“The route is full of dangers. In summer there are usually soldiers guarding the footpaths who arrest anyone trying to get through illegally. There are just as many armed bandits lurking too, waiting to pounce and rob the illegal migrant of what little he owns. Whoever refuses to empty his pockets gets the thrashing of his life. In winter there are fewer soldiers, fewer bandits. Instead it’s a toss-up between dying in the snow or being eaten by wolves.”
Change a few details, and this could easily be a description of the perils facing undocumented immigrants as they cross from Mexico into the U.S. But the writer is Albanian, and the route he describes is his own passage from his native country to neighboring Greece, which he entered illegally in 1991.
Gazmend Kapllani
In the current debate over immigration reform it is easy for Americans to loose sight of the universality of human migration. Around the world, national borders are constantly being crossed, both with and without governmental approval, as people facing difficult –sometimes desperate– circumstances search for safety, economic security and opportunities they can’t find at home.
“A Short Border Handbook” (published in the U.K. by Portobello Books), a new book by journalist Gazmend Kapllani, reminds us that the experiences often associated with undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are endemic to all who leave their homeland and show up in a new country “uninvited.” Using a blunt style and, at times, dark humor, Kapllani’s short book tells the story of walking to Greece in 1991 after the government of Albania opened its borders following the fall of the country’s totalitarian Communist regime.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Sonia Sotomayor has become a celebrity. (Photo: Valeria Fernández)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico –Sonia Sotomayor has gone from virtually unknown to a symbol of national pride for Puerto Ricans after her nomination by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This has been a major event in our country, very flattering,” said Marcial Díaz, 61, a Humacao resident who chose the Spanish word país, or country, to refer to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
“In Puerto Rico, they might not know how she decided even one of her cases but for them, and for us, she’s Puerto Rican,” said Susanne Ramírez de Arellano, news director at the Univisión affiliate in Puerto Rico.
Hondurans protest against coup in D.C. - Photo: Peruanista blog
Hondurans in the United States are intensely following the events in their home country, after the military on Sunday rushed President Manuel Zelaya out of bed and sent him into exile in Costa Rica.
But not every talk-show caller nor every demonstrator in American cities is asking for the swift return of the democratically-elected president. Many Hondurans in the U.S. support the coup and the government that took power in Tegucigalpa, despite unanimous condemnation from the international community — including President Barack Obama.
“I think it’s a good thing that they took him away, because he would have won the election on Sunday, and he would have been in office another four years,” restaurant owner Marlen Nunez told WDSU in New Orleans, where there is a big Honduran community. She was referring to Zelaya’s botched attempt to conduct a non-binding national referendum asking voters if they wanted to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term.
“Constitutionally, a president shouldn’t be in office more than four years … that’s not a democracy,” Nunez said.
President Barack Obama finally sat down with legislators from both parties last week to talk about immigration reform and the news media saluted the meeting with editorials and op-ed pieces on how to proceed.
The meeting, said Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión, was “the first step toward immigration reform. In itself, the start does not guarantee that new legislation will be feasible this year despite the urgent need, but the fact that it has begun is hopeful.
“The cards are now on the table –the newspaper said–. We hope that they will be well played.”
President Obama at Thursday's meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform. (Photo: The White House)
Finally, the much-expected meeting on immigration reform between President Barack Obama and lawmakers from both parties took place Thursday. Participating legislators said the president promised to put his energy into moving forward right away. The response from some reform advocates was “Game On!” But the various sides have already started drawing lines in the sand – spelling out what they will and will not accept.
Reps. Anthony Weiner (D.-N.Y.) and Joseph Crowley (D.-N.Y.) reported that President Obama began the meeting by promising to “use whatever political capital he has left” to enact comprehensive immigration reform this year.
See a White House video of the meeting:
Thursday’s meeting and the White House’s creation of a working group on immigration reform –to be headed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano– were lauded by immigrant rights groups such as America’s Voice, which called Thursday “a turning point” and declared: “Game On”.
