Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Many immigrants stop along the path to citizenship

Several things seem to cause legal residents to delay their citizenship tests. Income level is one of them.    - - Donna Poisl

from The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — As lawmakers wrangle over a potential path to citizenship for many of America’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, not all foreigners who become eligible for naturalization actually follow through.

Often, the immigrant journey simply ends with permanent legal residency.

In 2011, 61 percent of eligible immigrants became U.S. citizens, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Among Mexicans, who are by far the largest group of immigrants in the country, the citizenship rate was just 36 percent.
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Irish living here illegally for years hope immigration reform moves forward. Many of them call Woodlawn, the Bronx, home

Many Americans think all undocumented immigrants are Latino, but there are many others here, waiting for immigration reform.    - - Donna Poisl

BY DENIS SLATTERY / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

St. Patrick’s Day is not all shamrocks and celebrations, at least not for the thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants living in New York.

Originally from County Antrim in Northern Ireland, Therese (who did not want to disclose her last name) has been living in the U.S. illegally for more than 13 years. She is one of approximately 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the five boroughs.

"Most of the people I know came on student visas, or on vacation, and they stayed. It's a hard decision to make. It's a risk," Therese said.

“You chose to live and work here illegally and you know that you are giving up a lot of your rights.”
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Immigrants found opportunity in Scranton

All our cities and states have stories like this one, especially in the Eastern U.S.  - - Donna Poisl

by CHERYL A. KASHUBA

The streets of Scranton never were paved with gold. But from its beginnings as a group of tiny pioneer settlements in the wilderness, it offered thousands who came here the opportunity to strive to fulfill the American Dream.

For the earliest settlers, those who came from New England, the Lackawanna Valley was "out west." While Charles Fuller was growing up in Montrose, Northeast Pennsylvania industries typified those found in other pioneer communities: wool and tanneries, timber and grist mills. Charles' father was a pioneer settler from Connecticut.

Like his father, Charles was a pioneer. He came to Slocum Hollow in the 1840s and built a comfortable house in a dense forest. Building a better life for your family has long been a key component of the American Dream. Charles Fuller started one of the first fire insurance businesses in the area.

Later, his son joined him in a business they called Charles Fuller & Son. George Fuller followed his older brother Charles to Scranton in 1856. A printer by trade, he already had a profession that could sustain him.
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Websites target immigrants

Immigrants should go to government websites to get their information and documents. Many fake sites charge large fees and do nothing.    - - Donna Poisl

By MSN Money contributor Mitch Lipka

Some websites charge considerable fees for visas and other documents that can be obtained directly from the government at less expense.


Passport applicants, immigrants and visitors to the U.S. are being targeted by a collection of websites that appear to be official government sites and are charging sizable fees -- on top of routine government charges -- to submit applications for visas and other documents, the watchdog site SiteJabber reported.

The biggest issue with the sites is how they create the illusion they are official government sites, rankling consumers who have used them, SiteJabber founder Jeremy Gin told MSN Money.
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Path to citizenship for all immigrants is paramount

When immigration reform is worked on, ALL immigrants must be included.   - - Donna Poisl

By Crosby Burns, policy analyst, Center for American Progress

 Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people suffer from some of the highest rates of discrimination in the workplace, in health care, and in our communities. Undocumented immigrants too face significant employment and economic insecurities that make it difficult to put food on the table, pay the bills, and otherwise make ends meet for themselves and their families.

It stands to reason then that those at the intersection of these two already marginalized populations — those that are both LGBT and undocumented — are among society’s most vulnerable. It also stands to reason then that this population would especially benefit from immigration reform that included a pathway to earned citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States today.
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Two Systems of Justice: How the Immigration System Falls Short of American Ideals of Justice

For Immediate Release
March 19, 2013
Washington D.C. - Today, the American Immigration Council issued Two Systems of Justice: How the Immigration System Falls Short of American Ideals of Justice.

This new report explores how the justice system for immigrants falls far short of the American values of due process and fundamental fairness. In fact, the immigration system lacks nearly all the procedural safeguards we expect in the U.S. criminal justice system.  Given the high stakes involved in immigration cases and the increasing criminalization of immigration law, the report concludes that we must no longer tolerate a system that deprives countless individuals of a fair judicial process.

To view the report in its entirety, see:
Two Systems of Justice: How the Immigration System Falls Short of American Ideals of Justice (AIC Special Report, March 2013)
 Check out our info-graphic and click here to share it from our Facebook page.

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 For more information, contact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524
'The Dream is Now' project sets out to show young illegal immigrants' positive contributions to U.S.

A new immigration film by someone who certainly knows how to make a film.   - - Donna Poisl

BY ERICA PEARSON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

He's taken on global warming and the sorry state of public education. Next up is a broken immigration system.

“An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” filmmaker Davis Guggenheim wants to convince America that young immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally — or overstayed visas — as kids should be able to become citizens.

“To be part of this movement right now and to help get this done is a personal satisfaction for me,” said Guggenheim. “I believe that a documentary can really do a lot to change things.”

Guggenheim is filming across the U.S. and asking young people to upload their own videos for his 30-minute “interactive” film “The Dream Is Now.”
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