My friend, Jose, needs relief

[CitySquare's "Urban Engagement Cinema" will present a free, private screening of the film, "DOCUMENTED" on Thursday, June 26 from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at the Angelika Film Center & Café (5321 East Mockingbird Lane, Suite 230 in Dallas.  Below is a note from our good friend and partner in justice, Liz Cedillo-Pereira, an attorney practicing immigration and nationality law in the Dallas area.  Very instructive of the real problems facing our dear friends from south of our border here in Texas.  To read more about Jose's case, use the search tool on this page by typing in Jose or Monica and Jose.]

Thank you for showing Documented in Dallas on June 26, 2014.  I’d like to ask that you include two special people as  part of the screening. Frankly, Jose is the reason I have been so committed to the  plight of DREAMers.

As Keilah, Gerald and Larry know,  I have a client named Jose Ibarra (who is copied herein with his wife, Mayra).  Jose  is a  DREAMer who was deported in 2011 (before DACA announcement) for no offense other than being without status. 

He is married to a lovely young woman, Mayra, who is a United States citizen.  She has been delaying college and working full-time to help her mother and survive as a young married woman. 

We are working on bringing Jose back as a lawful permanent resident. 

Now, we have received a request for additional evidence because US CIS states we have not shown sufficient evidence to establish that Mayra is suffering “extreme and unusual” hardship without her husband. 

Their story is one that needs to be told because what they are experiencing amounts to cruel treatment.  Many couples seeking these waivers have children; they do not.  But all they have really is one another. 

He’s been alienated from his wife and family and community for 2.5 years in San Luis Potosi.  He has been beaten by local thugs because he does not look like everyone else.  His wife has to pay $650 for an airline ticket to see him or ride a bus for 16  hours. It’s a scenario that is unsafe for both of them. 

I have been representing Jose since he was placed in removal proceeding for attending his high school senior "skip day" in 2008 – he and his cousin, Monica, were referred to me by Larry James. 

For the upcoming screening of Documented, do you think we can Skype Jose in and have Mayra present as part of the panel?  Their story is much more powerful than anything I can add.

At a recent conference for Grantmakers Concerned for Immigrants and Refugees, I met Theo Rigby, Director of Immigrant Nation (copied herein) who had a showing of his riveting film, The Mayor.  Perhaps, Theo and/or Thorne would be interested in telling Jose and Mayra’s story and Dianne Solis with Dallas Morning News.    

Here is Thorne’s film related to DREAMers.

http://thearrivals.org/about/#

 All the best, 

Liz

       

 

Jose in Mexico

If you've been reading here for very long, you've "met" Jose. If you've been around for several years, you'll remember how Jose and his cousin, Monica, while high school students, were picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to be deported to Mexico. Jose and Monica have been through a lot. Their status and situation call for passage of the DREAM Act. Brought to the United States by their parents as minors, they, and countless other young persons, face deportation every day.

Several weeks ago, my friend Jose journeyed back to Mexico by order of the immigration court here in Dallas.

Jose knew no one really when he left home here in the U. S. He managed to arrange for housing in the home of a relative he doesn't really know. The small town where he "lives" offers no employment options, no higher education, no real community life that he feels apart of.

What is very present every day in this fine young man's life is danger.

Here's an email message that I received just last week from Jose:

Good morning Mr James, I was only contacting you to let you know that yesterday March 1st I got beat up when I was on my way to one of my uncles house I had only been driving less than 5 minutes away from home and I got stopped by a truck and four guys started hitting me and warn me not to mess with them and that I didn't know who they where. The good thing is that I'm fine and at home thank God. Ill keep you updated of my situation. Jose

Jose sent me these two photos documenting the assault that he described in  his message to me. 

I'm not understanding the policy of our nation when it comes to fine young people like my good friend, Jose. 

Pray for Jose.

Research the DREAM Act. 

Contact your congressional leaders and the President. 

Speak up for passage of the DREAM Act, as well as comprehensive immigration reform.  I don't think the average American understands what is going on around these important issues. 