The renewed commitment from the Oval Office might allay advocates’ fears that the current economic crisis, as well as Obama’s high-profile efforts to enact health care reform would prevent the President and Congress from dealing with immigration this year.
Pro-immigration reform demonstrators in New York on May Day. (Photo: Jocelyn Gonzales/Feet in 2 Worlds)
What: President Barack Obama will meet Congressional leaders from both parties to discuss the way forward in fixing the U.S. immigration system. The White House has insisted on tamping down expectations, saying this is just the beginning of the conversation. Pro-immigration advocates, on the contrary, are anxious for Congressional action to start. Anti-immigration activists seem to be waiting to hear what exactly the Democrats’ plan will include — but they reject any kind of legalization proposal.
When & Where: After two postponements attributed to the president’s busy schedule, the meeting will be held today at the White House.
Who: While White House officials had first said the meeting would involve not only lawmakers but also activists and others involved in the immigration debate, today’s conversation will only include members of the Senate and the House who are part of relevant committees.
No official list of attendees has been announced. But Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión, quoting unnamed sources, published this list: Democratic Sens. Robert Menéndez (N.J.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.); Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Mel Martínez (Fla.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.); Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Xavier Becerra, Howard Berman (all Calif.), Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.), Nydia Velázquez and Anthony Weiner (both N.Y.); Republican Reps. Lamar Smith (Texas), Adam Putnam and Lincoln Díaz-Balart (both Fla.)
One key player from the last Congressional immigratio reform debate will be absent: the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.), who’s now focused solely on health-care reform.
Pro-immigration activists want the Obama Administration to approach immigration reform with a much stronger sense of urgency than it has shown so far, as Feet in 2 Worlds reported yesterday. As Thursday’s much-awaited –and twice-cancelled– White House meeting with lawmakers on the issue approaches, some activists are trying to ramp up the pressure.
News and advocacy organization New America Media is asking ethnic media nationwide to simultaneously publish the same editorial “calling for urgent immigration reform.”
The editorial asks the White House and Congress to “move quickly” to pass reform that will “remove the term ‘illegal or undocumented immigrants’ from the dialogue in this country,” according to a copy provided by NAM. It calls the current immigration system “inefficient, inhumane and economically debilitating” and “broken” for both undocumented and specialized workers, as well as for families trying to reunite.
The text also urges ethnic media readers and viewers to contact their representatives in Congress “and let them know that immigration reform must be a national priority.” [ You can read the full text below. ]
A May Day immigration reform demonstration in Massachusetts. (Photo: Eduardo A. de Oliveira/EthnicNEWz.org)
Despite the sense of urgency among immigration advocates, the White House seems prepared for a drawn-out debate over immigration reform. The conversation should start this Thursday in a meeting with lawmakers from both parties, if President Barack Obama’s schedule finally permits it.
Activists plan “freedom rides” to monitor alleged civil rights abuses by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office
By Valeria Fernández, FI2W contributor
PHOENIX, Arizona — In a visit that drew heavily on the tactics and symbolism of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Rev. Al Sharpton came to Phoenix on Friday to call for unity between African-Americans and Hispanics in a national effort for immigration reform, and to confront Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a leading anti-immigrant crusader.
Watch highlights from Sharpton’s visit to Arizona.
“Let me make this clear, we’re not here about Sheriff Joe as much as we are here about Citizen Jose,” said Sharpton at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in downtown Phoenix, in front of a diverse audience that included Latinos, Anglos and African-Americans. Sharpton had called for Arpaio’s resignation last April.
Sharpton: "Don’t make me a suspect because of the color of my skin or because of my language.” (Photo: Feet in 2 Worlds)
“You cannot have law enforcement that is based on skin color rather than private deeds,” he added. “If we break the law, arrest me. But don’t make me a suspect because of the color of my skin or because of my language.”
In San Antonio this week for their annual spring meeting, the bishops said in a statement by their president, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, that immigration is a “humanitarian issue” and U.S. society should not “tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections.”
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