Saundra's immigration blog

Obama to resurrect immigration reform?

2010-06-30T12:10:00.006-04:00

I was not expecting this.

Given the Gulf oil spill, the recession, the replacement of General McChrystal with General Petraeus to oversee the conflict in Afghanistan, it seemed President Obama had plenty on his plate.

Now President Obama plans to address the nation tomorrow morning (Thursday) in a televised speech about renewed efforts to pass immigration reform by the end of this year that would include a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, the attempt to pass immigration reform might come during the lame-duck session of Congress following the November mid-term Congressional elections. Strategically speaking, if that's the case, the Democrats who vote in favor of it won't need to fear immediate retribution at the polls because the elections would be over. But it would allow President Obama to say that he's carrying through on a campaign promise to the growing Latino voting block in time to galvanize those voters to get to the polls in November.

Will it also counterbalance (or spur) the expected efforts of the tea party activists and immigration enforcement supporters to unseat Democrats in Congress?

Many, including myself, thought that this political hot potato would be put off until next year. But in watching Spanish-language television news reports, you would see that rallies and protests among Hispanics across the country are on the rise to get something done about immigration reform, sooner not later, as states like Arizona take matters into their own hands.

And possibly the Democrats will need the citizens among them at the polls in November.

How comprehensive will this proposal be? And are we in for yet another false start? I'll be watching to see what the president has to say tomorrow.

Given up for dead, Iraqi refugee struggles to survive in Temple Terrace

2009-09-16T10:57:00.014-04:00

More papers across the country are starting to write about the plight of Iraqi refugees after they arrive in the United States. Many have fled horrendous violence and the killings of family members. But when they get here, they encounter a new struggle. Like millions of Americans, they can't find work to support themselves and their families. Many were professionals back home, but their licenses aren't recognized here without lengthy and expensive recertification programs. In the meantime, they can't even find manual labor jobs. Many of them, like Hayder in my attached story, suffered injuries and severe trauma during the war, making a job hunt all the more difficult, if not impossible.

Refugee resettlement agencies are strapped or otherwise ill-equipped to help Iraqis after they're brought here. Some Iraqis, like Hayder, put their lives at risk to work for American forces back home in Iraq. They say they were promised more help than they're now getting.

Some former U.S. troops, now stateside, have formed nonprofits, stepping into the gap to help. The director of Checkpoint One Foundation said he thought the hardest part would be cutting through the red tape to speed up the arrival of Iraqi refugees who had worked as interpreters for U.S. forces. Instead, he has found the hardest part of this job to be getting them the proper help once they arrive in the United States. In some cases, families face eviction and homelessness. Some have considered returning to their interpreting job in Iraq, as well as the violence and death threats, just to make ends meet and support their families.

The International Rescue Committee issued a report this summer about the plight of Iraqi refugees.

As for Hayder, doctors in Tampa say he will likely never regain vision in his right eye.

Recession forces immigrants back to work in the fields

2009-05-04T16:57:00.003-04:00

Here's a story that looks at the recession's impact on a big part of the labor force in Florida -- farmworkers. This story stirred a lot of controversy. Many readers wrote, angry, about my use of the word "undocumented immigrants" instead of exclusively using "illegal aliens." They also wondered why I wrote the story at all and thought it was unfairly sympathetic when there are plenty of Americans who have lost their jobs, especially in the construction industry. That's true; they have. Newspapers have written about those people, too. However, not writing about this group of people who did very well in the construction boom and are now back in the fields, will not make the country's immigration problems go away.

There is a debate among economists about the overall impact of illegal immigrants on the U.S. labor force and wages. That debate has been the subject of numerous other articles. Here is a pretty comprehenive one:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1482