[To read more on this site about Jose and his struggle over the past several years use the search tool on the  page or for starters read the entries for these dates:  3/11/07, 3/13/07, 4/13/07,7/16/07, 7/19/07, 10/25/07, 1/4/08, 3/3/08, 4/21/09, 8/19/11, 8/21/11, 8/23/11, 10,17,11.]

Standards of treatment a must. . .

Standards of treatment. . .

Monday, while waiting for a decision at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the deportation case (threat) involving my young friends, Monica and Jose, I listened as they recounted their horrifying experience four years earlier. The two first cousins (their fathers are twins) remembered everything about being taken into custody by ICE officers while attending an end of school party at a farm outside Greenville, Texas.

They were hurried back to Dallas on that Friday afternoon, and before anyone knew what was going on, ICE transported them to a private, for-profit facility, Rolling Plains Regional Jail in Haskell, Texas. I knew all about this experience, or so I thought.

Let's be clear. Entering the US and remaining without proper documentation is a civil law violation, not a criminal act. Still, Monica told me how her captors roughed her up, tried to intimidate her into signing papers she didn't understand, and even handcuffing her very harshly so that they hurt her arms. They lied about how the two family members would be separated and about how her cousin, Jose, had signed the papers in question, also an untruth.

In short, the two then high school students were handled harshly, inappropriately and unjustly.

I asked their attorney why would a person in violation of civil law be handcuffed and treated like this. She told me ICE claims that people like Monica "pose a threat to the safety of the US."

Are kidding me?

So, when ICE "tickets" (that's what they do) business owners who employ undocumented workers, why don't they 'cuff them? Why not haul them off to an incarceration facility over 200 miles away? If it's good for the kids, why not the adults?

And what about bail? Our young friends had to put up a $50,000 bond in cash to get out of that Haskell jail. They were able to come up with it thanks to one of our board members who's stuck with them all the way.

Justice?  Hardly.

What are expected standards of treatment for young people brought to the US by their parents as small children?

How is jail time even possible?

Shackles?

Handcuffs?

 Intimidation?

Surely not here.

No, sadly, yes, here.

We're studying the matter. Stay tuned.

We think we can change the policy back of this kind of behavior.

Part of the process is to simply inform rational, fair-minded people.  You are out there, right?

Justice and Mercy

The nightmare is back.

If you follow this page, you may remember the stories I've posted about Monica and Jose, cousins and the children of twin brothers who came to the U. S. when their children were very young.  No one in the family possessed the proper documentation when they crossed the border into this country, including the children. 

To read more about Monica and Jose click here and here.   You might also use this page's search feature to read other posts on this situation and about the need for immigration reform by entering "Monica." 

Just yesterday, these wonderful young people received a notice to appear for deportation on Monday. 

Both are model adults.  Monica has continued on in college.  Jose has never been in any trouble.  And now, or so it seems, they will be taken into custody and sent back to Mexico where they have no real connections. 

The past 24 hours have involved us in a campaign to move our political leaders to intervene on the behalf of these wonderful young people. 

They are not the kind of people who need to be shipped away out of the country. 

U. S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, one of our members of Congress here in Dallas, has been lobbying hard on behalf of Monica and Jose, for which we are most grateful.  We've been on the phones working to gain support for the cause of these two amazing people.

But, it may not be enough.

It makes no sense whatsoever.

Since the DREAM Act stalled yet again in the Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have adopted a much harsher enforcement policy toward all undocumented persons, including students who are an asset to their communities here in the U. S. The plight of Monica and Jose serves as a case in point. 

All of us who know Monica and Jose have been very distraught by this latest development.  My family has shed many tears for our dear friends, both the children and their parents.

Last night a bit of light broke, almost miraculously. 

No, that's not right, the timing was beyond miraculous. 

A report in The New York Times and published in today's editions of The Dallas Morning News described President Obama's executive order to ICE instructing the agency to end deportations of students who pose no threat to the safety of their communities or the nation.  Further, ICE will now be reevaluating thousands of cases that involve children and youth like my dear friends, Monica and Jose. 

