Matilde Polanco (left), of Phoenix, kisses Linda Angeline, of Phoenix, after Judge Susan Bolton's ruling on SB 1070 at the State Capitol on Wednesday July 28, 2010.

PHOENIX – On Wednesday July 28, hundreds of people gathered outside the State Capitol for their 102nd day. They called it the “Gran Vigilia” or “Great Vigil,” and prayed that SB 1070, the controversial law concerning undocumented immigrants, would not go into effect Thursday July 29.

Within a few hours, some of their prayers were answered.

A federal judge issued an injunction blocking the harshest aspects of SB 1070 until the court makes a final decision on a lawsuit brought by the federal government against the State of Arizona. As of now, living as an undocumented immigrant in the state is still not a crime.

At the vigil, the relieved group prayed in a mass to give thanks for the news. But several people admitted the fight is far from over. They pointed out that law enforcement in Arizona has persecuted undocumented immigrants for years.

Despite the judge’s ruling, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has promised a large-scale operation to capture undocumented immigrants through traffic violations and bring them to his “tent city.”

Since SB 1070 was signed by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, hundreds of families have left the state.

But the majority have stayed put.

“We weren’t willing to jump this ship until we heard from the judge,” said Jaqueline Siensen, 38. “This was wrong all along, we come here to work, we are not criminals. And we feel we are a part of the economy of Arizona.”

Salvador Soza, an undocumented immigrant said he felt relief after hearing about the injunction. “Now I’m going to be able to drive freely,” said the 32-year-old immigrant.

The immigrant community rejoices after Judge Susan Bolton's ruling on SB 1070 at the State Capitol in Phoenix on Wednesday July 28, 2010.

Attorney Stephen Montoya, who represented a police officer in one of the pending lawsuits challenging SB 1070, stopped short of calling it a victory, but rather an opportunity to bring peace over an issue that has created division and tension in the community.

“It’s a significant decision politically, but legally, honestly it ought not to be a significant decision,” said Montoya. “I think the judge simply enforced the law that has existed in the United States decade after decade. The United States Supreme Court has always said that the federal government was in charge of immigration law.”

Other opponents of SB 1070 were skeptical as well.

“It means that we have a temporary breather,” said Salvador Reza, an organizer from the PUENTE Movement.

One of the law’s provisions U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton left in effect allows local police to charge day-laborers (who are often picked up for a day’s work off the street) for impeding traffic.

“It’s just the beginning of the fight, we will continue with our civil disobedience,” said Reza.

The activists argue that immigrants are still in a very vulnerable position in Arizona, a place with several strict laws affecting immigrant communities, and infamous figures like Sheriff Arpaio who will continue to conduct raids.

Andrew Thomas, a co-author of SB 1070 and former Maricopa County Attorney lamented that the judge’s decision “cut the heart of the law.” He promised the ruling would be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.

But Thomas celebrated that parts of SB 1070 will go into effect–in particular the provisions affecting day-laborers.

“We can sue police departments for not enforcing it,” he said.

(Photo: waynewhuang/flickr)

Fi2W’s Valeria Fernandez was a guest today on PRI’s The World, speaking about the reaction to the injunction on SB 1070 in Arizona.

[Visit post to listen to audio]

Immigrants in Arizona can breathe a little easier–for now.

Less than 24 hours before SB 1070, the controversial new law making it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant in the state was scheduled to go into effect, U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton largely granted the U.S. government’s request for an injunction, and blocked the harshest provisions of the law.

In Phoenix, undocumented immigrants and their families had been nervously considering fleeing the state in the months since SB 1070 was signed by Governor Jan Brewer.

During three hearings Judge Bolton had directed pointed and difficult questions to lawyers for both the Department of Justice and the State of Arizona.  After considering the arguments, she ruled the federal government was likely to win in enough areas that an injunction was merited. In her decision, the judge concluded that the U.S. was likely to suffer irreparable harm and that stopping the law was in the public interest.

The judge did not enjoin SB 1070 in its entirety–she went through the law section by section and provision by provision, approving some and rejecting others. She didn’t halt the part of SB 1070 that makes it a misdemeanor to harbor or transport undocumented immigrants, for example. But the areas many opponents of the law were most vocal about, notably the requirement for local and state police to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws; for immigrants to carry papers at all times; and making it a crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for work in public places, were put on hold.

As for the part of SB 1070 that would allow officers to arrest a person without a warrant if they had probable cause to believe that the person had entered the U.S. illegally, the judge wrote:

“By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”

Judge Bolton’s ruling is not the end of the battle. There are currently 7 lawsuits challenging SB 1070 making their way through the legal system. The court is likely to make a final decision on the federal case soon, but either way it is likely to be appealed. Some experts predict the case will crawl all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We’ll have more reaction to the ruling tomorrow.

Amparo De Paredes (center) with two girls whose mothers were arrested in immigration raids. (Photo: Valeria Fernandez)

Arizona’s new law requiring local and state police to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants is scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, unless federal judge Susan R. Bolton rules otherwise.

Undocumented immigrants and their families in Arizona are living in limbo, and immigrants all over the nation are watching closely. ImpreMedia, one of the largest Spanish language news outlets in the U.S., launched a multimedia package this week focused on SB 1070 in an effort to clarify how the law will impact the Hispanic community. Visit Impre’s new site here.

Fi2W’s Valeria Fernandez has been following the situation in Arizona closely. The following article, written by Fernandez, appeared in the July 25 edition of La Opinión. Translation by Elena Shore of New America Media.

PHOENIX – Amparo De Paredes fills a giant bucket with bottles of water as a bunch of girls run around the house, playing with two adopted puppies.

They aren’t her daughters, but these days it feels like they are her own, especially since their mothers were arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department in two raids on the Sizzler’s restaurant chain on June 12.

“I don’t have kids, but it touches my heart to see what is happening,” says Amparo, a 52-year-old Guatemalan immigrant.

As hundreds of immigrant families leave the state before the implementation of the new law, SB 1070, which makes it a state crime to be undocumented, those who stay are living in uncertainty.

“This is going to happen, whether or not the law goes into effect. There is going to be more crime. I can’t call the police; if I call the police, I’m the one that’s going to lose out, not the robber,” says Omar González, the father of four of the girls, and a native of Retalhuleu, Guatemala.

Blanca, his wife, wanted to stay until the last minute, to wait until July 29, the date the new immigration law goes into effect. Otherwise, the plan was to move to Los Angeles. They were afraid of being arrested in the street, but they never thought she would be arrested in the middle of a workday at the restaurant where she’s worked for 10 years.

Omar Gonzalez with his daughter. Her mother was arrested in a recent immigration raid at the Sizzler's restaurant chain - Photo: Valeria Fernandez

“It’s useless. It’s stupid what they’re doing, because they are not protecting the city by kicking hardworking people out of their jobs,” says Gonzalez, 40. “They would be protecting the country if they caught the people who sell drugs in the streets.”

Gonzalez blames the Obama administration for what is happening in Arizona.

“How many years has this black man been president, and there have been more deportations than under Bush. What is he doing? Nothing. When passing immigration reform was important. No, he threw himself into passing health care reform.”

Amparo’s house has become a neighborhood meeting place, and this afternoon dozens of people are arriving on foot for a meeting of the PUENTE movement, where they will be educated about their civil rights.

“How many people here are illegal?” asks Alma Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant who leads the neighborhood groups in the area.

Some raise their hands shyly.

“How many are immigrants?” she asks. Others respond. Mendoza says to them, “We are not illegal. We are not undocumented. We are human beings.”

Mendoza reminds the guests that on July 29, they are calling for everyone not to go to work or buy anything. The PUENTE movement already has several vigils and acts of civil disobedience planned if the judge allows the law to go into effect.

Meanwhile, Amparo and her husband, José de Jesus, pass around bottles of water for their guests under Arizona’s scorching afternoon sun.

“We want to unite to get rid of the police. A lot of people are afraid,” says Amparo. A few months ago a new Phoenix police station opened near the church and the park. But instead of providing security, it is making people afraid because of the new law.

Omar complains that in the last few months, the same police officer has arrested him three times, and impounded his car each time.

The neighborhood meetings help people not to feel helpless. People from all parts of the country have come to visit them to help.

But for Omar, it is a double-edged sword.

“The more united we are, the better. But at the same time, the more united we are, the more we are making ourselves known to the law,” says the Guatemalan.

Young girls in Arizona whose mothers were arrested in immigration raids. (Photo: Valeria Fernandez)

After the federal government and a coalition of civil rights groups presented arguments to overturn parts of the law, everyone was betting that Judge Susan Bolton would impose a moratorium, at least on some aspects of SB 1070.

But with or without the law, the persecution of undocumented immigrants in Arizona can continue at the hands of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has said he is planning to conduct a raid on July 29. The controversial sheriff, who is under investigation for the use of racial profiling in his operations, also opened a special outdoor section in his so-called “Tent City,” where he will jail the undocumented immigrants he arrests.

