June 16th, 2006
 love2helpothers:
Saturday, July 15th, 2006, 4pm– Rescue Community Meeting and Picnic. At
this meeting we will answer any questions anyone may have and/or welcome
any new people who desire to be a member. Members receive free rent and
childcare for life. Location: at the wooden bench area outside in front
of Downtown Portland Hannaford's. Hannafords' is located at 295 Forest
Avenue, Portland, ME 04101. If it is sunny outside, at 4pm we'll walk
from the bench area to the lake for a picnic. If it is raining, at 4pm
we'll walk from the bench area to the AAA café on the fifth floor of the
University of Southern Maine Library. The library is located at 314 Forest
Avenue, Portland, ME 04104. For more info: (207) 871-5300 or
www.RescueCommunity.org or www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org
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Saturday, July 22nd, 2006, 12:30pm– Rescue Community Music Video
Documentary – A film crew will film our music video documentary. This
music video documentary will share thoughts on past, present and future
Emergency Rescue and Relief plans and the importance of grassroots,
non-corporate volunteers in Natural Disasters such as Hurricane Katrina,
blizzards and floods. Location: Studio in 516 Congress Street, the
Community Television network (CTN). The studio is the room that you come
to after entering CTN and walking down the hallway. Independent,
non-corporate musicians in the area are invited to perform at the end of
each documentary. See our online music video documentaries for examples.
(207) 871-5300 or www.RescueCommunity.org or www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org
=============================
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006, 6pm– Rescue Community Meeting – The public is
welcome at this meeting and there will be free refreshments for everyone.
Location: Meeting room in 516 Congress Street, the Community Television
network (CTN). The meeting room is the first room that you come to when
entering CTN. CTN is located in between CVS and MECA art college. For
more info:(207) 871-5300 or www.RescueCommunity.org or
www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org
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Thursday, July 27th, 2006- The Rescue Community will leave for four days
on the Caravan trip to the National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy
Conference in Washington DC. It is a well known fact that people of color
and minorities have been ruthlessly oppressed in Maine. We will travel to
work in solidarity with immigrants nationwide while they stuggle through
current legislation that seeks to legalize institutionalized oppression
forever. Many of you have other Summer plans but please put them aside
for four days and please join us on this historic journey to the immigrant
solidarity conference! You can make a difference! All are welcome to
join us! "The food that overflows our market shelves and fills our tables
is harvested by men, women, and children who often cannot satisfy their
own hunger" - Cesar Chavez. More information here: For more info:(207)
871-5300 or www.RescueCommunity.org or www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org or
visit the conference website: www.immigrantsolidarity.org
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Monday, August 14th, 2006- Fundraiser at Portland O’Naturals located at
Old Port, 83 Exchange Street Portland, ME 04101. O’Naturals is located on
the Left hand side of Exchange Street just before the park. Check the
Rescue Community website for the exact time of the fundraiser. For more
info:(207) 871-5300 or www.RescueCommunity.org or
www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org and click on ‘Calendar/Events.’
=============================
Saturday, August 19th, 2006, 10am- The Rescue Community will leave on
the Caravan trip to the 2006 A World Beyond Capitalism (AWBC) Conference
in Portland, Oregon, The Second Annual International Multiracial Alliance
Building Peace Conference in Portland, Oregon. This Cross-Country ride
will also be made to raise awareness of extreme poverty which exists in
one of the world’s richest country’s. We will visit many different
communities, creating adocumentary, including Red Shirt Village on the
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, one of the poorest counties in the
USA. All are welcome to join us. More information here: For more
info:(207) 871-5300 or www.RescueCommunity.org or
www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org and click on ‘Cross Country Road Trip
Schedule’ or visit the conference website: www.aworldbeyondcapitalism.org
or www.CommonUnityPeaceConference.org - No registration or
pre-registration is necessary for the conference. The conference does not
charge anyone for any services. No one will be turned away. The keynote
speaker's night, all workshops, meals, tea, coffee, all festivals,
community childcare, camping space and exhibition space in the AWBC
International Grassroots and Networking Exhibition are all completely free
of charge. If you are unable to travel with us, you can find a videotaped
music video documentary on our website beginning in December 2006. It
will be in our ‘Cross-Country Road Trip’ music video documentary series.
