Backlash

New American Media reports that more undocumented Chinese immigrants are entering the US through Mexico, Obama vows to "reform" the immigrant detention complex in the US (NYTimes article here) and RaceWire did a compelling piece on two permanent residents, Elliot Granade and Alexander Alli, caught up in the immigrant detention system in Pennsylvania for committing non-violent crimes. Racewire reports:

On any given day—DHS detains more than one thousand noncitizens in jails across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, particularly in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.... many are lawful permanent residents who are detained for months, if not years, while the immigration courts and federal courts resolve their cases. Yet they never receive a custody hearing to determine whether their prolonged detention is even necessary. Indeed, many choose to abandon their meritorious cases because they cannot endure the prospect of being locked up indefinitely.

We are struggling so hard with this, we are violating constitutional and basic human rights daily, and yet still no one seems capable of looking below the surface at what is causing the situation in the first place! About taking responsibility for the monster we have created through, for example, imperialist attitudes and policies in the region. That's just for starters... oh I could go on.

Immigration news

The NYT reports that a federal judge, Denny Chin, ruled that the "substandard and inhuman" conditions of immigration detention centers are a priority and Obama should address those conditions within 30 days.

Also, according to this Racewire article, the new mandate for a US passport when crossing US/Mexico and US/Canada borders is discriminatory against Mexican-Americans who are born outside of the hospital and therefore struggle to produce the many documents that serve as proof of US citizenship for those born outsie of hospitals:

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect June 1, requires Americans passing across the Canadian and Mexican borders to have a valid U.S. passport or passport card, instead of just a valid driver’s license, as previously required.

The new policy affects many communities in the Southwest for whom border crossing is a routine occurrence, and whose economic and cultural life stretches across the official divide imposed by governments. The travel requirements especially impact Mexican Americans born on the U.S. side of the border who face difficulties producing the documents needed to obtain a passport.

Civil libertarians filed a lawsuit last year charging that the passport process was unfair and discriminatory. Essentially, the procedures were biased against Mexican Americans born outside a hospital, with the help of a midwife, by requiring “an excessive number of documents normally not required to prove their citizenship.” The government recently settled the case, pledging to revise its application review procedures.