The Neglected Continent and Implication from U.S.

Read Congressman Jose Serrano's speech on a resolution linking Latin America to the overblown war rhetoric against Iran here The neglected Latin America.

We will not tolerate illegals in this county. Said John R, Leopold. Shame on you Mr. Juan Roberto Leopoldo. I said so Proinmigrant



As I always said Tolerance has been crucial assessment on the Immigration Debate. There is not tolerance to the other, The Undocumented Immigrant, even we see in every raid that ICE feel so proud to caught undocumented Immigrants when many of them do not have any criminal record but real criminals are loose on the streets.
I said Enough is Enough.. What really bothers me is that their punishment will not fit their crime.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are causing so much pain to children's torn apart from their parents; Why choose Children's to suffer?


The cousin of the one of the 46 illegal immigrants arrested Monday in Anne Arundel said his relative was not a criminal, but he was in the country illegally.

“His baby will have no daddy. It’s like so many Spanish children with no mother and father,” said Melsar, who gave his first name because he too is wanted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE executed warrants at 16 properties, owned by Robert Bontempo, including his company Annapolis Painting Services, arresting undocumented people, including Melsar’s cousin, Jose Ruiz, and seizing documents, computers and property.

Several of the 36 men and 10 women, many of whom worked for Annapolis Painting Services, will be deported to their home countries, which include Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nigeria, officials said.

We prioritize our cases based on how egregious they are in nature, and this one was very egregious,” said Scot Rittenberg, assistant special agent for ICE in Baltimore City, referring to the large number of arrests.

Some detainees were released because of certain circumstances, such as being a caregiver, Rittenberg said.

ICE worked with Anne Arundel police, which has an officer permanently posted at ICE’s Baltimore City office, during the 18-month operation.

“We will not tolerate illegals in this county,” said County Executive John R. Leopold, who has taken a hard stance against illegal immigration through policies, such as voiding contracts with companies that hire illegals.

Rittenberg said the arrests came after an investigation sparked by a tip that Bontempo was employing undocumented workers. Surveillance revealed that Bontempo was housing the illegals, officials said.

The Anne Arundel Health Department, which monitors residential occupancy compliance, said it received no complaints from the three Annapolis addresses released to the media and raided by law enforcement.

Record of business

Annapolis Painting Services has done work for the Maryland State House and U.S. Naval Academy, as well as Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold and Rams Head Tavern and Chick and Ruth’s Deli, both in Annapolis.

Bontempo is licensed through the Maryland Home Improvement Commission, a division of the state Department of Labor Licensing and Regulation.

His license is set to expire in January, according to the commission.

ICE — not the commission — regulates the use of illegal immigrants by licensed contractors, said commission Executive Director Steve Smitson.

But contractors are informed of state and federal immigration law as part of the licensing process.

“It’s one of the subjects tested on the licensing exam,” Smitson said.

Bontempo has had no reported complaints against his license, officials said.

Bontempo, who is known to own several properties in the Annapolis area, has not been arrested, but could face felony charges, said county Police Chief James Teare Sr.

Bontempo could not be reached for comment.

At three houses where search warrants were executed, the residents wouldn’t speak to reporters.

One of the houses on Carrs Road, where an Annapolis Painting Services truck was parked, had a “No Trespassing” sign posted.

At another house on Harbor Drive, the doors showed evidence of being kicked in during the raid.

Pro-immigration groups, including CASA de Maryland, are holding a rally against the raids today at Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore City.

“Community and religious leaders will condemn the separation of families and call on ... Leopold to cease celebrating the division of families,” said Jaime Contreras, district director for Service Employees International Union Local 32.

SHAMEFUL IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN FRANCE AND AROUND EUROPEAN UNION.




Prime Minister Francois Fillon said It will not change government policy. Laws are to be respected, and one shouldn't be on French territory if one does not have the authorization. Where THE U.N., Amnesty International, Human and Civil rights advocates stand on this shameful Policy?
When the Undocumented committed suicide in detention centers, mutilations, torn apart from families, handcuffed like the worst criminal, persecuted them. Why so much intolerance against the Undocumented? Being without a document will their punsihment fit their crime?
I will said know days the Law goes beyond any Human Values.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hypocrisy, and Inhumane is not Family Value. that's sad and ashamed.

Foudel Rahrah spent 10 days last year in the immigrant-detention center on the edge of Paris that inmates set ablaze this week. It was ``hell,'' he said.

