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House to vote on bills that provide citizenship path to undocumented immigrant

by Mimi Nguyen Ly

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is set to vote on two immigration bills that would provide a citizenship path for undocumented immigrants and legal status for immigrant farmworkers. House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer (DMd.) told reporters that the House would take up the bills on March 18 after they cleared a procedural hurdle on March 16. Neither bill was taken up in the Senate when it had a Republican major ity.

With Democrats now holding narrow control of the upper chamber, they hope to be able to attract some Republican support. The American Dream and Promise Act would offer a pathway to citizenship to those who entered the country undocumentedly as children and are currently living in the United States, also known as “Dreamers.” The same bill would also help immigrants in the country who received temporary migration protections. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.). An estimated 4.4 million undocumented immigrants could become eligible for permanent residency if the bill is passed, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

In 2019, seven Republicans joined 230 Democrats in the House in voting for the bill. The other immigration bill, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, would provide undocumented immigrant agricultural workers a path to legal status, and make the H-2A guestworker program more flexible for employers. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and has a Republican cosponsor, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.).

It passed the House in 2019 with the support of 34 Republicans. Hoyer said on March 16: “These two bills are not the fix, but they are [a] fix to part of the problem.

But we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform and we’re going to do so in the coming months.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wears a mask while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 11, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images) Rep.

Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Sub-Committee on Immigration, said on March 16 that the two bills are “implicitly promising the next generation [that] all they have to do is get here and their turn will come.” The two bills each address portions of a larger, radical immigration reform bill that Democrats formal CITIZENSHIP ly introduced last month in both the House and the Senate with the support of President Joe Biden, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.

This bill models closely Biden’s sweeping proposal he sent to Congress on his first day in office. It would provide an eight-year pathway to U.S. citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Its lead sponsors are Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep.

Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.). The bill doesn’t offer any enhanced border security, which past immigration negotiations have used as a way to win Republican votes. The bill would need the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate to pass. Sen. Dick Durbin (DIll.), the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said on March 15 that he doesn’t believe that the Biden-backed bill would have enough backing in either chamber. But he promised that the House would eventually pass a more far-reaching immigration reform plan. Sen.

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the leading Republicans in past talks on immigration, said he believed bipartisan progress on immigration legislation would be “much harder” amid a surge in undocumented immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border. “Why would you legalize anybody, sending another incentive to keep coming, until you stop the flow?” he told a reporter on Capitol Hill. “I think it’s going to be really hard to get a bipartisan bill put together on anything that has a legalization component until you stop the flow.”

(Shared from ET)

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House passes Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package

by Zachary Stieber

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the updated version of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The vote was 220211, with all Democrats voting for the bill except for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and all Republicans voting against it. The House passed a version of the bill late last month, followed by the Senate on March 4. The upper chamber removed the $15 federal minimum wage hike and changed other provisions, such as decreasing weekly supplemental unemployment aid by $100 to $300 a week. No Republicans supported the package in either vote. Biden plans on signing the bill on Friday and “hitting the road” in the near future to try to convince Americans the package was a good idea, according to the White House. Press secretary Jen Psaki during a press conference in Washington called it “the most progressive bill in American history.” Democrats utilized a budget process to ram the package through Congress with no bipartisan support, drawing criticism from the GOP. “I rise in opposition to the partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill before us today. It’s shameful Democrats have disregarded their obligation to provide real COVID relief to the American people and are instead attempting to use this process to jam through partisan agenda items. This bill is not targeted, timely, or tied to COVID. We need to focus on solving the critical issues at hand: getting vaccines to Americans, providing relief to our local businesses, restaurants, and entertainment venues, and supporting those who have been seriously impacted by this pandemic. Only 9 percent of this massive $1.9 trillion package goes to fighting COVID-19. And outside of stimulus payments, nearly half won’t even be spent this year,” Rep. Ann Wagner (RMo.) told colleagues on the House floor on Wednesday. But Republicans have done the same thing in the past, and Democrats noted they broke no rules. “We have acted with the urgency this pandemic demands while following every House rule and proper procedure required for a budget reconciliation package,” House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said. “The American Rescue Plan is aggressive, no doubt about it, but researchers and health professionals have told us this is what it is needed to scale up testing, and to speed up equitable vaccine distribution. They said this is what is needed if we want to save lives and defeat this pandemic once and for all. Economists have also made clear what is needed to generate a strong strong, inclusive economic recovery. And, again, we listened,” he said. Others also said the bill would provide much-needed relief. “A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic requires bold investment and that is what the American Rescue Plan is. This bill invests $20 billion to get shots in arms and make sure everyone knows where, when, and how to get a vaccine. Many students are back in school or going back soon. California will get $15 billion to reopen safely and keep schools open to make up for lost time,” Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) said on the House floor. “We’ve also invested in the backbone of our economy—small businesses. In fact, economists believe this bill can bring us back to near full employment in about a year. To ensure local governments can keep providing essential services, this bill delivers over $259 million to cities and counties in my district alone. Finally, this package invests in the American people. Direct payments, unemployment  benefits, tax credits, and health subsidies will lift millions out of poverty.” Republicans asserted that the bill included a number of measures unrelated to combating the pandemic. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) argued the economy is already poised for a full recovery while accusing Democrats of “exploiting this pandemic” to pass partisan items such as giving money to state and local governments, and sending checks to prisoners. Lawmakers last passed a stimulus in December 2020, when former President Donald Trump was still in office. The $900 billion package included a round of stimulus checks, additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program, and supplemental unemployment aid.

