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Brooklyn Fire Reveals Underside of Undocumented Immigrants’ Lives

Immigrant-oriented shops in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. (Photo: hellochris/flickr)

The fire that killed five Guatemalan immigrants last Saturday when it ravaged a building in the Brooklyn immigrant neighborhood of Bensonhurst has laid bare many of the features of the life of the undocumented in the U.S. It has shown what it means to be incapable of going back home, even after the saddest of family tragedies, and also how a deportation does not always mean permanent removal from this country.

At the center of the tragedy is Guatemalan immigrant Miguel Chan, who lost his wife and had his two-month-old daughter suffer a skull fracture. His two-year-old son apparently was saved by the man who started the fire.

Chan, who is undocumented, is asking local and federal authorities to grant him a humanitarian visa so he can go back to Guatemala to bury his wife and then return to the U.S. to take care of his children here.

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Report: Immigration Court System Faces “Exploding” Caseload, Needs Reform

Report authors and ABA members discuss the immigration court system. (Photo: ABA)

The immigration court system faces an “exploding” caseload where each potential deportee’s fate depends largely on who hears their case and 84% of detained respondents don’t even have representation, an independent research report said.

The report, prepared by the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP for the American Bar Association, analyzed the U.S. adjudication system for noncitizen removal and recommended some 60 reform measures to improve it. The study involved the work of over 50 lawyers and legal assistants for more than a year.

Researchers found that immigration courts handle more than 280,000 proceedings annually as a consequence of the current policies and procedures of the Department of Homeland Security.

“Many cases are handled without court oversight,” it said.

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Authorities Warn Undocumented Immigrants From Haiti About TPS Scams

Camp Daihatsu, an internally displaced persons camp in Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross)

As many as 200,000 undocumented Haitians could apply for Temporary Protected Status, granted by the Obama administration after the January 12th earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and environs. But authorities are warning against scammers who are already preying on unwitting –or desperate– applicants.

A Haitian immigrant in New York told local channel NY1 about how a local Haitian organization charged her over $500 in fees when she filed her application to obtain TPS, which would entitle her to work and travel without fearing deportation. The owner, according to the report, said he did not know it was illegal to charge so much. But the State Attorney General’s office said that even $75 has been deemed excessive in court rulings.

After the government’s announcement that it was granting TPS to Haitians, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services cautioned potential applicants about possible scams. The Beyond Borders immigration blog lists useful resources for applicants provided by USCIS, including a guide to free legal advice and a list of accredited organizations.

On the bright side, many organizations are stepping forward to offer free legal help to undocumented Haitians.

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Obama Wasting Hispanics’ Patience and Votes, Warn Immigration Reform Proponents

Rep. Luis Gutierrez says Hispanics are "angry and disillusioned" at President Obama - (Photo: luisgutierrez.house.gov)

The main Congressional supporter of progressive immigration reform apparently is fed up with President Barack Obama’s lack of action on the issue.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.), who last year introduced an immigration reform bill in the House, is even calling for Latinos to punish Democrats and Republicans alike at the polls this year, saying that if the issue sees no action before April’s Congressional recess, it won’t be addressed at all in 2010.

Gutierrez told the Mexican news service Notimex, the reform movement should set a March 21 deadline for the Democratic administration to get the issue started.

“If the issue is not broached by that date, the Hispanic vote will have to reflect on the idea of a punishment with a vote of absence in the next elections, so that our power and importance are felt,” he said, in a statement that was reported in Spanish by the wire service.

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Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care: A Hard Choice for a Wife and Mother

Norma Angelica, who asked that her face not be shown, and her daughter Nicole. (Photo: Valeria Fernández)

PHOENIX, Arizona — Living as an undocumented immigrant in Arizona sometimes means making difficult choices.

Norma Angelica, an undocumented migrant who asked that her last name be withheld, knows this firsthand. She faces one of those life-changing decisions – should she stay in Arizona, where her four children were born, or should she go back to Mexico and care for her ailing husband?

Tragedy struck Norma’s family at a vulnerable time.

It began when her husband Martin, 43, had a stroke. He had suffered from high blood pressure all his life, but lately he’d been working more as a landscaper, trying to save money. He was sick with the flu, and one day Norma found him on the floor, paralyzed.

On January 5, Martin was admitted to the Maricopa Medical Center, one of the public hospitals that care for uninsured and low-income residents in central Phoenix.

“They told me the worst: that he could die, or he could stay in a vegetative state,” said Norma, also 43. “They told me to prepare myself.”

