The Smithian

May 10th, 2013

'The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system. Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID. Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.'

Civil rights advocates are worrying that [it’s] the first step toward a national identification system that would grow into a dossier on Americans and chronicle our most every move.

May 4th, 2013

thesmithian

‘Now in his 20s, Pillo has had to adjust to life after Deferred Action…Sometimes he forgets that he can wave at police officers instead of avoiding eye contact…’

…After receiving his driver’s license, he was pulled over around the corner from his house. When the officer asked for his license and registration, out of habit, Pillo replied that he didn’t have one. “When he repeated, ‘You don’t have one?’ I remembered, ‘Wait a minute, I do.’” Although Pillo is thankful for what Deferred Action has given him, he adds, “Its only temporary, it doesn’t fix anything. Who knows? Two years from now, I could be back in limbo.” As of now, Pillo’s main concern is to push for broader change. “They won’t hear one, but they’ll hear millions,” he says.

much more, here.

May 2nd, 2013

thesmithian

Zoom

abbyjean:

racialicious: nitanahkohe: thenoobyorker:

From Facebook: Happy May Day, Seattle! — at De Acción Nacional Pro-Reforma Migratoria/National Day for Immigration Reform.

[look of the hour]

Reblogged from RHPolitics

April 26th, 2013

thesmithian

'Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group, which bills itself as a bipartisan entity dedicated to passing immigration reform, has spent considerable resources on ads advocating a host of anti-environmental causes — including driling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and constructing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The umbrella group, co-founded by Facebook’s Zuckerberg, NationBuilder’s Joe Green, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Dropbox’s Drew Houston, and others in the tech industry, is called FWD.US.'

April 26th, 2013

thesmithian

All this makes me question if we’re living in my grandmother’s South. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina want to roll back many of this country’s civil rights achievements with a political agenda that is anti-democracy and anti-justice. They attack poor people, women and the LGBTQ and immigrant communities. If you’re not white, male, straight and Christian, you’re not safe with our state Republican lawmakers. Despite their actions…Every day I feel inspired by North Carolina’s rich history and legacy of freedom struggles…You can’t talk about the civil rights movement and freedom struggles in the United States without talking about North Carolina—the Greensboro sit-ins, SNCC, civil rights icon and pioneer Ella Baker and the Wilmington 10. State lawmakers…ought not forget how our grandmothers fought for freedom and taught us to fight for it too…These lawmakers don’t speak for anyone I know. They don’t speak for the social work students whom I teach and study…They don’t speak for my family of friends in North Carolina, who pay taxes here and who have raised children who are commited to building on what their parents and grandparents started.

Crystal Hayes, at North Carolina’s Indy Week

April 26th, 2013

thesmithian

If they can’t come up with something that gives…opportunity for immigrants to come from Africa or Haiti yet they can give them to Ireland, I can’t vote for it…

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)

A growing number of members in the Congressional Black Caucus say they will not vote for an immigration reform bill that does not include diversity visas. The Senate’s bipartisan “gang of 8″ eliminated the 55,000 slot diversity visa program in their immigration legislation. There are 43 voting members of the CBC in the House.

April 24th, 2013

thesmithian

Immigrant women in Texas tell us that accessing birth control, cervical cancer screenings, and other reproductive care is so difficult here in the United States, they’re forced to cross into Mexico in order to get the care they need…One woman told us about how she literally swam across the Rio Grande to get access to reproductive care.

Kimberly Inez McGuire,

Associate Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

April 20th, 2013

thesmithian

…a broad man with an earpiece asked for ID, pushed our arms up and dragged us toward the police van. Apparently we matched a description. Apparently we looked like someone else. We sat in the van for 20 minutes. Alone. But not really alone. Because 100 people were walking by. And they looked in at us with a look that whispered: ‘There. One more. Another one who is acting in complete accordance with our prejudices.’ I wish you had been with me in the police van. But I sat there alone. And I met all the eyes walking by and tried to show them that I wasn’t guilty, that I had just been standing in a place and looking a particular way. But it’s hard to argue one’s innocence from the back seat of a police van. And it’s impossible to be a part of society when everyone continually assumes that you are not. After 20 minutes I was released. No apology. No explanation. Instead: ‘You can go now.’ And in the knowledge that others have it much worse, I chose silence instead of words. After all, I was born here. I know the language. I am not threatened with deportation.

