Immigration News Briefs 6/00 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit IMMIGRATION NEWS BRIEFS A monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas Vol. 3, No. 6 - June 2000 (publication date 6/30/00) 1. AFL-CIO Forums Call for Amnesty 2. Farmworkers March for Amnesty 3. TPS Extended for Central Americans 4. Refugee Access to Benefits Widened 5. INS Lost 48,000 Files in Two Years? 6. New Raids in Southern States 7. LA Police Had INS Deport Suspects Immigration News Briefs is a monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) to Weekly News Update on the Americas is $25. To subscribe to the Update and Immigration News Briefs, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print version. 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AFL-CIO FORUMS CALL FOR AMNESTY An overflow crowd of nearly 20,000 people showed up on June 10 to an AFL-CIO "town hall" meeting at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The crowd marched around the arena, then crammed inside until fire officials locked the doors to prevent a safety hazard, leaving several thousand others standing outside. [Los Angeles Times 6/11/00; Associated Press 6/10/00] The AFL-CIO, the US labor federation representing 13 million union members, sponsored the rally to gather testimony from immigrant workers and to build support for its efforts to win changes to US immigration policy, including an amnesty for undocumented workers and the repeal of "employer sanctions," which bar the hiring of undocumented workers and are used as the basis for workplace raids. The LA rally was backed by ten churches and community organizations, including the Catholic Archdiocese, who each contributed at least $2,500 to help pay for the event, and brought busloads of people to fill the arena. [Article by David Bacon 6/12/00; AP 6/10/00] The regional forum or "town hall" event in LA was the last of four official AFL-CIO regional forums. The others were in New York City on Apr. 1; Atlanta, Georgia on Apr. 29; and Chicago on June 3. The Chicago forum drew some 400 people, and was backed by a petition drive: some 50,000 Chicago-area residents--including Cardinal Francis George--signed a document supporting amnesty and urging an end to "employer sanctions." [AP 6/3/00; Washington Post 6/4/00; Chicago Tribune 6/5/00] Another union-backed immigrant labor forum was held for the northwest region in Portland, Oregon on June 23. About 350 people attended. [Tri-Cities Herald (Pasco, Washington) 6/24/00] Three other such meetings were reportedly held in the California areas of Silicon Valley, Salinas and Fresno. [David Bacon article 6/12/00] Testimony from the regional meetings will be compiled into a report for the AFL-CIO's national executive council, which will meet on Aug. 2 in Chicago. [T-CH 6/24/00] Meanwhile, the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants, which organized major marches in Washington last October and in New York on May 1 [see INB 10/99, 5/00], is calling for a new national mobilization for amnesty in Washington on July 20, preceded by two days of lobbying. The Coalition is also planning regional marches for amnesty on Oct. 14 in six cities: New York, Atlanta, Austin (Texas), Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. [Coalition Press Release 6/25/00] *2. FARMWORKERS MARCH FOR AMNESTY On June 4 more than 3,000 farm laborers, mainly cherry pickers, marched with supporters through the town of Pasco in southeastern Washington state to demand better pay for farmworkers and amnesty for undocumented immigrants. "The low wages paid cherry workers is a type of wage exploitation that has prevailed because of the illegal status of the state's agriculture workforce," said Guadalupe Gamboa, regional director of the United Farm Workers (UFW). "They have no voice and no negotiating power." Gamboa said cherry workers are paid $3.50 to $3.75 per 30-pound box, the same as in 1985. That works out to about $40 to $100 per worker per day. The union is seeking an increase to $6 a box. [AP 6/5/00] *3. TPS EXTENDED FOR CENTRAL AMERICANS On June 6, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) extended by 30 days the deadline for Hondurans and Nicaraguans to apply for a renewal of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The extension gave those Hondurans and Nicaraguans with TPS or pending applications until July 5 to re-register for the benefit, which allows them to live and work legally in the country for one year. All those who reapply will also receive an automatic extension of their one-year work permits until Dec. 5, though they must still apply separately for a renewal. The Clinton administration originally granted the temporary protection from deportation to Hondurans and Nicaraguans who were in the country before Dec. 31, 1998, in an effort to avoid burdening the Central American countries' recovery from Hurricane Mitch. On May 5, the government announced it would extend their TPS for one more year, or until July 5, 2001. But it gave beneficiaries only until June 12 to re-register, a period that advocates complained was far too short to get the word to the roughly 106,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans with TPS across the country. Advocates had asked for 90 extra days, but said they were satisfied by the 30-day extension. [Miami Herald 6/7/00] *4. REFUGEE ACCESS TO BENEFITS WIDENED On June 15 the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, announced a change in policy, effective immediately, that makes refugee assistance and services available to those who win political asylum, beginning on the date that their asylum is granted. Previously, the period of eligibility--eight months for cash and medical assistance, five years for social services--began with date the person entered the US. Since many asylees are detained upon arrival and spend eight months or more in detention, they were rarely able to receive cash and medical assistance. [ORR State Letter #00-12 6/15/00] *5. INS LOST 48,000 FILES IN TWO YEARS? The INS may have lost files on about 48,000 immigrants in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, according to a report released on June 2 by the US General Accounting Office (GAO). Rep. Judy Biggert (D-IL) had asked the GAO to investigate after some constituents complained they could not get information on pending cases. According to the report, INS officials admitted that the files for about 4,000 applicants in Chicago and more than 44,000 in the Los Angeles area inadvertently were dropped by service centers in Nebraska and California in fiscal years 1997 and 1998. INS officials told the GAO they lost the files when the department computerized its records. Officials said they caught the mistake and transferred some records by hand. GAO officials said the problem persisted because the INS did not have a master list to check whether cases had been handled. The INS has now directed its local offices to ensure that everyone who applied for naturalization by July 1, 1998 gets an INS interview by Sept. 30. [AP 6/3/00] *6. NEW RAIDS IN SOUTHERN STATES On May 23, the INS carried out raids at two construction sites in Charleston, South Carolina, arresting 27 workers, all from Mexico. The workers were employed as block masons and construction workers by subcontractors working at Renaissance Charleston Hotel and at the US Agriculture Department vegetable laboratory. Associated Press reported that the investigation into the two sites began when three Mexican men charged with rape spoke to INS officer Rachel Reidell, according to Reidell's affidavit. [AP 5/24/00] On the same day, May 23, in Charleston, West Virginia, the INS arrested 28 workers who were removing asbestos from the Coliseum at West Virginia University (WVU) and charged them with being in the US illegally. According to an INS official, 22 of the workers were from Central America, and six were from central Europe. The workers, who had been employed by two separate contractors, were being held by the INS in Pittsburgh, and were scheduled for a deportation hearing before an immigration judge. West Virginia governor Cecil Underwood has ordered an investigation to verify that the $7.8 million asbestos removal project is being carried out in compliance with state laws. The Coliseum was closed in August after tests found asbestos fibers in the seating section. The West Virginia arrests followed an investigation prompted by complaints from the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation, which had run television ads criticizing Underwood for his veto of 1998 legislation that the Foundation claims would have demonstrated whether West Virginians were being hired for publicly financed highway projects. Steve White, executive director of the Foundation, said he was pleased that INS officials "have done what they are supposed to do." [AP 5/24/00] On May 26, local police arrested 22 undocumented immigrants in three pre-dawn raids on residences in Columbus, Georgia. All but one of the immigrants were Mexican, and some had been employed locally as welders, landscapers and construction workers, Columbus police Lt. Ronald Lynn said. The raids followed a five- month investigation involving the Columbus Police Department, the Muscogee County Sheriff's Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). One of those arrested, Neftali Moreno Lopez, is charged with being a fugitive from justice--stemming from a robbery charge in California--and possession of false documents. Moreno is suspected of bringing the other immigrants to Georgia and supplying them with illegal documents. The others arrested were charged with possession of false documents, a misdemeanor. They are expected to be eventually handed over to the INS for deportation. Lynn said he believed the arrests were the first involving undocumented immigrants in Columbus. [Ledger- Inquirer (Columbus) 5/27/00] *7. LA POLICE HAD INS DEPORT SUSPECTS In a unanimous vote on Apr. 12, the Los Angeles City Council asked the LA Police Commission to take action that would bar INS or Border Patrol agents from Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) facilities unless they are working on specific federal investigations, and then only with permission of the station's commanding officer. The resolution called on the Police Commission to reaffirm its support of Special Order 40, a 1979 city policy that restricts police inquiries into residents' immigration status. The motion also directs the Police Commission to convene a task force--composed of representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and a variety of immigrant rights organizations--to conduct a study of all of the LAPD's interactions with the INS. [LA Times 4/13/00] The move came in the midst of investigations into a widespread corruption scandal involving the LAPD's Rampart Division anti- gang CRASH unit ("Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums"). Federal documents have revealed that INS agents working with LAPD detectives explicitly recommended deporting alleged gang members against whom criminal cases could not be made. "In cases where criminal prosecution cannot be sustained, proceedings will be initiated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to remove the individual from the United States," said a draft plan drawn up by the INS' Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in 1997. In March 1998, the task force approved a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for help from INS experts in an operation targeting LA's "18th Street" gang. INS documents and agents say the strategy for deporting suspected gang members involved direct communication on immigration cases between INS agents and the CRASH unit. 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