In an effort to address the serious overcrowding in prisons in the United States, the federal government is ratcheting down a bit its War on Drugs. Recently US attorney General Eric Holder announced new sentencing directives for low-level drug offenders charged with crimes that aren’t gang-related or violent. At the same time, the government has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to criminally prosecute undocumented immigrants crossing the border. As a result there is a new wave of … [Read more...]
All They Will Call You Will Be Deportees
A plane left Oakland, California on July 28, 1948, headed for Mexico. The plane was chartered by the U.S. Immigration Services and was carrying 32 people. Twenty-eight were Mexican citizens. They were being returned to Mexico courtesy of the U.S. government. Many were part of the bracero program and had finished their government-sponsored work contracts. Others had entered the country illegally and were being deported back to Mexico. Not long after take-off, over Coalinga, California, the … [Read more...]
All They Will Call You Will Be Deportee
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting, The oranges are piled in their creosote dumps; They're flying 'em back to the Mexico border To pay all their money to wade back again Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be "deportees" (Lyrics to “Deportee”by Woody Guthrie A report with staggering numbers was released on February 1, 2013. It reported that between the … [Read more...]
National Migration Week
National Migration Week 2013 will be held from January 6-12 with a primary theme of “We are Strangers No Longer: Our Journey of Hope Continues.” This year's National Migration Week observance and theme commemorate the 10th anniversary of the historic joint pastoral letter of the United States and Mexico bishops conferences, Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope. The observance of National Migration Week was begun over a quarter century ago by the Catholic Bishops to provide … [Read more...]
The Economic Contribution of the Immigrant
Returning to our Immigration 101 course, the topic for this blog post is, “Do immigrants help or hurt the economy?” Another way of asking this question is, “Are new immigrants a burden on the country or do they make an economic (as well as other types of) contribution.” Before we take a look at the economic data, I thought that this study by the Pew Research Center was interesting. It found that the majority of white evangelicals, about 60%, believe that immigrants are a burden on the … [Read more...]
