On Sunday, countless people across the country will honor the women and mothers in their families. For many, however, Mother's Day will be a tragic reminder of the reckless and unjust nature of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement programs like the so-called Secure Communities program that has been tearing families apart for the past two years.
"Secure Communities" put state and local jurisdictions on the front lines of immigration enforcement. Under the program, whenever someone is arrested, even for minor offenses or when charges are dismissed, their fingerprints are automatically run through immigration databases. If there is a "hit" in the Department of Homeland Security immigration database -- which has been historically known for its unreliability and incomplete data -- the person may be detained and likely transferred to immigration detention centers to be ultimately deported by ICE. Many of the facilities that individuals are held in before deportation are located in remote locations across the country, far away from their families and loved ones and with limited access to lawyers and adequate medical care.
As of May 2011, Secure Communities has been implemented in 1,265 jurisdictions in 42 states. The program has been rolled out at breakneck speed despite widespread public outcry over its devastating effects on communities, many questions from law makers and reports that crime victims fear coming forward due to the program. Crime victims may have good reason to fear; consider the case of Maria Bolaño, the 28-year-old Maryland mother who called the police for protection during a potential domestic violence incident who instead was later arrested for allegations of selling phone cards, detained and entered into deportation proceedings.
Despite ICE's allegations that it is an information sharing program, Secure Communities serves as a dragnet to funnel immigrants into the shrouded and inhumane ICE detention and removal process. The program targets people of color, increases the likelihood of racial profiling and pretextual arrests and burdens local police departments with the enforcement of civil immigration law.
Hundreds of emails received over the course of Freedom of Information Act litigation around the controversial program have revealed that ICE misled local and state government officials about the ability to "opt-out" of Secure Communities, prompting Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) to call for a federal investigation.
Representative Lofgren alleged that ICE has essentially lied about the ability to opt-out of the program to the public, Congress and local governments. She was joined in by New Jersey's Senator Robert Menendez, and just last Wednesday, Governor Patrick Quinn terminated the program's operation in Illinois, making Illinois the first state in the nation to withdraw from the so-called Secure Communities program, and two days later, the Illinois House of Representatives passed the Smart Enforcement Act to address Secure Communities' flaws.
Government officials aren't the only ones expressing major concerns about the so-called Secure Communities program. Law enforcement officials, like San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, are standing with advocates and communities nationwide talking candidly about the program's ramifications on police work and public safety.
To honor mothers across the country this Mother's Day, advocates released a short documentary titled "Insecure Communities: Families Under Threat" highlighting the devastating effects of Secure Communities and other ICE-police collaboration programs. The poignant, 12-minute film follows the stories of Djibril, Maria and Jose -- three individuals whose lives have been impacted by programs like Secure Communities and who live in fear of being taken from their children and families. Learn more about the film, "Insecure Communities: Families Under Threat" and share it with your community and loved ones on this important holiday.
"(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both."
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/usc_sec_08_00001325----000-.html
"consider the case of Maria Bolaño, the 28-year-old Maryland mother who called the police for protection during a potential domestic violence incident."
The only U.S. visa granted by the USCIS to illegal foreign nationals & their children, while inside the USA, is a "U" visa tor victims of domestic violence.
The "U" visa can be transferred into a LPR Green Card visa upon proof of 3 years consective residency in the USA ~ all without the requirement of returning to an illegal's homeland of origin.
Doubtful, that in this example, Maria Bolano would be deported unless her secondary infraction was of a serious felony ~ I'm assuming that her child(s) are anchor babies born in the USA, which gives even more likelihood of not being deported.
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/U-VisaFS_05Sep07.pdf
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Unless of course those open borders and mass immigration supporters know where are hidden well with trillions of gallons of fresh water, millions of barrels of oil millions of acres of open spaces for a healthy ecosystem and trillions of dollars to build infrastructure is hiding.
Or we could just put simple laws in place that reduce, rather than reward illegal entry.
Mandate with stiff fines all employers use e-verify.
Have a national ID card.
Force a SCOTUS ruling on the 14th and "under the jurisdiction" meaning. If they rule for anchors mandate hospitals ID all parents and report them to the fed for stiff jail/fines if here illegally.
Mandate all states verify status for all social programs.
Never speak about amnesty as a solution.
End family reunification except immediate family, no parents and only minor children.
Lifetime ban on all illegals caught here from travel for any reason or legal immigration.
If we did those things the problem would self correct itself as the illegals would leave on their own.
