Weekly Immigration Wire: Swine Flu Infecting Immigration Debate

Posted Apr 30, 2009 @ 11:21 am by Nezua

Filed under: Immigration    

by Nezua, TMC MediaWire Blogger

It’s no shock that those long-opposed to All Things Immigrant are using the Swine Flu outbreak—which has mostly affected Mexicans at this point—to ratchet anti-immigrant rhetoric up to an irresponsible level. It’s disappointing though, especially because the last few weeks saw more rational dialogue emerging in media coverage. This week’s Wire examines the voices talking about immigration both in the media and on the ground, from those recycling age-old “eliminationist” rhetoric to those who put their own bodies on the line to fight for inclusive justice.

In AlterNet, Joshua Holland uses history to contextualize virulent statements hurled by anti-immigrant pundits like Michael Savage. Holland deftly debunks numerous anti-immigrant, right-wing myths using a historical lens: By tying the source of contagion to immigrants, today’s pundits are echoing age old patterns that “contributed to a series of pogroms in which thousands were burned alive” in 14th Century Europe. Just what are today’s pundits saying? Savage asks “Could this be a terrorist attack through Mexico?” Michelle Malkin, Bill O’ Reilly and Neil Boortz agree: “[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans?” shrieks Boortz.

While Colorado lawmakers aren’t using such frantic hyperbole, they are doing nothing to dispel the state’s reputation as heavy-handed when it comes to immigration enforcement. On Monday, the Democratic-controlled state legislature introduced a non-binding Joint Memorial that requests the use of DNA technology and expanded local police powers to “identify, arrest, and detain” immigrants. If granted, the request would allow the state to use “biometric identification—like DNA tracking—and federal databases to create in enforcement dragnet,” according to Erin Rosa of The Colorado Independent. Rosa also reports on scary developments in enforcement technology that attempt to mend the gap between the federal government’s lack of reform and the needs of each state.

Not all harsh enforcement measures result from a lack of federal legislation. A Republican-led Congress passed a law in 1996 restricting the ability of immigrants to challenge the legality of their deportation,” as Rochelle Bobroff and Harper Jean Tobin report for New America Media. The measure is pointedly cruel: It allows courts to proceed with deportation even if an asylum-seeker will be endangered upon their explication. Though there is a provision that the courts can use to rule otherwise, this law represents yet another policy that needs to be revisited when the White House negotiates humane and effective reform.

Writing for AlterNet, Frank Sharry reports on the divide deepening between moderate Democrats, who are “ready to tackle common sense reform” and Republican “hardliners.” “While Democrats seem to be making headway,” Sharry writes, “The Republican Party continues to be dogged by Minutemen hard-liners who oppose practical solutions.”

The political gap is growing, as other groups draw together. RaceWire’s Michelle Chen reports on the Black Immigration Network, “the first national network concerned about immigration issues and racial equity issues surrounding both African Americans and immigrants of African descent.” This Network is important because it bridges historical tensions between the two communities. And as Chen makes clear, there are people who exploit such divides to their own benefit.

The effects of the Iraq war, while a much quieter subject in today’s news cycle, are still playing out. AlterNet’s Nina Berman tells the tragic story of Iraqi refugees who are struggling in the poor U.S. economy and lack adequate help to get ahead. Omar Ibrahim is one such refugee who came to Texas in 2008. He is still jobless and family back in Iraq doesn’t quite understand. “They know that America is a dream,” Ibrahim says, “but it is a bad dream.”

Finally, in an inspiring show of activism, Public News Service’s Mary Kuhlman reports on two nuns who engages in civil disobedience at a Chicago ICE detention facility to draw attention to the fight for human (immigrant) rights. Obama’s 100th day marked their “tipping point,” after more than two years of prayer vigils. They needed to try something different. The nuns’ agenda? Making it possible for detained immigrants to see religious workers. Immigrants, many of them asylum seekers, are isolated even from their families. In this particular case, the women’s actions paid off.

At play today in our immigration debate are warring philosophies of who a “people” are and what we owe each other for simply belonging to the same human family. On one side, frothing, fearful punditry stoke division and hostility. And on the other, fearless and brave activists champion for our better natures. It is no small battle.

The Battle for Wall Street Begins

Posted Jan 20, 2009 @ 2:05 pm by ZachCarter

Filed under: Economy    

We can drop the “elect” from his title. President Obama is official. Everyone take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. And now let’s focus on the work.

Even before he was sworn in this afternoon, parts of President Obama’s economic platform were already moving through Congress. Overall, the general public remained largely in the dark about his plans for rebuilding the decimated financial system. What needs to be considered as the economic stimulus plan moves forward?

