Category: Uncategorized

And they would be right about that. There is too much testing in education today. Clipped from the Dallas Morning News:

"On student testing, always one of the hottest topics in public
education, 56 percent of those polled said there is too much emphasis on testing. About 27 percent said the state has the right amount of testing, and 13 percent said there is not enough emphasis on exams."

Other highlights:

47 percent say public schools should be the top priority for state government ( 23 percent said health care, the second choice)

69 percent say the state should spend more on education

59 percent want to put more money into state education initiatives (33 percent would instead focus funding on schools and teachers based on standardized test scores)

58 percent want a pay raise for all teachers (34 percent want a merit-pay system for teachers)

"Fighting for human and constitutional rights is a theme, and a strategy, that could keep Democrats together for the next fifty years, election after election. It’s time to begin a lofty fight to add the right to vote to the Constitution–and paint a truer picture of most Republicans as undemocratic. It’s time to stand up and insure every American’s right to vote to have that vote fully protected and to have it fairly counted."

Jesse Jackson, Jr. in The Nation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

URGENT PRESS ALERT (April 19, 2006)

PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY THURSDAY,
APRIL 20 AT 12AM AT 10 W. JACKSON
BLVRD. MIGRA BUIDING.

Religious leaders, workers and community leaders
decry immoral ICE raids
The community organizations calls upon the Bush
Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to immediately cease a series of
raids targeting immigrant workers.

On Wednesday, April 19, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials began a series of raids on
immigrant workers in what reports describe as a
nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
The Associated Press has reported raids in Cincinnati,
Phoenix, Houston, and Albany, and Immigration
and Customs Enforcement will likely lay out a new
enforcement strategy tomorrow.

“This is an unjust and immoral attack on immigrant
workers’ rights. Immigrant workers are being
punished for exercising their freedom of speech
and freedom of assembly.” Kim Bobo, Interfaith
WorkerJustice Executive Director.

In the past month, immigrants’ rights groups have
held a series of massive rallies, with turnout of tens
and even hundreds of thousands in over a hundred
cities. Immigrants rights groups are planning
another national day of action on May 1.

Conferencia de prensa y rally ante
el edificio de inmigración.
10 W. Jackson Blvrd. Chicago

El 19 de abril, en diferentes localidades
de los Estados Unidos el Departamento de
Home Land Security a estado haciendo
redadas de inmigrantes indocumetados, todas
enfocadas a dos empresas que tienen localidades
en diferentes estados del país, hoy 19 de abril
lo ha hecho en la ciudad de Chicago asi como
en Cincinnati, Phoenix, Houston y Albany, nos
parece muy peculiar dado que hemos estado
preparando la manifestación del primero de
mayo.

La posibilidad de que muchas de las personas
que han sido detenidas puedan calificar para
algún tipo de regularización el próximo mes,
cuando se reúna nuevamente el Senado de
los Estados Unidos nos parece sumamente injusto
y es un atentado por parte del Departamento
de Home Land Security contra estas gentes y
una manera de acallar nuestras voces, estan
tratando por medio de el temor a la deportación
de hacer que no nos manifestemos mas, que no
se desarrolle mas este movimiento por los derechos
civiles que en Chicago ha nacido.

Las organizaciones comunitarias unidas al Movimiento
10 de Marzo, estaremos dando una conferencia de
presa y rally enfrente de las oficinas de Inmigración
en la calle Jackson el 20 de abril a las 12:00PM

Received via email April 20 from Roberto Calderon’s list “beto – at – unt.edu”, sourced to Rosalio Munoz “rosalio_munoz – at – sbcglobal.net”

January 19, 2006

ICE REMOVES MORE THAN 2,000 ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM THE SOUTH TEXAS REGION DURING DECEMBER

Southwest Border Initiative aims to quickly return illegal aliens to their home countries

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that the office here deported 2445 non-criminal aliens during the month of December under the new Secure Border Initiative (SBI).
SBI is a two-month-old program announced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during his recent visit to Texas. One SBI aspect allows ICE to quickly remove “other than Mexican” (OTM) illegal aliens to their home countries under an “expedited removal” process. Those OTMs removed from the South Texas Region had been arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – which includes the Border Patrol – and ICE along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

Expedited removal is an administrative process aimed at reducing the number of OTMs who have spent less than 14 days in the United States, and who are apprehended within 100 miles of the border. OTMs apprehended under the expedited removal program are detained and quickly returned to their countries of origin after they receive travel documents. Since the expedited removal process doesn’t require these aliens to appear before a federal immigration judge, they’re able to be deported more quickly. Consequently, expedited removal reduces the time illegal aliens remain in detention awaiting their deportation from about 30 days to an average of 15 days.

“Expedited removal allowed ICE to be able to remove more than 500 OTMs per week,” said Marc J. Moore, ICE field office director in San Antonio. “The numbers indicate that expedited removal is working, and we’re deporting as quickly as possible those individuals who have no legal right to be in the United States.” Moore oversees ICE Detention and Removal Operations in the south Texas area, which includes the cities of: San Antonio, Austin, Harlingen and Laredo.

Those aliens deported in December had been lawfully ordered to leave the United States by a federal immigration judge; they were removed to the following countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Argentina, Bolivia, China, Panama, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Pakistan.

When cost effective, some aliens from Mexico are deported via bus. OTMs are usually deported aboard both commercial and government aircraft. The government’s aircraft is run by the U.S. Marshal Service, and is called the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS). JPATS is one of the largest transporters of prisoners in the world and handles hundreds of requests every day to move prisoners and criminal aliens nationally and internationally. There is an automatic 10-year bar against deported aliens from legally re-entering the U.S.

The Office of Detention and Removal (DRO) focuses on promoting public safety and national security by ensuring that all aliens who are subject to deportation are removed from the United States as expeditiously as possible.