100+ Hispanic groups send letter supporting illegal immigration, opposing raids

The National Council of La Raza ("The Race") has led the charge to send a letter to president Bush (cc'ed to Michael Chertoff and Julie Myers) complaining about the recent workplace raids [1]. The list of "grassroots" organizations involved is in the extended entry, and some are "interesting": CASA of Maryland, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (one of whose founders marched alongside a former Mexican consul general in an illegal immigration march), the odious Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (their president is linked to the Mexican government), Instituto del Progreso Latino (their executive director is the president of the ICIRR), the
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (indirectly linked to the Mexican government).

Obviously, a letter that's sent now could simply be repurposed and sent again a year or two after "comprehensive immigration reform" passes. There's no assurance that these groups wouldn't send a similar letter in order to weaken future, "reform"-mandated enforcement, and that's one of the ways that the current amnesty would become like past amnesties.

We, the undersigned Latino organizations, write to express our outrage and deep concern over the manner in which workplace raids have been conducted all across the United States in the past few months. As organizations that work closely with the communities that are directly impacted by these raids, we are often the first to respond to the immediate humanitarian crisis that occurs when a raid is conducted. Particularly, we are concerned about the raids' short- and long-term impact on children. There are approximately 3.1 million U.S. citizen children who have at least one undocumented parent, and there are 1.8 million undocumented children in the U.S. We believe that the U.S. must take the needs of these children into account and fix the broken immigration system that separates them from their parents.

The parents and those who encourage illegal immigration are at fault, not the system. Why aren't they taking the needs of the children into account?

...Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick correctly characterized the recent raids as a "humanitarian crisis." ...The time is long overdue for our nation to stop tearing apart these hardworking families and bring about real, comprehensive solutions to our immigration problems...

Patrick was shown not to be telling the whole truth in that case, and hopefully the same will happen here. Obviously, what they support - out of purely racial grounds - will make the situation far worse.

[1] nclr.org/content/news/detail/45751

The signatories:

Academia Cesar Chavez - Saint Paul, MN
Acercamiento Hispano de Carolina del Sur - Columbia, SC
AltaMed Health Services Corporation - Los Angeles, CA
Bridge Academy Charter School - Bridgeport, CT
Calexico Community Action Council - Calexico, CA
CARECEN - Washington, DC
Carlos Rosario School - Washington, DC
CASA of Maryland - Silver Spring, MD
CASA of Oregon - Newberg, OR
Center for Hispanic Policy & Advocacy - Providence, RI
Center for Training & Careers/WorkNET - San Jose, CA
Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc. - Florida City, FL
Centro de Amistad - Guadalupe, AZ
Centro de la Comunidad - Baltimore, MD
Centro de Residentes Bolivianos - Madison, WI
Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe - El Paso, TX
Centro Hispano of Dane County - Cambridge, MA
CentroNía - Washington, DC
Centro Presente, Inc. - Cambridge, MA
Cesar Chavez Academy - Pueblo, CO
Cesar Chavez Dual Language Immersion Charter School - Santa Barbara, CA
Chicano Awareness Center - Omaha, NE
Chicano Federation of San Diego County - San Diego, CA
Coalition for New South Carolinians - Columbia, SC
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition - Denver, CO
Colorado Rural Housing - Westminster, CO
Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. - New York, NY
Community Child Care Center of Santa Clara County - San Jose, CA
Conexión Américas - Nashville, TN
Congreso de Latinos Unidos - Philadelphia, PA
Council for the Spanish Speaking - Milwaukee, WI
Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corp. - Denver, CO
Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation - Detroit, MI
Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School - Pueblo, CO
DRAW Academy - Houston, TX
East Las Vegas Community Development Corporation (ELVCDC) - Las Vegas, NV
El Centro de la Raza - Seattle, WA
El Centro de las Americas - Lincoln, NE
El Pueblo, Inc. - Raleigh, NC
Emigrantes Sin Fronteras - Phoenix, AZ
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center - Miami, FL
Florida Immigrant Coalition - Tallahassee, FL
Gads Hill Center - Chicago, IL
Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) - Atlanta, GA
Hands Across Cultures - Española, NM
HELP - New Mexico, Inc. - Albuquerque, NM
Hispanic American Student Association (HASA), University of Central Oklahoma - Edmond, OK
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN
Hispanic Coalition of Florida - Miami, FL
Hispanic Committee of Virginia - Falls Church, VA
Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama - Birmingham, AL
Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas - Springdale, AR
HOLA - Hispanas Organizadas de Lake y Ashtabula (OH) - Painesville, OH
Hyde Square Task Force - Jamaica Plain, MA
Idaho Community Action Network - Boise, ID
Kentucky Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights - Lexington, KY
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights - Chicago, IL
Information Referral Resource Assistance Inc. - Edinburg, TX
Instituto del Progreso Latino - Chicago, IL
La Casa de Esperanza - Waukesha, WI
La Casa Health Network, Inc. - Little Rock, AR
Latin American Coalition - Charlotte, NC
Latin American Community Center, Inc. - Wilmington, DE
Latin American Research and Service Agency - Denver, CO
Latin American Youth Center - Washington, DC
Latino Community Development Agency - Oklahoma City, OK
Latino Economic Development Corporation - Washington, DC
Latino Family Services - Detroit, MI
Latino Leadership - Orlando, FL
Latino Memphis, Inc. - Memphis, TN
Latinos for Education and Justice Organization - Calhoun, GA
Latinos United for Change and Advancement - Madison, WI
Law Offices of Navarro & Associates - Santa Ana, CA
Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care - Washington, DC
Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) - Jackson & Biloxi, MS
Montebello Housing Development Corporation - Montebello, CA
Mujeres Latinas en Acción - Chicago, IL
NAF Multicultural Human Development Corporation - North Platte, NE
National Association of Latino Independent Producers - New York, NY
Near Northside Partners Council, Inc. - Fort Worth, TX
New Jersey Immigration Policy Network - Newark, NJ
NEWSED CDC - Denver, CO
Parent Institute for Quality Education - San Diego, CA
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - New York, NY
Repertorio Español - New York, NY
Rural Opportunities, Inc. - Rochester, NY
Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality - Salem, OR
San Diego County SER/Jobs for Progress, Inc. - Oceanside, CA
SEA MAR Community Health Centers - Seattle, WA
Servicios de La Raza, Inc. - Denver, CO
Siete del Norte CDC - Embudo, NM
Southern Poverty Law Center - Montgomery, AL
Southwest Key Program, Inc. - Austin, TX
Spanish Speaking Citizens’ Foundation - Oakland, CA
St. Matthew Immigration/Detention Committee - Baltimore, MD
Tejano Center for Community Concerns - Houston, TX
Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) - Nashville, TN
United Dubuque Immigrant Alliance (UN DIA) - Dubuque, IA
United Hispanic Americans, Inc. - Fort Wayne, IN
University of Wisconsin Latina/o Law Student Association - Madison, WI
Vecinos Unidos - Dallas, TX
Washington State Migrant Council - Sunnyside, WA
Watts/Century Latino Organization - Los Angeles, CA
Western Colorado Justice for Immigrants Committee - Grand Junction, CO

Immigration2007a · Tue, 05/08/2007 - 15:17 · · Importance: 4