Nonprofit Girl

An email from one of the ESL teachers with whom I work alerted me to the fact that, for one family I know, the dangers of border crossings have struck really close to home. A family member is among the border crossing casualties of the past year.
Estimates of how many Mexicans die every year attempting [...]

An IHT story this morning discusses the stagnation and decline of remittances from Mexican migrants working in the US. Immigration crackdowns, greater concerns over deportation, and difficulty obtaining work without documentation are among the reasons cited. However, the situation of Mexican migrants goes against the global trends:
In the rest of the world, remittances are rising, [...]

In the July 9 issue of The Nation, Mae Ngai notes that recent immigration reform policies have done nothing to address the inequitable distribution of green cards: current rules give 25,620 across the board to every country, with population and immigration trends ignored. [A New Green Card Deal, article by subscription].
One of the most striking [...]

The following email was circulated this morning by Farmworker Justice and is reposted by permission. AgJOBS is the Agricultural Jobs, Benefits, and Security Act; it addresses immigration issues specific to agricultural workers and includes measures for earned legalization and for reform of the current H-2A guest worker program. See here for more information.
Senate Filibuster [...]

Today, 53 US Senators voted against bringing the immigration reform bill forward, effectively killing the bill and, for the time being, the hopes of 12 million undocumented workers in the US who have been waiting for a solution to the immigration question.
Oregon’s senators were split, with Ron Wyden voting in favor of cloture, or ending [...]

Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog is always a good poverty read; for those of you not familiar with her work, she is the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and other fascinating books on the state of the American working class. Her post today caught my eye, as it dealt with immigrant [...]

Yesterday, the Oregon House of Representatives passed a bill which seeks to bar illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses. [See AP story here] Rational objections from opponents included the argument that illegal immigrants will continue to drive, regardless, and under this law will also be unable to obtain insurance. This is exactly correct.
Last summer, during [...]

On April 1, American vigilantes will begin patrolling US/Mexico border areas in an effort to stem the increasing wave of immigrants from Latin America, according to Newsweek. Despite massive funding and personnel increases for border patrol, the article reports, illegal immigration has risen sharply over the past few years. Disputes between the US and Mexico [...]