Raising Cain...

t r u t h o u t | INS Targets Community Leaders, Not Criminals

In Arizona there are numerous policies and programs in place (such as Operation Streamline) to criminalize migrants – policies that, not coincidentally, line the pockets of the private prison industry. What's more, an array of law enforcement agencies continue to become extensions of the US Border Patrol – operating as though SB 1070 were already the law of the land.

via www.truth-out.org

William Fisher: Give Us Your Tired etc., etc., etc.

Here's another article that shines some light on the complexity of immigration issues we face. This one focuses on the experience of refugees seeking asylum but ending up being detained in U.S. jails only to face more threats to their human rights.

Excerpt: One year after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced plans for a wide-reaching overhaul of America’s long-mismanaged immigration detention system, human rights and immigration advocacy organizations are charging that the U.S. government has yet to make significant progress toward the underlying goal of detention reform – a true shift from a penal to a civil approach to immigration detention.

One such group, Human Rights First (HRF), is taking aim at a particularly sensitive aspect of the detention debacle: the plight of refugees seeking asylum.

via www.truth-out.org

Putting local police on frontlines of immigration enforcement distracts from federal objectives

Another article by William Fisher today reports findings from a major study that says putting local police on the "front lines" of immigration enforcement -- like Tennessee's Public Chapter 1112 will do -- distracts federal agencies from their objectives because most of the people turned over to ICE either have no criminal history, or have committed only minor or non-violent crimes.

The study by the Immigration Policy Center, the policy arm of the American Immigration Council, is entitled, "ICE's Enforcement Priorities and the Factors that Undermine Them", by Dr. Michele Waslin, IPC senior policy analyst.

On Friday, November 12th, the Bedford Chapter of Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment will host a panel discussion on Public Chapter 1112, a law that goes into effect in January of 2011 and requires jail keepers to determine the immigration status of every person arrested, booked or held in jail for any length of time. Panelists will help tackle the question: Is this law a new civil rights issue in Tennessee?

The event is part of the Bedford Chapter's annual Community Unity Night, and will begin at 6:30 Central time at the Fly Arts Building, 204 South Main, in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

 

ICE Won't Let Local Police Opt Out of Assisting Federal Enforcement | | AlterNet

Data provided by ICE shows that contrary to their goals, people targeted by the Secure Communities program have minor criminal convictions or have no criminal convictions.

via www.alternet.org

This article illustrates just one reason we need coherent and compassionate immigration reform, not a patchwork of knee-jerk programs and responses based on fear.

Join a discussion on Tennessee's Public Chapter 1112, a law that goes into effect in January of 2011 and requires jail keepers to determine the immigration status of every person arrested, booked or held in jail for any length of time. Panelists will help tackle the question: Is this law a new civil rights issue in Tennessee?

You can also visit the Facebook page for Community Unity Night in Shelbyville, TN this coming Friday for information.

On Community Unity Night, my mystical path is taking my practical feet to Bedford County, Tennessee

Last night I joined a tele-conversation between Terry Patten and Dan Millman to explore the deepening of spiritual activism by keeping Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground. The path of balance being discussed was one that I hope will continue to grow in resonance among activists of every stripe and every issue.

In my own experience of this path, I went on for many years with my head in the clouds of spiritual awakening AND my feet on the ground of environmental justice. My challenge has been to fully connect head and feet in heart space. Once that process of connection went into warp drive, it was clearer that my life's intention (at least for this lifetime) is to bring patterns of oppression and exploitation of people and nature to light --  wherever I find them -- and to work to transform them.

Here in Tennessee, I've found a place for my head-heart-connected practical feet in SOCM -- Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment. Formerly operating as Save Our Cumberland Mountains, SOCM recently changed its name to reflect its focus on social, economic and environmental justice for ALL people and communities across Tennessee. According to SOCM's website, this necessarily includes a committment to overcoming social and institutional racism and embracing our diverse cultures.

Last month, my practical feet took me out to SOCM's Jackson Chapter to celebrate Save Our Community Day with that chapter's members, who represent mostly African-American and white "urban dwellers." I say "urban dwellers" to point out that Jackson has the distinction of being SOCM's first urban chapter. Also, it's such a contrast to Campbell County, which is very rural, especially up in the holler where I live.