“This law hasn’t even gone into effect yet and the community is already devastated,” says Luis Fernández, a member of the Repeal Coalition. For nearly a year and a half, the group has organized immigrant communities at the neighborhood level. It also visits family members in detention, connects them with lawyers, and accompanies them to court.

“Unfortunately, there is a huge need. What we are doing is a drop of water in the ocean,” he says. “The atmosphere is extremely polarized in Arizona and it is already expanding nationwide. I suppose that what we’re experiencing here is going to be felt elsewhere, especially in November [during the elections].”

(Photo: -Kenzie-/flickr)

The second in a two-part series.

NEW YORK – The last few years have seen an increase in Poles entering the U.S. illegally from Canada. This comes at a time when a growing number of undocumented Polish immigrants are leaving the U.S.  The faltering U.S. economy and Poland’s recent membership in the European Union – which allows Poles to works legally in many European countries – has enticed them to try their luck on the other side of the Atlantic.

The rise in illegal entries from Canada can be traced back to March 2008 when Canada lifted visa requirements for travelers from Poland.   Some see it as an opportunity to try to work their way into the U.S. yet one more time.  Many are desperate to return despite the weak economy and strong anti-immigrant sentiment, said people familiar with the issue.

Most of those who decide to cross from Canada have been denied a U.S. visa or were previously deported from the U.S. Many still have family and friends on the American side, others have property and belongings left behind after they were deported.

For Jarek (not his real name) the main reason to risk an illegal crossing was work. “I’m coming from a poor region of Poland where salaries are extremely low. I don’t even know how people survive being paid that little,” he said,.

Jarek previously lived in the U.S. for several years after overstaying his visa. All that time he kept sending money to his wife and children who stayed in Poland. “Back then, even though I was undocumented, I had a very good job in construction. I was able to make really good money and my boss valued my work. But after a few years I couldn’t stand being so far away from my family any longer. I was depressed, so I went back to Poland. It was my own choice to get a one way ticket.”

Jarek lived in Poland for 2 years. During that time he considered immigrating to another European Union country. “But I didn’t have any connections there. While in the U.S, after so many years there, I knew that if I come back I’ll have a job the next day.” Last summer he decided to try to return.

His decision was not unique.  “Poles have been crossing the Canadian border illegally for many years but the “traffic” definitely intensified since Canada lifted visa requirements for Poland, making it easy for its citizens to enter the country,” said Jerzy Sokol, an immigration attorney who serves Poles in the New York area.

“Another factor that makes Poles choose the Canadian border is intensified security over the Mexican border,” Sokol added.  In recent months Sokol has been working with a couple of clients who were caught by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in upstate New York.

It’s impossible to determine the exact numbers of Poles crossing the border.  But consul Piotr Janicki of the legal section at the Polish Consulate General in New York claims it’s “a seasonal phenomenon.”

“People usually don’t cross in winter. They don’t want to struggle through Canadian forests in the snow. In summer it’s much easier.”  Janicki said he had noticed the problem in the summer of 2008 and since then it has recurred every year.

“In the summer months I start receiving notifications from Border Patrol about the arrests of Polish citizens, usually a few every month. Then in winter it’s quiet.”  In June this year he received 4 such notifications.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics obtained by Feet In Two Worlds confirmed that the number of Poles apprehended while crossing the northern border has recently increased.  In the first half of this year the Border Patrol stopped 50 Poles along the northern border, most of them in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 2008 there were 63 such cases. For comparison, in 2007, before Canada’s decision to waive visas for Poles, 31 Poles were apprehended, in 2006, the number was 37.

Some Poles, use accurate maps try to cross by themselves. Others enlist the help of organized groups. “It seems to me that some people living along the border turn smuggling into their way of living,” said Jarek who didn’t have any trouble finding people who offered to take him across the border. He claims some groups were run by Poles, others by Russians, Canadians as well as Native Americans.

“Some people cross on foot, others decide to go by boats. Some allegedly look for shallows in the Saint Lawrence River and try to cross there,” he said.  He and his “guide” crossed on foot. A car was waiting for him at a previously arranged location on the American side.

According to people familiar with the issue, smugglers charge anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on whether they are simply helping people cross the border or delivering them somewhere to be picked up by family members or friends. There is no guarantee of success.  The car Jarek was riding in was soon stopped on the New York State Thruway.

“Once they realized I had no papers, I was immediately taken into custody,” Jarek recalls.

“Border Patrol agents can stop anybody that they see in between the ports of entry. They also monitor areas that have direct egress from the border as well as anything that has a nexus to the border, like transportation hubs, bus and train stations,” said Steven Cribby, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. “Agents have authority throughout the country so there is no limit on where they can and can’t be.”

Jarek paid the smugglers $4 000. But he claims it cost him much more, and the real price did not come out of his wallet. “It was so much stress and humiliation. The uncertainty of what’s going to happen with me was the worst. Being in jail is an awful experience, too.  I would advise anybody who considers doing it not to.”

According to Jerzy Sokol, getting caught in the Northern District of New York may result in more than deportation proceedings. “It happens that the district attorney there also charges people for illegal entry with criminal charges. This is rarely practiced in other states. As a consequence, they have to pay a fine and are sent to jail where they usually spend at least 20 to 30 days. Only then they are being transferred back to Immigration.”

Jarek was detained for almost 5 months. Eventually his friends managed to post bail. Since then he has been living in New York. “My deportation case is on. I’m just waiting to see what’s going to happen. In the meantime I work in construction trying to send as much money home as possible.”

This article is based on a story Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska originally wrote for Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News.

Gerardo, an undocumented immigrant, earns money by selling used machine parts. (Photo by Valeria Fernandez)

Listen to Valeria Fernandez’s story about Irene and Gerardo this week on NPR’s Latino USA.

[Visit post to listen to audio]

PHOENIX – In these days of continually breaking news from Arizona it’s hard to stop for a minute — take it all in — and listen. But that was my assignment. Listen.

Seems fitting for a radio piece.  Yet, sometimes our expectations of what a story should be tend to get in the way.

Since the passage of SB 1070, a new law that makes it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant, I find myself pulled in many directions. One day I’m sitting inside a courtroom trying to wrap my mind around legal arguments on the law. The next second, I’m in the street putting my microphone between two people who are yelling at each other.

It’s usually more of a shouting-match than a conversation. When something is so personal I know it can be hard to even want to concede that the other person may have a point. And it gets even worse when language barriers stand in the way.

Arizona is divided on SB 1070.  But viewpoints are not black and white.  If there is agreement on anything it’s that everyone is frustrated.

That’s what I found when I spent some time interviewing Irene Littleton a resident of the town of Casa Grande and Gerardo and undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

There’s another thing that unites people who are divided by their views on the new law.  It is fear. Some fear for their security, their retirement, their homes. They want the police to do more to protect them and they feel the protection will come by giving the authorities immigration powers.

Immigrants are so fearful that they are worried if there’s a police station near the park or the church in their neighborhood because if they get stopped, their trip may end up on the other side of the border. Their entire life in the U.S, the life they built for years, is at stake.

I met Irene outside the Arizona State Capitol. We were both very early for a Tea Party event. She was under a gazebo seeking shelter from the heat and wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on it.

I have a heavy Uruguayan accent.  When I do interviews about immigration issues in English with supporters of SB 1070, my accent sometimes puts people off.  It also inevitably leads to questions about my nationality and whether I entered the country illegally.

I’ve gotten used to it, but at times it has made it difficult to establish trust with people who assume I write only in Spanish and feel they haven’t been portrayed fairly by the Spanish-language press.

Irene didn’t focus on my accent. She was mostly interested in having a conversation.  She told me she lived in Casa Grande, Arizona about 60 miles from Phoenix, and that she was afraid for her safety because the town was a known corridor for human smuggling.

She moved from New Hampshire two years ago, fulfilling a dream to live in Arizona, the Grand Canyon state. But things didn’t turn out as she expected.  She hasn’t been able to find a new job in IT and her home was broken into last August.

She doesn’t know who did it. She can’t blame undocumented immigrants.  But it adds to her concerns as she hears in the news about a deputy being shot by alleged smugglers in her area. On top of that, the federal government is putting signs near her town warning that it’s a dangerous smuggling corridor.

Because of all these things, Irene feels she needs to live her life differently -put in a security system and be watchful, even though media reports say that crime is down in Arizona.

When SB 1070 passed it gave her a new sense of security.  And it’s not because she fears immigrants that work on landscaping or thinks that they are all coming here to commit crimes. She believes the new law, scheduled to take effect on July 29, will send a message to the federal government that it needs to secure the U.S. – Mexico border.

There are other things that concern Irene. She is bothered by the fact that at the grocery story she seems to be surrounded by people speaking Spanish who she can’t understand.

