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January 2006
National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly Digest
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
URL: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: Info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
No Immigrant Bashing! Support
Immigrant Rights!
New York: (212)330-8172
Los Angeles: (213)403-0131
Washington D.C.: (202)544-9355
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January 2006 U.S.
Immigrant Alert! Newsletter Published
by National Immigrant Solidarity Network
URL: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Jan06.pdf
[Requires Adobe Acrobat, to download, go: http://www.adobe.com]
Anti-Immigration
Bill Passed PATROTIC Act Extented, We Still Have Long Struggle Away!
In This Issue:
1. More on the Sensenbrenner/King Bill (Pg 1)
2. Minutemen Watch (Pg 4)
3. ECCASU 2006 Conference (Pg 6)
4. Immigration News (Pg 7)
5. Updates from the Network (Pg 8)
Unfortunately, despite the strong protest from the immigrant, human rights,
labor and civil liberty groups the, U.S. House last night passed the disgraceful
anti-immigrant H.R. 4437 the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and
Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" by House Judiciary Committee
Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) and House Homeland Security
Committee Chairman Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) on December 17, and U.S. House
also vote to extend the PATROTIC Act for another 5 weeks on December 21
(give Congress and President Bush more time to work out their differences)
while they also approved 3 billion defense spending bill that funnels
billion in hurricane aid to the Gulf Coast and billion more for
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's clears that President Bush along with the Congress, again spinning
their rhetoric to blaming immigrants for causing all the World's problems
(away from the failure war in Iraq, decline economy, and government/corporate
corruptions).
It's also clears that the President, right wing Republicans and even
many Democrats will use immigrant as scapegoat for their Nov 2006 mid-term
elections. They will use any possible mean to secure conservative/right
wing voters by focusing on blaming people of colors, immigrants and support
anti-abortion and anti-gays/lesbian rights.
Yes, we need to understand our struggle will be
long and hard, but that doesn't mean we don't have hope. While the House
vision of the Bill had passed, we still can mount our strong opposition
against the upcoming Senate vision--will be introduce and debate at sometime
February, 2006.
When we finished our Holiday seasons, we should
gear up our fighting spirit to build multi-ethnic community actions against
the final passage of the bill in early next year!
Unity is very important! This is NOT only about the immigrant rights,
it also about the Human Rights for everyone! because injury to one is
injury to all!
The activists and organizers have particular responsibilities in pointing
out the links between Katrina's impact, immigrant rights, civil liberties,
labor rights and the U.S. war in Iraq. Understanding the connections between
our individual conditions of life and the lives of people everywhere in
the word allows us to come together and organize across all borders. WE
NEED to link the connections between: wars in Africa, south America, Asia,
Iraq, Palestine & Korea with sweatshops in Asia as well as in Los
Angeles, New York; international arm sales and WTO, FTAA, NAFTA &
CAFTA with AIDS, hunger, child labors and child solider; multinational
corporations and economic exploitation with racism and poverty at home--then
we can win the struggle.
Please Visit Our New Minutemen Watch
Home Page! http://www.MinutemenWatch.net
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ActionLA / The Peace Center 8124 West 3rd Street,
Suite 104 Los Angeles, California 90048
Immigration News Briefs from CHRI
Vol. 8, No. 52 - December 30, 2005
1. NJ County Ends ICE Contract
2. New Mexico, California Base Raids
e-mail: nicajg@panix.com
1. NJ COUNTY ENDS ICE CONTRACT A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
confirmed on Dec. 28 that Passaic County, New Jersey has decided to opt
out of its contract with ICE to hold immigrant detainees at the county
jail. The jail's current 110 immigration detainees are leaving at a rate
of 10 to 20 a week, according to sheriff's department spokesperson Bill
Maer. The remaining detainees are expected to be moved out by the end
of January.
Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale determined immigration detainees
posed a safety threat and were diverting resources
needed in other parts of the jail, Maer said on Dec. 28. The sheriff's
office also implied that advocacy around immigration
detention conditions had distracted prison staff. "This decision
was based on the sheriff's beliefs that the detainees were taking too
much of the department away from the operation of the jail," Maer
said in an emailed statement.
At its peak, following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Passaic County
Jail held almost 500 immigration detainees. More recently the average
dropped to 200 detainees. ICE pays Passaic County a day per detainee.
In 2005, the ICE contract brought the county .9 million. Maer said the
county will be able to make up the shortfall easily by taking more prisoners
from the state and the US Marshals Service.
The jail, built for 800, currently holds about 2,100 people; about 375
are Marshals Service detainees, and most of the rest
are suspects awaiting trial on criminal charges. Detainees who have been
in other New Jersey jails, such as those in Hudson,
Middlesex and Monmouth counties, consistently say conditions at Passaic
are the harshest.
Passaic County's decision to end its contract with ICE comes just a month
before investigators from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are set to release a report
on their recent audit of conditions at the jail, and just after a group
of 15 detainees reported witnessing a group of five guards violently subduing,
then beating, an Egyptian detainee on Dec. 13. More than 90 detainees
reportedly signed a petition Dec. 17, asking that DHS end its contract
with Passaic because of "very poor and health risk conditions at
this jail."
Passaic County Jail also came under fire for using dogs to attack detainees,
following an expose on National Public Radio (NPR) on Nov. 17, 2004. Protests
by detainees at the jail have included a number of hunger strikes. One
detainee committed
suicide at Passaic on Feb. 16, 2005, while under "special watch"
in a "segregated discipline unit".
Nationwide, the federal government holds about 22,000 immigrant detainees
on an average day. ICE spokesperson Michael Gilhooly said the agency would
find jail space in other facilities in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
to house immigrants moved from Passaic. "We had a very professional
relationship," with Passaic officials, Gilhooly said. [Herald
News (West Paterson) 12/29/05; Star-Ledger (Newark) 12/29/05]
2. NEW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA BASE RAIDS
On Dec. 1, ICE special agents arrested 22 Mexican nationals who were working
illegally for one of six subcontractors on a housing project at Kirtland
Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ICE carried out the raid at
the base following a document check; the Air Force Office of Special Investigation
(OSI) and base Military Police also participated in the operation. One
of the arrested workers had a previous aggravated felony conviction and
has been placed in deportation proceedings. The rest were to be "voluntarily"
returned to Mexico on Dec. 2. [ICE News Release 12/2/05]
On Oct. 27, ICE agents arrested an undocumented immigrant who was trying
to enter the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to perform contract
work. ICE has placed the worker into deportation proceedings. Police officials
at the facility first sought help from ICE in September after intercepting
12 illegal aliens with fake documents who were attempting to enter the
facility to work at a construction site. The ICE investigation is continuing.
On Oct. 26, ICE agents arrested six undocumented workers attempting to
enter Fort Irwin, a US Army desert warfare training
facility in California, to perform contract work there. Base security
requested the assistance of ICE after questioning the validity of the
workers' documents. ICE has placed the six workers into removal proceedings
while an investigation into
their hiring is continuing.
On Oct. 26, ICE agents arrested an undocumented worker as he arrived
for his first day of work at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow,
California. He had been hired to work for a contract company at the base.
Base security had intercepted the worker after he allegedly presented
a fraudulent drivers license and social security card. ICE is continuing
to investigate. [ICE News Release 10/28/05]
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