About 50 Hispanic college students started a week-long fast on July 2nd, and on Thursday they set up tents in the Civic Center Plaza to publicize their cause.
In the recently proposed federal immigration "reform" legislation, which seems to have died a quick death, there was a provision called the DREAM Act which would grandfather citizenship to young adults who were brought into the United States as young children, and who have gone through high school and college without ever becoming "legal."
A well-written article by Tyche Hendricks in the "San Francisco Chronicle" (now that's a rare phrase, click here to get to the article) explains the story in an evenhanded manner, with this unamusing but not surprising tidbit:
"Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee and is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, was more circumspect. She is assessing the political viability of resuscitating individual portions of immigration reform. "The question is whether Congress is capable of moving anything else, and I don't know the answer to that yet," she said. "We should assume nothing."
Feinstein is another DREAM Act supporter, but she said she will make her first priority the AgJOBS bill, which would offer legal residence to 500,000 illegal immigrant farm workers on the condition that they continue to work in agriculture for several years."
At least Senator Feinstein is consistent in her allegiances. Poor Mexican-American college kids can go to hell, but low-paid labor working for corporate agriculture must be protected at all costs. You should also check out the comments to the article which are a fascinating mixture of the usual right-wing trolls and calm, information-filled essays on the Kafkaesque immigration laws in this country.
I expected to see the fasting group on Saturday but they had been replaced by a Pentacostal prayer meeting hosted by a congregation called El Santo de Israel.
Flanked between United States and Israeli flags, a very right-wing hell-and-brimstone preacher was testifying in Spanish with a catchy musical backup.
Maybe those Hispanic college students should just drop out of college and join the military where they could murder some Iraqis. I hear the United States government is offering "legal" citizenship for that kind of service.
1 comment:
The contradictions are endless -- did you know that the loathsome Orrin Hatch is a sponsor the DREAM Act -- one of the most sensible bits of piecemeal immigration "reform" that could possibly happen.
As for joining the military to get a green card or citizenship -- yes, that works. But it doesn't cover your spouse. Remember those 3 US soldiers who were captured in Iraq awhile back? The US did a huge manhunt for them. One body turned up; two remain "missing." And here's the story:
The fate of the two other missing servicemen – Alex R. Jimenez, a 25-year-old specialist from Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Byron R. Fouty, of Waterford, Michigan, a 19-year-old private who had been in Iraq only a few weeks, - is still unknown.(1)
It's against this backdrop that we now learn that Jimenez's wife, Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, is facing deportation.
Yaderlin Hiraldo, is a native of the Dominican Republican who first met her husband during his childhood visits to the island, but according to her attorney, Matthew Kolken, the 22 year old had entered the U.S. illegally prior to marrying him. It was when he requested a green card and legal residence status for her, that authorities were first alerted to her situation.
Despite Spec. Jimenez's status as a US citizen and active duty serviceman, the fact the Yaderlin had entered illegally meant that she would now have to return home and wait ten years before reapplying. Link to more.
The Spanish speaking promoters of Israel you saw have a storefront out Valencia...
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