[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Urbana Sanctuary City Ordinance passed.

[Karen Medina]

Dear Mort,

You bring up some very good points.
* It would be best to have federal laws that are compassionate and enforceable.

The problem is that there are not federal laws that make any sense --
these laws often contradict the need for laborers for certain
industries. So creating laws that make more sense falls to the states
and to the cities.

For instance, Illinois needs a lot of migrant farmworkers -- just ask
the agricultural industry. The agricultural industry needs workers for
a few weeks to detassel corn in Illinois, harvest onions in Texas, and
then a few weeks of work harvesting almonds on the west coast. The
farms depend on laborers to be migratory -- to get up and move from
Illinois to Texas to Oregon.

In the state of Illinois, until recently, migrant farmworkers were not
allowed to get drivers licenses. They needed to drive for their work,
yet they were not allowed to get a license. A farm worker would be
stopped for driving without a license (stopped because he looked like
a Latino who just might be driving without a license) and then the
police would hold him for ICE to check him.

There are between 1 and 2.5 million hired farmworkers in the US.1
About a half million of those are under the age of 18. Seventy-eight
percent are male, and 22 percent are female. On average, hired
farmworkers are young and predominantly Latino, have limited formal
education, are foreign-born, and speak limited to no English. About
half have authorization to work in the United States. (according to
Kandel W. Profile of Hired Farmworkers, A 2008 Update. Economic
Research Report No. 60. 2008. Economic Research Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.)

In the State of Illinois, a person must show proof of written
signature, date of birth, residency, and a social security number to
obtain a driver’s license. In the case of a Temporary Visitor Driver’s
License (TVDL), proof of legal presence is required in lieu of a
social security number. But many undocumented immigrants do not ha ve
social security numbers and cannot attain one, so they drive without a
license. Undocumented immigrants are especially likely to be
working and looking for jobs with irregular or flexible work
schedules. Many Illinois immigrants
also live in areas without reliable public transportation and/or work
schedules that make using
public transportation difficult or dangerous. This makes them
especially dependent on driving to
get to and from work (Chatham and Klein, 2011; Donato, Durrand and
Masey, 1992; Gomberg-
Muñoz, 2011; Mehta, Theodore, Mora, and Wade, 2002; Piore, 1979).

On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 11:17 AM, Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> The humanitarian impulse seems admirable, but the reasoning seems nonexistent, flawed. If one advocates open borders, then there wouldn’t be an immigration problem. But if one wants to control immigration, i.e., laws to enforce it, then those laws will be enforced, and one will have people subject to deportation if they violate the laws. I see no way to get around that.
> As for those already here, illegally, you can invoke amnesty, or courts to consider each case—a virtual unfeasibility— but then you have the future to contend with.
>
> —mkb
>
>> On Dec 19, 2016, at 9:21 PM, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>>
>> It passed, with only one in dissent. The House was packed again, with over 200 people in attendance.
>>
>> Thank you to Professor Frances Boyle, Brian Dolinar, Geovanny Vega and all those who made it happen.
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-- 
-- karen medina
"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain