By Ayesha AhmadOctober 12, 2008I recently traveled to Albania.
Up until the late 1990’s Albania was under communist rule, its influence barely felt by other countries. Today, however, Albania has developed a reputation as one of the world's human trafficking hot spots. Autonomy and freedom are on the rise in Albania after the end of the communist era. The country’s poverty and the war in 1997 have led to a surge of people wanting to taste freedom, to escape the country’s shackles and pursue a better life.
On my trip I visited the city of Vlora. In this picturesque seaside city, a terrible tragedy occurred just fours years ago in 2004. A motorised dinghy transporting trafficking victims and operated by organised criminal gangs was attempting to cross the waters from Albania to Italy, a well-worn route. In the peak trafficking years between 1997 and 1999, authorities say that as many as 10,000 people, mostly Albanians, illegally emigrated to Italy every year. The boat capsized. Frantic mobile phone calls were made from the trafficked victims to their families who were immobilised by panic and helplessness. A phone call was also made to the national TV channel in Albania begging for help to reach them. This help never arrived and 21 of the 29 passengers drowned.
Such instances were more frequent a few years ago. On the event that the police were spotted on shore in Italy, the Albanian trafficking victims were forced into the water by the gang member operating the boat. Many lives were lost as a result of this practice.
I spoke with some young Albanians not much older than myself. They had paid a great deal of money to be taken out of Albania into Greece illegally during the war. So many lives risked in the bid for freedom, yet the irony prevails each time. The ones that die during the journey perish with their dream of freedom intact. The ones that survive and make it to the other land, however, are held captive and enslaved.
Although they survive, their dreams of freedom perish.
From the U.S. Department of State
ALBANIA (Tier 2 Watch List)
Albania is a source country for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; it is no longer considered a major country of transit. Albanian victims are trafficked to Greece, Italy, Macedonia, and Kosovo, with many trafficked onward to Western European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands. Children were also trafficked to Greece for begging and other forms of child labor. Approximately half of all Albanian trafficking victims are under age 18. Internal sex trafficking of women and children is on the rise. The Government of Albania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.
The Government of Albania is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons over the past year, particularly in the area of victim protection. The government did not appropriately identify trafficking victims during 2007. It also has not demonstrated that it is vigorously investigating or prosecuting complicit officials.
Recommendation for Albania
Vigorously investigate and prosecute human trafficking offenses as well as law enforcement officials’ complicity in trafficking, and convict and sentence persons responsible for such acts; enhance training of law enforcement officials within the anti-trafficking sector; ensure full implementation of the national mechanism for referring victims to service providers; increase funding for victim assistance and protection services; draft and implement a new national action plan with participation from local anti-trafficking NGOs; provide anti-trafficking training for peacekeeping troops.
Prosecution
The Government of Albania did not provide convincing evidence of progress in law enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking during 2007. Albania criminally prohibits sex and labor trafficking through its penal code, which prescribes penalties of five to 15 years’ imprisonment. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and exceed those prescribed for rape. In 2007, Albania prosecuted 49 alleged traffickers and convicted seven human trafficking offenders. Seven of the prosecutions were for child labor trafficking. The sentences for convicted traffickers were appropriately severe, ranging from five years’ imprisonment with fines to 16 years’ imprisonment with fines. It is unknown if the government prosecuted and convicted additional traffickers under other statutes because the government does not separate crime statistics by trafficking offences. During the reporting period, regional anti-trafficking police units remained poorly trained and ill-equipped to effectively address human trafficking due to inadequate resources, the influence of corruption, and high turnover of police recruits. The government discontinued anti-trafficking training for new and continuing police officers, although training for judges and magistrates continued. Between June and July 2007, the government fired approximately 20 percent of its specialized and highly trained anti-trafficking police officers as part of an overall police restructuring effort. In three separate cases, the Ministry of Interior arrested 12 police officers accused of human trafficking in 2007, including six officers with direct responsibility for anti-trafficking at the border. Prosecutions of these cases and several other cases from the last reporting period remain ongoing.
Protection
The Government of Albania failed to consistently sustain efforts to identify, refer, protect, and reintegrate victims of trafficking during 2007. The government’s ability to fund protection and assistance services was limited; however, it operated one victim care shelter in Tirana. The government provided sporadic in-kind assistance to four additional NGO-managed shelters, such as the use of government buildings and land. In July 2007, all five shelters signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation and coordination among the shelters. In a change during this reporting period, there was an overall decline in the number of victims identified due to inappropriate application of the national referral mechanism for several months by anti-trafficking police. In 2007, the government identified only 13 women and seven children as victims of trafficking during the reporting period, a 25 percent decline from the 25 victims of trafficking reported by the government in the 2006 reporting period. According to the government and other observers, authorities identified as victims only those who proactively identified themselves as such. At the same time, however, NGO shelters reported 146 victims of trafficking during the reporting year. Victims are not jailed or fined for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of their being trafficked. The Albanian witness protection program is available for victims of trafficking who participate in prosecutions; however, evidence suggests that the system is ineffective for victims of trafficking. In 2007, one young woman was re-trafficked to Greece by her trafficker’s brothers following her testimony that put him in prison. Child victims, many of whom were trafficked by their parents, were more often returned to their parents than placed in protective custody.
Prevention
The Government of Albania implemented several anti-trafficking prevention activities but allowed its national anti-trafficking action plan to expire. The Ministry of Interior took over funding of the national toll-free, 24-hour hotline for victims and potential victims of trafficking from the UN Office for Drugs and Crime and IOM in November 2007. The Ministry of Education includes in its high school curriculum awareness of the dangers of trafficking. The government continued implementation of an anti-speedboat law, outlawing virtually all water crafts along the Albanian coast and leading to a significant drop in trafficking in persons to Italy, most of which has been accomplished in the past by boat. During the reporting period, communication between the government and NGOs improved following a period of strained relations. The national anti-trafficking coordinator and the police director-general held meetings with NGOs that led to improved communication between government and NGOs by January 2008, particularly at the border crossing points. As of March 2008, the government had not distributed a draft 2008-2010 national anti-trafficking action plan for comment to international partners and NGOs. The government did not provide evidence that it makes efforts to prevent its peacekeeping troops deployed abroad from engaging in trafficking or exploiting trafficking victims. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism produced banners that are being posted at 15 border crossing points to discourage child sex tourism and alert border-crossers that sexual relations with children is a crime in Albania.
From PBS:
This two-hour WIDE ANGLE special explores the current worldwide boom in illicit migration. Every year, an estimated two to four million people are shipped in containers, shepherded through sewage pipes, secreted in car chassis, and ferried across frigid waters. Others travel on legitimate carriers but with forged documents. An alarming number of these migrants end up in bondage, forced to work as prostitutes, thieves, or as laborers in sweatshops. By listening to the voices of those who pulled up their roots, who risked all, the film will put a human face on what might otherwise be seen as statistical, overwhelming and remote. Focusing on five major stories whose journeys traverse 16 countries from Colombia to China, from Mexico to Moldova this documentary will look into the circumstances that drove these migrants from their homes, describe the difficulties involved in their epic journeys and reveal what awaits them in their new world.
Watch full episode
From Breitbart:
LAUREL, Miss. - Federal officials say nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants were detained in a raid on a manufacturing plant in southern Mississippi, making it the largest such sweep in the country.
A spokeswoman says more than 100 of those caught up in Monday's raid on Howard Industries were released based on humanitarian concerns, mostly because they have children.
Most of the rest were transferred to a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, La. Nine 17-year-olds were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The Mississippi raid was one of a series of recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants. In May, officials swept into the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and detained 400 workers.
From Bdnews24:
Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury on Thursday said that human trafficking had become an alarming migration issue, with the perpetrators easily luring jobless people into being bought and sold.
"In a country where unemployment is pervasive and opportunities are limited, illegal human traffickers do not have to try too hard to mislead the millions of job seekers," the foreign adviser said.
"But we must make trafficking immensely costly for traffickers."
Inaugurating a workshop on Migration and Human Trafficking, at Hotel Sonargaon, Iftekhar urged public servants to expand legal migration opportunities to prevent illegal migration and trafficking of people.
"Although human trafficking is a relatively new issue of migration, it is becoming more and more a concern for both the government and non-government organisations working in the field," he said, at the workshop organised jointly by the Foreign Service Academy and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Dhaka.
Executive editor of the Daily Sangbad, Manzurul Ahasan Bulbul, also speaking at the workshop stressed effective government-media collaboration to combat illegal migration and human trafficking.
Human rights lawyer barrister Sara Hossain expressed the need to consider using international migrant rights and human rights instruments to protect the rights of migrant workers.
