by Ali Tabatabai

­Gavin Newsom

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said everything short of declaring victory during his re-election celebration speech Tuesday night, including thanking his opponents for entering the race despite his overwhelming approval ratings.

In front of a crowded room full of campaign volunteers and supporters at the Ferry Building in of San Francisco, Newsom acknowledged the mayoral race as “anticlimactic” and offered his next term as moment of reconciliation with his critics. According to campaign spokesman, Nathan Ballard, Newsom had received 77 percent of the 40,000 some votes as of 8:45pm.

“I’d like to thank my opponents for having the courage to actually put their names on the ballot and not sit on the sidelines and take shots,” Newsom said, “To those who may be disappointed tonight, I’m committed to working with you in the next four years.”

Mary Watts, 19, a college student who interned with the campaign through a program called Act Locally said they mayor should focus on fixing Muni problems and homelessness during during his next term.

“I’d like to see him tackle the homelessness situation and make sure they have the right resources are available for them,” Watts said.

After his speech, Newsom said that he plans to concentrate on crime, particularly homicide rates, as well as the environment and quality of life issues.

­“You just wait and see on the environment,” said Newsom, “I’ve been working for six months on some new environmental ideas that will reignite San Francisco.”

District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty made an appearance in the crowd to show his support for Newsom’s expected victory and acknowledged the mayor’s ability to overcome publicly chronicled personal issues.

“The mayor has been through a lot of rockiness over the past year, but no matter what San Franciscans have looked beyond the headlines,” Dufty said.”

Official election results counts are not expected until two more weeks.

by Juliet Blalack

ICE, OUT OF EMERYVILLE! Members of group Unite Here Union, protest outside the ICE Special Agent offices in Oakland.(photo by Jennifer Delgado)­

Protestors demanded immigration officials leave Emeryville last Thursday, in the latest development of local hotel workers’ battle with the management of Woodfin Suites Hotel.

The crowd marched carrying signs such ­as “Tear down the wall of death, stop the raids” and “stop the raids no more deportation.”

They gathered outside the office of the local ICE ((Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement) at Broadway and 15th streets in Oakland at 12:15 p.m., according to Jon Rodney, the communications official for East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE).

“By pursuing workers affected by Measure C, ICE is helping employers scare their workers into silence and avoid following labor laws. That undermines labor standards for all workers, no matter where they’re from,” said Wei-Ling Huber, President of UNITE HERE Local 2850.

Emeryville voters passed Proposition C, which guaranteed living wage for hotel workers, in 2005.Woodfin Suites Hotel management tried to overturn Prop. C and did not pay its workers in accordance with the measure, according to EBASE’s website.

After employees began drawing attention to the wage violations, the management fired 12 housekeepers.

In February, the managers contacted U.S. Representative Brian Bilbray, who then asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to investigate the immigration status of the hotel workers. Woodfin CEO Samuel Hardage donates to Bilbray’s campaign and lives in his district, according to the East Bay Daily News.

ICE officials took documents from both Woodfin and the Hilton Garden Inn, and then told managers they needed to fire 12 employees.

During this time, they arrested a dishwasher who was employed by the hotel for 18 years, according to EBASE.

“I am deeply concerned by the allegations that another member of Congress – acting on behalf of a campaign contributor – may have gotten a federal agency to intervene in that dispute in a way that hurts workers in my district,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, in a statement made available to the East Bay Daily News as stating.­

by the El Reportero news services

GUATEMALA – CENTER-LEFT VICTORY: The campaign was marred by violence, with more than 50 political party activists or candidates for Congress or the local elections killed.

Center-leftist Alvaro Colom won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday, denying power to a retired general who had sought to unleash the army to fight a violent crime wave.

Colom, a soft-spoken textile businessman, beat General Otto Perez Molina, the former head of army intelligence, by 6 percentage points with more than 97 percent of votes counted.

“I am the nation’s president elect,” Colom told his cheering supporters.

He will be sworn in on Jan. 14, becoming the first president from the left since the end of the country’s civil war in 1996, which deeply scarred this coffee-producing nation of jungles, volcanoes and Mayan ruins.