``We were crammed four to a cell; the guards would barge in at all hours of the night to count the number of inmates,'' the 38-year-old Algerian mason said. ``People in there are willing to die to stay in France.''

Immigrants awaiting deportation burned down the center in Vincennes on June 22 after a two-day riot following the death of a 41-year-old Tunisian detainee. The flames reignited debate over government targets for the number of undocumented foreigners expelled each year and the conditions in which they're held.

The opposition Socialist Party and Cimade, a government- funded organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants, say the rush to meet deportation goals has led to overcrowding as the dragnet sweeps in even people who have been in France for decades. This year's target is 26,000, up from 25,000 last year. President Nicolas Sarkozy's government says it's doing what it was elected to do: control illegal immigration.

``This was a criminal fire set after the natural death of an inmate,'' Prime Minister Francois Fillon said June 24. ``It will not change government policy. Laws are to be respected, and one shouldn't be on French territory if one does not have the authorization.''

The Tunisian detainee died of a heart attack, police said.

On the day that Fillon spoke, the afternoon daily Le Monde said the fire incident gave France a ``shameful image.''

Desperation

Sarkozy just has a ``policy of hitting targets,'' said Stephane Le Foll, a spokesman for the Socialist Party. ``The government must change its immigration policy to respect the rights of foreigners.''

The fire was the second major blaze at Vincennes in a year, according to Cimade.

Suicides, self-mutilations, fights and hunger strikes are common at France's 31 detention centers, where foreigners are held while authorities decide if they are to be deported, Cimade said. An inmate committed suicide at a center near Marseille in December 2006, another in June 2007 near Bordeaux.

``When people who feel they have committed no crime are handcuffed and led to a prison; when they are threatened with a rupture from their life, their families, and are threatened with expulsion that they see as an end to a life, it's not surprising that we see acts of desperation,'' said Damien Nantes, the head of Cimade's service for migrants threatened with deportation.

Running from Police

In September 2007, a Chinese woman died after jumping out of a window when police arrived at her tenement. A 20-year-old Kenyan hung himself in February after he was refused papers. A Malian drowned when he jumped into a river to avoid a police check in April.

A 2005 government decree set a maximum capacity of 140 inmates per detention center. The Vincennes center had 250, skirting the limit by officially splitting the camp into two separate units under the same management, according to Cimade.

The government says an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 foreigners are illegally in France, which has a population of 61 million. The number of people passing through the detention centers rose to 35,008 last year, from 30,923 in 2006 and 25,849 in 2004, Cimade's annual report says. In 2007, the detainees included 242 children, one three weeks old.

In the year to May 31, 29,729 foreigners were deported, up 31 percent from the previous 12 months.

`Humane Measures'

Brice Hortefeux, minister for immigration, said those numbers prove the government's policy is working. The expulsions are ``a sign that, conforming to the wishes of our citizens, France is controlling its immigration,'' he said at a June 19 press conference. Questioned in Parliament this week, Hortefeux said detention centers in France -- compared with those elsewhere in Europe -- are better than most.

Le Monde chided him for failing to address the treatment of immigrants awaiting a decision on their fate.

``No responsible government can be inactive faced with illegal immigration,'' Le Monde said in an editorial. ``But rather than rejoicing in the success of his policy of hitting targets, Brice Hortefeux should demand an audit of the detention centers in France and take humane measures to avoid a repetition of this drama.''

European Challenge

Countries across the European Union are struggling with how to handle immigration. The European Parliament on June 18 set a limit of six months in detention, extendable in certain cases to 12 months, for its 27 member countries.

Previously, the Netherlands and Britain had no time limits, while in Germany it was 18 months, an EU report in January found. The worst detention centers were in ``gateway'' countries facing boatloads of migrants, including Spain, Italy and Greece. Dutch centers, some based on former offshore oil-drilling platforms, are ``harsh' and ``excessively severe,'' the report said.

At 32 days, France had the shortest maximum detention time. The report said migrants in France also had more access to legal help than in Britain, Germany and Italy.

Rahrah, the Algerian mason, said he was arrested last August after two policemen asked for his identity papers as he walked to work in Paris. He was released from the Vincennes center when his pro-bono lawyer argued he'd been held 28 hours at a police station before being sent there, longer than the 24- hour limit.

He's lived in France for 10 years and is still waiting for a decision on his request to regularize his situation.

The European Union under the Loop by Latin American Countries for the Anti Immigrant Law.




They have only Two Options No way to Stay In: either "return" home or face "removal." Where are those Human and civil rights? Where are those respect for Individuals seems that Immigration goes beyond Humanity.

A new EU law that calls for the swift deportation of illegal immigrants has been loudly criticized by Latin America, which has threatened to halt trade talks as a result.

In an effort to have illegal immigrants treated equally across the bloc, the European Parliament has passed a controversial deportation law. Now, some Latin American countries, especially those with many immigrants in Europe, are protesting the measures.

Millions of Latin Americans live in Europe, many from poor Andean countries and war-weary Colombia.
The EU Returns Directive regulates the deportation of illegal immigrants to their country of origin. Under the law, an illegal immigrant will have two options: either "return" home or face "removal."

The directive also allows clandestine migrants to be detained for up to 18 months, and face a five-year travel ban after being deported.

Denouncing the 'Hate Directive'

Rhetoric has been flying since the regulation came under discussion in early June. But it reached new heights on Saturday, June 21, when Ecuador's President Rafael Correa warned that trade talks between the EU and the Andean Community could be suspended if the 27 member bloc pushes ahead with the new law.

"What do we have to talk about with a union of countries that criminalizes immigrants?" Reuters news agency quoted him as telling a radio broadcast. "It will be very hard to talk business and ignore human rights."

Correa, whose nation currently holds the Andean Community of Nations' rotating presidency, referred to the new law as the “hate directive.”

The trade bloc, made up of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia, launched trade and co-operation talks with the EU last year. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are also associate members as of 2005.

Chavez threatens to stop oil delivery

Latin America's other trade bloc, Mercosur, has also expressed its misgivings. The bloc's secretary-general, Carlos Alvarez, has also criticized the return directive for violating human rights.

The directive was also sharply criticized by the UN and Amnesty International.

Meanwhile, last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the rules “shameful” and threatened to both cancel investment in, and disrupt oil exports to, the countries that enact the controversial immigration measures
European leaders in turn said that Chavez seems to have misunderstood the law. At a two-day EU summit, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Madrid was prepared to explain the new law “so that the EU's relationship with all Latin American countries remains positive."

"Maybe we need to explain exactly to the president of Venezuela what this directive (EU law) consists of," Zapatero said. "There have been many interpretations of this directive... that have nothing to do with what it really is."

Chavez has regularly issued conditional threats to halt crude shipments from Venezuela -- one of the world's largest exporters of oil -- although he has never followed through on a move that would hurt supplies at a time of record prices.

Although Venezuela only supplies some 400,000 barrels a day to Europe, as opposed to the 1.4 million it delivers to the United States, European leaders have said the move is unwarranted.

Question of economics

The Return Directive raises hackles not only because of possible human rights infringements, but because the remittances sent home by illegal workers to their poor countries of origin -- for example Ecuador and Bolivia -- are an important source of income there.

Last year, immigrants in Europe, the US and Japan sent money back to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean amounting to just under €43 billion ($66 billion,) the EU Observer online newspaper said.

It is more than the region receives from foreign direct investment or development assistance combined.

Some 15 percent of that comes from western Europe, according to EU Observer. Monies from Spain amount to 36 percent of all global remittances to Bolivia.

The leaders of those poor nations say that it makes no sense for Europe to continue to send aid while cutting off remittances from immigrants.

Ecuador urges European Union but not to U.S. to abolish laws against irregular immigration.


QUITO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador announced Monday it will ask the European Union (EU) to abolish the laws it approved to punish undocumented foreigners in its territory.

Ecuadorian Immigrant Minister Lorena Escudero said the so-called "Return Directive," which established common expulsion rules for illegals and was approved by the interior ministers of the 27 member countries of the EU last week in Luxembourg, was "a backlash" and represented a tendency to incriminate irregular immigrants.

The law will be discussed by the European Parliament in mid-June.

More than 1.2 million Ecuadorians have legally or illegally migrated to the United States and Europe in the last eight years. Ecuadorian authorities estimate that some 700,000 Ecuadorians are living in Spain.

"We will keep on fighting for the fundamental rights (of the undocumented)," said Escudero. "Because most of the laws made on migration issues are based on the safety of the EU countries but not on the human rights."

Harshly criticized by human rights organizations, the new laws on undocumented immigrants permit national authorities of the EU countries to choose between legitimizing the illegal immigrants or expelling them.