From Forbes:
By Gillian Gaynair
August 11, 2008
WASHINGTON - Some illegal immigrants arrested in workplace raids by federal agents will now have a resource to help them post bond and have a day in court.
The National Immigrant Bond Fund will launch a fundraising campaign and make its national debut during a news conference at Casa de Maryland in Silver Spring on Monday. The immigrant advocacy group helped workers seized in a recent federal raid in Annapolis access the bond fund, which was formalized about three months ago.
Here's how the fund works: Illegal immigrants arrested in raids who do not have any outstanding criminal violations can apply for financial assistance. Churches, legal organizations or groups such as Casa help facilitate their requests. The fund provides half the bail money and immigrants must pony up the rest.
"The chance of somebody in essence absconding is by and large eliminated because they have their money invested in their freedom as well," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington and a member of the fund's committee.
The fund aims to ensure that immigrants have access to the court system. Advocates say immigrants are too often sent directly into deportation proceedings without an opportunity to argue their case. They say the fund is also a way to build public opposition to raids, keep families together and bring another voice into the debate for immigration reform.
Financial oversight of the fund is handled by Public Interest Projects, a New York-based nonprofit.
The fund grew out of a series of efforts by 57-year-old Boston financier Bob Hildreth, owner of International Bank Services Inc., which buys and sells loans worldwide.
Hildreth said he gave $130,000 last year to help detainees post bond after a raid at a New Bedford, Mass., factory by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The detainees' families pitched in $100,000.
Hildreth contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars more this year after following workplace raids, including one on June 30 at Annapolis Painting Services company, where federal officials arrested 45 employees on administrative immigration violations.
The financier studied Spanish in Mexico as a college student, and over the decades he has contributed millions to establish education and citizenship programs for immigrants in Massachusetts, among other initiatives.
Through the bond fund, Hildreth said he wants to reach out to those who support humanitarian and immigration rights and who believe, like him, that immigrants have long contributed to America's economic health. "As long as these raids occur, we will respond," he said.
From the New York Times:
By Elisabetta Povoledo August 5, 2008
ROME — Soldiers were deployed throughout Italy on Monday to embassies, subway and railway stations, as part of broader government measures to fight violent crime here for which illegal immigrants are broadly blamed.
By the time it is fully effective next week, the effort will flank regular police officers and the military police with 3,000 troops, a visible signal to citizens that the government “has responded to their demands for greater security,” Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said in an interview on the Italian Sky News channel.
The conservative government of Silvio Berlusconi won elections in April while promising to crack down on petty crime and illegal immigrants. The new patrols of soldiers, who are not empowered to make arrests, do not seem aimed only at illegal immigrants, though the patrols were deployed to centers where illegal immigrants are housed.
“Security is something concrete,” Mr. La Russa said on Monday. The troops, he said, will be a “deterrent to criminals.”
Critics of the government have condemned the deployment as a superfluous measure that could prove counterproductive.
“Putting troops on the street sends a dramatic message that the situation is more serious than it is in reality,” said Marco Minniti, the shadow interior minister of the center-left Democratic Party, the largest opposition party.
Television news stations showed military officials searching immigrants’ suitcases at subway stations. Potential terrorist targets were also under greater scrutiny. In Milan, troops were stationed around the city’s Gothic cathedral, and in Naples they watched the American Consulate.
Read the full article
From the National:
By Sharmila Devi
August 2, 2008
When the hunger became too much, the two young Indonesian maids would rummage through the rubbish bins for discarded food, knowing that to be caught would inevitably bring a beating.
Their life of servitude included 24-hour days, seven days a week, that ended only when one of the women escaped and told their story to the authorities.
What has shocked America is that this story of human rights abuse, which ended last week with a court award of US$1 million (Dh3.67m) in compensation, happened on its own doorstep, in a country that prides itself as being a beacon of freedom and liberty.Instead, what is emerging is a growing problem of human trafficking in the US, with countless thousands of illegal immigrants arriving every year to work in degrading conditions as domestic servants, farm labourers, hotel workers and prostitutes.
The government admits it has a problem
“Trafficking and exploitation plague all nations and no country, even ours, is immune,” Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, wrote in the introduction to the US state department’s 2008 overview of global trafficking, released in June.Stories of abuse in other parts of the world have received extensive media attention in recent years. The most recent report grades countries according to a three-tier list, with the most serious category for “governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so”.