We will videotape all caravan workshops, presentations and local musician
performances along the ride and make them available as copyleft
documentaries.
Love for the people,
-Rescue Community http://www.RescueCommunity.org
or http://www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org
Printable schedules of our upcoming meetings and Nationwide caravan trips and schedule are below in thre different formats for you.
#1. Printable pdf format.
http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.pdf
#2. Printable document format
http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.doc
#3. Printable webpage format
http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.mht
A Better World Is Within Reach - Peace Network
http://www.aworldofpeace.org I
magine Seven
http://www.ImagineSeven.org
Below is the Community blog for the Rescue Community. We welcome people worldwide to join, create a blog and post or simply post comments.
http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help
June 4th, 2006
love2helpothers:
Current Mood:  bouncy
Yesterday, June 3rd, 2006 was A Very Magical Saturday in my opinion for many reasons. I would like to share three of those reasons with you: #1. Another Community member dedicated to rescues contacted Kate, </a></font></a> kateandcora after seeing our Rescue Community blog! Awesome! #2. Our newest music video documentary: "(part 2 of 10) Creating Social Justice Communities: Share Your Dreams of Community" is now being aired three times a week throughout the month of June on Channel 2! If you go to the Channel 2 website and click "TV Schedule" you will see on the 'Saturdays in June' schedule: "Creating Social Justice Communities 12:30pm, 7:30pm, 2:30am - Part II in a series of programs which describes how to create a Social Justice Diversa-Village where activists live and work together rent free." Our video is also viewable on our website at http://www.RescueCommunity.org or http://www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org so no matter where you are in this world, you can see it!  #3. The conversations and networking at our community meetings keep getting better and better. I think community meetings are an art form. ======================================== ===== So below is the reply Kate received to our community blog: Our community blog is here http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help/ and the below entry on Kate's blog is here http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help/928.html#comments Their reply was: "Hey there Kate....My name is BE LOVE and I am a katrina relief volunteer here in New Orleans. I arrived in November of last year and am currently helping my familly ( emergencycommunities.org ) shut down our 6 month relief kitchen here in the saint bernards parish and relocate operations to Plachemens Parish and also further in the zone here in Violet area. We will be done wrapping this all up within the next week and I was just referred by another sister to your web-site. I always go with the winds of the spirits and have realized right away that I would love to be in Portland Main right now helping the Rescue Comminity with this mission as it is so much in line with the mission of our new foundling non-profit - The Just BE Foundation" - "If you could be so kind as to direct me to the amazing humans in the Portland area that may help to facilitate my arival and involment in this most amazing journey of love and true compassion i would be so happy. Thank you for your involvement in anything of this vibration Kate Peace and Love BE LOVE ======================================== ======= You can... - View the discussion: http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help/928.html?thread=928 - View all comments on the entry: http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help/928.html Much like Saul encouraged us all to do during his wonderful Networking 'Pooled Media' Presentation on May 15th, I encourage everyone to add your comments. You don't need to register with livejournal to add comments. :) I know Zoe and Mandy have livejournal accounts too. :) At our meeting yesterday... people came and enjoyed themselves despite the torrential rain. Wonderful solidarity! :)  Also, the conversations at our community meetings keep getting better and better. I think community meetings are an art form. A multimedia form of communication that reaches and touches all senses. For example... The meeting was held at A company of girls at 10 Mayo street. Some soft music by an independent artist was placed on the CD player. The musician played at Acoustic Coffee last week and it just so happened Richasu, </a></font></strong></a> richasu and I were in the audience. We both bought CD's and signed up on the email list because the music was so good. (Though, I have been in email correspondence with her requesting her to reconsider their use of myspace which is oppressive. But the musicians simply said that they would 'consider' giving up myspace, even after I told said it was owned by Fox News and myspace advertises for Wal-Mart, the military and I detailed the way myspace is oppressive to independent artists: http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/myspacefox-artists-beware ). However, their music was fantastic. And there was a certain warmth to the wooden floor boards made more apparent by the sound of rain outside. Richasu arrived, then more folks came. New bags of pretzels, chips and French Onion Dip were opened along with many other snacks. A new bottle of Ginger-Ale was poured. Then twenty minutes into the meeting... the aromatherapy of the pizza delivery came!  yummmmmmmy! We had a large variety Pizza, another large Vegan Pizza with no cheese and thinly sliced bell peppers and more. (About 1/3 of our members are vegans and raw foodists). Yummmmmmm. There was also very tasty garlic bread sticks which were incredible and some folks dipped their pizza in the delicious marinarra sauce that came with it.  Some members arrived early and left early. Some came about an hour after the meetings started and left when it was all done. I love the unstressful flowing nature of our meetings. More members arrived and we had a wonderful conversation about everything we could think of while music played in the background and rain fell softly outside. This is what I envision about community. Time for people to simply talk, get to know each other and value life. As a rescue community, we value not only our lives... but the lives of the people who we rescue in their times of need. No one should be left behind in another Hurricane katrina event. But the meeting did not end there. A sustainable community meeting's ending is just as important as the start and the meeting itself. Everyone offered to take out trash, help clean up, and give rides to others who did not have rides and Will seperated the cardboard Pizza box from the other trash to recycle it seperately. Awesome! As usual, friends and members were asked to take food home since there was plenty for everyone, and to take food to others in their community who might want some. Afterwards I went to an independent coffee shop with live musicians. I saw a band playing there. And they were sometimes not in sync at all. Yet once they got into sync, they were wonderful. Once they even got into a very audible disagreement with each other over which key they should be playing in. Then the singer came to the mic and said to everyone "It isn't easy folks... but the good news is thats the closest we've ever come to an argument." Pretty funny. And then when they did get in sync, their music was so powerful, and heart moving. They sung about people needing homes, and mental asylums too full, and people dying for love and all the most powerful songs. And I realized... that just as their music was an art form... so are community meetings. ...so I want to thank you all for helping to creating such a beautiful art form... known as community meetings... ...in a work in progress that will touch and illumniate the world in a way stronger than the Mona Lisa.
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Indeed, June 3rd, 2006 was A Very Magical Saturday... and I know that there will be many more wonderful days ahead as our community continues to work to help others around the world. Love for the people, -love2helpothers Rescue Community http://www.RescueCommunity.org or http://www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org Printable schedules of our upcoming meetings and Nationwide caravan trips and schedule are below in thre different formats for you. #1. Printable pdf format. http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.pdf #2. Printable document format http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.doc #3. Printable webpage format http://aworldofpeace.org/rescuecommunity/RescueCommunitySchedule.mht A Better World Is Within Reach - Peace Network http://www.aworldofpeace.org I magine Seven http://www.ImagineSeven.org Below is the Community blog for the Rescue Community. We welcome people worldwide to join, create a blog and post or simply post comments. http://community.livejournal.com/2rescueand2help
May 1st, 2006
love2helpothers:
Current Mood:  happy
Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike and the Global Women's
Strike participated in actions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and
Philadelphia and circulated this statement.
FOR MAY 1, 2006, “A DAY WITHOUT AN IMMIGRANT.”
WOMEN SAY “CAPITAL TRAVELS FREELY - WHY NOT PEOPLE!”
A massive movement of grassroots women and men, workers and students,
on the streets in the US is demanding that their work be counted and
that this be reflected in what they are entitled to: immediate amnesty
for all immigrants, no to criminalization, an end to militarization
and fences along the US/Mexico border, no increased enforcement, no
separation of families, an end to racism, and no to HR 4437 (the
Sensenbrenner/King bill). On March 25th 2006, more than one million
women, men and children filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles,
500,000 marched in Bush’s home state of Texas, and millions more
participated in protests across both urban and rural US, North and
South.
This massive and growing movement has shocked elected officials, who
are now scrambling to find a way to achieve their goals. The House of
Representatives had passed HR4437, and this initially sparked the
protests. Since then the Senate has put forward legislation that,
while appearing to meet the movement’s demands, is just as punitive,
sexist and racist.
