REAL ID and You

This says it all! The video is from the ACLU.

Come out to the Real ID Community Forum and protect your privacy

Where : Colorado History Museum, 1300 Broadway, Denver
When : Wednesday, October 3 , 6:00 -8:00 pm

Security and technology experts from all sides of the political spectrum discuss the consequences of the federal Real ID legislation. Jim Harper of the Cato Institute, Mike Krause of the Independence Institute, security guru Bruce Schneier and our own Cathy Hazouri will comprise the panel. The discussion will be moderated by progressive blogger/journalist David Sirota . The event is FREE.

Please email Erik Maulbetsch at erik@aclu-co.org, or call 303.777.5482 x100 to RSVP.

Can't come to the event? Participate by asking questions!

Send them to: http://www.aclu-co.org/events/2007RealID.htm

Social Security office refuses to meet with immigrant rights coalition

Colorado participated in a national movement voicing opposition to the new DHS ruling on Social Security no-match letters and request that the SSA not send letters to employers

On Wednesday, September 19 five delegates from organizations of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition attempted to deliver a letter to the office of the Regional Commissioner for the Social Security Administration (SSA). The letter expressed our concern with the new DHS no-match letter regulations and asked the SSA to send letters to employees instead of employers if the October 1 ruling over turns the current injunction on the new rule. The letter was signed by twenty faith, labor and immigrant rights organizations throughout the state of Colorado, including organizations from Alamosa, Boulder, Denver, Durango, Greeley, Ft. Collins, Longmont and Montrose.

The delegates representing organizations who signed the letter included:

Sarah Custer, SEIU local 105; Gabriela Flora, American Friends Service Committee; Scott Kwasny, Jobs with Justice; Blake Pendergrass, Front Range Economic Strategy Center; Chandra Russo, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

We had been in conversation with the SSA Commissioners office for several weeks attempting to schedule a meeting to no avail. When we arrived to deliver the letter they refused to meet with us and instructed us via phone to leave the letter with security. We followed up by sending a hand written note along with another copy of the letter, expressing our disappointment in the failed meeting and our concern about the no-match matter. We also sent copies of the original letter to our CO delegation, majority and minority leaders in the CO assembly and the governor. We will continue to work with our allies across the country to stop the implementation of this damaging new rule.

Ch. 7, Ch. 2 and Univision showed up at the event with cameras and interviewed the delegation, along with an AP reporter. We also had live interviews on Spanish language radio Buena Onda (one before and one after) and with CNN Spanish radio.

Coverage on Channel 4: ID Verification Rule Could Hurt Legal Immigrants

AP write up: Advocates want delay in new Social Security verification rules
Associated Press - September 19, 2007 7:04 PM ET

Respond to Anti Immigrant Event in Greeley!

Immigrant Rights Advocates from Denver & Greeley bravely attended the Anti Immigrant Event in Greeley on Tuesday night, only to find that voices of dissent were effectively silenced….
Take a moment Today and participate in these 3 actions, ranging from EASY to ADVANCED!

Easy
1) Click on any of the links below and where ever available, use the talking points below to make comments and express that you believe immigrants are valuable assets to our community and anti immigrant sentiment is detrimental to our communities!
Decent Coverage:
http://www.9news.com/news/top-article.aspx?storyid=77546
http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-illegal-immigrant-meeting,0,5182237.story?coll=kwgn-home-2
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4396685&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/14147769/index.html
Not so decent coverage:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6932520 & mwhaley@denverpost.com
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5701888,00.html
http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/rockytalklive/archives/2007/09/illegal_immigrants_and_crime_g.html#more Rocky Live Chat about whether Greeley should have its own ICE office
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070919/NEWS/109190107
You could say:
Without the opportunity for public comment, the press was robbed of an opportunity to hear from the 50 or so pro immigrant people in the audience. It seems like the anti immigrant organizers of this event don’t value the views of all residents and citizens of Greeley. Community wide solutions can only emerge from community wide dialogue!
I empathize with victims of all crimes, but do not understand why Weld County D.A. Ken Buck is targeting one group of people for crime. This use of government resources and time to stigmatize and scapegoat an entire community is shameful.
Immigrants in every ethnic group in the United States have lower rates of crime and imprisonment than do the native born.
If we want to thoughtfully address crime in this country, we should look at the lack of meaningful opportunities for low income and youth of color in this country. We should also address how our criminal “justice” system warehouses disproportionate numbers of those youth, rather than provide essential services to address the underlying issues that led to criminal behavior in the first place.
Misinformation and generalizations about immigrants only serve to spread bias, hate and division. Painting immigrants as criminals is one of the tactics that extremist anti-immigrant groups have used to promote a white supremacist agenda.
To focus on immigrants as perpetrators of crime is unfair and one-sided. Immigrants are also victims of crime, particularly of crimes that are committed against them because of their race and ethnicity. Rhetoric like this discourages
immigrants from contacting law enforcement when they observe or are victims of crimes.

