immigration

cartoon text:

"it's time to reclaim america from illegal immigrants"

"i'll help you pack"

tonight i went to a meeting of the washtenaw interfaith council for immigration rights. it was to be a forum with a question and answer portion with agents from ICE. ICE is the immigration and customs enforcement branch of homeland security. last night, they called to cancel and would not set a new date.

the meeting went on anyways though. i learned some interesting facts from the meeting, here's just a few:

-undocumented immigrants gave actually generated more jobs in the U.S.

-undocumented immigrants are prevented from receiving the majority of social services offered by the federal government, even though they pay sales tax, property taxes, and payroll taxes

-the IRS issues id numbers to enable undocumented workers who don't have social security numbers to file and pay taxes. 8 million workers file these forms. revenues generated from this fund amounted to 10% of the ss surplus in 2005

-BEING ILLEGALLY PRESENT IN THE U.S. IS A CIVIL, NOT A CRIMINAL VIOLATION

immigrants, as a group are unfairly targeted by both the federal government and local law enforcement. this is done through a variety of methods like home invasions and racial profiling.

local law officials work with ICE in many of these actions. for example, several cases involve the pulling over of a latino driver for things as minuscule as a crooked license plate. in some cases, there is absolutely no reason. local law officials hold these people until ICE arrives and they are then detained. many times police officers ask drivers if they have a green card. this question should not be asked and the driver has a right not to answer. many immigrants are not aware of their rights and will tell the officer that they do not have a green card. it is then that ICE is called and the immigrants are detained.

in the case of home invasions ICE officials have been known to be very aggressive and even violent. they enter homes often without warrants or with incorrect warrants.

once immigrants are detained the problems grow. their human rights are violated repeatedly. because IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT CRIMINALS they are denied the right to a public defender. they are often relocated to prisons far way without notifying their family of the new location. in a recent case, an immigrant from ypsi ended up in texas. these people are denied basic things while in prison like health care and a change of clothes. one immigrant was detained for a month and was never offered a change of clothes.

the scapegoating of immigrants in this country is yet another example of how the government tries to place the blame for our nation's problems on anyone but themselves. immigration is no doubt going to be coming up more and more as we move closer to november 2nd. these are some important things to consider not only as a political issue, but more importantly, a human rights issue.