The Kennedy McCain Bill, no Solution
The Senate’s Kennedy McCain bill as well as other compromise
legislation, claim to open the road to legal status for 11 million
undocumented residents and allow 400,000 more immigrants into the US
as “guest workers”. But to become “legal,” undocumented workers would
have to pay a fine of up to $3000, learn English, be nailed down to
waged work for a prescribed period, and pay back taxes. It would
further criminalize undocumented people and further militarize what is
already a war zone at the US/Mexico border. Many – both north and
south of the border -- are outraged by this and by the proposed “wall
of the empire”, like Israel’s apartheid wall across Palestinian
land.
Sexism, Racism and Legislative Proposals
Women will of course bear the brunt of repressive immigration
measures; women’s work and women’s lives are undercounted and
undervalued everywhere. And it is no accident that most of the
immigrants who are under attack are Brown and Black, continuing the
long US history of racism, that has included the slaughter of millions
of Indigenous peoples; the slave trade that left millions at the
bottom of the Atlantic while providing unwaged labor throughout the
Americas for centuries; the theft of Texas, California, Nevada and
Arizona from Mexico (a refuge for runaway slaves); the internment of
people of Japanese descent during World War II; and coups and
occupations across the world.
Women are rarely considered, and those of us who are Black or Brown
are considered even less. The proposed new laws ignore, both the work
women do within the family and the work outside to feed not only
family members in the US but also those back in home countries.
Immigrant and refugee women (and children), the poorest in any
community, already carry the burden of shielding and comforting
families and the wider community who face the pervasive fear and
terrible uncertainty, including the threat of detention and separation
from loved ones.
We cannot detail all of the objections to the proposed new laws, but
problems facing women specifically include:
* All the work women do in the home, raising children and nurturing
and protecting the whole community, is not valued as work, and does
not count as a work record establishing a woman’s right to be here.
The work of domestic workers and nannies, which enables the women for
whom they work to pursue careers, is not likely to provide needed
documentation.
* Separation of families is likely. For example, children who came to
the U.S. later than their mother may not qualify, and non-U.S. citizen
children may face deportation because they have a mental or physical
disability. What is the mother to do? Stay with the children who have
been born here or leave with other children? What if all the children
are U.S. citizens but the mother herself is forced to leave? Or the
father who is their financial support? Immigrants also face
disqualification for absences from the U.S. greater than 45 days;
women are often the ones who have to leave due to family crises back
home.
* Women can be disqualified for legal status on various grounds as
being “likely to become a public charge,” including having U.S.
citizen children receiving Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF,
welfare), or being found “guilty” of crimes of poverty, such as
prostitution, petty theft and unlicensed sales, which women turn to
for survival. Women are the least able to pay fines, registration fees
and other documentation required for each family member, and are the
most vulnerable to exploitation by legal professionals.
* Caring for children who are already showing signs of acute stress in
consequence of this situation, witness the tragic taking of his own
life by Anthony Soltero, a 14 year old student organizer of walkouts
at his middle school in Ontario, California, when threatened by the
vice principal with a three-year prison sentence, a fine for his
mother, and more. Witness his mother’s grief and her fight for his and
all students’ rights.
These laws weaken a community and make all who are vulnerable even
more so, including those of us whose sexual preference or lifestyle
doesn’t conform to the status quo, as well as those of us who are
older or have a disability.
Recognizing Women’s Contributions:
We Have Earned the Right to Be Here
While the proposed immigration measures do not count the work, both
waged and unwaged, of women who are undocumented or are documented
(but whose loved ones are not), and who do the double shift of unwaged
and low-waged work, the world is beginning to recognize and value
women’s hidden contribution to society. On 3 February 2006, President
Hugo Chávez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela announced that, in
recognition for their work in the home, the poorest housewives would
receive a monthly income equivalent to 80% of the minimum wage – about
$180 per month. Article 88 of Venezuela’s revolutionary constitution
also ensures a pension for housewives. Argentina, too, has
established a pension for housewives, and the new woman president of
Chile is considering such a measure. However, to value caring for
people and the environment, beginning with women, who -- whether
documented or not -- are the first caregivers, is not a priority for
the U.S. government, whose priorities are war, weapons and
occupation.
