7-17-09
OMNI Friends
Ms. Hoeller is a local expert on immigration who combines both knowledge of the law and compassion for the vulnerable in our society. Her new book sets forth a coherent, comprehensive approach. Bring your questions and comments. Her talk begins at six, with plenty of time for you. Come early and stay afterward for refreshments and getting acquainted with others who care. Dick
Sponsored by OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology
Contact Gladys Tiffany, 973-9049, c 283-6361
IMMIGRANTS FORUM
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2009 IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES FORUM
6p.m. NIGHTBIRD BOOKS, Dickson St., Fayetteville
Speaker: Susie Hoeller, author of IMPASSE: Border Walls or Welcome the Stranger (2008)
Coordinator: Dick Bennett, 442-4600
Moderator: Carl Barnwell
Greeter: Jeff Seidensticker
Refreshments: Frank Head
Photos: Aubrey Shepherd
Video: Jonathan Gibbs
Flyer and Poster: Chris Delacruz
Distribution of Flyer and Poster: Dick
TOPICS
(1) The current status of the Obama Administration Immigration Enforcement Policy and immigration reform bills in Congress.
(2) The thesis of Impasse, that immigration reform has to be “holistic” and include labor law reforms to protect American workers and immigrants from unscrupulous employers who keep lowering wages and working conditions across the board.
(3) The lack of justice and often inhumane treatment that has been applied to immigrants who have been rounded up in 287g programs, mass raids on factories and meat processing plants, and the plight of detained immigrant children in US jails and detention facilities. The Obama Administration is changing these conditions, but much still needs to be done.
(4) How citizens who are concerned about immigration reform can influence the upcoming debate in Congress.
Biography: Susie Hoeller is an international business attorney who represents immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees on a pro bono basis (www.hoellerlaw.org). She is President of the American Center for International Policy Studies (www.amcips.org). In 2007, Hoeller authored Recall, Food and Toy Safety: An American Crisis. In 2009 she authored The Ethical Food Manifesto. She lives in Bentonville.
Commentary
Have you heard about this? Comprehensive immigration reform has a real chance of passing this year. A coalition of over 300 organizations, including the major labor unions, have teamed up to put pressure on Congress to (finally) fix the immigration system this year:
http://www.ReformImmigrationFORAmerica.org
President Obama pledged to pass comprehensive immigration reform during his campaign (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/ ), so with this broad, national effort, there's a real chance of it actually getting passed in 2009.
That said, the anti-immigration troops are *very* loud and organized. President Obama and Congress need to know that when the time comes to stand up for immigration reform, the supporters of reform are going to be loud and organized and help pass immigration reform for America.
Go to the website. I hope you'll consider signing on, too.
Thanks. Susie Hoeller
P.S. Here's some more background on the issue: American-born workers suffer if there is a vast pool of undocumented workers who are easily exploited by employers who seek unfair advantage. All of us are stronger if all of us have rights. Untargeted raids in workplaces and neighborhoods and rogue enforcement agents at all levels are terrorizing immigrant workers and dividing families without making us any safer and without fixing the real problems with our immigration system. Our out-of-date laws force many American families to remain separated for years – and in some cases, decades – because of backlogs and barriers to family unification in our immigration system. Finally, our outdated laws are practically unenforceable, driving too much immigration into the black market and not enough immigration through legal and orderly channels for immigrants who want to work in this country. The result is hundreds of thousands of immigrants being detained each year, hundreds of thousands deported, people forced to take life-threatening risks because they cannot enter legally, people dying in the desert, and people dying in detention due to awful conditions and official neglect. We can and must do better. Susie Hoeller
Books and Articles: (see Hoeller’s excellent biblio., the books and films I list supplement her references)
USA
--Hoeller, Suzie. IMPASSE: Border Walls or Welcome the Stranger (2008) is a book for all who wish to repair our broken immigration system. Unlike many others writing on immigration issues, the author rejects the extremist and divisive rhetoric which has helped to sustain the policy impasse in Congress
Dunn, Timothy. The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992: Low-Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home. CMAS Books, U Texas, 1996.
---Omer, Peter, ed. Underground America : Narratives of Undocummented Lives. McSweeney, 2008. Rev. FFW (8-7-08). 24 stories (out of 60 interviewed) of economic and political refugees who risked much to make it to the Land of the Free.--Schrag, Peter. “Blowback at the Border: How Our Obsession with Drug Prohibition and Unregulated Guns Gave Us Mexican Drug Wars.” The Nation (May 4, 2009).
WORLD
--Bacon, David. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Beacon, 2008. Documents how undocumented workers have become the world’s most exploited workforce. “Illegals” of all nationalities are central in the global struggle for economic justice.
FILMS
Made in L.A. creates a climate of empathy and understanding around immigration reform and helps lay the foundation for change. www.MadeInLA.com/MayDay!
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
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3 comments:
Here’s the deal. (1)The city council approved the appartments on the other side of this neighborhood and we didn’t have all of this discussion and hoopla, I wonder why??? (2) There is a cemetery right up near campus behind the kappa sig house and to my knowledge the students do not run rampant in the cemetery causing destruction. If they do, it never makes the news. (3) The bartholomew family has been a good tax paying business to this community since 1936. Progress and people have taken over much of the land that used to grow cattle in this area, and have pushed their business out. Now, they have found someone that is willing to purchase their land for a fair price, and a few people are preventing them from moving on with their sale. It is not right. (4) The veterans had a fair chance to purchase just like anyone else and they did not or have not ever made an offer to purchase because they do not have the money. Why should the seller wait for them to raise money, when they have someone that has the money now???? Why should the seller’s future plans be held up by someone who may never be able to raise enough money?? It makes no sense at all.
Are you saying that you have never read about the destructive activities in the cemetery adjacent to the UA campus? It cost a lot of money and a lot of volunteer hours to repair the damage. And it was all widely publicized in local newspapers and on televisioin. Who did it? Some say students but no convictions have occurred. So I won't accuse anyone.
But multi-story apartments next to a National Shrine are inappropriate, regardless of who might rent them.
Aubunique.com and aubreyshepherd.blogspot and other sites documented the discussion and hoopla over the Aspen Ridge and later Hill Place projects that underwent powerful and convincing neighborhood protests but got approval with Coody as mayor, constantly lobbying the council to pass the first project and then the second after the first one went broke.
The difference is that the Campus Crest debacle is next to a national cemetery, one of the first four created in the United States after the civil war. That is the difference. Something is involved besides aubrey's environmental documentation and his concern about the injustice of displacing hundreds of low-income residents for parent-subsidized students who may never fill the Hill Place apartments and may not yet have born in numbers adequate to fill the proposed Campus Crest development.
Do your homework!
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