Intermediate:
2) The Mayor of Greeley, Tom Selders, has been targeted by anti immigrant activists. An advocate for Immigrant Rights by working to end the raids, send him your message of support!
Write a personal or organizational letter of support for Mayor Tom Selders!
Send to tom@selders.org or call (970) 350-9774 to express your support!
City of Greeley 1000 10th Street Greeley, CO 80631
fax: (970) 350-9736
You could say:
I applaud the efforts of Greeley’s Mayor Tom Selders’ in helping to vocalize the concerns of Colorado residents. I want to be part of the vocal majority who supports his plea for Comprehensive Immigration Reform for our nation’s hard working immigrants. His courage to speak up for his community should be commended.
People want to come here to work through legal channels but have no options. We call for an immediate end on all deportations and raids. The immoral and inhumane raids undermine community cohesion, family unity and imbue fear and uncertainty in the nation’s immigrant communities. They are distractions from crafting a workable comprehensive immigration reform, and what we need is a real commitment to an overhaul of the broken immigration system.
Undocumented immigrants are our neighbors, spouses, brothers, sisters, and friends. They are contributors to our communities, both culturally and economically. We benefit from immigrant labor without extending immigrants the protection of our laws. Any federal immigration policy must allow undocumented immigrants to legalize their status, support family reunification, reduce backlogs, protect workers rights, and provide opportunities for safe future migration.

Advanced:
3) Write a letter to the Denver Post and send it to openforum@denverpost.com or to the RMN and send it to letters@RockyMountainNews.com by Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007!
Three of the talking points below are sufficient (although more is okay), the length of your letter can be anywhere from 8 sentences to a few paragraphs.
Remember, editors like to publish personal accounts or community impact. Often times, the newspaper will call indicating they might print your letter.
1. Maximum length: 200 words
2. Submissions must include full name, home address, and day and evening telephone numbers for verification purposes.
3. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.
(only straight text, no email attachments)
Please send a copy of your letter to jgarcia@afsc.org
Call or email Jordan at 303-623-3464, jgarcia@afsc.org if you need assistance.
You could say:
Without the opportunity for public comment, the press was robbed of an opportunity to hear from the 50 or so pro immigrant people in the audience. It seems like the anti immigrant organizers of this event don’t value the views of all residents and citizens of Greeley. Community wide solutions can only emerge from community wide dialogue!
I empathize with victims of all crimes, but do not understand why Weld County D.A. Ken Buck is targeting one group of people for crime. This use of government resources and time to stigmatize and scapegoat an entire community is shameful.
Immigrants in every ethnic group in the United States have lower rates of crime and imprisonment than do the native born.
If we want to thoughtfully address crime in this country, we should look at the lack of meaningful opportunities for low income and youth of color in this country. We should also address how our criminal “justice” system warehouses disproportionate numbers of those youth, rather than provide essential services to address the underlying issues that led to criminal behavior in the first place.
Misinformation and generalizations about immigrants only serve to spread bias, hate and division. Painting immigrants as criminals is one of the tactics that extremist anti-immigrant groups have used to promote a white supremacist agenda.
To focus on immigrants as perpetrators of crime is unfair and one-sided. Immigrants are also victims of crime, particularly of crimes that are committed against them because of their race and ethnicity. Rhetoric like this discourages
immigrants from contacting law enforcement when they observe or are victims of crimes.


Thank you for supporting the human rights of immigrants!
-Coloradans For Immigrant Rights
Organizing Citizens to Support Immigrant Rights!

Jordan T. Garcia - Immigrant Rights Organizer
Coloradans For Immigrants Rights (CFIR)
"Organizing Citizens to Support Immigrants Rights!"
a project of the American Friends Service Committee

Reflections on the Greeley meeting

WORKING FOR UNITY
Down the street on this same night, a meeting of over two hundred people took place to do exactly that. Realizing Our Communities (ROC) met to discuss how all of Greeley can be safer for everyone, welcoming of all peoples, and one community. The ROC meting did not recieve coverage in either the Post or the News. It did draw diverse people from all over Greeley together and continued a conversation that will end in healing and a stronger community someday.

Why do I write this reflection? Becuase the truth is important. I write this because there is a real need for us to bring our community together and to engage in actions that unite us. In order to do that we need to speak the truth of the fear, the racism, and the hate that undergird much of the anti-immigrant movement. I have not yet been anywhere where this was so evident as at "the forum".

The "FORUM"
Last night we entered a room of over five hundred people for an event organized by public officials; The District Attorney Ken Buck, the Sheriff and the United States Assistant District Attorney. The event opened with a police color guard presenting the flags of Colorado and the Minutemen side by side and the pledge of allegiance. I am a really outgoing person however I felt no invitation or desire to sit down and join the attendees.

The racism was palpable as each white person at the door was greeted with a smile and a handshake while my friends of color received neither. While there were some people who were white that weren't clapping as the presentation went on, the vast majority were.

The event was advertised as a forum. The first thing the DA did was to tell us all that the meeting was informational and that they would not tae questions from the audience. Each official began by saying that the foreign born population does not make up much of the crime in Weld County. As the slides rolled by they sent a contradictory visual message which didn't match the words of the officials. So we watched 12 slides go by of men with Latino surnames who were foreign born and had been convicted of drunk driving over the last year. The officials never mentioned how many people born here were convicted of drunk driving or what percentage of convictions the foreign born population represents. They also used foreign born interchangeably with "ixxxxxl immigrants". This generalization was meant to communicate again the underlying message that you should be afraid of brown people in general. And so it went with progressively more serious crimes.

We listened to the testimony of victims of crimes committed by immigrants. All of the testimonies were either done in the hall or by video in the victim's home, except the last one. The organizers saved the testimony of an immigrant woman whose husband was killed by an immmigrant driving drunk as the last testimony. She was being interviewed by a staff member of the DA's in an official room with an American flag in the background. The translation wasn't simultaneous so that her testimony was robbed of its emotion as the DA's staff member translated in a flat voice. As she spoke of the loss of her husband, and her daughter cried for her father, more than 100 people got up and left. Apparently they were uninterested in any crime in which the victim is an immigrant.

Absent from the forum was any mention of the crimes committed by citizens against immigrants. Unpaid wages, hate crimes, robberies, assaults, rapes, intimidation and threats.

The sheriff passed out Colorado Alliance for a Secure America (CASA) flyers as people left. The flyers attack the Mayor of Greeley, who went to DC to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform. This group of officials who insist that immigrant crime is a problem in Greeley apparently do not want a solution and are uninterested in immigration reform.

The group of us who were there spoke with the Sheriff and the District Attorney afterwards. The District Attorney literally walked away from two of my friends of color in midsentence. They were trying to make a point about the images and the presentation and the stereotypes his office is furthering. One of my friends was saying the whole event was a shame. as the DA walked away, I followed and watched him listening attentively to members of CASA. I approached him, and he listened to me, a white woman, who was saying the exact same thing that my friends had said.

