by Marvin J. Ramírez

Sanctuary: the theme of the day Members of the community listen to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, promising to strengthen the city’s Sanctuary Ordenance and to participate in May 1 pro-immmigrant march. The event was held at St. Peter’s Church on April 22. ( PHOTOS BY MARVIN J. RAMIREZ )

Last year, millions of people participated in two historical immigrant marches nationwide, demanding amnesty for millions of undocumented people living in the shadows. Meanwhile, Mayor Gavin Newsom was busy with other commitments, which cast doubts of his support for the undocumented plight.

While a new march on May 1st is being organized in most parts of the country, promising to be the biggest ever, Newsom said “I promise” to participate this time, during a townhall meeting at St. Peter’s Church on Sunday. The event, which attracted approximately 350 people, including Assemblyman Mark Leno and State Sen. Carol Migden, was organized by the San Francisco Organizing Project.

Newsom’s statement comes after a series of recent immigration raids in the Bay Area and pressure from immigrants and human rights advocates who have criticized him for not attending the previous marches. He pledged that San Francisco will remain a so-called “sanctuary city.”

The designation has no legal meaning, but Newsom promised that no city employee would assist in the raids.

The Board of Supervisors first declared San Francisco a sanctuary city in 1989. However, SFPD still confiscates the vehicles of undocumented people when they are stopped for minor traffic offenses, creating big business for the city and the towing companies.

Members of the new San Francisco Organization Project, during an event on the S.F. Sancturary, with Mayor Gavin Newsom, State Sen. Carol Midgen, and Assemblymember Mark Leno at St. Peter’s Church.

On Friday, during an immigration raid, 13 foreign nationals were arrested without work permits at an Oakland manufacturing company. These continued ICE actions are creating panic of limitless proportions within the immigrant communities, and are imprisoning entire families inside their own homes.

“And there are mothers who not only are afraid to take their children to school, but to the park,” said Deacon Nate Bacon.

“I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way, shape or form with these raids,” Newsom declared. “We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it.”

Sen. Migden promised to take action calling on the ICE to respect the immigrant communities. They should know “that they can’t treat our neighbors so savagely” while encouraging the members of the SF Organizing Project to help the Latinos in El Canal, Marin County – her district – organize the way they are doing it in San Francisco.

The mayor also answered questions on the day laborers issue, which has become a hot item for advocates, after the city has moved to select the old Home Depot building on Bayshore Blvd. as the new day laborers’ building, “without consulting the day laborers.” Currently, the Day Labor Program’s office is located on César Chávez St., half a block from Mission St.

The mayor denied the charge, saying that the Bayshore site will be fit to accommodate the laborers, and denied that SFPD will start ticketing those who continue soliciting employment on César Chávez St.

“It’s not about changing what there is already,” he said, “rather to better what there is,” while promising to work with them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have continued to conduct raids across the country, including arrests in San Rafael, Oakland, Richmond, San Pablo, Santa Clara and other cities across the Bay area, since May of 2006.

Immigration officials have said they are executing arrest warrants for immigrants who had committed crimes or were in the country illegally and had ignored final deportation orders.

Officials added that in the course of serving deportation warrants, other people suspected of being illegal immigrants were questioned and then arrested. However, of at least 65 Main County residents that were arrested in March, just five have been ordered deported.

In March, San Rafael Mayor, Al Boro, called on California U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to persuade the immigration agency to change how it is enforcing immigration law because he believed children were the ones being hurt.

Marches and rallies are planned in many cities over the coming weeks – including

Redwood City, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento – to name a few.

Newsom, Migden and Leno all vowed to work with other cities and legislators to put a stop to what they cited as blatant intimidation of immigrants.

“Our action is to stand strong in opposition to these raids… to make sure that we are not contributing in any way, shape or form,” Newsom said. “Even legal immigrants are fearful. This just sends a chill to a lot of people.”

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by the El Reportero wire services

Álvaro Uribe

COLOMBIA: On 19 April President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged on national TV that Colombia’s standing in the international community was being affected by the wave of accusations against him and his family.

At present the president’s reputation lies in the hands of two men: Jorge Noguera, the former head of the Colombian intelligence services (DAS), and Gustavo Petro, the leftwing senator whose testimony has played an important part in revealing the government’s links with paramilitaries.

If Petro can provide more evidence for his accusations against Uribe, the president’s position could become untenable. If Noguera, who stands accused of deleting drug traffickers’ records from the DAS’s database, is found guilty, Uribe says he will apologize to the nation. It is difficult to see how his political stock, certainly internationally, could recover from such a blow.

Debate continues over biofuels

In the first article attributed to Fidel Castro since he stood down from the presidency at the end of July last year, the Cuban leader argued billions would die of starvation as a result of the increased production of biofuels.

This followed Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez own attack on the use of food stuffs for fuel. Given that as late as 28 February Cuba and Venezuela had signed a joint agreement to build 11 ethanol plants on the Caribbean island, the change in policy was swift, seemingly prompted by U.S. President George W. Bush’s signing of a biofuel agreement with Brazil’s President Lula da Silva.

Other related story – Energy summit was stage for oblique regional leadership contest

South America’s first energy summit was expected by many to be the stage for a confrontation between Venezuela and Brazil over the latter’s ethanol deal with the US. Condemned by both Caracas and Havana as a scheme likely to divert foodstuffs away from the world’s hungry masses, the summit was seen as an opportunity for aspirants to regional leadership to gain ground. As it turned out, Venezuela backtracked on the ethanol issue, but maneuvered frantically to win on other issues.

Nicaragua wants ‘freedom’ from IMF in five years

MANAGUA – Although it will shortly seek a new loan agreement with the organization, President Daniel Ortega said that his country will freeitself from International Monetary Fund.

“Within five years Nicaragua will be free from the fund,” said Ortega, a former Marxist cold-war rebel leader who regained power after elections last year.

Starting April 30, the impoverished Central American nation will seek to extend its loan program with the IMF at a meeting in Managua. Ortega has vowed to work with business leaders and multilateral lenders.

But like his mentor, leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Ortega is often deeply critical of the fund, which many in Latin America accuse of ignore the needs of the poor.

“It is a blessing to be free of the fund, and for the fund it will be a relief to rid itself of a government that defends the interests of the poor,” Ortega said.

Nicaragua’s previous $140 million IMF program expired on Dec. 12, a month before Ortega took office for the second time.

by David Bacon

­New America Media­

Luis Gutiérrez

For the last several months, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have carried out well-publicized immigration raids in factories, meatpacking plants, janitorial services and other workplaces employing immigrants. ICE calls the workers criminals because immigration law forbids employers to hire them.

But while workers get deported and often must leave their children with relatives or even strangers, don’t expect to see their employers go to jail.

Further, ICE won’t and can’t, deport all 12 million undocumented workers in the country. This would quickly halt many industries.

Instead, these raids have a political purpose.

Last fall, after agents raided Swift 8 Co. meatpacking plants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the media the deportations would show Congress the need for “stronger border security, effective interior enforcement and a temporary-worker program.” Bush wants, he said, “a program that would allow businesses that need foreign workers, because they can’t otherwise satisfy their labor needs, to be able to get those workers in a regulated program.”

In his recent visit to Mexico, President Bush again proposed new guest worker programs. He proposed to allow corporations and contractors to recruit hundreds of thousands of workers a year outside of the U.S., and put them to work here on temporary, employment-based visas.

A few weeks ago, Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D111.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill into Congress which would set up the kind of guest worker program the president called for. Corporations could bring in 400,000 guest workers annually, while the kind of sanctions that have led to the wave of workplace raids would be put on steroids.

Then last week, the administration and Republican Senator John Cornyn proposed to eliminate all family-based immigration visas, and allow people to come to the U.S. only as a result of recruitment by corporate employers.

All immigrants would become guest workers.

Labor schemes like this have a long history. From 1942 to 1964 the bracero program recruited temporary immigrants, who were exploited, cheated, and deported if they tried to go on strike. Growers pitted them against workers already in the country to drive down wages.

Cesar Chávez and other Latino leaders campaigned to get the program repealed.

Advocates of today’s programs avoid the bitter “bracero” label, and call them “guest worker” “essential worker” or Just “new worker” schemes. You can’t clean up an unpleasant reality, however, by renaming it.

Guest worker programs are low-wage schemes, intended to supply plentiful labor to corporate employers, at a price they want to pay.

Companies don’t recruit guest workers so they can pay them more, but to pay them less. According to Rob Rosado, director of legislative affairs for the American Meat Institute, meatpackers want a guest worker program’ but not a basic wage guarantee for those workers.

“We don’t want the government setting wages,’’ he says. “The market determines wages.’’

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s recent report, Close to Slavery, shows that current guest worker programs allow labor contractors to maintain blacklists of workers who work slowly or demand their rights. Public interest lawyers spend years in court, trying just to get back wages for cheated immigrants.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor almost never decertifies contractors who abuse workers.

The AFL-CIO opposes guest worker programs, and says immigrants should be given permanent residence visas, so they have labor rights and can become normal members of the communities they live in. Since 1999’ the AFL-CIO has called for legalization of the 12 million people living in the U.S. without documents. Most unions oppose employer sanctions and the recent immigration raids’ because they’re often used to threaten and punish workers when they speak out for better wages and conditions.

Today over 180 million people in the world already live outside the countries where they were born.

In the countries that are the main sources of migration to the U.S., trade agreements like NAFTA and market-based economic reforms, have uprooted hundreds of thousands of farmers and workers’ leaving them little option other that coming north.

A rational immigration policy should end trade and investment policies abroad that produce poverty and displace people. In the U.S.’ immigration policy should emphasize rights and equality, and protect all families and communities of immigrants and native-born alike.

Using immigration raids instead as a pressure tactic to get Congress to approve guest worker programs is not a legitimate use of enforcement. It undermines the family and community values for which this country stands.

Hispanic Link.