immigration at Brave New Films

Mexican immigrant beaten to death in Pennsylvania

2008-07-25T21:02:17Z

Friend of Mexican Immigrant Beaten to Death in Pennsylvania Gives Eyewitness Account of Attack

Luis Ramirez, a twenty-five-year-old Mexican immigrant, was beaten to death last week by a group of teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. He was walking home last Saturday night when six white high school students brutally beat him while yelling racial slurs. Despite eyewitness testimony, no charges have been filed. We speak with Arielle Garcia, a friend of Ramirez who witnessed the attack.

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Partisan Challenges for McCain and Obama - Jenny Backus

2008-07-25T21:08:49Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Democratic consultant Jenny Backus identifies potentially difficult issues either John McCain or Barack Obama may have as President when dealing with Congress.

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The Bill Green Lecture Series memorializes Bill Green (1929-2002), who represented the East Side of Manhattan in Congress from 1978 to 1992.

Rep. Green, a Democrat, was an independent thinker who frequently crossed the aisle to collaborate on critical issues such as the environment, urban policy, and affordable housing. He served as a trustee of The New School and a board member of Milano.

This lecture series, which pays tribute to his deep commitment to bipartisanship, is generously funded by the Taconic Foundation, on whose board he also served - The New School

Jenny Backus is a consultant and strategist for the Democratic Party (unaffiliated in the 2008 presidential race).

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Congressman Lipinski Shuns Community, Skips Forum

2008-07-25T21:08:03Z

Illinois 3rd District leaders were left in the dark, yet again, by their incumbent Congressman, leading them to ask...

Where's Lipinski?? Why won't he talk with us?

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Minuteman Pulido attacks Religious Access Bill

2008-07-25T21:08:02Z

Rosanna Pulido, former head of the Chicago Minuteman Project and current spokesperson for the registered hate-group FAIR, attacks a bill that would allow clergy to minister to immigrant detainees and asylum seekers during vulnerable times.

Fight the hate, send a free fax here:
http://capwiz.com/icirr

Do more: Call your reps to say no to HB 5756, the Illinois Minutemen bill!

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John McCain: Speech 07/14/08

2008-07-25T20:36:09Z

John McCain
Speech
San Diego, CA 07/14/08

TRANSCRIPTION
QUESTIONER: Senator McCain, [...] I'm the executive director of the committee for Hispanic children and families. It's an organization that has worked for the last 26 years to improve the lives of Latino children and families and my concern is about, as I will tell you as the executive director of an organization that works on behalf of children and families, and as a citizen of this country I am ashamed of these raids that are separating children from their parents from one day to the next.

My question is to you is, as president of this great country, will you stop making me ashamed and stop these inhumane raids?

JOHN MCCAIN: We will. In all due respect, you're talking about a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself. Of course we don't want anything done that's inhumane and I thought I tried to articulate it—and maybe I didn't do as well as I should—my compassion and my feeling.

Anybody who comes from a border state as I do sees the deaths of innocent people in the desert and the exploitation and mistreatment by the coyotes and the practice when drug dealers send a group of illegals across the border and call the border patrol themselves. The border patrol rounds 'em up and then the drug dealers go across. It's a terrible situation.

It's a failure of the federal government to exercise it's responsibilities and so you see this manifestations [sic] and different constituencies and different authorities—not the federal government—state, local and other governments doing it. I will repeat to you again, I will do everything I can to see that this issue is treated in [...] a humane, compassionate fashion.

That is my commitment to you. These are god's children and that's what I will do. Thank you.

QUESTIONER: Just one last thing—they're god's children and many of them are US citizens, but they're not treated with the same human rights and the same protection as other children in this country and that's what I want to see stopped.