US immigration proposals are in direct conflict with UN resolutions
agreed to by the United States. At the UN Fourth World Conference on
Women (Beijing 1995), the International Women Count Network with the
support of over 1200 Non-Governmental Organizations won the historic
decision to measure and value unwaged work in official accounts. The
Forward Looking Strategies (Nairobi, Kenya 1985) recognizes the work
of women within the family and the rights of immigrant women to family
unity and social benefits without being penalized.
Opportunism
The present immigration debate is part of the racist environment
carefully nurtured by the United States, which it hides behind
Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Alberto Gonzales, and other scabs. The
whole world watched as poor Black people, most of whom were elderly
women and those with disabilities, were left to die in toxic water in
New Orleans - this shocked those in other countries who wanted to
believe in Bush. What is less well known is that the corporate
friends of Bush and Cheney then brought in undocumented immigrants to
do the worst of the clean-up at slave wages, in unsafe conditions, and
with no protections.
While Black people, starting with single mothers, across the US are
poorer today than three decades ago, so-called Black and Brown
“leaders” who have gotten “a piece of the pie” (or at least some
crumbs and a photo op) have left behind the grassroots movement that
made the way for them, and are helping Bush and his friends to get
away with slaughter and torture.
Also “advocates” and Non-Governmental Organizations who are more
concerned about protecting their grant money than ending racism and
poverty in the US (and internationally) have been bought out by those
in the business of buying and selling movements.
Black/Brown Unity or Division?
In an attempt to stop or weaken grassroots self-mobilization, some in
the halls of power are whipping up Black/Brown divisions. Black/Brown
coming together in a movement for economic and social justice would
challenge them more strongly than anything ever seen in the US. That’s
why those who hold power over all of us are quite prepared to use
provocateurs and misinformation, to pit people against one another
from prisons to schools to neighborhoods, all to keep Black and Brown
communities apart. So for example some within the Black community
charge that immigrants are taking jobs from Black people and
displacing Black programs in schools. The truth that disproves such
claims is kept from the general public. Few have been informed about
the rich history of collaboration between Black and Brown people.
Those of us who are Black and who claim we are “American,” that we
helped to build the US and that we should have rights that those of us
from “south of the border” should not have, are ignorant of the people
of African descent who, since slavery, have lived in Central and Latin
America, including Mexico and Brazil (which has the largest population
of people of African descent outside of Africa). They are either
ready to be used by those in power, or encouraged by the inaction of
so-called “leaders”, or glad to have other people over whom they can
have some power, or denying the fact that this land was stolen from
indigenous people, including those “south of the border.”
Furthermore, it has been the work not only of those living in the
United States, in particular those at the bottom economically, but
also of those of us from the Global South everywhere, starting with
women who do 2/3s of the world’s work for 5% of the world’s income,
that has made possible the wealth accumulated in the US.
Grassroots Self-mobilizes Globally
But despite the efforts of elected officials, NGO’s and so-called
advocates, grassroots self-mobilizations are hitting the streets, in
the forefront of what some are calling the new civil rights movement.
This movement of immigrants against racism and for the right to live
where we choose is global -- from grassroots women who have proclaimed
“capital travels freely, why not people”, to Indigenous people in
Latin America calling for an end to borders that divide their nations,
to the Sans Papiers (undocumented) movement against “Fortress Europe”
that has spread from France throughout Europe. In Australia, London,
New York, Madrid, and other major cities, asylum seekers from the
global South are staking their claim against former colonial powers.
High school students in East Los Angeles and throughout Southern
California have led walkouts that spread to thousands of schools
throughout the US in both urban and rural areas.
This global movement is inspired and strengthened by the revolutions
now taking place in Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Haiti and spreading
like a cane fire across the Americas. And at the forefront is the
Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, a Black and Brown women-led
non-party revolution, with President Hugo Chavez as its leader and
spokesperson challenging the United States and working to establish a
caring economy. And we cannot forget the Cuban Revolution, which has
held out against the US government bent on destroying it for more than
four decades.
