AFW Member Detained
“I have never been discriminated against in the Philippines. It is only here when I am detained that I am stripped of all my rights as a human being.”
-Thelma “Precious” Chua
January 4, 2008 - Thelma “Precious” Chua was riding on a bus from Los Angeles to Texas. Precious’ daughter and grandchild had just arrived from the Philippines because her daughter took a nursing job in Texas. Precious planned to stay with her daughter and take care of her grandchild.
Precious was almost at her destination when the bus stopped at an immigration check-point in Texas. It was at this check-point that Precious and several others were taken to the ICE Service Processing Center in El Paso, Texas.
On March 18, 2008, Precious called the Pilipino Workers’ Center informing us that she has been languishing in the detention center for over two months. PWC had learned from Precious and her daughter that there is some sort of discrimination against Precious. All the other detainees that came in the same time as Precious were able to get bailed out. Despite the requests from Precious and her daughter to be released on bond, Precious is not allowed to be released. Moreover, Precious’ daughter explained that she is supposed to have visitation by family members every two weeks. However, Precious’ daughter has only been able to visit her mother once, despite the many written requests for her right to visitation.
As an active member of the Association of Filipino Workers, we contacted our networks to find an attorney based in Texas that could work on Precious’ case. After several days of searching, PWC was able to speak with an attorney willing to visit Precious in the detention center and take on her case.
Currently, Precious has a hearing in early April where she will be represented by the attorney PWC referred to her. Additionally, PWC is writing the judge assigned to her case to request that her case be moved to Los Angeles where she will have more support.
PWC is also trying to investigate the maltreatment of detainees, especially female detainees. Since being inside the detention center, Precious has witnessed first-hand how officers have sexually harassed female detainees.
Remember: If you are stopped by an immigration officer, you have the right to remain silent. Call PWC and/or an attorney immediately.
For more information on how to protect yourself from a raid, what to do when you are stopped by an officer, and your rights contact the Pilipino Workers’ Center 213.250.4353.
Federal Policy Update
Prepared by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
February 28, - Rep. Sam Johnson introduces a bill that is considered an alternative to the SAVE Act. NEVA is endorsed by the Society for Human Resource Initiative and will include sub-contracting the employee verification work to contractors. It will still use the SSA database and is more intended to protect employers.
March 5, - Republicans meet on a package of enforcement only focused bills. In the House of Representatives, Republican sponsors of the SAVE Act have begun to circulate a discharge petition in an effort to gather enough signatures to force a vote on the SAVE Act on the House Floor. Only a simple majority is required to trigger the discharge petition. At least a handful of Democrats are likely to sign the petition.
March 6, - Democrats meet to discuss final package of a comprehensive bill which Joe Baca says will get bipartisan support. This includes addressing the cap on H2B visas, 5 year work visas and 3 and ten years bars as well as visas for family members of people in the military. SEIU has registered that they might not support a package that does not include expanded labor protections.
March 11, - Republicans file a discharge petition- Rep. Thelma Drake
The idea behind this Republican package is to further polarize the Democratic party on the issue and to put pressure on the Presidential candidates to take a tougher stance on immigration. Caught in the middle is the CHC which is torn between taking a tough stand for immigration reform and calibrating its demands so that some legislation could at least move.
On the Senate side, the Democrats are thinking of drafting a set of principles on comprehensive immigration reform using polling data that came out of CCIR but using a stronger language such as “requiring legalization or face deportation” in order to look as though they have a degree of toughness on immigration. Senator Ted Kennedy will review this proposal.
This week, the Republicans will try to gather more votes for the SAVE Act, hoping that they have a stronger proposal to present after the March 14 spring recess. That is why CHIRLA sent out the action alert last Friday so that our partners could have more time to petition their lawmakers on the issue.
In a related development, the Utah and Mississippi legislatures have both passed Comprehensive Immigration bills, including among others, requiring employers to use the E-Verify System comprehensively and authorize local police to implement, if not cooperate in implementing federal immigration law.
In the Senate, a coalition of Republican Senators is planning to introduce a series of anti-immigrant bills to try to raise the temperature on immigration in the Senate. The list of bills follows, but it’s not complete.
• S. 2710 – sponsored by Senator Sessions, authorizes Homeland Security to use an employer’s failure to resolve a “no match” notice as evidence that the employer knowingly hired an illegal alien in violation of federal law (INA 274A(a);
DHS Rule Bad for Workers
On March 26, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rule regarding an employer’s obligations regarding what to do when they receive a letter from Social Security Administration that their employee’s record does not match SSA’s records (this is known as “SSA no-match”).
In August 2007, a federal judge temporarily blocked an earlier DHS rule that would hurt all workers and employers by imposing liability on employers based on failure to respond to an SSA “no-match” letter. SSA errors are caused by many innocent factors such as typographical errors and name changes due to marriage or divorce, and the use of multiple surnames, which is common in many parts of the world. According to the Office of the Inspector General in SSA, 12.7 million of the 17.8 million discrepancies in SSA’s database - more than 70% - belong to native-born U.S. citizens.
In the 2008 DHS rule, the DHS can use the receipt of a SSA no-match letter that the employer had “constructive knowledge” that the employee is undocumented and unauthorized to work. The 2008 DHS rule states that the employer should follow order to avoid liability.
This 2008 DHS rule is said to be finalized in May and the DHS will try to get the court’s 2007 injunction lifted.
Both Workers and Business Hurt
This new 2008 DHS rule is said to hurt immigrants and businesses alike. The DHS rule is not clear about the obligations for employers. Businesses are asking for clarification of what they should be doing. This new DHS rule leaves businesses with liability where employer could be facing wrongful termination claims, especially since there is a big margin of error with SS no-match letters.
Under the SAVE Act, employees would be required to fix the discrepancy of the SSA no-match letter within 10 days, otherwise be fired. Although the law has not yet taken effect, employers are already jumping the gun and firing innocent workers. This has caused romotes discrimination.
Carlisle Group
The Carlisle Group (which includes Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins) are sueing employers if they don’t use the e-verify system (an electronic system that looks for discrepancies between the records of SSA and workers’ records. The Carlisle group also has ties to the Bush family. George Bush senior is one of founders of Carlisle Group.
The Carlisle Group has used no-match letters to fire senior workers that are getting higher wages. This is an example of how the new DHS rule is used to force employers to use the rule to discriminate or retaliate against workers.
Stop the SAVE Act
What is the SAVE Act?
The Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act (HR 4088) is an enforcement-only immigration bill that was sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (D-CO) and 144 other members.
The SAVE Act would:
* Expand E-Verify (an electronic employment eligibility verification system) into a nationwide mandatory program for all employers and workers
* Require employers to fire workers with SSA no-match letter (mismatched information) unless the workers can fix the problem within 10 days (70 percent of errors in SSA’s database pertain to U.S. citizens).
* Require all individuals who work for more than one employer at the same time to provide proof of employment to SSA before their Social Security account can be credited.
* Override current confidentiality of tax and Social Security information by dumping all reported anomalies such as multiple use of a Social Security number (SSN) and mismatches into a DHS database while providing few if any protections against misuse of such information.
* Increase the number of Border Patrol agents without providing protections for abusive practices.
* Pour even more money into infrastructure and technology along the southern border without addressing the problems of mismanagement
* Expand the scope of activity that can be prosecuted as “alien smuggling” and narrow the protections
* Provide incentives for more state and local police to enforce immigration laws.
* Continue the unprecedented increase in immigration incarceration capacity from 27,500 to 35,500 beds with no change in human rights abuses in current detention facilities.
What is Status of SAVE Act?
On March 11, Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA) filed a “discharge petition” on the SAVE Act. A discharge petition means bringing a bill out of committee and to the floor for consideration without a report from a Committee and usually without cooperation of the leadership.
Currently, the SAVE Act discharge petition had secured 181 out of the 218 signatures it would need to take effect, including 9 Democrats, a large number but fewer than some had predicted. The petitioners will be able to force the issue if they are able to gather the required number of signatures.
What We Can Do
Write/email/fax members of our Congress to stop the SAVE Act:
• Senator Dianne Feinstein: www.feinstein.senate.gov
• Senator Barbara Boxer: www.boxer.senate.gov
(Summary from National Immigration Law Center)
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