As President Barack Obama prepares to take executive action on immigration, Dreamers have a message for the president: Don’t leave our parents behind.
“It is becoming clear that there is a new consensus emerging from those who support our communities — the parents of Dreamers must be protected,” Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy at United We Dream, said Tuesday during a press conference on Capitol Hill"
Obama could take action as early as this week to offer deportation relief and work authorization to millions of undocumented immigrants. The president did something similar in 2012 when he announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for undocumented youth who came to the United States as children. The New York Times reported last week that up to 5 million undocumented immigrants — including parents of U.S. citizens and legal residents — could benefit from Obama’s planned executive actions. But it’s still unclear whether the parents of Dreamers will also qualify for protection.
Erika Andiola (right) stands next to her mother, Guadalupe Arreola, at a press conference last December. (VOXXI/Griselda Nevarez)
Erika Andiola, a Dreamer and co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, said she hopes her mother is not left out from Obama’s executive actions.
In an op-ed published Tuesday by the Huffington Post, Andiola said her mother was put in deportation proceedings two years ago when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raided her home and arrested her mother.
Andiola said shortly after that happened, she quit her job as a staffer for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in Washington, D.C., and returned to Arizona to fight to stop her mother’s deportation. She succeeded in convincing immigration officials to allow her mother to stay in the U.S. temporarily.
But Andiola’s mother is still not in the clear. She has an appointment with ICE officials in December where she’ll find out if she gets to stay in the country for another year.
Andiola said she now hopes Obama will “go big” and extend relief to her mother and other immigrants like her who are parents of Dreamers but don’t have children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents.
“Dreamers across the country have given their lives to this fight, and I ask you to not leave our parents and those who might not have family ties to U.S. citizens, behind,” Andioa said in the op-ed, directing her message to Obama. “Please don’t leave my mother behind.”
SEE ALSO:Republicans looking for ways to stop Obama on immigration
Dreamers aren’t the only ones calling on Obama to include their parents in his planned executive actions. A group of mothers of Dreamers have been fasting outside the White House since Nov. 3, making their case for why the president should protect them and other immigrants with strong ties to the U.S. from deportation. They are part of an advocacy group called Dreamers’ Moms USA.
A group of mothers of Dreamers joined Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard during a press conference Tuesday. (Twitter/@Rep.RoybalAllard)
Lenka Mendoza, a mother of two Dreamers who lives in Virginia, is among those who have been fasting outside the White House for 16 days. In an interview with VOXXI, she explained why Obama should offer relief to parents of Dreamers.
“A lot is said about the qualities of our sons and daughters and the contributions they’re making to this country,” Mendoza said. “But we, as parents, are the ones who have instilled those qualities in our children, and we shouldn’t be put aside.”
She added that like Dreamers, parents also deserve an opportunity to stay in the country because they have “worked hard and contributed to the economic development of this country.”
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Women’s Working Group on Immigration Reform, echoed that message during a press conference on Tuesday. She was joined by the mothers who are fasting as well as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.), who are also part of the working group.
“Like the Dreamers, the parents of Dreamers love our country and contribute to our economy every day,” Roybal-Allard said. “As women leaders in Congress, our message is simple, Mr. President: Don’t separate children from their parents. Keep families together. And enable moms and dads to come out of the shadows to openly contribute to our country, and to live their lives with dignity and respect.”
the US Senate Majority, November 5, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The worst political news for President Obama, on top of the crushing mid-term elections defeat for his party, is that the centerpiece of his legacy may be in trouble in the most unexpected of places.
A year after open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act began, 1 in 4 Latinos in the United States still do not have health insurance, according to new Census Bureau data – and it may be an uphill struggle to reverse that.
That is significant to Obama’s legacy since it was widely assumed that Latinos would be the backdrop for the success of Obamacare, both because they are its biggest target ethnic group and were the celebrated core of his 2008 and 2012 success in several critical states.
But now comes this unexpected political collision: Obamacare is the president’s legacy issue and if it fails among Latinos – who are already suspicious of him because of broken promises on immigration reform – there may be little of lasting importance on which to hang his presidency. SEE ALSO:New HealthCare.gov website unveiled
It may be both ironic and coincidental that Obamacare and the immigration reform have become almost inseparable in trying to connect Latinos to the Affordable Care Act.
