Pulitzer winner to discuss status on TV Cross-Posted at Philippine News by Erin Pangilinan Correspondent JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS has a chance to school Stephen Colbert on what living like an undocumented immigrant is really like. Vargas is scheduled to speak on the Colbert Report on July 14. Host Stephen Colbert is infamous for his participation in and congressional testimony on his experience working as afarmworker as a part of the United Farm Workers of America’s “Take Our Jobs” campaign. He demonstrated the difficult working conditions of farmworkers to turn attention to living as undocumented immigrant for a day. Now Vargas will help shed [...]

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House approved the DREAM Act December 8, paving a path to citizenship for students who are in the country illegally. The bill is now in the Senate where advocates said a vote is likely to be delayed. One of the likely beneficiaries of the proposed law is UCLA undergraduate Tagumpay Mendoza. “I came to the U.S. with my family when I was 12 (6 years ago). We originally had visas, but the renewal process was painfully laborious. My parents do not earn much, and paying for the immigration papers took much of our income. Right now, [...]

The M4A superstar line-up just got even better. Marchers will be thrilled to hear the next speaker echo the streets of DC: Spanish language radio personality and Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) advocate, Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo. El Piolín’s radio show runs on KSCA in Southern California. He helped prove the power of Spanish language radio to mobilize the masses in the CIR battles in 2006 and 2007. A formerly undocumented immigrant, he gave a significant amount of airplay to undocumented immigrants. In 2006, his audience helped turnout 500,000 people at Los Angeles marches against anti-immigration legislation. In 2007, he encouraged his [...]

  Upon having its State Department of Justice endorse an agreement with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) last October, Wisconsin joined 36 other states in officially signing onto the Secure Communities program earlier this month. This federal program is harmful to community policing and continually misunderstood by local law enforcement. Although local police like Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke admit that immigration is a federal issue to enforce and not a local one, Clarke and Brown County Sheriff John Gossage nonetheless continue to applaud the program for its ability to “share information.” Fortunately, unlike in Colorado, the Wisconsin program takes into [...]

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) and Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) are speaking out against outgoing Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s adoption of the Secure Communities program, a program under which local law enforcement report on immigration status. Acquiescing to immigrant rights advocates, Governor Ritter had requested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) consent to certain conditions before adopting the federal program. However, advocates are criticizing Ritter for then adopting the program through an Executive Order without requiring that these conditions be met. The conditions included: exempting domestic violence victims from being targeted by Secure Communities; targeting only [...]

Secure Communities strikes again in Prince George’s County of Maryland: seven year resident Florinda Faviola Lorenzo-Desimilian faces deportation and separation from her U.S. citizen children, ages 10 years, 5 years, and 19 months. Immigrant rights advocacy organization Casa de Maryland launched a campaign to stop Lorenzo-Desimilian’s deportation, organizing demonstrations while she was being held at the county corrections facility. Casa de Maryland and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) point out that the Lorenzo-Desimilian family poses no threat to national security, nor do they meet any of the public safety objectives Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims is its priority, [...]

Earlier this month, Eddy Zheng, an Asian American community activist, fought his 2007 deportation order at a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing. Unfortunately, the final court decision could take months and judges are prohibited from considering significant facts, such as Zheng’s contributions to his community. Zheng and his supporters have called for a last push to ask California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon Zheng before leaving office in January. This pardon would assist Zheng in his long-term plans to re-adjust back to its original status as a legal permanent resident. According to KQED, Schwarzenegger granted Zheng parole in 2005, [...]

Washington State has become the first state to successfully refuse to sign an agreement to implement the Secure Communities program, which would require local law enforcement to check the fingerprints of individuals charged with any crime against the federal immigration database. The Washington State Patrol clearly vocalized their opposition to the program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “We are a state law-enforcement agency, and we don’t want to go down the road of being an immigration agency,” Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins told the Seattle Times. Calkins also noted that Governor Chris Gregoire is believed to be of the [...]

In May, frustrated New York City Council Members introduced a resolution to support a coalition of immigrant rights advocates in calling on Governor David Paterson to rescind the Secure Communities agreement, which turns local police into immigration agents. The state entered into the agreement without seeking any input from local elected officials or the public. In opposition to this, the National Day Laborer Organization (NDLON), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, NDLON v ICE., for information on Secure Communities. On [...]