In this "friend-of-the-court" brief before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, The Opportunity Agenda urges the court to read the New York City Human Rights Law as its authors intended it to operate: as a broad protection for New Yorkers against all discrimination, even when caused by problematic systems rather than prejudiced individuals.
The Opportunity Agenda submitted the following testimony urging the State of New York to consider not just the issue of insurance coverage in reform efforts, but the deep and continuing problems of equal access and quality of care that many New Yorkers continue to struggle with.
In 2007, New York State began the "Partnership for Coverage" initiative, designed to build consensus and support for health care reform. This testimony was submitted at one of the Departments of Health and Insurance's series of hearings.
Talking about the inherent unfairness and inequalities in our health care system is a critical contribution to New York’s ongoing dialogue about how to improve it.
Read about our first online mapping project, Healthcarethatworks.org. This tool tracks the closure of hospitals across the city of New York and shows the racial and economic makeup of the affected neighborhoods.
Our country faces a crisis of mass detentions and deportations that violates our notions of fairness and justice. Through programs such as Secure Commmunities (S-Comm), the Criminal Alien Program, and 287(g), Immigration and Customs Enforcement is colluding with local law enforcement to use the criminal justice system as a dragnet to deport immigrants. Between 1995 and 2009, the number of immigrants thrown into our deportation system increased more than eightfold.
This report offers new and crucial information to the Governor and the Legislature as they consider what steps to take to ensure access to quality health care for everyone in the State.
In New York, we worked to show how health care resource decisions were impacting low-income and communities of color. A central tool was the healthcarethatworks.org website, which shows where hospitals have closed over time in New York City.
On the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the time is right to consider how we have changed as a country and how we remain the same. It is a widely-accepted truism that we were all changed after the terrorist attacks in Washington, DC, New York, and Pennsylvania. However, even though some made use of the fear and heated emotions following the attacks to suppress human and civil rights, our bedrock principles endure, and in fact, flourish.
I worked for several years as a Sous Chef at a well known Brooklyn restaurant. During the Black Out of 2003, three of the porters (from the Mexican state of Michoacán) stayed well into the night to help clean and put perishables on ice by candle light. Toward the wee hours, as we wrapped up, I offered to write them checks for all their help, but they didn’t have bank accounts. I was new to the city, and balked at how a person could function without a checking account. But they were not alone. Ensuring fair access to financial services for immigrants - including depository banking and loan lending (in particular mortgage lending) - is key not only to our economic recovery, but also to the well-being and stability of all of our communities. Limiting or discouraging access to mainstream banking services hurts all communities regardless of income.
The edges are fraying. While xenophobia is nothing new in American life, the use of particularly rancorous and fear-inspiring rhetoric by prominent spokespeople, affiliated with mainstream institutions that have real power to shape our dialogue, is surely on the rise, and ideas that were once whispered (or grumbled under the breath, perhaps after one too many drinks) are becoming increasingly mainstream. These ideas not only demean us all, but they are also one of the surest harbingers of those dark events in our nation’s history—the Red Scare, the Chinese Exclusion and Geary Acts, Executive Order 9066—that most fundamentally undermine our founding values.
Three years since the U.S. Senate voted on, and rejected, the DREAM Act in 2007, young activists across the nation are creatively rallying for the Act, with the hope that this year the immigration reform act will pass.
Wednesday April 14 will be a landmark day for ensuring the equality of all voices in the American public sphere. It is the day that Ugly Betty, the popular ABC series chronicling a young Mexican-American woman’s adventures of beating the odds in the Big Apple, will come to an end after four seasons. That same evening, The Opportunity Agenda will convene artists, advocates, and media makers in New York City for conversation and collaboration on the power of arts, culture, and media activities in promoting the dignity and human rights of immigrants in the United States. What do these two events have to do with each other and the broader fight for equality in America? Everything.
The coldest, most bitter part of winter is upon us. Even those of us with a warm home and a proper coat have good reason to fear that truly awful type of wind, the kind that cuts through the skin and chills to the bone. And, for those among us without, this is the time of year when life becomes a struggle for very survival.
This week's immigration blog roundup will cover some state news, a short video on immigrants' experiences with the U.S. immigration system, and more.
Immigration officials are considering further increases in citizenship application fees. The fee is currently over $675, which is a 69% increase. The hike has led to a drop in applications from 254,000 to 58,000 last year.
The public recently witnessed the lack of basic care that people are subjected to at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York. A woman was left for dead in the middle of the hospital’s psychiatric ward waiting room as staff did nothing but walk away. The evidence in the New York Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the city proved that this was not an isolated incident (it just happened to be one of the only ones caught on tape). Unfortunately, New York City's government is not learning from this catastrophe and taking sufficient steps forward to examine their hospitals - Women's eNews is reporting that the city is refusing to participate in a state review of maternal deaths and racial disparities, despite the fact that New York City has the highest number of maternal deaths and one of the largest populations of African-American patients in the country.
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (the same agency that is named in the NYCLU lawsuit as the agency that is responsible for the negligence at Kings County Hospital Center), has refused to participate in the review the Safe Motherhood Initiative is conducting. Pamela McDonnell, a spokesperson for Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) said:
We chose not to participate in the Safe Motherhood Initiative simply because we already participate in a number of established monitoring and review processes, measures and collaboratives.
However, one of the main points in the NYCLU's complaint was that the city had insufficient monitoring and oversight measures at its hospitals - it was this lack of oversight that led to last month's death at Kings County, and it could be part of the cause of numerous maternal deaths at city hospitals.
• On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a ground breaking executive order requiring all city agencies to provide language assistance services for people who speak Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian or French Creole. According to The New York Times, this is the first time that all New York City agencies will be forced to follow the same standard in providing translation and language interpretation services to people who do not speak English:
Immigrant advocates and city officials say it is the most comprehensive order of its kind in the country. The mayor refused to be specific about how much the services will cost, saying only that it was a “relatively small” amount given the size of the city’s budget. He added: “This executive order will make our city more accessible, while helping us become the most inclusive municipal government in the nation.”