At the same time, the US is fighting its own battle against exploitation. “The US is a destination country for thousands of men, women and children trafficked largely from East Asia, Mexico and Central America for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation,” said the 2008 human trafficking report.
“A majority of foreign victims identified during the year were victims of trafficking for forced labour. Some men and women, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly – legally and illegally – but are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude or debt bondage at work sites or in the commercial sex trade.”
“They are so scared and trust no one,” said Joyce Gill-Campbell of Domestic Workers United (DWU), a group that tries to improve conditions in the sector.
The US Census Bureau estimates there could be up to 1.5 million domestic workers, but an exact count is impossible because many are in the country illegally or do not report income taxes.Reform has come mostly at the local rather than national level.
For example, in 2003, New York’s City Council was the first to pass domestic-worker legislation, requiring employers to inform employees in writing about wages and duties. Activists are trying to make a difference in other cities, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Houston.
There are frequent setbacks. In 2006, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, vetoed a bill that would have ensured overtime for nannies and allowed them and other domestic workers to sue for back wages, saying it would have encouraged frivolous legislation. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are still pushing for reform.
One of the hardest tasks facing groups such as DWU is getting workers to speak out, particularly those who migrated recently or are illegal. The group works through churches and colleges to reach out to them.Read the full article
From Spero News:
Led by 43 Guatemalan and Mexican women wearing ‘electronic tracking bracelets’ imposed by local authorities, hundreds of people from around the country marched peacefully in Postville, a small town in Iowa, in protest against the biggest immigration raid in US history. The raid occurred on May 12, when 389 migrants, including 287 Guatemalans, were arrested for possession of false documents while working at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Pottsville.
The immigrants also denounced their transferral to a sort of detention camp set up at the local livestock show-ground, where they remained for days in the cold, without food or hygienic services; eighty some of the immigrants were tried directly and sentenced to between five and seven months in prison ahead of deportation.
The protesters took off from the St. Bridget church and marched for 10km, chanting “No more raids”. “We demand respect of the human rights of immigrant workers”, said Marcos Yax, vice-president of the Coalicion de migrantes guatemaltecos (Conguate), reminding that the arrests separated many families, with serious consequences mainly for the children; union representatives participating in the march also emphasised the responsibility of Agriprocessors, accused of persistent violations of migrant workers rights and security norms due to frequent workplace accidents; two company officials are currently under investigation.
From Guatemala, Cardinal Quezada Toruño dedicated the Sunday homily to his fellow nationals in US territory, remembering the exodus of at least one million Guatemalans caused by the long civil war (1960-96): “The arrests and deportations hurt our souls. Let us pray for those who suffered these painful separations”, said the cardinal.
From the BBC:
EU ministers have agreed in principle to a French plan aimed at reforming immigration rules across the union.
"The interior ministers gave their unanimous accord on the principles, the objectives, the presentation and the structure of the pact," said French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux.
The pact aims to make it easier for legal migrants to fill job vacancies in Europe and integrate. With its ageing population, Europe has a continuing need for migrant labour in many sectors.
The French news agency AFP says the pact allows for migrant "regularisations" on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with national laws. It also calls for repatriation agreements with countries where necessary and for the European Commission to draft an EU plan for common EU-wide asylum procedures to be in place in 2012, AFP reports. "We're talking about targeted and coordinated immigration - in other words, which takes account of countries' needs and their ability to host migrants, based on dialogue with the countries of origin," Mr Hortefeux said.
Spain and Malta have been struggling to cope with boatloads of African would-be immigrants in recent years. Meanwhile, the European Commission and human rights groups have expressed concern about the Italian government's plan to fingerprint tens of thousands of Roma (Gypsies) living in makeshift camps across Italy.
The EU has already adopted new rules for detaining and expelling illegal immigrants. The "returns directive", due to take effect in 2010, allows states to hold illegal immigrants for six months, extendable by another 12 months in certain cases.
Earlier this month South American heads of state jointly condemned the returns directive. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans live and work in Europe, many of them illegally.
In 2005, Spain said illegal immigrants could claim work and residency papers if they could present a six-month work contract and evidence that they had lived in the country since August 2004.
Read the full article
From USA Today:
By Mary Beth Marklein
USA- Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.
In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school in the state. That represents a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for such students.
