| Contact Us |
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For more information or to join the Coalition for Education About Immigration (CEI) contact:
Avi Poster
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| A Reasonable Position On Immigration Reform |
To stem the tide of maverick legislation being proposed and adopted all over the country, and to curb the growing negative attitude towards new arrivals, The Coalition for Education About Immigration strongly advances the argument for comprehensive national immigration reform. As we are often asked to describe our position in depth, we offer the following basic elements as the foundation for national immigration reform. CEI supports:
1. The development of opportunities to allow hard-working immigrants who are already contributing to this country to come out of the shadows, regularize their status after satisfying reasonable criteria and, over time, pursue an option to become lawful permanent residents and, eventually, United States citizens;
2. Reforms in our family-based immigration system that honor humanitarian and American family values and significantly reduce waiting times for reuniting families in the United States, a process that can take years, even decades under the current regulations;
3. The development of legal avenues for new immigrant workers and their families who wish to migrate to the United States as well as the implementation of a safe, legal, and orderly process in which the rights of all workers are fully protected;
4. Effective border protection policies that are consistent with American humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, policies that will prevent entry into the United States of terrorists and dangerous criminals, implement immigration policy, and maintain the integrity of national borders.
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| Have Forums... Will Travel |
CEI is willing to arrange an educational forum for interested organizations.
This past month, for example, we partnered with Nashville Public Television (NPT) and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to present a program designed specifically for our business community entitled Destination Music City: The Business and Economic Perspective for New Arrivals.
This forum featured Jose Gonzalez, Belmont University/Conexion Americas, Tom Negri, Loews Vanderbilt Plaza, and Stephen Fotopoulos, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, along with local foreign-born business owners.
While this program was designed specifically for our local business community, our Coalition is willing to tailor its presentation to any audience. Our experienced speakers bureau is equipped to address a number of critical issues.
Organizations interested in hosting one of our forums or educational programs should contact Coalition Chair Avi Poster for more information
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Editor’s Note: CEI, in its effort to educate the Nashville community on matters of importance related to immigration, will publish an occasional newsletter designed to increase awareness, advance knowledge, as well as encourage reasonable, rational conversation. Newsletters will feature short articles on a variety of topics related to our mission. Please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with others. Outside submissions will be considered for future newsletters.
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 THE COALITION FOR EDUCATION ABOUT IMMIGRATION (CEI) |
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The Coalition for Education About Immigration (CEI) is a grassroots organization devoted to facilitating educated, rational, and informed conversation on immigration and related issues. CEI was formed in response to the growing mean-spirited conversation on immigration that surfaced in the Nashville community. Since its birth, the Coalition has focused on (a) lowering the vitriolic conversation that too often dominates conversation about immigration, (b) providing our community with clear and accurate information, and (c) positioning community members to adopt reasoned conclusions about the immigration debate. Although we started with just a half dozen at our table, within a year our membership has grown to over 150 individuals, many of whom, in turn, represent formative organizations and service agencies in our community. Much has been accomplished since our inception … we have organized countless community educational forums and parlor conversations; have met with our local school, city and state officials in conversation about new arrivals; have developed an array of educational materials for distribution; organized a series of Clergy for Tolerance breakfast meetings to encourage local clergy to educate their congregations, etc.
We invite individuals and organizations to join us at our table. Our monthly meetings are held at Scarritt-Bennett and are open to new members. For more information about our Coalition, to add your name to our email list, and/or to sign on to attend meetings … please contact Coalition Chair Avi Poster aviposter@comcast.net or Vice-Chair Tom Negri tnegri@loewshotels.com
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| THE INFAMOUS 287(g) PROGRAM |
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In 1996, the United States Congress added Section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act, enabling state and local law enforcement agencies to enter into formal agreements with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) and perform limited immigration enforcement duties. The original intent of Section 287(g) was to provide ICE with additional resources in more geographically remote locations to pursue investigations related to violent crimes, human trafficking, organized crime, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling, and money laundering. In the first 10 years of the program, few local law enforcement agencies expressed any interest in the program, unwilling to perform federal responsibilities at local taxpayer expense or confuse the roles of community policing and federal immigration enforcement. In the last several years, however, and in response to the U.S. Congress's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform, many local sheriffs and other politicians have felt pressure to participate in the 287(g) program.
The Davidson County Sheriff requested permission to participate in this program during the final months of the 2006 election season, when several high-profile cases emerged involving undocumented immigrants. Originally, the program was presented to the public and Metro Council as necessary to identify and remove "criminal illegal immigrants," the small minority of undocumented immigrants who commit crimes against the community and pose a risk to
public safety. To date, however, over 4,000 individuals have been processed for removal in Nashville and very few of them meet the enforcement priorities envisioned by the 1996 law. The vast majority of individuals are brought into the system for minor offenses such as driver's license violations, remaining in a public park after dark, loitering at a day labor site, or fishing without a license. In fact, immigrants are processed for removal even if the charges against them are dismissed altogether. Some in our community now hail 287(g) as an appropriate strategy to cleanse the city of any undocumented immigrant encountered by police. Others, including our Coalition, recognize the importance of removing dangerous criminals from the streets regardless of where they are born, but urge careful assessment of any policy that instills widespread fear in the foreign-born population and drives immigrants further into the shadows of our community. As immigrants see their neighbors deported for fishing without a license, they become less willing to contact the police if they themselves are victims of crime. As immigrants hear of a pregnant woman being shackled to a hospital bed for a driving offense, they become less willing to drive their own children to school or to the doctor. The cost of this fear on overall public health and safety remains to be quantified.