The Opportunity Agenda fact sheet Immigration Reform: Promoting Opportunity for All details the need for immigrants to have access to language assistance services in order to achieve their full potential. In providing immigrant groups with this access, Mayor Bloomberg has taken the entire city forward and empowered communities throughout New York.
• Politicians have also been busy down in Washington, D.C. working to provide language assistance for immigrant families across the United States. At noon today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congressman Mike Honda are introducing the “Strengthening Communities through Education and Integration Act of 2008.” In addition to providing English language literacy and civics education to immigrant families who are in the process of becoming citizens, the bill:
will help immigrant communities become a more integral part of the American fabric and maximize their social and economic contributions.
Legislation like this is crucial to aiding immigrants on their way to becoming U.S. citizens, and is a necessary part of treating immigrants like full and equal members of our community.
• The aftermath of the ICE raids in Postville, Houston, and most recently Rhode Island, is still being felt in communities across America. However, a Washington Post article describes how it is not only workers and their families feeling this strife – now, it is employers as well:
The crackdown's relatively high costs and limited results are also fueling criticism. In an economy with more than 6 million companies and 8 million unauthorized workers, the corporate enforcement effort is still dwarfed by the high-profile raids that have sentenced thousands of illegal immigrants to prison time and deportation.
• A story in the MetroWest Daily News calls attention to a local organization in Massachusetts, the MetroWest Immigrant Worker Center, that is defending the rights of immigrant workers in the U.S. Immigrant workers are routinely subject to labor law violations, including the denial of compensation and overtime, as well as unnecessary injuries on job sites. In addition, the article points out that all immigrants, including undocumented ones, have worker rights:
Contrary to what many people think, illegal workers have rights. Although in the country illegally, those who work are entitled to be paid for their labor and overtime. If they are injured on the job, they are eligible for workers' compensation coverage, said [Diego] Low, [director of the MetroWest Immigrant Worker Center] who has been advocating for immigrant workers' rights for the last 25 years.
• A DMI Blog posting points to an extremely upsetting Associated Press report of a beating in a Pennsylvania town that left a 25 year old Mexican immigrant named Luis Ramirez dead.
Hate crime or not, the killing has exposed long-simmering tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia that has a growing number of Hispanic residents drawn by jobs in factories and farm fields.
On June 18, 49-year-old Esmin Green was admitted to the Kings County Hospital Center psychiatric ward. After waiting to be seen for 24 hours, she fell to the floor, began to convulse and then passed out. Two security guards and one doctor walked into the waiting room, looked at her and then walked away. After one hour, a nurse finally came over, kicked Ms. Green, and then proceeded to get a stretcher. Shortly afterwards, Ms. Green was pronounced dead. The entire incident was documented on a security camera, and is now on YouTube, thanks to the Associated Press.
Hospital officials said they fired three of the workers and suspended another three, the New York Times reported on July 7. However, it is clear that Ms. Greene’s death is far from an isolated incident at Kings County Hospital. The New York Civil Liberties Union, in conjunction with Mental Hygiene Legal Service and the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, filed suit against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (the agency that runs Kings County Hospital) in May 2007. The plaintiffs claimed that patients at the hospital’s psychiatric facilities were subject to conditions of squalor and filth, as well as abuse by hospital employees. A summary of the case can be found on the NYCLU website.
• This past week there have been a number of news articles on HIV and the racial disparities among those who are infected. The Washington Post reported that the number of young homosexual men diagnosed with HIV has risen 12%. The largest increase of 15% was among young African American men (compared to a 9% increase among young white men):
Previous studies have found that gay black men on average have fewer sex partners, are less likely to use drugs and are no more likely to have unprotected intercourse than gay white men. Consequently, their higher rate of infection does not appear to arise from riskier behavior.
Instead, it reflects the higher prevalence of HIV -- as well as syphilis and gonorrhea, which increase a person's susceptibility to HIV -- in the black population.
Despite this negative news of increasing health disparities between whites and African Americans, there was also a positive step in the battle against HIV. According to the New York Times, the New York City Health Department has announced a three year plan to give an HIV test to everyone living in the Bronx:
While Manhattan has long been the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in New York, with the highest incidence of both AIDS and H.I.V., the virus that causes it, the Bronx, with its poorer population, has far more deaths from the disease. Public health officials attribute this to people not getting tested until it is too late to treat the virus effectively, thus turning a disease that can now be managed with medication into a death sentence.
Though the story does not mention the demographic population of the Bronx, 35.6% of Bronx residents are African American, a much larger percentage than the percentage of African American Manhattanites (who make up only 17.4% of the borough’s population). Expanding HIV testing in the Bronx is an important part of combating the racial disparities among those with HIV and helping end the upward trend of HIV rates among young African Americans.
• The Kaiser Health Disparities Report has a story on a House bill to reduce allowable lead levels in paint. The bill, which just unanimously passed the House Financial Services Committee, aims to lower the number of children exposed to lead-based paint (many of whom are poor, minority children who live in older homes):
According to bill sponsor Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and other lawmakers, despite a 1992 law that restricted the use of lead-based paint in houses, hundreds of thousands of children are exposed to excessive levels of lead, which can cause brain damage and other serious health problems.
• The HealthBeat blog has a posting
on how progressives should incorporate cost control into their
discussion of health care reform. Without cost control on the agenda
of health care reform, it will be difficult to bring Americans who are
most concerned with rising costs of health care on board:
That is why I believe that progressives must begin talking
about the high cost of care, and how we need to wring the waste out of
the system to make truly effective, high quality care affordable for
everyone. Don’t let the conservatives dominate the debate about
spending. If they do, they’ll take the conversation in the wrong
direction.
The Opportunity Agenda believes that addressing the issue of cost is
crucial to a fruitful, productive discussion on health care reform.
For example, 52% of American workers do not enroll in employer
insurance plans because they are too costly. Premiums for family
coverage have increased by 59% since 2000. Decreasing these costs, in
addition to addressing the problems of unequal access and unequal
quality, is absolutely necessary in order to reform the health care
system in the U.S. To learn more, take a look at The Opportunity
Agenda fact sheet, Health Care and Opportunity.