The $350 billion public investment in banks and other finance firms has not spurred banks to make loans that can foster economic recovery, nor has it encouraged them to face up to the huge unrealized losses embedded in their balance sheets. Over at The Washington Independent, Mike Lillis
demonstrates how the current bailout program fails to offer meaningful incentives for banks to direct their public money toward the public good, much less require it.

Moreover, the rescue plan attempts to address a symptom of the U.S. economic malaise—financial turmoil—without directly fixing the bad mortgages that caused the disease. Last week, the Senate gave President Obama the all-clear to deploy another $350 billion for financial rescue purposes, again with no strings attached. Obama and the new National Economic Council Director Larry Summers have pledged to spend up to $100 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money to avert foreclosures. We should know very soon if they plan to live up to that promise.

For now, the financial system remains perilously close to where it was in September 2008, when a cascade of gigantic firms failed, inciting panic among investors and policymakers alike. The word “nationalization” has been mysteriously sidelined in the U.S. debate over what to do with our Wall Street financiers, despite a major taxpayer commitment of resources. If we want to change bank behavior, the best way to do it is through straightforward government takeovers, as William Greider explains in a piece for The Nation.

“Without such a move, the taxpayers will essentially be financing the slow death of failed institutions while getting nothing in return,” Greider writes.

Greider invokes problems at Citigroup, which inked an agreement to receive an additional $7 billion in taxpayer funds last week, on top of $45 billion it accepted in 2008. Based on the $3.50 closing price of Citi’s stock on January 16, the stock market values the entire company at roughly $19 billion. If any company is too big to fail, Citigroup certainly qualifies, but it is increasingly clear that Citi cannot keep pace with its losses– more than $8 billion in the fourth quarter alone. If we’re on the hook for the company’s collapse anyway, we might as well nationalize them to make sure they go down the right way, and end its predatory lending practices in the process.

Beyond matters of sheer practicality, it’s important to remember that these companies are being bailed out because they completely screwed up. Their errors were not restricted to bad bets on home values, either. Huge U.S. institutions undertook systematic efforts to fleece consumers for every penny they were worth on everything from credit cards to home purchases. In this video spot, Brave New Films details some of the abuses at Bank of America, which received another bailout of its own on Friday.

The Bush administration itself continued to encourage predatory, anti-borrower policies through to its final day in office, thanks to an almost surreal caveat for loan work-outs administered through mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This fall, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson rolled out a loan modification effort at Fannie and Freddie, touting the plan as a major new effort to curb foreclosures. What he didn’t advertise was the fact that borrowers have to sign away all of their legal rights to contest any aspect of their mortgage to be eligible for lower monthly payments.

“In plain English, the waivers mean a borrower can’t sue the lender that originated the mortgage if the loan modification goes bad, or for any other lending abuses concerning their loan,” Mary Kane writes for The Colorado Independent, highlighting Congressional testimony on the program from Julia Gordon of the Center for Responsible Lending.

This legal absurdity is beyond reckless, given that Paulson was trying to solve a problem created by gouging consumers for the benefit of big finance companies.

But even if Obama rights the Bush administration’s bizarre programs and enforces corporate responsibility on Wall Street, a mountain of equally important economic work will still face Team Obama. Writing for AlterNet, Charlie Cray emphasizes that TARP and other salvage plans will not fix imbalances in the drastically insufficient financial regulatory structure. A sweeping overhaul of the nation’s regulatory architecture is absolutely necessary, but will face much stiffer opposition from the bank lobby than, say, a $350 billion giveaway.

While Obama’s economic stimulus proposal enjoys broad public support and will likely be enacted—Steve Benen presents some persuasive statistics on that topic at The Washington Monthly—it will be harder to garner up public support for technical and complex regulatory issues. When was the last time you heard anybody get riled up about how the Federal Reserve is funded?

Fortunately, the stimulus package offers a major opportunity to enact other badly neglected, longer-term projects to update the U.S. economy. OneWorld.net highlights analyses from leading think-tanks revealing that investments in renewable energy create far more jobs than pouring money into environmentally destructive coal-fired power plants, and leave future generations with a stronger social infrastructure.

There is room for hope. Amid a barrage of increasingly grim economic figures, Obama appears to understand what needs to be fixed and how much is at stake. He is certainly aware of the dangers posed by drastic economic inequality. Danny Schechter’s News Dissector blog features a post of Obama’s speech one year ago on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the quest for economic justice. It’s inspirational stuff, particularly on the day the first black U.S. president is being sworn into office.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy. Visit Economy.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on the economy, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical health and immigration issues, check out Healthcare.NewsLadder.net and Immigration.NewsLadder.net. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.