the fact that women are routinely assaulted by the very smugglers they've paid to bring them across. Immigrants have told of preparing for the inevitable by taking birth-control pills before attempting to cross the border, says Dr. Sylvanna Falcón, an assistant professor of sociology at Connecticut College, in New London, Conn. Falcón has conducted extensive research into rapes and other human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border.
---Article continues, click link to read--- Along the border, sexual assault has become routine. ... more -
Zimbabwean immigrants face Afro-phobia in South Africa
Editor's Note: A mother, from Zimbabwe, witnesses the horrific treatment of her fellow immigrants in South Africa -- while she remembers sharing her school and community with South African refugees fleeing apartheid years ago. Cynthia Chitongo is a writer and secretary for a company in Cape Town with legal refugee status in South Africa.
Never in Zimbabwe did we dream that our country would be in a situation like we have today.
We had the best of everything until one day, without expecting it, we found ourselves in an economic situation that is difficult to endure. After much deliberation we decided to come here to South Africa not because we had accommodated them before but because we needed help with our situation. Every person who left Zimbabwe left for reasons best known to them and why they chose wherever they went is a long story.
Most of us left because we did not agree with the policies in our home country, and there was nothing we could do to change them. Some of us even got into trouble for voicing concerns or disagreeing with those polices. All I know is that it is never easy for anyone to leave home without any plan or a thing to your name to go and start your life all over again. That is why it is called refuge. It’s not easy to start all over again and adapt to the changes that you come across in a foreign land.
It’s even harder when you are rejected because you are a foreigner. What foreigner? I am an African. From a distance I look like one of the black South Africans. Its only when the locals speak to me and I answer back either in the same language or in English that they pick it up that I am a “foreigner” and the reaction thereafter leaves one stunned to say the least.
The reaction ranges from a rude insult or mockery, to silence. Imagine you are on the train or taxi and the journey becomes quite unbearable. You are afraid to ask for directions because they will go out of their way to make you lose your way. This is not all of them. There are a few saints who love and respect other people and who are helpful and friendly. But it’s always a nine out of ten chance. They will make it worse for you if at work the employer prefers you because you are educated and you understand common sense. Because of where our nation has been, Zimbabweans will work anywhere, regardless of education, just to better our lives and for that fellow Africans here in South Africa get very jealous.
We have stuck it out here in South Africa with all the hostility that we have to tolerate. But never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that it would get to xenophobia/afro-phobia attacks. Blacks against blacks. As I am writing this I am very emotional. I cannot stop crying. I can’t believe it’s happening. I have been displaced, and I find it very hard to trust anyone.
All I want is to go back home but after three years where do I start? My whole life and those of my children is now part of South Africa, and through every trial and struggle, we had hoped that it would get better. I have never experienced this cruelty at home, and I am in a dilemma as to what to do. I am lucky because I am staying in an old flat that is being renovated, and I have had a lot of support from white friends here in Cape Town. What if it gets worse? And we are fortunate: what about those staying in relief tents at the moment? In the cold and rain. It’s very sad. And the emotional trauma makes one sick.
Maybe one day my black South African brothers will find themselves in a situation where they have to go and live in neighboring countries. They have done it before. What hurts is we have done nothing to them to warrant such persecution. Editor's Note: A mother, from Zimbabwe, witnesses the horrific treatment of her fellow immigrants in South Africa -- while she re... more -
Man loses winning lottery ticket; receives $65 million a year later
Degli Martinez, a 55-year-old immigrant from Paraguay bought lottery tickets at a minimart and when the next day when he went back to the minimart, he found out he was the jackpot winner.
Martinez became the winner of the biggest single jackpot prize in the 30-year history of the lotto in New York state: $65 million.
The minimart clerk, Supriyo Bhattacharjee, urged Martinz to go to the lottery office to receive his winnings. While stopping at home, Martinez accidentally threw away his ticket, but still had the verified police.
With that, Martinez embarked on a year-long wait to receive his money. Although Martinez had the receipt and it had been verified that the lotto ticket was bought at the same minimart, law had it that whoever had actually bought the ticket would have 365 days to claim the prize.
Martinez waited, working at his a maintenance man at a Park Avenue apartment. Finally, the day came and Martinez and his wife Maria opted for the lump-sum payment of $21,176,066.