• For a touch of humor, check out a recent posting
on Disease Management Care Blog. Along with a YouTube video of Canned
Heat’s “Let’s Work Together” there are new lyrics encouraging all to
work together to reform health care in the U.S.:
Together we'll stand
Divided we'll fall
we need more data
the… cash flows will stall
let’s work together
Come on, come on
let’s work together
Now now people….
Because together we will stand
Every doc, all the vendors and Plans!...
Amidst the energy and momentum for health care reform in the United States, it is important to remember that getting an insurance card into everyone's wallet is not the same as guaranteeing equal access to quality health care. Recent studies have shown that, in America, health is not just about having insurance or paying bills: it's also, unfortunately, about the color of your skin.
“As the report's study director, I was pleased to see that Unequal Treatment
prompted a sober discussion in health policy, academic, and political
circles”, Brian Smedley, former senior programme officer at the US
Institute of Medicine, wrote in a blog to mark the latest issue of the
journal Health Affairs, which includes research on health
disparities. “But ultimately the report failed to prompt passage of
significant new federal legislation or spur the Department of Health
and Human Services to adopt its core recommendations. As a result,
little has been done, in my view, to systematically address the
problem.”
Citing some of the papers in the latest issue of Health Affairs, called Disparities: Expanding the Focus [paid subscription required], he said that some of the most shocking health care gaps that were not documented when Unequal Treatment
was published, were found in mental and oral health care. Meanwhile,
the biggest gains in life expectancy occurred among the best-educated
Americans.
Because of the failure of HHS to adopt recommendations to reduce disparities, and the stalling of major legislation in Congress to address disparities, many of the inequities identified half a dozen years ago are still prevalent. In very real terms, this means that communities that often have the most need for quality health care are the ones that receive the least of such care.
Check out The Opportunity Agenda Executive Director Alan Jenkins' new column, "Brave New Laws," at the Campaign for America's Future blog, Blog for Our Future. Jenkins discusses the need for new, proactive laws that recognize what technological advances and scientific research have clearly demonstrated--that many Americans are still at risk of discrimination:
Rising rents are not only displacing New York residents but their food as well. As the New York Times reports, the city of eight million now has just over 550 moderately sized supermarkets, defined as at least 10,000 square feet.
The dearth of easily available fresh food isn't confined to poor communities but these areas are disproportionately affected. A Health Department study from last year specifically compared the Upper East Side with Harlem finding a vast disparity in access to healthy foods. Harlem has twice as many bodegas, or corner stores, than the Upper East Side but these stores typically offer less healthy food. Only three percent of Harlem bodegas even sell leafy green vegetables. Expanding to other food options, 16 percent of Harlem restaurants serve fast food compared to only four percent on the Upper East Side.
Predictably, the result is Harlem residents are three to four times as likely to be obese or have diabetes. Yesterday's NYT article features an excellent citywide map (see below) showing the correlation of low supermarket density and incidences of diabetes. Pay particular attention to the Bronx and the intersection of Queens and Brooklyn.
Immigration News Daily has posted a couple articles related to
the US as an English-speaking country. In Philadelphia, a well-known
cheese steak restaurant is under review by the city's human rights
commission for a sign that says "This is America - when ordering, please speak English." City officials are alleging that the sign violates the ban on national origin discrimination. On the other end, the blog has reported on an opinion in Newsday which argues that Immigrants would thrive with more English classes.
The piece talks about the shortage of English classes on Long Island
while also explaining how poor language skills have prevented
immigrants from continuing to work in their previous professional
careers:
Plenty of anecdotal evidence shows that these programs work. Two years
ago, for example, a Peruvian-born former computer programmer was stuck
on the assembly line at Love and Quiches Desserts, a Freeport-based
manufacturer. After he completed Freeport Adult Education's ESOL
program, he was promoted to supervisor.
In the Long Beach
school district, several women from Central America who were dentists
in their home countries but worked in dead-end jobs here boosted their
English and found jobs as dental hygienists.
Author Tara Colton makes a case for government investment in the
productivity of immigrants via language classes, noting that this
strategy enjoys bipartisan support:
This is a crucial problem, because the more fluent immigrants are in
English, the more they can contribute positively to society. This is a
point that all sides of the immigration debate agree on. Making this
improvement in the lives of millions of people living and working here
has got to be as vital as deciding whether to punish them for how they
arrived.
For business and government, it's also a matter of economic
development. Boosting workers' English skills improves productivity,
reduces turnover and helps growth.
Immigration Orange posted about the 'widow penalty' which ends the permanent residency process for immigrants whose citizen spouse dies within two years of marriage. The blog recommends contacting your public officials in order to end this "obscure interpretation of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)," examples of which are quoted in the post:
Marlin Coats didn't hesitate to jump in the
water to try to save two drowning teens caught in a riptide at San Francisco Beach Park.
He lost his life that Mother's Day in 2006, but because of his heroism those
two teenagers survived. So why is the U.S. now responding to Coats'
ultimate sacrifice by deporting his wife Jacqueline Coats?
U.S. Army contractor Todd Engstrom of Illinois gave his life for his country when he was killed in Iraq, and now the federal
government is telling his wife Diana she too must go.
And so must Dahianna Heard of Florida,
whose husband Jeffrey Heard was shot in the head by insurgents
in Iraq.
What will happen to their children?
The 'Just News' blog reposted an article from the Omaha World-Herald about a family divided by US immigration policy. Joe Wood of Nebraska had decided it was time to 'do the right thing' and legalize his wife Laura Roldan's immigration status, so he, Roldan and their two daughters traveled to a US Consulate in Mexico to begin the process. However, Roldan has been accused of fraud for giving a false name upon her entry in 2001, and barred from ever returning to the US.
Last up, it has recently come to the ImmigrationProf
blog's attention that all four grandparents of Republican Presidential
Candidate Tom Tancredo were immigrants from Italy. Author KJ links to a
great article in Reason Magazine about the discrimination faced by Italian immigrants in the early 20th Century, along with how, in two generations, the American Dream has brought Tancredo to a place where he has internalized the same distaste for foreigners.
The Huffington Post has linked to an article noting that President Bush has used the seventh veto of his administration in order to reject the revised version of a bill seeking to expand health insurance coverage for children.
Meanwhile, the New York state assembly is considering a plan to extend health care to all New Yorkers. The DMI Blog summarizes the proposed legislation:
In New York State, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus
are pretty good programs. They allow participants to choose from a
variety of managed care plans that contract with the state to provide
coverage. Families making up to 150 percent of the poverty line pay no
premiums and there are no deductibles and few co-payments. Despite the
fact that people enrolled in these programs tend to be less healthy
than those enrolled in commercial plans, the premiums the state pays
are much lower and have remained virtually flat even as the cost of
private insurance has skyrocketed.
So why don’t we open these successful state program to every New Yorker, regardless of income?
That simple idea is the basis of New York Health Plus, a new universal health care proposal from Dick Gottfried, Chair of the NYS Assembly Health Committee.
Under Gottfried’s plan, any New Yorker could get free health
coverage from the state, and have their pick of the plans contracting
with the state. Everyone would also be free to opt out and keep paying
for their own private health care coverage. Businesses would no longer
have the burden of employee health care costs. The more than 2 million
uninsured New Yorkers would face no barriers to coverage. Gottfried
also argues that plans under New York Health Plus would have incentives
to offer higher quality care more preventive services, providing a
better choice for New Yorkers who already have insurance too.
The ImmigrationProf Blog has posted a piece entitled 'Another Slavery Report: Yawn?' which begins: "We have reported so much on slavery lately (here and here) that we may have to give up on such reports as newsworthy." However, the Naples Daily News has just reported that a Florida family has been charged with forcibly holding 15 undocumented workers on their property and charging them for basic needs such as food and showers. That these cases are increasingly reported on is further indication of the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Our broken immigration system is fostering abusive work situations that contradict the values of mobility, equality and security for which our nation stands.
The 'Just News' blog has posted another article on the University of Texas Law School Immigration Clinic. Advocates from the clinic have just filed complaints with the Office of Civil Rights and
Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Texas
Department of Protective Services in the case of an eight-year-old girl held at nearby Hutto detention center who was separated from her pregnant mother for four days. While keeping immigrant children in detention centers is a human rights violation in and of itself, removing the child from her mother went against ICE guildelines, according to the Houston Chronicle:
"ICE officials have previously said detaining families at the facility
is meant to help "children remain with parents, their best caregivers"
while they are processed for deportation. They also told the Texas
Department of Family and Protective Services that parents would be at
the facility with their children and would be responsible for their
care, so state regulation wasn't needed."
As the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is boasting more than 30,000 immigrant arrests this fiscal year, double that of last year, many Americans are coming to the aid of their undocumented neighbors.
The ImmigrationProf Blog has written about a new coalition of lawyers from big firms who will work to defend the constitutional rights -- or human rights -- of all people:
According to NBC11.com,
dozens of attorneys from powerful law firms have united to create a
task force that will come to the aid of undocumented immigrants. 60
attorneys from 14 law firms have said they will face the government
head-on -- challenging the legality of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) raids. The list of law firms includes Dechert LLP, Wilson Sonsini, Skadden-Arps and Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe.
The legal plan called for the lawyers to vigorously defend the
constitutional rights of all people, including undocumented immigrants.
Andrew Thomases said Dechert LLP, which represents Yahoo, and the other
law firms would represent undocumented immigrants for free.
Mark Silverman is with the Immigrant Legal
Resource Center in San Francisco, which is working with the attorneys
involved in the task force. "We are not trying to make ICE's job
difficult," Silverman said. "We just want ICE to do their job by
conforming to the U.S. Constitution."
Similarly, the 'Just News' blog has shared a New York Times article about a new plan by the Manhattan District Attorney's office to create an 'Immigrant Affairs' program to "encourage immigrants who are crime victims or are aware of illegal
activity to come forward without fear of arrest and deportation."
Latina Lista has blogged about a toy drive underway to provide some holiday cheer for the children living in the ICE detention center in Hutto, Texas. Students from the University of Texas Immigration Law clinic have organized the drive and will be delivering the toys this coming Saturday.
"We are hearing from three people affected by the ban:
Augustin Dussault, a Canadian barred from entering the country even to visit his husband in the hospital;
Lillian Mworeko, a Ugandan AIDS professional who cannot visit the US for training or conferences; and
Bernard Cazaban, a Frenchman who was kicked out of the US 15 years ago on the eve of getting his green card.
We will also be joined by Susannah Sirkin from Physicians for Human Rights, as well as our own Victoria Neilson.
The first thing that strikes you about the
press conference is that we had to hold it by telephone, since the
people most affected by the ban can’t be here, by definition.
Susannah points out what a waste it is for the US to lead in global
AIDS funding while continuing to perpetuate AIDS stigma. 'There is
absolutely no public health interest served by imposing travel
restrictions on people with HIV/AIDS . . . It cannot be transmitted by
casual contact.' What year is it that we have to continue to point that
out? These policies fuel the stigma that discourages people from
seeking treatment . . .'
David and Augustin, the American/Canadian couple who now live in
Canada because they cannot live together in the U.S., make the point
that people from countries with national health insurance cannot by
definition prove they have 'private health insurance,' which the new
regs require."
"The forum was revolutionary in at least two ways. First, it was
organized not isolated issues, but around shared values and a
progressive vision. And second, it featured real people—grassroots
leaders from around the country—sharing their stories and asking the
candidates pointed questions.
The grassroots leaders who took the stage voiced again and again the
ideas that embody Community Values—that "we are all in this together,"
that "we are all connected" and "share responsibility for each other,"
that we "love our neighbors as we love ourselves," and that it's time
to reject the "politics of isolation" and embrace the "politics of
connection."
But it was their diverse and compelling personal stories that brought that message home in vivid color."
"Poor and working people in New Orleans and across the globe are living
on property that has become valuable for corporations. Accommodating
governments are pushing the poor away and turning public property to
private. HUD is giving private developers hundreds of millions of
public dollars, scores of acres of valuable land, and thousands of
public apartments. Happy holidays for them for sure.
For the
poor, the holidays are scheduled to bring bulldozers. The demolition is
poised to start in New Orleans any day now. Attempts at demolition will
be met with just resistance. Whether that resistance is successful or
not will determine not only the future of the working poor in New
Orleans, but of working poor communities nationally and globally. If
the US government is allowed to demolish thousands of much-needed
affordable apartments of Katrina victims, what chance do others have?"
Rather than stand trial, Mychal Bell of the Jena Six has elected plead guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery. Skeptical Brotha
has explained that Bell will serve eight more months in prison, as the
eighteen month sentence will honor the ten months he has already spent
in jail.
The last couple days have seen a few stories on human trafficking in the US. Angry Asian Man has reported on a trafficking ring just busted in Vermont, and the New York Times has written about a newly-surfaced case of modern-day slavery on Long Island.
Finally, a number of immigration blogs have commented on the upcoming reality TV-show called "Who Wants to Marry a US Citizen." With a new take on reality television, programming which blends contemporary political issues with the classic dating series, the show "aims to show love knows no borders. Besides, that is what America is about: a multi-cultural nation." The Unapologetic Mexican has cited our 'national obsession with immigration' as pointing to the need for comprehensive reform of immigration policies.
The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog reposted a New York Times article entitled 'Immigrant Workers Caught in Net Cast for Gangs.'
A night-time raid of residences in Greenport, New York in September was
aimed at targeting gang members, but of the eleven arrests, only one
man was 'suspected' of gang affiliation. Local residents have
complained about the injustice of needlessly tearing families apart:
“This is un-American,” said Ms. Finne, 41, a Greenport native, echoing
other citizens who condemned the home raids in public meetings and
letters to The Suffolk Times, a weekly newspaper. “We need to do
something about immigration, but not this.”
Immigration News Daily and the ImmigrationProf Blog both reported on the appeals court dismissal of a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brought by some of the 361 noncitizens arrested on immigration charges during the New Beford, Massachusetts raid. While the First Circuit court "affirmed the dismissal based on lack of subject matter
jurisdiction based on provisions of the REAL ID Act...[it] expressed hope that ICE would learn from the case and employ
less 'ham-handed ways' in enforcing the law in the future."
In a similar case, Immigration News Daily also posted a news story about a Brazilian woman who was held in jail while her two-month-old baby continued to cry and refuse baby formula in lieu of breastfeeding. While deportation proceedings will likely continue due to the woman's expired visa, this month's new ICE guidelines on nursing mothers have ensured that
Danielle Souza Ferreira has been released and reunited with her children for the time being.
The ImmigrationProf Blog wrote about an article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times which stated that "undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries
are 50% less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to use hospital emergency
rooms in California, according to a study published Monday in the
journal Archives of Internal Medicine." While everyone has a right to medical care without regard to immigration or citizenship status, this report does provides counter-evidence to the claim that undocumented immigrants are responsible for draining our health care system.
The HealthLawProf Blog highlighted another New York Times article "charmingly" titled 'In Hospice Care, Longer Lives Mean Money Lost.' The story discusses the irony that the financial success of the hospice industry depends on the timely demise of its clientele. We should review government policies that are discouraging to those providing crucial care for the elderly and the sick in our communities.
Hundreds of hospice
providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial
consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their
patients are living longer than expected.
Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according
to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that
hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of
dollars to Medicare.
The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog has posted about last week's House vote on the Second Chance Act, legislation that aims to address the needs of individuals reintegrating into the community after time spent in prison. The bill passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in a vote of 347-62, and it is expected that the Senate will consider the same legislation before the end of the year. Based in the spirit of redemption, the idea that we all deserve the support we need to make a new start,
"H.R. 1593 would provide grants to States and local areas to create or
strengthen the systems that help adults and youth transition into the
community when they are released from incarceration by providing drug
addiction and mental health treatment services, job training and
education opportunities, housing and other necessary services."
The same blog also covered a recent report by the Brennan Center on felony disenfranchisment in New York state which found that "87% of those currently disenfranchised in New York are Latino and African American." The state's sentencing structure is currently under review for its early Nineteenth Century laws that still effectively deny the right to vote to people of color.
Also, a successful doctor and his entrepreneur wife are facing sudden deportation proceedings in Pennsylvania after a small error was found in the documents they used to apply for American citizenship. Although Pedro and Salvacion Servano have been in the US legally for twenty-five years, and have come to embody the American Dream in their family life and contributions to their community, they are currently fighting to appeal the mandate that they report to ICE the day after Thanksgiving in order to initiate deportation proceedings to the Philippines.
Finally, the Immigrants in USA Blog featured two articles on the value of a multilingual society. Statesman.com wrote about the tensions involved when a California school district announced its intentions to provide bilingual education to all students, and mercurynews.com published an opinion piece on the value of learning English but not losing the language of one's cultural heritage. Given that "many folks pay thousands of dollars to acquire a second language," linguistic diversity is an undeniable advantage to our community and our economy in an increasingly interconnected world.
The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog has reposted an interesting New York Times article
on an innovative program providing prenatal care for homeless women in
San Francisco. With nineteen years as a non-profit agency, and a staff
of fifty-three people, half of whom have been homeless in the past, the
program is a model of the core value of redemption, or the idea that we all deserve the support needed for a new start:
"The Homeless Prenatal Program has evolved from its original mission
of helping destitute women give birth to and then keep healthy babies
to become a resource dedicated to stabilizing entire families. It
offers what this particular woman excitedly described here as 'a
plethora of services' for mental health, housing and substance abuse
problems. It combines those with an array of alternative health
approaches not usually available to the poor, like yoga, massage and
chiropractic treatments.
'People call me a reckless optimist, and you have to be to do this
kind of work,' said Martha Ryan, founder and executive director of the
Homeless Prenatal Program. 'But I see enough success. I see people
really able to turn their lives around, and I see their children be
able to move forward and have a different life.'”
Prometheus 6 wrote about yesterday's Washington Post article entitled Middle-Class Dream Eludes African American Families. A new study by Pew Charitable Trusts has revealed that "nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults," thus confirming the struggle among people of color to maintain the American value of upward mobility.
The Huffington Post has a great piece up by Sally Kohn of the Movement Vision Lab on the writers' strike. Speaking of the absence of the community frame in television or film media, Kohn praises the writers for joining together but contributes a larger cultural analysis of what has shaped our values of individualism:
"If you turn on your TV today or sit for a matinee at your local
cineplex, you'd wonder whether it's an entirely different crop of folks
holding the pens behind the scenes. After all, much of the shows and
movies they write promote extreme greed, competition and the notion
that we have to pull ourselves up from our individual bootstraps ---
NOT that we're all in it together, in solidarity. While most of us in
real life, like the striking writers, have learned that we can't
succeed without the help of others around us, most reality TV shows from American Idol to Survivor tell us that the only way to the top is fierce competition against one another. Meanwhile shows like Desperate Housewives
tell us that selfishness is good and there's no such thing as too much
greed and status --- mind you, the same greed that is keeping the
Hollywood execs from sharing the wealth with writers. And in countless
movies, writers resort to racist and homophobic 'humor' that helps
further divide our country rather than unite us together."
The DMI Blog has written about the Coalition to Raise the Minimum Standards at New York City Jails, a multi-organizational campaign that achieved a number of victories this year as "the Board of Corrections (BOC) proposed a number of changes to the
Minimum Standards for New York City Correctional Facilities" which cover rules and regulations for city jails. Author Ezekiel Edwards reports that while the BOC was not swayed on every issue of importance to prisoners and their families, significant progress was made in preserving and improving conditions of incarceration: "As a result of the Coalition's relentless efforts, the BOC voted
against the 'overcrowding' policy, against putting those in need of
protection in 23-hour solitary confinement, and against reducing
Spanish translation services."
Feministe has a new post entitled 'Housing is a Human Right' which provides information on upcoming protests against the fact that all public housing units in New Orleans are slated for demolition after a recent federal court ruling. The Facing South blog has also posted about the controvery over the formaldehyde-laced trailers provided as temporary housing -- while Gulf Area families have been living in the trailers, FEMA has cautioned its own employees against entering them.
Finally, Latina Lista has reported on a DailyKos post by the author of the Migra Matters blog called 'A progressive plan for immigration reform,' referring to the resource as "the most insightful, certainly most thorough and step-by-step approach into fully understanding the immigration issue." Given his opinion that immigration is the new topic du jour, author Duke1676 prefaces his summary with "I figured it might be a good time post up a diary that sums up
everything I've learned in my past three years here posting on
immigration issues." With some 454 comments by readers, it's worth a read.
After announcing his intention to provide driver's licenses without respect to immigration status, New York's Governor Spitzer reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to offer a tiered licensing system that will exclude licenses for undocumented immigrants from operating within the confines of the Real ID Act intended to curb terrorism, essentially ensuring that the licenses can not be used for official purposes such as identification at the airport. Angry that Spitzer's reversed decision will "push immigrants further into the shadows," a coalition of immigrants rights advocates held a protest yesterday outside the governor's New York City office.
Consideration of the DREAM Act in Congress seems to have had some unintended consequences on an immigrant family: Angry Asian Man reports on the recent arrest of the family of Vietnamese college graduate Tam Tran. Tran had testified before a House subcommittee in May, urging representatives to support a path to citizenship for immigrant students, and was quoted by USA Today earlier this month. Three days later, her parents and brother were arrested and charged "with being fugitives from
justice, even though the Trans have been reporting to immigration
officials annually to obtain work permits." It's unfortunate that Tran's family is paying the price for her having spoken for what she believed in, that our nation can do a better job supporting the potential of all its young people.
Also related to legislation introduced by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, Culture Kitchen notifies us of the pending Child Soldier Prevention Act, a measure to end military and other support to nations that employ children in their armed forces. According to Ishmael Beah who spoke at the University of Buffalo, "9 of the 20 countries with known child soldiers in combat have received military aid from the United States." Beah's newest work, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier explores the prevalent issue of child soldiers which runs contrary to basic human rights doctrines such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that decrees a secure and peaceful existence for all children.
The DMI Blog has written about a new program to increase graduation rates, in which high school students take college courses while finishing high school. A recent report by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) concludes that "Students who participate in dual enrollment – or those who take
college courses for credit while still in high school – are nearly 10
percent more likely to pursue a bachelor’s degree." A New York Times article about the report notes that “the study…also found that low-income students benefited more from such programs than other students did” and that New York state is planning to implement the dual enrollment program. Author Maureen Lane is hopeful that implementation of the program will provide "an
opportunity to break barriers to college for poor and low-income
students."
Marian's Blog has highlighted an upcoming documentary by Martin Luther King III entitled "Poverty in America." Airing on American Life TV on November 14-15th, the documentary provides King a method of asserting his belief that "We can build a society where everyone gets a fair chance
to succeed, despite the circumstances of their birth. That's what my
father fought for, and that's what I'll fight for."
Opportunity in America is a two-way street. Each of us has a
responsibility to do our best, pursuing whatever pathways to success
are available to us. And our society has a responsibility to keep those
pathways open and accessible to everyone, irrespective of race, gender,
or other aspects of what we look like or where we come from.
That balance of personal responsibility and self-help on one hand,
while demanding fairness and equity on the other, has always been
crucial to the African-American quest for opportunity. That's why
Malcolm X and the Million Man March continue to occupy such important
places in the black consciousness, and why civil rights organizations
like the NAACP and the National Urban League continue to promote educational and self-help programs along with advocacy and anti-discrimination efforts.
Given that reality, it's disappointing that the media coverage of Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint's new book, Come on, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, seems to be telling only half the story when it comes to the state of black America.
Rachel's Tavern has brought our attention to a recent New York Times article which discusses the recent string of noose incidents in the New York metropolitan area. The article includes quotes by blog author and sociology professor Rachel Sullivan and by Carmen of Racialicious and New Demographic.
There has been a good amount of discussion in the past couple weeks about the election of Piyush "Bobby" Jindal as the next governor of Louisiana, as Jindal is not only the first governor of color since Reconstruction but is the child of Indian Immigrants. While blogs such as RaceWire have asked valid questions about Jindal's politics, arguing that his policies are culturally self-effacing and will prove damaging to people of color, other immigration blogs such as the Immigrants in USA Blog have praised Jindal's election as a sign of progress in the process of accepting and integrating immigrants into our communities, as well as demonstrating the opportunities for success in our country. Jindal is quoted by ABC News as saying: "My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream.
And guess what happened. They found the American dream to be alive and
well right here in Louisiana."
The Border Line and LA Times report that presidential candidate Bill Richardson recently spoke on the need to change our policies towards Latin America. As a Latino and former ambassador the the UN, Richardson advocated for both improved diplomatic relations and comprehensive immigration reform that will allow for a pathway to citizenship in order to enable the same sort of mobility that provided Bobby Jindal to opportunity to assume the Louisiana governorship. Along the same topic, Migra Matters has just published a piece on the need to examine how our trade policies such as NAFTA are driving the very migration into the United States that many Americans are fighting.
Big news today concerns an incident at a high school in California in which a young black woman had her wrist broken by a school security guard for failing to clean up a piece of her birthday cake that fell on the floor. 16-year-old Pleajhai Mervin was subsequently arrested, along with her mother who complained (and was fired from her school district job) and the fellow students who used their cellphones to videotape the struggle. There are many things wrong with this footage, from excessive violence in our schools to unjust racial profiling. With respect to the way in which this story has been disseminated in the media, the blogger Oh No a WoC PhD notes that "YouTube may be one way in which the revolution is in fact digitized." With increased access to technology comes more power to force reporting and increase public awareness to fight social injustice.
Also related to new media, Racialicious alerts us to a lawsuit pending against Virgin Mobile over the unauthorized use of a photograph posted on Flickr. A friend of Asian-American Alison Chang posted photos of his teenaged group of friends, one of which then appeared on billboards in Australia, taken out of context in a way that advertises a "perpetual foreigner" stereotype.
Finally, the last few weeks have seen a number of racially-motivated incidents in New York, from a noose hung in a police station on Long Island to swastikas painted on synangogues during the Jewish holidays in Brookyln. The continued use of these symbols to provoke fear and submission among specific ethnic or cultural groups is devastating. At such times it's helpful to refer to the ethical framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to illustrate where we have gone wrong. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, Article I proclaims:
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Article II goes on:
"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
At their core, hate crimes violate the equality we value, a concept that is held globally as one of our most basic human rights. Unfortunately, many Americans do not consider human rights to be relevant to their day-to-day reality. We tend to think of human rights as an issue in Latin America or in Myanmar, not at home. What the above incidents make clear, though, is that defending human rights is just as important and necessary a task within the US -- and not just in New Orleans or in Jena, Louisiana, but in everyone's backyard.
Despite repeated claims among residents of Jena, Louisiana that the unjust prosecution of the six boys is "not about racism," there have been various ugly repurcussions of the well-publicized rally. More nooses have been found hanging in Alexandria, Louisiana and in North Carolina, and a Neo-Nazi group has published the addresses and telephone numbers of the Jena Six families on its website in case anyone wishes to "deliver justice." Among progressive bloggers, reactions seem to be a mix of speechlessness and cynicism.
Along the veign of thought that anti-immigrant sentiment is also very much linked to racism, a lawsuit was filed last week alledging that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raids in the New York area have unfairly singled out Hispanics, violating the Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted searches. A number of US citizens of Latin American descent have had their homes raided in the middle of the night by agents hunting for undocumented individuals.
In the realm of policy changes, New York State has been informed by the federal government that chemotherapy will no longer be defined as 'emergency medical care,' thus preventing immigrants without documentation from receiving cancer treatment previously funded by the government. On the other hand, however, New York's Governor Spitzer has announced that the state DMV will begin issuing driver's licenses without regard to immigration status.
Finally, the Center for American Progress has recently featured a report entitled Know Your Sources: The Mainstream Press Keeps Finding Wacky Immigration “Experts.” Author Henry Fernandez offers an illustration of the mainstream media's regular failure to investigate the background of the 'immigration experts' they cite, finding that many have strong ties to well-funded white supremacist groups. Similar to the theme of preserving justice in the Louisiana court system, it is so important to understand that the issue of immigration is not one that can be fixed in a stand-alone manner. Rather, it is only one piece of a larger picture of established racial, economic, and political inequalities which deny many people the opportunities they need to be prosperous.
As they campaign to keep two Central Brooklyn health clinics up and running, advocates are using everything from old-fashioned, political arm-twisting to newfangled YouTube videos.
The Central Brooklyn Health Crisis Coalition is urging local elected officials to write and call Gov. Spitzer and the state Health Department so that the St. Peter Claver and the Sister Thea Bowman Family Health clinics won't close.
The coalition is asking the public to tune in to a YouTube video, www.youtube.com/opportunityagenda, to hear from clinic patients, and to support the campaign by writing or calling state officials.
"We must keep the pressure on," said Ngozi Moses, executive director of the Brooklyn Perinatal Network and head of the coalition, which includes several community groups and the Brooklyn borough president's office.
You can watch the full video here. And don't forget about the other new media tools we've brought to bear on the problem of hospital and clinic closures in Brooklyn.
