The Message We’re Bringing To South Africa

 

By Eunice Cho

 

 

The World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia is an opportunity to bring the issues that face immigrants in the United States to the world stage. Anti-immigrant racism, violence against immigrants, and escalating xenophobia are serious concerns for immigrants in the U.S. – and are experienced in many communities. They are also reflected and reinforced by increasingly restrictive immigration policies that promote the scapegoating of migrants for economic and social problems. The 60+ immigrant community leaders participating as part of the Immigrant Rights Working Group will bring these concerns to bear as they attend the conference.

 

The Immigrant Rights Working Group has prepared two publications for the conference. The first is a groundbreaking report, From the Borderline to the Colorline: A Report on Anti-Immigrant Racism in the United States, that documents a disturbing pattern of racism against immigrants in the United States. Based on a nationwide survey of conditions for immigrant communities conducted by twenty-five organizations, this report concludes that anti-immigrant racism poses significant barriers to equality and inclusion for citizens and non-citizens alike.

 

From the Borderline to the Colorline is the first comprehensive assessment of its kind, and will be delivered to the World Conference in Durban, South Africa by our delegation. Through an in-depth look at key areas, such as work and housing – as well as recent incidents of hate violence – this survey finds that anti-immigrant racism imperils the lives and well-being of a growing sector of the U.S. population.

 

In particular, the U.S. government has implemented a program of anti-immigrant legislation that justifies and encourages racial discrimination against immigrants by law enforcement officials and civilians alike. The climate of racial hostility towards immigrants is fostered by laws, policies, and practices that effectively tolerate and, in many cases, promote racial discrimination against immigrants and those who “look or sound’ like immigrants in the workplace, community, schools, access to social services, and legal protections.

 

“From the Borderline to the Colorline” Findings

  • Immigrants, and those suspected to be immigrants due to their race, continue to suffer from employment discrimination. Legislative provisions, such as the “sunset provision” of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), written to safeguard workers who appear  “foreign” from discrimination, remain inadequate and are not enforced.
  • Immigrant workers remain vulnerable to workplace abuse and exploitation, and often face greater challenges in attempting to fight for fair working conditions. Employers have repeatedly used immigration law enforcement to threaten workers attempting to organize and unionize, often resulting in mass firings, penalization, and deportation of immigrant workers.
  • Immigrants and refugees, particularly those of color, suffer unequal treatment within civil and criminal justice systems due to their immigration status, have little access to protections guaranteed to citizens, and face standards of evidence and punishment unequal to those of citizens. Examples include the denial of due process rights and equal protection rights of immigrants and refugees, indefinite detention, as well as the use of “secret evidence” in legal proceedings against non-citizens.
  • Over the last decade, detention and incarceration have become key enforcement strategies against immigrant and refugee communities. Immigrants and refugees are now the fastest growing incarcerated population in the U.S.
  • Immigrants of color are often victims of hate crimes, where they are targets of violence by private citizens acting on racist and xenophobic motives. Legal definitions for hate crime, in the states where hate crime legislation exists, do not extend to anti-immigrant bias.
  • Heightened law enforcement along the US-Mexico border has escalated human rights abuses of migrants and people of color in the southwest region of the United States. Numerous incidents of harassment, sexual assault, and death have been reported as a result of US policies that aim to discourage undocumented migration from Mexico.
  • Heightened cooperation of immigration officials and local law enforcement has increased human and civil rights violations of immigrants.
  • The 1996 welfare legislation in the U.S. undermined the economic well-being of poor immigrants, who bore the brunt of cuts to services for all welfare recipients. Undocumented immigrants often have little or no access to services. Many individual states, which now control the allocation of welfare services under the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, limit and impose conditions on eligibility.

 

The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

The second document is a letter authored by the National Network’s Immigrant Rights Working Group to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The letter is signed by over 40 individuals and organizations based in the United States. The CERD is a committee of ‘experts’ that monitor countries’ adherence to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). ICERD is considered to be the only international legal instrument that specifically addresses comprehensive issues of racial discrimination.

 

The United States ratified the ICERD in 1996, although the convention has been in force since 1969. As part of the ICERD’s requirements, the U.S. had to submit a report to the CERD committee. The U.S. only submitted it’s Initial Report of the United States of America to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in September 2000. Our letter presents a brief analysis on the shortcomings of the U.S. report, and suggests alternative measures that would bring the United States into compliance with the CERD and support the inalienable human rights of migrants in the United States. The letter also addresses specific points raised in the United States’ Initial Report that affect immigrants and refugees, and provides further analysis, recommendations, examples of best practices, and strategies for change.

 

Copies of From the Borderline to the Colorline are available from the National Network ($15 for individuals; $35 for libraries and institutions); Copies of the CERD letter outlining the shortcomings of U.S. compliance with the convention are also available ($5). Contact NNIRR at 510-465-1984 or echo@nnirr.org for more information.

 

Eunice Cho is World Conference Project Associate at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights..

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