Images of the dead body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi has rocked our moral consciousness. Thanks to the power of social media, the world is now paying attention to the refugee crisis which involves the lives of millions.

That the world is finally paying attention is good. Why? Because the current refugee crisis we’re now forced to confront, has been years in the making.

And, until now, the plight of displaced refugees has been largely ignored amid all the talk of dropping bombs, beheadings, and so-called shitty nuclear deals. Moreover, given our current political debate vis-a-vis immigration, anchor babies, and “acts of love” etc., the timing is impeccable as it forces us Americans, to take a long hard look at ourselves.

A few years ago, I wrote about the worldwide refugee crisis (read here). This was in 2012 and my post featured a then recently released United Nations report, According to the report by the United Nations, 2011 nad been the worst year for refugees across the globe since 2000.

Back then, an estimated 4.3 million people were newly displaced. About 800,000 of them fled their countries and became refugees (the remaining people were displaced but did not leave their countries, so they do not meet the definition of “refugee,” rather, they are considered IDPs – internally displaced persons).

The report concludes, that at the end of 2011, there were 42.5 million displaced people worldwide — more than the population of Canada.

My guess is that in the years since the release of the report, the number of refugees worldwide has doubled or possibly even tripled. That said, I imagine that there are many people who have perished while attempting to flee these war torn countries. Many of them, I suspect, were as young as Aylan Kurdi, if not younger.

You see, to pack up our family — while having very meager resources — and, migrate to another country in search of a better life is indeed an act of love. It’s really mostly an act of desperation, given the circumstances, that’s rooted in a love of family, life, liberty, and all the ideals we hold so dear in America.

Yes, you know, the stuff we promote via military action on foreign soil? Believe it or not, ironically, these are the very same reasons Aylan Kurdi’s family left their home in Syria. Plainly speaking: they wanted to fucking live. Unfortunately for the Kurdi family, Aylan Kurdi, his mother, and his five-year-old brother are dead.

As I watch the outpouring of support from westerners in response to the Syrian, Libyan, Afghanistani refugee crisis in Europe – mostly brought about by the photo of Aylan Kurdi’s dead body in the photo above – I’m reminded of a couple things.

I’m reminded of how black refugees from S. Sudan were kicked out of Israel just a few years ago. They were kicked out by the Israeli government because of the usual xenophobic, racist anti-immigrant animus that exists here in America.

I’m also reminded of how migrant children who crossed the U.S. southern border seeking a better life were ridiculed by a large portion of the American public. They were described as being diseased criminals; and, there were mobs outside of detention centers rallying for their deportation.

And of course, these were the children who wee lucky enough to survive the several months long journey from Central America into the United States. But to hear some tell it, their sole purpose for coming to America is to rob, steal, and rape Americans.

The post Aylan Kurdi is What a Real “Anchor Baby” Looks Like appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Recently, Al Jazeera reported on the cruel abuse of Ethiopian migrants in Saudi Arabia. The article states that:

Facing limited job prospects and harsh economic realities back home, large numbers of Ethiopian men and women head to the oil- and gas-rich Arabian peninsula every year seeking work.

The International Labour Organisation said many face physical and mental abuse, menial pay, discrimination and poor working conditions, and the Ethiopian government announced last month it was banning domestic workers from travelling to the Middle East to look for jobs after widespread reports of mistreatment.

Ethiopian Migrant in Saudi Arabia

Like Abdullah, Abdurahman Kamal said he too was beaten before being jailed for ten days. His employer revoked his salary and his visa before handing him over to the authorities, he says.

“The police asked for money but at that time I didn’t have the money, so the police beat me,” said Abdurahman, 21, who worked as a driver.

Now he says he is relieved to be home after three years in Saudi Arabia.

“I get to go back to my family,” he said, wearing a torn shirt that revealed his scarred torso.

Check out the video below for a graphic example of how our Ethiopian brothers and sisters are treated in Saudi Arabia. If you do not have a YouTube account, you should open one so that you can witness the Saudis commit brutal and barbaric crimes against Ethiopians migrants.

