Terry Jones: An Attack On Our Freedom

Written by Garat Ibrahim

Over the last two years we have seen a tide of hate-mongering and Muslim-bashing wash across the United States.  Mosques have been attacked in California and Tennessee, and ever since the Islamic Cultural Center was planned for lower Manhattan, it seems that this wave is building daily.  Recently, the Islamic Cultural Center, which would be located two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center, has gained a lot of attention in the US and across the world.  I have always felt that America owes its liberty, prosperity, basic human rights and democracy to a dependence upon, and submission to God.  Immigrants of all faiths who come to America’s shores should be… Read more

Anti-Immigrant Group Revamps Website, Apparently Drops Controversial Advisory Board Member

Written by Stephen Piggott

Anti-immigrant group, ProEnglish, a group founded by white nationalist John Tanton, recently updated its website. The slick new site features information about “official English,” ProEnglish’s goal of making English the official language of the United States. The site also features an “Our Projects” page which describes the anti-immigrant efforts that ProEnglish are currently involved in.

Unsuccessful at getting national “official English” legislation passed, ProEnglish have focused its efforts on getting English-only ordinances passed in smaller towns. A recent example of this is the town of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, whose city council voted to adopt English as the official language of the town. According to Minnesota National Public Radio, “But the national… Read more

Food and the Mandate for Racial Justice

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

Midst all the manifestations of the so-called “food movement” in the U.S.—organic, slow, sustainable, natural, whole, healthy, urban, sovereign—is a glaring absence of analysis of the structure of race that pervades the entire food system, from the ground to the grocer.  

Wherever food is produced, picked, processed, packed, or purveyed low wage workers of color predominate in the hard, dangerous, low-wage jobs that feed a nation built on cheap food, cheap labor, and rampant exploitation of food workers within a toxic framework of abiding racial structures spanning rural and urban America alike.  And wherever food is sought by those who can least afford it, those same racial structures prevent or prohibit access to decent,… Read more

Immigration

Stephen Colbert Testifies

Written by Chris Bober

This past week Stephen Colbert testified before Congress about his one-day experience picking beans as a member of the “Take Our Jobs” campaign. The campaign, initiated by the United Farm Workers, invites Americans to take a position in farm labor in order to shed light on the extremely distressing nature of the work. It also intends to highlight the aversion most Americans have towards taking one of these jobs – even in times of economic hardship. Colbert was invited to testify by Rep. Zoe Lofgren who chairs the subcommittee as a way to use his face to bring more attention to the issue – unfortunately, many in the media have been critical of Colbert’s… Read more

Immigration

No More Politics Before People

Written by Axel Fuentes

Some upcoming candidates for the next election focus more on their political platforms than they do the actual needs of people in this country.  While many are fighting for who can get the most votes in November, politicians are at the same time ignoring many of the needs and values in the U.S.  This is especially the case when we see politicians that are blocking the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act would allow immigrant youth  from all countries of origin who are under 35 years old and who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 the opportunity to gain legal status by either attending college or joining  the military. 

Immigration

Cross-Post: Stand against the “Greening of Hate” for the Movement we Believe In

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Martha Pskowski is a student from Hampshire College.

Wednesday, September 22, I attended a meeting at Hampshire College of Western Massachusetts environmental organizers hosted by the Center for New Community of Chicago.  Rebecca Poswolsky of CNC presented to the group about the rising trend of anti-immigration rhetoric being pushed into the environmental movement.  Videos and advertisements portrayed the messaging of anti-immigration groups vying for an environmental audience.

In one, a line of men in sweatshirts and jeans, baseball caps pulled down, snakes through desert brush in the hidden camera footage.  The voice-over in this Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) film describes the actions of the “illegal aliens,” “They walk, but some get tired.  A… Read more

News

Cross-Post: Wonk Room on Mistreatment of Roma in Europe

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Andrea Nill over at the Wonk Room discusses the Roma situation in Europe which is testing the EU’s “open borders” policy for member states:

This summer, while the immigration debate broiled in the U.S., the government of France launched a countrywide crackdown on the Roma, an ethnic group with origins in South Asia or Eastern Europe, that drew criticism from both the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church.  And, in a “rare” move, the European Parliament called on France this week to suspend its expulsion of the Roma, accusing French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government of “targeting Roma as a group” and “ignoring essential European human rights guarantees.”

The total number of Romanian… Read more

Immigration

Carrying a Heart Full of Hope

Written by Guest Blogger

The following article is one of a series of accounts from students who recently returned  from Arizona. They were part of a delegation that spent a week touring the state amid  the enactment of controversial law SB 1070. The Center for New Community, a national civil rights organization based in Chicago, sponsored the trip, which included nine students from Washington D.C., New York, Chicago and Colorado.

By Dominique Etienne

Boat, plane, car, or even by foot, these are some of the ways people come to America for a better chance. The reasons why people come vary, yet all come with hardships. For a lot of people, leaving home to come to America is not… Read more

Health

All Time Low: Center for Immigration Studies Blames Immigrants for Teenage Obesity

Written by MJ Olahafa

The anti-immigrant movement continues to sink lower and lower with attempts made to demonize immigrants, scare people and plant bigotry. With a complete disregard for human decency and common sense, the anti immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) are now blaming immigrants for every issue no matter how farfetched or downright false it might be. And just when you thought they hit rock bottom, when you tell yourself there is no possible way for them to sink lower, behold, they dig even deeper and blow your mind.

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) was founded in 1985 as a project directly under the control of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).  CIS… Read more

Immigration

Dispatches from Arizona

Written by Guest Blogger

The following article is one of a series of accounts from students who recently returned  from Arizona. They were part of a delegation that spent a week touring the state amid  the enactment of controversial law SB 1070. The Center for New Community, a national civil rights organization based in Chicago, sponsored the trip, which included nine students from Washington D.C., New York, Chicago and Colorado.

By: Kristen McCulloch

On our first full day in Arizona, we traveled to the Sonoran desert and walked along one of the paths that migrants traverse on their journey into the United States. Although the heat and sun sweated water from our bodies, our physical condition could… Read more