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| THE JUANA VILLEGAS DE LA PAZ CASE |
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| The recent Villegas DeLaPaz case serves as the most recent major example of the miscarriage of 287(g). While Sheriff Hall and others continue to maintain that they are targeting serious criminals, Mrs. DeLaPaz was placed into the system simply for operating a vehicle without a Tennessee driver’s license, a misdemeanor and a much lesser offense that Congress intended 287(g) to address. What happened after her stop, however, made this miscarriage of justice even more objectionable, warranting the immediate attention of many from within and outside of our community, and ultimately bringing great embarrassment to Nashville. It is reasonable to expect those the police stop to have some sort of documentation as proof of their identity. Metro Police Chief Serpas has given his officers discretion to consider other forms of identification than a driver’s license, such as a Matricula Card, a picture identification card issued by the Mexican government, or a vehicle registration, both of which Juana had in her possession.
The Berry Hill arresting officer, however, found these documents insufficient, and instead determined it necessary to arrest Mrs. DeLaPaz, which led to her ultimate transfer to the Sheriff Department’s custody. Even more disturbing than this decision was the abusive treatment of Mrs. DeLaPaz by the arresting officer and the abominable conditions of her detention by the Sheriff’s police, both of which have been well documented and, unfortunately, heard around the world. She was given no reason for her stop. In her ninth month of pregnancy, Mrs. DeLaPaz was forced to sit in her hot car, with her three young children, for over an hour. Although he could have just issued a citation, the Berry Hill officer made the decision to arrest her and have her transferred to the custody of the Sheriff’s Department. In spite of her condition, the Sheriff’s Department continued the detention of this pregnant woman who subsequently went into labor while in their custody. Although obviously not a flight risk, she was not allowed to contact her husband and other than the time of delivery of her child was kept in shackles at the hospital.. After giving birth, Mrs. DeLaPaz was denied use of a breast pump and kept separated from her newborn. Coalition member Elliott Ozment (a local Atticus Finch) represented her in court where he was able to bring many of these abuses to light. While the case has yet to reach its legal course of action, it is heartening to know that the Sheriff has issued new orders for restraint to his officers and that as a result of this case all local police have been put on notice relative to their treatment of those they stop for traffic arrests.
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| ENGLISH-ONLY PROPOSED CHARTER AMENDMENT |
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As many of you are aware, Metro Councilman Eric Crafton proposed an English-only amendment to the Metro Charter. Specifically, he and his organization, “Nashville English First”, desire to amend the Metro Charter so that all official government communications and publications shall be made “only” in English (the word “first” is nowhere to be found in the actual proposed amendment). Unlike Crafton’s previously unsuccessful English-only proposed ordinance, which was vetoed by Mayor Bill Purcell in February of 2007, the current version of the English-only proposal contains no exception for the public health, safety and/or welfare. In fact it is much more restrictive than the previous version, which the Metro Law Department last year determined was in violation of both federal and state constitutions and statutes.
Recently, the Metro Law Department rendered a formal opinion that the petition procedure utilized by Councilman Crafton and his group to get his current version of the English-only Charter amendment on the November ballot violates §19.01 of the Metro Charter. This provision in the Metro Charter states that no amendments to the Charter shall be submitted by petition more often than once in each two years. Since a previous Charter amendment (concerning property tax increases) was submitted to the voters on September 7, 2006, Crafton’s proposed Charter amendment on English-only would violate the two-year Charter provision. On August 26, 2008, the Davidson County Election Commission acted on the above-referenced legal opinion of the Metro Law Department and voted to keep the English-only proposed Charter amendment off the November ballot. Two days later, on August 28, 2008, Eric Crafton and his organization, Nashville English First, filed a lawsuit against the Davidson County Election Commission and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville in Davidson County. This lawsuit was filed in the Chancery Court for Davidson County. In an expedited hearing held on September 4 Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman upheld the decision made by the Election Commission. This ruling was subsequently appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which on September 9 denied Crafton’s request for an expedited hearing. The very next day, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Crafton’s motion for an expedited hearing as well. Crafton now is threatening to force a special election on January 22, 2009, which potentially could cost the Metro taxpayers over $350,000.
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| NASHVILLE FOR ALL |
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Nashville for All was founded a year ago in response to the initial proposal for a city-wide English Only ordinance proposed by Councilman Eric Crafton and ultimately supported by our City Council, but fortunately vetoed by our then Mayor, Bill Purcell. Knowing that the newly constituted City Council would not support a similar resolution this year, Councilman Crafton elected to sidestep his colleagues by proposing a ballot referendum for an English Only Resolution, an effort subsequently determined to be detrimental to our community in a vote by our current Council. In response to this second effort, Nashville For All has been resurrected to educate the community on the pitfalls of such an initiative. Comprised a broad array of community organizations, faith leaders, members of the business community, political leaders, and concerned citizens, Nashville For All is committed to helping our community understand why an English Only Resolution would not serve in our best interest.
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