• Listen to the entire program

The last several years have been marked by a failure to pass federal immigration reform legislation and an alarming expansion of enforcement operations, including border militarization, raids, detentions and deportations – fomenting the false notion of immigrants as threats to national security. Yet over the last few years, particularly in 2006, we saw unprecedented numbers of communities pouring out to the streets demanding immigration reform. This was also coupled and continues with a tremendous rise in hate speech, hate incidents and other crimes against immigrants. For some in the immigrant rights movement, the failure to pass “comprehensive immigration reform” was viewed as a disappointment, and attributed to the vocal opposition by anti-immigrant groups and weak support from the White House. For others in the immigrant rights community, the demise of comprehensive immigration reform was a relief, given that these legislative proposals called for significant increases in enforcement operations in exchange for a weak, virtually unattainable “legalization” program and demise of family reunification policies. At this historic juncture, filled with images of hope and a renewal of this country’s principals, how is the immigrants’ rights movement prepared to move forward? Will demands merely pick up where they left off with the last legislative proposals, or is the movement prepared to renew its principals by opposing enforcement measures and pushing for broad legalization?

GUESTS: Shiu-Ming, community activist involved in the immigrant rights movement in multiple capacities, including 6 years as a Detention Attorney and as the former Civil Rights Coordinator at South Asian Network, Nativo Lopez, President of the Mexican American Political Association, Susan Alva, immigrant rights attorney with the Migration Policy and Research Center at Occidental College, Suely Ngoy, Executive Director of Khmer Girls in Action, a community based organization working on ending deportation of Cambodian immigrants locally and nationally. Colin Rajah, Program Director for International Migrant Rights & Global Justice at the National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights.