Gutierrez Announces Sept. 10 Community Meeting In Chicago And Broader Effort To Inform Immigrants About Obama’s New Deportation PoliciesAug. 30, 2011Page 2

here: http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/blog/national-call-about-dhs-announcement-on-830/)
On August 18, the Obama Administration announced it would review pending deportation cases on a case-by-case basis to remove certain low priority immigrants from the deportation cue.  These include non-criminals and those with deep roots in the U.S. like the immediate family members of U.S. citizens and service members and those who have been living in the U.S. from a young age.
The new prioritization guidelines came after a sustained advocacy campaign targeting President Obama who has increased deportations rapidly and broadened immigration enforcement since taking office.  Ever since the DREAM Act failed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate in November 2010, Rep. Gutierrez has been meeting with the President, fighting for reform legislation, traveling the country for rallies and hearing the stories of families being split apart by the escalating deportations.  Now the Congressman wants to ensure that immigrants in Chicago and nationwide know the scope of the new policy and what it means for them and their loved ones.
“The President recognizes that too many families and innocent bystanders were getting caught up in his effort to deport serious criminals and he has acted to address that, at least in part,” Rep. Gutierrez said at the press conference which was held at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (www.icirr.org), where he was joined by Chicago immigrant leaders and families who may be able to temporarily avoid deportation because of the new policies.
“The new policies move us in the right direction by targeting scarce law enforcement resources at criminals and gang-bangers and making our communities safer,” the Congressman said.  ”Now we have to take the positive actions of the Obama Administration and make sure it translates into actually protecting DREAM Act students and making sure families are not split apart.”

 

Puerto Rican Nationalist Carlos Alberto Torres to Lecture on His Incarceration, Political Prisoner Campaigns, and Puerto Rico

Thursday, October 6, 2011

http://www.independent.com/news/2011/oct/06/former-political-prisoner-speaks/

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/09/28/obama-cuba-must-reform-before-us-eases-position/

U.S. President Barack Obama says he will always be prepared to change U.S. policy toward Cuba, but has not seen the steps from Havana that would justify lifting the longstanding U.S. embargo.

President Obama made the comment Wednesday during an online roundtable discussion aimed at the Hispanic community. The president said he does not want to be stuck in what he called a “Cold War mentality,” and that the United States has sought to improve ties by changing laws regarding remittances and family travel to the communist-run island. Mr. Obama also said that before he would act, he wants to see action from Cuba on releasing political prisoners and providing people with basic human rights.

Cuba has said it has no political prisoners, only “mercenaries,” who Havana claims were working with the United States to undermine Cuban communism. The United States and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic relations, only interest sections that are technically part of the Swiss embassy in each other’s capitals.

Separately, the online discussion covered topics such as the president’s record on immigration as well as his new job creation proposal.

The hour-long forum, streamed live in English and dubbed in Spanish on the White House website Wednesday, is part of a push by the Obama administration to re-energize the support of groups that backed the president during the last election.

Mr. Obama told listeners he is trying enforce what he called the “inadequate” U.S. immigration laws in a “just and humane way.” He said his administration is doing this in part by focusing its deportation efforts on violent criminals and not students and law-abiding workers.

The president also responded to criticism that his administration has sharply increased the number of deportations, saying the figures seem high because there is better enforcement at the border. Mr. Obama said many of the deportations include people caught and sent back while trying to cross the border, not people who have been living and working in the U.S.

The president said he continues to advocate a comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws that would include strong border security, going after companies that hire and exploit undocumented workers, and creating a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. He blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking efforts to change the laws.

President Obama also used the discussion to continue campaigning for his $447 billion jobs bill, saying it would create employment for construction workers — including many Hispanics — laid off after the housing bubble burst. He said the bill’s education provisions will help train young Latinos to get good jobs when they enter the workforce.

The discussion featured questions posed by readers of several websites, including Yahoo Espanol, MSN Latino and AOL Latino and Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Mr. Obama has in recent months been trying to maintain or win back support from the nation’s 50 million Hispanics, whose votes he will need to win re-election in 2012. Some recent surveys have shown a drop in his approval rating among the group.

The discussion marked the second time this week that Mr. Obama has addressed questions from an online audience. On Monday, the president answered questions submitted on the social networking site, LinkedIn, as part of a three-day, five-city campaign tour.

Unknown Boricua: Streaming from Juan Sanchez on Vimeo.

Juan Sanchez presents a  collection of audio clips, images, and transformative ideas of the “Nuyorican state of mind”.  The streaming presents the diversity of experiences within the history of Puerto Rico and the United States through a flow of images, languages,  and music.

“Prohibido olvidar” (You are not allowed to forget) is the title of a popular tropical song that has served as a “motto” to those sectors that continually resist the fiscal policies of the current government administration in Puerto Rico. A group of university students made sure that this phrase remains the norm a year after one of the most violent confrontation between them and the police.

Students, activists and artists gathered at the Plaza de Colón in Old San Juan on Thursday to commemorate the first anniversary of one of the most violent events related to the prolonged 2010 student strike at the University of Puerto Rico.

Last year, students from the premier center of higher education on the island walked to the Capitol to demand from the legislature a solution to the conflict. The state police responded to their claims with punches, pepper gas and denied the access to the public legislative session.

The anniversary held on Thursday was characterized by musical performances, improvised paintings and speeches from student leaders and other political representatives.