The cabinet on Sunday approved an amendment to a controversial bill that would allow the detention of migrants who have entered Israel illegally for up to a year without trial in closed-door detention centers, and for a much longer period in other, more open, facilities.

The amendment was part of the so-called “infiltrator law,” which was sponsored by Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and approved by 12 ministers, with two abstaining.

An earlier version of the bill, which called for keeping migrants in closed detention centers for up to three years without trial, was struck down by the High Court of Justice in September as unconstitutional. The court also gave the government 90 days to either bring to trial or release all those being held under the overturned amendment.

Under the revised version of the bill that was approved on Sunday, authorities will be able to keep migrants in open detention centers for up to three years without trial proceedings. The open-door facilities require the inhabitants to return every night and attend three head counts at the center during the day. Migrants can be held in closed-door facilities for up to one year.

Check out the news report below regarding racism against African immigrants in Israel. Despite their religious, cultural and political differences, Saudi Arabia and Israel agree one thing.  Both countries treat Africans like trash.

Africans worldwide and all people of goodwill must unite.  We must stand up and make our voices heard. Please sign the petition below.

Petition to stop violence against Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia.

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With proposed immigration reform legislation receiving pushback from the usual suspects. You know, ignorant right-wingers and their clueless minions? Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has presented what at first glance seems to be an absurd argument in support of immigration reform. Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Road to Majority Conference in Washington, this week, Jeb Bush called immigrants “more fertile,” at the annual conservative gathering. Jeb Bush, himself the husband of a Latino woman, may know something his buddies may not.

This from MSNBC:

Jeb Bush and family

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush called immigrants ‘more fertile’ during his speech at the annual conservative gathering of the Faith and Freedom Coalition convention in which he praised the role of transplants in America.

No joke. As part of his pitch for immigration reform to the conservative, evangelical-leaning audience on Friday, Bush said immigrant labor is crucial to the U.S. economy, especially because immigrants are “more fertile.”

“Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans,” he said, adding, “Immigrants are more fertile, they love families, they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.”

As I mentioned before, at first glance, Jeb Bush’s argument sounds purely ridiculous. If anything, to the ear of those opposed to immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country. Jeb Bush’s argument would sound like the very reason to oppose immigration reform. After all, the common belief is that newly documented immigrants would become a burden and place a strain on society. Yep, and of course you know there are only so many food stamps to go around.

When you look at his argument through the lens of race, one can see that the benefit argued by Jeb Bush makes a lot of sense. Let’s face it: Though white folks are still the strong majority demographic, their numbers are declining. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2012, more white people died than were born for the first time in a century. At that rate, unless white folks start drinking malt liquor, eating tacos, and eating watermelon, they will one day become the minority. Which is pretty weird when you think about how many of them are opposed to Affirmative Action policies for college applicants. Once that white privilege thingy is lost and colored privilege kicks in, things might get a little weird.

This from The New York Times:

Deaths exceeded births among non-Hispanic white Americans for the first time in at least a century, according to new census data, a benchmark that heralds profound demographic change.

The disparity was tiny — only about 12,000 — and was more than made up by a gain of 188,000 as a result of immigration from abroad. But the decrease for the year ending July 1, 2012, coupled with the fact that a majority of births in the United States are now to Hispanic, black and Asian mothers, is further evidence that white Americans will become a minority nationwide within about three decades.

Over all, the number of non-Hispanic white Americans is expected to begin declining by the end of this decade.

“These new census estimates are an early signal alerting us to the impending decline in the white population that will characterize most of the 21st century,” said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.

[…] The transition will mean that “today’s racial and ethnic minorities will no longer be dependent on older whites for their economic well-being,” Dr. Frey said. In fact, the situation may be reversed. “It makes more vivid than ever the fact that we will be reliant on younger minorities and immigrants for our future demographic and economic growth,” he said.

In 2010, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, more non-Hispanic whites died than were born in 11 states, including California, Florida and Pennsylvania. White deaths exceeded births in a majority of counties, including Los Angeles, the most populous.