While it may still not end well on Monday, the President's action gives us hope.  I'm grateful for him.

What's needed in the case of people like my two young friends will not be supplied by law. 

What's needed here is justice and mercy.

Please pray for both.

Notice for advocates for immigration reform in Dallas

Catholic Charities of Dallas Immigration and Legal Services invites you to participate in the North Texas Justice for Immigrants Network.

We need your help NOW to build and develop a network of informed advocates who will be prepared to promote comprehensive immigration reform during this important year.

The North Texas Justice for Immigrants Network seeks to:

· Educate immigrants about their rights;
· Monitor enforcement to ensure against abuses;
· Share information regarding legislative efforts affecting immigrants at all
levels (local, regional and national);
· Advocate for Comprehensive Immigration Reform;
· Provide a networking venue for North Texas individuals, from all walks, who
are concerned about the welfare of immigrants in our communities.

Please join us at the first meeting of the North Texas Justice for Immigrants Network on Friday, January 23, 2009 (TODAY!!!) from 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. at Catholic Charities of Dallas Immigration and Legal Services, 5415 Maple Ave. Ste 400, Dallas, Texas 75235. For a map click here.

Lite refreshments will be provided.

For more information contact: David Mullins (214) 634-7182 Ext. 241
Erin Pederson (214) 634-7182 Ext. 239 or Jennifer Nettle (214) 634-7182 Ext 230.

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Not kosher in America's heartland

Here's a classic case of religious practice and the terms of "faithfulness" completely missing the point of life, justice, truth and, yes, common, human decency. This particular example comes from Orthodox Judaism. It could just as well have been a story connected to some Christian entrepreneur.

Did you see the story?

The headline and the subtext caught my eye immediately: "After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries--Many Teenagers Found--Unsafe Conditions and Long Hours Reported at a Kosher Plant" (The New York Times, July 27, 2008, A1, 16),

Read Julia Preston's complete story by clicking on the title line above.

It seems that immigration authorities raided a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa and found lots to report. In fact, the raid provides a horrifying glimpse into the lives and struggles of undocumented immigrants who work long hours in terrible conditions.

Agents found 389 "illegal" immigrants when they raided Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest kosher plant. Among those picked up, more than 20 were found to be under-age, some as young as 13. Having been arrested in violation of immigration law, many of the workers have agreed to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. The details revealed about the jobs at the kosher plant are chilling.

Working shifts of 12 hours or longer, often through the night, six days a week, was common practice for many of the workers. When workers reported problems, complained about work conditions or sought relief from their harsh circumstances, management threatened to turn them over to immigration officials.

Preston reports, "One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. 'I was very sad,' he said, 'and I felt like I was a slave.'"


Clearly management was aware of the presence of many under-age workers. Due to the dangers associated with the work, Iowa law regulating meatpacking facilities prohibits the hiring of anyone younger than 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant. The company denies the accusations. Counsel for the immigrant workers maintains that to date she had identified 27 workers under 18 who worked in the packing facility.

Federal labor officials used an undercover agent during the investigation. During this phase of the inquiry, the undercover informant saw “a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees.” Jewish managers provide oversight to ensure that the slaughtering and processing of meat abides by kosher standards in keeping with their faith's requirements. Other egregious practices were reported.

Read the entire story. It is more than upsetting.

Two reactions here.

First, any religious rule fixated on a legal or technical requirement that is worked out in a practical context of injustice, exploitation and oppression is foolishly useless. That which seeks to honor God, ends up bringing shame to God's name.

Second, this nation needs comprehensive immigration reform that includes a guest worker program providing for workers who simply want to work. Such a guest worker program should include a registration process that is clear and easy to understand and that encourages compliance. Workers must be protected from unscrupulous management that takes advantage of a worker's "illegal" status.

This story is more than disturbing. Our nation must do better. Our faith demands it. . .and, by the way, any definition of "kosher" (no matter what the faith tradition) should include the just, fair treatment of all who simply want to work and make a living for themselves and their families. The silence of so many people of faith relative to this pressing national issue is certainly not "kosher."

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