Of course, if you're "from around here" you also know that about 98% of my county's citizens are white folks. There are people in Campbell County who self-identify with other cultures, but practically speaking (and this is me speaking as a white person in one of the most rural parts of of the county) they are essentially invisible.

Prior to my experience with the Jackson folks a few weeks ago, I'm not sure I would have used the word "invisible" at the end of the last paragraph. It seems like every year that I've gone out there to Jackson, I've come home with some experience that I would place more in a mystical category. It was more a matter of sensing energy than seeing something I could, say, photograph and show it to you so you could see it too.

Anyway, here's what happened. As I listened to some of the members talking about their dreams for Jackson as their community, their home place, and heard their ideas for making those dreams happen, I started to feel invisible. This feeling persisted throughout the day. It wasn't until I began the long drive back to east Tennessee that I started to think about invisibility as a side effect in relationships and communities where the dynamics of oppressor-oppressed are in operation.

I have come back to this idea many times in the past few weeks, most recently as I began to write this post. This coming Friday, I plan to attend Community Unity Night in Shelbyville. This is a yearly event of one of the most culturally diverse chapters in SOCM -- the Bedford County Chapter in middle Tennessee.

This year's celebration will include a panel discussion on Public Chapter 1112, a law that goes into effect in January of 2011 and requires jail keepers to determine the immigration status of every person arrested, booked or held in jail for any length of time. Panelists will help tackle the question: Is this law a new civil rights issue in Tennessee?

The details of this law and how it will be implemented have been of concern to me since it was introduced into the legislature. Thinking about it again in anticipation of the upcoming community discussion this Friday in Shelbyville, it occurred to me how many ways this law could serve to make people who are already oppressed even more invisible.

It is my inner Mystic who reminds me now of an encounter with an awesome little songbird many years ago on the Boulder (Colorado) Mall. I had gone there just to hang out and watch people, but instead became aware of an incredibly melodious tweeting (no, my people, this was way before Twitter). It took me awhile to locate the source -- a little sparrow of some kind sitting in a leafless tree, just above the heads of an endless procession of Boulderites flowing up and down the Mall.

As I gave this bird my full attention, I noticed that it was singing with such intensity that its whole body was in motion with the sounding of each phrase. If any creature can truly sing its heart out, that little sparrow helped me imagaine what that would look like. But who besides me was seeing and listening? No one, as far as I could tell.

As I continued to attend to this amazing bird, a strange thing happened. The world seemed to slow down, colors became more vivid, and the bird's song more vibrant. I now perceived the people rushing by as a blur, leaving me and the bird as the only visible living beings on the Mall. I wonder now: did the bird and I become invisible to the speeding Boulderites?

Mystically speaking, the full potential for vibrant and vivid life on Earth depends on every one of us being seen, on every one of us liberating the songs that only we can sing. Practically speaking, that illuminates one of the real tragedies of oppressive systems that keep any individual or group of people invisible and voiceless.

That's why my mystical head is moving my practical feet to stand with my brothers and sisters in Bedford County on Friday, November 12th. I want to see them. I want to hear them.

For information on how to join the conversation, visit the Bedford Chapter's Community Unity Night page at SOCM's website or the event page on Facebook. You can also use the Community Unity Night information link in the right-hand sidebar.

Here are some links for more background information on Public Chapter 1112 and the crossroads of immigrant rights and civil rights:

Public Chapter 1112 (pdf)

Editorial: State Immigration Bill Flawed, Unnecessary (Knoxville News-Sentinel, June 13, 2010)

The Persistence Of Racial And Ethnic Profiling In The United States (ACLU report released in June 2009)

America's Secret ICE Castles (Jacqueline Stevens' January 4, 2010 article at The Nation)

Jailed Without Justice: Immigration Detention in the USA (Amnesty International report)

Immigration Is the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time (Amy Goodman's interview with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in 2006)

 

 

t r u t h o u t | What, Me? Racist?

More than a few seemingly earnest attempts have been made by the Republicans and the Tea Partiers (which are, as it turns out, the same thing in the end) to deflect accusations that their ranks are riddled with racists. No, our contempt and rage and vitriol has nothing to do with our Black President, or his African family heritage, or his last name. No, no, we just hate health care reform and stuff. No, really.

Hm.

Ask the folks in Virginia how much this rings true.

via www.truth-out.org