Statement by the Anti-Defamation League
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20071003/READERS/110030117

Challenge Greeley's Public Officials and Create Community

Please go to both events or to "Realizing Our Communities"

"Ixxxxxl Immigration-the Untold Stories"

Greeley's District Attorney and Chief of Police are sponsoring an event on September 18th which stereotypes all people who are undocumented as vicious criminals.

Click here for their description of the event.

I believe it is critical to support the victims of crime while/and challenging the racist/nativist assumption that all undocumented persons are criminals as well as discuss how our broken system contributes to all of the above. Members of CIRC and CFIR will be heading up together. See below for details.

Carpool Information- Denver to Greeley
Time: 4:00pm
Date: September 18th
Place: 3131 West 14th Avenue, Denver

Event Information
Time: 6:30pm -8:30pm
Date: September 18th
Place: 4H Building at Island Grove Park, Greeley

"REALIZING OUR COMMUNITIES- The Way to Greatness"

Latinos Unidos is sponsoring a community building event that night.

Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Date: Tuesday, Septemeber 18th
Place: Union Colony Civic Center, 701 10th Ave., Greeley.

Keynote speakers include Dwight Jones, state education commissioner; Polly Baca, CEO of Latin American Research and Service Agency; Steve Horan, director of Lutheran Family Services Refugee and Asylum programs in Denver, and Rolf Brende, chaplain and author of "The Gentle Heart Primer: Principles That Build Community."

94 Billion Dollars:The Price Tag to Deport

According to Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE), it will cost the agency approximately $94 billion to deport everyone who is undocumented. The figure does not include impacts like the cost of lost productivity (i.e. the impact on production), the humanitarian impact on the families, communities and friends left behind or on the countries of origin who would have to absorb the repatriated families and individuals.

The ICE estimate also does not include the cost of constructing new detention facilities to hold the people suspected of being undocumented. Nor do they talk about what would be done with these facilities after everyone is deported. Who will we fill those facilities with next?

Action:TONIGHT

Fuerza Latina in Fort Collins has organized an amazing vigil and rally tonight at 6:30pm to support human rights such as those of activist Elvira Arellano. If you are interested in carpooling we'll leave at 4:oo pm from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition's offices. Please contact Gina Millan at 303-893-3500.

Below is a strong op ed in the Fort Collins paper, the Coloradoan, which discusses the need for reform and invites people out to the vigil.

Those facing deportation are people
Kimberly Baker Medina

"Just as they have beaten at my door, they are beating at the door of thousands, forcefully separating children and parents and causing terror and suffering .... I believe in my heart that the people of this nation do not have hate in their hearts, they don't want to destroy our lives, our families and our communities. I accept what God has sent me to accept. But I ask of my community ... to join together with me and ask that we walk together for our dignity. I ask everyone of conscience and good will to join with us... the 12th of September."

These words were written by Elvira Arrellano, from the Chicago church where she sought sanctuary for a year to avoid deportation and separation from her son, a U.S. citizen. When she left the church in August to promote Sept. 12 as a day to speak out against deportations, she was arrested and deported, leaving her son behind.

Elvira's arrest is significant not because it is unusual, but because it is common, even here, in Larimer County. Locally, authorities send about 30 people monthly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Since the beginning of 2006, about 10,000 people in Colorado have been processed for deportation. Every person deported leaves someone behind.

David couldn't get his baby girl to eat after ICE took his wife. His three U.S. citizen children, a 6-month old breastfeeding baby, a 2- and a 5-year old, were crying and looking for their mother, who was deported two days after her arrest, without saying goodbye to her children.

Harriet, an 80-year-old widow, lost her granddaughter and two great-granddaughters when her grandson-in-law was deported and his family accompanied him. Before his deportation, Harriet looked forward to their daily visits. Now, she spends her days alone, missing her girls.

Lisa's husband was turned over to ICE for a broken taillight after living here for 13 years. As Lisa and her 7-year-old son, both U.S. citizens, packed up daddy's things, her son couldn't stop crying. "I don't want my daddy to go to Mexico," he sobbed.

