The Visitor was released earlier this year by Jeff Skoll's Participant Films, an exceedingly cool film studio that believes in making movies that help encourage social change. Their slate has included: An Inconvenient Truth, Syriana, Fast Food Nation, Darfur Now, Charlie Wilson's War, Standard Operating Procedure, Chicago 10, The Kite Runner, Etc.
Enjoy the review and, please, weigh in with your own opinion.
This is a book review of Kate Menken's English Learners Left Behind, which details the difficulties faced by "English language learners" under the testing regime faced by NCLB, with special emphasis upon problems the author observed and researched in New York State.
Restrictionist members of Congress use the term "sanctuary" to describe a city or town that restricts its law enforcement agency from going after undocumented immigrants unless those immigrants have committed some real crime that might threaten public safety.
In the past couple of months, however, politicians in the state of Arizona have become concerned that Maricopa County, Arizona, is becoming a sanctuary of another sort. That county is under the jurisdiction of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has gained national notoriety for his high-profile sweeps of immigrant communities and roundups of undocumented immigrants.
While he and his men have concentrated on undocumented immigrants who are working here without permission, a backlog of tens of thousands of unserved felony warrants has built up under his watch.
Two immigration must reads so far today: One was today’s Washington Post Metro section front page look at law students aiding in immigration law clinics. With so much deportation going on and with so many obstacles to legal immigration and staying legal, it’s all hands on deck.
The second was the lead story in Sunday’s New York Times by Julia Preston on how the business community is starting to stir to put pressure on GOP lawmakers about immigration. Employers trying to play by the rules are being tarred with the same brush as bottom-feeding employers who exploit the illegal status of workers. Until we find ways of allowing for sufficient legal immigration, many small business owners are suffering.
The New York Times editorial page, which IMHO has been the most consistently insightful source of opinion on fixing our broken immigration system, has another superb editorial today.
Despite the National Guard and millions spent on border guards, technology, and the fence, we are still a magnate for immigrants, especially from Mexico, who, given that legal immigration channels are non-existent or hopelessly backlogged, are being smuggled or otherwise getting in. Maybe fixing the immigration system to make immigration safe, legal, and orderly is more complicated than just beefing up our Southern border.
While America is suffering another bad case of anti-immigrant fever, on this July 4, we should look at our long history of embracing immigrants and immigration. This collection of quotes reminds us that immigration is not what's wrong with America; it's what defines America.
Flashpoint for US-China Relations in Flushing Showdown
Falun Gong Supporter Roughed Up in Flushing
(Epoch Times)
Recent events in Flushing New York, unnoticed by most Americans except for ethnic Chinese, may alter US-Chinese relations.
For three years the Falun Gong, a religious group banned and persecuted by the Chinese government, has met outside the Flushing public library to encourage Chinese Communist Party members to turn in their Party membership. The activity attracted little attention until the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province and staggering loss of life put a spotlight on the Chinese government’s response.
If you follow the issue of immigrants' rights at all, then you probably read this front-page New York Times article on the subject of state efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants a couple of days ago. The upshot of the story is pretty familiar: sick of the Feds' failure to solve the problem of illegal immigrants, state and local officials take matters into their own hands with get-tough enforcement measures that disrupt immigrant communities and send them packing back to where they came from.
You know: good riddance and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Sadly, this article is only the most recent example of a national media narrative that reports ad nauseam on anti-immigrant policies but fails to take into account the budding progressive movement to implement more inclusive and economically sensible initiatives.
The Rubashkin meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, which has been the biggest supplier of allegedly kosher meat in America, has violated many moral, ethical, and legal codes of conduct -- American and Jewish. It has tortured the animals it is supposed to kill painlessly and has exploited its workers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants who were fearful of complaining. It has even had the chutzpah to collect union dues from some workers and then pocket the money instead of passing it on to the unions.
I hope that many many of you our readers, of all religious traditions and beliefs, will write your local newspapers not only to support a boycott of this meat -- unkosher in every sense -- but also to press that Federal authorities take vigorous action against the owners to the full extent of the law, while dropping criminal charges against workers caught in this oppressive bind.
So, the Bush Administration, in it's final months, is working hard to protect us. So hard, in fact, that they are sending 270 undocumented (I don't care how many times they say Illegal, the correct term is undocumented) immigrants (mostly Guatamalans) to prison, in association with their arrests when the federal government swooped down on Agriprocessors in an INS raid on May 12th of 2008.
What is wrong with this picture?
Well, the immigrant workers were arrested, carted off to jail, dealt with quite sternly by the prosecutor, and offered a 5 month prison stint and then deportation. The other offer was a two year prison term. They took the 5 months.
But when it comes to the company that was employing them, what about some prosecution there?
Two reports on the Republican efforts to use "fraud" to suppress the legitimate votes of eligible citizens: In one newspaper, I received a confirmation of my suspicion that Indiana's Voter ID law was not serious about fighting fraud. In another was a story that the suppressors were now using fear of noncitizens to go after the legitimate voters who are too poor to get proper docs.
It's becoming harder to travel for many illegal immigrants these days as the federal government cracks down on identification requirements for boarding airlines and appears to be increasing the number of Border Patrol sweeps on long distance trains and buses.
Wonder why lawmakers cannot come to grips with the simple idea that granting visas to spouses of Legal Permanent Residents (who are eventually going to enter the US anyways) going to help the economy?!
Note: The use of an "intelligent design" reference in the title is a reminder that without vocal opposition and adherence to fact/reality, our country will continue to follow the Ben Stein's and George Bush's into failure and ignorance. We must cease this tumble toward infamy before it's too late.
We know the military has been changing the rules of the game as the "war on terror" has frawn down the normal "all volunteer" military we as a nation have relied on since 1974, when the services went to all volunteers.
I was in the Army when the first all volunteer unit, the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington discharged the last of the nations draftees on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in November 1974. They partied like it was New Years eve 1999.......ralkabout parties, it was one of epic proportions.
The other day the New York Times had an interesting article about the positive impact that "other than legal" immigrants have on the Social Security system, usually meaning undocumented immigrants.
In the fine print of the 2008 annual report on Social Security, released last week, the program’s trustees noted that growing numbers of "other than legal" workers are expected to bolster the program over the coming decades.
As I've said before, so many right wingnuts (and far too many on the left) just talk about how undocumented immigrants hurt their life. This is just one of many examples that show that nasty anti-immigrant rhetoric doesn't match reality.
In a "glowing" statement, perhaps meant to glorify the horrific deaths of the soldiers slain in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney offered, "I think it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have." The man who, in his youth sought five deferments in order to avoid service during the Vietnam War, went on to state, "A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments."
It's been a good day so I want to share some things with you. I was born in Chicago. I was the only goy kid in A Jewish neighborhood until second grade when we moved in with my mother's parents. My mom cleaned house, cooked and babysat for many of our neighbors. Eastern European/Jewish food is still soul food for me. My grandfather's house was a big step from the apartment. He and grandma were Lithuanian peasant immigrants. He was illiterate in both Lithuanian and English, but grandma could read the Lithuanian newspaper. Grandpa worked in the Chicago stockyards like the people Upton Sinclair wrote about in The Jungle. He lived to 55 though. Many of them never saw fourty. So here I am a semi-retired university professor and a Democratic Socialist writing about myself on my birthday. If you are not yet bored to death, let me tell you more about how I came to be an ardent Obama supporter here in rural Virginia. UPDATE: You people are beautiful! Thanks all!!!!!