Indigenous people from all over Latin America called for an end to
borders in Caracas Venezuela, January 2006. A similar demand has been
made by the Global Women’s Strike since the first Strike action in
2000. The call for a May 1st “Great American Boycott: A Day Without
An Immigrant”, despite lack of support from labor unions, quickly
spread via the immigrant grapevine across Mexico and Latin America and
became a global day of action, the closest we have seen to a general
strike across the Americas; a movement that has only just begun to
make its presence felt.
From Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike
& Global Women’s Strike
The Global Women’s Strike is a network which organizes throughout the
year to end poverty and war and environmental devastation. Men’s
support and participation are coordinated by Payday, a multiracial
global network of men. Every International Women’s Day since 2000,
grassroots women and men in over 60 countries have taken action to
demand that society Invest in Caring Not Killing, and that the money
squandered on war be spent instead on what our communities need,
beginning with the needs of women the first carers on whom everyone
else depends.
Contact: la@crossroadswomen.net 323-292-7405
philly@crossroadswomen.net 215-848-1120
sf@crossroadswomen.net 415-626-4114
For more information go to www.globalwomenstrike.net and
www.refusingtokill.net
May 27th, 2006
love2helpothers:
Dear friends,
Excerpts of he below information is from the immigrant Solidarity Network.
Please consider making a donation to the important work of Immigrant Solidarity that the Rescue Community is involved in:
Mail a check or money order to the address found on this webpage:
Or, we are also accepting monetary donations so that we can keep up our work for a better world! All check and money order donations should be made out to our non-profit fiscal Sponsor: Resources for Organizaing Social Change. (ROSC). Please mail to:
Rescue Community
P.O. Box 474
Portland, Maine 04112
=========================================================================
The Senate Passed the Bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill
& What is The Next Stage of Our Immigrant Struggle?
Lee Siu Hin
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
May 25, 2006
On Thursday, May 25, the U.S. Senate voted 62-36 to approved a bipartisan immigration 'reform' bill (S. 2611), calling for increase border security, guest worker program, more immigration enforcement, and the immigrant legalization program.
Although the bill includes some positive provisions that would reduce the backlog in family-based immigration, as well as AgJobs, DREAM Act, and a legalization program; however, a quick analysis from Immigrant Legal Resource Center point out that the positive provisions in the bill have been fatally compromised by the negative measures included in the bill. Such as: militarization of the border, more government power to deport immigrants, flawed and unrealistic legalization program, and guest worker program as a new kind of 'slave labor.' (see below)
Even worse, when the Senate meet with the House (HR 4437) at the conference committee to draft the final bill (could be before or after the November election), it'll not get better, but will get worse--where the positive provisions on the Senate bill may disappear, but the worse part of the bill will be kept.
Therefore, We should expect our struggle will be still long and difficult, and we need to prepare for a long campaign to defeat the racist anti-immigrant bills, and the institutionalized racist government anti-immigrant policies.
National Immigrant Solidarity Network is calling for National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference this summer, to invite activists from across the country to discuss and strategies our next step on the immigrant solidarity movement, and building the new civil rights movement. More details will be coming by the end of the week.
On May 1st, millions of us had made the history on "A Day Without Immigrants" Movement. We have shown the world that our force, our strength and our voice cannot be silenced from this moment! and we'll fight for our demands until we prevail [Note: The Rescue Comunity offered free transportation and members of the Rescue Community traveled to Augusta, Maine the capital to protest in solidarity during this event.]
United We'll Win! Together We'll Achieve Our Dreams!
=======================================================
The Senate Immigration Reform Bill
They Didn't Get it Right!
May 25, 2006
After much debate and discussion, the Senate by a vote of 62 to 36 passed S. 2611, a measure that would profoundly reform our immigration laws. Unfortunately and tragically, they did not get it right: unfortunately, because our nation desperately needs good reform; and tragically because the positive provisions in the bill have been fatally compromised by the negative measures included in the bill. Moreover, in a conference with the House, we expect that the bills positive provisions will be further eroded, if not eliminated, and the negative provisions made more draconian and unfair.
What are the provisions of most concern to the ILRC that are in the Senate bill?