Martinez still works as a maintenance man saying he enjoys his job, and his only solid plans for the money are to pay for his daughter's college tuition. Degli Martinez, a 55-year-old immigrant from Paraguay bought lottery tickets at a minimart and when the next day when he went back to ... more -
SF shift course on juvenile illegal immigrants: No sanctuary for criminals
I think is a great idea to make the definition of a sanctuary city clear! This article has great information about the tax payer cost for illegal criminals. I think is a great idea to make the definition of a sanctuary city clear! This article has great information about the tax payer cost ... more
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Canada Day celebrations
As Citizenship Judge William Day surveyed 80 candidates from 45 countries waiting to be sworn in Tuesday as new Canadians, he observed that when "you were brushing your teeth this morning, none of you thought you would be getting married to Canada. As Citizenship Judge William Day surveyed 80 candidates from 45 countries waiting to be sworn in Tuesday as new Canadians, he observed... more
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New language emerges in Britain
Du ju spik Ponglish? Haven't we all wanted our own private language at some point? Well, it seems young Polish immigrants in the UK have created one. It's been dubbed Ponglish and is a strange mix of English and Polish. Speakers claim that neither Polish speakers nor English speakers can understand them. Perfect for when they 'fony' their 'frendy' but hopefully not when they 'drajwnic' ('drive'). But is this that strange? Other immigrant groups have developed slang based on mixing two languages. But what about you? Do you have slang with your friends that no-one else understands? Du ju spik Ponglish? Haven't we all wanted our own private language at some point? Well, it seems young Polish immigrants in the ... more
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Mass migrant drowning in Gabon
At least 37 bodies of suspected would-be migrants to Europe are found dead on the seafront of Gabon's capital Libreville.
Rescue workers said they died after their boat was wrecked. A rickety open wooden boat was found broken on rocks near the bodies.
Human rights campaigners say hundreds of poor Africans die each year while travelling to Europe in search of a better life. At least 37 bodies of suspected would-be migrants to Europe are found dead on the seafront of Gabon's capital Libreville. ... more -
The Great Wall of America: the Mexican-U.S. border
"The smuggler was surprised to see us. It's his business to monitor traffic along his stretch of the border, and he had just watched from his hiding place as a white-and-green patrol truck rolled slowly past on the U.S. side. The day shift was ending for "la migra," the border patrol, so it was time for him to move.
He urged his clients--11 illegal aliens--to get over the fence quickly. Within minutes, all were safely across the border about five miles (8 km) west of Naco, Ariz.--roughly the same spot where Coronado and his conquistadores made the first recorded crossing in 1540. The smuggler was brushing their footprints from the border road when our four-wheel-drive rental appeared unexpectedly over the hill.
He did what smugglers always do when spotted: he bolted. In an instant he was safely back on the other side, leaving his customers to their fate. They followed him, bewildered, only gradually realizing that we were journalists, not federal agents. In this way, we had a chance to see how a group of ordinary Mexicans--one a grandmotherly woman, another a 10-year-old boy--cope with the U.S. government's new $1 million-per-mile border-security fence.
Passions don't shake out neatly along party lines. Republican John McCain wove frantically through last winter's debates trying to avoid the scarlet A-for-amnesty. His sin was promoting a "pathway to citizenship" for undocumented workers. Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, tripped on a debate question about driver's licenses for illegal aliens. Senator Barack Obama has stepped carefully with the issue, voting for the fence and for more agents on the border while saying that this covers "only one side of the equation."
In this cloud of intangibles, the fence is something solid. After years of talking about it, Congress last year put $1.2 billion into the project, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) promptly started hiring posthole diggers. DHS aims to complete more than 650 miles (roughly 1,000 km) of barrier by the end of the year, built in sections by National Guard units and private contractors. That represents only about one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border; on the other hand, the fence clearly delineates, for the first time, a frontier that was previously just a four-strand cattle fence at best.
New fence goes up every week in Arizona and California, mile after mile of posts and plates and screens and rails marching across sun-blasted deserts and up rugged, rock-strewn hillsides. No one seems able to keep track of it all. Even agents of the newly reorganized Customs and Border Protection (CBP) department find themselves coming upon sections they've never seen before. The work is less advanced in New Mexico and stalled in Texas, where fierce local opposition has delayed construction--a coalition of border-town mayors and chambers of commerce has sued DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, alleging he is trying to seize land at inadequate prices. But Texas already has more than 1,200 miles (almost 2,000 km) of well-marked border in the form of the Rio Grande."
End of Excerpt
Source: Time Magazine "The smuggler was surprised to see us. It's his business to monitor traffic along his stretch of the border, and he had just... more
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Immigrants
