Celso Araujo, 50, an undocumented immigrant living in Massachusetts and looking for work. (Photo: WBUR)

A bipartisan group of Massachusetts lawmakers presented an immigration bill last Monday which makes one wonder whether the traditionally progressive state is turning red.

The proposed legislation is very much in the same vein as laws passed by more conservative states. The bill, provoked by a recent fatal accident involving an allegedly drunk undocumented immigrant driver, sets up a complaint line to report individuals who are working in the state illegally.

The statute also requires the immigration status of individuals appearing in court to be checked; calls for stiffer penalties for driving without a license and for creating, disseminating or using false identification; penalizes and sanctions companies that hire unauthorized immigrants; requires students at public colleges and universities to verify their immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition; asks applicants for public housing, family assistance or college grants to prove legal residency; and requires the administration to produce a report outlining how it is helping jurisdictions deploy the Secure Communities program.

Should the sponsors of the bill convince their fellow legislators to pass the law with constituent support, it would be a dramatic change in sentiment from a year ago.

A 2010 Suffolk University poll, taken after Arizona’s draconian immigration law passed, found that while 53 percent of Massachusetts residents said they supported Arizona’s SB 1070, only 43 percent said Massachusetts should pass a similar law.

But the drunk driving incident and other crimes allegedly committed by a few undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts are being used by enforcement advocates to drum up support for the bill.

Could the citizens of the Bay State get riled up enough to push their lawmakers – a majority of whom are Democrats – to support the proposed legislation?

Massachusetts has recently undergone considerable demographic changes. It is one of six states that can attribute all of its population growth during the past decade to Latinos.

At the same time, although the unemployment rate in Massachusetts is lower than the national rate, 8,900 people lost their jobs in August. To date, the state has only recovered a third of jobs lost during the recession and over a quarter of a million residents remain unemployed. The poverty rate rose from 10.3 percent in 2009 to 11.4 percent in 2010. Median household income fell by nearly $3,200, from $65,254 in 2009 to $62,072 in 2010. Might economic troubles, fear and uncertainty cause Massachusetts residents to blame undocumented immigrants for their woes?

A bipartisan group supporting such an immigration bill is a troublesome sign. Yet it seems highly unlikely that Massachusetts would turn red on immigration. The state’s economy is doing better overall compared to the rest of the country. The legislature is controlled by Democrats and Gov. Deval Patrick, who refused to bring the state into the federal Secure Communities program, will surely veto any measures like the one being proposed.  The Bay State should remain blue. For now.

You can follow Erwin de Leon on Twitter or read his blog.

The biggest advertising campaign of the new year isn’t selling cars, beer or burgers. The $340-million effort, which made its debut with a TV spot on the Golden Globe Awards last Sunday, encourages everyone in the U.S. to be counted in this year’s census.

The 30-second commercial marked the start of a massive publicity push by the government that will include ads during the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, as well as advertising in several different languages aimed at some of the hardest to count communities including immigrants, African-Americans and Native Americans.

The ad campaign is part of an even bigger effort that includes 150,000 partnership organizations, and 1.5 million enumerators, people hired by the Census Bureau to go door-to-door to count people who don’t send in their census forms by the April 1 deadline.

It’s a huge mobilization of manpower and money. Even so, there is widespread concern that the government isn’t doing enough and many people will go uncounted. “Despite all these efforts taking place there is a lack of information about the census,” said Dr. Paul Watanabe, a member of the Census Bureau’s advisory committee on the Asian population.

Dr. Paul Watanabe of UMass, Boston. (Photo: John Rudolph)

Watanabe, who directs the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, recently spoke about challenges facing the Census Bureau as it seeks to, “count everyone wherever they may be.”

“It’s the equivalent of a country going to war in terms of what’s required in resources and energy,” he told a group of community activists, students and college professors at the university. And while the government’s effort this year is massive, Watanabe cautioned that you can’t just “leave it up to the government to have a successful census. The participation of groups and organizations is essential, especially in hard to count communities.”