Swedish-Tunisian novelist/playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri

April 11th, 2013

thesmithian

[re 'wetback'] '...The racial slur stems from the white imaginary and the ill conceived notion of Mexican immigrants becoming wet as they purportedly swam across the Rio Grande River, entering the U.S. in search of higher wages. As with many racist slurs, it’s based on several lies, the most obvious of which is that in many places the Rio Bravo del Norte (as it is known in Mexico) is shallow enough to walk across without getting more than your knees wet.'

April 10th, 2013

thesmithian

'...The immigration concerns of Africans, Caribbeans and Haitians were the focus of the evening...'

April 10th, 2013

thesmithian

‘…From the 1980s until the birth of the Tea Party…the religious right and the secular left waged an existential struggle for the soul of American society…’

…Issues related to sexuality, drugs, religion, family life, and patriotism were particularly vexing, and many people over 40 can recall the names of battlefields such as Mapplethorpe, needle exchange, 2 Live Crew, and the flag-burning amendment. But the left won a smashing victory in the 2012 elections, including the first victories at the ballot box for gay marriage. These triumphs…give the left confidence that it will ultimately prevail on most issues in the Social Theater. The power base of the religious right is older, white, rural Protestants, a group that immigration, demography, and urban renewal have consigned to play an ever-shrinking role in American presidential elections. Both sides are now likely to shift several divisions and…task forces over to the Economic Theater of the culture war, where the single most important battle of 2012 was fought—the battle over marginal tax rates for the rich. The left won that battle on January 1, when the House of Representatives voted to raise tax rates for the rich, but victory in the overall war is far less certain. Economic issues such as taxation are moral issues—no less so than social issues like gay marriage—and neither side has full control of the key moral foundations that underlie economic morality: fairness and liberty.

more.

April 3rd, 2013

thesmithian

…there are hundreds of clips, which together have garnered millions of views, of Americans of all ethnicities refusing to comply with inland immigration checks. These checks are conducted by border patrol agents, but it turns out plenty of people think the suspicionless stops are in violation of their constitutional rights.

awesome.

April 2nd, 2013

thesmithian

'The grips of sequestration are just now beginning to be felt and the effects are already quite dramatic. Organizations and companies have begun laying off workers, while many more have decided not to staff vacant positions. Schools on military bases are contemplating four-day weekly schedules. Food pantries have closed, as have centers that provide health services. Farmers have been forced to go without milk production information, causing alarm in the dairy industry and the potential of higher milk prices. Workers at missile-testing fields are facing job losses. Federal courts have closed on Fridays. Public Broadcasting transmitters have been shut down. Even luxury cruises are feeling the pinch, with passengers forced to wait hours before debarking because of delays at Customs and Immigration.'

March 28th, 2013

thesmithian

I learned about the Oikos shooting shortly after it happened from a Korean friend who communicated the whole thing in a one-line e-mail: ‘We did it again.’ I knew what he was talking about the moment I read it. ‘We,’ indeed, had done ‘it’ again, and ‘it’ required no further explanation. We first did it five years earlier, on April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech University. This phrase may sound cynical and callous, but it speaks to a truth shared among immigrants whose people have done terrible things. Nothing quite welds a group together as immediately and as forcefully as these moments of collective trauma.

Jay Caspian Kang

March 24th, 2013

thesmithian

Zoom

…part of a big leap in changing representations of immigration in U.S. independent and world cinema in recent years. To a degree…these changes in perspective mirror shifting public attitudes toward migrants in the United States. Foremost is the gathering awareness that migration is a global phenomenon, as old as humanity, in which people from countries both rich and poor, north and south, play their parts.

more.

…part of a big leap in changing representations of immigration in U.S. independent and world cinema in recent years. To a degree…these changes in perspective mirror shifting public attitudes toward migrants in the United States. Foremost is the gathering awareness that migration is a global phenomenon, as old as humanity, in which people from countries both rich and poor, north and south, play their parts.

more.