Petition Activities Reports

C

cinta

Registered Users (C)
hello guys,

Decided to open a new thread. Please post here any replies from lawyers, press, etc.

I did sent the petition to the ACLU for endorsement. We can follow with state ACLU chapters.

http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRightsMain.cfm

http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRights.cfm?ID=9973&c=96

http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRights.cfm?ID=10127&c=22

http://www.aclu.org/feedback/feedback.cfm


Immigrants Rights

Since this nation's founding, more than 55
million immigrants from every continent have
settled in the United States. In fact, with the
exception of Native Americans, everyone living
in this country is either an immigrant or the
descendent of voluntary or involuntary immigrants.

Yet every wave of immigration has faced fear and hostility, especially
during times of economic hardship, political turmoil, or war:

in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, one of
our nation's first immigration laws, to keep out all people of
Chinese origin
during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, thousands of foreign-born
people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and
brutalized; many were deported without a hearing.
in 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were
interned in camps until the end of World War II.

It is true that the Constitution does not give foreigners the right to
enter the U.S. But once here, it protects them from discrimination
based on race and national origin and from arbitrary treatment by the
government. Immigrants work and pay taxes; legal immigrants are
subject to the military draft. Many immigrants have lived in this
country for decades, married U.S. citizens, and raised their
U.S.-citizen children. Laws that punish them violate their fundamental
right to fair and equal treatment.

The ACLU has been one of the nation's leading advocates for the
rights of immigrants, refugees and non-citizens, challenging
unconstitutional laws and practices, countering the myths upon
which many of these laws are based. Use the resources on this page
to learn more and take action to protect the rights guaranteed by the
Bill of Rights. Our latest news releases are listed to the left; actions
you can take now are listed to the right, along with additional
resources. The most recent immigrants rights features are included
directly below.


PROVIDENCE, RI--The announcement today by state officials that
they will no longer issue driver's licenses to individuals who present
Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs) rather than Social
Security Numbers is a shortsighted policy change that will not
make us any safer, but will cause enormous hardships.

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today said that
a proposed restructuring of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service would, without a change in basic immigration laws, be
inadequate to fix the troubled agency.

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today decried
the latest step in an ongoing scheme to gut the country's
immigration courts, calling it a serious threat to the fairness of
America's immigration system.

(03/07/2002)
WASHINGTON -- Saying it represents the most effective fix to a
pair of draconian and regressive immigration laws passed in 1996,
the American Civil Liberties Union today expressed its strong
support for a House bill that it called a great chance for restoring
fairness in America's immigration system.

(09/27/2000)
WASHINGTON -- The United States is a nation of laws, and our
government is charged with guaranteeing that these laws are
administered with impartiality and fairness.

WASHINGTON -- Calling it a down payment on restoring justice to
the nation's immigration laws, the American Civil Liberties Union
today applauded House passage of legislation that would help
some immigrants who have been unfairly targeted for deportation
under a 1996 law.

The ACLU filed the action, Edward Doe v. National Security
Agency (CV00-45 RT), last Thursday on behalf of a high school
senior of Taiwanese descent with a straight-A grade point average
at Riverside Poly High School, who applied to the NSA's
Undergraduate Training Program in November 1999. The program
provides full college tuition and other benefits for students who
commit to working for the NSA after college graduation.

PROVIDENCE, RI -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode
Island filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of a legal immigrant
facing deportation under a retroactive provision of a harsh
anti-immigrant law.

WASHINGTON -- Pledging to activate tens of thousands of its
members and supporters around the country, the American Civil
Liberties Union today strongly endorsed a campaign to fix three
1996 laws that have already deprived thousands of immigrants of
their civil and constitutional rights.
 
Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer published the following article; I was interviewed fot this. Communication with the media can help.

Posted on Tue, Oct. 14, 2003

Pa. rules beleaguer noncitizens trying to obtain driver's licenses
By Maria Panaritis
Inquirer Staff Writer


XXXXXXX has finished her shift at a King of Prussia mall pretzel shop and is seated beside her husband, who flashes a fistful of company ID cards and a streak of frustration.

"We are not terrorists," declares XXXXXX, a Greek Cypriot awaiting permanent U.S. residency for himself and his Indonesian wife. "I work for Lockheed Martin!"

XXXXX, a telecommunications engineer for the defense contractor for eight years, believes the state Department of Transportation should not have denied his wife a driver's license simply because her immigration documents were valid for less than a year.

"Every criminal in Pennsylvania can have a driver's license - and not my wife?" XXXXX said. He drives her to work each day, sometimes forcing her to roam the mall until he returns.

XXXXXXX and an unknown number of other foreign nationals are casualties of a state law - rules PennDot engineered after 9/11 but which it is struggling to put into practice.

In April 2002, the agency made it harder for noncitizens to receive driver's licenses and had the legislature enact a law cementing the rules. Many of the Sept. 11 terrorists had received state-issued licenses.

Instead of its practice of issuing licenses for a four-year period, PennDot now grants licenses to foreign nationals only if their documents will be valid for a year or longer and only for the period of time until the documents expire.

PennDot claims it formally implemented the rules a month ago, as required by the legislature when it passed the law in late 2002. But implementation has been anything but clear-cut, and the agency appears to be retreating from some of its recommended changes.

The agency has drafted no regulations spelling out what immigration documents are acceptable, saying regulations are unnecessary. But that has left office workers denying some applicants without knowing what additional paperwork could render them eligible.

PennDot said last week it will ignore a part of the law allowing it to mark licenses "noncitizen." The law had drawn cries of discrimination from immigrant advocates late last year when Gov. Mark Schweiker signed the bill into law. PennDot now calls it unnecessary.

Top PennDot officials met Sept. 29 with the law's harshest critics and agreed to accept from them a set of recommended changes by Oct. 31.

"If you look at it, the law does give us the ability to be flexible," said Steve Kozar, acting division chief of PennDot's Driver Licensing division. "By working with these advocacy groups, it allows us to ask, how can we be flexible and still be confident that we're issuing licenses to people who should be getting them?"

One of the biggest challenges, Kozar said, has been training the agency's employees to understand immigration documents - a dense web of forms and rules that confound even immigration lawyers.

In theory, PennDot workers are expected to advise people - such as foreign students - to return with supplemental paperwork, such as a letter from their U.S. university, if their visas are set to expire in less than a year. But that has not happened with consistency.

"It's very confusing," Kozar said. "We have to get all the clerks - not only do we have permanent but seasonal temporary clerks - to be trained on this. The training is a daunting task."

The agency has held just one training session for office supervisors, he said.

Opponents predicted such a morass as restrictive laws took hold after the 9/11 attacks.

Pennsylvania was one of eight states last year that enacted laws limiting a noncitizen's ability to get a driver's license, said Tyler Moran, with the National Immigration Law Center.

The official who asked Pennsylvania legislators to enact the tougher law was state Deputy Transportation Secretary Betty Serian. Serian also heads a task force on ID security for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

Her task force recommends that states do what Pennsylvania and only 11 others do: tie driver's license expiration dates to immigration documents.

But opponents have called such measures misguided. Such a bill is stalled in Congress.

"To expect our driver license offices to navigate immigration laws is a recipe for disaster for our relations with the immigrant community," said Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.

"It is not easy to know whether someone is in violation of their immigration status," Edgar said.

For example, someone could have an expired visa in their passport but - in the case of some asylum-seekers - remain lawfully in the country. Also, many people awaiting green cards are granted employment-authorization documents - the right to work while they await a ruling - for only a year at a time.

In one local case involving a single PennDot office, an immigrant received a license while another with the same legal status was denied, said Jeanne McGuire, executive director of the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia.

"There has to be a system that's easy enough for your line clerk to understand," McGuire said.

Immigrant advocates brought such tales to their meeting with PennDot in Harrisburg.

"They have indicated to us that they're committed to licensing everyone that's eligible," said Judith Bernstein-Baker, executive director of immigration services for HIAS and Council Migration Services, a Philadelphia group. "And we are going to continue in good faith to discuss with them the best way to do that."

One option - spelling out in writing what immigration forms should be brought to a PennDot center - is practically unworkable, Kozar said.

"There are so many possibilities of combinations, you could never put it all onto a pamphlet," he said.

Indeed, XXXXX finds this to be a core problem.

