EMU alumna in national spotlight on immigration issue
Isabel Castillo, a 2007 Eastern Mennonite University graduate, has become a nationally recognized spokesperson for the plight of undocumented young people in the United States.
Castillo was featured in a Feb. 20, 2011, New York Times article, “Dream Act Advocate Turns Failure into Hope.” This publicity led Jesuit-run University of San Francisco to invite her to be its commencement speaker this spring and to offer her an honorary doctorate.
On Feb. 24, 2011, Castillo was interviewed for Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world.
Castillo first came to public attention on July 20, 2010, when she was one of 20 undocumented young people arrested in Washington, D.C., for staging non-violent, sit-down actions at the Hart Senate Office Building to appeal for passage of the DREAM Act. (The Act was derailed when it was five votes short of advancing in the Senate.)
Castillo was brought by her parents as a six-year-old to the United States. She graduated from Turner Ashby High School near Harrisonburg, Va., with a 4.0 GPA. She graduated magna cum laude from EMU, with a major in social work.
Congressional passage of the DREAM Act – the acronym stands for Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors – would give undocumented immigrants ages 12-30 a path to legal residency. They would be able to apply for citizenship if they serve in the military or get a college education. It would take at least 10 years and perhaps as much as a 15-20 years for a person to satisfy the requirements.
On Aug. 26, 2010, Castillo spoke eloquently at a town hall meeting held by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican pushing for tougher deportation policies. In January 2011, she went to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and testified before a House of Delegates subcommittee that was considering a proposal to bar undocumented students from state-supported colleges.
In October 2010, Bob Edwards of National Public Radio interviewed Castillo for a segment of his national show.
Castillo’s biggest risk is being deported and ending up alone in an unfamiliar setting in Mexico, away from her home, her family and her friends. “At first, I’d only allow the media to shoot my face turned
away and only my first name,” she told the New York Times reporter. “And then it just progressed. I said, O.K., use my face and you can say I went to a local university. Then it was, I graduated from Eastern Mennonite University and I’m Isabel Castillo.”
Castillo paid her way through EMU by working 30 hours a week at unsalaried casual jobs, such as babysitting and waitressing, and continues to survive by working in this manner, while accepting multiple (usually unpaid) invitations to speak on the DREAM Act.
A reporter for the Capital News Service in Richmond quoted Isabel as saying: “I started doing activism because the issue affected me, but now I do it for the thousands of people like me who are scared to stand up. I have a sense of relief. I’m not ashamed or scared. I’m not a criminal. I’m no longer going to hide in the shadows.”
Story by Bonnie Price Lofton
Anti-immigrant bills fall in Virginia Senate
Anti-immigrant bills that had passed the Virginia House of Delegates failed to advance in the Senate on Wednesday when a special subcommittee on immigration of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee killed 10 of the 12 bills it addressed.
Jorge Figueredo, the ACLU of Virginia’s director of racial justice and immigrants’ rights, was one of the speakers opposing the anti-immigrant measures.
“The Senate sent an important message to all of Virginia,” said Figueredo, “that we do not tolerate laws intended to infringe on the rights of individuals because of their national origin, race or ethnic background.”
The Courts of Justice subcommittee voted against reporting HB 2332, which would require all state and local police to make citizenship status inquiries of every person taken into custody. This bill was modeled after the controversial Arizona law challenged by the ACLU in federal court last year. That law was struck down as unconstitutional, but the case is being appealed.
The subcommittee also killed HB 1465 for lack of a motion. HB 1465, which passed the House of Delegates on an overwhelming 75-24 vote, would have made Virginia the only state in the nation to deny undocumented students the opportunity to enroll at any Virginia public college, even if they are Virginia taxpayers, even if they pay out-of-state rates, and even if the federal DREAM act were to pass.
“While this is a real victory for equality in Virginia, it is also important to remember that the anti-immigrant sentiment is unfortunately alive and well in the House of Delegates, which passed most of these bills by substantial majorities,” said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. “The work to make Virginia a place where people are treated the same regardless of color or national origin is far from over.”