MCCAIN: I agree and could I say, not this previous 4th of July, but 4th of July last, Senator Lindsey Graham and I were in Baghdad. General Petraeus asked us to be at a occasion [sic] of 688 brave, young Americans re-enlistin' to stay and fight in Iraq against al-Qaeda and the militias and the enemy there. There was also another ceremony where about 166—that is the number, 166—people were also sworn in as United States citizens. These were people of them, many of them Hispanic, who were willing to put their lives on the line in combat in Iraq so that they could have the privilege of citizenship in this nation and I'm very proud to have made their acquaintance as well. I would. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

LABEL: JM CA 7-14 (JR#60) EA - ClipE

To download a hi-res version of this clip, VISIT: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/83oeuxegcc

To download the full event, VIST: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/vo6ycpkgs0

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John McCain: Speech 07/14/08

2008-07-25T20:36:07Z

John McCain
Speech
San Diego, CA 07/14/08

TRANSCRIPTION
QUESTIONER: [...] I'm one of the 6 million who either have undocumented parent[s] or is undocumented and I wanted to know if you will support humanity all around the world including the dream act.

JOHN MCCAIN: Yes. Yes. Thank you. I will also enforce the existing laws of the country and a nation's first requirement is a nation's security and that's why we have to have our borders secure, but we can have a way and a process of people obtaining citizenship in this country and we cannot penalize people who come here legally and people who wait legally and so that's the fundamental principle in which we have to operate. Thank you.

LABEL: JM CA 7-14 (JR#60) CE - ClipF

To download a hi-res version of this clip, VISIT: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/sl3f6tm04o

To download the full event, VISIT: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/ygnf6oz6s0

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Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville, TN

2008-07-25T20:41:16Z

Mayor Dean expresses his frustration with Nashville's lack of action on mass transit, criticizes an English-only ballot initiative, and encourages the federal government to combat growing economic inequality.

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Interpreter speaks about largest raid in US history-1/2

2008-07-25T16:44:08Z

Court Interpreter Breaks Confidentiality Code to Speak Out for Workers Rounded Up in Largest Immigration Raid in U.S. History

On May 12th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 400 workers at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa in the largest immigration raid in US history. Many were sent to prison. We speak with Erik Camayd-Freixas, a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who was flown into Iowa for the trial. He broke the code of confidentiality among legal interpreters to describe the workers' predicament in what he calls "the saddest procession I have ever witnessed." He says most of the workers were peasants from Guatemala and did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing. He also says that court-appointed lawyers had little time to meet with the workers, many of whom ended up waiving their rights. [includes rush transcript]

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Interpreter speaks about largest raid in US history-2/2

2008-07-25T16:44:08Z

Court Interpreter Breaks Confidentiality Code to Speak Out for Workers Rounded Up in Largest Immigration Raid in U.S. History

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Rizwaan Sabir - Victim of state islamophobia speaks out

2008-07-25T20:30:15Z

Filmed by Chris Edwards
Manchester, England. 5th June 2008. A rally against Islamophobia takes place in the run up to the vote in Parliament to extend the period of detention without charge from 28 days to 42 days.

This clip shows Nottingham University Ph.D research student, Rizwaan Sabir, talking about his brief arrest by the police as a suspected "terrorist". He is researching the nature of political Islam and downloaded an Al Qaeda manual from the US department of Justice web-site as part of his research. He emailed the manual to a friend, Hicham Yezza, asking him to print it off on his behalf. This was reported to the police. His friend is now being deported to Algeria as a result. In this clip, he explains what happened during this absurd example of Islamophobia.

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McCain vs. McCain on the DREAM ACT

2008-07-19T05:23:41Z

When John McCain spoke at the National Council of La Raza on Monday, a woman from One Dream 2009 asked whether he would support the DREAM Act, which would give undocumented high-school students the chance to achieve a higher education. McCain answered, "Yes, yes."

Now, that would be good news except, as Matt Ortega tells us, it completely contradicts what McCain told a bunch of right-wing bloggers back in 2007.

