by the El Reportero’s news services

Felipe Calderón

Less than a week after President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa addressed a joint session of the US congr­ess, the US administration leaked the information that it was about to send 1,200 troops to the Mexican border.

Almost certainly, the U.S. had tipped Mexico off about the deployment because the foreign ministry immediately issued a statement, on May 25, portraying the move ­as part of an effort by the US administration to bear down on the flow of guns from the US to gangs in Mexico. In the US, the deployment was spun, initially at least, as a move to improve border security and restrict the flow of people and drugs north.

Colombia prepares for presidential election

On Sunday May 30 Colombians will go to the polls to choose a successor to President Alvaro Uribe Vélez, who has been in office since 2002. While the final opinion polls all threw up slightly different results, all agreed on two main points.

First, Juan Manuel Santos of the ruling Partido de la U (PU) and Antanas Mockus of the Partido Verde (PV) are the main contenders; and second, neither candidate will obtain the 50% plus one margin required to win on Sunday. A second round runoff (June 20) will therefore be necessary to determine who will lead the nation after August 7.

Obama Administration Has Not Changed US Latin American Policy

A joint report released by three organizations has issued a report condemning the US policy towards Latin America under President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, claiming Washington has failed to deliver any substantial change. Does this indicate that the occupant of the White House has little or no control over the way US policy is delivered?

The joint publication Waiting for Change: Trends in US Security Assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean, was released today and was drawn up by The Center for International Policy, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund and the Washington Office on Latin America. Its claims reveal information which would point toward the President of the United States of America being little more than a puppet, unless substantial change is delivered, where actions speak louder than words.

The report indicates that the Obama Administration’s policies in Latin America continue to rely heavily on military operations and do not pay sufficient attention to human rights issues. It goes on to claim that during 2009, many countries in Latin America accused Washington of arrogance, inattention to human rights and failure to deliver on democracy, especially after its secret agreement to set up military bases in Columbia.

Chavez: New opportunity for ties with Colombia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suggested that with the Sunday elections in Colombia, new doors could be opened for the resumption of relations with that country.

During the inauguration last night of the socialist campaign command Bolivar 200, Chavez said he hopes the new Colombian president is a person open to dialogue and reach minimum agreements of mutual respect.

I am looking forward to Sunday, and if there is a first-round win, I would be the first to make a phone call and greet the new Colombian president,” he said.

by Luis Carlos López

The bill to overhaul financial reform passed the Senate May 20, after losing a cloture vote the day before.

­The overarching regulation was approved 59-39 with Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) joining three other Republicans to push it through.

Along with keeping big corporations from engaging in risky financial dealings, it helps protect consumers from being victimized by predatory lending and further financial hardship.

The National Council of La Raza outlined some of the provisions in the current bill that are of special benefit to the Hispanic community.

1. Establishes a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enforce consumer protection laws.

2. Includes new disclosure requirements that establish a more transparent process of wiring money abroad.

3. Provides expanded access to independent financial advice and guidance.

4. Promotes access to safe and affordable bank accounts and credit for low-income communities, and     under-banked families.

NCLR called the bill a “strong step forward in the fight to improve the accountability of Wall Street and eliminate deceptive lending practices.”

Last month Hispanic Link News Service commissioned the non-profit, non-partisan research policy group Center for Responsible Lending to do a five-part bilingual series Our Money Our Future (available at hispaniclink.org) identifying bad financial practices and products and alerting readers to the pitfalls that disproportionately affect Latino consumers.

In February, NCLR along with the Center for Community Capital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported that Hispanics and people of color were more than twice as likely to fall prey to sub-prime lending schemes and default on their mortgages.

This, coupled with unemployment figures for blacks and Hispanics well above the national average, has left thousands of families with major credit and financial difficulties.

In the Hispanic Link series, CRL’s César Castro spoke of then-pending legislation that would work to eliminate some financial traps that were destabilizing Latino communities nationwide and causing thousands of families to lose their savings and homes.

The reform bill addresses many of most onerous practices, emerged a month later, It is now headed to the House-Senate conference committee, where lawmakers and legislators are working to resolve final differences.

“It’s a really great bill,” CRL Communications Director Kathleen Day tells Hispanic Link. “The bottom line is that this new agency will actually protect consumers. It will watch out for consumers and stamp out bad products as they crop up — not wait until they torpedo the whole economy.”

Despite the bill’s effort to protect consumers by creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Castro and Day share some concerns. Under this new legislation, two industries lobbying for exception from federal regulation are auto dealers and the payday loan industry. Both have a direct effect on Hispanic market.

“We are still concerned regarding proposals which give some industries a loophole that allows them not to adhere to the rules of the intended law,” Castro says. “Car dealers that lend you money to finance your vehicle are seeking exemptions.” Without government regulation, car dealers can spike interest rates with something he referred to as the “yoyo scam” — a procedure whereby they can adjust car loans.

Payday lenders are exempt from regulations, leaving Latinos and people of color vulnerable, Castro explained, saying exemptions would allow businesses to decide interest rates—oftentimes as high as 400 percent rate.

Deputy Director of Wealth-Building Policy at NCLR, Janis Bowdler told Hispanic Link that NCLR has been working closely with legislators to make sure Hispanics are better protected.

NCLR has been working closely with the community to provide financial counseling. They’ve worked with Sen. Robert Menéndez (D-N.J.), and House members Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) and José Serrano (D-N.Y.) to create a financial education and counseling program with the Treasure Department.

“We have been working on the banking reform bill to ensure Latino priorities are addressed,” Bowdler says. “Part of that includes educating the community about what’s at stake and getting them to weigh in with their Congress members.”  Hispanic Link.

by David Bacon

Union members march in protest of mass firings of workers who lack proper documentation. ­(BY DAVID BACON Raúl)

­San Francisco, California – Federal immigration authorities have pressured one of San Francisco’s major building service companies, ABM, into firing hundreds of its own workers. Some 475 janitors have been told that unless they can show legal immigration status, they will lose their jobs in the near future.

ABM has been a union company for decades, and many of the workers have been there for years. “They’ve been working in the buildings downtown for 15, 20, some as many as 27 years,” said Olga Miranda, president of Service Employees Local 87. “They’ve built homes. They’ve provided for their families. They’ve sent their kids to college. They’re not new workers. They didn’t just get here a year ago.”

Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security has told ABM that they have flagged the personnel records of those workers. Weeks ago, ICE agents sifted through Social Security records and the I-9 immigration forms all workers have to fill out when they apply for jobs. They then told ABM that the company had to fire 475 workers who were accused of lacking legal immigration status.

ABM is one of the largest building service companies in the country, and it appears that union janitorial companies are the targets of the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement program. “Homeland Security is going after employers that are union,” Miranda charged. “They’re going after employers that give benefits and are paying above the average.”

Last October, 1,200 janitors working for ABM were fired in similar circumstances in Minneapolis. In November, over 100 janitors working for Seattle Building Maintenance lost their jobs. Minneapolis janitors belong to SEIU Local 26, Seattle janitors to Local 6 and San Francisco janitors to Local 87.

President Obama said sanctions enforcement targets employers “who are using illegal workers in order to drive down wages – and oftentimes mistreat those workers.” An ICE Worksite Enforcement Advisory claimed, “unscrupulous employers are likely to pay illegal workers substandard wages or force them to endure intolerable working conditions.”

Curing intolerable conditions by firing or deporting workers who endure them doesn’t help the workers or change the conditions, however. And despite Obama’s contention that sanctions enforcement will punish those employers who exploit immigrants, employers are rewarded for cooperating with ICE by being immunized from prosecution. Javier Murillo, president of SEIU Local 26, said, “The promise made during the audit is that if the company cooperates and complies, they won’t be fined.

So this kind of enforcement really only hurts workers.”

ICE Director John Morton said the agency is auditing the records of 1,654 companies nationwide. “What kind of economic recovery goes with firing thousands of workers?” Miranda asked. “Why don’t they target employers who are not paying taxes, who are not obeying safety or labor laws?”

The San Francisco janitors are now faced with an agonizing dilemma.

Should they turn themselves in to Homeland Security, which might charge them with providing a bad Social Security number to their employer, and even hold them for deportation? For workers with families, homes and deep roots in a community, it’s not possible to just walk away and disappear. “I have a lot of members who are single mothers whose children were born here,” Miranda said. “I have a member whose child has leukemia. What are they supposed to do? Leave their children here and go back to Mexico and wait? And wait for what?”

Miranda’s question reflects not just the dilemma facing individual workers, but of 12 million undocumented people living in the United States. Since 2005, successive congress members, senators and administrations have dangled the prospect of gaining legal status in front of those who lack it. In exchange, their various schemes for immigration reform have proposed huge new guest worker programs, and a big increase in exactly the kind of enforcement now directed at 475 San Francisco janitors.

While the potential criminalization of undocumented people in Arizona continues to draw headlines, the actual punishment of workers because of their immigration status has become an increasingly bitter fact of life across the country.

President Obama, condemning Arizona’s law that would make being undocumented a state crime, said it would “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” But then he announced his support for legislation with guest worker programs and increased enforcement.

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