The Central American country, a U.S. free-trade partner, has been plagued by violent drug cartels and youth street gangs since the war and has one of the world’s highest murder rates.

But voters with bad memories of atrocities under military rule rejected Perez Molina’s plans to send more soldiers onto the streets, boost the use of capital punishment and emergency powers to fight crime. Perez Molina conceded defeat.

While the complete Guatemalan Cabinet will be announced December 1st, Alvaro Colom advanced some names on Monday, including that of the future foreign minister, Haroldo Rodas.

Rodas, current general secretary of the Central American Economic Integration system (SIECA), will formally announce his withdrawal from that post at the Ibero-American Summit in Chile on Wednesday.

Colom also invited legislator Alejandro Arevalo (Unionista Party) to lead the Finance Ministry and publicized plans to transform the Economy Ministry into the General Economic Development with involvement of his advisor Edgar Barquin.­

­by Adolfo Flores

A study released Oct. 31 by the National Council of La Raza and The Urban Institute, has found that children suffered from mental7and health disorders after their parents were seized in workplace immigration raids.

The first-of-its-kind report, ‘’Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigra7tion Raids on America’s Children,” found that for every two detained adults, one child was left behind. Two-thirds of the children were under age 10.

Nearly all of the children exhibited negative emotional and behavioral reactions.

For some it led to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety and in one child suicidal thoughts, the study revealed.

In the United States more than 3 million U.S.-born children have at least one undocumented parent.

Between 2002 and 2006 the number of undocumented persons arrested at their workplace increased from 500 to 3,600.

“The raids have a destabilizing impact on children’s’ families, schools and social network,” said report co-author Rosa María Castaneda. “All of these influences play a critical factor in all of these children’s well-being.”

The study followed 30 afflicted families for months after ICE raids in New Bedford, Mass.; Greeley, Colo, and Grand Island, Neb., last year. A total of 912 people were arrested and 506 children were directly affected.

Many detainees were held in facilities outside their states and allowed only limited telephone access.

Single parents, primary care-givers and those with family health issues were released within a day or two, but there were inconsistencies in parents’ release.

Some did not disclose they had children for fear they also would be detained or placed in foster care.

In Greeley and Grand Island a large number of those who were arrested accepted voluntary departure. Some were detained for up to six months.

There weren’t that many voluntary departures in New Bedford, where almost all those seized were from Guatemala and Central America.

Initially, community organizations provided most children left behind with strong social support, but resources were quickly drained.

Rev. E. Roy Riley of New Jersey met Berta, a single mother who hid under the floor boards beneath her work station during one of the raids. Berta continues to worry about her son’s welfare.

“You could say, well, Berta, you should have thought about that before you moved to this country,” said Rev. Riley.

“But for the vast majority of these young immigrant families that is exactly what they did…they wanted more than anything to give their children a good home’ sufficient food, and a good education.”

Rep Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who introduced the Families First Immigration Enforcement Act Oct. 25, is pressing for a hearing on the study.

Her proposal would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to give access to social service agencies to screen and interview detainees because of problems that arise when a person lies to the agency due to fear and intimidation.

It would also force ICE to release sole caretakers’ those who care for children with special needs, pregnant and nursing mothers within 72 hours of their apprehension if they’re not subject to mandatory detention or pose an immediate fl ight risk.

The Senate companion bill was introduced by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass).

“Members on both sides of the aisle care very deeply about the education, well-being and health of these children’” said Miriam Calderon, a senior policy analysis for NCLR. “It’s clear that (the raids) are un-dermining their goals.’’

The Urban Institute expects to conduct a follow-up study in a year to report the long-term effects that raids have on immigrant children.

“We also want to look at a broader range of types of immigration raids, like smaller raids, some non-Latino populations and probably some raids that occurred in people’s homes’ in addition to the ones that occurred in the work place,” said Andy Capps’ co-author of the study.

The study is available at ­www.ncir.org.
Hispanic Link.

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