The Issue of Immigration July 25, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Uncategorized.add a comment
The federal government is filling criminal immigration violation charges at an alarming and unprecedented rate this year. To chart this information Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) revealed this in a special report.
In June the study was released and it affirms there were 9,350 immigration prosecutions in March. That represents a 50 percent surge from the month before. All of this information is based on official records obtained by TRAC.
A year ago the increase was 73 percent. The independent, nonpartisan group attributes the rise to intensified federal policies under the so-called “Operation Streamline” initiative which launched as a pilot project in Del Rio, Texas, in December 2005.
There were 8,104 immigration convictions in March, representing a 24.4 percent increase from February. The vast majority of cases referred for prosecution, 99 percent, were charged by U.S. attorneys. The median sentence was about a month, the report indicates.
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement notes that immigration violations are normally civil offenses prosecuted by immigration judges,adding that under Operation Streamline, the federal government has criminalized these offenses, barring immigrants from future legalization.
“Undocumented workers are a voiceless group of people who live in fear and today they are much more exploitable,” stated LCLAA president Milton Rosado. “The administration’s current policies and the criminalization of this group of people only exacerbate this situation. Immigrants are not criminals.” The report states the vast majority of the cases were prosecuted in southwest border districts.
In the Western District of Texas, for instance, prosecutions increased from 626 in January to 3,555 in March. All but 142 were in U.S.-Mexico border districts. The main charges brought against immigrants in March were for illegal re-entry, bringing in or harboring certain immigrants, entry at improper time or place, visa and document fraud, and misuse and conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States.
Other charges included fraudulent statements or entries, false personification as a U.S. citizen, false statement in application and use of passport, and forgery. The largest increase in prosecution from a year ago (96.2 percent) was for conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States.
Document falsification and related activities has seen the largest surge over the past five years (74.4 percent). The LCLAA said it is “extremely concerned about the implications that higher incarceration rates of immigrants will have on the overall Latino community and its image in the eyes of the American public.”
The organization maintained that criminalizing immigrants will strengthen the myth that ties immigrants to crime even if research has claimed that they tend to commit less crime than other groups.
Rosado attributed the large flow of immigrants to harmful economic policies that have affected workers throughout the hemisphere “causing dislocation and displacement.“
“We need to address the root causes of migration and understand that this is a regional problem that requires a combination of domestic policy as well as comprehensive, humane and commonsense international solutions,” he added.
Zimbabwe Creates New Note July 24, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Africa, African-American, Business, Government, International, News.Tags: Finance
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Zimbabwe’s national woes increase. The country is dealing with a record 2.2 million percent inflation. To combat the problem, the nation has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note. This is their way of tackling the rampant cash shortages. The central bank in Zimbabwe feels they have no option, but to do this. They also believe that things will get worse before they get better.
The new note is set to go into circulation on Monday. The state media, which is controlled by the government, announced the new note will join over a half dozen new high denomination notes that have been introduced earlier this year.
The government announced a 10-million-dollar note in the beginning of the year. Four months later, in April, the 50-million-dollar note was released. A month later, notes for 100 million and 250 million dollars were issued, swiftly followed by those for five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion.
The former southern African vacation spot has been in a post-election crisis. It has been ravaged by hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million in June.
Independent economists however believe the official inflation figure is grossly understated, estimating it could be running between 10 million and 15 million percent.
Zimbabwe’s chronic economic crisis has left at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold and mass shortages of basic goods in shops.