In California alone, at least 600,000 Latinos — or almost twice those who have enrolled — are still balking at signing up for Obamacare, despite qualifying for subsidized coverage under the federal health law, out of fear it could lead to the deportation of undocumented relatives.
It is a fear heightened by the fact that the federal government has deported more than two million immigrants in the U.S. illegally since Obama took office in 2009.
“This is a very big deal in California,” says Catherine Teare of the California HealthCare Foundation. “It’s really hard for Covered California or anybody to make those concerns go away.”
It has become such an issue that the state’s exchange, Covered California, is tackling the immigration fears directly for the first time this fall in new TV ads targeting Hispanics for open enrollment which starts Nov. 15 and runs to Feb. 15.
But officials fear it will be a hard sell to many Latino families of mixed immigration status, even though last March Obama appeared on the Spanish-language TV network Univision attempting to assure Latinos that information they provide about extended family members in the country illegally would not be turned over to immigration officials.
At that time, as of April, when the first open enrollment in Obamacare ended, some 367,000 Latinos in California had signed up for insurance through the state’s health care enrollment exchange.
All in all, California has the highest percentage of uninsured Latinos in the country at nearly 60 percent,
JOSÉ MARÍA MORELOS, Mexico — Hernán Reyes calls himself “negro” — black — plain and simple.
After some thought, Elda Mayren decides she is “Afromexicana,” or African-Mexican.
Candido Escuen, a 58-year-old papaya farmer, is not quite sure what word to use, but he knows he is not mestizo, or mixed white and native Indian, which is how most Mexicans describe themselves.
“Prieto,” or dark, “is what a lot of people call me,” he said.
This isolated village is named for an independence hero, thought to have had black ancestors, who helped abolish slavery in Mexico. It lies in the rugged hills of southwestern Mexico, among a smattering of towns and hamlets that have long embraced a heritage from African slaves who were brought here to work in mines and on sugar plantations in the 16th century.
Just how many people are willing to share that pride may soon be put to the test as Mexico moves to do something it has not attempted in decades and never on its modern census: ask people if they consider themselves black.
Or Afromexican. Or “moreno,” “mascogo,” “jarocho,” or “costeño” — some of the other terms sometimes used to describe black Mexicans.
What term or terms to use is not just a matter of personal and societal debate, but a longstanding dilemma that the government is hoping finally to resolve.
An official survey of around 4,500 households this month asked about African descent and preferred terms as part of plans to include the question on a national housing and population survey of 6.1 million households next year, a broad snapshot of the country in between the main censuses. It has not yet been decided if the question will be on the full census in 2020.
The sample next year would allow for a rare, official estimate of the total black population in Mexico — a number that until now has been the subject of educated guesses of tens of thousands.
“It is a big, important move,” said Sagrario Cruz-Carretero, an anthropologist at the University of Veracruz who studies Mexico’s African descendants and has participated in meetings with the census agency, known as Inegi for its initials in Spanish, to push for the move. “The black population has been invisible.”
That Mexico is even considering asking about black identity represents a leap in a country where race is rarely discussed publicly, and where bigotry and discrimination, both blatant and indirect, is commonplace.
It was only last November that Mexico’s largest bakery, Bimbo, undergoing an international expansion, abandoned the name of its popular chocolate cake bar, “Negrito,” or little black one. The cartoon boy with the big Afro remains on the package, though he has also evolved over the years from a dark-skinned, cannibal-like figure to a light-complexioned skater dude.
A casting call last year seeking models for a television commercial for Aeroméxico, the nation’s largest airline, asked for “nobody dark skinned,” conforming to the overwhelmingly white complexions portrayed across the media here. The airline and the advertising agency later apologized.
Continue reading the main story When it comes to official classifications of race and ethnicity, the census has typically asked only if an indigenous language is spoken at home and, if so, which one. That information has been used to evaluate the size of the Indian population (about 6 percent of the total of 112.3 million).
