The road trip is the most characteristically American form of travel, so what could be more appropriate for a group representing people who want to become Americans than to take a two week trip through dozens of states to Denver and then to Minneapolis. Along the way the group, in an all-American minivan, will stop at places associated with today's immigration headlines.

They just stopped off at the Workplace Project here in Hempstead and stopped in to say hello to me. Check their site out tomorrow for blogs and video on our visit.

Elizabeth Schlack of Shenandoah testified that she heard sounds from West Lloyd Street as she watched television in her bedroom on Mount Vernon Street the night of the crime. She said she looked outside and saw that the noises were coming from the feet of three men repeatedly thudding against Ramirez’s body about 80 feet away.
The kicking continued for at least two minutes while she spoke on the telephone with emergency dispatchers, she said. She could not identify the three who were doing the kicking.

Also testifying was Eileen J. Burke, a retired Philadelphia police officer who lives near the crime scene. Burke said she heard screams, then went outside her house and recognized the defendants, who were among a group of teenage boys running from the scene. She said that before they left, Walsh and Piekarsky pounded on a vehicle driven to the scene by Arielle Garcia, whom investigators said Ramirez had called for help from his cell phone before the fight started. She said Piekarsky yelled at Garcia, "Tell your ... Mexican friends to get the ... out of Shenandoah or you’ll be ... laying next to him."

Neither of these witnesses knew Ramirez. Neither was an interested party. They both testified to the viciousness of the attack and Burke clearly related its strong racial component.

In another article, one of the six young men involved in the attack testified that after the attack the assailants congratulated one another on their fighting prowess and one showed off a metal pipe that he had apparently used to hit Ramirez.

Cejudo is part of a group that anti-immigrant politicians refer to as "Anchor Babies". These are the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. Now under the U.S. Constitution (14th Amendment) they are U.S. citizens, but folks like Steve Levy like to denigrate these Americans as something less than true citizens.

Whenever you hear the term "Anchor Baby" used, be assured that the person using it wants to call into question not only the legal status of Latino immigrants, but also the status of their children.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the political use of the derogatory term "Anchor Baby".

The teen also said that the attackers met the next day to concoct a story in which they claimed that Ramirez started the fight, that there was not racial element, and that no one had kicked the Ramirez after he was down.

Here is an update on the hearing.

Here is a link to the original Criminal Complaint against the assailants.

Luis Valenzuela welcomes everyone to the fiesta

Listening to Luis talk about our successes and challenges in Suffolk County the last few months

Assemblyman Phil Ramos talks about Jim's important role in the immigrant community and about his own battles within Suffolk County

Legislator Jon Cooper speaks about how many of his colleagues want to move forward to improve Suffolk County instead of constantly debating devisive bills

The room listens to Leg. Jon Cooper as he speaks about Jim's contributions and hard work

To show his and the County's appreciation for Jim's work, he presents Jim with a proclamation

Luis presents another proclamation from Legislator Ric Montano, who couldn't attend yesterday's fiesta

Jim finally takes the podium and reads the following words from the First Continental Seminar of Justice and Peace on the problems of our migrant brothers and sisters:

We observe significant paradoxes in the absurd treatment of migrants:

1. Having nothing, migrants abandon everything;
2. They set out in search of life but too often find death;
3. In order to exist, they need to become invisible;
4. They are forced to take risky routes but no one takes responsibility for their injury and death;
5. While their death is lamented, nothing substantive is done to avoid it;
6. Although they travel in groups, they are always alone;
7. Although condemned to a clandestine life, they are reproached for living secretly;
8. Although most in need of governmental protection, they receive it the least;
9. They are denied visas and yet imprisoned for traveling without one;
10. They aspire to a better life but are condemned to travel through swamps, desert and mountains to find it;
11. Although they harvest the crops, they are denied food;
12. Although grossly offended, they are told their presence is offensive;
13. Accused of being violent, they are violated in their body, family and human rights;
14. While considered untrustworthy, they are entrusted with other people's children.
15. Forced to migrate, they are accused of having no roots;
16. They are received as workers but denied their wages and recognition as persons;

In summary, immigrants are today's martyrs.

Jim taking a moment

Picture time!

Maryann & myself from Long Island WINS & Johnny and Luis from LIIA

My husband and I with Assmeblyman Phil Ramos and Robert Cooper

Legislator Jon Cooper, Aseemblyman Phil Ramos & Robert cooper

A mandatory E-Verify pilot program was passed in Suffolk County just a few months ago. During the hearing and appeals to legislators there was never any indication given that the program had been economically vetted. In fact the economic ramifications of this legislation did not appear to be a priority. But the US Chamber of Commerce is clearly concerned.

This appeal points out that Congress has created a detailed system of employment verification and has approved a variety of verification options from which every employer in the country may choose. The Chamber points out that it is an abuse of power by the US Executive branch to not act within the parameters of this existing legislation. Same goes for Suffolk County Legislators.

While we are hopefully past considerations of further use of the E-Verify system, we know that use of other employment verification systems are in the works. These new regulations, which violate pre-emption laws, will bring more of the same burdens and economic costs to Suffolk County.

