Undocumented Immigrants

Most Crucial Week In Supreme Court Since Gore V. Bush In 2000 Coming Next Week!

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There is no doubt about it! Next week, the last of the Supreme Court’s present term, will have an impact on America unseen since Gore V. Bush in 2000, which decided that George W. Bush would be our President, instead of Al Gore, who had a 540,000 popular vote lead in the Presidential Election Of 2000.

The week is crucial to both Barack Obama and his Democratic Party, and also to the opposition Republican Party.

It will have a massive impact on millions of Americans who may lose their chance to have health care, and could take away benefits that have already gone into play in the past two years, since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, known to many as “ObamaCare”!

After a century of struggle for health care for all, since the first suggestion under Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, we could see America finally coming to the level of available health care that all advanced industrial nations in Europe, Australia and Canada already have, or else we could go backwards and have a long wait before it can possibly happen again!

It would be a great tragedy if the main purpose of the Obama Presidency is wiped out, or weakened considerably, by the conservative Supreme Court. But this is one of the long range results of the Bush V. Gore case of 2000, rearing its ugly head now, a dozen years later If Al Gore had appointed two Justices to the Supreme Court, they would not have been John Roberts and Samuel Alito!

Also, the Supreme Court will decide if the discriminatory immigration laws of Arizona and Alabama will be allowed to stand, and if it is that result, it will be a major blow to human freedom, liberty, and dignity!

The lives of millions of undocumented immigrants will be put into a situation similar to what African Americans suffered from until the civil rights era started to challenge the prejudice, discrimination, and bias that existed for nearly a century!

Are we about to go backwards on human rights, and victimize immigrant groups, as often we have done in the past of American history?

These two cases are a battle for the future, against the past, and it could be a very tragic week!

One thing is very clear, no matter what the decisions, and that is that the MOST IMPORTANT reason to support Barack Obama and promote a Democratic controlled Congress is the future of the Supreme Court, with four members being ages 73-79, and at least a couple of them likely to be replaced in the next Presidential term.

We cannot afford a President Romney who would move the Supreme Court further to the right, making constitutional challenges on the issues of civil liberties and civil rights, and the power of the corporate world, unable to be resolved in a proper way for the next generation and more!

Barack Obama And Young Immigrants: Justice Finally!

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With the passage of the DREAM Act impossible at this point in Congress, it was up to President Barack Obama to take executive action through the Department of Homeland Security to allow young immigrant children up to the age of 30, who were brought here as young children by their undocumented immigrant parents, to have a future that was more determined and stable.

His argument is that young immigrants who see themselves as Americans and have no real connection to the country of their birth, as long as they have stayed out of legal trouble, gone to school, attended college, or gone into the military, should have the opportunity to advance themselves temporarily over the next two years, and have a measure of security and certainty in their lives.

What Obama did today does not guarantee the long term, but gives a reprieve while the possible passage of the DREAM Act is considered in the next Congress.

This is the humane, moral, and right thing to do in every sense, and the President is to be congratulated for his courage!

Republicans Claim To Be Pro Women’s Rights: Really?

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The Republican Party leadership in Congress loves to claim that the Democrats are wrong in calling them anti women, and campaigning against women.

But the facts belie Republican claims as shown as follows:

Both in Washington DC and in the states, Republican leadership is attacking women’s rights, women’s health, and women’s safety.

The House of Representatives passed a bill weakening the Violence Against Women Act two weeks ago.

Virginia passed legislation requiring women undergoing an abortion to undergo medically unnecessary and physically invasive sonograms.

Senate Republicans are blocking a measure to deal with wage discrimination against women.

On abortion, seven states have made it more difficult to get an abortion, by making the deadline for getting one much earlier, before knowledge of fetal abnormalities or health risks are available, Criminal penalties are also set up to intimidate doctors from performing abortions, making it more difficult to stay in business, and endangering the lives of women who often cannot gain an abortion even at the risk of their own lives.

Planned Parenthood has been systematically attacked, with funds cut for basic health care services for the poor, on the argument that the main activity of the group is abortion, when it is only about 3 percent of the funding of the organization, and is not its primary role in promoting women’s health.

The 1963 Equal Pay Act under President Kennedy is being fought bitterly, with the attempt to update the law to help women gain equality in pay for equal work being opposed by Republicans, and states such as Wisconsin are going backward on women’s rights to equal pay.

Domestic violence legislation is being fought by Republicans, who do not wish to include lesbians, native American women, and undocumented immigrant women who are in danger, and can no longer report abuse to law enforcement authorities, to go after the abusers.

How can anyone say that the GOP is NOT declaring “war” on women? One is judged by one’s actions, not words!

The Republican Motivation For Power: Take Away Human Rights Already Granted!

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America has developed over the past two centuries into a republic promoting democratic values and the advancement of human rights.

The Republican Party of 2011-2012, however, is making clear its desire to TAKE AWAY human rights already won over the past two centuries, with blood, sweat and tears!

We have seen the acquisition of voting rights in the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments, as well as with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and yet now, the Republican Party in many states is working very hard to LIMIT the right to vote by unreasonable limitations that particularly affect African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, college students, the elderly and the poor of all races!