This summer, South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities. North Carolina's community colleges in May ordered its 58 campuses to stop enrolling undocumented students after the state attorney general said admitting them may violate federal law.
"The new trend is to kick illegal aliens out of college altogether," says William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, which opposes taxpayer subsidies for undocumented immigrants.
Opponents say students shouldn't be penalized for their parents' actions. Helping them is "the right thing to do even if it's unpopular," says North Carolina state Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat who introduced a bill that would prevent state institutions from asking about students' immigration status.
Read the full article
Should illegal immigrants be able to attend college?
From Time.com:
By Michael Scherer
Back on the campaign trail late last year, amid snowdrifts and ice storms, candidate Tom Tancredo spoke often about the possibility of defecting from the Republican Party if its eventual nominee failed to meet his benchmarks of conservatism, most importantly a zero-tolerance policy for undocumented immigrants.
"I am absolutely tired and sick and tired of being forced to go to the polls and say I'm going to make this choice between the lesser of two evils," the Colorado congressman said at an October debate in Michigan, standing across the stage from his ideological opponent, John McCain, who supports a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. "I really don't intend to do that again."
But just months later, with Washington sweltering in humidity, the hawkish immigration reformer, who wants to deport the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants, has declared his support for McCain. "I expect to be supporting him in November," Tancredo told TIME last week. "But certainly it is not set in stone."
In other words, he still holds out hope of pressuring McCain to shift his positions on immigration, or at least not moderate them, by threatening to resort to the kind of public criticism that could erode the Republican base in key states. On Tuesday, Tancredo shot off a warning flare of sorts in the form of a public letter calling on McCain to clarify his position on immigration reform. "Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part," Tancredo said in an inteview. "I guess I am holding out hope that when he says he 'got the message,' that means something."
Tancredo is not the only one unclear about McCain's immigration position after the contentious primary campaign, in which the issue regularly polled as the second most important among likely Republcian voters, next to the Iraq war. "I will tell you, there is some confusion right now, some need for clarity," says Janet MurguÃa, the president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. "There are some folks in our country who are confused about exactly where he is."
For months, that confusion has been somewhat intentional on the part of the McCain campaign. It was the issue of immigration, after all, that almost sunk McCain's candidacy back in the summer of 2007, when the Senate debated and defeated a comprehensive immigration bill that was dubbed the McCain-Kennedy bill and derided as an "amnesty bill" by opponents. After the defeat, McCain's public rhetoric on the issue changed significantly, even as his actual position only altered slightly. "I got the message," he told Republican crowds hundreds of times in the early voting states. "We will secure the borders first."
But in public comments, McCain often delivered a somewhat mixed message of his own. He continued to favor all the parts of his comprehensive plan — border security, increased employer sanctions for illegal hiring and a path to citizenship for the undocumented — but he mostly refrained from using the word "comprehensive." Instead, he spoke of a two-stage solution. First, he would secure the borders, a process that would be certified by border state governors. Then he would push for a process to allow the 12 million undocumented immigrants to become full citizens.
More recently, however, McCain has switched back to his earlier rhetoric on the issue. In late May, he took time at an event in California to point out that he had worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy on the immigration bill. "We must enact comprehensive immigration reform, and we must make it a top agenda item," he said. A couple of weeks later, McCain released the first ads of his general election campaign — for Spanish-language radio in Nevada and New Mexico. This week, he plans to travel to Colombia and Mexico, to burnish his credentials as a leader who understands Latin America. Next month, he will address La Raza at its annual conference in San Diego, along with Democrat Barack Obama.
The reason is not hard to fathom. McCain's campaign has already announced that it expects to do well among Hispanic voters, especially in key states like New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. (President Bush won about 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, though most public polls now show McCain getting just under 30% of the same group, compared with 60% for Obama.) McCain aides openly talk about how the immigration issue that was a burden for their candidate in the primary could become an asset in the general election.
Read the full article
From USA Today:
By Mike Carney
The federal government is investigating whether San Francisco "has been systematically circumventing U.S. immigration law" by paying to fly young illegal immigrants out of the country instead of turning them over for deportation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
"City officials say they are trying to balance their obligations under federal and state law with local court orders and San Francisco's policies aimed at protecting the rights of the young immigrants, who they say are often victims of exploitation," the paper says. "Federal authorities counter that drug kingpins are indeed exploiting the immigrants, but that the city's stance allows them to get away with 'gaming the system.'"