Before he and his wife visited PennDot's Norristown office in July 2002, XXXXX said he checked the agency's Web site and called to make sure he was bringing the correct documents.

He showed up with a $30 check; a letter from the Social Security Administration; a 2001 joint tax return listing his wife's name; the visa she held at the time, which was 10 months from expiration; a marriage certificate from Indonesia; a letter from Lockheed Martin confirming his employment and green-card application; a slew of utility bills; and a copy of his lease.

The pair were turned away, though, when a clerk saw the 10-month expiration date. They left "humiliated," XXXX said.

The couple have since applied for green cards and have federal employment-authorization documents. XXXXX said PennDot has not yet answered the question: Do you accept EAD for driver's licenses?

"They should publish their policy clearly and say what they accept and why," he said. "Otherwise they're going to get sued."

Kozar said PennDot's policy is evolving. In early 2002, for example, the agency rejected applicants with pending immigration status, such as XXXXXXX, who has a pending U.S. residency application.

"She wouldn't be rejected now," Kozar said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Maria Panaritis at 215-702-7805 or mpanaritis@phillynews.com.
 
GAO

Thank you for your e-mail. Your message has been forwarded to the
appropriate office.

Thank you for contacting the U.S. General Accounting Office.
 
Immigrant advocacy - Media person
Attached is the mail I received from Immigrant Advocacy media person


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
just returned from DC and requested expediting foreign nurses visa petition by granting green card status to arriving nurses who will fill the shortages of this HR in most American hospitals. Have formed a dialogue with Atty. Khanna in DC and maybe you can lend some of your insight into this challenges. Please respond as to how we can approach it sanely. Through Congress or an Executive Order from the President.

Thanks.
Manny
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Talked to congressman's immigration rep.

Today, two weeks after I e-mailed our petition, I talked to the immigration representative of Tom Davis, representative of district 11, VA.

She said to me she is aware all the problems at BCIS. When talking about our hardship due to the long delays she showed little sympathy on us. She said with H1 you can work, travel…….. I explained to her the problems listed in our petition (multiple renewals of EAD and AP, kids education, long waiting at local offices after a long waiting at VSC, 2nd FP, driver licenses, etc.). She went on with explanations in a tune of defending the system.

I'll try to make appointment to meet Tom Davis at the Capitol Hill. I hope VA applicant can join me.

Other actives: I e-mailed Tom Ridge, Deputy Sec. England, and George Bush before our petition became available, automated response received from Bush's office.

I e-mailed our petition to VA district 11 representative, the president, vice president, and two VA senators the second time, and received automated response from Tom Davis's office.
 
Great job guys

Edison, Yjay, and all the rest; great work. Keep it up. One point wrt the President.

We need to contact the White House correspondents and send the problem/petition to them. They will ask the questions.
 
We are unlucky.

Cinta and others,
All that you have said is true.
Yes, Excepting the Native Americans every one else in this country is an immigrant, which they have forgotten.

We are a little unlucky.
We all share the same agony and pain.
 
Re: Talked to congressman's immigration rep.

Originally posted by YJay
Today, two weeks after I e-mailed our petition, I talked to the immigration representative of Tom Davis, representative of district 11, VA.

She said to me she is aware all the problems at BCIS. When talking about our hardship due to the long delays she showed little sympathy on us. She said with H1 you can work, travel…….. I explained to her the problems listed in our petition (multiple renewals of EAD and AP, kids education, long waiting at local offices after a long waiting at VSC, 2nd FP, driver licenses, etc.). She went on with explanations in a tune of defending the system.

I'll try to make appointment to meet Tom Davis at the Capitol Hill. I hope VA applicant can join me.

Other actives: I e-mailed Tom Ridge, Deputy Sec. England, and George Bush before our petition became available, automated response received from Bush's office.

I e-mailed our petition to VA district 11 representative, the president, vice president, and two VA senators the second time, and received automated response from Tom Davis's office.
Click to expand...


Yjay - please contact Senator George Allen's office, I believe he is the only VA representative who is sympathetic to our cause.

http://allen.senate.gov/ConstituentServices/FederalHelp.htm

His immigration representative is Ms. Emily Evans (703-435-0039)

On the other hand - if you want to fax the petition directly to them please send me a p.m.
 
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