How Important is a Driver’s License to You?
If you or someone you know is undocumented, tell us how a driver’s license – or lack of one – affects your life.
"Just the fact that saying you’re gonna have a license and your life is gonna change, the isolation is gonna disappear and so forth - that I believe is very unfair. To be leading the young immigrant labor force into believe that just that [driver’s] license is going to change their life that way."
— Dairy farmer in Vermont, who requested anonymity, on the idea of a law allowing drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.
(Source: theworld.org)
"I feel that the driver’s license is a way to.. empower these workers but it also sends a message, even though it’s subtle, to the employer, that these people at least have that right."
— Seth Gardner of Vermont, who supports a new license law for undocumented workers.
(Source: theworld.org)
Sean Chen spent two and a half years in York County Prison while his asylum case was pending. The terms of his release allow him to work legally, but he needs to check in with immigration agents on a regular basis. He has been living in the United States for longer than he lived in China, and has no immediate family left in his native Fujian Province. Few people call him by his Chinese given name any longer – his wife and children know him only as Sean. Both of his sons are American citizens. Last June, Sean’s application to adjust his status to become a permanent resident, based on his wife having obtained US citizenship, was rejected; he is currently appealing that decision. Today, twenty years after the Golden Venture tragedy, there are still twenty men in addition to Sean Chen who were paroled by President Clinton in 1997 but were never able to regularize their immigration status. Some of them have been living under deportation orders since 2004. (Photo: Katja Heinemann)
(Source: theworld.org)
The Fukien Benevolent Association was established in 1942, at a time when the Fujianese presence was limited to a few hundred sailors and Merchant Marines who had settled in NYC. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the first families from Fujian Province began arriving in New York City to join these men, and by the 1980s there was a continuous stream of immigrants who were drawn to the area based on family ties and village connections. Today there are more than two dozen hometown and regional groups. As immigration from the province picked up during the mid-eighties, demand for human smuggling rose as well but remained mostly under the radar until the spectacular, widely broadcast Golden Venture incident. (Photo: Katja Heinemann)
Guocheng Lin was 18-years-old when he arrived on the Golden Venture. He was housed at York County Prison and later lived in Philadelphia, where Guocheng owns two Chinatown discount stores. He is married and has three children, ranging from age two to seven. In 1997, Guocheng was one of 53 detainees remaining at York County Prison who were paroled by President Bill Clinton. From 2001 to 2011, he was covered under the yearly private relief bill introduced to Congress by Representative Todd Platts (R-PA) that sought to regularize the parolees’ status to permanent residents. Advocates for the Golden Venture group are currently working with Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to reintroduce a similar bill.
Guocheng was able to obtain a green card last year because his wife had become a US citizen.
(Photo: Katja Heinemann)
Golden Venture: 20 Years After a Tragic Voyage
Twenty years ago, the Golden Venture ran aground off New York. Abut 300 undocumented Chinese immigrants started to swim to shore. Patrick Radden Keefe writes about what happened to the men and how their their fate fits into the current debate on immigration.
(Source: ow.ly)
Silicon Valley’s Immigrant Janitors Learning English at Work
If an immigration bill currently under consideration in the Senate becomes law, millions of people will need to learn English to become permanent US residents. That can be hard for many immigrants. But in California there’s a program that gives immigrant janitors a unique opportunity to learn English at their workplace.