According to Watanabe, immigrant communities are among those at the greatest risk of being undercounted. He cited estimates that the 2000 Census missed three quarters of Minnesota’s growing Somali population and about half of the Cambodians living in Lowell, Massachusetts. In New York, the nation’s largest and most ethnically diverse city, the census count “has traditionally lagged well behind the national average,” according to a press release from the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Across the U.S., about three quarters of the population mailed in their census forms in 2000. But the response rates were substantially lower for Hispanics, Asians and other groups that include large numbers of immigrants.

This time, the Census Bureau is making an even greater effort to reach out to immigrant groups. But problems remain. For example, Watanabe said, the actual census form has been printed in six languages. But only forms in English and Spanish are being mailed to households. Anyone who wants to fill out a form in the other four official languages –Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Vietnamese– needs to request it through a website.

To complicate matters even more, the questions on the Census form have been translated into over 50 languages. But those versions are only intended for instructional purposes. Forms in Polish or Farsi don’t count. Only the ones in the six official languages will be accepted.

People with limited or no English, and only a vague understanding of the American system of government, could have a tough time figuring out how to participate in the census. What’s more, Watanabe says, this year’s count comes at a time of rising anti-immigrant sentiment. It’s also the first post-9/11 census, which will test “whether the government is trusted and whether the government trusts certain populations.”

Despite these obstacles, Watanabe applauds the Census Bureau for trying to reach hard-to-count populations. But he says expensive ad campaigns will not increase participation. Rather, he argues, “it’s the trusted people in communities, in families, that will enhance the count.”

According to Watanabe, one example of a potentially successful approach is the Census in Schools program, which aims to educate school kids about the count. “Who actually fills out forms in immigrant households?” he asked. “In many language-isolated communities, children act as language brokers. Reaching them is critical.”

By Marcony Almeida, The Brazilian Journal/New America Media

One of the most exciting times in Claudete Alcântara’s week used to be when she went to school to learn English. A Brazilian immigrant, Alcântara counted on an English literacy program in Everett, a city in northern Massachusetts, to learn the language and to improve her job prospects.

But her excitement faded when the program announced that her classes would come to an end because of cuts in the state and municipal budget. The Everett Literacy Program –in its 25th year providing English for Students of Other Languages (ESOL)– receives funding from the state, the city and private donations. It is one of the largest ESOL programs for immigrant adults in the state.

Claudete Alcântara

Alcântara came to the United States nine years ago and since then has been working in the kitchen of a famous restaurant in downtown Boston. Her manager promised to make her the restaurant manager once she could speak English fluently.

“I love what I do but I get shy and disturbed when my co-workers ask me to repeat a word that I did not pronounce correctly”, she said. “I do a better job than many Americans here, but my English skills prevent me from having a better position at the restaurant. I’m studying hard to get there.”

Brazilian immigrants represent 20 percent of new residents in the Commonwealth since 2000, according to the think-tank MassINC, and Everett is home to one of the largest concentrations of Brazilians in the state. The city has about 40,000 residents and at least 22 percent of its population is foreign born – almost double the percentage in the rest of the state.

But the good days for Alcântara have returned. The Everett Literacy Program has received a grant of $50,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and she is one of 54 students who have now returned to class.

“When we got the news that we would be able to bring those 54 students and rehire teacher thanks to this grant, it was like an unexpected miracle happening,” said Meg English, the program’s coordinator. The money was granted to the program through Tri-Cap, the Tri-City Community Action Program, a multi-service anti-poverty agency serving the cities of Malden, Medford, Everett and surrounding communities.

The grant was a relief to a literacy program that has been striving to teach English to immigrants for years. Applying for state, private and federal grants is English’s main strategy to keep her program alive. In the past, the student wait list approached 500, but it has declined to 310. She suspects this is due to a recent wave of immigrants moving back to their home country and to long waits that discourage people.

“The Recovery grant could not eliminate our wait list, but at least it helped not to increase the numbers and to keep two classes running that otherwise we would have to shut down,” said English.