The largest and arguably most influential economic body in the country has spoken out against these types of redundant and onerous employment verification systems. Suffolk County, are you listening?

Some of the more detailed ramifications of E-Verify for businesses:

- The opportunity cost for employees who are forced into unemployment and can not resolve their SSA or DHA record mis-matches.

- Ignores the opportunity cost for employers associated with forced unemployment of workers - including replacement and retraining

- Does not factor in the significant cost of a reduced supply of firms willing to be government contracts or who will now contract at a higher cost to the government, factoring the additional burden of E-Verify program.

As a result, very sick detainees are subject to inhumane conditions. The solution offered by Homeland Security to one dying man was to give up his legal right to appeal as the only way to get out of jail and receive medical care.

The deterioration of America's treatment of detainees is becoming a global embarrassment.

There are literally tens of thousands of former farmers in the Tri-State area and a growing demand for produce that just twenty years ago would have been considered exotic. The non-profit group holds a multi-week training program that teaches immigrants who already know how to farm the basics of legal requirements and marketing opportunities.

New York Region

Mr. Ng’s Death
New York times

Ball vows to reignite immigrants' driver's license issue
The Journal News

Visas for 15 Who Lost Relatives on 9/11
New York Times

Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot dehumanize immigrants
New York Daily News

National

Backlog of citizenship applications a hurdle to would-be immigrant voters
The Kansas City Star

100 Years in the Back Door, Out the Front
New York Times

Deported Children Abandoned in Mexico
The Texas Observer

Hispanic advisers resign to protest R.I. governor
The Boston Globe

Spike in immigration has spurred popularity of soccer
Topeka Capital-Journal

A Nation of None and All of the Above
New York Times

Immigration Is Snaring U.S. Citizens In Its Raids
The Washington Post

Immigration raids are boon to Texas labor recruiters
Houston Chronicle

Immigration: 'Demographic divide' on the rise
The Washington Times

Immigration march, vigil planned in Asheville
Myrtle Beach Online

Jon Cooper brought greetings from the Suffolk Legislature, a place not always friendly to Jim's message of inclusion. Cooper said that the legislators, almost to a man and woman are sick of the anti-immigrant barrage and want to get on with the county's business.

When Jim got up to speak he choose not talk about his achievements, but about the precarious situation that immigrants find themselves in in our country. But then Jim was always a little too modest for my tastes. A bit more simian chest pounding would have been in order.

Jim's successor at Catholic Charites immigrant services unit, Carmen Maquilon, was at the party. She has worked closely with Jim over the years to design services for the foreign-born community and she herself will be honored later this year at CARECEN's annual dinner.

While Carmen has done a good job filling Jim's shoes at Charities, the question remains, who will replace him as Chairperson of Long Island Wins? Jim was a rare bridge between service providers, funders, and ethnic communities. Not a combo many of us could provide.

Anyway Jim, may the road rise to meet you and the wind be always at your back.

My experience is that younger people just don't see race as the sharp distinction that those of my generation have ingrained. They are well equipped, whether they are White, Latino, African American, or otherwise to thrive in a multi-racial America. In fact, given the willingness of many young people to form families across traditional racial lines, the whole concept of race itself is likely to be blurred by 2042.

My mom liked to remind me that in her day a "mixed marriage" was one in which an Irish Catholic married an Italian Catholic. Half a century later the whole notion that such a union could set tongues a waggin' draws bemused head shakes from anyone under fifty. Younger people, of all races, live in a world pointing to a breakdown of racial walls.

Now what could derail this is the sort of momentary racial opportunism of politicians like Steve Levy who stir up anti-Latino sentiment for political gain. These pols inflict psychological damage on the very Latinos who will help forge the emerging minority-majority thirty four years from now. The Levyites constantly remind Latino young people that they are not part of the current majority and that they are unwelcome here at the very moment that wise leaders would be working to de-emphasize the divisiveness of race.

Long Island's future lies not in sharpening the racial divide, but in eradicating it. That is what today's immigrants want and that is what our leaders need to realize.

New York Region

Ken Dubin, Suffolk officer who helped immigrants, dies
Newsday

Haitian seeks political asylum to prevent deportation
Republican-American, CT

National

Supervisor at Iowa Meat Plant Asks That Judge Step Aside
New York Times

Federal And Local Tension Marking Immigration Policy
Huffington Post

Immigration agency finds only 6 volunteers during self-deportation program's first week
Associated Press via Newsday

Family Could Be Reunited With Detained Father
NBC17, NC

Feds want more immigration prison space
The Evening Sun

Mexican Consulate to visit St. George Saturday
The Spectrum, UT

U.S. immigrant detainee system a shameful tragedy
The Michigan Messenger

New Census Numbers Shatter Former Projections
DiversityInc.

International

Hunger strike enters seventh day
BBC News

While the jobs pay between $9 and $20 per hour, native-born citizens have not yet rushed in to fill the migratory farm labor slots now available. The short work season, generally 60 to 120 days in each location, and the need to move on to follow seasonal agriculture are blamed for the notable lack of interest by the native born in field work.

On the up side, as harvests decline, prices for food that is harvested are likely to rise. Also, foreign food suppliers in places like Mexico and China will become more competitive with local farmers.