The Chronicle says it's not clear how many juvenile offenders received taxpayer-financed flights home. On at least two occasions, the paper says federal agents have detained Juvenile Probation Department officers and young Hondurans at an airport in Houston. The probation officers were eventually released. The juveniles, all convicted drug offenders, were deported.
Read the full article
From AJC.com:
In the weeks leading up to the July 15 primary election, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will pose questions to candidates for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Saxby Chambliss. Candidates are given 150 words to answer. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Chambliss and Libertarian Allen Buckley in November.
What should the U.S. do about the millions of illegal immigrants now living in this country?
The Republican
Saxby ChamblissCongress must make every effort to secure our borders and enforce our existing laws. Illegal immigrants will then have no alternative but to leave. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats continue to block measures to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
I absolutely oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants. I co-sponsored a measure to fund border security, immigration enforcement and criminal alien removal programs. I introduced "The Effective Immigration Enforcement Partnerships Act of 2008" and I formed the Border Security and Enforcement First Caucus in the U.S. Senate.
We are making progress. We have increased the number of border security agents; construction of a border fence has begun; and we are training local law enforcement to fight illegal immigration at the local level.
Despite this progress, our healthcare, educational and judicial systems continue to be overburdened with illegal immigrants. I will continue to address this problem one legislative effort at a time.
*U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is a former representative and attorney from Moultrie.
The Democrats
Vernon Jones
The failed amnesty bill supported by President Bush and rubber-stamped by Senator Chambliss is not the answer. We must secure the border and enforce the law.
*Vernon Jones is CEO of DeKalb County and a former state legislator.
Rand Knight
The United States must enforce existing immigration laws, fine individuals who employ undocumented workers; require employers to open jobs to American citizens first; run checks on social security numbers of all hires; give those here illegally a chance to start the process of citizenship – to be granted after they pay back-taxes; and we must act diplomatically to help other governments find ways to employ their own citizens. In Georgia, we benefit from the labor of undocumented workers. Many of these workers labor for below minimum wage and in jobs that few others desire to perform. Georgia's economy would suffer a major setback if the proposed immigration reform does not include recognition that both a social and economic transition must occur. While we all came here in separate boats, we're in the same boat now, and we must help this country to come together to eliminate injustice and restore our economy.
*Rand Knight is an Atlanta businessman.
Dale Cardwell
Most of us agree on the need to secure our borders and reform immigration. The problem is corporations that fund campaigns want something else: cheap, undocumented labor. If we break the stranglehold those special interests have on their "bought" politicians, we can base immigration reform on pursuit of the American dream: If you contribute to our economy (but don't take an American's job,) speak or commit to learn English, and want to assimilate, then you should have an equal chance to apply. At the same time, we must, in the next term of Congress, implement a foolproof document verification system (burden on the government) employers have to access before applicants can be hired. Going forward, illegal employers will be prosecuted for hiring undocumented workers. Illegals already employed will not be fired or "rounded up," but will have an incentive to go home, get in line, and legally pursue the dream.
*Dale Cardwell is a former investigative reporter for WSB-TV in Atlanta.
The Libertarian
Allen BuckleyProvide employers advance notice of potential audits and reliable means to verify legal status of workers that can be used only for employment purposes. Simultaneously eliminate food stamps for people able to work. After 90 days, audit employers in industries known to employ illegal aliens. Employers breaking the law could avoid substantial penalties only by offering jobs at 1.33 times the price paid to illegal aliens. For jobs not filled by Americans, illegal aliens could qualify for VISAs if they owe no taxes and pay a $5,000 fine and a $1,500 fee for immediate VISA eligibility. Illegal aliens unable to prove that all taxes have been paid for the preceding 4 year period would be required to pay the lesser of proven taxes due, interest and penalties or $10,000. The taxes due could be paid over a few years, with interest. Free transportation to Mexico would be offered.
*Allen Buckley is an attorney/CPA who lives in Smyrna.
Read the full article
From the LA Times:
By Nicholas Riccardi
As it has become the favorite entry point for undocumented migrants trying to sneak into the United States, Arizona has become a laboratory for whether a state can single-handedly combat illegal immigration.