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President Mentions Immigration Reform in State of the Union Address, But Just Barely

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Pres. Obama gives his State of the Union address. flanked by Vicepresident Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Photo: WhiteHouse.gov)

By John Rudolph, FI2W executive director

Here is what President Barack Obama had to say about immigration reform in his first State of the Union address. The mention was so brief that we quote it here in its entirety:

We should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system — to secure our borders, enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations.

The very next sentence contained the only direct mention of immigrants in Obama’s speech:

In the end, it is our ideals, our values, that built America — values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe, values that drive our citizens still.

The two sentences came at a key point in the address, the moment of transition from the agenda portion of the speech to the sweeping close that focused on values. Immigration reform was the very last issue Obama mentioned in remarks that took on a wide range of pressing problems including job creation, health care reform, corporate and government responsibility, the need for bipartisanship in Washington, alternative energy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and many others.

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On Eve of State of the Union Address, Immigration Reform Activists Show Impatience With Obama

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

What a difference a year makes. The “Sí, se puede” chants that supported President Barack Obama a year ago are now aimed at him.

As Obama gets ready to deliver a State of the Union address in which he may mention immigration reform, pro-immigrant activists are reminding him that he had promised to deal with this issue in his first year in office, only to act mostly on the enforcement side of immigration.

On Tuesday, some 150 activists blocked streets near the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. to underscore “the growing disenchantment with the administration’s inaction on immigration reform,” according to a press release by the organizers published on the VivirLatino blog.

“The protest was held to call for an immediate suspension of deportations of immigrants with U.S. citizen family members and action on passage of comprehensive immigration reform. Held on the eve of the President’s State of the Union address, it highlights the growing frustration of immigrants and their families regarding the administration’s failure to deliver on basic commitments made during the 2008 presidential race.”

Watch a video of the protest by The Matea Group/YouTube

Over the last year, we’ve documented the growing disenchantment with the Obama administration of Hispanic and immigration activists as the president and other officials expressed support for immigration reform but put other priorities first.

Protesters in D.C. said their patience has run out.

“We’ve been really patient in terms of hoping the Obama administration will do the right thing,” Mary Moreno, of the Center for Community Change, told Southern Maryland Online. “We’re not going to wait any longer. We’re going to be more vocal.”

As in the recent New York demonstrations for the release of Haitian-born activist Jean Montrevil, activists engaged in civil disobedience by blocking the street. But, The Washington Post reported, they did not manage to get arrested.

Obama may address immigration reform in his speech Wednesday night, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told USA Today’s David Jackson. But apparently it would only be to remind Congress that the ball is in their court.

At least some progressive Democrats on Capitol Hill intend to push for an overhaul, despite the grim prognosis brought on by Senator-elect Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D.-Ariz.), leader of the Progressive Caucus, told the Post: “We are going to push,” he said. “Maybe I’m masochist, but I’m still optimistic.”

Freed After Haitian Tragedy, Activist to Demonstrate in the Shadow of Immigration Detention Center

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By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

Jean Montrevil meets Rev. Donna Schaper of the Judson Memorial Church. (Photo: The New Sanctuary Coalition)

On New Year’s Day, Jean Montrevil was detained in an immigration lockup. Less than a month later, after being freed following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he will stand outside another jail where immigrants are held to protest the laws that placed him a breath away from deportation.

Montrevil and other immigration activists are expected to hold a demonstration Tuesday at 12:30 pm outside the Varick Federal Detention Facility in Lower Manhattan “to call for an end to immigration policies that are destroying families.”

Haitian-born Montrevil was released last Saturday from a detention center in York, Pennsylvania, where he was being held. A couple of weeks before, The New York Times reported, he was so close to being deported to Haiti “that friends were waiting for him at the airport in Port-au-Prince.” The deportation flight was stopped because another detainee had a fever, the newspaper said.

Conservative Lawmakers Push Anti-Immigrant Legislation in Arizona

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By Valeria Fernández, FI2W contributor

PHOENIX, Arizona – While hopes for Congressional action on immigration policy are fading, a new wave of legislation aimed at undocumented immigrants is gaining momentum in the Arizona State Legislature. Republican lawmakers are pushing for laws that would allow police to arrest undocumented migrants for “trespassing” in the state or for standing on a sidewalk to look for work.

State Sen. Russell Pearce. (Photo: Valeria Fernández)

Arizona already has some of the toughest anti-immigrant laws in the nation, but legislators argue additional laws are needed in the absence of federal action on immigration policy.

Mesa Sen. Russell Pearce is behind the push. His “Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” (SB 1070) would make it a misdemeanor to be in the state without immigration documents. A person arrested twice under the bill could be charged with a felony.

The bill also includes a provisions against “sanctuary polices,” that would prevent any government agency or municipality from limiting immigration enforcement. It also includes penalties for those who harbor, transport or help an undocumented immigrant.