MAS Freedom Immigration National Coordinator Participates in North Carolina Immigration “Pilgrimage”
Khalilah Sabra, MAS Freedom National Immigration Coordinator, joined the North Carolina Latino community and a broad based coalition in their campaign for comprehensive immigration reform and justice for Latino immigrant workers. The immigrant right campaign, called “Pilgrimage”, began last Sunday in Charlotte with a walk to the Charlotte immigration detention center, followed by a rally at Veterans Park on Monday, March 29th. The walk continued in Hickory NC, and was joined by a major contingency from the Hickory Chapter of the NAACP. The coalition proceeded to US Representative Patrick McHenry’s office to discuss immigration issues and then walked to an immigrant gathering in Morganton, NC. MAS Freedom joined the walk to affirm our belief that we need comprehensive immigration policy reform, justice for farm workers and a change in United States trade policies. On March 30th, the coalition will be in Greensboro, North Carolina, starting at Guilford College and later joining in a painting of a mural on the cost of war. Then the coalition members will march to downtown Greensboro and have a press conference at the site of the proposed new jail that will house immigrants. |
When Isn’t It “Terrorism?”
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Prisoners sue over restrictions on outside contact
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Lighting the Impact on Immigrant Families
Children come to the United States with and without their parents, and from all corners of the world: Central America, Mexico, China, India, Romania, Somalia. They are fleeing political upheaval, extreme poverty, child labor, and abusive homes. In some cases they have arrived in this country as infants, unaware of their immigration status. Sometimes they’re too young to remember entering the United States.
In 2008, more than 8,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were taken into custody by U.S. immigration authorities. Many were removed from homes. They were apprehended and then sent to shelters throughout the country where their stay can range from a month to as long as a year.
Through the MAS Freedom T. Marshall Child Advocacy Project, social work students and volunteers are trained to serve as friends of these children while being trained as child advocates. Their role is to figure out what brought the children to the United States, and then to advocate on their behalf. The advocates get to know the children, help sort out their stories, and help identify their eligibility for asylum or special protective visas. The advocates help ensure that actions are taken in the best interest of these children, whether they are eligible to remain in the United States, or compelled to return to their home countries.
Khalilah Sabra, the MAS Freedom National Immigration Coordinator, stated that, “The lack of an immigration reform really affects vulnerable children. We are currently assisting a young man who arrived in the United States as a toddler, and was unaware that he was “undocumented” until he applied for a job and his citizenship came into question. He now faces the dilemma of filing for legal migration or allowing for deportation -through no fault of his own.”
MAS Freedom is committed to its human service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interest – justice and well-being – of immigrant and refugee children who remain an unprotected class in the United States. We’re working to develop a national network of Child Advocates for immigrant and refugee children and to promote consideration of best interest and humanitarian justice in all decisions affecting immigrant and refugee children in the United States, especially those who bear no responsibility for being here.
The need for a comprehensive immigration reform bill is critical. “Citizen Children” are caught in the cross hairs of the nation’s illegal immigration battle.
The 2010 Census:The stakes of an accurate count
Published: Caribbean Life News
The results form the basis for the apportionment of congressional districts and the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds, as well as serving to guide a wide range of community-planning decisions across the country.
The Census is, however, no stranger to controversy, such as the suggestion by some activists that immigrants sit out the Census this year to protest the federal government’s failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
Yet, among demographic groups like immigrants and ethnic minorities who are typically under-counted in the Census, a boycott would be self-defeating.Moreover, anyone living in an area afflicted by a large under-count of any sort stands to lose out on political representation and federal funds. For instance, an undercount of Latino immigrants would impact anyone living in a state such as California, New York, or Illinois that has a large population of Latino immigrants – meaning that everyone in those states stands to lose political representation and access to economic and educational opportunities if their residents aren’t fully counted in 2010.
Reapportioning seats in Congress:
~According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “by providing the count of the population used to apportion the number of seats in Congress among the states and providing our state and local governments with the population counts necessary to redraw their legislative districts, the census has become the foundation of our democracy, as well as the nation’s factfinder.”
Allocating over $400 billion in federal grant money each year:
~According to a 2009 research report from the Census Bureau, roughly $435.7 billion in federal grant and direct assistance money “was allocated based on Census Bureau data”-including “annual population estimates, Decennial Census data, and other Census Bureau sources”-in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007.
~The 10 federal programs accounting for 83.4 percent of all funding “allocated annually using population and/or income statistics,” as of FY 2007, were {Figure 1}:
·Medical Assistance Program {Medicaid} ($203.5 billion)
·Unemployment Insurance ($35.9 billion)
·Highway Planning and Construction ($34.2 billion)
·Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ($30.3 billion)
·Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($16.5 billion)
·Federal Pell Grant Program ($13.7 billion)
·Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies ($12.8 billion)
·Special Education Grants to States ($10.8 billion)
·National School Lunch Program ($7.8 billion)
·Head Start ($6.9 billion)
Undercounting of minorities and the less affluent:
~The National Research Council notes in a 2009 study that, “historically, a key issue has been, and remains, the differential net undercount of Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, which has resulted in the repeated underrepresentation of areas in which those groups make up a large fraction of the residents.In particular, the differential net undercount of these groups has led to their receiving less than their share of federal funds and political representation.”