Given the apocalyptic possibility of yet another white woman (or man) having a child with a Kenyan who may somehow become POTUS, Jeb Bush’s argument makes perfect sense. I mean, who wants to have a mulatto baby these days. right? Oh, you don’t believe me? Just ask the racists who “let their color show” in reaction to a new ad by Cheerios. The ad features a bi-racial couple — a black man, and a white woman — and their adorable mixed daughter. As the following interview with the biological parents of the child actor shows, much of the backlash shows the ugly side of our now post-racial society. I suppose it’s okay to eat Cheerios in the comfort of your home if you’re white and have a child with a black person. However, to talk about your love for the cereal or even mention its health benefits on television, is clearly unacceptable to some.

The post Jeb Bush: Support Immigration Reform Because “Immigrants are more fertile” appeared first on Madness & Reality.

As an immigrant and advocate for immigration reform, nothing upsets me off more than when I hear people who look like me complain and say, “President Obama is doing immigration for Latinos, but has done nothing for Black people.” It’s a rather myopic view of what is in fact a very complex situation. Sadly, many are of the ill-formed opinion that becoming documented is just as simple as going to the DMV and waiting in line.

If only the process was that simple, but it’s not. This type of rhetoric frustrates me. But I’ve come to realize that this country is chock full of ignorant people, who are easily influenced by the racist anti-immigration movement. And what’s even more frustrating when I hear this garbage? That said ignorance belittles the collective efforts of grassroots activists intent on seeing change; many of whom are undocumented themselves.

These are people who are willing to put their lives on the line who risk deportation and possible separation from their families. These are people like Verónica Bayetti Flores, an immigrant and queer woman of color, who was arrested in New York City recently. What was her crime? Standing alongside undocumented youth ion hopes of Governor Andrew Cuomo implementing New York’s version of the DTREAM Act. A measure that will at the least give people brought here as children a temporary respite from fear of deportation and a life of American normalcy.

Here is what Veronica had to say:

I am a queer immigrant writer, activist, and artist. I’ve worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color, and helped to lead social justice efforts in Wisconsin, New York City, and Texas.

Verónica Bayetti Flores

Today, I stand as an ally to undocumented youth in the effort to demand the passage of the New York State DREAM Act, which has the potential to radically transform undocumented young people’s access to education in New York. In preparing for today’s action, I re-read the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail; the powerful lessons of this open letter remain relevant today. In it, Dr. King assures us that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, and that it must be not only demanded by the oppressed, but demanded now. That, although those who have not suffered from racial injustice too often claim that the time is not right, “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Justice has been denied to undocumented immigrants for too long. I am doing this today because I am a reproductive justice activist, and I know that education impacts access to health care. I am doing this today because I am queer, and I know that queer youth of color in New York are disproportionately poor and unable to afford housing, much less the rising costs of higher education. I am doing this today because, as an immigrant who was not eligible for financial aid when I applied for college, I know that most will not have the luck and the privilege that I had when I was still able to access the education has been integral to my success and happiness.

The comprehensive immigration reform being discussed in Congress will not address many of these concerns, and will leave much to be desired. State efforts like the New York DREAM Act remain critical in to the path toward justice for undocumented youth. Today, I demand that Governor Cuomo make this bill a priority. He needs to know that he does not have Latinos and immigrants in the bag if he has his eyes set on a presidential run in 2016: we need action, and we are watching.

Listen to her in her own words:

… immigration reform benefits the country.

When immigration reform does indeed become a reality and the ink that is the signature of President Obama has dried. It would be because of the hard work of people dedicated to change. It would be because those of us involved were able to build consensus by telling our stories. It would be because the people like Veronica were able to humanize an undesirable underclass of people in this country, also in pursuit of the American Dream.

As our political leaders debate and wrangle with the task of immigration reform. It’s important to know that while there is no shortage of ignorant talk when it comes to the issue. There are m,many courageous individuals who get it, who are standing up and speaking out in the interest of social justice. Not just social justice, but also human rights. Because believe it or not, immigration is indeed a human rights issue as well.

Still don’t get it?