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1,600 immigrants arrested over 3 days in single Texas border

by Jack Phillips

More than 1,600 undocumented immigrants were arrested in three days in a single Texas border sector, according to the area’s chief Border Patrol agent. “More than 1,600 arrests in three days for agents of the Del Rio Sector!” Austin Skero, head of the Texas Del Rio Sector Border Patrol, wrote on Twitter. “These arrests include more than 25 smuggling cases, two criminal aliens and were mostly made up of single adults.” Later, Skero added that Del Rio agents detained a convicted rapist who had previously been deported. “Our officers arrested two more sex offenders over the weekend, one of whom was convicted of third degree rape in Kentucky,” he said in a news release Tuesday. “That is why it is vitally important that Border Patrol agents are there, at the border, identifying all those who cross our borders illegally.” Román GonzálezFlores, 49, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested after John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said. “The American Rescue Plan is aggressive, no doubt about it, but researchers and health professionals have told us this is what it is needed to scale up testing, and to speed up equitable vaccine distribution. They said this is what is needed if we want to save lives and defeat this pandemic once and for all. Economists have also made clear what is needed to generate a strong strong, inclusive economic recovery. And, again, we listened,” he said. Others also said the bill would provide much-needed relief. “A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic requires bold investment and that is what the American Rescue Plan is. This bill invests $20 billion to get shots in arms and make sure everyone knows where, when, and how to get a vaccine. Many students are back in school or going back soon. California will get $15 billion to reopen safely and keep schools open to make up for lost time,” Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) said on the House floor. “We’ve also invested in the backbone of our economy—small businesses. In fact, economists believe this bill can bring us back to near full employment in about a year. To ensure local governments can keep providing essential services, this bill delivers over $259 million to cities and counties in my district alone. Finally, this package invests in the American people. Direct payments, unemployment benefits, tax credits, and health subsidies will lift millions out of poverty.” Republicans asserted that the bill included a number of measures unrelated to combating the pandemic. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) argued the economy is already poised for a full recovery while accusing Democrats of “exploiting this pandemic” to pass partisan items such as giving money to state and local governments, and sending checks to prisoners. Lawmakers last passed a stimulus in December 2020, when former President Donald Trump was still in office. The $900 billion package included a round of stimulus checks, additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program, and supplemental unemployment aid.

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1,600 immigrants arrested over 3 days in single Texas border sector: Official

Screenshot

by Jack Phillips

More than 1,600 undocumented immigrants were arrested in three days in a single Texas border sector, according to the area’s chief Border Patrol agent.

“More than 1,600 arrests in three days for agents of the Del Rio Sector!” Austin Skero, head of the Texas Del Rio Sector Border Patrol, wrote on Twitter. “These arrests include more than 25 smuggling cases, two criminal aliens and were mostly made up of single adults.”

Later, Skero added that Del Rio agents detained a convicted rapist who had previously been deported.

“Our officers arrested two more sex offenders over the weekend, one of whom was convicted of third degree rape in Kentucky,” he said in a news release Tuesday. “That is why it is vitally important that Border Patrol agents are there, at the border, identifying all those who cross our borders illegally.”

Román González-Flores, 49, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested after illegally entering the United States from Mexico. Later, authorities determined that he was convicted of the crime in 2004, was sentenced to two years in prison and was most recently deported in 2021, according to the agency.

González-Flores now faces felony charges for illegal re-entry after being deported as a convicted sex offender and could face 20 years in prison.

The agency said 56 undocumented immigrants with prior sexual assault convictions were “found” by agents since Oct. 1 of last year.