In recent years it has barred illegal immigrants from receiving government services, from winning punitive damages in lawsuits and from posting bail for serious crimes. A new state law shuts down businesses that hire illegal workers. And the sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and three-fifths of the state’s population, dispatches his deputies and volunteer “posses” to search for illegal street vendors or immigrants being smuggled through the county.
“What I love about what Arizona is doing is we don’t have to rely on the federal government,” said state Rep. Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican who has authored most of the toughest measures. “It has truly woken up the rest of America that states can fix that problem.”
The campaign has had an effect: Illegal immigrants complain it’s impossible to find good work and are leaving the state.
It has also taken a toll on some U.S. citizens. Juan Carlos Ochoa, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in an upper-middle-class subdivision near Phoenix named Laguna Hills, can’t find a job because a government database classifies him as a possible illegal immigrant. Pauline Munoz, a 39-year-old mother of six who was born in Phoenix, has been afraid to leave her apartment since being held by sheriff’s deputies for 15 hours for a driving infraction – an example of what she believes is racial profiling.
And businesses that cater to immigrants both legal and illegal report a huge drop in sales, increasing the drag on the state’s already troubled economy. “There used to be so many people they would fight for parking out there,” said Omar Flores, 31, manager of La Mexicana market in western Phoenix. Now the grocery store is mostly empty.
Economist Dawn McLaren of Arizona State University said that part of what’s pushing immigrants out is the collapse of the state’s housing-based economy. In the construction sector, which employs many immigrants, 10% of jobs have vanished over the last year as home prices have plunged.
The economic woes are magnified by the employer sanctions law, which has led some businesses to say they won’t expand in Arizona, McLaren said. “It exacerbates the downturn,” she said. No one knows how many immigrants have left the state, and the most recent government figures show Arizona growing robustly – as of July, Maricopa was the fastest-growing county in the nation.
But enough immigrants have left that the government of Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Arizona, has complained about how many people have arrived on its doorstep.
Pearce says the overall effect has been undeniably positive for Arizona. “Smaller class sizes, shorter emergency room waits,” he said. “Even if [illegal immigrants] are paying taxes – and most of them aren’t – the cost to taxpayers is huge.”
Read the full article
From Voice of America:
The European Parliament has approved new rules for detaining and expelling illegal immigrants, legislation that human rights groups consider unfair.
EU lawmakers voted in Strasbourg Wednesday to let governments detain illegal immigrants for up to 18 months and impose a re-entry ban of up to five years. The rules are to go into effect by 2010. Britain, Ireland and Denmark have not signed on to the agreement.
Estimates of immigrants in Europe illegally vary from eight million to 12 million people. The new rules provide them some protections, including the right to apply for residency and to leave voluntarily, as well as access to legal counsel.
Amnesty International, among other rights groups voicing concern, says the measures do not ensure that illegal migrants will be returned to their home countries in safety and dignity.
Current detention limits vary within the EU, with most countries mandating maximum periods shorter than 18 months.
By Nicole Gaouette
From the LA Times:
The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half the nation's federal criminal caseload.
In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, up from 3,746 a year ago and an all-time high, according to statistics released Tuesday. Those convicted have received jail sentences averaging about one month.
The prosecutions are among the most visible steps in a larger effort that includes work-site raids, increased border patrols and the use of technology and fences. Often controversial, the patchwork of measures represents the administration's response to failed congressional attempts last summer to overhaul federal immigration laws.
Administration officials and conservative groups have lauded the increase in prosecutions. But critics say data show illegal immigrants are still trying to enter the country. And some lawyers argue that the push is overwhelming a federal court system with limited resources and higher priorities.
Even so, administration officials announced this month that they would be funneling more resources toward the effort, called Operation Streamline.
"The results of this criminal prosecution initiative have been striking," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff's agency and the Justice Department, which oversee the effort, recently announced a plan to assign 64 attorneys and 35 staff members to prosecutions along the Southwest border.
The program began as a pilot around Del Rio, Texas, in 2005 and spread to other areas. Officers and prosecutors participating in it practice "zero tolerance," and jail times can range from two weeks to six months.
"The reason this works is because these illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting, and will brand them as having been violators of the law," Chertoff said. "That has a very significant deterrent impact."
The statistical analysis released Tuesday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures. It called the increase "highly unusual."
Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.
"This is an effort to use the federal criminal justice system in immigration enforcement," Long said. "What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days. The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."
Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration cases accounted for more than half, Long said. The next-highest number, 2,674, was for drug offenses, followed by 702 for white-collar crime.