Watch the following:

The post Immigration: Queer Activist Arrested at #DREAMAct Protest appeared first on Madness & Reality.

So, don’t cry after reading this; instead, call your congressional representative and voice your displeasure. Why? Because the following report may be of concern to you; and, hopefully enough of a concern to motivate you to call your Congressional representatives. That is unless you’re supportive of the idea of kicking children out of the country after keeping them in detention centers with adults. Of course these are the very individuals who would qualify for the DACA which was signed by President Obama.  If you’re not onew of those people, you should call them.

The House passed a homeland security spending bill on Wednesday that sent a message to immigrants in the country without authorization: we don’t want you here.

Nearly all House Republicans voted to add an amendment to the bill that would cut funding for an Obama administration program that allows young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the U.S.

[,,,] The reason immigration came up during the discussion of homeland security funding is because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees federal immigration programs, including the aforementioned initiative, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

“I think it sends a very interesting signal to the Latino community because this motion would essentially invalidate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for DREAMers,” said Cecilia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, at a briefing for Hispanic media. “It will be interesting to see what the reaction is in the community.”

The vote is largely symbolic. It’s very unlikely the Democrat-controlled Senate would support a bill containing that provision, or that the president would sign it into law. (source)

Aside from that, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) recently discovered through a 2010 FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request, that from 2008 to 2012 the Department of Homeland Security maintained the practice of detaining children in adult immigration detention facilities. Can you imagine that? I’m not sure, but isn’t this a serious human rights violation?

Watch the following:

A young child and his mother wait in a US border detention center before being returned to their home country. Bill Gentile/Zuma

The report determined (click here to read it) that from 2008-2010 children under the age of 18 were cumulatively held for a total of 36,598 days in 30 different adult detention centers here in the United States. Four children were detained between 1,000 and 3,600 days, with one child being held for a decade after being detained at the age of 15. Did you hear that? One child was detained for a decade in an adult immigration detention center.

The NIJC also alleges that the data has been under-reported.  Given this fact, there is no way of actually knowing how many undocumented children are being caged nationwide.What we do know, however, is that Congress voted unanimously to deport individuals brought here through no fault of their own. Of course being held in an adult immigration detention as an undocumented child is a lot better than being gunned down and having your life innocently taken away. But the sad truth is that the deportation of said youth is much like a death sentence.

Watch the video:

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I suppose them being concerned about their health, and maybe not dying from carbon monoxide poisoning was akin to drapetomania hence their dereliction of duty. I mean, clearly getting strawberries out of the field is more important than, say, being healthy and alive on occasion when you’re being paid for your labor, right? I know, anything counter to that line of thinking is anti-American, right?

This from NBC Los Angeles:

More than a dozen farm workers in Southern California were out of a job after walking out of the fields last week, forced indoors because of heavy smoke from a massive wildfire burning nearby.

“Oh, yeah, the smoke was very bad. That’s no doubt about that,” said Lauro Barrajas, of the United Farm Workers.

As the blaze, dubbed the Springs Fire, continued to grow in Camarillo May 2, farm workers 11 miles south in Oxnard said they started to feel the effects of the smoke in the strawberry fields.

The ashes were falling on top of us, one of them explained, adding “it was hard to breathe.”

Thank God I wasn’t working in a Texas plant full of Ammonium nitrate.

Air quality in the region was at dangerously poor levels and 15 workers at Crisalida Farms decided they could not handle it any longer. They left, even though their foreman warned them they would not have a job when they returned.

When they went back to the fields May 3, the farm fired them.

Barrajas, who is a representative of the UFW, said the workers contacted him for help, even though they were not members of the union.

Union representatives met with the farm’s upper management and applied a union rule.

“No worker shall work under conditions where they feel his life or health is in danger,” Barrajas said.

In a statement to Telemundo, the farm representative said the workers left without permission while orders still needed to be filled. The company offered to pay them for the hours they’d worked.

Later, the company settled with the union and offered to rehire all 15 workers. But only one worker returned.

The others took jobs on other farms.