Racialicious reports on a new game, “Without Prejudice”, in which five
judges must decide which contestant deserves a $25,000 prize. Hosted by psychotherapist Robi Ludwig and
working with partners like GLAAD and National Council of La Raza, “Without
Prejudice” asks the five contestants to be honest about their lives and the
judges must narrow down these contestants based on any reason. The show hope to teach viewers about prejudice, and the affiliated website features a number of educational resources on the subject. There are also discussion guides for starting
conversations about prejudice. After the
pilot episode premiered last night, The New York Times reports that the show is
anything but “without prejudice": each participant seems to have his own biases
that are hard to miss. Check it out for
yourself on Tuesdays on the GSN.
The New York Times profiles younger members of the New York immigrant community, as well as its support of the DREAM Act. Many of these
children of undocumented workers are legal citizens, born in the US. Not all are registered to vote, but they could be a powerful voice on behalf of their parents in the U.S. and local politics. Some groups are trying to gather support there for
the DREAM Act, a provision of which has been added as
an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill (thanks, ImmigrationProf Blog!). In this
amendment, undocumented residents of military age who arrived in the US before age 16 and could immediately enter a
path to citizenship if they serve at least two years in the armed forces. The Boston Globe has an update of the bill's progress.
In a review of over 100 studies, TheBoston Globe reports that black women are less healthy because of the pressures of racial discrimination (thanks, RaceWire!). In one study, black women who indicated that
racism was a source of stress in their lives developed more plaque in their
carotid arteries – an early sign of heart disease – than black women who
didn’t. These studies could reshape
racism as a public health problem. These
findings come at a time of severe racial disparities in American health care. African Americans face a higher risk than any
other racial group of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and
hypertension. These health disparities
are exacerbated by lack of access to quality health care and health
insurance. Higher poverty rates and
lower wages also hinder progress in equality. Check out our fact sheet about African Americans and Opportunity.
DMI Blog reports on Rinku Sen’s reflection on the possible
unity between immigrants and US.-born Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American
Indians. She looks at the origin of the
term “people of color”, and how it has affected identity in political
action. In her experiences
as an advocate working in partnership with multiracial organizations, she felt it necessary to “expand [her] identity
in a way that tied [her] to Black people as part of their rebellion.” Sen confronts the impact the term has on our immigration debate, and asks whether immigrants fall under the definition of
“people of color.” At the end of the day,
she acknowledges that she cannot decide this question, but expresses that a
positive immigrant policy will include dialogue on race and color as well as
nationality and class.
Our view:
The best way to achieve fair legislature and rights for
immigrants is to understand the common struggles we all face in achieving
equality. “People of color” everywhere
want the same basic rights – better education, living conditions, wages, and
health care – and the only way to achieve anything is to recognize this common
struggle. We’re all in this together,
and achieving opportunity for one group will be best fought with many partners.
Readers will remember that The Opportunity Agenda did a lot of work around hospital closures in New York City this past winter. It's important to remember, though, that it's not only hospitals that are closing; it's also community clinics that many low income communities and communities of color rely on for medical care. Recently, the Charles Drew Family Clinic in central Brooklyn closed down. In this video, local residents explain how this closure will affect the community in their own words:
And remember to check out our Google Map Mashup showing how hospital closures in NYC over the last 30 years have disproportionately affected low income communities and communities of color:
We've only been live for a few days, but Health Care That Works, our Google Maps Mashup of health care disparities and hospital closings in NYC, is already getting a lot of attention. So far we've been featured on the following blogs:
Today we're happy to announce the launch of a new project that we've had in the works for a few months now - www.healthcarethatworks.org.
Health Care That Works is a new website designed to visually illustrate the economic and racial disparities that exist in New York City's health care system, and drive all New Yorker's of conscience to take action by emailing their elected officials.
The site is a Google Map mash-up
that takes data on NYC hospital closures between 1985 and 2005, and
overlays it on an interactive city-wide map that can display either the racial or economic demographics of the Five Boroughs. Using this tool, visitors can visually see how hospital closures disproportionately impact poor neighborhoods and communities of color. Text on the sidebar guides the user through each decade and demographic overlay, explaining the changing conditions of the city and the impact that closures have on underserved communities.
But the site is more than just a visual resource, it is also a data-rich resource for researchers that contains a variety of reports and fact sheets (as well as data on the patient demographics, payer source, and quality scores for each hospital), a community forum for health care advocates and New Yorkers, and an activism tool that encourages New Yorkers to write to their elected officials in support of creating a health care system that works equally for all.
We think that Health Care That Works can be a valuable resource that sheds light on the underreported issues of racial and economic disparities in health care. Let us know what you think here in the comments, or over in the Health Care That Works forums.
If you have accounts, recommend us on Daily Kos, or give us a Digg.
As some of our readers may know, today is a big day for the New York State Health Care System. The Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century (aka the Berger Commission) released their recommendations on "right sizing" the New York State Hospital System. The commission recommended closing 9 hospitals - 5 of which are in New York City. While the practical effects of the commission's recommendations must still be
An article in the Metro section of yesterday's New York Times paints a deceptively pleasant picture of a deal between the Pataki and Bush administrations to provide $1.5 billion in funds to bailout New York's ailing health care system.
What the Times fails to report is that those funds are likely to be used for "acute care rightsizing," a euphemistic term for restructuring health services that will result in the loss of primary care services in medically underserved areas of NYC - particularly low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
In New York City, these communities already face a shortage of primary care services, and are at greater risk of contracting "Ambulatory Care Sensitive" (ACS) conditions such as diabetes, heart conditions and asthma (see maps below).
Primary Care and Poverty
Primary Care and ACS
ACS conditions are easily manageable with proper primary care, yet without that care they can develop into dire medical crises with skyrocketing medical costs for patients and taxpayers. Treating these conditions before they worsen not only saves lives, but it can save hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs.
Right sizing measures like those required in exchange for the Bush Administration's $1.5 billion bailout are likely to exacerbate this problem rather than lessen it. Instead of focusing on right-sizing strategies that leave patients behind, health care reform should focus on rights sizing - or restructuring the health care system based on community needs. Access to adequate health care is a basic human right. Protecting that right will not only save the taxpayers' money, it's also the right thing to do.