“What happened last year is emblematic of our country’s situation and what the government does to repress certain sectors such as students and workers. People are not satisfied with what is going on in the country, from murders, budget cuts and the sense of impotence that is perceived by the population,” said former Puerto Rican political prisoner Elizam Escobar.

Thursday’s rally in San Juan was not exempt of controversies. Three state police officers approached the organizers and asked them to use a designated area for rallies. According to Captain Salva, the activists did not have the appropriate permits from the San Juan municipal government. Although he claimed to not have received any official complaints from the municipality, Salva still expressed that the participants were interrupting some gardening works that were being performed by city workers.
Despite the fact their event was confined to the plaza and did not interrupt other unrelated activities, the demonstrators did not complain and decided to move most of their planned performances to Plaza de Colón’s upper level where the police argued that it was legal to protest.

The rally was also used to make other demands. Escobar, one of the organizers of the event, also used the event as a forum to campaign in favor of Oscar López’s liberation. López is one of the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners from the island who is currently serving a sentence in a U.S. prison.

“Everything is connected. The campaign in favor of Oscar’s liberation is part of this (event). He organized communities in Chicago and encouraged people to fight for their rights. When he saw that such a movement did not work, Oscar decided to fight clandestinely and joined Puerto Rico’s Popular Army of Liberation,” said Escobar.

López was accused by the U.S. federal government of seditious activities and an interest to overthrow the American colonial government in Puerto Rico through violent means while he was a member of the revolutionary group “Los Macheteros.” He has been in jail for more than 30 years.

“This act of civil disobedience by an undocumented mother today is a proclamation of the ‘State of the Latino Nation.’”

Following in the footsteps of her friend Elvira Arellano, Flor Crisotomo announced today that she will refuse to report for deportation as ordered by Homeland Security and will take sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church.

“I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to make America see what they are doing. I believe with all my heart that the United States and Mexico must end the system of undocumented labor but the current policy of enforcement only is not ending this system and that is what I want America to see.”

Flor’s story illustrates the roots of the current immigration crisis. Driven here because of the effects of NAFTA on her hometown, she came to support her three children, her sister and her aging mother. She worked for IFCO until that company was raided in a high profile national raid in 2006, when she was arrested.

Flor explained that undocumented workers are caught between two U.S. policies. On the one hand, Homeland Security and a wave of local laws across the country are making it more and more difficult to survive openly in this country. On the other hand, the policies of NAFTA have devastated the rural economy of Mexico and as many as a million more Mexican farmers will be put out of work this year and most will seek to travel north.

“I cannot support my children if I return to Mexico because of the policies of NAFTA and yet for the 12 million it is becoming more and more difficult to survive here.”

“The government has no intention of deporting 12 million people. They say they expect us to self-deport, but we cannot leave because of what U.S. economic policies have done to destroy jobs in our home countries. That is why the current policy will not end the system of undocumented labor. It will only drive us into worse and worse jobs.”

“I will not be a symbol of fear to spread among my people. I hope that adding my grain of sand to the struggle will help to get the U.S. Congress to act to fix a broken law and an inhuman system of undocumented labor.

Speaking for Familia Latina Unida/[Pueblo] Sin Fronteras, Emma Lozano proclaimed Flor’s action as a statement of “the State of the Latino Nation.”

“Over half of the Latinos in this country live in fear every day that a family member, loved one or friend will be deported and yet the government has failed to respond to this crisis in our community. We will likely not even be mentioned in the President’s address tonight. The Democratic Presidential candidates have failed to take on this crisis and the Democratic Congress has refused to even put immigration on their agenda at their upcoming retreat this Wednesday. Neither Party has addressed the economic policies that are driving immigration from Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Not only the undocumented, but the entire Latino community has been forced into the shadows of this country.

“The current policy of “enforcement only” is a political fraud. It is not aimed at ending the cruel system of undocumented labor, which separates families on both sides of the border. It is aimed only at mobilizing hate, causing fear and driving millions further into the shadows.

“Today we are saying that we will not be invisible. Congress must act to bring our people out of the shadows. Congress must act to renegotiate NAFTA and legalize both the employers and the workers to end this system of exploitation and separation of families.”

Speaking on behalf of the little Methodist church that stood off the U.S. government for a year with Elvira Arellano, Rev Walter Coleman reminded the people that, “Jesus came to say that the people have eyes but they do not see. We must Make America See by our faith.”

“Two million people, their families here and their families in Mexico, are caught in a triangle of paralysis: Between the Greed of NAFTA, the Hatred of immigration enforcement and the hunger in their children’s eyes.

“We have waited patiently for government to act meaningfully – but they have not. Every Sunday, this church like many others across this land, is filled with families facing the pain of separation, the agony of unacceptable alternatives. We call today for a renewal of the Sanctuary Movement that began with Elvira Arellano here in this church.

“Where governments fail the people, faith must stand apart. Let us go forward together in faith. Let us make America see.”

Two years ago I was arrested in a raid that destroyed the lives of hundreds of IFCO workers and their families. The raid was part of the campaign of “attrition” through “enforcement only” that is the current wrong-headed policy of this government.

I have exhausted all my legal appeals and I have been ordered out of the country today. I am expected to be one of the flashing yellow warning lights that tells the 12 million undocumented to leave their families and “self-deport.”

I am not leaving. I have asked and been granted sanctuary in my church. I am not defying the laws of this country and I am not hiding. I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to Make America See what they are doing. I hope that adding my grain of sand to the struggle will help to get the U.S. Congress to act to fix a broken law and an inhuman system of undocumented labor.