On Wednesday, in a separate incident in California, Border Patrol agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that 13 people who died in a semi-trailer accident may have been illegally smuggled into across the border.

“We pray for the accident victims and their families during this difficult time,” said El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Officer Gregory Bovino at a news conference Wednesday. Agents, he said, believe the dead were part of a larger group of about 44 migrants who were smuggled through a hole in the fence near Calexico, a California city that lies along the border and is next to the Mexican city of Mexicali.

Bovino added that an “initial investigation into the origin of the vehicles indicates a possible link with the aforementioned breach in the border wall,” while adding that “human traffickers have shown time and again that they have little respect for life. human “.

“Those who are contemplating crossing the border illegally should stop to think about the dangers that too often end in tragedy; tragedies that our Border Patrol agents and first responders are very familiar with, ”he said at the news conference.

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR ANNUAL AUDIT SERVICES (RFP 20/21-07)

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR ANNUAL AUDIT SERVICES (RFP 20/21-07)
Notice is hereby given that the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is requesting proposals from qualified respondents (proposers) to provide annual audit services. The full RFP is posted on the Transportation Authority’s website, www.sfcta.org/contracting. Proposals are due to the Transportation Authority electronically to info@sfcta.org by April 2, 2021, 2:00 p.m.

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Murder, torture and abuse: rights commission covers up crimes against migrants

Testimonies tell of human rights violations but their contents have been kept under wraps

 

by Mexico News Daily

 

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has covered up crimes against migrants including murder, torture, mass kidnappings and rape, according to an investigation by a digital newspaper.

Animal Político reported that between September 2019 and February 2020, the CNDH drew up 32 documents containing migrants’ testimonies of a range of crimes committed against them. Some of the victims were women, teenagers and children, said the news website, which obtained some of the documents. 

According to migrants who spoke with the CNDH, members of organized crime gangs as well as state and federal police were involved in the offenses.

Animal Político said it had access to testimonies collected by the CNDH at six government-run migrant stations and 12 shelters operated by civil society organizations located in the north, south and center of the country.

CNDH officials, including commission chief Rosario Piedra Ibarra, have full knowledge of the crimes, Animal Político said.

However, the commission has not publicly disclosed or commented on the testimonies it has gathered.

“It hasn’t done so in press releases, in recommendations or in a special report,” Animal Político said. “It didn’t even make mention of a single case of the kidnapping of migrants in the first report of activities with Rosario Piedra at the head of the CNDH.”

The newspaper said the CNDH has classified some of the testimonies as “reserved” information, arguing that revealing them would place migrants’ lives at risk. However, the testimonies are anonymous – they don’t include the names or addresses of the victims or other information that could be used to identify them apart from their nationality and when and where a crime was committed against them.

“While the CNDH reserves information, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insists that under his administration, ‘the human rights of migrants are no longer violated.’ But the testimonies kept secret by the autonomous body contradict him,” Animal Político said.

The newspaper said it has asked the CNDH on four occasions to explain why it hasn’t made details of the crimes committed against migrants public. In response the rights commission sent 44 press releases listing recommendations for the defense of migrants’ rights but didn’t explain why it hasn’t released the testimonies or publicly commented on them.

In a document sent to the news organization on Monday, the CNDH defended its work to protect migrants in Mexico and said it was conducting an analysis to “evaluate the institutional capacities of the Mexican state to comply with [their] rights.”

However, the rights commission again failed to explain why it hasn’t disclosed the testimonies.

Animal Político did, however, publish some of the CNDH testimonies it obtained. Following are summaries of two of them.

  • A Honduran woman explained that she left her home in 2019 because she was pregnant and a “gangbanger” with whom she lived  had “sold” her unborn baby. She said that she reached Mexico and was passing through the San Luis Potosí municipality of Vanegas when local police boarded a truck she was traveling in and stole her money.

She said she was forced to go with a group of men in dark uniforms and was taken to a place where there were eight other women. “I knew that it was a kidnapping because they forced us to speak to our families and ask for money … [to spare] our lives,” she said.

The woman said that she and the other abductees were repeatedly raped, beaten and stabbed. “They killed some of the women in front of me. They treated us as if we were their erotic toys,” she said.

“… Because of their weapons and the codes they used to speak, I can almost guarantee that those who kidnapped me were police. I left there completely lost, humiliated, beaten, swollen and demoralized. I had to go into a victim protection program. It’s taken me a long time to recover my life. … I lived very bad experiences in Mexico. My daughter had to be born in Mexico, she was born healthy thanks to the care they gave me in the [migrant] shelter.”