Here's a quote from the National Review's Jim Geraghty about McCain's true stance on the DREAM Act: "I would have voted against it I have said a thousand times, I have heard the message from the American people. They want the border secured first."

Don't let McCain flip-flop on the DREAM Act. Don't let his pandering go unnoticed. For more, check out: adreamdeferred.org

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John McCain: Speech 07/14/08

2008-07-24T22:23:30Z

John McCain
Speech
San Diego, CA 07/14/08

TRANSCRIPT
JOHN MCCAIN: "I know many of you were disappointed and hurt by those who used the debate on immigration last year, not to respectfully debate the issue, as most did, but to denigrate the contributions of Hispanics to our great country. I denounced those insults then, and I denounce them today."

LABEL: JM CA 7-14 (JR#59) E - ClipC

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Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville, TN

2008-07-14T17:29:16Z

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McCain Reaches Out to Women in Wisconsin

2008-07-25T21:06:07Z

Senator McCain attempts to smooth over recent gaffes on women's issues at a townhall in Hudson, WI.

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First person: Omar Bar, Senegalese immigrant - 13 Jul 08

2008-07-17T00:40:16Z

Last month the EU parliament approved a new set of immigration rules which will allow member states to send send illegal immigrants back to where they come from. They can also be detained for up to 18 months and banned from re-entering the EU for five years.

One of those who would have been affected by the new rules is 28-year-old Senegalese Omar Bar. The boat he travelled on to Europe sank. He was the only survivor.

Now he lives legally in France and campaigns to alert young Africans to the risks they are taking if they try to reach Europe. This is his story.

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Migrants linger in so-called 'ghettos' - 13 Jul 08

2008-07-14T08:43:59Z

For many migrants, their journeys end well before they are able to leave Africa.

They get caught and deported, ending up in transit countries like Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

As Casey Kauffman shows us from Mali, many prefer to live in the squalid conditions of the so-called ghettos, rather than return home.

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Migrants crossing the Sahara - 12 Jul 08

2008-07-16T04:45:13Z

Heads of state and government from countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea will meet in Paris to launch the Mediterranean Union project.

On the top of the agenda is illegal immigration.

Al Jazeera's Casey Kauffman travelled to the northeast of Mali and met a group of migrants on the first leg of their journey across the Sahara.

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The Horrors of Medical Care in Immigrant Detention

2008-07-25T20:28:13Z

In 2006, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General found serious health and safety concerns at immigrant detention facilities and that detainees' requests for medical attention were often ignored.

In this video, a young woman from Pakistan who was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for nearly two years while she sought refugee protection in the United States describes her experience being locked up with violent inmates and trying to access medical care. When she discovered a lump in her shoulder, a jail nurse told her "it's just a fatty tumor" and the government refused her request to see a doctor to have it checked out.

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Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty

2008-07-09T13:25:20Z

Woody's beautifully stirring and truly patriotic "Pastures of Plenty" extolling the virtues of the migrant workers, or "illegals," as they are now abusively called. They have always been at the heart of America's food production. The spirit of Cesar Chavez is in this song. Guthrie's song was relevant in the thirties, in the sixties, in the eighties, and never more so than in the everpresent....

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Woody Guthrie's Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

2008-07-09T13:21:23Z

I have performed this Woody Guthrie musical lecture for over 30 years. I always end with this piece, and despite any tricks I use to try to fool myself, I wind up feeling the words and being moved to tears by the end of it. One of a handful of songs that make an incredibly personal yet universal statement about the devestating impact of injustice and greed.

Another of Guthrie's indictments of ruthless capitalism, it is a brilliant answer to the far-wrong's faux flaps over workers deemed "illegal." My spoken introduction to this piece at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0gNvsdCCxA&feature=related

includes a discussion of Chapter 25 from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and the corporate greed that manipulates the "market" while workers starve.

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FarkTV: Our Founding Illegals

2008-07-09T11:54:20Z

FarkTV takes a comical look at some of the first immigrants ever to reach our shores.

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Rendered Stateless - Girl without a country

2008-07-05T19:19:38Z

Alexander (Allie) Mulhivill, 16, is the latest victim of a rigid and heartless immigration system that often does not work. And no--she is not an "illegal alien." Allie was adopted by U.S. citizens, Lori and Scott Mulhiville, when she was 2 years old from Guatemala. For the past 14 years, the Mulhivills have been trying to get a visa for Allie without any luck. And time is running out for her as Allie turns 16 and becomes another DREAMer who cannot work, vote, drive legally, travel abroad, get financial aid for college because the USCIS is not willing to give her a visa.

All this is because 15 years ago, the U.S. Embassy failed to verify that the woman giving Allie up for adoption was her birth mother--from the get go they allowed Allie to be adopted but did not grant her a visa because later they suspected baby trafficking. Allie continues to be in immigration limbo even as her adoptive parents fight to keep her in the United States but she risks deportation when she turns 16. Would readopting her do the trick? Government officials give no guarantee--they are still stuck on their baby trafficking scenario even without any hard evidence. Keeping Allie and her family in a state of permanent limbo based on unproven hypothesis is cruel and inhumane.

Step backwards: USCIS closes offices in Tijuana

2008-07-05T19:19:41Z

On one hand, the ICE and concerned Americans are pressing for a crackdown on "illegal immigration" and on the other hand, USCIS is making legal migration from Mexico much tougher by permanently closing offices in Tijuana. Obviously, this move is contradictory to resolving the problem of "illegal immigration" into the United States.

The Sun reports:

The office has provided a location for foreign nationals, especially citizens of Mexico, to begin the immigration process to the United States by obtaining needed information and materials. Americans in our area who are assisting relatives who want to immigrate to our nation or get necessary documentation have also used the Tijuana office.

Border Patrol: ICE targeting Amtrak, Greyhound

2008-07-10T22:08:38Z

This news is a bit old but serves as a reminder for anyone who is unaware: If you are an undocumented immigrant traveling during these holidays or anytime soon between New York and Chicago, avoid Amtrak and Greyhound as there have been reports of undocumented students being apprehended and detained by the ICE.

Apparently, ICE is concerned about illegal immigrants and terrorists coming into the United States via the Canadian border and the Amtrak line from Chicago to New York cuts quite close to the Northern border.

U.S. Attorney Randall Caudle states that under the Fifth Amendment of the United States (which applies even to non-citizens due to selective incorporation through the 14th amendment), individuals do not have to present ID to border patrol and ICE officers within the United States. In effect, we are violating one set of laws to enforce another set of laws--talk about sending mixed messages.

Happy 4th of July. Stay safe.

Next up: ICE checks on cyclists.

Caught in Transit: The Rochester Border Patrol Station from Newshouse on Vimeo.

USCIS Promises Modernization of Immigration Process

2008-07-08T18:42:18Z

Acting head of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Jonathan Scharfen, has promised several changes to the USCIS bureaucracy that would help speed-up the legalization and naturalization process.

While Scharfen claims that the USCIS is working on resolving the problem of backlogs in citizenship applications and background checks, he has also noted that moving from a paper-based bureaucracy to a computer age is the "ultimate solution." Indeed, computerizing applications would make the task faster and much more efficient, decreasing misplacement of documents and increasing effective communication.

The USCIS seems to be gearing up for a change in administration and immigration policies. They have secured a "transformation" contract to modernize to an electronic system and get in touch with the 21st century.

"And we want to make sure that's in good shape, so when the new administration comes in, we're up and running and that contract is on the right track."

For now, to deal with the backlog, FBI and the USCIS has spent another $35 million to hire new workers and contractors. Scharfen estimates that by June 2009, the average time for an FBI background check would be 30 days, down from the 2 years it takes right now.

The big question is whether USCIS can deal with the legalization of 12.5 million undocumented immigrants. This is what Scharfen said: