Earlier this year, the Obama Administration terminated NSEERS, a post-911 program that targeted and placed non-citizen Muslim men from over 24 countries in deportation proceedings.  But the termination provides no relief for thousands of immigrants who face deportation as a result of the program. Hadi Zayed Zaidi, a Pakistani-American who was brought here at the age of 4, is one such immigrant who was registered with the NSEERS program when he was just 16 — a minor. Two weeks ago, ICE agents raided Hadi’s home and took him into custody. He has been detained ever since and faces separation from his legal permanent resident parents as he awaits imminent deportation to Pakistan. Please take immediate action to stop Hadi’s deportation to a country he hasn’t been to since he was 4 years old.

Shortly after 9-11, the Department of Homeland Security engaged in one of the most egregious cases of racial profiling in recent history. It established the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program, requiring male visa-holders over the age of 16 from predominantly Arab and Muslim countries to register with local immigration offices. Around 84,000 Arabs and Muslim men registered voluntarily and over 14,000 of them were deported for complying with the program. 1,200 were arbitrarily detained without due process. Terminated in April of this year, the program did not result in a single terrorism charge or conviction! But the termination does nothing to address the plight of thousands of men who complied with registration and are now fighting deportation proceedings.

Hadi Zayed Zaidi is one of the many thousands who complied with the law and is now facing deportation from the United States. Hadi registered with the NSEERS program before the February 2003 deadline when he was barely 16. Within a few months, he was placed in deportation proceedings, along with his older brother and father. The family battled tenuously and his dad finally gained a green card last year. But Hadi and his older brother were separated from their father’s case and left without any immediate way to gain legal status. Their application for cancellation of removal was denied due to lack of a qualifying relative and they were ordered deported from the United States, condemned to living without their legal resident parents in a country that is foreign to them.

When the Obama Administration decided to scale back the NSEERS program that got Hadi and his family into this nightmarish quagmire, it should have come with reprieve from deportation for everyone ensnared by the program. However, instead of exercising prosecutorial discretion and granting a reprieve from deportation, ICE agents raided the Zaidi family home two weeks ago and took Hadi into custody. Hadi is now detained at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, California and could be deported at any time. When his family tried to post bail for his release, officials at the detention center informed them that since Hadi was Pakistani-born, there was no bail for him. So much for living in a post-racial America.

In the interim, their lawyer has filed an emergency stay of removal for Hadi, and petitioned to reopen the case since Hadi can now use his Dad as a qualifying relative for cancellation of removal. But we need to get Hadi out of detention before he is deported. Please take action to help Hadi today.

Despite facing the prospect of removal from his home for the entirety of his adult life, Hadi is an accomplished young man with much to contribute to the United States. He was an honors student throughout high school and won numerous scholarships, making his family and community proud of him. Before he was detained for imminent deportation to Pakistan, Hadi was taking classes at West Los Angeles Community College and he hoped to transfer to a four-year university to gain a degree in either Industrial Design or Applied Mathematics. If deported to Pakistan, Hadi — who does not speak any Urdu — faces life in a country that is foreign to him and likely to treat him with hostility because he is an American.

Hadi is DREAM Act eligible and meets most of the factors listed in the Morton memo, which should merit a favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion. He is neither a criminal nor a public safety concern. He has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He is pursuing higher education and aspires to get a four-year degree. His grandmother is a U.S. citizen and his parents are legal permanent residents. He has no ties to Pakistan. Hadi has proven to be an American in every way and deserves the opportunity to continue with his studies and give back to the only country he calls home.

It is unclear what the Obama Administration stands to gain from deporting Hadi from the United States, besides contributing to the collective trauma, pain and suffering of so many Arab and Muslim-Americans who have been similarly discriminated against and deported in the recent past.

This holiday season, take action to help Hadi and tell the Obama Administration to finally end this deportation nightmare.

A new brand of progressives are kicking out pregnant women from their meetings. Who are these people?

Yesterday, at Progressives for Immigration Reform’s (PFIR) 2nd National Conference on Immigration, Conservation and the Environment, four pregnant women were kicked out after they raised concerns about mothers being blamed for environmental degradation.

During a talk by Californians for Population Stabilization’s Ben Zuckerman on the “impact of our growing population on our natural environment,” one woman asked the question: “Are you saying that the life inside of me is the problem? Won’t the next generation be leading us to new solutions?” According to a bystander, shortly after, the same mother stood up and said “my child is not the problem. My child is the solution.” As the other mothers stood up to show support, security guards physically escorted them out of the room while women sang “this little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”

According to an informational flyer, the women are “mothers concerned with finding real solutions to environmental problem [...] committed to raising children to be conscious of social justice AND environmental issues.”

Kicking pregnant women of color out of a meeting for expressing themselves is hardly progressive. Neither is PFIR, an anti-immigrant group funded by white nationalists that is a spin-off of controversial anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform. PFIR does not have a problem with population per se — they have a problem with the growing minority population. Since its inception, PFIR has attempted to use progressive frames around conservation to lure environmentalists into the anti-immigrant movement. They blame high immigration levels — including legal immigration — for ravaging the environment while ignoring their own devastating footprint on the planet, turning a blind eye to the detrimental environmental conditions in other countries created by multi-national capital that compels people to leave their homes, and disputing that immigration can actually help to fund and drive the green economy in this country.

All this is to say that PFIR is not anywhere near progressive or environmental friendly and no one should fall for their anti-immigrant drivel unless being progressive now means hating immigrants and our babies.

Image via Wikipedia

So the Obama Administration is not going to defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA in courts. That is the section which limits the definition of marriage as that between a man and a woman.

The lawyers and law students are rejoicing. They can see jobs for themselves less than a mile away with heightened scrutiny for LGBT individuals. Marriage equality advocates are celebrating Independence Day early and breaking out another bottle of human rights champagne. In a parallel universe, Arizona is now trying to ban even straight undocumented immigrants from getting married but more about that later.

Lets get to you. You are in a bi-national same-sex relationship. Your partner either has to travel back and forth to keep legal status in order to stay with you or your partner is undocumented (and hopefully unafraid) or your partner cannot enter the country and you’ve to travel to see her/him. What do you do?

Immigration Equality, an organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT immigrants, has forever opposed the idea of same-sex couples filing I-130 claims and adjudicating their cases in court. They have good reason to believe that federal judges will defer to DHS. For the most part, they are right since you are unlikely to win your claim and your partner may end up in removal proceedings.

But there is a better way to deal with this. Forget listening to advocacy organizations and lawyers. Stop sitting on your laurels. Ideally, I would like to see some 36,000 couples filing I-130 “Petition for Alien Relative” petitions with USCIS. Just imagine the mayhem that would cause. USCIS has to go through each claim. It will take them eons to reject them. You can file appeal upon appeal and backlog them further. You probably don’t even need to take to the streets or the courts. It is highly unlikely that ICE will come to your home to detain your partner. (That only happens if you are Mexican).

Grab the bull by the horns. Start talking to the media about how President Obama is keeping you apart from your partner while he’s running a re-election campaign. Under immense pressure, Congressional leaders will have to start holding hearings. Sooner or later, DOMA will be repealed in the courts or by Congress. Even without that, DHS has to issue a memo allowing your partner to live and work legally in the country (deferred action) and Congress has to take action and pass the Uniting American Families Act.

The system is denying you equal rights so screw with it. Give them hell. Shut them down. Go all out for reverse attrition through enforcement. It’s a whole lot more fun than sitting around doing nothing.

Anyway, that’s how you make change happen. They cannot deport us all. DREAM Act student leaders have known and exploited this for quite a while. It’s about time same-sex binational couples grow a pair and do the same.

P.S. I’m not your lawyer. You can’t sue me if things don’t go the way you want them to. This post, and nothing on this site, creates or implies an attorney-client relationship.

Originally published here.

The Israeli Navy has killed and wounded dozens of brave humanitarian aid activists who were aboard ships that were carrying humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million people in Gaza who are living under an Israeli-imposed siege.

Even after strong and widespread international condemnation, Israel still holds that it acted well within its rights and did nothing wrong. This is unacceptable and as long as the United States continues to support such a violator of international human rights, Israel will continue to act like a stubborn child and bear no responsibility for its morally despicable and illegal actions.

Here are some actions that can be taken in response to this atrocious action:

1. Obama must stand up Nobel Peace laureates and strongly condemn Israel. For too long, the international community has been two-faced about condemning Israel. Instead of expressing outrage at an attack on civilian ships in international waters, Obama issued a tepid statement saying he “deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained” and wen on to say that Israel is best suited to investigate itself! Please sign this petition calling on Obama to condemn Israel’s assault as a first ste. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and request that the President:

* Condemn Israel’s attack of Gaza Freedom Flotilla and support a fair and impartial international investigation of it.
* Find Israel in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and immediately end all military aid to Israel.
* Pressure Israel to end its illegal blockade of the occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip.
* End U.S. support for Israel’s illegal 43-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

2. The United States Congress must immediately cut off aid to Israel. Request an emergency meeting with your Members of Congress during this week’s Memorial Day recess. Clearly, Israel has become a liability state for the United States. Currently, Congress is in the process of appropriating a record $3.2 billion in military aid to Israel. U.S. State Department figures show Israel received $2.55 billion in U.S. aid last year, with levels to ratchet up to $3.15 billion by 2018. This aid must be frozen while a fair, impartial investigation of this crime is conducted. Ask Congress to not fund the request the FY2010 request for more military aid to Israel.

3. Organize in your local communities to hold demonstrations at Israeli embassies. See the latest list of actions and locations here.

To add your protest to the list, please email flotilla@gazafreedommarch.org or register your event here.

4. Time for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Support the BDS movement: The ongoing blockade and occupation of Gaza is in direct violation of international law. Let aid into Gaza and boycott Israeli products such as AHAVA made from occupied Palestinian territory. For more information, see End the Occupation.

5. Demand that Israel allow the safe passage of the Rachel Corrie flotilla: The MV Rachel Corrie, named after the 23-year-old American peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, is still headed for Gaza. The Irish government owns the ship and has requested that Israel allow safe passage but Israel states it is prepared to block the ship. Send a letter to the Israeli embassies now, demanding safe passage of the remaining flotilla delivering humanitarian aide to Gaza.

Stay tuned for the latest actions, including media talking points, from the US Campaign to End the Occupation. And remember to follow hashtags #freedomfotilla, #fotilla and #rachelcorrie on Twitter for up to the second information.

Representative Luis Gutierrez has managed to incense immigrant youth again with his latest attempt to get the Obama Administration to show leadership on immigration issues.

In the New York Times, the Latino congressional member is quoted saying

“This is the moment for him to act. And if we stumble, if somehow we fail, let’s fail together. Let’s fail fighting!”

DreamActivists are less than impressed:

Good luck, Representative Gutierrez, but we’re not interested in failing. Perhaps you have the luxury of speculating as to what happens if nothing changes, but for us, it’s unthinkable. We don’t have an answer to the question, “What happens if we fail?” We don’t even ask the question. It’s not a question anymore.

-Flavia de la Fuente, Editor, DREAMACTIVIST, May 2010

Representative Gutierrez is not the enemy but the Congressional Hispanic Caucus strategy of pushing for comprehensive immigration reform has meant putting the DREAM Act on the backburner even when the votes are there to push the bill out of committee onto the floor.

The DREAM Act is a narrowly tailored, bipartisan measure which would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who have grown up in the United States, graduated from high school or obtained a GED and gone on to attend college or join the military. The legislation was first introduced in 2001 by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) but despite having majority support, failed to muster enough votes to override cloture in 2007. Currently, the DREAM Act (S. 729 and H.R. 1751) has 39 cosponsors in the Senate and 119 in the House and advocates believe they have the votes to pass the bill.

However, the grassroots popularity of the DREAM Act is also a curse for the legislation. Pro-immigration advocates fear that passing the bill on its own weakens the need for comprehensive immigration reform. They accuse immigrant youth of being selfish and not caring about their parents or the bigger picture. Hence, the DREAM Act has been tied to a bigger bill against the wishes of immigrant youth, the beneficiaries of the legislation.

Of course pro-immigration reform advocates need a reality check based on the reasons listed here. And that is just a starter list.

Passing the DREAM Act is long overdue, serves as a litmus test for comparable pieces of legislation and enables undocumented youth to come out of the shadows and fight for more comprehensive solutions.

Courage requires that advocates for a comprehensive solution to immigration admit the errors in their strategy, which has deferred the dreams of immigrant youth for close to a decade. The least Representative Gutierrez and others in his position can do is support immigrant youth as they lead the fight for the DREAM Act, and eventually, a just and humane immigration reform.

Recently, four brave undocumented students sat down for the DREAM Act in Senator McCain’s office and now face deportation and possibly, torture and death in their countries of origin.

They took this risk because their communities are under attack. They put their lives on the line thinking about friends they have lost in the struggle. For these undocumented youth, living in limbo is more scary than the risk of deportation, and they demand an immediate passage of the DREAM Act as a standalone bill.

The sit-down sparked acts of civil disobedience around the country. From hunger strikes in Michigan calling on Senator Stabenow to co-sponsor the DREAM Act to protests in front of Senator Schumer’s office, demanding him to champion the legislation. From Los Angeles youth shutting down Wilshire Boulevard (and making that trend on Twitter) to immigrant youth in Kentucky going on a 65 hour hunger strike, asking Senator Bunning to support the DREAM. These Dream Activists are far from done; in fact, they are just getting started.

If Rep. Gutierrez wants to restore his lost credibility among immigrant youth and show leadership on the issue, he should broker deals and get the necessary votes to restore and pass the DREAM Act as a standalone bill so that immigrant youth and immigrant communities can have a real victory sometime soon.

He can start with actually getting the entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus behind the bill and then pushing Chairwoman of Immigration Subcommittee Zoe Lofgren and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get the legislation through the House.

Next, Rep. Gutierrez can reach out to Senator Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Durbin (D-IL) and help secure the votes for passage of the DREAM Act in the Senate.

Would a sit-in at his office compel him to adopt a new strategy? I personally doubt it, but it’s time for the Congressional member to stop throwing tantrums at the White House and show some real leadership for his community.

Failure isn’t an option.

Crossposted at FDL.

SB 1070, which makes being undocumented a crime, shows us that we are becoming a country that asks for “your papers, please” much like in Nazi Germany where “Papiere, Bitte” meant the same in German.

Despite what Governor Brewer says, racial profiling is officially legal in Arizona given that there is no other way to determine what an undocumented person looks like beyond brown skin, which would serve as a proxy for criminality–the crime of not carrying proper identification and a birth certificate. And while the law is a slippery slope to losing more civil liberties, SB 1070 has gifted us a great opportunity to organize for immigrant rights on a new scale.

While lawsuits seeking an injunction are likely to be filed by this coming week, here is what you can do in the meantime to oppose this racial profiling law:

1. Sign the email petition to your Congressional representatives, the Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security asking them not to cooperate with SB 1070, file  injunctions to the law, and furthermore, start taking leadership in pushing for real comprehensive immigration reform.

2. Hold local solidarity actions and add them to this growing list. Take down details of contacts. Connect with local grassroots organizations and student groups that are leading the effort. Be prepared to talk to the media about why you oppose SB 1070 and how this law is not just about Arizona but about what kind of country we want to live in as Americans.

3. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Rep Grijalva has called for an economic boycott of Arizona, which means not traveling to Arizona and avoiding the expenditure of any dollars in Arizona. The American Immigration Lawyers’ Association is already boycotting by canceling it’s annual conference in Scottsdale. Some truckers are boycotting. Others are asking the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) to divest from Arizona and for the Major League Baseball move the 2011 All-Star Game from Arizona. More economic sanctions are likely to be announced in the coming week with a list of products and companies to boycott.

4. Civil disobedience. Take a hint from the Capitol Nine who chained themselves to Capitol building doors. Leave your licenses at home. Walk out of schools and walk into local Congressional offices of politicians who have not cosponsored the DREAM Act and refuse to stand up for immigration reform. Conducts sit-ins, hunger strikes and flash mobs. Offer to get yourself detained wearing t-shirts and carrying signs that say “Do I look like an ‘illegal immigrant’ to you?” or “Being Brown is Not a Crime.”

5. Use Online Tools to Organize. Use hashtag #LegalizeAZ on Twitter to connect with more people taking action against SB 1070. Change your Facebook profile picture to the badge above (or something similar) to show solidarity.  Also join the Facebook group 1 million strong against SB 1070 and don’t forget to follow growing immigrant youth taking actions on Twitter and Facebook.

The possibilities are endless. Consider this an open thread and invitation to share your ideas and actions and feel free to cross-post. This is just the beginning.

Photo Credit: No Borders and Binaries