The woman gave her testimony to the CNDH in October 2019 in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León.

  • A Guatemalan man said that he entered Mexico via the southern border in February 2019 with 50 other migrants and a pollero, or people smuggler. He said he was traveling north in a truck that suddenly stopped in Altamira, Tamaulipas.

“They opened the doors and a lot of armed men appeared. They took us off and put us in another truck without a roof, one of those that transports cattle. There were about 70 men in mine, everyone crowded together,” he said.

They traveled for six hours to reach the northern border city of Matamoros where the migrants were stripped of their phones and money and locked up in small houses, he said.

“There were about 75 of us per house. … They told us that they were going to cross us [into the United States] but they wanted US $5,500 for each person. I think they were from the Gulf Cartel, very violent people, well armed and with bulletproof vests, caps and balaclavas,” he said.

The man said that he and the others were rescued by the navy but their captors got away. He said he was subsequently sent to a migrant detention center in Tapachula, Chiapas, where the staff welcomed him with the words “welcome to hell.”

He said he was deported to Guatemala in March 2019 but he crossed into Mexico again in September that year – three months after the federal government deployed the National Guard to stop the flow of migrants to the United States. The man said he was detained again and placed in a migrant station to await deportation.

“It’s difficult to cross Mexico. You leave a lot of money here but you still can’t get to your destination,” he said.

The man spoke to the CNDH in Huixtla, Chiapas, in September 2019.

In response to the revelation that the CNDH is concealing information, Interior Minister Olga Sánchez said Wednesday that the commission must be accountable and transparent.

“I would hope that … the CNDH, which is a very prestigious institution, continues to be transparent and doesn’t hide information,” she said, adding that it should denounce rights violations and make recommendations so the authorities can respond to them.

With regard to the migrants’ testimonies, Sánchez said: “If we don’t acknowledge that these [human rights] violations exist, … we can’t make progress on the issue. These violations of migrants’ human rights are absolutely unacceptable and any complaint … in relation to any of our migration personnel, police, or any government authorities violating human rights [must be given to the government]. We have to have the CNDH investigations in order to proceed accordingly.”

The rights commission has previously been accused of failing to defend women’s rights, and its Mexico City headquarters were taken over and occupied by a feminist collective last September.

Source: Animal Político (sp) 

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  During pandemic, no better time to quit smoking

by Jackson Gutiérrez

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect us, I think about the importance of lung health. Especially for people trying to quit smoking. When it comes to the quit struggle, I know all about it.

I remember when I was a young boy I played with the ashtray my father kept next to my parents’ bed, and admired the beautiful ornament on the coffee table in the living room that I later learned was a cigarette lighter. All around me were signs of my father’s habit, and it was no surprise that I occasionally mimicked him by bringing a white, plastic straw to my lips and taking a drag.

During my teenage years, I attended a high school for the arts and saw so many classmates smoking. That’s when I had my first cigarette. Little did I know it would be the start of my seven-year fight against nicotine.

Social smoking soon turned into an addiction and changed my sense of who I was. From a co-worker calling me a “smoker,” to a friend commenting how I reeked of tobacco, these are things I never thought applied to me. These comments forced me to examine who I had become and accept that smoking played a big part in my life.

Over the following years, it felt like I tried to stop smoking almost every week. I would mentally prepare to quit, but as I neared the end of a pack, I’d delay the decision to another day. Sometimes I was more successful, with a handful of my attempts to stop stretching nearly three months. I only recently learned that I wasn’t alone. One study found the average smoker tries almost 30 times to stop before quitting for good.

But then I’d feel a trigger. I recall sitting in the movie theater one day and being focused on a character smoking a cigarette in a scene. I became so distracted at the thought of lighting up that I hurried outside the building for a quick puff. And so it went, another attempt to quit ended in defeat.

The pandemic has put the spotlight on how dangerous smoking is and how important quitting can be for continued good health. Studies show people who smoke and vape are at increased risk of developing chronic lung conditions which puts them at a high risk for severe illness from COVID-19.1

Experts say we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves as long as we keep trying.

“Over the years, we’ve seen so many people who think they will never be able to quit but we remind them that with determination and help, they can succeed,” said Sharon Cummins, Director of the California Smokers’ Helpline, a free service that has helped nearly 1 million Californians quit smoking over the past 30 years. “People move at their own pace and no matter how many tries it takes, the desire for a healthier life can prevail.”

The best thing I’ve done for myself is quit smoking. Not only do I feel better, and smell great, but my career as a voice actor hasn’t suffered. Had I continued to smoke, I would have damaged my lungs and throat, possibly destroying my career.

Now that lung health is more important than ever, I hope other smokers see the truth about tobacco: it is harmful and addictive, and yet they have the strength to quit, too. It may take more than one time or 20 times, but with support and confidence, they can quit and stay quit.

Gutierrez is a voice actor and lives in Long Beach. Need help to quit smoking? Visit quit.nobutts.org or call 1-800-NO-BUTTS, for free quit support from the California Smokers’ Helpline.

  1. California Smokers Helpline. Coronavirus (COVID-19). NoButts.org. https://www.nobutts.org/covid. Accessed February 26, 2021.

 

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How our 2020 taxes could affect the size of your next stimulus check

By Denitsa Tsekova

With another stimulus bill on the verge of going into law halfway through tax season, filing now or later may affect how much you get in your next stimulus check. If your income dropped in 2020 compared to 2019, you should file immediately online. But if it increased, you might consider waiting until the payments are issued before filing your federal tax return. “It probably is beneficial if your 2020 income is less than your 2019 to file your tax return immediately,” Lewis Taub, a certified public accountant and New York director of tax services at Berkowitz Pollack Brant Advisors, told Yahoo Money. “If you don’t do that and you miss the actual cutoff point, you’ll be able to get the difference of what you were actually owed on the 2021 return.” If your 2020 income was below $80,000 for single filers and $160,000 for joint filers, you would be eligible for some amount of the potential third round

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Update and resources del PPP 2.0-EIDL-CA Relief Grant 2021

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

An interactive session to discuss latest updates on these small business loans and grants will take place on Monday, March 22 and 29, from 9 – 10 a.m.; and April 5, 19 and 26, from 9 – 10 a.m. Co-sponsored by the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce. Register now! http://bit.ly/3qqzko. March 22, 29, April 12, 19 and 26, 2021 at 9 a.m. Business resources in Palo Alto Our Business Assistance Center has up-to-date information for businesses that continue to operate and for those businesses that are closed and experiencing hardship during the shelter in place order. Please learn more on our Uplift Local for Business page. – “Spring Cleaning” Networking Event: Targeted to cleaning businesses, join this networking event hosted by Start Small Think Big to learn what other similar businesses have learned through the last year. Register to join on March 23, at 3 p.m. – Financial Coaching: TrustPlus is partnering with the Opportunity Fund to offer free one-on-one financial coaching to small business owners in English and Spanish. Learn more here. Uplift Local for Businesses: As always, check here for updates on temporary outdoor spaces, street closures, and more.

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Envy can destroy economic progress

EDITOR’S

NOTE Dear Readers:

With much feeling I write these words to introduce a topic that is of great importance for our cultures from developing countries, especially Latin America: Envy. I found this interesting article, from which I publish an excerpt, and written by Lipton Matthews, deals with the issue of envy as a negative status in progress within our cultures.

Marvin Ramirez by Lipton Matthews shared from Mises Wire Economists think that culture is a fuzzy concept. However, as research shows, culture allows us to know the growth potential of a country. A cultural trait worth studying for its propensity to stunt development is envy. Envy is described as a feeling of resentment motivated by the achievements of other people.

The manifestation of this emotion can be destructive or progressive. Getting an education, starting a business, or investing are examples of constructive envy.

The desire to outperform the rival can serve as an incentive to engage in productive activities. Specifically, studies postulate that individuals work longer hours to compensate for the drop in income relative to other groups. However, many have argued that constructive envy is more pervasive in developed countries, while fear of destructive envy is ubiquitous in the developing world.

This is because countries with weak institutions — that is, institutions that do not protect private property — are less likely to get rich; therefore, the dearth of success makes achievement pretentious. Consequently, competent individuals rationally avoid entrepreneurial initiatives to thwart the plans of the envious. Unsurprisingly, envy avoidance behavior imposes a limitation on productivity, thus restricting the growth of material prosperity.

In anthropological studies, scholars postulate that the intention to prevent the effects of destructive envy has resulted in the deliberate underproduction of crops. For people in an envious environment, the benefits of performance outweigh the costs of destructive envy. In Envy and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia, Bereket Kebede and Daniel John Zizzo illustrate that destructive envy is a deterrent to the adoption of agricultural innovations.

The authors report that, in one of the study towns, a man burned down his brother’s farm when he was growing a more lucrative cereal. Destructive envy therefore carries a deadweight cost, since instead of being productive the envious are engaged in undermining the efforts of their neighbors. – (From the editor: If you follow us on www.elreporteroSF.com, we will publish the full article in about a week.)

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