Women have gained the right to control their own privacy, including control of their own bodies, through a Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade in 1973 and other Supreme Court decisions and legislative actions, and yet now in many of our states, the attempt to take away women’s rights, including the right of abortion, is being fiercely waged, including encouragement of violence against abortion providers and closing down of locations where a woman can pursue her reproductive rights.

Gay men and lesbians have gained the right to serve in the military openly, be married in several states, adopt children in most states, and have other basic human rights, but now the move is on to take away these rights so hard fought for!

Working people, both immigrants and those born in the US, have fought for labor protection and representation through formation of labor unions, which have now been undermined for decades, and the attempt to impoverish workers by corporations and their Republican allies is in full development!

This has been a land of immigrants, and yet the Republican Party of today believes in polarizing Americans against undocumented immigrants who they would support deporting in the millions, even with the fact that 98 percent of them have committed no crime beyond entering the nation in an illegal manner, and just want the opportunity to work toward eventual citizenship through learning English, paying fees, and waiting patiently in line for the “American Dream”, and yet now work at low wage jobs that no Americans wish to fill, particularly in agriculture, retail, and home and hotel services.

Americans in general have been able to see improved educational opportunities, better health care, and opportunities for better housing and safer environment and consumer protection due to past Democrats and moderate Republicans working to better conditions for the middle class and the poor, but now the goal of the GOP is to take away these advancements and simply promote the interests of the top one percent and the corporations that sit on money, refuse to hire, and instead use government money that saved them to give bonuses to overpaid, under worked executives, and to lobby corrupt politicians who do their bidding!

Will the nation at large continue to accept an opposition party that works to DENY all of the progress on voting rights, women’s rights, gay rights, labor rights, immigrant rights, and the advancements for the middle class and poor gained over two centuries?

Only if the people are appealed to based upon ignorance, emotion, prejudice, and manipulation! For the future of America, this cannot be allowed to happen, as it will undermine the social fabric of America for the long haul!

Alabama’s Harsh Immigration Law: Worse Than Arizona And Revives Old Memories Of Alabama’s Horrid Racial History!

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Alabama has managed to take some attention off Arizona’s disgraceful immigration law, as its own legislation, put into effect on October 1, although being contested in the courts by the federal government, has already undermined its image to anyone who has a sense of justice and decency and fairness!

Reports of Hispanic immigrants fleeing, leaving their homes and possessions behind, and of children suddenly withdrawing from school , paint a picture that reminds us of Alabama’s past history of racial discrimination and violence, only possibly matched or surpassed in the South by Mississippi!

Only about 4.2 percent of Alabama’s population are undocumented immigrants, and there is no indication that there has been a problem of crime due to them being present in the state.

There are reports of pregnant women afraid to go to the hospital and of crime victims fearful of going to the police.

At the same time, harvest of agricultural crops in the state has declined dramatically, and much of the produce will rot for lack of people willing to do the work, so the economy of one of the poorest states will become worse, because of this draconian law!

The legislation makes illegal immigrants unable to enter contracts; be employed; rent housing; or gain government services. It makes these unfortunate victims unable to work, unable to gain education, unable to protect themselves from being victimized, and puts them in poverty with a sense of no ability to relate to their neighbors or any social institutions.

Fortunately, many church leaders have protested, and the federal government is actively pursuing action, but what is needed now is a court injunction to prevent further enforcement until the case comes to court! This legislation is inhumane, and a violation of human rights on a grand scale!

Alabama Surpasses Arizona With Hateful, Nativist Anti Immigration Law!

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After the uproar over the Arizona illegal immigration law of 2010, now being appealed in the federal courts, one would have thought that no state could surpass them in narrow mindedness, hate, and nativism, but that has now become the case with the state of Alabama.

The state of some of the worst examples of “Jim Crow” segregation for many generations, and the state of infamous segregationist George C. Wallace, has now put into action an anti immigration law that is described by many as the cruelest imaginable!

Four Alabama church leaders–Episcopal, Methodist, and Roman Catholic–have led the fight against the law, which goes into effect two days from now!

They say it criminalizes acts of Christian compassion by making potential criminals of anyone who may work or live with them or show them consideration!

Undocumented immigrants may not work, rent a home, sign any contract, and can be stopped by the police to check their status if there is suspicion of any kind!

Anyone who knowingly “conceals, harbors, or shields” an illegal immigrant can be charged with a crime–including renting a place to live, driving that person to church, or taking them to a doctor!

Schools must check the status of all students, and businesses can lose licenses to operate if they hire illegal, undocumented immigrants!

Harassment and racial profiling are the result, and the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing to block enforcement!

This situation reminds one of the anti Jewish actions taken by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the mid 1930s, with the Nuremburg Laws coming to mind. Of course, many will say that is ridiculous as a comparison, but is it really, when one looks at the past history of African Americans in Alabama during the near century of “Jim Crow” laws and racial violence by the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups, and also the intimidation visited against Jews and Catholics?

The only people who can celebrate this law are the KKK, and other white supremacy groups! It puts Alabama to shame, and puts it back on the list of the ten worst states, a group that it might have been escaping with some racial progress in recent years, but now rapidly disappearing with this hateful, nativist, despicable legislation!