President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on February 17, 2009. In anticipation of a national recovery effort, Gov. Deval Patrick began preparing Massachusetts to receive an infusion of funds in December 2009. He created Federal Stimulus Mobilization Task Forces, led by Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, to identify infrastructure needs.

Statewide, 16,935 immigrant adults are on the wait list to learn English. Claudia Green, director of Workforce Development and English For New Bostonians Initiative, a project launched by the city of Boston to help newcomers learn English, says that few cities across the state with a large concentration of immigrants have received grants from ARRA for their ESOL programs, but the wait list remains static because these grants were only able to keep current programs running and curb the increase of students on the wait list.

“It’s great when you receive a grant to eliminate the wait list,” said Green, “but even when these resources help to save current programs from being eliminated –or at least not increase the number of people waiting for classes – it’s a good thing, too.”

In Everett, the public school system also benefited from stimulus money, and was able to save teachers’ jobs and avoid charging fees to students with some of the $3.7 million stimulus funds the Department of Education received. “Thanks to the stimulus, this year school lunches will continue to be offered in all schools at all grade levels for students. There will be no fees for students who want to participate in any activity in the Everett Public Schools. Our special needs programs remain intact and in place, including transportation, and 20 teachers were saved from layoffs,” said superintendent Frederick F. Foresteire.

The governor claimed that ARRA funding has created or retained 23,533 jobs in Massachusetts since the start of the 27-month program in February. Based on data submitted to the federal government, Massachusetts state agencies received approximately $4 billion in recovery money through September 30, 2009. Of these funds, state agencies have already invested nearly $1.9 billion, including $1.3 billion in direct benefits, such as unemployment insurance and Medicaid, and over $500 million on other programs and infrastructure projects to create or retain jobs and fund essential services.

However, recent reports in the Boston Globe state that only a fraction of federal stimulus money has been spent so far. Massachusetts organizations have been awarded $3.9 billion in stimulus contracts, loans, and grants. But as of October, Bay State government agencies and companies had received only $622 million and have spent almost all of it, according to data from the government agency charged with tracking stimulus funding. The findings could explain why unemployment continued to climb in the state, hitting 9.3 percent in September.

“Most of the money has not yet been used in a way that could create or save jobs,’’ said Michael Balsam of Onvia Inc., a Seattle company that tracks government contracts. Nationwide, Balsam estimated, only one quarter of stimulus money has “actually left Washington, D.C.’’ But Massachusetts officials told the Globe that the slow pace of funding is due partly to applicants having to win competitive grants, which is a time-consuming process.

And even after winning a stimulus award, state officials noted, there are other chores that have to be done before the money can be spent. These include deciding what projects to fund, putting contracts out to bid and complying with other regulations needed to obtain the money.

Massachusetts has spent $508 million of the $1.9 billion handled through state agencies that has been awarded. But state officials acknowledge that the bulk of the jobs figures they reported to the U.S. government were estimates, rather than exact tallies. For instance, the state estimated it saved nearly 6,000 jobs by disbursing $412 million in education grants to local school districts to offset cuts in state aid. But instead of tracking payments to individual employees, the state asked school districts what portion of the money was used for salaries, then calculated how many jobs that money would support based on a statewide average salary for teachers.

Regardless of the delay, Foresteire and English believe that the stimulus has prevented an even worse nightmare due to the economic downturn that has also affected their programs.

“My concern now is what is next after the stimulus money is over,” said English. “I guess I need to find other alternatives and hope for a better economic recovery.”

Earthquake in Haiti. (Photo: Matthew Marek/American Red Cross)

As Haitians in the U.S. scramble to learn the fate of friends and family members following Tuesday’s devastating earthquake, and relief efforts are organized in communities across the U.S., ethnic media outlets are providing a vital link to news and information about the situation in Haiti.

Bostonhaitian.com, the web site of The Boston Haitian Reporter is continually being updated with Twitter feeds and news reports about events on the ground in Haiti and relief efforts in New England and around the nation.