Fines: The feds would have to prove companies KNOWINGLY hired illegal workers. They subcontract that out to protect themselves. It is extremely hard to prove that companies knew the workers were illegal and prove it as absurd as this sounds. Look up Tyson Foods and illegal immigration for an example.
National ID cards are opposed by both elements from the right, conservatives and the left, liberals. No political strength to get this through Congress.
SCOTUS is not going to rule on the 14th Amendment under the jurisdiction meaning, this is a fantastical interpretation of the amendment and the history behind it and there is already law well established about it. They won't touch it.
Mandate hospitals...Don't know how this is done, an act of Congress, I suppose to regulate what? private hospitals? public ones? Health care professionals are not in the business of reporting patients to the feds for anything. And how do hospitals determine if someone is illegal? Only the feds can do that. So, you establish a profiling system for patients? Never in a million years.
States already verify status for all social programs as do the feds. Illegal immigrants don't receive benefits--their U.S. born children certainly do, but they are US citizens. You can't decouple them as much as you want to.
End family reunification...this is doable.
Amnesty will always be on the table. Sorry. But true. It's called Politics.
"Thanks to irresponsible mothers families of criminals are under threat"
We have thousands of legal immigrants and citizens who are mothers and are incarcerated. They broke the law(s) and are paying the price. Why should others break our laws and be exempt from punishment?
You want to keep families together? Then deport the entire family if the parent(s) broke the law by entering our country illegally.
In part ~
"Mexican officials had promised that NAFTA would result in the "export of goods, not people." That, however, has turned out to be far from reality.'
http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/illegal-immigration-and-nafta
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Actually no! Historically states were responsible for enforcement of criminal and civil immigration issues. The sanctuary lobby is trying to tell you different. Secure communities is a product of the sanctuary mentality where states now have to be reminded of their responsibilities.
Not sharing immigration information with the Federal Government has never been an option as the sanctuary states are finding out.
Spin, Spin, Spin - Ms Zamani, just because you say someting loud and often does not make it so!
Well, one thing you CAN do, is address the apparent chronic dysfunction going on in countries of origin, for all these prospective immigrants. Another thing you can do, is 'turn off the magnet', but that's easier said than done, because there's lots and lots of lobbyists and soft, malleable politicians out there that think it's America's place to perpetually provide refuge to everyone that asks. Nice people, actually, just, kinda dim. And, no matter what we do, for immigration policy here in America, it only treats the symptom, the problem is 'at home', where people have neither pot, window, prayer, nor apparently clue, and certainly no initiative to change their ways, especially not as long as Auntie/Uncle Sugar is there, minting off fresh promissory scrip and showering it on the huddled masses wholesale. There's about 6.9 billion people in the world, they can't all move to the United States, and our national policy on immigration needs to stay in tune with reality. The violin music and sacred dances are really nice, but they really just don't quite get the job done on making sure we don't end up with another problem, 20 years down the road. 1986 marked the big Reagan amnesty, and there were many assurances that this time, they really did have their act together, in terms of policy, and it wouldn't be a problem in the future, and then we get to about 07-ish, and turns out, it's a Big Problem, and I still don't think there's any kind of solid repatriation accord with Mexico, if anything with Mexico can really be said to be 'solid'. In conclusion, this issue needs more study, and debate, in the interest of having fair, clear, enforceable policy, something that's really beneficial to everyone, and not just an albatross of bureaucratic indecisiveness that'll just muddy the water even more by even talking about it.
Bring the rest of the troops back home from overseas, invest in The USA not in foreign countries, pass an Immigration Reform that makes sense so we can account "IN PAPER" all of the contributions illegals are already paying for.
Education: For the last twenty years I've taken some one very clise to me to school whom has special needs and guess what, is not lack of money is the system that is wrong not the budget, is the administrators of the "education system" and burocracy.
I know this for a fact, I witnessed personally for tqenty years.
Child care centers" inside the highschools:wrong
Parents not getting involve in their kids education: wrong
Parents utilizing schools like nanny centers:wrong
And the list goes on and on.......
The elderly: if we care so much why "homes for the ederly"? Our parents are just being dumped in this places and get abused and neglected.
Healthcare: Abusive system in cahoots with Insurance companies; $25.00 for an aspirine at the "emergency room" no wonder after so MANY years the health system is so broke.
And, we are not living in past... Are you so RUDE and ungrateful to forget what our grand parents, great grandparents and ancestors tought us: Respect, Moral Values, Unity, Hardwork, Patriotism, Faith, Good Manners ...
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