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From the LA Times:
The Department of Homeland Security has dramatically ratcheted up its arrests of individuals along the U.S.-Mexico border for various immigration crimes, according to statistics released today by Syracuse University. Immigration prosecutions hit an all-time high in March 2008, with 9,350 defendants charged. The number of March arrests is up 50% from April and up a whopping 73% from 2007. The prosecutions are part of a Homeland Security and Justice Department program called "Operation Streamline." Under the program, illegal immigrants caught along the U.S.-Mexico border are prosecuted on federal criminal charges that require jail time. The average sentence is one month.
In early June, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the program was yielding "striking" results. "Once they get prosecuted, they stop trying to come in again," Chertoff said, adding that officials have also seen "a reduction in smuggling -- in smuggling organizations and illegal entries in the relevant urban areas." The top three charges in March were: "reentry of deported alien," "bringing in and harboring certain aliens," and "entry of alien at improper time or place, etc." The Syracuse data found that five federal judicial districts along the border dominated when it came to immigration prosecutions. The Southern District of Texas, around Houston, was the most active with 488 prosecutions in March. Texas' Western District court, around San Antonio, was second and the Southern District of California, around San Diego, was third.
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No mention on whether any of the arrested illegal migrants were victims of trafficking. The article does, however, mention that some of the migrants were arrested on charges of prostitution. According to the U.S. Department of State, Italy has a strong record of combating trafficking.
By Stephen BrownFrom Reuters:
Italian police announced on Thursday the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.
Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area.
Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as prime minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, blamed by many for crime. He is readying new laws to screen immigrants and jail or expel those breaking the law.
Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.
In Libya, police have arrested 240 would-be illegal migrants from several African countries over the past four days as they prepared to sail to Italy, the Interior Ministry said.
Libya is a springboard for hundreds of thousands of Africans trying to reach Europe via Italy on board unseaworthy boats.
The policeman in charge of the Italian operation, Francesco Gratteri, told a news conference the sweep "wasn't aimed at any specific category or ethnic group. The sole objective were criminals who have caused a sensation of rising alarm in society".
The focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime are the Roma, known here as "nomads", who come mainly from Romania and other Eastern European countries. In Rome, police raided the biggest Roma camp and took away about 50 men for questioning.
The arrests coincided with a visit by Romanian Interior Minister Cristian David. Romania has Europe's biggest Roma population and its prime minister warned this week that Italy's crackdown could cause "xenophobia" against other Romanians.
Italy has tried to reassure the fellow European Union member that Romanians are not being targeted. The two countries have launched a joint police effort and Romania will despatch a task force of 15 officers to work with Italian police this month.
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By Sophia Tareen
From My Way News:
CHICAGO- Thousands of chanting, flag-waving immigrants and activists rallied in cities across the country Thursday, attempting to reinvigorate calls for immigration reform in a presidential election year in which the economy has taken center stage.
From Washington to Miami to Los Angeles, immigrant rights activists demanded citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and an end to raids and deportations.
"We come here to fight for legalization. We're people. We have rights," said Eric Molina, an undocumented factory worker who immigrated to Zion, Ill., from Mexico.
Molina, his sister and his 13-year-old daughter Erika, a U.S. citizen, were among about 15,000 people who rallied in Chicago in one of the largest demonstrations of the day.
Turnout has fallen sharply since the first nationwide rallies in 2006, when more than 1 million people - at least 400,000 in Chicago alone - clogged streets and brought downtown traffic to a standstill. Activists say this year's efforts are focused less on protests and more on voter registration and setting an agenda for the next president.
Some said participation likely was lower because many immigrants increasingly fear deportation.
Margot Veranes, a volunteer organizer in Tucson, Ariz., - where 12,000 took to the streets last year but early estimates Thursday put the crowd at about 500 - blamed the turnout on aggressive enforcement by Border Patrol and police.
"People have been stopped and deported in the last week. This is a community living in fear," said Veranes, a researcher for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. "You never know when you're going to be stopped by Border Patrol and now the police."
But she said that's also why people were marching.
"We're marching to end the raids and the deportations, but we're also marching for health care and education and good jobs," she said.
In Washington, immigrant rights groups and social justice organizations were demanding that Prince William County, in northern Virginia, rescind its anti-illegal immigration measure. They also called for an end to raids and deportations and for establishment of worker centers in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
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