Immigration

Immigrants are Vital to Our Communities

Written by Carlos Rich

A few months back workers were let go from their jobs at a local processing plant in Iowa due to discrepancies with their immigration status.

I started to get calls on a cold Monday in January. Workers were in a panic. Many received letters from their employers telling them to resolve their immigration status in the next 24 to 48 hours.

I cannot imagine the amount of fear they must have been feeling, with so much uncertainty about what would happen to them and their families.   Many of the workers had been working with the company for eight or nine years. The workers told me that the plant knew who had and who did not… Read more

Immigration

Country Music Singer’s Charity Benefits Anti-Immigrant Group

Written by Guest Blogger

by Jerry Higgins

Darryl Worley is a country music singer/songwriter from Memphis, TN. He has sold almost two million albums of the six he has released.

What is most impressive about Darryl Worley is his commitment to charity work. He has played concerts to entertain American troops both home and away, taking in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Uzbekistan. His foundation, Darryl Worley Foundation, has also been instrumental in setting up a cancer treatment center in his local hospital and has helped many other worthwhile causes.

New CIS Report

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

The anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a new report this week titled, “A Plan to Address Birth Tourism.” The report unfairly targets pregnant women by attempting to restrict their entry into the United States.

Ecopolitics

Biking Beyond Bigotry: The Bicycle Ice Breaker

Written by Guest Blogger

By Daniel Kim

There is something very unique about riding a loaded touring bike that appeals to people from so many different walks of life.

Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the machine that piques an onlooker’s interest, the nostalgia of their own childhood bicycle adventures, or the sheer immensity of the gear that can be strapped, lashed, clipped, and rigged on a bike and ridden over mountains. Whatever it is, there is no denying that a stranger’s curiosity can open a door, by-pass someone’s preconceptions, and grant you a chance to really reach them with your words.

Bicycling for social change is nothing new, as biking has become much more than just a mode of… Read more

Food Justice

Packinghouse Bathroom Breaks: Leaving Human Dignity at the Plant Gate

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

It happened again several weeks ago.  He asked permission to go to the bathroom.  His supervisor told him to wait till a replacement was found for his position on the line. The supervisor didn’t come back.

He could wait no longer; the discomfort was overwhelming. Once again he urinated in his clothing, standing there on the line as the meat flew by.

For generations of meatpacking and poultry processing workers the right to go to the bathroom has been a deeply contentious issue.  In the 1930s a packinghouse supervisor reportedly told workers “If you have to go to the can you’d better not be gone for more than seven minutes.”  Keeping the line… Read more

Biking Beyond Bigotry: Ecological Problems = Social Problems

Written by Guest Blogger

by Jesse Sanes

On the Biking Beyond Bigotry tour one of our main goals was to illuminate the connections between ecological problems and other social problems.

In the United States, for example, immigration status contributes to a doubled likelihood of living close to a factory that produces toxic pollution. Studies have also shown that low income and minority communities are more polluted than wealthier areas, which are generally located further away from heavy industry.

Facts like this show why environmental efforts and activists must address issues of racism and social inequality. That in mind, somewhere around the middle of our trip we experienced an inspiring example of how conservationists are successfully addressing… Read more

Immigration

Border Environment Sacrificed for National Security

Written by Guest Blogger

by Martha Pskowski

A bill recently introduced in Congress, the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act (H.R. 1505), by Representative Rob Bishop (R-UT), is the latest signal that the environment is being sacrificed in pursuit of “national security” at the border.  This bill, and several laws that came before, are putting to waste the work of many environmentalists to protect the border environment and disregarding the rights of people living near the border.

The bill authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to have “immediate access to any public lands managed by the federal government… … for purposes of conducting activities that assist in securing the border.”  It also states that, “The Secretary of… Read more

ProEnglish Hires New Executive Director

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Anti-immigrant group ProEnglish announced the hiring of a new executive director Dave Louden. Louden replaces Jayne Cannava. ProEnglish’s founding chairman is white nationalist John Tanton who still sits on ProEnglish’s board today.

Immigration

The Anti-immigrant Movement’s Bizarre Take on Gay Immigrants

Written by Jill Garvey

Writers with anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) have a strange preoccupation with same-sex couples. Especially for a “non-partisan” organization that is apparently only concerned with the issue of immigration.

Last week, David North wrote on the CIS website about Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent move to overrule a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals to deport an immigrant who is in a civil union with a U.S. citizen.

North described the various reactions he expected to Holder’s decision and then gave his own opinion:

“supporting marriage rights (such as non-deportation of married aliens) of gays will have only the slightest immediate impact on the burgeoning population of America and none… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: “Human Rights Summer” Announced in Response to Anti-Immigrant Law in Georgia

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published on Change.org by Gabriela Garcia · May 14, 2011

At noon on Friday the 13th (coincidence?), Georgia governor Nathan Deal signed the state’s Arizona copycat bill, HB 87, into law. The law is one of the most punitive yet — undocumented workers can be charged with felonies and face up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Citizens who commit traffic infractions can face up to 12 months in prison and $1,000 in fines for driving in a car with an undocumented person. Already, groups including the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center are preparing for civil right lawsuits to block the law.