Thursday, April 23, 2009

Make popcorn, watch Made In L.A. with your community & uhave fun organizing for justice & human rights!

Dear NNIRR Members, Partners & Allies,

 

Please join us and hundreds of organizations and activists across the country this April and May – screen and discuss the Emmy-winning film Made in L.A. and help create the political space for policy makers to pass socially just and fair immigration reforms. We need your help to create a climate of empathy and understanding around immigrants’ rights now, so political leaders know they can and should support just and fair immigration reforms in the months and years ahead.

 

In honor of May Day, host a screening of the movie and use this event for organizing, fundraising, building support and developing or strengthening your organization or local coalitions. Hosting a screening is easy and fun. Attendees can watch the moving 70-minute DVD and then take action to support just and fair immigration reform. After the screening, you can use NNIRR’s Community Days of Advocacy for Justice & Human Rights talking points and materials to organize calls and meetings with your Congressional delegation. Also, check out NNIRR’s orientation materials for more ideas and ways to talk about why we need socially just, fair immigration reforms. With screenings and actions happening across the country, together, we can make a real impact.

 

NNIRR also urges you to encourage community members and participants at the screenings of Made in L.A. to tell their own stories of human rights abuses and organizing. You can join hundreds who are setting up story-telling stations at the community screenings where you can interview a community member, listen to and document their story, and invite them to participate in other local actions for accountability and justice. Use a video, a recorder or a lap-top video camera for people to sit, talk and document their stories. Share your local stories with Hurricane: Human Rights Immigrant Community Action Network and amplify community voices nationally. You can learn more about Hurricane at: www.nnirr.org/hurricane.

 

MADE IN L.A.

 

Made in L.A. is a proven tool for building support for immigration reform and changing viewers’ minds- so you can invite people who may not yet have formed their views about immigration reform and work to build a larger base of support. Watch this video– see how Made in L.A. (bilingual in English and Spanish) puts a human face on today’s immigrant experience and illustrates how deeply we are a nation of immigrants.

 

Click here to view a short web-video of Made in L.A.

 

The Made in L.A. team has provided all the tools and email templates you need to make each screening an easy-to-organize successful event, and all details are at MadeinLA.com/MayDay. Here are the basics:

 

1. Purchase a DVD (for home-based events such as houseparties), or a screening kit (for community & faith-based screenings).

 

2. Download a free conversation guide to talk about the issue and then take action to support humane immigration reform and stop unjust detention and raids.

 

3. Join hundreds of organizations and individuals across the country in screening the Made in L.A. DVD and taking action!

 

To learn more about how to host a screening, watch the movie’s trailer and more, visit www.MadeInLA.com/MayDay. Please let Made in L.A. know about your screening here http://www.madeinla.com/contact so we can post it on-line to demonstrate the strength of this movement.

 

Also, let us know at the National Nework for Immigrant and Refugee Rights about your screening and community organizing for justice and human rights!

 

Together we can lead the way to a more just and humane future!

 

On Behalf of NNIRR,

 

Arnoldo Garcia

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados

310 8th Street Suite 303

Oakland, CA 94607

Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305

Fax (510) 465-1885

www.migrantdiaries.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.org

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

See NNIRR's letter with signatures

to President Barack Obama at

www.nnirr.org

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Friday, April 17, 2009

PRESS RELEASE (English & Spanish): OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONDEMNS AND TAKES POSSESSION OF TAMEZ' LAND (EL CALABOZ)

[En inglés & SIGUE EN ESPAÑOL]

 

Eloisa Tamez’ Land condemned for Border Wall

 

April 16, 2009

 

A federal judge in Brownsville, TX issued an order today granting the federal government's request to condemn the ancestral land of the Tamez Family, who are Lipan Apaches.  Although this land has been in the Tamez family prior to the Spanish colonization, and also designated to them through Spanish Crown law (1767, as of today, it is in the possession of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

 

The landowner, Eloisa Tamez, heard about Judge Hanen’s order while participating in the Western Social Sciences Association Conference in Albuquerque, where she was participating in a Three part panel: "Indigenous People's and the U.S.-Mexico Border:  Militarization, Resistance, and Rights." She is with a group of colleagues from several bi-national Indigenous Border communities and experts on militarization and the impact of the border wall.

 

The Tamez family reports that this is an urgent situation which needs international attention and wide press coverage.

 

Opportunities for press interviews will be held at the WSSA Conference location, at the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 330 Tijeras NW, following the panel discussions below.

 

Panel II Friday April 17 8:00am-9:30am Sendero Room 1 “Militarization”

Panel III Friday April 17th 2:45pm-4:15pm Sendero Room 2 “Resistance”

 

Contacts: 

Cynthia Bejarano 575-571-7359

April Cotte acotte@igc.org

 

 

BOLETIN DE PRENSA

 

16 de abril

 

Un juez federal de Estados Unidos envío ordenes para otorgarle libertad al gobierno federal en "condenar" las tierras ancestrales de la familia Tamez, ubicadas en el pueblo de El Calaboz a la orilla del Río Bravo, estado de Tejas. Aun sin embargo dicha tierra ha pertenecido a la Familia Tamez y los apache Lipan desde la época colonial pero a partir de hoy, se convierte en propiedad de Homeland Security en perpetuidad.  

 

Eloisa Tamez  e hija (Margo Tamez) son integrantes de una numerosa comunidad de  indígenas binacionales e individuos o grupos expertos en asuntos migratorios y militarización quienes han sostenido una serie de medidas de resistencia y rechazo a las amenazas de Homeland Security desde agosto 2007.  Aunado a ello se han organizado para elevar sus protestas a los tribunales federales, y al Presidente Obama quien mañana se reúne con el Presidente Felipe Calderón en la Ciudad de México. 

 

El aviso oficial con fecha 18 de abril fue presentado por la Corte Distrital de Estados Unidos  en Brownsville Texas.  En términos legales le avisan a  la Dr. Eloisa Tamez que el gobierno federal le decomisa el terreno de 0.25 acres para instalar, construir y operar  caminos, cercos, barreras vehiculares, sistema de vigilancia y estructuras diseñadas en relación a la seguridad del muro entre Estados Unidos y México dentro del Estado de Tejas.

 

A partir del 25 de febrero de 2009, el gobierno federal sometió una moción para lograr posesión de dicha propiedad.  La familia Tamez inmediatamente se negó a negociar pero por medio del documento de hoy, se busca ignorar dicha rebeldía. 

 

Como resultado del programa federal por construir cercos o mayores barreras fronterizas a lo largo de la división territorial entre Estados Unidos y México, actualmente están en pie de lucha varias familias quienes se encuentran en la misma situación.

 

Lo extraordinario es que entre los grupos de familias y pueblos indígenas, también se  encuentran empresas privadas quienes  ya han resuelto la problemática de tener un muro vergonzoso en sus propiedades exclusivas y costosas.  Como resultado de dichas negociaciones “privadas”,  hoy se pueden apreciar una serie de “hoyos” o interrupciones oficiales en la secuencia del muro. Pero son amparados por el poder político de grupos  multimillonarios como las familias Hunt y Moody, al igual que la Universidad de Texas en Brownsville  y el campo de golf River Bend Resort.

 

Hasta la fecha la familia Tamez ha llevado sus quejas hasta los foros internacionales por medio de las Naciones Unidas, Foro Permanente de Asuntos Indígenas en su Séptima Sesión, Comisión Interamericana, OAS y Al-Jazeera, al igual que los medios europeos incluyendo numerosos diarios mexicanos como La Jornada, Reforma, El Universal, medios hispanos regionales y locales, etc.

 

Aun a pesar de ello se considera  continuar insistiendo en la demanda de los grupos en rebeldía para obligar que el gobierno federal desista en condenar dichos terrenos.  Entre los mas apremiantes continua la exigencia de que el gobierno inicie un dialogo conciliatorio  lo cual han presentado por escrito pero hasta la fecha no han recibido respuesta alguna por el gobiernos federal.

 

Últimamente dichas familias presentaron una solicitud para negociar sobre la tenencia de la tierra argumentando que según los acuerdos virreinales –dicha oferta se les negó. Los afectados proponen llegar a un acuerdo pacifico  pero ha fallado y aparentemente el gobierno prefiere la confrontación  ancestral como  el único medio para resolver los asuntos fronterizos.

 

LOS AFECTADOS SE ENCUENTRAN PARTICIPANDO EN LA CONFERENCIA ANUAL DE:  WESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION ABRIL 15 – 18, 2009 EN ALBUQUERQUE, NUEVO MEXICO.

 

Como panelistas el grupo participara:

Viernes 17 de 8:00 a 9:30 Cuarto Sendero I, sobre “Militarización” en la frontera.

Viernes 17 de 2:45 a 4:15 Cuarto Sendero II, sobre “Resistencia” de los asuntos indígenas en la frontera.

 

A LAS 10:00 A.M. CONVOCAN A UNA CONFERENCIA DE PRENSA PARA LOS MEDIOS INTERESADOS EN MAYOR INFORMACION.

 

PARA ENTREVISTAS,  FAVOR DE COMUNICARSE CON:

 

CYNTHIA BEJARANO (575) 571-7359

Por correo electrónico con Abril Cotte    acotte@igc.org

Margo Tamez: (509) 595-9666

 

--30--

Monday, April 06, 2009

FW: Take Action to End Racial Profiling! It's Time to Stop Sheriff Joe.

Dear NNIRR members, partners & allies,

 

If you have not already done so, here’s an opportunity to take action to end Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s reign of terror in Maricopa County in Arizona. See below: “Take Action to End Racial Profiling! It's Time to Stop Sheriff Joe.

 

Arpaio signed an agreement with ICE, the 287 g section of the immigration law passed by the Clinton Administration in 1996 (IRAIRA), which allows immigration-police collaboration. The 1996 laws further criminalized immigration status and is the foundation for the on-going militarization of border and immigration control that has caused thousands of migrant deaths and disappearances on the Arizona stretch of the border.

 

Migrants’ deadly ordeal does not end once they’re out of the desert. They face a gauntlet of abuse, racism, racial profiling and systemic violation of their rights as shown by Arpaio’s vicious example.

 

The 287 g and other components of the 1996 immigration laws undermine our rights and safety, making our communities vulnerable to abuse and exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous police, employers, hate groups, landlords and others.

 

Putting the pressure on Arpaio helps expose the nature of how immigration laws and enforcement are destroying the rights of immigrant and refugee members of our communities.

 

Please consider joining in this NDLON action (see below).

 

You can also speak out against 287 g and other abuses by organizing a delegation to meet with your Representative and Senators over the next two weeks when Congress is in a local recess as part of NNIRR’s “Community Days of Advocacy.” You can download talking points and other information at:

http://nnirr.org/2009advocacy/

 

For Justice & Human Rights,

 

NNIRR

http://nnirr.org/2009advocacy

 


 

 

Take Action to End Racial Profiling! It's Time to Stop Sheriff Joe.

Greetings,

In recent months, the hard work of many has raised the profile of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the most infamous Sheriff since Bull Connor, as the ugliest local face of the failed national 287g program. The Sheriff's march of undocumented inmates in a chain gang the New York Times described as "ritual humiliation" uncovered the racial profiling and terror he's carried out on Maricopa County, and made urgent the need for federal intervention.

Arpaio deputizes vigilante posses to set up check points, dispatches uniformed officers to roam the streets in ski masks, chases janitors with attack dogs and assault weapons, and directs his law enforcement resources at the request of known white supremacists.

40,000 people signed petitions condemning his actions. 5,000 people marched peacefully in Phoenix on February 28 demanding federal intervention to end Arpaio's abuses. Today the House Judiciary Committee investigated the racial profiling inherent in the 287g program.

Yet, Sheriff Joe continues to terrorize Maricopa County, taunting the federal government, and daring them to act. We say enough is enough! President Obama and his Secretary of Homeland Security, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, need to sever Arpaio's 287g agreement now and restore the rule of law to Maricopa County.

Act now! Send this letter to President Obama calling for the termination of Sheriff Joe's 287g agreement!

And join the facebook group "Outraged at Arpaio" by clicking this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=65929682278&ref=ts



Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
President Barack Obama

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: We've Heard Enough. Please Terminate Sheriff Arpaio's 287g Agreement Now.

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

We are asking you to work with Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, to immediately terminate the 287(g) memorandum of agreement between ICE and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Recently, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's alarming abuses brought to light the dangers of local police departments enforcing federal immigration laws. By now, we are certain you are aware of Sheriff Arpaio's egregious abuses of the law and the subsequent 2,700 lawsuits filed against him.

When local authorities attempt to enforce complicated federal immigration laws, there is a great risk of civil rights violations that endanger the public trust. Residents who are victims or witnesses to crimes become hesitant to approach law enforcement and law enforcement becomes prone to policing based on skin color or Spanish accents as Phoenix Mayor Gordon states is happening in Maricopa County. Sheriff Arpaio is an example of the worst that is possible under the 287(g) agreements. His volunteer posses, sidewalks check points, and armed pursuits of janitors has turned Maricopa County into one of the worst sites of racial profiling and human rights violations in the country.

Last month the Congressional Homeland Security Committee reviewed the 287g program and today the House Judiciary Committee investigated the racial profiling inherent in its implementation.

As the President in charge of Homeland Security, we ask that you end this dangerous program starting with Sheriff Arpaio in Maricopa County.

As you have noted, the United States immigration policy is broken. But as you must also know from Secretary Napolitano's time as the former governor of Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 287(g) agreement is not part of the solution. Our communities cannot endure more sweeping raids and humiliating chain gangs. We need you to use your power to terminate Sheriff Arpaio's 287(g) immediately and freeze expansion of this and similar programs until you can repeal them entirely. We are hopeful that under your leadership, the federal government will reassert its responsibility to enforce immigration laws in a fair and responsible manner.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Take Action!

Instructions:
Click here to take action on this issue

 

Tell-A-Friend:
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
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What's At Stake:

Sheriff Arpaio is the biggest proponent of former President Bush's experimental 287(g) program which enlisted local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

40,000 people signed petitions condemning his actions. 5,000 people marched peacefully in Phoenix on February 28 demanding federal intervention to end Arpaio's abuses. Our voices have been heard. The Department of Justice formally launched an investigation of Sheriff Arpaio. The GAO has declared the 287(g) program a disaster. And today, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Congressman Conyers, held hearings revealing the 287(g) program has endangered communities and led to racial profiling on a scale this country has not seen in a generation.

Yet, Sheriff Joe continues to terrorize Maricopa County, taunting the federal government, and daring them to act. We say enough is enough!

President Obama and his Secretary of Homeland Security, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, need to act immediately and end this dangerous program, starting with Sheriff Arpaio's 287g agreement. US Immigration policy needs to be fixed and the new administration can start by ending its contract with a racist sheriff.

About the alert creators:
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network exists to improve the lives of day laborers in the United States. To this end, NDLON works to unify and strengthen its member organizations to be more strategic and effective in their efforts to develop leadership, mobilize, and organize day laborers in order to protect and expand their civil, labor and human rights. NDLON fosters safer more humane environments for day laborer, both men and women, to earn a living, contribute to society, and integrate into the community. Visit NDLON's website at http://www.ndlon.org

United Students Against Sweatshops is a network of individual students and over 200 affiliate groups of workers, students, and community members in North America who have been organizing for worker justice since 1998. Our National Student Coordinating Committee endorsed this campaign against the 287(g) program in our efforts to stand in solidarity with all those who work for immigrant justice. We fight against a global power system that allows private capital to move across national borders and yet dehumanizes and punishes people for doing the same. Visit the USAS website at http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org

 

Campaign Expiration Date:
May 2, 2009

 

 

 


 

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