CIW GETS QUESTIONS TO PRESIDENT @ TOWN HALL MEETING

REPRINT FROM EMAIL RECEIVED: FROM CIW

And now for something completely different... On Tuesday, President Obama came to Ft. Myers for a town hall meeting on the economic crisis (Ft. Myers and the Southwest Florida area generally are at or near the top in both foreclosures and unemployment rates nationally).

You can find a photo from the event at the CIW website, http://www.ciw-online.org. Here's a brief report:

The town hall was, of course, standing room only, with people camping out two days in advance to secure tickets. Thanks, however, to the efforts of a determined ally, the CIW managed to get inside for the big event. But with a crowd this feverish, it was no surprise that, when it came to the question and answer period, the house went wild with waving hands and jumping people yearning to be heard. Alas, the CIW representatives were lost in the din and never got a chance to ask their question of President Obama.

But all was not lost. As President Obama worked the crowd following the event, our intrepid representatives made their way to the front, got his attention in the five-second window of conversation one is allowed in such settings, and managed to hand-off the question in written form to President Obama, who actually overrode an attempted Secret Service intercept to personally take the question and a CIW button. The President promised to check out the question and the website further later.

Let's hope he did. If so, here's what President Obama saw once he settled down in Air Force One and reached into his pocket for the folded note:

"Mr. President - I'd like to ask a question about human rights.

Last April, Senator Durbin and Senator Kennedy held a hearing in the Senate HELP Committee into the extreme poverty and shameful exploitation of our state's farmworkers, prompted by the latest of seven federal prosecutions for modern-day slavery in Florida's fields over the past decade in which workers were chained inside trucks, beaten, and forced to pick tomatoes for little or no pay.

Sir, Florida's farmworkers have known nothing but economic crisis for decades. What is your position on the epidemic of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields, and what can you do as president to help farmworkers win the fair wages and dignified working conditions they deserve? Would you consider visiting us Immokalee -- the town federal prosecutors call "ground zero for modern-day slavery" -- to learn more about the problem?"

Stay tuned for more from the Campaign for Fair Food, and don't forget to send your emails to Governor Crist - for all the latest on the campaign, go to http://www.ciw-online.org

Thanks - Coalition of Immokalee Workers


Coalition of Immokalee Workers
http://www.ciw-online.org

EMERGENCY EMAIL CAMPAIGN CIW & SFA ALLIES

your quick email will mean a lot to us down here fighting this monster.

arriba l@s de abajo y bajo el pinche muro,
jm

--John-Michael Torres
Steering Committee, Student Farmworker Alliance
956-534-0267
Mission, TX


To Everyone Opposed to the Border Wall,

The Brownsville City Commission may make a border wall deal with the Department of Homeland Security tomorrow. This deal has immediate and long-term implications for border wall opposition nationwide. If the the City of Brownsville enters into a deal with DHS, all hope for a last minute halt to border wall construction from the Obama administration may be lost. In addition, a change in Brownsville's position could undermine all litigation related to the border wall, including El Paso's appeal to the Supreme Court. Brownsville's failure to fight something that is so clearly an injustice and an imposition by the federal goverment may eventually lead to increased militarization of our borders over the long haul.

The deal itself is a bad one. The commissioners are touting the fact that DHS will build "temporary fencing" on Brownsville property, but the contract stipulates that before such temporary fencing comes down, Brownsville will have to pay the entire cost of constructing a new wall, this time a permanent concrete border wall built into the flood-control levee. These levee-border walls have cost neighboring Hidalgo County $10-12 million per mile. Since these walls become an inextricable part of the flood-control levee system, they will never be removed, even if we are one day successful in implementing a saner border policy. However U.S. immigration and border security policy changes over the coming decades, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be living with walls because of the levee-border wall design.

No Border Wall urges everyone, regardless of where you live, to make your voices heard and let Brownsville City Commissioners know that you too are a stakeholder. If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, please make a concerted effort to attend the City Commission Public Hearing this Thursday night, February 12 at 5:30 pm at the City Commissioners' Court on the 2nd floor of the City Hall/Federal Building on the corner of 10th and Elizabeth Streets in Brownsville. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early if possible to sign up for a public comment.

If you live elsewhere or are unable to attend the public hearing, please copy and paste the following email addresses and send an email to the Brownsville mayor and city commissioners, letting them know that it's not only the future of Brownsville that's at stake, but the future of our borderlands and our nation as a whole. You might tell them of your community's experience dealing with DHS and border wall construction or of your group's ongoing efforts to stop wall construction.

The commissioners' emails are:
atkinson@cob.us; carlos@cob.us; leoneltgarza@cob.us; ricardo@cob.us; camarillo@cob.us; charlie@cob.us; aptroiani@cob.us; mayorahumada@cob.us

Their names are:
Charlie Atkinson, Carlos Cisneros, Leonel Garza, Ricardo Longoria, Edward Camarillo, Anthony Troiani, and Mayor Pat Ahumada Phone and fax contact information is available at http://www.cob.us/government/commission.asp

Below are some links to related stories.

Thank you for your immediate action on this matter,

Stefanie Herweck
No Border Wall

Sheriff Joe Arpaio being a RACIST

Note this is a reprint from google news:

Approximately 200 convicted illegal immigrants handcuffed together are moved into a separate area of Tent City, by orders of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for incarceration until their sentences are served and they are deported to their home countries Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in Phoenix. The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has announced plans to keep illegal immigrants separate from the rest of the inmate population at tents in Phoenix that house prisoners.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)


©2009 Google - Map data ©2009 Tele Atlas - Terms of UseAriz. sheriff puts illegal-alien inmates in tents
By TERRY TANG – 23 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has announced plans to keep illegal immigrants separate from the rest of the inmate population at tents in Phoenix that house prisoners.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio accompanied about 200 inmates — along with members of the media — from an area jail to Tent City on Wednesday.

"This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape," Arpaio said in a news release. "But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock, literally," he said, referring to the electric fence that surrounds the area.

Arpaio said housing the illegal immigrants separately would save money, although he did not explain how other than to say it's cheaper to house inmates in tents than at traditional jails.

He said his office has received $1.6 million funding from the state that will go toward tackling illegal immigration.

"I expect more arrests," Arpaio said. "I expect to put more tents up."

Arpaio said the move will be more convenient for consulate officials visiting foreign inmates and for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents charged with deporting the inmates after they have served sentences in county jails.

Aside from their residency status, he said the inmates will be treated just like everyone else housed in the tents.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.

Arpaio's announcement has appalled some officials in the area.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said she thinks Arpaio could potentially be violating the immigrants' rights by keeping them separated, and that she'd like to talk to the Justice Department and have staff there issue an opinion.

"Any time you treat people differently for no reason, you stand to violate rights," she said. "We treat people equally in America. I think it's wrong."

She said the move is a publicity stunt and that Arpaio has done nothing to show the supervisors how it would save money.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, said although Wednesday's move wasn't unconstitutional, it was degrading and unnecessary to shepherd prisoners in front of media.

"You're sort of giving the message that it's OK to treat these inmates differently. It's OK to treat them like circus animals," Soler Meetze said. "He didn't have to make a spectacle. He could've moved them on buses."

She said her organization would look for any constitutional concerns in the future treatment of the segregated inmates.

The Tent City is part of a tough atmosphere that made Arpaio nationally famous. His jails also feature chain gangs and pink underwear for male inmates. Arpaio was recently featured in a Fox Reality Channel show called "Smile ... You're Under Arrest!

Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.