October 2006: National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly News Digest

October 2006 National Immigrant Solidarity Network Monthly Digest National Immigrant Solidarity Network URL: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org e-mail: Info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights! New York: (212)330-8172 Los Angeles: (213)403-0131 Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990 Every Dollar Counts! Please Support Us!

October 2006 U.S. Immigrant Alert! Newsletter
Published by National Immigrant Solidarity Network

Please read the Newsletter, download URL: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Oct06.pdf
[Requires Adobe Acrobat, to download, go: http://www.adobe.com]

Anti-Immigrant/Border Fence Bills Passed
Lessons we should learn, and what is our next stage of the struggle?

In This Issue:

1) Anti-Immigrant Bills
2) Detention & Deportation News
3) Minutemen Watch
4) Immigration News
5) Activism: Sanctuary City for Immigrants
6) Please join NISN Working Groups

Anti-Immigrant/Border Fence Bills Passed
Lessons we should learn, and what is our next stage of the struggle?

Lee Siu Hin
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org

Last Week was one of the darkest and shameful days for the immigrant and human rights in U.S. history.

Despite repeat appeal from the activists, the U.S. Senate, approved the outrageous and racist detainee bill (S. 3930) and another multi-billion dollars for immoral war in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R.5631). At the House, they passed the wire tap bill (H.R. 5825) and several other anti-immigrant bills (H.R. 4844, H.R. 6089, H.R. 6090 and H.R. 6091).

But the most shameful one, on Friday September 29, the Senate rushed to passed the shameful Border Fence Bill (H.R. 6061), calling for construction a multi-billion dollars 700 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Lists the anti-immigrant bills: H.R. 6061, S 3930, H.R.5631, H.R. 5825, H.R. 4844,
H.R. 6089, H.R. 6091

Here's some lessons we should learn for our recent defeats:

1) We cannot have any more illusion that there's such thing as critical Republican-Democrats splits at the Congress could help us against anti-immigrant/anti-civil liberties bills, because all these bill's passage had clearly reflects bipartisan, even overwhelmed supports from the members of both parties. Therefore, we need to redefine our Congressional lobbying/legislative strategies, and rethink who is our real ally.

2) There's no doubt that there's a direct link between anti-immigrant/anti-civil liberties politics, the war in Iraq/Afghanistan and the multi-billion dollars military industrial complex. Just right before the House vote on the border fence bill, the Boeing had won $70 million dollars for building a "test" border wall.

3) Although we lost the immigrant votes, we should not give up the fight and need to be visionary: We need to think 2-3 steps ahead to begin our next fights to stop their next possible anti-immigrant agendas at the Congress. We need to continuously keep up our fights and pressure our policy makers from now to the mid-term election, during the lame duck section, the holiday recess and to the next year. The anti-immigrant group ALIPAC had laid down their next campaign strategy, we can learn a lot from them.

4) In order to win our struggle, we should building a grassroots, multi-ethnic coalition includes: African American, Native American, African immigrant, Asian American, Latino/Latina, Arab-Muslim-North African, progressive labor, interfaith, LGBTQ, student, anti-war/peace and global justice groups from across the country. Understand we have different values and agendas and should accept and help diverse tactics to achieve our common goal.

5) Fundamentally, we need to educate our community, our ally and our enemies--this is not just a immigrant rights struggle, it's a civil rights and human rights for tens of millions of immigrants and people of colors in this country, because we need to tell anyone who supports the anti-immigrant/border fence bills are ignorance as just like supporting the idea of "Separation but Equal." We cannot allow us to turn the clock back to the time when racial segregation, McCarthyism, KKK lynching mobs are everywhere.

Recent U.S. House's Anti-Immigrant Legislation

Please read the Newsletter, download URL: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/Oct06.pdf

Please Visit Our New Minutemen Watch Home Page!
http://www.MinutemenWatch.net

New! Useful Resource Page
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/resource.htm

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