This Diary is inspired by a Diary done by Pernoclone Immigration Raid in Iowa: Up to 700 Arrested a couple of hours ago.

National Council of La Raza did a Study on the effects of the raids on children.

Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration
Raids on America’s Children
It looked into the effects on the children of the Greeley, Colorado; Grand Island, Nebraska; and New Bedford, Massachusetts raids.

Are we punishing the kids?
Or is this the Bush Administration's "CHILD LEFT BEHIND" program?

One of our society’s fundamental principles is that, to the extent possible, children should not be punished for the sins of their parents. This principle has deep roots in both religion and law.

Are we as a society willing to pay the costs that these policies will incur?

At what point did we as a nation decide to pick and choose who to grant opportunity?  At the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) Summit this year, I was deeply moved by one story of an undocumented youth --- a story that shines a harsh light on our nation.

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

During this Thanksgiving Holy Day observance, we, the citizens of this nation say grace for all that G-d, and country, have given us.  We celebrate the harvest.  Our countrymen venerate the Native Americans that kindly shard their food and grain-filled lands with our European ancestors.  We revel in what we reap.  With thanks to our ancestors, the mavericks of the past, we, the children of immigrants, grew gloriously.  Yet, while white Americans, descendants of the foreign born, rejoice, the darker complected grieve.  

(cross posted at EcuProphets under my revdbh screen name)

Governor Eliot Spitzer dropped his plan to extend driver’s licenses to undocumented sojourners today, beaten by a barrage of hyperventilating rhetoric coming in a wide range, from formerly obscure Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco to America’s Hyperventilator-in-Chief, Lou Dobbs.

Opinion polls offer a grim verdict on Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to provide undocumented immigrants with drivers' licenses in New York State. I offered my own opinion on the subject in an earlier diary (Eliot Spitzer and the Liberal Blind Spot), so I want to use this space to present a sampling of opinion on the controversy collected from one local newspaper.

This case shows how out of whack the immigration system is.

While Petty Officer Eduardo Gonzalez is being shipped everseas for the third time, his wife Mildred is in danger of being shipped back to Guatemala. He told CNN "I like being in uniform and serving my country, but if she goes back I'm going to have to give it all up and just get out and take care of my son and get a job," and  "Defending the country that's trying to kick my family out is a thought that always runs through my mind."

In September United States Citizen Gonzalez testified before Congress that he is proud to serve, plans to reenlist but claims that he is unable to give 100% while he's worried about his wife and son being deported back to a country where she is not familiar with the culture, language or society.

I can't believe the minutemen are coming to San Rafael. I've always thought of them as remote fringe weirdoes posting themselves on the desolate border. Those weirdoes are coming to my town today to vent their severely shortsighted views on immigration. We have a very large immigrant community here in the largest city in Marin County - it seems every service you can imagine is packed into this industrious place. Immigrants live in the canal, a neighborhood of small homes, apartment houses and occasional taqueria and carnesaria.

So the minutemen are demonstrating against undocumented immigration in San Rafael today. Unfortunately, my neighbors, the workers I interact with, students, their mothers and fathers are all badly impacted by this group's actions and the ICE raids that drew headlines along with marches here this past month. School officials accompanied children home on busses to make sure an adult would be on the other end of the route - and not in a deportment center.