The Texas Observer

As the Democratic convention winds down and the Republican convention gears up, the immigration situation in the United States continues to worsen.

A three-hour immigration panel was held during the Democratic convention. Many of the attendees and speakers at the panel advocated for comprehensive immigration reform.

Beyond the pageantry of the political conventions a number of disturbing stories have surfaced in the media in the past week. These stories are about families divided, deportation drills at public schools, and unsupervised children abandoned on the Mexican side of the border.

For starters, the ACLU is investigating the nation’s biggest immigration raid to date, which occurred in Mississippi this week. The raid resulted in 600 detainees and countless broken families. Allegedly, workers were locked inside the factory and separated by race. They were also denied access to counsel and families were not told where their loved ones would be detained.

Because of these raids, school districts are asking for up to six emergency contacts for every child in case their parents are deported. The Garland school district is collecting emergency contacts for all of its students. An elementary school principal in the district says parents of his students have already been deported.

An Associated Press article details how deported women and children are increasingly being dropped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the border town of Tijuana late at night alone and unsupervised in a dangerous city.

Because of tightening border security parents working illegally in the United States are no longer returning to their home countries to see their children. Instead they are taking the huge risk of having heir children smuggled across the border so they can be reunited.

Sometimes these children are detained by Border Patrol and deported to Mexico to fend for themselves. Many times they become victims of abuse and exploitation.

Many critics will at this point argue that immigrants need to enter the United States “legally.” But unless you are a millionaire or a star athlete it’s virtually impossible to do so. The Reason Foundation has put together a chart that illustrates the convoluted path an immigrant must navigate to enter the U.S legally to work. The chart has more twists and turns than a chutes and ladders game.

Comprehensive immigration was up for serious consideration in 2006 because the system was widely considered to be broken. In 2008, it is beyond broken. It seems a nation of immigrants has become the deportation nation.

by Melissa del Bosque

by Barbara Schlief

by Barbara Schlief

by Barbara Schlief

by Barbara Schlief

At the Public Utility Commission meeting this morning, there were a few we’re-gonna-miss-ya tears for outgoing commissioner Julie Parsley, but none for the thousands of Texans having their electricity shut off in the face of stifling heat and sky-high rates. Once again, the three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry — including newcomer Donna Nelson — proved that their faith in the free market is unshakable.

Consumer groups and several Texas lawmakers have asked the PUC to declare an emergency moratorium on disconnections for the remainder of the summer. The moratorium is needed, the petitioners say, to protect folks, especially the elderly and ill, from life-threatening heat. Exact data on the number of disconnections due to non-payment this summer are spotty, but AEP — which covers most of South Texas — reports that it cut power to twice as many customers in June as last year.

The three commissioners, led by Chairman Barry Smitherman, rejected the moratorium, instead opting for a rulemaking project to explore the issue further. Smitherman, an inveterate deregulation proponent and author of If Jesus Were An Investment Banker, insisted that the competitive electricity market had already responded to the problem. He pointed to the six electric providers — including the three big ones, TXU, Reliant and Direct — that are offering voluntary programs.

“I think this is the way it ought to be in a market where parties differentiate themselves by services and price and features that they offer,” Smitherman said.

Commissioner Nelson said she was concerned about “perpetrating [sic] the notion that we’re the government and we’re going to step in cases like this when it’s a competitive market.”

But what has the “competitive market” for electricity produced so far? Planet-cooking coal-fired power plants; sky-high rates; a string of bankruptcies; cockamamie metering schemes; high-risk Wall Street buyouts; confused customers; political turmoil; and now the slow shredding of a universally applicable safety net for the most vulnerable people. The PUC’s response: Let the Market sort it out!

by Forrest Wilder

In 1992 the radical group ACT UP marched on George H. W. Bush’s GOP convention in Houston. It ended in mayhem, with Houston’s irate cops violently dispersing the protesters. It was an ugly scene. Mobs of police chased and struck AIDS activists who had staged a die-in just feet from cops on horseback. ACT UP burnt police barricades and generally pushed nonviolent protest to its logical limits. Still, the GOP ignored them.

Back then the relatively new idea of creating a “free-speech zone” far from the convention hall was just paying dividends, collecting the disgruntled and all their issues in one, dismal, fenced-off park or parking lot and calling it accommodation. Nowadays the “freedom cage” is the rule. Even the Chinese recently used the tactic. But some smart protesters are violating the rules to make a point.

In Denver, protest has been under control, to put it mildly. But, with a little help from the band Rage Against the Machine and Tent State, a protest organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) yesterday made a difference and got some attention — for a little while at least.

A group of uniformed veterans led the march from an outdoor concert at the Denver Coliseum — a long way away from Lower Downtown Denver (”Lo-Do”), where the Pepsi Center and most delegations’ hotels are located. The band and concertgoers reportedly followed the veterans to a spot near 7th Street, just outside the convention hall. IVAW claims the crowd numbered 10,000; the Denver Post put the number at 3,000. I’d say it was more than 3,000, but not 10,000.

IVAW demands an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, full benefits for veterans, and reparations for Iraqis — not exactly Obama’s plan. A spokesman for the group and former Marine, Jeff Key, said he wanted to address the convention and wanted acknowledgment from the Democratic nominee.

The leaders of IVAW appeared to back down after police declared over a sound system that marchers must “disperse from 7th Street or prepare to be arrested.” To the relief of both protesters and police, after maybe 30 minutes, the marchers began to retrace their steps.

However, they stopped just around the corner, and again made their demands. According to two reporters and the IVAW site, protest leaders got a response from those inside the convention hall. The details remain obscure and the Obama camp has not commented on the situation as yet, but the veterans’ march of 2008 has all the hallmarks of a smart, successful protest.

It’s a hopeful sign for protesters everywhere.

by Cody Garrett