Although Mexico’s indigenous peoples persistently rank at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, the country takes pride in its indigenous heritage and carefully preserves the remnants of ancient civilizations.
But African-Mexicans say their role as Mexico’s “third root” is ignored in textbooks and by society as a whole. They are seeking the census count as a prelude to official recognition in the Constitution, which could mean deeper study and commemoration of their history and better services for their communities.
The coalition of scholars, community groups and activists that has been pushing for the census question has gained traction for a number of reasons: renewed attention to non-Spanish cultures after a 1994 indigenous uprising in the southern state of Chiapas; a civil society grown more vociferous since the first democratic handover of the presidency after the 2000 election; and a sense that Mexico was falling behind in international agreements it had signed over the years to confront racial discrimination. Mexico has increasingly looked out of step with other Latin American nations, including Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, that have included questions of race on their census forms.
“Gradually, we have been moving toward this step,” said Ricardo Bucio Mújica, president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, a government agency formed 11 years ago. As for Mexico’s black population, he added, “If it is not known how many there are, their conditions, there can’t be an agreement on the part of the government for their inclusion at large.”
Mexicans generally chafe at the racial politics of the United States and declare themselves far more easygoing, lacking a history of Jim Crow segregation or Ku Klux Klan-like animosity. They often point out that slavery was finally abolished here in 1829, as part of liberal, egalitarian ideals that helped push independence from Spain. That happened well ahead of abolition in the United States in 1865.
Many families call dark-skinned relatives “Negro” or “Negra” without a second thought. When Mexico put out a postage stamp in 2005 depicting a beloved comic-book character, Memín Pinguín, a black boy with wide eyes and exaggerated lips, government officials and commentators defended it against a torrent of criticism from the United States, including the White House, and from other countries. (The stamp sold out and was not reprinted.)
The few politicians with black ancestry who have been elected often play down or deny their family roots, and with intermarriage stretching back to the earliest days of slavery, many Mexicans may be unaware of their African heritage.
While traveling outside of their communities, black Mexicans say they are stopped routinely by the police and accused of being illegal immigrants from Cuba or Central America. They often endure long stares and even touching of their hair by curious fellow Mexicans.
That unfamiliarity comes in part because Mexico’s black populations, often to escape persecution and discrimination, historically never moved in large numbers to big cities and have kept largely to themselves in scattered in three southern states: Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz.
In this village in Oaxaca, black ancestry is taken for granted, even among people who also have clear indigenous blood lines.
Israel Reyes Larrea, who named his daughter “Africa” and has devoted a room in his house to a collection of memorabilia from the black communities of Mexico, said he was “Afro-Indian” — with a great-grandmother of African descent. But since moving here a couple of decades ago and marrying a black woman, he describes himself as black.
“It is not just about blood,” he said, “but how you see yourself culturally and politically.”
His son, Hernán, 22, participates in a troupe that performs the “Danza de Diablos,” a traditional ceremony with devil masks and African-style drumming and dancing, one of a number of customs brought here by ancestors of African heritage and still practiced in this isolated region.
Herminio Rodríguez Alvarado, 83, is a “curandero,” a folk healer, in nearby Cuajinicuilapa, in Guerrero State. Steeped in what anthropologists say are African-rooted traditions, his techniques claim to be able to identify a person’s animal twin and decide if its poor health explains a given ailment.
Some adolescent girls and young women here say they go along with the local custom of “la huida,” thought also to have its roots in African traditions, whereby suitors take them hostage until a marriage is arranged. Community leaders and some of the girls have insisted it is benign, though in years past the authorities treated it as a form of kidnapping.
“It is something very typical in our community,” Mariana Palacio, who is 14, the youngest age at which women may legally marry in Mexico, said the other week, after being taken to her future husband’s house to live until their wedding day.
The isolation of the African-Mexican communities, whatever the reasons for it may be, has left many with decrepit schools, roads and services — a neglect and deep poverty that has bred resentment.
Mr. Escuen, the farmer, said he could barely make ends meet. He supports the census question as a way to bring attention to the community. “It doesn’t matter much here what we are called, they are all the same, as long as they give us some help,” he said.
Indeed, a number of people did not see the fuss behind being counted.
