Welfare Warriors

Winter 2008

MW Voice FEATURE

Letters to the  Editor

War

Editor's Tidbits

Mothers news from around the world

Victories

  Winter 2008

Mothers on Hunger Strike Over Immigration Law

Flor Cristomos is on a hunger strike outside the Chicago office of  Congressman Rahm Emanuel. She is demanding that he work to resolve the immigration crisis in this session of Congress. Emanuel has said publicly that he does not want to consider the immigration issue until after the 2^nd term of a Democratic President!

            For Flor, a worker facing deportation, this is unacceptable. She says to Emanuel “You have the responsibility to resolve this crisis. You cannot leave millions of people and millions of children at the mercy of a broken law.”

            Alvira Arellano is on a hunger strike in front of the US embassy in Mexico City. She is demanding an end to the raids, deportations and separation of families. She is putting pressure on the Mexican government to defend the rights of the undocumented and their US citizen children. She was deported after staying for months in a church to avoid deportation. Her American citizen son stayed with her and was deported with her.

Arellano says “I urge the Democratic Leadership to support the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to get at least an interim solution to this crisis now. I urge the Mexican government to suspend all negotiations with the United States over trade and national security until the US fixes its broken law and treats our people with dignity.”

            19 million more Mexicans like in poverty today than in 1994 when NAFTA started. The cost of food has increased 257%.  Subsidized US agriculture exports put 2 million farmers out of work. About 28,000 small and medium-sized businesses closed due to big firms like Wal-Mart moving into Mexico.

            According to the ACLU, immigrants create new jobs by buying American goods and services, paying taxes and increasing demand for retailers.          

            Undocumented workers make up 32% of service workers, 19% of construction workers, 15% of production-installation repair workers, 12% of sales people and 10% of professional workers.

            The DREAM Act would provide a six-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for children brought to the US at least five years ago. They would be eligible  if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service. In Sept. it was reintroduced as an amendment to HR 1585, the Dept. of Defense authorization bill. If the amendment passes, the DREAM Act stands an excellent chance of becoming law this year.

~ University of Wisconsin-La Crosse