A person is no less human because she or he lacks immigration papers. Deportations destroy children and families and communities. The people deported in our community are your neighbors, co-workers, members of your church and your children's playmates. The majority have committed no crime other than to have no immigration papers. They came here to escape persecution or hunger, or to unite with family. They become part of our communities, our families and our economy.

Current immigration laws do little more than cause suffering and injustice. They don't allow people to enter legally to work or be with family, or legalize their status. We must stop punishing families for dysfunctional laws and devise an immigration system that works for families and for America.

Fuerza Latina, together with families, faith and community organizations, will have a vigil at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Old Town Square in honor of Elvira and all families. Please join us.

Kimberly Baker Medina is an immigration attorney and a volunteer with Fuerza Latina. All of the people mentioned above are local residents of whom she has personal knowledge, whose names have been changed for privacy reasons. For more information about the vigil, contact Javier at 297-8951.

Reflections on the Aurora Detention Center

Yesterday morning I opened to a cartoon in the Denver Post. It had been drawn decades ago but was reprinted to show that things have not changed much with our immigration system. The cartoon portrays a couple dressed in stereotypical Mexican garb standing in the middle of a complex and completely overwhelming maze. And the woman says to the man something approximating: “You’re brother came via the river and you had to go through immigration!”

Perhaps what has changed since the cartoon was written is that today people seeking to come to the U.S. outside of the official immigration system have a much harder time just swimming across the Rio Grande. Operations Toe-the-Line and Gate-keeper which sought to seal off the border in the urban crossing points of El Paso (the Rio Grande) and Tijuana (which borders San Diego) have sent crossers into ever more remote parts of the desert. The new policies mean people today are dying at record numbers as they attempt to come to the U.S.

What has not changed is that our immigration system, that series of laws that our Congress cannot seem to collaborate and change, is a veritable maze to navigate.

Yesterday, I followed my leisurely coffee and newspaper with a day in the Aurora Detention Center. A group of us were hosted by the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) to tour the facility. I then spent the afternoon at the side of Andrea Gomez, an RMIAN attorney. Andrea did a know-your-rights presentation for those who will see the judge this week, followed by individual intakes with those who needed further help lowering their bond or figuring out if they have a legal case to stay in the country.

Without RMIAN doing this work, those in detention who cannot afford to hire an attorney (the vast majority) would never have a legal orientation before meeting with the judge. At the most basic level, most detainees should know that they have the possibility of having their bond lowered so that they do not have to fight their case from within detention. At a less basic level, immigration law is incredibly complex and not having the opportunity to talk with a lawyer about one’s immigration situation is a travesty of justice.

By the end of the educational presentation and individual meetings with nearly ten individuals (and this is but one of three presentations weekly), I looked at Andrea both amazed by her incredible stamina and wanting to cry at how messed up the system is. I thought of the comic labyrinth from the morning newspaper and did not find it so funny.

Every individual we spoke with had a very good reason to be in this country. Aside from economic necessity, the original motivation to come to the US for everyone we happened to speak with, people had loving communities here- spouses and partners, children, parents, siblings, workmates, friends.

Clearly, there had not been a legal avenue that they knew of to enter the US when they decided to come here, be it fifteen years ago or last month. If there had been, they would have used it. Based on their testimonies, the desperate complexities of trying to navigate an existence of “illegality” and the now grim prospects for anyone fixing their situation, it was obvious that our current immigration system is crushing human beings, along with their families and communities.

The hope of this all is that RMIAN is, despite the odds, doing fantastic work in the heart of what they have come to term “the underbelly of our immigration system”: detention. When people do have a legal defense out of detention and back into their communities, RMIAN ensures they know it and have the tools to fight for it. And we, outside of the underbelly, continue to do our work to change the system, so that the underbelly will not continue to grind away at human life.

Photos from the recent CIRC Pop Ed Retreat...

Thanks to all of those who worked so hard to make the state wide Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition Popular Education Retreat in Loveland, Colorado a huge success.