Women In Bakersfield Initiate National Action To Push For U.S. House Vote On Immigration Reform

Photos courtesy of UFW

Hundreds of women including children took over the Office of Congressman McCarthy to demand that a bipartisan immigration bill be introduced for a vote on the floor of the U.S. House.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 6, 2013

Bakersfield, CA - On Wednesday, more than 100 women including children went into the Bakersfield Office of U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy (R), the majority House leader to demand that he bring to the floor a bipartisan immigration reform bill for a vote. The women gathered outside and inside McCarthy's office in Bakersfield, according the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) who organized the mobilization. UFW says, it's the start of a three day national movement by women to push for a vote of a pending bipartisan immigration reform bill.

Recently, three GOP members in the House decided to sponsor an immigration bill and they're Jeff Denham, (R-CA),  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL) and David Valadao, (R-CA).

UFW announced in a news release, that Wednesday's action seeks to push for a vote on a bipartisan bill. More than 100 people protested, including immigrant women who bear the brunt of the failures of the current immigration system. The action kicks off three days of women-led coordinated actions in key Republican House member districts across the country. These actions constitute the escalation of women-led action for immigration reform, in which women across the country have been mobilizing for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship and addresses the unique needs of women, children and families, the UFW reported.
In Chicago, nearly 120 immigration reform activists including public elected officials were cited by police in the afternoon for blocking the Loop on Clark Street for about an hour. Other activists protested in front of the Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. Both rallies on Wednesday were planned to push the House GOP to vote and pass an immigration reform bill.

On November 8, a major push in other cities across the nation will also engage in action to force members of the GOP majority controlled House to address and pass an immigration reform bill before the year ends. Civil disobedience action by women will take place, according to organizers.

Unfortunately, any hope of introducing and passing a just comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. House for the remainder of the year is dead. The U.S. Senate's immigration bill that was passed earlier is destine to expire as the year comes to an end.

In the last days of October, a major push by Republican business owners, law enforcement and corporate CEO's to influence conservative House Republicans to support an immigration reform bill seems to have failed. 

The U.S. House 113th second session begins on January 3, 2014, which could include new elected members of the House. It was believed that at least 28 GOP House members would support an immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship for at least 11 million of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Recently, three House Republicans joined Democrats in sponsoring a bill. If an immigration bill would have been introduced and debated earlier, it would have had at least  228 votes, including the 28 Republicans surpassing the 218 votes needed to pass a bill. But House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) and majority leader Congressman McCarthy (R-CA) have failed to bring up a similar version of the Senate immigration reform bill that would have had a bipartisan support. No bill has been introduced in the House nor is it expected to be voted on before the 113th first session ends.

One key initiative that hasn't been adopted yet by the organizers nationally is a 16-day economic shutdown, which would allow Hispanics and supporters for immigration reform to control their $2T spending and buying economic power to influence change.

An immigration reform bill is definitely needed, including another to reshape and reorganize the most known corrupt immigration enforcement agency, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, U.S. Department of Justice and ICE have failed to hold accountable those agents and supervisors that deliberately violated the rights of undocumented immigrants. Many ICE violation cases have been exposed and documented. Lawsuits have been filed by defendants and ICE have lost many of them for engaging in illegal activities and violating department policies. But ICE continues to denied any illegal activity or rogue agents that act outside of the law.

Another fact is that ICE continues to detain and deport undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which the agency was designed to do. But in recent years, ICE has engaged in illegal activity in many parts of the country. One significant case was the Moises Roger Mory-Lamas case in 2010, where Mory-Lamas was forced by three ICE agents to go to a Peruvian consulate and made him sign an ACT document to be removed from the U.S. Mory-Lamas was in the process of trying to get legal status. 

Mory-Lamas accused, Peruvian Consul Beoutis, and three ICE agents identified in the ACT signatures as Juan Mezarina, Oscar Torres and James Laforge of violating his rights, under immigration law and the U.S. Constitution.

A Peruvian citizen has a right to enter a Peruvian Consulate for official purposes, but with U.S. agents as escorts is considered illegal, and they have no diplomatic status to sign such an Act inside the Consulate, considered foreign soil.

ICE agents deported Mory-Lamas to Peru, despite a pending immigration appeal case and a petition for amnesty, including residency and work authorization until 2011. 

In November 2010, Mory-Lamas received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) in his residence in West New York informing him of an interview for November 16, but he was all ready deported on September 9.

Mory-Lamas had fought and challenged his deportation for more than 11 years.

ICE spent more than $400,000 in the Mory-Lamas case alone, including flight passages for two ICE agents to accompanied him to Peru.

ICE isn't suppose to deport anyone while in the process of getting legal status. In the Mory-Lamas case, ICE deported Mory-Lamas, despite any pending case to seek legal status.

ICE deportation data indicates that a majority were deported for non-criminal offenses contradicting the ICE current priorities. ICE's has said, that only those deemed to be a threat to the U.S., gang members, violent and drug related criminals are being deported. ICE has become the most corrupted agency engaging in rogue criminal activity in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agents are never sanction, discipline, terminated or convicted of violating the Constitutional rights of detainees by coercion, illegal acts, warrant less home invasions including arrests at private properties and U.S. County courts. The U.S. Congress has yet to investigate such gross violations by ICE and to implement laws to hold ICE agents and its supervisors accountable for many widely documented and reported illegal acts by ICE agents.

Recently in Bakersfield, CA, the ICE office based agents have been illegally arresting non-criminal immigrants at the Kern County Court Houses while paying traffic citations, attending court hearings or getting married, according to the ACLU. The ACLU also claims that ICE agents have been arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in Santa Clara, CA County courts without warrants as in Kern County.

In Tucson, Arizona, an Operation Streamline Court managed by ICE gets to convict between 80 to 180 of undocumented immigrants at once. An immigration judge sentences all to 30-130 days in jail at private immigration prisons before they are removed from the U.S. Not1More activists who staged a protest in early October and blocked several immigration buses transporting undocumented immigrants to the Streamline Court say, the immigrants are denied due process, appeals, legal advice by attorneys or family members including the Mexican Consulate.

In 2012, a total of 409,849 were deported including 184,459 non-criminals; in 2011, 391,953 were deported including 203,571 non-criminals and in 2010, 385,100 were deported including 215,444 non-criminals were removed from the U.S. under the Obama administration.