Session 1: Crime, border security, deportations

Immigrants Come Here Because Globalization Took Their Jobs Back There
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown
Posted on February 7, 2008

"Immigration reform cannot be separated from labor and trade reform. We can't fix the former without dealing with the other two. We must stop the exploitative NAFTAfication of such aspiring economies as Mexico and instead develop genuine grass-roots investment policies that give people there an ability to remain in their homeland. Then we must enforce our own labor laws -- from wage and hour rules to the NLRB -- so as to empower American workers to enforce their own rights.

Eliminating the need to migrate from Mexico and rebuilding the middle-class ladder, here is an 'immigration policy' that will work. But it requires us to go right at the corporate kleptocracy that now owns Washington and controls the debate."

Law Enforcement and Illegal Immigration
The State of Things
Tuesday, December 19 2006
.mp3 download

Police officers in certain North Carolina counties are being trained on how to enforce federal immigration laws, but is the burden of arresting and detaining illegal immigrants too much to bear for local law enforcement? Host Frank Stasio discusses the role and expectations of police officers in matters of federal immigration violations with Noah Pickus, associate professor of public policy studies at Duke University and UNC law professor Deborah Weissman.

Facing Deportation but Clinging to Life in U.S.
January 18, 2008, NY Times
By JULIA PRESTON

Story of a couple where one has papers and the other doesn't. Patience required while the NYT shows you an ad.

Other NY Times articles on immigration by Julia Preston

Session 2: Economics

Poultry series
Charlotte Observer
February 10, 2008
Editor: Rick Thames
The Charlotte Observer's moving and important series on poultry plants and their workers. "Poultry series exposes a new, silent subclass. Neglect of workers has ugly precedent in Carolinas history."

1 in 3 would deny illegal immigrants social services

By Janet Hook
Los Angeles Times Staff WriterDecember 6, 2007

One-third of Americans want to deny social services, including public schooling and emergency room healthcare, to illegal immigrants, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

Still, in a sign of ambivalence among voters about the emotionally charged issue, a strong bipartisan majority -- 60% -- favors allowing illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements.

Those crosscurrents create treacherous political waters for the major presidential candidates, many of whom have tended to avoid spotlighting the issue. But all have been forced to address the issue under repeated questioning at campaign events and candidate forums.

Immigration Policy that Benefits the American Middle Class
By Amy Traub, Drum Major Institute
Posted on December 10, 2007
This post, written by Amy Traub, originally appeared on DMI Blog

This is a summary from a longer report and contains some very informative links.

"Immigration policy is among the most divisive issues facing the U.S. today, and progressives often don't know how to talk or think about it. On the one hand, we are faced with racist demagogues who appeal to Americans' very real economic anxiety to promote harsh and unworkable policies that will benefit no one. On the other hand, immigration advocates make a vital point about the human rights of immigrants, but so far have not successfully addressed mainstream concerns. As progressives, we know that scapegoating undocumented immigrants is wrong, but that doesn't provide a positive agenda or a way to distinguish which immigration policy proposals will truly move us forward as a nation."

Divided Nation
By Peter Schrag, The Nation Magazine
January 7, 2008 issue

I'm not sure if this is available to non-subscribers. It is a very good discussion of current legislation and attitudes.

"In the past year, we've become a nation of a thousand immigration laws and policies--a confusing mosaic of fear, anger and nativism, of generosity, reason and self-defeating silliness. Although some of those laws were enacted before the Senate failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in June, that failure greatly expanded the vacuum that local efforts sought to fill. It has also nourished the demagoguery that helps drive them, made immigration a prime domestic issue in the 2008 presidential campaign and intensified the fears those laws in turn produce. ...In the first eleven months of 2007, forty-six state legislatures passed nearly 250 immigration laws--some 1,560 were introduced, nearly triple the number for the same period in 2006. Cities and counties have enacted hundreds more, ranging all over the philosophical and political map."

What to Really Do About Immigration
JEFF FAUX | January 17, 2008
The American Prospect

Half a million Mexicans will cross the border annually for the next 15 years. Here's a plan to enable them to stay home.

"The backlash against illegal immigration -- which looks like the Republicans' only hope for a wedge issue in next November's election -- is largely aimed at Latinos, of whom the vast majority are Mexicans. In fact almost 60 percent of all undocumented workers in the United States are from Mexico, and close to 12 million of that country's nationals now live in the U.S. Fix the Mexican part of the problem and the divisive politics of illegal immigration shrink dramatically.

But the news from south of the border is not good. The number of Mexican workers continues to grow faster than the number of Mexican jobs that pay enough to earn a living. And there is no end to this problem in sight. A November 2007 Mexican government report concluded that even if the overall economy grows steadily, low wages and social inequality will continue to generate heavy out-migration to the U.S. at the current annual rate of roughly 500,000 -- for the next 15 years!"

Fighting the Anti-Immigrant Movement in the States: Strategy Memo and Resources
by Nathan Newman
Progressive States Network

Purpose of this Strategy Memo: With the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacks, immigration will inevitably be a major issue in state legislatures in the 2008 session. The goal of this strategy document is to provide an outline of strategies and resources that state legislative leaders and advocates can use to challenge the anti-immigrant movements in their states.

Changing the Narrative on Immigration Politics: Even as anti-immigrant policies have been enacted in a number of states, other states have also been enacting smart, humane policies that raises living standards for all workers, undocumented and native worker alike, while encouraging maximum integration of new immigrants into our communities. State leaders and advocates can use smart policy campaigns to change the public debate on immigration both at the state level and nationally.

State Immigration Project: Policy Options for 2008
Progressive States Network
December 2007

THE KEY to challenging anti-immigrant movements in the states is to respond with legislation that puts those promoting anti-immigrant policies on the defensive. !eir goal is to pit African-American voters against Latinos, legal immigrants against undocumented immigrants, and native-born workers against undocumented workers. So progressive leaders need to promote policies that unite people across those divides, while highlighting that those leading the anti-immigrant charge are actually against the interests of working families of all races and immigrant status.