permaculture

["'Amy Little'" <amylittle@hvc.rr.com>]

<http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=1a4ed92e1bdf81ba3aff69596&id=74f14dcf2c&e=aea382e76a>
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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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