One worker said while it hurts to lose work, one’s health is more important.

Oh well, I guess this isn’t too bad. After all, it’s not like they worked for pennies at a garment factory in Bangladesh. I mean, this is America — a country where we take care of our workers. A country where in the name of capitalism and profit, labor unions are thankfully on the decline.  Yep, and as for those lazy bums in the story above, they better thank brown-skinned Jesus they weren’t picking cotton. If so they would’ve had a foot cut off, and expected to show up to work the next day.

The post Farm Workers Fired for Leaving Fields During California Wildfire appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Yep, no need for me to go back and rehash those arguments. Heck, I won’t even link to them in this post. Instead, I’ll just let the following video speak for itself. The video was put together by the good folks over at Cuéntame. You may not know about their organization; but, if you’re an advocate for immigration reform, you should definitely get to know them and “like” then on Facebook. In the following video (which is one of many at their site) they expose the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Yep, a haven for racist Nativist types.

The post California Coalition for Immigration Reform: Another Racist Organization appeared first on Madness & Reality.

She filled with rage explaining to me how this country will never work, NEVER WORK to strive and better itself because they keep letting “those people” in. I felt compelled to hear her out because I wanted to know exactly how one who thinks it is unfair to let others into this piece of land feels like it is their obligation to shut the so-called passageway once held open by the giant chick The Statue of Liberty who even states

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

And more than likely, those words once meant something to the great great grandfather of the lady ranting next to me about how a phone book should only be in one language.

Now, I heard her out, but I reminded her that at one time this country did indeed exist with thousands of different languages and in peace and harmony. She didn’t really get what I was saying, she went on to rant that every city in America has a Chinatown and that shouldn’t exist, it just shouldn’t happen like that.

I explained that I felt not a single person on this Earth should ever lose their culture and forget who they are, otherwise, they take pride in naming themselves after a bottle of steak sauce and where is the culture in a bottle of Heinz 57? My apologies to any members of the Heinz 57 tribe, I myself am more than one race, but for the life of me I would not call myself a bottle of weak ketchup and giggle about it. Not when I know where I come from and who I am, I am proud of my culture and that pride runs deep.

So I just told the lady “I get it.”

She gave me an untrusting look.

I really do get it, I told her. My people were against immigration also. We felt our homelands invaded. We fought for our Grandmother Earth. This was before my time, and yet I feel as if my very own Motherland was swiped from under my feet like a cheap rug. As if Columbus landed yesterday and Turtle Island was invaded.

We kind of sort of silently and mutually agreed to end the subject right there.

But the more I think about it, I understand how your typical conservative feels as if they need to close the gates on immigrants. I understand because the patriotism I have for this land goes further than stripes and stars and apple pie and baseball…wait, it’s as deep as my love for baseball.

The patriotism I feel for this land is to honor the Earth that WE BELONG TO.

We never owned the beautiful Turtle Island, she owns us and we honor her.

We held onto our culture that includes so many ceremonies preserved over the years to honor the land that gives us life on a daily basis.

So of course, every Indigenous person of their land feels invaded after centuries even. Whether they are Indigenous of North America, South America, New Zealand, Australia etc. And that makes it easy for the descendants of the invaders to tell us to “get over it” but to not know how to handle when the same thing happens to them.

And I can’t even tell any descendant of any of the invaders to “get over it.”

Wanna know why?

Because you NEVER will.

Just like I never got over the fact that you are all here now, centuries later. Not when I know my ancestors spilled blood for the land you happily mow your manicured lawn on Saturdays and bitch about paying taxes on every Spring. So I get all of it, I also know that generations from now, your descendants will probably still be mad about it, like most my people my age and younger, still are.

The post The Immigration Conversation: Fighting “Illegals” Since 1492 appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Living on the gulf coast at the time, I remember it very well just how the events after Hurricane Katrina played out. Moreover, the one thing that sticks out in my mind was the response to the many thousands of so-called refugees in various municipalities within which they were forced to call home after the storm. To be quite honest, many of the displaced were not welcome in many municipalities,  and there were many complaints about the existence of potentially criminal-minded individuals from that other country known as New Orleans, spread across America.

I was reminded of this lack of humanity recently when riots broke out in Israel:

For many years, Jews were persecuted, discriminated against and oppressed in several European nations. During the Nazi era, they were confined to concentration camps, burned in ovens, starved to death, gassed with poison and subjected to other grotesque forms of genocide. Many fled Germany and other European countries in search of a better life for themselves and their families. Many came to Israel in search of peace and security.

 

In light of that history, Israel should strongly oppose of all forms of oppression. Unfortunately, it does not. Ironically, the Israeli government has become an agent of oppression and intolerance. Not only does Israel oppress the Palestinian people, Israel discriminates against African immigrants. Israel should be ashamed of its racist, anti-African policies and sentiments. (read more)

Ahh yes, that’s when I remembered that Israel is in fact America’s little brother, and as the old saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. As much as racism manages to rear it’s ugly head here in America, it’s beyond reason to believe that reading the Torah daily and having box seats in heaven makes one immune to the disease that is racism, often employed as the tool of choice to advance the concept of White Supremacy, and everything that is right about it. After all, this is the same Israel that the U.S. sided with when they walked out of the United Nations conference on racism, which sought redress by way of reparations for crimes against humanity. My guess is that the guilt of having to own ones crime became too much to bear.

So what is the Israeli government doing about this? Surely they’ll be open to listening to the words of the Sudanese version of Martin Luther King Jr. and do the right thing, yes? Well, not exactly; according to The Jerusalem Post, they’ve decided to do what Conservatives in America advocate. That’s right: deportation. Not exactly the Mitt Romney-styled plan of self-deportation; instead, the Israeli’s have launched a more friendly-sounding policy called “Operation Going Home” and have already started the process of removal of all Sudanese refugees in Israel.

Here’s what happened last weekend:

A plane carrying a group of 123 South Sudanese migrants took off from Ben-Gurion Airport late Sunday night on its way to Juba. It was the first such flight to leave Israel as part of “Operation Going Home,” in which authorities plan to deport South Sudanese in Israel.

 

The South Sudanese men, women, and children were processed for their flights earlier behind mounds of suitcases inside Ben-Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1. They were joined on the charter flight by four members of a South Sudan diplomatic delegation that came to Israel last Thursday to oversee the administration of the deportations and meet with local members of the South Sudanese community in Israel.

 

Earlier on Sunday, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said thedeportation of the 700- 1,500 South Sudanese in Israel barelyscratches the surface of solving the migrant problem facing the country.

 

Yishai said the real problem “is with Eritrea that has 30,000 people [in Israel] and north Sudan with 15,000,” adding that he hopes “that the legal obstacles to this will be lifted soon and we can expel them as well.”

 

Yishai admitted that the South Sudanese make up only a “drop within a drop” of the 60,000 or so African migrants in Israel, but added that deporting them is a “national interest” and that if he “has to chose between the interests of Israel and the interests of the Sudanese, I will choose Israel.

 

[…] Gidon Cohen, the head of the encouragement of willful repatriation department of the Population, Immigration and Border Authority, said that each South Sudanese adult received $1,300 in cash, with an additional $500 for each minor traveling with them. They were also given vaccines against diseases common to Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

[…] Escorted by friends and trailed by cameramen and reporters, dozens of South Sudanese men, women, and children filled into buses on the seventh floor of the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. As they loaded their bags onto the bus in the midday sun, the migrants described a mixture of feelings. While many spoke of anger towards the anti-migrant atmosphere in Israel and the arrests that accompanied the deportations, others spoke of relief that the deportation saga is coming to an end and happiness about finally returning to their homeland, a new country that did not exist when they fled years earlier.

 

Andrew Akolawine smiled on the pavement at the bus station, saying “I’ve been here for five years and I’m happy to be going back. You know in any circle, you must end at the point where you start. I started there [South Sudan] and I will finish there, this is enough.”

 

Akolawine, a father of four, spoke warmly of the Israeli friends he’d made over his years in the country, but added that recent anti-migrant statements by Israeli politicians had soured his opinion of Israel.