The subcommittee’s decisions were made before a packed room filled with people from across the state to demonstrate their opposition to the anti-immigrant bills. In addition to numerous individuals and families, also present were representatives from Tenants and Workers, Virginia Employers for Sensible Immigration Policy, Virginia Organizing, Hispanic Community Dialogue, the Catholic Conference, the Arlington County School Board, the Virginia School Boards Association, the Virginia Sheriffs Association, the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, the Virginia Justice Center, the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Virginia Coalition of Latino Advocacy Organizations.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
House GOP takes up immigration
House Republican leaders are taking up the hot-button issue of illegal immigration at the outset of a Virginia General Assembly session taking place against the backdrop of fall elections.
“House Republicans believe that playing by the rules and abiding by the law is important. Countless immigrants to this great nation have come here to embrace the American dream and we very much honor legal immigrants by ensuring that when people enter our country for legal purposes and they observe the rules, we welcome them. It’s that simple,” said Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, the chair of a House GOP task force on illegal immigration, which today unveiled its legislative package
The 16-bill package includes a bill to require localities to enforce federal immigration laws. The bill, introduced by Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax, also directs that the governor could withhold state monies to localities violating the act.
Other provisions spell out the requirements of arresting officers to ascertain the citizenship of detainees, for businesses doing business with the Commonwealth to ensure that their employees have their proper work documentation and a bill introduced by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, requiring parents to indicate citizenship status as they enroll their children for public schools.
“As a career prosecutor outside of the legislature, I see the effects of our broken immigration system nearly every day,” Gilbert said. “The federal government has abdicated its responsibility to secure our borders and keep our citizens safe from illegal alien criminals. As a result, many states across the country, including Virginia, are looking at responsible and legal ways to address this issue of concern to so many citizens.”
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
McDonnell: Concerns over reliability of federal documents leads to suspension
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that the Department of Motor Vehicles will suspend acceptance of the federally-issued Employment Authorization Document (I-766) as proof of legal presence in the United States, a condition of obtaining a driver’s license or identification card in Virginia.
The action, according to the governor’s office, is the result of concerns over the document’s reliability as evidence of an individual’s federal government authorization to be in the country.
The card, issued by the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is obtained by individuals temporarily authorized to work in the U. S., even if the individual is in a pending deportation status.
The concerns surfaced in August after an alleged drunk driver was charged in Prince William County with a fatal crash in which one person died and two others were critically injured. Police say 23-year-old Carlos Martinelly Montano from Bolivia had been reported to ICE after two previous drunk driving convictions in 2007 and 2008, but was released pending a deportation hearing.
Police report that Montano received an Employment Authorization Document in January 2009 while federal deportation actions were pending, and subsequently used the document to prove legal presence while applying for a Virginia ID card in accordance with current Virginia law.
Montano did not have a Virginia driver’s license at the time of the crash.
“The integrity of the credentials issued by the Commonwealth is of the utmost importance,” McDonnell said in a statement. “We must ensure that documents accepted as proof of legal presence are reliable. Virginia law is clear in the requirement that an individual be lawfully in the United States to be eligible for an identification card or to have the privilege to drive.”
DMV will seek additional guidance from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli regarding federal documents that should be accepted going forward as proof of legal presence.
Of the 21 documents DMV continues to accept as proof of an applicant’s lawful status, 20 are issued by the federal government, including 12 issued by U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Rights groups urge feds to reject 287(g)
A coalition of faith groups, civil and human rights organizations, and government officials have asked the Department of Homeland Security to reject Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s request to allow the Virginia Department of State Police to enter into a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A 287(g) agreement, named after a provision of federal law, authorizes local or state law enforcement agencies to enforce civil or criminal violations of federal immigration law.
The Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations and associated groups presented at a press conference held in Arlington Wednesday a formal letter addressed to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano urging her to reject Gov. McDonnell’s request. In addition, VACOLAO members will speak about the negative effects of other local 287(g) programs already in place in Virginia. These negative effects include an increase in racial profiling and corresponding decrease in trust of police by the immigrant community – including legal residents and citizens of Latino descent – as well as diversion of law enforcement resources.
“The result of these 287(g) agreements has been abuse and illegal profiling by local law enforcement in Virginia and across the country,” said Edgar Aranda, chair of VACOLAO and organizer for the Legal Aid Justice Center. “Immigration enforcement belongs in the hands of federal immigration agents trained in federal immigration and racial profiling laws, not in the hands of state or local law enforcement.”
“As one might expect, state and local enforcement of federal immigration law has presented challenges for immigrants,” said Jorge Figueredo, director of racial justice and immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Virginia. “Since my office opened in Northern Virginia in June, 2008, I have received cases of racial profiling and excessive use of force by local police against immigrants, arising from Prince William County, Manassas, Loudoun, and Herndon, among others – jurisdictions where 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement agencies and ICE are already in place.”
The Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations is an umbrella group which includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Legal Aid Justice Center, League of United Latin American Citizens, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, American Jewish Committee, Arlington County Board Member J. Walter Tejada, Asian Pacific American Legal Aid Resource Center, The Hispanic Community Dialogue in Virginia Beach, Hispanic National Bar Association, Latino Federation of Greater Washington, Shirlington Employment and Education Center, Tenants and Workers United, Presente.org, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and other organizations.
A copy of VACOLAO’s letter to Secretary Napolitano is available online at http://acluva.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/VACOLAO-Letter-to-Janet-Napolitano-_DHS_-287_g_-083110.pdf.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
DREAM Act rally to greet McDonnell
Members of a Valley-based group will greet Gov. Bob McDonnell on his way to his town-hall meeting at James Madison University in Harrisonburg on Thursday to voice their disapproval of the Republican’s stance on immigration.
“We believe that immigration is a federal issue, and that politicians such as Ken Cuccinelli and Gov. McDonnell should be pushing our Congress and president to fix our broken immigration system. The future of our country needs the DREAM Act so that people such as myself are able to become successful and lend to Virginia’s economy. Pass the DREAM Act now,” said Isabella Castillo, the leader of DREAM Activist Virginia, which is working to lobby members of the Virginia congressional delegation to support the federal DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation coauthored by Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, would impact the estimated 65,000 children of undocumented workers who graduate from U.S. high schools annually by opening to them eligibility for a six-year-long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service.
The political climate in Virginia relative to immigration has in recent weeks been hostile. Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, has issued an advisory opinion to the effect that he believes state law gives local and state police the power to ask for immigration documents when performing a lawful stop and suspicious of whether someone is illegal. And for his part McDonnell has appealed to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to authorize a program giving Virginia state troopers the authority of federal immigration agents.
“It has become clear that there is strong opposition to 287g both nationally and in Virginia. We want to make it clear to McDonnell that we do not support this legislation,” DREAM Activists member Nicole Budzius said.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
McDonnell requests immigration powers for State Police
After months of discussions, Gov. Bob McDonnell has formally requested that the Department of Homeland Security enter into a 287(g) agreement with the Virginia Department of State Police allowing certain Virginia troopers to perform certain functions of a federal immigration officer within the borders of the Commonwealth.
“I have been a longtime proponent of allowing certain state and local law enforcement officers to assist the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the enforcement of immigration laws within the Commonwealth,” said McDonnell, who had acknowledged last week that his administration has been in communication with federal authorities since February on the issue.
“The federal government is clearly responsible for border security and immigration law enforcement in this country. However, Section 287(g) of the amended Immigration and Nationality Act wisely permits state and local assistance in that enforcement. Virginians want to see our laws enforced and our communities kept safe and secure. This collaborative partnership will help accomplish those critical functions of government. I look forward to a positive response from Secretary Napolitano to our request and a successful federal-state partnership in the years ahead,” McDonnell said.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