The site reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross has set up a database for people to search for missing loved ones.

The Grio features videos about Haitian immigrants in New York seeking information about their relatives in Haiti and a pilot in Florida who is planning a relief flight to Haiti. The site also has an opinion piece by David Love that asserts that talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh and evangelist Pat Robertson have used the Haitian disaster “to spread racism.”

Information about the response of New York’s Haitian immigrant community can be found on the Haitian Times website.

(Photo slideshow from the American Red Cross)

After yesterday’s announcement by the Department of Homeland Security that some 30,000 pending deportations to Haiti have been suspended, calls are already being heard for Haitians to benefit from Temporary Protected Status, which has been applied in similar catastrophic situations to Hondurans, Salvadorans and others. (France has also stopped the deportations of Haitians.)

The calls come at a time when the case of one would-be deportee was prominent in the news, at least locally in New York. This blog has been covering the case of Jean Montrevil, a Haitian-born U.S. resident and community activist who, after years of fighting against deportations that separate families, was himself detained to be sent back to Haiti two weeks ago.

Now, Montrevil’s deportation is presumably on hold, like other Haitians for whom there is a pending expulsion order. But Montrevil is still at an immigrant detention jail in Pennsylvania. Today activists were expected to gather outside a Manhattan detention facility to ask for his release and to show solidarity with New York’s sizable Haitian community, according to a press release from pro-immigrant organizations.

Diana Maldonado - Photo: El Mundo Boston/elmundoboston.com

The Latino community of Chelsea, Mass. had twice the reason to celebrate when Judge Sonia Sotomayor was appointed to the Supreme Court. They had recently pushed for and gained the appointment of their own “wise Latina” for the local criminal and civil court.

Last month, Gov. Deval Patrick named Bronx-born judge Diana Maldonado First Justice of the Chelsea District Court.

The judge and Justice Sotomayor share a similar history. Maldonado, who is 50, was born to Puerto Rican parents and raised in the Bronx. The youngest of ten siblings, she attended Bronx public schools, and Stony Brook University (a New York State college), before attending Northeastern University law school. After graduating, she worked for Neighborhood Defender Services in Harlem, New York, leaving in 1993 to become the first Latina appointed to the Massachusetts Federal Defenders Office.

Comparison between Maldonado and Sotomayor seem inevitable these days. “I received a congratulations card with the acronym TOWL. I had to ask the sender what it meant, and the person said: The Other Wise Latina,” Maldonado said in a phone interview with Feet in 2 Worlds.

Asked how she feels when called the Sotomayor of Chelsea, Maldonado affably said: “I wear it proudly. It’s really wonderful. I’m certainly proud of her. Her appointment has brought very positive attention to our community. Some people think that kids from the Bronx can’t make it, but if you work hard, it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can succeed.”

It makes sense that the city of Chelsea, with a 48 percent Hispanic population, many of them new immigrants from Central and South America, now boasts a Spanish-speaking judge. Chelsea community advocates lobbied for her appointment for a year before she was appointed. Her upbringing, community advocates believe, endows her with an invaluable understanding of issues affecting the poor and minorities.

Maldonado seems to agree. “We view the world through the lenses of who we are. In applying the rule of law there is no question in my mind that we inevitably reflect some of that,” she said during an interview conducted in plain Spanglish.

The issue of race in the judiciary system is a complicated one, however. Judge Maldonado cautiously adds: “I think our judiciary should reflect the nation and we are a nation of diverse people. But while diversity is important, this job is for a person who can follow the letter of the law and has the knowledge to do the job.”

Her statement elicited the inevitable question about Judge Sotomayor’s remarks regarding her Latino wisdom. “Sometimes we say things that make sense at the time they are said, and at another time can be taken out of context,” she said.

Currently, six of the 367 judges in the state of Massachusetts are of Hispanic origin.

By Pedro Pizano, FI2W contributor

Siglo 21 newspaper

BOSTON, Mass. — The state Senate is seeking $130 million in savings by kicking “aliens with special status” out of Commonwealth Care, a subsidized insurance program for low-income residents, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis. The program will save an additional $63 million by no longer automatically enrolling new low-income residents.

The “aliens with special status” are 28,000 documented immigrants who have had a green card for less than five years. They will be left without health coverage from Commonwealth Care after August 1.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association says the $130 million cut will bring additional costs to the hospitals that provide free care to people with low incomes. They say those hospitals would need to spend an additional $87 million in 2009 to treat those who lose their coverage, according to the NCPA.

Although Gov. Deval Patrick approved the budget cut for the 2010 fiscal year on July 1st, he also submitted separate legislation to restore $70 million to Commonwealth Care. This program is central to the nearly universal health care law enacted here in 2006 that achieved the nation’s lowest percentage of uninsured residents: 2.6 percent compared to a national average of 15 percent.

“It either sends the message that health care reform cannot be done, period, or it opens the door to doing it halfway and excluding immigrants from the process,” said Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, in an interview with The New York Times.

Hope for these immigrants lies in state legislators, who may approve the governor’s $70 million refund.

“We need to come to a decision and we need to do it soon,” Patrick said after meeting with lawmakers at the beginning of the week, reported Boston newsweekly Siglo21.

The deadline for the state legislature to act is July 31st.

_____________________________________________________________________

First Latina Appointed Presiding Justice of a Mass. District Court

CHELSEA, Mass. — After being sworn in on Friday, Diana Maldonado became the first Latina to be Presiding Justice of a District Court, according to Boston newsweekly Siglo21.

Maldonado, the youngest of 10 children, was born in the South Bronx to Puerto Rican parents. She graduated from Northeastern University with the highest honors and then went on to SUNY, Stony Brook. She first started working as a legal secretary to Judge Frederick Brown, the first African American to serve on the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Prior to being confirmed as presiding justice she served as associate justice of the Chelsea Court for the past 10 years, where she established and presided over the Drug Court.

“I would love to see more Latinos in every level of the judicial system,” Maldonado said in an interview with Siglo21. “The world is changing. The U.S. has an ever-growing population of Latinos and the court system should reflect that change in demographics. We need more judges that speak Spanish to better understand the Latino community that keeps growing.”

Maldonado believes her ability to speak Spanish will help her understand the 17,000 Latinos that comprise 48 percent of Chelsea’s population.  “All the judges of Massachusetts are compassionate and knowledgeable,” Maldonado said in an interview with El Mundo. “But in my case, I can better understand the Latinos who come from Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, and the rest of Latin America, because I speak their language and know of their cultural background.”

By Pedro Pizano, FI2W contributor

BOSTON, Massachusetts - Hispanic and Jewish groups have launched a joint campaign to stop “hate crimes targeting Latinos and the anti-immigrant rhetoric entering the mainstream.”

The Anti-Defamation League , representing the Jewish community, together with Latino Professional Network (LPN) recently organized a public event to announce the initiative.

Diego Portillo, the president of LPN who has lived in Boston for the past 10 years said, in an interview with El Planeta, that he has seen discrimination against Hispanic Immigrants increase in the past few years.

El Mundo reports that organizers claimed that hate mongers have rallied around situations such as the Swine Flu outbreak and the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, to demonize and scapegoat Latinos and other groups.

There will be periodical Latino/Jewish roundtables, starting in August, to advance partnerships between the Latino and Jewish communities. A “Declaration of Partnership” will be published next week, in both Spanish and English, in El Mundo .

BOSTON, Massachusetts. – Children’s Hospital Boston recently launched Milagros Para Niños (Miracles for Children) , the hospital’s first-ever fundraising campaign specifically aimed at the Latino community.

“This pioneering initiative aims to raise money and awareness to support Children’s clinical care and research for its increasingly diverse patient population,“ according to a news release from the hospital.

Out of 500,000 children that use the Hospital every year, 100,000 (20%) are Latino. At the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain, which is owned and operated by Children’s Hospital, 65% of the patients are Latino, according to El Mundo.

“The Latino community is very important for Children’s and we are proud to serve all families in need of our services,” said Sandra Fenwick, the hospital’s president and chief operating officer.

The fund-raising campaign will culminate with Children’s serving as the first-ever charitable partner for the Comcast Latino Family Festival at Fenway Park, which will be hosted by El Mundo Newspaper and the Boston Red Sox Foundation on Sunday, August 2nd, from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

LYNN, Massachusetts. – Members of the Student Immigrant Movement met with Congressman John Tierney last Monday to discuss the DREAM Act. After the meeting Tierney agreed to co-sponsor the bill, according to Boston weekly Siglo21.

Tierney’s commitment brings to eight the number of Massachusetts congressional representatives sponsoring the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act . The act would provide a path to citizenship to about 65,000 undocumented young adults that have been in the U.S. for 5 years, have graduated from high school, and want to go to college or enlist for military service. They must also show proof of “good moral character.” (click to see USCIS (formerly INS) questionnaire to determine “moral character”). Additionally the DREAM Act would also return to states the authority to determine whether to grant in-state tuition to state residents regardless of immigration status.

Hondurans protest against coup in D.C. - Photo: Peruanista blog

Hondurans in the United States are intensely following the events in their home country, after the military on Sunday rushed President Manuel Zelaya out of bed and sent him into exile in Costa Rica.

But not every talk-show caller nor every demonstrator in American cities is asking for the swift return of the democratically-elected president. Many Hondurans in the U.S. support the coup and the government that took power in Tegucigalpa, despite unanimous condemnation from the international community — including President Barack Obama.

“I think it’s a good thing that they took him away, because he would have won the election on Sunday, and he would have been in office another four years,” restaurant owner Marlen Nunez told WDSU in New Orleans, where there is a big Honduran community. She was referring to Zelaya’s botched attempt to conduct a non-binding national referendum asking voters if they wanted to change the constitution to allow him to run for a second term.

“Constitutionally, a president shouldn’t be in office more than four years … that’s not a democracy,” Nunez said.

Maria Portillo, a 62-year-old shopkeeper in the Little Havana section of Miami, expressed a similar opinion when interviewed by The Miami Herald.

The military is supposed to protect the country and that’s what they did today. The way the president was acting has just not been correct. This is a country that does not want to be Communist.

Since taking power in 2005, Zelaya has been edging closer and closer to leftist Latin governments like those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Bolivian President Evo Morales.

New Orleans newspaper The Times Picayune reported:

With audiences largely made up of Hondurans, New Orleans’ two most prominent Spanish-speaking radio stations have been flooded with phone calls since the weekend ouster of the Central American republic’s president, most in support of the action.

An overwhelming majority of callers to Radio Tropical, KGLA-1540 AM, and La Fabulosa, WFNO-830 AM, likened the military’s removal of President Manuel Zelaya to the U.S. Constitution’s impeachment process, according to the stations’ talk show hosts, managers and guests. Callers also denounced world leaders’ use of the word “coup” to describe what happened.

However, there were also many Honduran immigrants who opposed the coup. In Boston, a protest was organized for Thursday against the ouster, which President Barack Obama swiftly condemned as “illegal.”

The Boston Herald reported:

Angel Meza of the Boston-based nonprofit group Proyecto Hondureno and others plan to deliver letters to U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, asking them to push to restore democracy in Honduras. They also plan to write to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

UMass Spanish professor Carlos Benavides told South Coast Today he was “totally against” the coup.

“I don’t agree with everything the president was doing, but in a democracy you don’t kick out the president. You discuss things,” he said.

In Southern California, “immigrants rights advocates, progressive activists, and Central Americans who live in Los Angeles say the United States should do as much as possible to support ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya,” public radio station KPPC reported.

May Day rally in East Boston. (Photos: Eduardo A. de Oliveira/EthnicNEWz.org)

With unexpectedly low turnout, peaceful protests took place across the country today, with rallies in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New Jersey, New York and other cities. Although two factors –rain and the possible spread of swine flu– represented a setback in some cities, advocates feel this is the right moment to push for immigration reform. Police in East Boston, Massachusetts estimated there were 1,000 protesters at a local rally. Across from City Hall in Manchester, N.H., demonstrators numbered only 60, according to organizers.

Fausto da Rocha, a Brazilian activist in Massachusetts was not disappointed with the low attendance. “I’m satisfied to see several religious leaders here today, people who can influence many in their communities,” he said . “Everyone knows the time for legalization is now.”

What the rallies lacked in numbers they compensated for with the participation of entire families.

At least three immigrant families whose members were separated by recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids attended the rally in Manchester. At one point, Aaron Silvestre, 6, an American citizen whose father was detained for a few weeks, told the crowd: “We need to keep families together. The police should not take fathers away like they took my father.”

Despite the rain, entire immigrant families march from East Boston to Chelsea to Everett.

“Immigrants contribute to the economy, not just with their work, but paying taxes, and their purchasing,” said Eva Castillo, an activist with the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. “If they were to be deported in masses, this country would see a big hole in local economies.”

What was also different in this year’s rallies was that immigrant rights gained the support of union leaders. These leaders are pushing for immigration reform that includes legalizing about 12 million workers mainly because there’s no political willingness to promote an expansion of a guest-worker program.

For Fines Mendes, president of a United Steelworkers of America local in Boston, people are being hypocritical when they claim immigrants will steal Americans’ jobs.

“Look at this people: how much do you think they make? It’s hypocrisy, because we know there are non-citizens serving in the U.S. Army right now,” said Mendes. “People who are hard-working should be legalized in this country because they already contribute to the local economies.”

Behind the shouts of “today we march, tomorrow we vote,” leaders and political figures catered to a new and large electorate base that can be formed if immigration reform is passed.

“During an economic downturn, it is even more important to promote immigration reform. It’s now that we reflect on the truly important things that face us ahead. Immigrants are the future of this country,” said Sam Yoon, a Boston city councilor.

Noting that Boston is the nation’s 26th most populous city, and the sixth most diverse one, Yoon, a Korean-American who’s running for mayor of Boston this year, acknowledged that the crowd was small.

“If every person here shares their experience with family members, or in their churches, this protest then becomes a good start.”

Local students ask for a halt in Immigration raids.

Nurse Cristina Balbino, of Peabody, Mass., received her American citizenship last year. She challenged those workers absent for any type of fear.

“Fear of what?,” she said. “If we don’t show our faces, President Obama will never see us. He wants to legalize our brothers, but he must know how hard some families work, but when it comes to driving in our roads they have to hide like criminals.”

For Sonia Dias, another American citizen with a 22-year-old son serving in the Army and an 8-year-old boy planning to follow suit, one rally per year is not enough.

“We need to do more,” she said. “If the president fulfilled his promise (talking about immigration reform in his first 100 days in office), we need to do our part. Immigrant workers suffer with a lot of injustice in this country.”

Another legal resident, Ednaldo Trugilo, a Brazilian businessman known as Branco, said today’s immigration situation is quite different from the one he encountered upon arriving in the U.S. 12 years ago.

“Today, anybody who’s is arrested for a driving violation runs the risk of being deported,” Branco said. “I’m here to help out those who don’t have documents to be more secure in this country because everyone has rights.”

Gov. Deval Patrick and Frank Herron, director of the Center on Media and Society at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. (Photo: E. A. de Oliveira)

By Eduardo A. de Oliveira, EthnicNEWz.org and FI2W reporter

Proclaiming that, “we need immigration laws that are consistent with our values,” Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick held a wide-ranging press conference with ethnic media journalists at the State House in Boston.  At the meeting, last Friday, the governor defended the creation of partnerships with immigrant communities, answered questions on topics such as bilingual education and driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, and commented on race relations under President Barack Obama.

The audience of about fifty journalists –more than 35 from immigrant communities– came from African-American, Brazilian, Chinese, Haitian, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Polish, Portuguese and other print, broadcast and Web media.

The governor made brief remarks at the opening of the press conference, saying democracy thrives when it maintains an unfiltered press. He then opened the floor to the journalists’ questions on topics from “anywhere in your agenda you want,” he said.

At least one topic formed a common thread for many of the journalists: access to driver’s licenses for undocumented workers, many of whom contribute to the state economy and pay taxes.

An EthnicNEWz.org reporter reminded the governor that five police chiefs in Massachusetts say that giving driver’s licenses to such workers would increase public safety on the roads.

“The issue is that the Real ID Act, [the federal law that calls for the creation of a common driver’s license for the entire country,] doesn’t permit a unilateral [state] approach without consequences,” Patrick replied.

“This is a small piece of a broader picture called immigration reform. And when people talk about the difference between lawful and unlawful immigrants, I get that.

“But we need immigration laws that are consistent with our values.”

The topic was revisited at least five times during the press conference.

Marcony Almeida, editor of Brazilian Journal magazine, inquired whether the governor would seek a state solution if the Real ID Act ended, as Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has proposed.

“The costs of the Real ID Act are profound. Most states don’t have the money to implement it. If that obstacle is not there, we can look at it,” the governor replied.

In response to a question about race relations in the US, Patrick, the second African-American governor in US history, acknowledged, “America did not change because of Obama’s election – or mine.” But he went on to say that young black Americans already think differently about themselves as a result of such elections.

At the conference’s end, the governor, who will run for reelection in 2010, suggested meeting again, perhaps quarterly, with ethnic media.

He also welcomed a suggestion of Polish White Eagle co-publisher Marcin Bolec that his office have an ethnic-media liaison to communicate on issues specific to the journalists’ communities.

When Bolec added that the liaison would be on a volunteer basis, Gov. Patrick laughed with delight. Faced with a dismal economy and revenue setbacks for the state, he joked, “I appreciate that part!”

Following are highlights of Gov. Patrick’s responses to questions at the press conference:

Immigration

Patrick said that immigration reform, which would help Massachusetts, must include a path to citizenship for those who have been in the US “for generations.” Taking people “out of the shadows” of being undocumented would help the local economy and would provide a new stream of tax revenue.

Bilingual Education

“Of the countries I have visited, America is the only one where speaking only one language is considered a good thing.” For Patrick, Question 2 (a 2002 ballot initiative that rescinded the method of bilingual education in Massachusetts) points in the wrong direction. He added that he admires immigrant students who grasp the language and succeed in this country.

In-State Tuition

Declaring himself a “great believer” in in-state tuition for undocumented students, Patrick said his administration looked hard at ways to allow this benefit without having to go through the legislative process, such as by passing an executive order. But “we could not do it without the legislature running afoul.” The governor said the legislature has its hand full with other projects, but the issue would be put forward by the end of June.

Sales Tax

“Our approach is to raise revenue for specific needs, not to fund the status quo.” Patrick said he is against increasing the state’s sales tax, and highlighted that his administration must be disciplined about how to use the public’s money.

Economy and Small Business

The governor explained that President Obama’s economic stimulus package brings little money to small business, most of it going to the clean technology sector. But he asked for support for a new project that will create 10,000 summer jobs for youth and young adults that can become permanent positions.

What Patrick Has Learned About the Latino Community

“The Latino community is probably the most entrepreneurial in the entire country. Massachusetts’ population is more entrepreneurial than in most parts of the county.” The governor said Latinos should have more access to capital and coaching – many of them have become successful entrepreneurs in niche businesses. In addition, he said he has noticed a huge sensitivity among Latinos about immigration issues, even among those who are US citizens. “I know they feel sad because of the lack of alignment of our laws with our values,” Patrick concluded.

Source: EthnicNEWz.org