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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Oct
5
U.S. Fence Causes Increase in Border Crossing Deaths
Filed Under bigotry, human rights, immigration, legislation, politics, race and racism, violence against women and girls | 4 Comments
A recently released study by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (h/t abbyjean) shows that there has been an increase in migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year:
Marking the 15th anniversary of the misguided border strategy known as Operation Gatekeeper, the report makes visible the following:
- In the past 15 years, as many as 5,600 people have died.
- These deaths were anticipated in the design of the U.S. border strategy, which deliberately pushes migrants away from inhabited areas into harsh desert and mountainous terrains.
- The rate of deaths has increased despite the economic decline and a drop in migration.
- The number of rescues has decreased despite a massive increase in Border Patrol agents.
And of course this study is only looking at deaths, and therefore leaves out injuries that don’t result in a fatality, as well as the extraordinarily high rate of sexual assault committed against women crossing the border.
Though it’s important to have the numbers, both to be able to quote them and to be able to attract media attention, none of this should come as a surprise. In fact, advocates for immigrants rights have long warned that exactly this would happen in the event of “border security” being increased, and particularly in the event of the border fence being expanded. It’s only logical: people do not attempt to cross the U.S. border in hopes of finding work without documentation unless they’re facing some sort of desperation, and fences don’t make desperation go away, make the legal route to U.S. entry any less expensive or any more accessible, or put food on family’s tables. Build a fence, and many people will find another, more dangerous way — and those who authorized and built the fence knew that damn well at the time they did so.
Apr
18
City Councilman Promoted Violent Anti-Immigrant Video Game
Filed Under assholes, bigotry, class and economics, immigration, misogyny, pop culture, pregnancy, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, reproductive justice, stereotypes, violence against women and girls | 14 Comments
I just came across a post at Sociological Images about an outrageously racist flash video game called Border Patrol. They note that in the game, “you try to keep three types of Mexicans from crossing the border: drug dealers, Mexican nationalists, and ‘breeders.’” Video game site Kotaku — which thankfully also calls the video game racist — gives a highly similar description. As you’ll notice in the image above, which is of a heavily pregnant and barefoot caricatured woman crossing the border, she is also on her way to the welfare office.
But you may also notice something else. Looking at the image, there are bullet holes in the sign that says “Welcome to the United States” (with a picture of a flag that seems to indicate an anti-Semitic message that the country is run by Jews — am I missing something?). The woman in the game also looks like her head is in the cross hairs of a gun.
That’s right, in this game we’re not “stopping” Mexican immigrants from crossing the border without documentation by, oh, calling the police. Or by using another horrific and degrading option like catching them in a net to send them back over the border.
No, players are shooting them dead.
Feb
21
Sexual Violence in Italy Used to Support Racist Immigration Policies
Filed Under Europe, International, assholes, bigotry, immigration, politics, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, violence against women and girls | 5 Comments
Last month, I wrote a post about how Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made statements which heavily implied a belief that women are raped not because certain men have a desire for control over women, or feel that they deserve permanent access to women’s bodies, but because women are so good looking. Even worse than that, he did so in order to justify his attempts to enforce police state measures as some sort of supposed response to recent incidences of sexual violence.
Now, via Angry Black Woman, we get the news that Berlusconi has taken the police state thing one step further — by blaming sexual violence on immigrants and authorizing what are essentially vigilante squads to help combat the “problem.”
Italy’s government has rushed through a decree to crack down on sexual violence and illegal immigration after a spate of rapes blamed on foreigners.
The decree sets a mandatory life sentence for the rape of minors or attacks where the victim is killed.
It also establishes rules for citizen street patrols to be conducted by unarmed and unpaid volunteers.
[. . .]
Critics say the measures could effectively legitimise vigilantism and xenophobia. The Vatican has warned against anything that turns innocent foreigners into convenient scapegoats.
Yup, you know there’s something seriously fucked up going on when I agree with the Vatican.
Jan
23
NY Times Article Got Story on DIY Abortions Wrong
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, blogging, human rights, immigration, legislation, media, pregnancy, reproductive justice, women’s health | 3 Comments
The other week, I blogged about this NY Times article on Dominican women in New York City inducing abortion themselves with misoprostol.
Well, it turns out that the NY Times go several key facts very wrong. AlterNet has the story. (emphasis mine)
So what did the study find? Far less misoprostol use than expected, it turns out. Data analysis isn’t finished yet and the study won’t be published until March. But Grossman said that 1,200 women were surveyed, and at most, only 17 reported using misoprostol at all, let alone in the US. “You absolutely cannot use this study to generalize beyond the groups we studied,” he warned. “But the vast majority of the women we talked to went to medical facilities, like Planned Parenthood, to get their abortions. Misoprostol use was not common.”
But the Times tells a different story. It says the study finds that in Latina immigrant enclaves like Upper Manhattan, misoprostol is “frequently employed …despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.”
When Times reporter Jennifer Lee contacted the Ibis and Gynuity researchers in December, they could not understand why the Times was doing a news story. We said, ‘There’s no news now about misoprostol,’” said Winikoff. “We told her, ‘Maybe there will be if you wait for the study.’” Their fears about premature use of their research were well founded. Lee’s editor at the Times, Jodi Rudoren, told RH Reality Check that when Lee talked to her about the study to make a case for an article, she gave an estimated figure for women reporting misoprostol use that far surpassed what the researchers say is correct.
And the Times article hammers misoprostol’s dangers, while completely ignoring all the research supporting its potential for relatively safe and effective DIY use. “We told her about that data and our education efforts,” Grossman said. Both topics have been covered in other publications in recent years.The Times article also states — wrongly — that self-induced abortions in New York are “illicit,” and women do them “illegally.” In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 38 states outlaw self-abortion, in laws which often track repressive statutes left over from pre-Roe v. Wade days. But New York isn’t one of them — women there can legally self abort early pregnancies if they want to.
You got all that? The figures are overblown, the self-induced abortion method — while certainly not ideal, and certainly more dangerous than a doctor-supervised option — is much safer than made out to be, and the abortions themselves are not illegal.
That’s not to say that the story has no merit at all, and do-it-yourself abortions do in fact happen in America. I further stand by the majority of my assertions made in my original blog post: anti-choice policies do promote unsafe abortions, access (as the AlerNet article also notes) is still far too limited, and immigration policies only compound the problem.
But these facts are important. And the NY Times fucked up, big time. And their fuck up could have wide-reaching consequences:
After the Times piece came out, the national media followed with articles saying that misoprostol use among US Latinas is common, increasing, risky and illegal. As a result, Gonzalez-Rojas said, “there could be legislative action” to further outlaw or crack down on self-induced abortions, “including to criminalize women’s use of misoprostol” in the name of protecting them. “We do have concerns.”
Scary. Granted, this legislation would be completely ridiculous and unnecessarily punitive even if the newspaper did have its facts 100% correct. But the fact that we could be seeing this kind of legislation thanks to an article that wasn’t even accurate? Not okay.
Jan
6
Illegal Abortion in the Era After Roe vs. Wade
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, class and economics, immigration, race and racism, reproductive justice, social conservatives, women’s health | 5 Comments
Think that illegal abortion is a thing of the past in post-Roe vs. Wade America? Well thankfully, it is far less common. But if you thought the practice was eradicated, you were sadly both very naive and very mistaken.
The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.
One study surveyed 1,200 women, mostly Latinas, in New York, Boston and San Francisco and is expected to be released in the spring; the other, by Planned Parenthood, involved a series of focus groups with 32 Dominican women in New York and Santo Domingo. Together, they found reports of women mixing malted beverages with aspirin, salt or nutmeg; throwing themselves down stairs or having people punch them in the stomach; and drinking teas of avocado leaf, pine wood, oak bark and mamon fruit peel.
Interviews with several community leaders and individual women in Washington Heights echoed the findings, and revealed even more unconventional methods like “juice de jeans,” a noxious brew made by boiling denim hems.
“Some women prefer to have a more private experience with their abortion, which is certainly understandable,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, an obstetrician with Ibis Reproductive Health in San Francisco, which joined Gynuity Health Projects in New York in conducting the larger study. “The things they mention are, ‘It is easier.’ It was recommended to them by a friend or a family member.”
The NY Times article focuses mainly on New York City’s Dominican communities, and it’s both very interesting and very frightening. It’s also exactly what anti-choice forces, who frankly are never going to “end” abortion and deep down must know this, want.
Oct
22
NY Shelters Will Be Reimbursed For Helping Undocumented Victims of Intimate Partner Violence
Filed Under bigotry, discrimination, immigration, legislation, patriarchy, race and racism, violence against women and girls | 1 Comment
According to the NY Times, a horridly cruel, racist and anti-woman NY State policy is coming to an end. A rule that is entirely prudent and necessary states that domestic violence shelters cannot turn away victims due to their immigration status. However, until recently, those same shelters could not receive government reimbursement for the work they did with undocumented immigrants:
The two organizations, My Sister’s Place and the Northern Westchester Shelter, received not a dime of government reimbursement for helping her. That is because Lillian is an illegal immigrant. The shelters have housed, fed and counseled such women without public financing even as the numbers of undocumented women seeking help in Westchester has soared, with the growth in the county’s proportion of immigrants. These days, one out of every four shelter dwellers is undocumented, by some government estimates.
The shelters cannot — and philosophically will not — bar their doors to undocumented immigrants and so must swallow the costs, roughly a total of $250,000 for each organization over the past four years. To make up deficits, Northern Westchester, which has a $1.7 million budget, said it let go two lawyers and cut health insurance payments for its staff.
Karen Cheeks-Lomax, executive director of My Sister’s Place here, said she believes that “no woman should be stuck in a lifetime of battering,” but even if she believed otherwise, state law requires shelters to take in women regardless of their immigration status, a not-laughable Catch-22.
“It’s a significant inconsistency in terms of what we’re mandated to do,” she said. “You’re asking us to serve women and telling us we can’t discriminate and on the other hand you’re unwilling to provide reimbursement.”
Clearly, it is not okay to financially punish organizations designed to help victims of domestic violence for doing precisely that. Workers should not be left to pick up that tab with lost benefits, and victims should not be left to pick up that tab by receiving decreased services. The good news is that last month, Governor Paterson signed into a law a bill promising reimbursement to shelters for the services they provide to undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence. With any luck, checks will be arriving soon.
The rest of the article goes into some of the unique challenges faced by undocumented women in abusive relationships, and how the discrimination they face due to immigration status can compound their inability to leave. It’s worth checking out. The women for whom shelters were previously not receiving reimbursement are those in some of the most dire need. It’s endlessly amazing how willing we are to turn away from the most vulnerable members of our society for reasons of pettiness, bigotry and indifference.
Aug
23
More ICE Detention Atrocities
Filed Under bigotry, disability, human rights, immigration, race and racism | 7 Comments
Last week, The NY Times had an article about Hiu Lui Ng, a man who died while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after being refused medical care. Ng had no criminal record. He overstayed his visa and at one point he applied for political asylum. And he was in the process of obtaining a green card when ICE decided to detain him — literally, they ambushed him when he reported to an immigration headquarters for his final interview.
In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng’s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.
Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.
[. . .]
Officials have given no explanation why they took Mr. Ng to Hartford and back on the same day. But the lawyers say the grueling July 30 trip appeared to be an effort to prove that Mr. Ng was faking illness, and possibly to thwart the habeas corpus petition they had filed in Rhode Island the day before, seeking his release for medical treatment.
[. . .]
Soon, according to court papers, he had to rely on other detainees to help him reach the toilet, bring him food and call his family; he no longer received painkillers, because he could not stand in line to collect them. On July 26, Andy Wong, a lawyer associated with Mr. Cox, came to see the detainee, but had to leave without talking to him, he said, because Mr. Ng was too weak to walk to the visiting area, and a wheelchair was denied.
Days before Mr. Ng died, he was finally diagnosed with cancer in his liver, lungs and bones. He also had a fractured spine.
Last time I checked, torture was illegal in the United States of America (ha), and the punishment for the “crime” of overstaying one’s visa was not supposed to be death.
Jul
17
Immigrant Woman Abused By Government While Giving Birth
Filed Under human rights, immigration, misogyny, parenthood, politics, pregnancy, race and racism, reproductive justice, women’s health | 8 Comments
Juana Villegas DeLaPaz’s story is, sadly, not particularly unusual, but it is gut-wrenching and outrageous. (h/t brownfemipower)
Authorities identified Villegas DeLaPaz as an undocumented immigrant and begin deportation proceedings in such a way that violated ICE’s own procedures. She did not pose a threat, and was in the advanced stages of pregnancy. Then she went into labor.
Villegas DeLaPaz was arrested, incarcerated and forced to go through labor under armed guard handcuffed to by her wrist and ankle to a hospital bed. When she arrived at the hospital, the nurse asked the accompanying officer to step outside while Villegas DeLaPaz changed into her hospital gown – he refused, forcing Villegas DeLaPaz to unclothe before him. Then she was shackled on her legs whenever she went to the bathroom. The nurse asked that the shackles be removed because she wanted Villegas DeLaPaz to be able to clean up after childbirth and do other hygiene to prevent infection. Again, the attending officer refused. Her newborn was taken from her and did not receive needed breast milk for several days. She was re-jailed and denied a breast pump to express her milk. Nurses attending her were crying. She could not sleep in the jail because of the intense pain from her swollen breasts. She was not allowed to call her family so her husband could be with her for the birth.
May
30
Ron Paul: The Candidacy That Won’t Die
Filed Under 2008 election, Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, Republicans, abortion, assholes, bigotry, immigration, politics, pop culture, race and racism | 33 Comments
I’ve written on more than one occasion about how I hate Ron Paul’s eccentric, misogynist, racist, xenophobic guts and never, ever want to hear his name again. But unfortunately, I’m still passing a giant Ron Paul sign every day on the way to work. And the New York Times is still writing about him. I just can’t contain my fury. (all emphasis in quoted text mine)
Attendance at Ron Paul campaign stops has nearly returned to pre-Super Tuesday levels. A group of supporters recently announced plans to start Paulville, a gated community in West Texas, where believers can pursue the candidate’s libertarian ideals as a cooperative lifestyle. Ron Paul’s book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto,” rocketed to No. 1 on a New York Times best-seller list on May 18 (it has since dropped). Supporters are starting to discuss creating yippie-ish disruptions at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September to gain visibility for the movement.
[. . .]
This message has hit home — not only with some traditional libertarians, but also among a small but passionate group of young voters who came of age after Sept. 11, during the debates about the Iraq war, the Patriot Act and Abu Ghraib. For them, the Ron Paul message has the feel not of 1776, but of 1968, when an unpopular war raged abroad, and a subculture of disenfranchised young people embraced an unorthodox philosophy built around a utopian ideal of freedom.
Of course, Ron Paul is a lot closer to Barry Goldwater than to Eugene McCarthy. But his young supporters, many of whom call themselves former liberals, said the peacenik left shares much with the libertarian right.
“It’s about taking the country back,” Mr. Lim said, waving off the policy differences between his old “political saint,” Mr. Nader, and his new one, who is anti-Roe (Mr. Paul opposes abortion personally, but thinks states should decide the issue) and supports gun rights. “Whether you believe in abortion or not, in guns or not, that’s not the point,” Mr. Lim said. “It’s about the way the country is going: to hell in a handbasket.”
Yeah, the country is going to hell in a handbasket, so let’s give everybody a bunch of guns and let the government decide that women should be forced to give birth! Because our society and government are so fucked up and can’t be trusted. That makes sense.
No, seriously, have people just gone ridiculously, unforgivably stupid? Yes — yes, they have. Read on.
May
23
The (Lack of) Medical Treatment Received By ICE Detainees
Filed Under bigotry, class and economics, discrimination, human rights, immigration, media, race and racism | 9 Comments
Last week, Miss Sarajevo left a comment with a link to this series of articles in The Washington Post, and I’m just finally getting around to writing about it. The series, “Careless Detention,” is about the terrifying, unethical and downright inhumane medical treatment of immigrants imprisoned by ICE, generally while fighting or awaiting deportation for infractions that are usually non-violent and in fact so mild as to verge on the ridiculous. Since 9/11, Bush and his buddies have really stepped up anti-immigrant measures (which were already largely poor and in place), broadened definitions of who could be deported, increased raids and decided that those seeking asylum must do so while behind bars. Our government is imprisoning both documented and undocumented men and women (and though not mentioned in this series, also children), often without due process, and then, quite simply, killing them with medical neglect, or otherwise abusing/torturing them with inappropriate or an outright lack of medical treatment.
If you think that the medical treatment of some immigrants who are not in trouble with ICE is appalling (and it is), be prepared to learn a new definition of the word.
Excerpts from the articles after the jump.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