 

Still, he cracked, “I’m very proud that I am part of a people Israel thinks are so important that they don’t talk about the Palestinians anymore, just us.”

 

[…] Orit Marom of the Assaf NGO, which assists African migrants, called Sunday “a day of shame,” saying that Israel’s Interior Ministry “has trampled on the honor of great friends of Israel, the South Sudanese.” Marom added “the South Sudanese, unlike Eli Yishai, have a big heart and they forgive him.”

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the deportations during Sunday’s cabinet meeting, saying “today the government will begin the operation to repatriate illegal work infiltrators to their countries of origin. We will do this is an orderly and dignified manner.”

 

Netanyahu also spoke of the government’s efforts to stop the entry of further illegal migrants by finishing construction of the border fence, finishing detention facilities for illegal migrants and using diplomatic steps to find third countries to take in African asylum seekers.

 

On June 7, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a petition by human rights groups opposed to the deportation of South Sudanese, saying the NGOs did not prove that the South Sudanese would be in physical danger if they were returned home. Though assurances were made that the migrants would be given a week to prepare for deportation, three days later immigration officials began arresting South Sudanese across the country.

 

The arrests follow a decision announced in January by the Interior Ministry, which gave South Sudanese until April 1 to leave Israel willingly or face deportation.

Perhaps you have not been following much of the immigration debate here in the U.’S. lately. However, if you do, you cannot tell me that what’s happening in Israel does not eerily sound like what’s happening here in America. At the end of the day, I guess it can be said that Israel, like the United States of America, is no country for people of color, or in particular, people of African origin. Which is really sad when you think about the fact that the leader of the so-called free world happens to be a direct descendant of a black man born in Kenya, which makes his U.S. presidency illegitimate. Yeah, it’s really funny to me how that racism thing works; and how it impacts the lives of the dispossessed folk of African origin. I could be wrong, but maybe things would be different if cotton was a cash crop in Israel. Surely they’d be more welcoming and kind just like over here.

So why are there Sudanese refugees? Well, that’s up for debate depending on who you are. But according to a recent report by the United Nations, 2011 was the worst year for refugees across the globe since 2000. According to the report, 4.3 million people were newly displaced. About 800,000 of them fled their countries and became refugees (the remaining people were displaced but did not leave their countries, so they do not meet the definition of “refugee;” rather, they are considered IDPs – internally displaced persons). The report concludes, that at the end of 2011, there were 42.5 million displaced people worldwide — more than the population of Canada.

From the report:

2011 saw suffering on an epic scale. For so many lives to have been thrown into turmoil over so short a space of time means enormous personal cost for all who were affected,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “We can be grateful only that the international system for protecting such people held firm for the most part and that borders stayed open. These are testing times.

Yes, testing times indeed, especially when you consider that much of the displacement is a direct result of policy decisions made by the U.S. and given a stamp of approval by Israel. This is especially troubling when you consider that the UN reports that Afghanistan remains the biggest producer of refugees (2.7 million) followed by Iraq (1.4 million), Somalia (1.1 million), Sudan (500,000) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (491,000).  This is particularly sad given that the top two countries producing refugees are places where we went to war.  Clearly, U.S. efforts have failed to make Iraq and Afghanistan safe; at least not in the minds of the millions of people who have decided that they cannot return home. But hey, none of this is racist, right?

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I mean while everyone is running around afraid of the little brown Mexican al-Queda jumping fences to come into the country illegally and have more babies than white folks. Nobody realized that the Asian immigrant community has surpassed Hispanics to become the largest immigrant group in the United States. Yeah, nobody is worried about them bringing in all that MSG to get us fat so we die of heart disease, diabetes, mesothelioma, or whatever as payback for dropping bombs  on them back in the day. Nope, instead, let’s fuck with the tanned people and make them out to be the job-stealing, drug-pushing, and no-insurance-having while driving illegally people they are.

Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination. Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines. When newly minted medical school graduate Priscilla Chan married Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last month, she joined the 37% of all recent Asian-American brides who wed a non-Asian groom.¹

These milestones of economic success and social assimilation have come to a group that is still majority immigrant. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Asian-American adults were born abroad; of these, about half say they speak English very well and half say they don’t.

Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States. The educational credentials of these recent arrivals are striking. More than six-in-ten (61%) adults ages 25 to 64 who have come from Asia in recent years have at least a bachelor’s degree. This is double the share among recent non-Asian arrivals, and almost surely makes the recent Asian arrivals the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history.

Recent Asian immigrants are also about three times as likely as recent immigrants from other parts of the world to receive their green cards—or permanent resident status—on the basis of employer rather than family sponsorship (though family reunification remains the most common legal gateway to the U.S. for Asian immigrants, as it is for all immigrants).

The modern immigration wave from Asia is nearly a half century old and has pushed the total population of Asian Americans—foreign born and U.S born, adults and children—to a record 18.2 million in 2011, or 5.8% of the total U.S. population, up from less than 1% in 1965.³ By comparison, non-Hispanic whites are 197.5 million and 63.3%, Hispanics 52.0 million and 16.7% and non-Hispanic blacks 38.3 million and 12.3%.

Asian Americans trace their roots to any of dozens of countries in the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Each country of origin subgroup has its own unique history, culture, language, religious beliefs, economic and demographic traits, social and political values, and pathways into America. (source: Pew Research)

So what is this all about? Well, we already know how that fear-mongering thing works in America. You pick a certain minority ethnic group, you bastardize them, criminalize them, and the next thing you know, you have a folks in the racial majority afraid and ready to string them up in trees like a pinata while posing for pictures on Main Street. Well, on this immigration debate, I say it’s time we shifted the paradigm just a bit. Rather than worrying about “illegals” voting as Gov. Rick Scott and pretty much all Republicans who attempt to sell the faux voter fraud meme to justify purging registered voters. Why not focus on the benefits of immigration; or more specifically, the economic benefits our society has enjoyed by the many immigrants entering the country? With the US being a nation of immigrants, surely there must be benefits to bringing people into the country other than to pick cotton for free, right? But let the noisemakers tell it, this was just a politically expedient move by Obama. Newsflash: Obama was kicking Romney’s ass when it comes to Hispanic voters as far as polls have reflected:

Even amid concerns about the pressures of new, lower-income or less-educated residents, cities with high numbers of the foreign born saw tax bases grow and per-capita income increase, the report released today by the ratings company said.

“To make a case that immigration causes governments to go broke or jurisdictions to have budget overruns is a simplistic argument,” said Horacio Aldrete-Sanchez, a senior director in state and local government ratings for S&P and an author of the report. “There are undoubtedly costs to these governments, but there is also an overall increase in economic activity and a stabilizing impact on the labor markets.”

The company looked at cities where immigrants fueled population growth from 2000 to 2010 as well as cities where rapid population growth was primarily due to domestic migration.

The analysts found that while it is difficult to isolate the impact of immigration on local governments, it has not resulted in the deterioration of city economies or financial standings. No city has had its municipal credit rating downgraded because of the burden of immigration, Aldrete-Sanchez said.

“Regardless of whether foreign immigration or domestic migration, as long as there is population growth that seems to be the one factor that drives economic activity,” Aldrete- Sanchez said.

So yeah, about the debate over Obama’s execution of prosecutorial discretion mistakenly billed as an executive order (see here). When you sonsider that most of these kids and adults have been educated here in America, wouldn’t it be a waste to kick them all out for the crime of not having legal documentation because of the actions of their parents? Rather than look at immigrants — legal and otherwise — as criminals and an economic drain on society. Why not understand what we stand to lose by nor allowing DREAMers or all undocumented immigrants an opportunity by comprehensive reform? But hey, if you don’t believe me as most of you are known to do, let me remind you that over 50% of graduates with advanced degrees particularly in STEM programs, are in fact foreign-born students. That said, surely it’s understandable how this benefits us from an economic perspective.

Here’s what I’m talking about; you have to watch this:

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