- A fundamentally unworkable three tiered legalization program with exorbitant fees that will be a nightmare to implement.
- Local and state police encouraged to enforce federal civil immigration law, a body of law that most do not understand and the enforcement of which will dramatically hamper community policing and discourage victims and witnesses of crime from coming forward. Contracts between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and local police in every state will be promoted so that local police will enforce immigration laws and immigration information will be entered into NCIC, the federal criminal database.
- U.S. Mexico border militarized: An additional 370 miles of triple-layered fencing will be added along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as 500 miles of vehicle barriers.
- People, including persons with green cards, will be detained without bond for failing to file a change of address card, even though the federal government does not even have the capacity to process all these filed changes.
- Increased number of people deported for minor crimes and misdemeanors, changing the rules in the middle of the game: Long time legal permanent residents will be mandatorily deportable for minor crimes such as having three DUI’s (Driving under the Influence) no matter how long ago they were convicted and despite their rehabilitation, extensive family ties, and length of time in this country.
- U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents criminalized for helping family members or friends.
- The number of youth who could be found deportable and ineligible for any immigration benefits expanded based on the sole finding that the child is or was a member of a gang, with no requirement that any criminal act was committed or there was actual gang activity or involvement.
- American businesses challenged by requiring employers to verify every single worker, when the only employer verification system that exists is rife with error, and a new, comprehensive database is years away.
- Faster deportation of people allowed and the court doors closed so that people are prohibited from ever seeing a judge, even if they have lived here for years.
- New hurdles created to citizenship by changing the test to require applicants to know key U.S. inventors and artists and information about the Federalist Papers.
- All U.S. citizens subject to long criminal background checks in petitioning a family member and some precluded from sponsoring their immediate relatives altogether.
- I-9 document requirements that undermine legalization. (We need to review the Manager’s Amendment that was introduced today to determine if this issue was resolved.)
Although S. 2611 includes positive provisions that would reduce the backlog in family-based immigration, as well as AgJobs, DREAM Act, and a well-intentioned, but flawed, legalization program, the measures noted above dramatically undermine these provisions. As if that weren't bad enough, the enforcement provisions in the bill will cost Americans billions of dollars, will overwhelm the Department of Homeland Security, and will not accomplish its stated goals.
We will continue to fight for immigration reform that works for America, immigrants, and communities nationwide. Our country deserves something better than what has come out of the process to date.
WARNING! We want to issue an important warning to all immigrants. Please note that as of now there has not yet been any new law passed that permits people to legalize their status. Do not fall prey to any unscrupulous “notarios,†immigration consultants, or attorneys who claim a new law has passed and they can get you a work permit and green card under the new law.
=======================================================
May 24th, 2006
love2helpothers:
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Tito on timbales by Mula 150
Women Lead the Way in Immigration Movement
New America Media, News Feature,
Pueng Vongs,
May, 2006
Editor's Note: Observers who say the current immigration movement is leaderless need look no further than the cadre of women leaders, who fuel
the movement and have done so for decades, writes New America Media editor Pueng Vongs.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The movement for comprehensive immigration reform has sent oceans of people to the streets nationwide, and women have emerged as
leaders of this upsurge.
"Many immigration advocacy groups across the nation are led by women," says Lillian Galedo, executive director with Filipinos for Affirmative Action in
Oakland, part of the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights.
"When I think about who's on the conference calls, the majority are women. I think it's because of their ability to stay focused and hang tough over a
long period of time. They've been a part of the movement for a long time."
Now, the women are stepping into the forefront.
Emma Lozano, executive director of Centro Sin Fronteras in Chicago, has been working for immigrant rights since 1983. For nine months she asked
Spanish-language radio deejays to speak out against tough anti-immigrant bills. The result was a Chicago protest on July 1, 2005 that gathered 50,000. That followed later with the first major protest in early March in Chicago, which drew 300,000 and put the movement on the map. On May Day she helped turn out 400,000 people in Chicago.
Lozano, whose father was a migrant farmworker, recently helped to write the nation's first county resolution upholding immigrants' rights.
"When the Sensenbrenner bill came people were afraid to speak out against it and they feared a backlash, but I said we can't be afraid of that," Lozano
says.
Lozano has also tailored programs specifically for women, who are migrating today globally at a rate faster than men.
The number of female immigrants, legal and illegal, worldwide rose from 46 percent in 1960 to 49 percent in 2000, according to a United Nations report.
In Europe, Latin American and North America, women make up more than half of the immigrant population. The Pew Hispanic Center says of the 12 million
undocumented immigrants in the United States, 4 million of them are women.
That also means that a greater number of them are being caught in immigration crackdowns.
Lozano launched La Familia Latina Unida as a result of the rising number of families torn apart because of toughened immigration laws. "After 9/11 more
families came to us seeking help. " She says mothers were being arrested, single moms, and "a 2-year old was even deported. "
As a result of the surge in women immigrants entering the country as domestic workers and caregivers, Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) created a program to protect their rights. The coalition had also created a ground-breaking program for male day laborers.
"(The women) have unique issues. Many get paid very little, they have to deal with sexual harassment, they are raising families simultaneously," says
Salas.
Salas' mother was a garment worker and her father, a farmworker. Salas originally came to the United States from Durango, Mexico undocumented.
"I know what coming from a rural background and poverty is like, and also the opportunities in the U.S. It is a dual experience of opportunity and
discrimination," says Salas. Her group was instrumental in bringing out more than one million people to immigration reform rallies in Los Angeles the
past few months.
"Our main focus is to help immigrants speak to their stories, struggles, dreams and hopes," Salas says. CHIRLA has a committee of household workers
and nannies who travel with her to address policymakers in Sacramento and Washington D.C. "They educate our elected officials and advocate for
themselves on things like fair wages, respect in the workplace and the need for laws to be changed."
Aarti Shahani co-founder of Families for Freedom in New York, also recently traveled to Washington with 300 families affected by deportations.
She began her work following the 1996 immigration reform and founded her organization for the numerous women who were turned into single mothers because their partners were deported or detained by the U.S. government. She works with an array of multi-ethnic groups from the Caribbean, Africa, Latin
America and South Asia.
Shahani was born in Morocco of Indian descent. Shahani's uncle was deported from the United States in 1999. Her father, a green card holder, is
currently facing deportation charges.
The current reform movement has been dominated by the call for legalization, she says, and there has not been enough emphasis on protecting the rights of
legal immigrants.
"In the past decade we have witnessed the government deeply expand deportation and detention systems,"she explains. Grounds on which legal residents can be deported include being convicted of crimes, overstaying
visas or violating visa conditions.
"Yes, we should legalize as many as possible, but we should not diminish the value of legal status in the process," she says. "Deportation is the hidden
piece even in the most progressive proposals right now. "
Moderate measures like the McCain-Kennedy bill would grant some form of legalization but in the process lessen the value of it, she says.
It is through the work of these women leaders that the movement is thriving.
"Women have put life into this movement," says Lozano. "We are the nurturers, we take care of the children, we work in the home and the
factories. Sometimes men are afraid to come out and stand up because they are targets."
"We've been doing this work for a long time," says Salas. "What's interesting is now we've seen men emerge who want to take center stage."
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7cca8372952481e0e1d229f729901890
May 21st, 2006
richasu:
Hello Rescue Community
To a new culture of trust, honor and unconditional love for everyone.
Blessings
Richasu
kateandcora:
HI, This is Kate from the Rescue Community. I just learned how to blog and T showed me how to set up my page while we were hanging out and the People's Free Space. Thanks -Kate
May 20th, 2006
love2helpothers:
Current Mood: happy
Dear friends,
We have a new blog! A blog is an online journal. We hope you will post your thoughts to this online community. You can also post comments without having an account. We look forward to hearing from everyone worldwide.
Thank you everyone!
Together, A Better World Is Within Reach!
Love for the people,
-Rescue Community
"When others are running out, we are the one running in."
www.RescueCommunity.org
or in Spanish:
www.LaComunidadDeRescate.org
Art For The People: The N.o. L.i.m.i.t. DIY Library-By-Mail
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Thank you!
:)
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