Category Archives: Immigrant Rights

Immigration Nation? Raids, Detentions and Deportations in Post-9/11 America | Tanya Golash-Boza

Lecture and Book Signing ~ Wednesday, March 14— USC Moore School of Business | BA 002, 6:00pm

Tanya Golash-Boza

Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza has a joint appointment in Sociology and American Studies at the University of Kansas.  She is the author of three books as well as dozens of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and essays in online and print magazines addressing issues blackness in Peru, Latino/a identity in the U.S., and the human rights impact of U.S. immigration policies.  Her scholarship recently earned the Distinguished Early Career Award of the Racial and Ethnic Minorities Studies Section of the American Sociological Association.  Her books will be available for purchase at the University Bookstore at the Russell House and a book signing and reception will be held after the lecture.  This event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored with the Latin American Studies Program, the Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies, the Department of Sociology and the Hispanic Literatures and Cultures Lecture Series.

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Filed under American Culture, American History, Friends & Comrades, Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Latin America and The Caribbean, Pan Africanism | Afrocentrism | Africana Studies, racism, white supremacy

The 1984 Bhopal Disaster also known as Bhopal Gas Tragedy

In a file picture taken on December 4, 1984 soldiers guard the entrance of Union Carbide factory in Bhopal after a deadly poison gas leak.

The Bhopal disaster was one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. A leak of methyl isocynate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Victims

Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.  Others estimate 3,000-8000 {Greenpeace} died within weeks and another 8,000-20,000 {Greenpeace}have since died from gas-related diseases. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, 25,000 people have died from exposure since the initial explosion. But this is not some quarter-century-old tragedy to shake one’s head over and move on. It’s estimated that 10 to 30 people continue to die from exposure every month. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Continue reading

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Filed under Criminal Justice, East Asia, Environmental, Immigrant Rights, Labor, racism

Call for 100 Signers: Letter to SC Governor Nikki Haley

As you may  know SC SB 20 is on the Governor’s desk awaiting signature. We’re asking her to veto this legislation. Please reach out to community leaders, businesses, local organizations, etc. and ask them to add their name to this letter.  I will add names as you send them to me.  Since Governor Haley is expected to sign this bill ASAP, please send names/organizations by close of business Monday, June 27 so that we can get this letter to her quickly.

 Thank you all!

Amanda N. Jackson
Field Director
Church World Service
2062 N. Beltline Blvd
Columbia, SC 29204
cell: 803-394-4895


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Filed under Actions, American Progressive Politics, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Law Enforcement, South Carolina, South Carolina Politics, white supremacy

Shooting Cans | By Kevin Alexander Gray

The Racist Assault on the 14th Amendment

One of the many racist jokes I heard in the 70s during my time in the military starts with two white soldiers on the rifle range. One soldier asks the other how he learned to shoot so well. “I like shooting cans right off the fence,” the other soldier says, “Af-ri-cans, Por-to-ri-cans and Mex-i-cans.”

The joke came to mind when I heard Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina saying, “birthright citizenship is a mistake,” followed by his GOP cohorts’ claim that immigrants have “anchor babies” as a way to tie themselves to the benefits of U.S. citizenship. Graham says he’s considering introducing a bill to rescind Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which generally guarantees U.S. citizenship to those who are born within U.S. borders.

That is not all it does. The section reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Also called the “due process” clause or the “equal protection” clause, this part of the 14th Amendment is the very foundation of U.S. civil rights law. The new nullifiers who talk of getting rid of it thus signal the nature of their purpose and the intrinsic unity of those they hold in contempt, like so many cans on the fence.

“Anchor babies” makes for better headlines, and it’s diverting. “People come here to have babies,” says Graham. “They come here to drop a child. It’s called, ‘drop and leave.’ To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child’s automatically an American citizen. That shouldn’t be the case.”

“Drop a child.” It’s as if he were talking about animals.

Graham is not up for re-election, but his child-dropping potshot is designed to appease a right wing that is angry because he’s “too liberal,” he’s “no Jim DeMint,” saddled up with the Tea Party and the likes of Ollie North and Tom Tancredo. A Greenville County Republican committee even voted to bar Graham from future meetings and events, censuring him “for his cooperation and support of President Obama and the Democratic Party’s liberal agenda.”
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Filed under American History, American Politics, American Progressive Politics, Black Politics, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Immigrant Rights, LGBT issues, South Carolina Politics, white supremacy

The New Colossus | by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus, 18491887

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Filed under American History, American Politics, American Progressive Politics, Immigrant Rights, Obama Administration, The Obama Administration, Uncategorized, white supremacy