Irene is a first-generation Italian who loves her culture and grew up in a home where Italian was spoken. She’s upset that many immigrants come to the U.S. and don’t seem to learn the language.

Gerardo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, would beg to differ with Irene on many points. I met him about two years ago, and I know he has been trying for quite a while to come to terms with whether to stay in Arizona.  SB 1070 seemed to be the tipping point for him.

I learned he had decided to go to Canada and gave him a call. He was packed and ready to go. Two weeks later, when I called him again, Gerardo had changed his mind.

His children convinced him that it was better for the family to stay together rather than risk moving from Arizona and being caught by immigration authorities.

He speaks fairly good English, but for this story I interviewed him in Spanish because he felt that way he could express himself better –from the heart.

He understands why some people like Irene are afraid of illegal immigration. He believes it’s because of the way the media has portrayed people like him, and the way Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has put out a message saying immigrants smuggle drugs across the border, that there are beheadings in the desert.

Of course, he says, they are afraid. But he feels workers like him, who have been here for over a decade, are being shortchanged and thrown into the mix with criminals.

He wonders why all the focus is on smugglers and drug dealers. What about the reality of people that are working day to day at golf courses, hotels, restaurants, landscaping and constructions sites?

It hurts him to see the looks on people’s faces when he takes his family to a store and they speak Spanish among themselves. One part of him believes this is no place to raise a family. He also believes there’s more to Arizona’s SB 1070 than security concerns.  He calls it “racism.”

Gerardo and his family have applied to remain in the U.S. legally. But his greatest frustration is that it may take years for the application to be approved.

The more I spoke with Gerardo and Irene, the more they seemed to be in agreement over one thing: the country needs to change the way it deals with immigration.

They both say that it would be good if people already here could become part of a process in which they are given a document to stay.  Irene goes as far as saying, “until they can become a citizen.”

They both agree good people should be allowed to stay in the U.S. even if they entered illegally.

Irene said she didn’t want people to be uprooted and displaced by SB 1070. Gerardo said that’s what will happen, they may have to “run when the witch hunt begins.”

Gerardo and Irene will probably never meet. If they did, it probably would be while standing on different sides of the street, perhaps holding signs in support of or against the new law.  If they ever struck up a conversation they would surprise each other over how much they have in common.

But that only can happen if they do one thing. Listen.

]]> http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2010/07/23/listening-to-both-sides-in-arizonas-immigration-debate/feed/ 2 http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2010/07/22/clash-of-the-newspaper-titans/ http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/2010/07/22/clash-of-the-newspaper-titans/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:02:39 +0000 John Rudolph http://news.feetintwoworlds.org/?p=15570

Vicky Peláez

If the recent Russian spy case wasn’t enough to take you back in time (to the Cold War, to be precise),  then the war of words that erupted this week between two daily newspapers should do the trick.  In an episode reminiscent of the legendary 19th century newspaper battles that pitted William Randolph Hearst against Joseph Pulitzer, the Wall Street Journal this week attacked El Diario/La Prensa.  The Spanish-language daily responded with a vigorous defense that included a harsh critique of the Journal‘s journalistic methods.

The controversy began with an editorial in the Journal that calls on El Diario to apologize to its readers for its association with Vicky Peláez, a long-time El Diario columnist who, along with her husband, was arrested and deported as part of the Russian spy case.  The Journal characterizes Peláez, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Peru, as someone who “certainly seemed to hate the America that took her in.”

Peláez was known for her extreme leftist views.  But the Journal claims she was more than a reporter with strong opinions:

Peláez published regular anti-U.S. diatribes and routinely praised Castro, and the paper adopted her politics in its news coverage. Sometime in the late 1990s Peláez was made Latin American desk editor. Her work, as well as that of former El Diario editor-in-chief Gerson Borrero, was reprinted in Granma, Cuba’s state newspaper. Justo Sánchez, who was once the paper’s editor for arts and culture, described her articles as “poorly disguised agit-prop.” Mr. Sánchez adds that it was common knowledge around the newsroom that the Cuban government paid for Peláez’s trip to the island in 2006.

El Diario then published an editorial of its own, accusing the Journal of trying “to tarnish” the Spanish-language paper’s “97-year reputation.”  El Diario (a media partner of Feet in Two Worlds),  claims that the Journal “relies on unsubstantiated charges, such as ‘the Cuban government paid for Pelaez’ trip to the island in 2006,’ which is blatantly false.”

The editorial goes on to further question the Journal‘s methods: “We are surprised that so many of the statements in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran without the appropriate verification.”

The El Diario editorial acknowledges that the Peláez case poses challenges for the paper, and it lays out a plan to address them: “in the interest of transparency, we are assembling an independent academic commission to review our editorial practices. We know that maintaining trust is at the essence of what we do.”

The exchange between the two papers is notable for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s unusual for a media giant like the Journal to pay attention to a smaller ethnic media outlet like El Diario.  Spanish-language and English-language media in the U.S. typically operate in separate universes.

The Wall Street Journal is known for its conservative editorial page.  It’s not surprising that they would harshly criticize Peláez. The Journal also recently launched a Greater New York section, designed to make the paper more competitive in the New York market.  Newspaper industry observers have said that the new section is intended to lure New York Times readers, and weaken a major competitor to the Journal.  This week’s editorial may suggest that the Journal also wants to attract disaffected Hispanic newspaper readers.

If that’s the case, El Diario‘s response shows that the Spanish-language paper won’t let its readers go without a fight.

Belly dancer. (Photo: tanakawho/flickrcc)

If you want to make a living as a belly dancer, Detroit is the place to be.  Martina Guzman,  a reporter with FI2W and WDET in Detroit,  explains why in a piece that airs this week on PRI’s Studio 360.

Listen here.

This week’s Latino USA from NPR features Kidnap Radio a documentary by Annie Correal, a reporter for FI2W and El Diario.  Click here to listen to this moving story about an episode from Annie’s childhood.

Panelists Susan Stamler, Andrew Beveridge, David Dyssegaard Kallick, Bob Hennelly and Errol Louis at July 15 NYCMA election workshop. (Photo by Mohsin Zaheer)

NEW YORK – With the New York primary less than two months away, journalists who write for media outlets that serve immigrant and ethnic communities in New York City are being urged to ramp up their campaign coverage.   At a workshop hosted by the New York Community Media Alliance, Errol Louis, of the New York Daily News underscored the importance of ethnic media during an election year.  “Election season comes and goes quickly, and local coverage by mainstream media is often sparse, making the community press coverage crucial,” he said.

Louis outlined a step-by-step guide to covering local elections that encompasses four stages of running for office: getting and staying on the ballot; lining up friends and funds; Election Day; and the aftermath. He explained that coverage should continue even after the results are in.  Who for are the winners and losers besides the candidates? Which candidates will run again?

2010 is an important election year in New York.   State residents will elect a new governor and attorney general.  The entire state legislature is up for election, as are all the state’s congressional seats and both U.S. Senate seats from New York.

Andrew Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate School,  began by talking about the “five lies that ethnic sources will tell you,” focusing on the “over-counting” that most ethnic groups succumb to when left to tally their own numbers. Political power, according to Beveridge, is not based on numbers but on registered voters. He advised the journalists that in such a multicultural city, no minority group can afford to promote their ethnic identity over others – coalitions, he said, are the only way to go.

David Dyssegaard Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute framed his presentation around the idea that immigrant economic contribution, contrary to popular belief, is directly proportional to the city’s immigrant population. But Kallick said that while immigrants account for 46 per cent of the city’s workforce, their role in governing the city lags far behind.

WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly opened by asking how many in the audience of about 25 ethnic and community media journalists had read the morning’s Wall Street Journal, emphasizing that journalists must understand the global economy in order to report successfully on the local economy. “We’re at a time,” he said, “when capital can be moved with the click of a mouse,” referring to the ease with which billions can be transferred to overseas banks. The government fears the exodus of wealthy people, Hennelly explained. “Their bodies are here, but their wealth is not,” thus the taxes they pay are disproportionate low. This, he maintained, makes it difficult for governments to support longstanding social contracts like subsidized CUNY and SUNY tuition and senior services.

Susan Stamler, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses of New York, pointed to huge cuts to the city’s “core” that are looming under the proposed state budget. Millions of dollars are slated to be cut from childcare and after-school programs, senior centers and adult literacy programs. She drew connections between the need for reporters to understand how government works – by learning the rules, being attuned to governmental processes, and remembering that elected officials always want to get re-elected – and understanding how the “system” directly relates to ethnic and minority communities.

The workshop was part of NYCMA’s election initiative, launched in collaboration with the Amsterdam News; CUNY TV; Feet in Two Worlds; Fiscal Policy Institute; Gotham Gazette; Manhattan Neighborhood Network; People’s Production House; WNYC; and the World Journal.

Cynthia Otero With Her Son Christian at New York Immigration Reform Rally. (Photo: Cristina DC Pastor)

NEW YORK – In his July 1 speech on immigration, President Obama gave a broad hint of an immigration reform law that would provide a path to legal status for nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants. He declared that immigrants who crossed the U.S. border without papers would not get blanket amnesty, even if “compassion drives this argument,” nor would they be deported en masse, because that would be “logistically impossible and wildly expensive.” Polls show the majority of Americans support changes in immigration policy, but there is no consensus on how do it.

Feet in Two Worlds spoke to a variety of New Yorkers about their views on immigration and their ideas for possible solutions. What emerged in this city of immigrants is a centrist position that echoed the values of fairness, accountability, common sense and the rule of law.

Lower East Side resident Cathy Barna said she would like to see undocumented immigrants come out of hiding, apply for legalization, pay taxes and learn English.

“My brother married a Mexican woman who runs a taco van and is making a nice living doing that. She works very hard. The couple in my neighborhood, the cleaning woman who stocks shelves in the store, they’re all nice people. They came here, work hard so they can have a good life,” said Barna, a manager at a chiropractor’s office. “But we have rules for a reason.”

Barna, whose husband is of Ukrainian descent, said his family and grandparents all learned to speak English.  “That’s what needs to be done.”

She is not in favor of the government fining immigrants, saying it would be an added burden to them.

An NYPD officer from Brooklyn said the government should take stock of which immigrants the country needs most and make that the basis for documentation. For example, he would like to see day workers on the priority list.

“Let’s document them, get them apprenticeships as electricians or plumbers, and get them into the unions,” said the officer who declined to give his name. “A lot of them are so skilled, they just don’t have the resources to get training and licensing.” He disagreed with observations that communities with day workers clustered outside Home Depot become a hotbed of crime. “A lot of them are really good people,” he said. The officer said he is not opposed to the government offering amnesty to day laborers and teachers because these are skills the country badly needs.

He was also a strong proponent of border security, because of drug smuggling.

Everyone should be documented and everyone should pay taxes, suggested New School student Kia Lee.

Her idea of legalization involved a probation period during which applicants are screened for possible violation of the law.

“Those that passed on good behavior should be allowed to continue to keep the jobs, family and property that they have accumulated while being here illegally. They have to start the correct paperwork to become citizens the legal way,” said the Astoria, Queens resident.

There has to be accountability, stressed Swedish-born environmentalist and educator Erik Mortensen. He thinks that immigrants must pay fines and learn English as part of the pathway to legal status.

Immigration reform is a universal problem,” said Mortensen, a UN consultant. All parties should aspire to reach agreement first on issues that are easily “solvable and reachable.” He says one of these is for immigrants to learn the language and be culturally functional “as quickly as possible.”

The law, to be truly comprehensive, should apply to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) families as well, said Tom Tierney of the grassroots advocacy group Out 4 Immigration. He said there are about 36,000 bi-national LGBT families marginalized by current immigration laws. In bi-national relationships, one partner is in the U.S. and the other is in the country of origin because of deportation or awaiting a visa.

“Right now, if you’re a gay or lesbian couple, and you have a marriage license in Connecticut, Vermont or Massachusetts, that license is not federally recognized,” Tierney explained. That means same-sex couples who are married are currently not allowed by law to sponsor their spouses for citizenship. The proposed Uniting American Families Act — sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D – NY) — seeks to change that. The bill was prompted by the case of lesbian couple Shirley Tan and Jay Mercado, a Filipino-American. Tan,  from the Philippines, was threatened with deportation for overstaying a visa. They have two sons.

“I’m in favor of [immigrants] coming forward, learning English, getting back at the end of the line,” Tierney said. But he would like LGBT couples to have the same legalization opportunities as heterosexual couples. “We’re not asking for special treatment.”

Taxi driver Victor Salazar told FI2W he is in favor of granting blanket amnesty for all undocumented immigrants, but the Ecuadoran immigrant said his views do not reflect the prevailing sentiment in Hispanic communities.  He argued his objections to Obama’s general plan: making English mandatory would promote “individualism,” border patrols create divisions rather than unite people, and imposing fines would penalize immigrants.

Drugs and immigration, stressed this leader of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, are two separate issues and should be dealt with separately.

“Drug smuggling cannot be solved by making walls,” he said.

New York City is a place where nearly 40 per cent of the population is foreign born, so sympathy for immigrants not surprising. Even Mayor Bloomberg is lobbying for immigration reform with a new coalition of political and business leaders, “Partnership for a New American Economy.” The mayor says that immigrants are crucial for the country’s economic growth, and are hard working people who turn the wheels of the city.

Redesign of Arizona Flag by Andrew Huff/Flickr

With the country’s harshest immigration law scheduled to take effect in just two weeks and a lawsuit filed by the Obama administration that attempts to block the law–Arizona is at the epicenter of America’s battle over immigration.

90DAYSTOPHOENIX.com is a new independent media project sifting through the truth and lies clouding the immigration debate. Journalists, photographers, filmmakers and citizens contribute on-the-ground accounts of SB 1070 developments, and provide an inside look at this unfolding historic moment in Arizona. Fi2W’s Valeria Fernandez is one of the creators of the project.

On April 23, 2010 Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law which gives Arizona authority over the federal government in the enforcement of immigration laws.  The Arizona measure requires each police officer who stops, detains, or arrests people for violating even the most minor city ordinance to ask for immigration papers if they have “reasonable suspicions” that the people are unauthorized immigrants.

In the heightened atmosphere of an election year, proponents argue that SB 1070 will keep Arizona safe while critics argue that SB 1070 will encourage racial profiling of American citizens, and funnel police resources away from fighting real crime. Multiple lawsuits have been filed on constitutional grounds that seek to stop SB 1070 from going into effect on July 29, 2010 — 90 days after the Arizona legislature session ended.

Read more at 90DAYSTOPHOENIX.com

Vicky Pelaez is still behind bars. (Photo: moonflowerdragon/flickr)

This story is based on a translation of  an article written by FI2W’s Annie Correal that appeared in El Diario on July 6.

YONKERS, NY–While most people celebrated a summer weekend at the beach and watched fireworks, the family of Vicky Peláez, a journalist accused of working as a secret agent for the Russian government, prepared for her possible return home. They were under the impression that Peláez could go free on bail and house arrest on Tuesday.

Peláez was arrested by the FBI, along with her husband Juan Lázaro, on Sunday June 27, as part of an operation that revealed the alleged existence of a network of Russian agents living under false identities across the country. All in all, eleven people were arrested by the authorities.

Peláez and Lázaro are charged with failing to register as agents of a foreign government and for money laundering. Last Thursday, prosecutors said that upon his arrest, Lázaro admitted that his name was false and declared his loyalty to Russia.

The same day, U.S. District Judge Ronald Ellis set Peláez’s bail at $250,000, with a $10,000 cash bond.

But on Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced their intention to appeal Ellis’ decision, and on Wednesday, instead of a bail hearing, Judge Kimba Wood signed the U.S. Attorney’s request for a stay, leaving Peláez in custody at least until her next hearing, scheduled for Friday.

On Sunday July 4, the couple’s oldest son, Waldo Mariscal, 38, said the family would probably have enough to pay the $10,000 cash bond, but will need to raise funds from the public in order to pay lawyers’ fees. “Anyone who wants to contribute to the fund … We are not rich people, we are middle class people,” Marshall told reporters stationed outside the family home.

Mariscal went shopping and returned to the house at 17 Clifton Avenue at 5:30 pm loaded with grocery bags. While he seemed angry with reporters, he said he was doing all right.  Mariscal criticized the coverage of the case in El Diario. He maintains the innocence of his mother and stepfather and has said that his stepfather’s statements were made under pressure.

The couple’s younger son, Juan Lázaro Jr., 17, was staying with a family friend.

On a quiet Sunday in Yonkers, Peláez’s home presented a relatively normal suburban scene: a two story brick house surrounded by trees with the curtains drawn. The couple’s two cars were parked outside, and their dogs, two Schnauzers, barked in the yard.

In Peláez’s car, a black VW Bug, there was an artificial red rose and a card with a prayer. In Lázaro’s car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero, the same prayer card hung from the mirror. A piece of cake had been left on a plate between the seats. In the trunk there was an umbrella and a map of Westchester.

Despite appearances, a neighbor who was walking her dog said that normalcy had vanished from her suburb, which is predominantly Jewish. “It’s been crazy around here,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “This was unexpected. It’s been difficult for this neighborhood in every sense,” she said. She would not say if she knew Peláez.

“This is a peaceful area, nobody knows anybody. I feel like a regular American,” noted another neighbor, Vitali Alaverdian, a retired doctor originally from Russia. Asked about the allegations, he said, “I can’t even think about it. It may be true, maybe not. If true, it is a shock,” he said, and then left to work in his garden.

Rumors are afoot that American and Russian authorities are considering a “spy swap,” in which the 10 defendants in the case would return to Russia. But the New York Times reports that according to Peláez’s lawyer she doesn’t want to go.

Ms. Pelaez’s lawyer, John M. Rodriguez, said the Russian official who called him asked “whether my client was interested in going to Russia.” Ms. Pelaez, a veteran columnist for El Diario La Prensa, a newspaper in New York, was the only one of the 11 suspects who was not a trained agent. Mr. Rodriguez recalled telling the official that he did not “think she would be interested.”

This afternoon, Thursday July 8, all the defendants are scheduled to appear at an indictment hearing at 2:45 PM.

Immigrants detained by sheriff deputies in Maricopa County, Arizona. (Photo: José Muñoz)

“S.B. 1070 is invalid under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and must be struck down.”

The U.S. Justice Department wrote it plainly, dismissing any ambiguity or confusion of how the Obama Administration views Arizona’s new law making it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant.

Less than a week after the president gave a speech to the nation on the subject of immigration in which he revealed nothing about a court challenge, the federal government is now officially calling SB 1070 unconstitutional, and joining five other lawsuits, including one by the ACLU, in an attempt to block the law. With only a few weeks before SB 1070 is scheduled to go into effect, the nation will be watching closely to see if the judge assigned to the case grants a temporary injunction.

Valeria Fernandez reported in New America Media that Alfredo Gutiérrez, a former Democratic Arizona state senator and editor of La Frontera Times, described his response to the lawsuit as “a real sense of relief.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was the first administration official to let it slip that a federal lawsuit was coming. Immigrant rights advocates have been putting the pressure on the administration to take a stand and block the law.

In its brief, the Justice Department listed what it sees as the dangers and negative outcomes of SB 1070, saying that it would disrupt federal enforcement, and place an unfair burden on federal agencies, “diverting resources and attention from the dangerous aliens who the federal government targets as its top enforcement priority.” Though Arizona is partnered with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the 287(g) program to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the state, the Justice Department says SB 1070 crosses the line and is a preemption of federal authority.

“Although states may exercise their police power in a manner that has an incidental or indirect effect on aliens, a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with the federal immigration laws. The Constitution and the federal immigration laws do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country.”

This is an issue guaranteed to fan partisan flames–as it’s really a question of federalism vs. states’ rights. Predictably, Republicans in Congress were up in arms about the lawsuit. 20 members of the House criticized it in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. John McCain and Jon Kyl, the U.S. Senators from Arizona – both Republicans, put out a joint statement saying that “the American people must wonder whether the Obama Administration is really committed to securing the border when it sues a state that is simply trying to protect its people by enforcing immigration law.”

Even though President Obama dedicated a lot of his speech to better enforcement, and was sure to mention that there are “more boots on the ground on the southwest border than at any other time in our history,” Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says the lawsuit will weaken security in the state.

“As a direct result of failed and inconsistent federal enforcement, Arizona is under attack from violent Mexican drug and immigrant smuggling cartels. Now, Arizona is under attack in federal court from President Obama and his Department of Justice,” Brewer said. “Today’s filing is nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayer funds.”

Many immigrant rights groups applauded the administration’s move, and asked for more. “The federal government is taking an important step to reassert its authority over immigration policy in the United States,” said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, in a statement. “While a legal challenge by the Department of Justice won’t resolve the public’s frustration with our broken immigration system, it will seek to define and protect the federal government’s constitutional authority to manage immigration.”

But others worried that the lawsuit would hurt the chances for comprehensive immigration reform. “I worry about the political consequences,” said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorksUSA, a non-profit group that organizes the business sector around immigration reform. “I’d like the administration to make its views heard in another way.”

A recent Gallup poll shows that Americans are about equally divided — 50% to 45% — over whether the government’s main focus should be on border enforcement to stop the flow of immigrants coming into the U.S., or on developing a plan to deal with those already here.

On the streets of Phoenix, the immigrant population is reacting positively. Marcelo Quiñonez, a 26-year-old high school English teacher, described the move as “a monumental step” by the federal government to show other states that are trying to pass anti-immigrant legislation that they’re going down the wrong path.

“It’s also telling the nation as a whole that racism won’t be tolerated,” he said. “It’s a great victory for the immigrant community in Arizona.”

A Protest Against Sex Trafficking. (Photo: Ari Bronstein)

It’s not enough that Jin Hua Cui took all of their earnings. The eight Korean women, who said they were promised jobs in nail salons but forced to work as prostitutes, would constantly be threatened with harm and blackmail, according to the Suffolk County DA’s office.

The eight said Cui – whom they called ‘Big Mama’ — would have them picked up from Queens and delivered to massage parlors across Long Island. Their fees for turning tricks – anywhere from $60 to $80 — all went to Cui, who owns a brick mansion in Flushing. The women were left to share the tips.

Under New York State’s anti-trafficking law, Cui could face up to 25 years if convicted of sex trafficking. But the women might also have been charged with the crime of prostitution and sent to jail, making it difficult for them to get a visa, or worse, making them likely candidates for deportation.

Now a new bill, recently passed by the New York State legislature and awaiting the signature of Gov. David Paterson, could nullify the prostitution charges, and give the victims a chance to start over. A07670, authored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, proposes to “vacate” prostitution convictions for victims of sex trafficking. It passed the State Assembly March 8 on a unanimous vote of 139-0, and the State Senate June 15 on a vote of 41-20.  The bill applies also to immigrant women who are sold into prostitution or forced to work in massage parlors or escort services to pay back their debts.

Sienna Baskin of the Urban Justice Coalition’s Sex Workers Project campaign said the bill would allow sex trafficking victims to “rewind the clock” and start anew. “Trafficked women have no control over their environment or who they choose to work with,” she said.

“It will provide them with a better opportunity to recover and move forward with their lives by removing potential obstacles, such as adjusting their immigration status, gaining legal employment, and obtaining housing,” explained lawyer Ivy Suriyopas of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

Sex trafficking, according to the recently released Trafficking in Persons 2010 report, is a “smaller but still significant portion” of the overall scourge of human trafficking, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the modern “slave trade.” Perpetrators are typically people with means, power and influence; their victims people who, out of sheer poverty, become vulnerable to coercion or the beguiling ways of recruiters.

“Too often the victims of this crime are perceived to be society’s throwaways – prostitutes, runaways, the poor, racial or ethnic minorities, members of a low caste, or recent immigrants,” according to the report issued by the State Department.

Cui’s Korean victims, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, “did not speak a word of English, and most importantly didn’t even know where they were.”

POWER GAME

Trafficking is the classic power game. The use of physical violence or threats make the victims compliant. For recent immigrants, the threats may involve surrendering travel documents to their recruiters, or exposing their families to harassment in their countries of origin where the traffickers are well connected.

“It’s a lot easier to have that kind of power and control by using threats,” said Suriyopas.

A comprehensive anti-trafficking law is just what New York needs, said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now. “A large percentage of the estimated 14,000 to 17,000 women trafficked into the U.S. every year end up in New York. New York is a huge hub.”

Some of the victims come from the Philippines, said activist and novelist Ninotchka Rosca, a fact also noted in the State Department report.

“The traffic of women, largely Filipinas, into prostitution is an organized and large scale operation,” said Rosca, spokesperson of the Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization and Marginalization (AF3IRM). What makes sex trafficking exceptionally exploitative, she said, is how traffickers treat the human body as “goods” in their highly profitable trade.

“We do not use the phrase ‘sex worker’ as it hides the exploitative essence of prostitution, which we view as capital’s assault upon the human body,” she said.

Rey Koslowski, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Albany’s (SUNY) Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, said the Gottfried bill further strengthens the state’s already tough anti-trafficking law.

“I don’t know of any state, or maybe there are not that many states that have separate laws against trafficking. New York State is definitely ahead,” said Koslowski, who is also a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. “It makes it easier for the victims to cooperate with law enforcement.”

THE T VISA

One option available to immigrant victims of human trafficking is the T visa. The Department of Homeland Security website states that “the purpose of the T non-immigrant visa is to allow eligible victims of trafficking to legally remain in the U.S. and provide assistance with the investigation and prosecution of traffickers.”  By issuing the T visa, the U.S. government provides the victims and their families protection against possible retaliation after the victims cooperate with law enforcement. The T visa “puts them on a path to obtaining U.S. citizenship,” according to the State Department report.

But getting a T visa comes with a price. The victim has to testify against her trafficker all the way to the point of prosecution. In some cases, the victim may not have the emotional, financial or psychological stamina to go all the way.

“It is not a process that victims engage in lightly,” said Suriyopas. “A lot of the victims have concerns about coming forward against the perpetrators, regardless if they have papers or not.”

Bien-Aime observed that in some cases, the victim who has been “brutalized and traumatized” is not willing to testify against her trafficker.

