Immigrant Stories: How did you come to US?

kasiainkorea:

I have to get my ARC replaced as it got stolen. I’ve been pretty slack, but I finally got my arse in gear and dragged myself out of bed to go before work today. Bearing in mind every other time I’ve been it has been a long drawn out process, mostly made up of sitting and waiting, I made sure I got…

nixonplumbingco:

While America’s debate over immigration has been dominated recently by crackdowns in states like Arizona and Alabama, California legislators are trying to turn that tide with a bill to protect illegal immigrants that they dub the “anti-Arizona.”

Last week, the top U.S. court upheld the most controversial aspect of Arizona’s immigration statute: a requirement that police officers check the immigration status of people they stop, even for minor offenses such as jay-walking.

Enter California, a border state that is home to the largest number of illegal immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, and is considerably more liberal than its neighbor Arizona.

A bill currently working its way through the California legislature would block local law enforcement from referring a detainee to immigration officials for deportation unless that person has been convicted of a violent or serious felony.

“California cannot afford to become another Arizona,” said California Assembly member Tom Ammiano, the bill’s sponsor. One of the bill’s sponsors, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, calls the effort the “anti-Arizona.”

Critics have argued that Arizona’s law could lead to illegal racial or ethnic profiling of Hispanics in Arizona. Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group, representing 16 percent of the population.

Supporters of the Arizona law say it is needed because the federal government has failed to secure the border with Mexico.

The California bill, which has the support of over 100 immigrant rights groups, police chiefs and mayors, was drafted not only as a symbolic counter to legislation in neighboring Arizona, but also to push back against a federal program called Secure Communities that shares the same principles as Arizona’s law, supporters say.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, established the Secure Communities program in partnership with local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to deport unauthorized immigrants.

Local authorities send fingerprints of those arrested to ICE, which says it prioritizes deporting individuals with criminal convictions. The program was credited as a factor in that agency’s highest-ever number of deportations, nearly 400,000 in 2011.

“(Secure Communities) has burdened our local governments and put even victims and witnesses of crime at risk of deportation, making us all less safe,” Ammiano said in a statement. “It has even mistakenly trapped U.S. citizens in our local jails for immigration purposes.”

The federal program has been responsible for deporting over 72,000 Californians, according to Ammiano, with 70 percent of those deported from the state having either no criminal conviction, or conviction for a minor offense.

Critics have lambasted the program for placing victims of domestic violence in deportation proceedings and deterring immigrants from reporting crimes committed against them.

refugeesandmigrants:

I came across this website today called ‘Emigrate to New Zealand’. It’s a site for migrants to share their New Zealand immigration experiences — these are mostly negative stories. And by mostly I mean: all, completely, absolutely.

Some excerpts:

“Generally, Kiwis are small-minded and lack…

chasenotes:

New column is up Shatter The Looking Glass!

verolution:

The biggest recent immigration news is that Asia surpassed Latin America as the main source of immigration to the U.S.  While the recent Supreme Court case about SB1070 or Obama’s de facto DREAM Act memo are important, the changing demography of immigration will have wider ranging long term impact.

This type of change has happened before.  By the end of the 1960s, Latin America displaced Europe as the main source of immigrants.  The increase in permanent Hispanic immigration to the United States back then was due to multiple factors, which some of which are now repeating for Asian immigrants.

First, legal changes in the Immigration Act of 1965 removed the old national origin quotas and allowed in more non-Europeans, including Latin Americans and Asians.  The growing number of legal Mexican immigrants began to sponsor their  relatives.  Mexican immigration in the 1950s was about 300,000 that decade, roughly five times greater than during the 1940s.  It increased again to 441,824 in the 1960s.  Much of that was driven by family migration.

Read More: 

aabany-group:

The New York Immigration Coalition will provide several informational sessions on President Obama’s June 15^th announcement about Deferred Action for certain young people who were brought into the United States through no fault of their own.

Come get the latest news on Deferred Action. Learn…

exportcontrol:

ITAR also operates to prohibit the “Retransfer” (also called “Re-export”) of items on the USML by foreign persons unless the Retransfer is specifically authorized under the relevant export authorization.

ITAR’s restrictions on retransfer blocked Venezuela’s threatened sale of used F-16…