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  • From: "'Amy Little'" <amylittle@hvc.rr.com>
  • To: <nefood@elist.tufts.edu>, "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] CATA's Response to President Obama on Immigration
  • Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:02:06 -0500








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CATA's Statement on President Obama's Executive Order on Immigration






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On Thursday, November 20, President Obama announced his executive order on
immigration. The President’s executive order will allow undocumented
immigrants, who have lived in the United States for at least five years and
have children who are US citizens or Legal Permanent Residents, to
temporarily work and live in the United States without fear of deportation as
long as they pass a criminal background check, pay all of their taxes, and
pay a fee. The executive order also expands the pool of people eligible for
the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to include those
who arrived before Jan. 1, 2010 without any age limitation.

We support the fact that this order will allow a portion of the undocumented
population a period of relief from the fear of deportation that they live
with every day. However, we are disappointed with the limits to this action.
Most of our members will not qualify for this relief even though they have
been working and paying taxes in the United States for many years. For those
that will qualify, the order is still discriminatory. Undocumented immigrants
who qualify for the temporary deportation relief will be given a social
security number to pay their taxes with but will continue to be excluded from
claiming retirement benefits and from the Affordable Care Act.

The claim is that this order will temporarily protect around 5 million
undocumented immigrants from deportation, including the expanded eligible
population for the DACA program. However, that does not mean that all 5+
million will apply due to the fact that this order has a very unclear future.
Justifiably, many undocumented immigrants fear that putting their name on a
list for temporary relief will lead to negative consequences when the
President leaves office and should his order be overturned by the next
President.

We at CATA understand that the presence of undocumented workers in the U.S.
not only contributes to the betterment of civil society but is a crucial
element for the viability of our broken food system. For example, New Jersey
would lose $24.2 billion in economic activity and about 103,898 jobs if all
unauthorized immigrants were removed. Our society and, in particular, the
corporate agricultural and food industries, takes advantage of the
vulnerability of the undocumented population in order to maintain low
salaries and increase profits. Although undocumented immigrants contribute
financially through purchasing and living costs, they are systemically kept
in poverty. This order does very little to address any of those issues.

While this executive order is a step in the right direction, it is far from
addressing the real problems; it is merely a small band-aid on the gaping
wound that is our broken immigration system. The President is right to
address this issue, but much more needs to be done. Congress needs to stop
focusing on petty politics and come up with a genuine, comprehensive
solution. We will continue to push for a path to citizenship as a solution to
the presence of more than 11 million undocumented people. The principle which
immigration policy should be based on is the fulfillment of the human rights
and dignity of every person. We affirm that the struggle goes beyond the
recognition of the basic human rights of migrants and workers. The struggle
is to challenge society to not be guided by fear and intolerance, but by the
recognition of the value and inherent dignity of human life.




For more information, visit:
<http://cata-farmworkers.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1a4ed92e1bdf81ba3aff69596&id=58fe647dce&e=aea382e76a>
www.cata-farmworkers.org














http://cata-farmworkers.us8.list-manage.com/track/open.php?u=1a4ed92e1bdf81ba3aff69596&id=74f14dcf2c&e=aea382e76a

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amy Little, NESAWG

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

<http://www.nesawg.org/> http://www.nesawg.org

845-255-0822 home office

845-853-3440 cell

amylittle@hvc.rr.com







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