“Eligibility for T visa requires cooperation from the women, but often it is difficult,” she said. “Many times, she knows her trafficker from her community here or back home.”

Only about 500 T visas were issued to victims and their families in 2009.

While many are hopeful the Gottfried bill and the T visa will offer sex trafficking victims an opportunity to start over, immigrant women like the Korean victims of Jin Hua Cui, with limited job prospects and shaky immigration status, remain vulnerable. The law in New York may soon be on their side, but the reality on the ground could keep them chained to a life where they are constantly at risk for exploitation.

Vicky Peláez

This story is based on reporting for El Diario/La Prensa by Annie Correal.

NEW YORK - Among the 10 people in the U.S. arrested and accused of being part of a Russian espionage ring Sunday night were a long-time columnist for El Diario/La Prensa and her husband. They were charged with conspiracy and money laundering, and are described in media reports as “Russian intelligence officers.”

Vicky Peláez is originally from Peru and has been on staff at El Diario, New York’s oldest Spanish-language daily, for more than 20 years. Since 2000 she has written a weekly column in which she has often been sharply critical of the U.S. government and its international policies. Her husband, Juan José Lazaro, is a retired political scientist. The two live in Yonkers, NY where they were detained after returning from a party Sunday night.

While more than two dozen people searched their home – removing boxes and electronic equipment – two FBI agents questioned their youngest son, Juan José Lázaro Jr. who is 17. They asked him about his parents’ politics and their trips abroad. “They asked me I had ever seen my parents with a large sum of money, if there were secret compartments in our house, if there was a computer they never let me use.” He added, “There were around 30 people searching the house. They didn’t even let me go get my school books.”

Authorities are still looking for an 11th suspect.

This article was written by Annie Correal a reporter for El Diario and Feet in Two Worlds.

A portrait of Frederic Chopin by Delacroix

Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska produced this radio piece on the Chopin Bicentenary celebrations among the Polish community in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for WNYC.

[Visit post to listen to audio]

This year, fans of classical music are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s birth. Thousands of events honoring the composer are planned around the world, many of them in renowned New York venues, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Carnegie Hall.

One immigrant community is especially touched by the anniversary. Polish immigrants see this year as an opportunity to remind the world that–despite having a French father and spending two decades in France before his death–Chopin was in fact a Polish composer. As part of the tribute, almost all Polish community centers and institutions in the city are holding Chopin concerts, lectures and exhibits. They may be on a smaller scale and less formal than other New York events, but they gather Poles of all backgrounds. For them Chopin’s music can be very personal.

At the Polish and Slavic Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Polish immigrants gathered to honor their greatest composer. Candles were lit and the mood was solemn. As the music plays some in the audience have tears in their eyes, others can’t help swaying their bodies. Sitting close to the stage is Andrzej Jeziorski, an elevator mechanic. When he arrived in the U.S. 20 years ago he managed to fit records of Chopin’s music in his suitcase.

“One image that I always see when I listen to Chopin are weeping willows, because I used to live in the Swietokrzyskie mountains area, and this music brings images of the place I come from. When I listen to his music, right away I see willow alley in my mind. I go back to my childhood, to Poland, to the place I came from, to my youth,” Jeziorski says, speaking in Polish.

“One time Arthur Rubinstein said Chopin is the soul of the piano. All moods and all human emotion are his… he is heroic, poetic, demonic, everything that the human being can feel is in Chopin’s music,” said David Dubal, American pianist and broadcaster. “Who would even want to live without Chopin?”

Some of Chopin’s pieces like the Funeral March have become so widely known that people all over the world consider them their own. “People don’t even have to know Chopin was Polish,” says Dubal.

But Poles say they have a special connection to the composer’s music. They say he captured Poland’s soul and when they listen to his music they feel emotional and nostalgic for their country.

A Celebration of Chopin at the Polish and Slavic Center in New York. (Photo: Marcin Zurawicz)

Born in ŻelazowaWola, a tiny village west of Warsaw, he returned to the Polish countryside throughout his childhood. There, he encountered peasants playing folk music and dancing traditional Polish dances–mazurkas and polonaises. These memories inspired many of his later pieces. “He put Poland in his music,” says Janusz Sporek, a musician and the Chopin event organizer.

“Chopin’s music may be universal, but I feel very lucky to have had access to those places where Chopin used to go to, like Zelazowa Wola where he was born and various places in Warsaw where his music was created,” said Rafal Blechacz, one of the most famous Polish contemporary pianists who played at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York earlier this year. “Definitely various dancing rhythms which are present in mazurkas and polonaises, we Poles can understand easier.”

Bozena Konkiel, a music teacher from Greenpoint, even uses dancing techniques in her classroom. “Because I am Polish and I know all these dances I can explain to my students what Chopin thought when he wrote this or that accent or he finished a phrase this way or another.  And I dance for them.”

Polish immigrants also relate to the composer’s life of exile. In Chopin’s time Poland did not exist as a state. It was a territory partitioned by three powerful neighbors: Russia, Prussia and Austria. In 1830–while the composer was touring Europe–an uprising broke out in Warsaw. It was brutally suppressed by the Russian Empire, which forced many Polish artists into exile. The composer settled in Paris.

“Unfortunately, he never got a chance to go back to his country, seeing his family, his friends,” Sporek says. “So he was being convicted to stay out of his loving country with no chance of coming back. This is probably why we hear the music–so dramatic sometimes–that he composed.”

After moving to France in 1830, Chopin remained there until his death in 1849. Some French claim that the composer became part of their culture. But Poles like to say that Chopin may have lived in France for a while but his heart stayed in Poland forever. And, in fact, after his death his heart was actually removed from his body and brought to Warsaw, where it has been preserved in Holy Cross Church.

Irena Naglowska, a home attendant, has been living in New York for two years. With no family around she gets homesick. In Chopin’s music she finds company.

“His compositions are filled with nostalgia, longing for his country, at least that’s how I feel it. I miss my country a lot, and that makes us very close, connects us,” Naglowska says in Polish. “I think that this Polish-Slavic soul is there, we are able to grasp it, understand the depths of it. I feel that I was born with it. Every Slavic soul is so plaintive and tearful, that’s why I said I may start crying.”

The emotions that his compositions evoke in Poles have always been powerful. When the country struggled for its independence in the 19th and 20th centuries, Chopin’s music was almost considered a weapon. The composer Robert Schumann said it was like “cannons buried in flowers.” Years later, the Nazis must have heard those metaphorical gunshots, because they banned Chopin’s music during their World War II occupation.

Today Chopin remains a national icon in Poland.

“Each child in Poland knows who Chopin was and they might not even know kings, Polish kings, and the other politicians, but they know, 100 percent, who Frédéric Chopin was,” says Bozena Konkiel. A piano teacher back in Poland, Konkiel now teaches music at a Catholic school in Greenpoint, several blocks away from the Polish and Slavic Center. For her, introducing Chopin to children comes with a mission.

“I think we’re very proud of him and we all in the United States try to be his ambassadors,” Konkiel says. “I’m working in American school, and in this school I already have introduced Chopin’s 200th anniversary. We had a concert, we had a PowerPoint presentation about Chopin, and children in this school, American, Irish, whoever they are, they know who Chopin was.”

All year long Poles in New York have been organizing events commemorating Chopin’s anniversary – at their community centers and various Polish institutions. They also dream about organizing a grand finale of celebrations in the Big Apple. “We are working on bringing the Szczecin University Academia Chamber Orchestra here in December,” said Jerzy Stryjniak, founder and president of The Chopin Society of New York.

When Chopin died at 39 he was remembered around the world as one of the great geniuses of classical music.  Today, many Poles still carry his music and his memory in their hearts.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg spoke on Fox News in favor of national immigration reform.

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael Bloomberg has waded into the fight for immigration reform with a new strategy – and a new message – designed to win over reluctant conservatives who oppose reform efforts.  Bloomberg on Thursday joined a number of other big-city mayors and chief executives of major corporations to  announce a “Partnership for a New American Economy” which has the primary goal of obtaining immigration reform. Their message: immigration reform will stimulate the economy.

The high profile politicians and businessmen in the Partnership are voicing what immigrant-rights groups have been saying for years.  To kick off their campaign, Bloomberg took the message to a largely skeptical audience.  He appeared on Fox News to discuss the effort, along with Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp, which owns Fox.

“Immigrants can come here and create jobs. There’s this belief that immigrants come here and take jobs away, and that’s not true,” Bloomberg told viewers. He is lobbying Congress to not only secure the U.S. borders, but to give green cards to immigrant entrepreneurs so they can come to the U.S. and start companies that hire 10 or more Americans.

“We’re just going to keep the pressure on the congressmen,” Murdoch said. “I think we can show to the public the benefits of having migrants and the jobs that go with them.”

According to the group, immigrants generate 5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and own companies that have created 400,000 new American jobs since 1990. Allowing hard working immigrants in is “in our interest” said the mayor.

Numerous reports support the claim that legalizing undocumented immigrants would stimulate the American economy, including a prominent one by the Center for American Progress.

Representatives from the agriculture industry, the tech industry, science and the creative fields have long said immigration reform is critical if they are to remain competitive. Bloomberg said hurdles in the current immigration system make it difficult to attract the global talent America needs.

Another member of the group, J.W. Marriott, Jr.,  CEO of Marriott International, said it would be impossible to run his hotels in the U.S. without immigrant workers.

Bloomberg said the coalition will expand and recruit members that support comprehensive immigration reform that secures U.S. borders and helps America remain economically competitive “by keeping and attracting the world’s best, brightest and hardest-working.” The group will be paying for polls, forums and public education campaigns to support reform.

They want Congress to pass immigration reform this year.  Our current system is “national suicide,” Bloomberg said.

In New York, the mayor’s words resonated with the city’s huge immigrant population. In a statement, Chung-Wha Hong, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, applauded Bloomberg and said she hopes this effort “will build on the momentum generated by immigrant community, faith, and labor leaders over the past year, and provide that extra push to break through the legislative logjam in Washington.”

But some local immigrant advocates expressed frustration that while Bloomberg lobbies for reform, funding for the city’s Immigrant Opportunity Initiative, which provides legal assistance and English classes to immigrants, is slated to be cut in next budget.

“What we need to do is bring it back to a very local level. While these other things are important,” said Danny Dromm, the chair of the City Council’s Immigration Committee. “What matters most to the people here is getting them some services so they can transition into productive lives in New York City, where he is the mayor.”

The Partnership co-chairs are Mayor Bloomberg; Mark Hurd, Chairman, CEO and President of Hewlett-Packard; Robert Iger, President and CEO, Walt Disney Co.; J.W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc.; Jim McNerney, Chairman, President and CEO of Boeing; Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO and Founder of News Corporation; Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio; Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix; Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.

Elena De La Cruz (center) on the cleanup site in Hopedale, LA. She belongs to a crew employed by Tamara's Group, the name written on her hat. (Photo: Annie Correal)

Listen to Annie Correal’s most recent story on PRI’s The World:
[Visit post to listen to audio]
This story aired 6/23/10.

Reporter’s Notebook

My first day in Louisiana was a Sunday, which was a stroke of good luck. I needed to find people who could talk to me about the oil spill disaster, and on Sundays, people go to church—even, and perhaps especially, when there’s been a disaster.

I drove to an evangelical church in Metairie, on the outskirts of New Orleans. The church, Verbo, was a converted warehouse. The pastor stood in front of a Powerpoint presentation giving an animated sermon in Spanish about the challenges of marriage to an audience of around 150 people—mainly families.

I told a man in a blue suit hanging around the potted plants near the door that I was looking for people who had been affected by the oil spill, or perhaps who were working on the cleanup. He said he’d find Martha for me, after church.

Martha Mosquera is a Colombian woman whose company, Tamara’s Group, has hired several hundred Latino workers from around the area, and even from other states, to help protect and clean up the coasts of Louisiana—and now, Mississippi. She became the cornerstone of my reporting during my two weeks on the gulf coast.

Sitting in the church kitchen, she told me she got into this line of work eleven years ago, after she met a contractor specializing in oil spills through her husband, who worked in oil refineries and on spills. She worked alongside this subcontractor for six years before starting her own company, right after Hurricane Katrina. “I had 250 people sleeping in a gym,” she recalled, of her first contract.

Since then, she has worked for large oil cleanup contractors like Oil Mop, hiring thousands of people to work on spills around the country and essentially establishing a small network of what I call ‘disaster migrants’ – 90 percent of whom are Hispanic.

We went to her apartment, with her family, and she sat at the head of the table and said grace over a box of Domino’s pizza. After lunch, she asked if I wanted to drive to a Best Western hotel, twenty minutes away, where one of her work crews was staying. “Do you want to go out and meet las chicas?” – the girls?

Cleanup workers in Hopedale, LA. (Photo: Annie Correal)

The girls were in the pool when we arrived. They’d been sent home from work early on account of a thunderstorm, and they were laughing and hollering, visibly happy. Most were black, from the Dominican Republic. For the last month, these forty women had been stationed at the Hopedale site, unloading protective barriers from trucks and loading them onto boats, for twelve hours a day.  They had tan lines from their safety goggles.

Over the next two weeks, I interviewed them at work, at their hotel and at home. I watched them unravel cords of the bright yellow plastic boom that would be sent out to block the oil. I sat beneath the tent as they rested and drank Gatorade and joked around. I took note of the little drawings they had made on their life vests with sharpie markers — one drew the map of the Dominican Republic, another drew miniature portraits of the girls in the crew. They called themselves, “Las Aceitosas,” – roughly translated, “The Oilettes.”

On weekend nights, they’d go see their kids, in Bridge City, just outside New Orleans, where most of them live in an isolated housing development just off the freeway. Elena De La Cruz and her husband moved to Bridge City after Hurricane Katrina. They’d been living in Puerto Rico, where they earned their U.S. residency, and had come to Louisiana lured by the hurricane’s promise of work. Elena found a job right away, clearing debris at a navy base. She later worked as a day laborer and in oil refineries, and gradually migrated toward spill work.

She helped clean after spills in Port Allen, Louisiana, Port Arthur, Texas, and Belle Chasse, Louisiana, where two barges collided on the Mississippi in 2006. Elena told me that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) frequently visited cleanup sites, because they knew immigrants found work there. She’d never witnessed a raid, but once, at Belle Chasse, a rumor circulated that ICE was coming. She remembered with sadness how the undocumented workers in her crew had panicked, saying they were going to jump in the river or run into the marsh. All the women on the BP oil spill cleanup were, by contrast, legal workers.

When ICE visited the Hopedale Site in early May, these were the women they met. For two hours a day, three days in a row, Elena told me they lined up so that an agent could check their IDs against federal records. (One man had brought a computer).

The workers made light of the visit. They said the men were very polite, and that they were discreet, arriving in unmarked cars wearing street clothes. Two of the younger women, Etanisla and Josefina, looked at each other and laughed when I asked about the agents. “Those men were fine!,” Josefina said. “You from Immigration? Take me with you!” said Etanisla, throwing up her arms.

Etanisla Hernandez is a flag girl on the Hopedale, LA cleanup site; she guides trucks and forklifts unloading protective barriers. (Photo: Annie Correal)

But in private, Elena confided that a current of fear had passed through the group at certain points during the visits: when one woman couldn’t find her I.D. and had to run out to the van to search for it; when another woman discovered her U.S. passport had expired. She was a citizen, but she was worried. They were all worried. “Even when you know you’re okay, you never know if someone else has been using your Social Security number, or what could go wrong,” Elena told me. “When they tell you your papers are okay, your soul goes back into your body.”

Martha Mosquera, the subcontractor at the church, told me she was not on the site when ICE agents visited, and ICE never contacted her office.

Martha and her crew thought it was a routine visit. But after my article confirming that ICE had visited the Hopedale and Venice sites was published in El Diario and on this blog, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff, who oversees the Hopedale site, admitted in a statement that he’d called in the federal authorities, hoping to keep “criminal elements” out of the parish.

The ICE spokesmen in Washington D.C., Richard Rocha, confirmed in an email that the visits were conducted “at the request of the private sector and local law enforcement,” though he maintained that the visits were training sessions, meant to remind subcontractors of their obligation to uphold federal immigration laws. Meanwhile, the ICE spokesman for Louisiana, Temple Black, told me, “We visited just to ensure that people who are legally here can compete for those jobs—those people who are having so many problems.”

Cleanup workers in Hopedale, LA. (Photo: Annie Correal)

Elena was angry to learn the visits to the site hadn’t been protocol and vehemently defended the crew’s right to work; they were citizens and residents who paid taxes. She said it hurt her that local police had called in the federal authorities, “just because we’re Latinos,” because she felt that until now Louisiana had been good to immigrants. It had given them so many opportunities.

The oil spill cleanup, by all accounts, will take years. From my reporting, I believe it will have the unintended effect of revealing anti-immigrant feeling that lies beneath the surface all across the state, not just in Hopedale. Many people fear the oil spill, like Katrina, will bring an influx of immigrants, and now that jobs are scarce, that prospect is frightening.

But I believe the spill may also reveal the importance of the immigrant workforce that has settled in the region. “It’s the Latinos who are going to clean up this spill!” Elena declared. It’s not just Latinos cleaning up the oil, but they will play a major role in the recovery of the coast, and in their fluorescent green safety vests, they’re no longer invisible – they’re unavoidable.

Annie Correal is a reporter for El Diario/La Prensa and Feet in Two Worlds. She spent two weeks in the Gulf region, and with the help of FI2W produced radio reports for NPR’s Latino USA and PRI’s The World.

Hispanic Fishermen in St. Bernard Parish. (Photo: Annie Correal)

Reporter’s Notebook

Listen to the radio story Annie Correal produced about Central American fishermen in St. Bernard Parish for Latino USA this week:
[Visit post to listen to audio]

NEW ORLEANS —In recent years, men from all over Central America have settled in St. Bernard Parish, a cluster of little towns on the bayou an hour’s drive from New Orleans. They came here to work, learning from other immigrant fishermen how to catch oysters, shrimp and crabs. Until the BP oil spill destroyed the industry this year, the work was good; a fishermen could earn up to $600 a day. Before the spill, these men also had a good relationship with the wider community of the parish—the store-keeper at the only store on the bayou began stocking tortillas and jalapenos and learning a few words in Spanish to better serve the community of around 300 Hispanic immigrants.

But since the oil spill and its economic aftermath—the moratorium on fishing along the Gulf Coast—life has changed drastically for these men. Some sit on their boats all day waiting to be called for cleanup work, while others have had to pick up and leave in search of work. The few who have been hired on locals’ boats to lay barriers along the marshy coast say they fear Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will meet them at the port. Saul, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who asked me not to use his full name, said, “I’ll jump off the boat and go into the trees if I see them coming.”

Hispanic Fishermen in St. Bernard Parish. (Photo: Annie Correal)

One reason these Central American fishermen are suffering even more than their local, American counterparts, is that the parish is defensively guarding cleanup jobs for locals. The parish sheriff recently admitted he requested that ICE visit cleanup sites to make sure the response workers had legal papers. He also said that his office was planning to set up checkpoints to prevent new immigrants from coming into the parish, as they did after Hurricane Katrina. As part of this effort, the parish, which until recently was managing offshore operations for BP in this area, has favored local fishermen for clean-up jobs. “The parish doesn’t have any Spanish boats working. Not even one,” the parish spokeswoman, Jennifer Belsom, told me.

Boat being used for cleanup in St. Bernard Parish. (Photo: Annie Correal)

As I reported this story, I discovered that there actually are a few boats operated by Hispanic immigrants, but the spokeswoman’s words reflect the local government’s attitude toward Latino fishermen. Among many of the local fishermen themselves, however, I found a different slant. Here, and all along the Gulf Coast, the commercial fishing industry has always been replenished by immigrants — from Spain, France, Croatia, Vietnam, as well as Central America — and there is some solidarity among them. Mike Diaz, a third-generation Louisiana fisherman with Spanish roots, told me it may be harder for the most recent arrivals, but he says that with BP at the helm, they’re all in the same boat.

St. Bernard Parish. (Photo: Annie Correal)

“They want you to dot your i’s and cross your t’s,” said Diaz of the oil company, which is providing the clean-up jobs. “It ain’t no more about commercial fishermen, it’s about becoming an oil company man,” he said. “The fishing’s over and you know, listening to the man is now the priority. You know, we’ve got to jump through hoops, that’s what we’ve got to do. So, jump through hoops for a living now, instead of being free like we usually are.”

Annie Correal is a reporter with El Diario/La Prensa.

Columbian Restaurant in Port Chester, NY. (Photo: adamclyde/flickr)

Port Chester, NY—In a groundbreaking election, a Hispanic American has won a seat on this village’s Board of Trustees for the first time. Luis Marino, 43, an immigrant from Peru, was one of six winners in a rare election in New York’s Hudson Valley that attracted national news coverage.

Yesterday’s election was closely watched because it’s the first time “cumulative voting” has been used in New York State in at least 100 years, according to the non-profit FairVote. In this system all of the Board’s seats were up for election and each voter had six votes to cast in any combination they desired. There were 13 candidates on the ballot and one who campaigned for write-in votes.

The new voting system was implemented in an effort to level the playing field for Port Chester’s Hispanic residents, who make up almost half of the village’s population of around 28,000 residents, but have never been able to elect a Hispanic trustee.

The Justice Department sued the village in 2006 under the Voting Rights Act, saying its electoral system denied the Latino population fair representation. A lengthy and expensive legal process ensued, at the end of which a federal judge approved the village’s proposal of cumulative voting (rather than the Justice Department’s proposal of voting districts that would each elect their own trustee). Residents were also allowed to vote up to five days early.

Marino, a Democrat, is already working as a public servant as a member of the Port Chester Fire Department, the Taxi Commission and in a number of other capacities. He has a day job working in the maintenance department of the Scarsdale school system. But the town’s ethnic tension meant that it was by no means guaranteed Marino would win. Westchester County has a rapidly growing Hispanic population, but its political representation hasn’t caught up yet.

In a recent letter of support for Marino posted on LoHud, a website serving New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, the writer was sure to include that Marino is a “true American” who has “assimilated to life in the United States and Port Chester.”

Marino’s success in the new system may be a harbinger for more Hispanic representation in the area, and increased use of cumulative voting as a remedy for discrimination.

There were also two unsuccessful Hispanic candidates: Republican Fabiola Montoya, originally from Columbia, and John Palma, an immigrant from Ecuador.

Katherine Figuera in Washington, DC. (Photo: Valeria Fernandez)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It was her first flight on an airplane. The cars and houses out the window looked like toys to 10 year-old Kathy Figueroa, as she landed in the nation’s capital.

It was also the first time she’d been away from her parents since the day they returned home from three months in Arizona detention centers, after being arrested by Maricopa County sheriff deputies in a carwash raid in Phoenix a year ago.

Figueroa traveled to Washington D.C. to share her story at an ad-hoc committee hearing held by Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva to assess the potential impact of Arizona’s new immigration law on women and children.

“I come here to tell President Obama and Congress that he needs to put a stop to SB 1070,” she said in an interview about the new law taking effect on July 29, that makes it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant in Arizona.

Figueroa’s testimony last Thursday took place at a time when the author of SB 1070 is promoting additional legislation that would deny an Arizona birth certificate to children like her who have a parent who is an undocumented immigrant. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are about 4 million U.S. citizen children in that situation.

Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) says he is prepared to challenge the lawsuits that would surely follow such legislation.

The hearing, on June 10 took place just a few days before the one-year-anniversary of the arrest of Figueroa’s parents, Carlos and Sandra.  A backlog in the immigration courts has bought them time to stay in the U.S. as they fight against deportation.

“It was very hard for me. Every time when I went to school I kept thinking that maybe I would see my parents when I came home,” she said during the hearing. “I would also have bad dreams, like the deputies were taking my family and me to jail.”

She is still afraid.

Listen to Katherine Figueroa’s testimony:

[Visit post to listen to audio]

Figueroa has become a poster child for the immigration movement since she appeared in a YouTube video asking Obama, as the father of two daughters, to pass immigration reform and help release her parents. She also marched with other children to protest the actions of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“Not only are parents fighting back; their kids are doing the same thing to change the laws that are separating us from our parents,” she said. “Please help us. Children don’t know what to do without their parents.”

From left to right: Celia Alejandra Alvarez, Alma Mendoza, Silvia Rodriguez and Katherine Figueroa at a congressional committee hearing on SB 1070. (Photo: Valeria Fernandez)

A few minutes before the hearing started, as people and media filled the room, Figueroa was self-composed. She said she has to be calm if one day she is to become an attorney. Speaking to members of Congress, she commented, was a little bit like being an attorney for others, acting as an advocate for children like her.

“Please tell President Obama to stop putting parents in jail, when all they want is a better life for their kids,” said Figueroa to an audience that included 6 members of Congress. Earlier in the day she testified at the Labor Department and to administration officials.

Congressman Grijalva said this was the first time that a congressional committee heard the testimony of child on the controversial and emotional issue of immigration. He said he hoped the hearing would take the shape of a letter signed by members of Congress to President Obama, asking him to have the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) join the ongoing lawsuits against SB 1070.

The administration is expected to make an announcement later this week in reference to the new law.

At the end of the hearing, a pack of reporters rushed in to interview Figueroa. She retreated a little in her chair, then took the interviews, one by one, sometimes in English, other times in Spanish.

She stuck to her message, telling Congress to take action on immigration reform, and reminding President Obama that SB 1070 needs to be stopped.

“I don’t want any other children to have to go through what I did,” she said.

When she had a break she said the most difficult part of the trip was missing her parents. She is still constantly worried that they could be taken away.

“Our children are on a constant emotional roller coaster. Their innocence is being robbed by putting them in a situation where they have to take on adult responsibilities,” said Dr. Silvia Herrera, an organizer with the PUENTE movement, who also testified.

On Friday, Figueroa got a chance to visit a few places she had always dreamed of seeing.  She could forget for a moment the reason why she was in Washington, and just be a kid, amused at seeing squirrels running around the grounds of Capitol Hill. Kathy ran up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, and stood on the spot where civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

Figueroa has many dreams. One of them is to stand in the very same place and give a speech about immigration. But for now, her most important dream is to never be separated from her parents again.