“If they ask me,” said Inocente Severo García, a fisherman here, “I will say, ‘I am Mexican.’ ”
Republicans are not happy with the way their party has dealt with immigration, but a new survey shows the same holds true for Democrats and their party.
A Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday finds that on immigration, “neither Republicans nor Democrats are especially happy with the way their respective parties have dealt with the issue.” SEE ALSO:Why immigration reform may never happen under President Obama
Both Republicans and Democrats are unhappy with the way their party has handled immigration. (Photo credit: Pew Research Center)
The survey shows 56 percent of Republicans say their party is not doing a good job on immigration, and only 37 percent approve of the job the GOP has done on the issue.
Though Democrats are more positive about the way their party has dealt with the immigration, a large share of them are not satisfied. The survey finds that 44 percent say their party is not doing a good job on immigration, while 47 percent said the party is doing a good job.
The survey also shows older Republicans are more critical of the way the GOP has handled immigration and are more likely to fault the party for being “too willing” to allow undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. Meanwhile, Republicans under age 35 are divided, with 48 percent saying the GOP is doing a good job on immigration and 45 saying it is not.
On the Democratic side, there’s also division. The survey shows Hispanic Democrats are more likely than white or black Democrats to criticize the party for “not being willing enough” to allow undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. SEE ALSO: Hispanic Caucus urges Obama to act on immigration by holiday season
The survey comes as Latino leaders and immigration advocates are placing most of the blame on House Republicans for the failure to pass immigration reform legislation this year. They say House Republicans failed to introduce their own immigration reform bill after rejecting the Senate-approved bill.
However, that doesn’t mean Democrats are off the hook. Latino leaders and immigration advocates are also taking aim at Democrats.
On Monday, a group of undocumented mothers staged a sit-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to express their disappointment over President Barack Obama’s decision to delay executive action on immigration. They also expressed their frustration with Democrats who are holding back from pressuring Obama to not delay action on immigration
Miami, 10 sep (EFEUSA).- La aprobación entre los hispanos de la gestión del presidente, Barack Obama, cayó 15 puntos desde abril pasado y se sitúa en el 47 %, según un nuevo sondeo que evidencia que el tema migratorio es aún una prioridad para los latinos.
Analistas y activistas proinmigrantes señalaron que los resultados de la encuesta realizada por las cadenas Telemundo y NBC y el diario Wall Street Journal, eran previsibles luego de que Obama fuera retrasando las medidas ejecutivas que había prometido hace dos meses si el Congreso no actuaba en materia de inmigración, y que finalmente anunció este fin de semana que quedan pospuestas hasta después de las elecciones de noviembre próximo.
"Es algo que ya hemos estado viendo por meses. Yo sé que hay muchos líderes latinos, demócratas y republicanos que están muy frustrados y hasta enojados porque esto está pasando regularmente", dijo a Efe Barreto, quien lideró la Administración de Pequeñas Empresas durante el Gobierno de George W. Bush.
En este sentido, el presidente del grupo conservador The Latino Coalition señaló que la desilusión de los hispanos no obedece exclusivamente a la demora en una "acción diferida para los indocumentados" sino a las promesas rotas desde hace tiempo.
Entre tanto, el periodista de Telemundo José Díaz-Balart indicó a Efe que "dada la importancia que tiene el tema de la inmigración para los hispanos sobre otros temas, creemos que estos números simplemente reflejan la decepción y frustración de los latinos".
"La crisis en la frontera debería haber sido un recordatorio del impacto humano de la inacción de Washington", cuestionó el también presentador de la cadena en inglés MSNBC.
Según el periodista hispano, "la comunidad latina está viendo cómo los políticos, tanto republicanos como demócratas, el Congreso y el Presidente utilizan el tema de inmigración como ficha política".
Mientras, la activista María Bilbao, de la organización United Families, aseguró que el anuncio realizado por Obama fue un golpe "fortísimo", porque cada día que pasa son deportados 1.100 indocumentados, "unos 70.000 más, si son nueve semanas que Obama tarda" en aprobar medidas unilaterales.
"Lo primero que pensé tras el anuncio del presidente Obama es que el retraso va a tener consecuencias terribles para nuestra comunidad, por las deportaciones, pero también para él", dijo hoy a Efe.
La Casa Blanca anunció el pasado día 6 que Obama no tomará medidas ejecutivas sobre la reforma migratoria hasta después de las elecciones legislativas de noviembre "debido a la extrema politización de este asunto".
La encuesta fue realizada entre el 3 y 7 de septiembre pasado, por lo que coincidió en parte con las horas posteriores al anuncio de la Casa Blanca.
El sondeo mostró además que el 77 % de los encuestados considera que la reforma migratoria, una de las mayores preocupaciones de los hispanos, debe incluir una vía para la ciudadanía, un dato ligeramente por debajo del 82 % de abril de 2013.
Y pese a la frustración por el bloqueo de la reforma en el Congreso, los latinos siguen considerando que los demócratas son mejores que los republicanos en el tratamiento de los asuntos de inmigración, con un 41 % frente al 19 %.
Además, el 66 % de los latinos asegura que el argumento de los republicanos de reforzar la seguridad fronteriza es un "excusa" para no sacar adelante la ansiada reforma.
"Creo que la culpa la tiene el Partido Republicano más que el Demócrata, pero con esto que hizo Obama me quedé sin argumentos, fue como una traición, y realmente creo que fue un mal cálculo político", expresó Bilbao, una indocumentada argentina que vive desde hace 14 años en Estados Unidos.
La activista aseveró que ahora el camino es incrementar el poder político de los hispanos, al considerar que es "evidente" que esta comunidad no lo tiene en las elecciones legislativas, que eligen el próximo noviembre una tercera parte del Senado y el total de la Cámara de Representantes, actualmente de mayoría republicana.
Al respecto, el congresista demócrata Luis Gutiérrez solicitó esta semana a la comunidad hispana que no ejerza un voto castigo contra los demócratas por la decisión del presidente, al mismo tiempo que mostró su "frustración y enojo" con Obama por el aplazamiento de las medidas en materia migratoria. EFEUSA
This space is set aside for temporary exhibitions within the Mexico City International Airport. Currently, the exhibition Witness of History, 70 years of the National Institute of Anthropology and History which presents sculptures of great historical value. We invite you to visit the International Airport Exhibit Centre Terminal 2 to know more about this exhibition. ADDRESS: Interior de la Terminal 2 del AICM , esquina con Entre las puertas 5 y 6, Col. México (Lic. Benito Juárez), Venustiano Carranza, C.P. 15620, México, Distrito Federal
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was booed off the stage at an event hosted by a Christian organization in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.
The conservative firebrand delivered the keynote address at an event hosted by In Defense of Christians, an organization that raises awareness of persecuted Christian and minority communities in the Middle East. But the audience turned hostile when Cruz said, "Christians have no greater ally than Israel."
"I will say this: I'm saddened to see that some here, not everyone, are so consumed with hate," he said, as more members in attendance began to boo. "I will say this: If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you. Thank you, and God bless you," he said, before walking off the stage.
According to The Daily Caller, IDC Executive Director Andrew Doran then came on the stage and said, "For the love of God, we're here to talk about Christians and we're here to be united."
In a statement issued after the event, the IDC blamed a "few politically motivated opportunists" for the incident. The Assyrian International News Agency interviewed several attendees, most of whom said they were present "to discuss the plight of the Christians in Iraq, not the Israel-Hamas conflict, and they resented the senator's attempt to 'hijack' the summit," the agency reports.
In a statement following the incident, Cruz said the event "unfortunately deteriorated into a shameful display of bigotry and hatred."
"I came to this event tonight to help shine a light on the tragic persecution and slaughter of Christians by ISIS and Islamic radicals throughout the Middle East. American leaders have been far too silent as to this horrific evil," he said. "But bigotry and hatred have no place in this discussion. Anti-Semitism is a corrosive evil, and it reared its ugly head tonight. After just a few minutes, I had no choice. I told them that if you will not stand with Israel, if you will not stand with the Jews, then I will not stand with you. And then I walked off the stage." Watch the video of the event above.
