Press

  • From Black Power to Migrants’ Power

    As ’60s activist art enters museums, a new generation is creating an iconography of protest for today.

    “There have been the singing nun and the flying nun, but the hippest of all is Los Angeles’s painting nun,” noted Newsweek in its 1967 cover story on Sister Corita Kent, the artist, activist, and teacher, whose first career survey, as The Saratogian reports, opened at the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore college this week.

    Despite her edgy Pop sensibility, influential friends like Ben Shahn and Buckminster Fuller, and posthumous shows in various museums, along with a 2009 exhibition at Zach Feuer Gallery, Sister Corita never became a presence in the mainstream art world. No doubt this is partly because of her vocation (she was a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which she joined in 1936 and left in 1968), and the fact that she was a printmaker, rather than a painter.

    Read More »
  • Migrants across U.S. taking protests to defiant new level

    A growing number of undocumented immigrants in Arizona and other states are taking immigration protests to a new extreme, staging acts of civil disobedience by deliberately getting arrested in order to be turned over to federal immigration officials.

    Often wearing T-shirts declaring themselves "undocumented and unafraid," the protesters have sat down in streets and blocked traffic, or occupied buildings in several cities including Phoenix and Tucson.

    Dozens of protesters have been arrested, but in almost every case, federal immigration officers have declined to deport those in the country illegally. Protesters say they are planning more acts of civil disobedience, including possibly in Phoenix.

    The acts are intended to openly defy stepped-up immigration enforcement that has led to record deportations over the past three years.

    Read More »
  • In Defense of Civil Protest

    Yet, regardless of one's position on the broad issue of immigration, No Papers, No Fear should give us pause.

    Arizona is not a great place for people without papers right now, said Fernando, "...and those who stayed, stayed to resist and fight back." With no elected officials to represent them and the threat of possible deportation looming, these people decided to board a bus and ride hundreds of miles across the country so that others like them might be a little less afraid to drive to work, a few members of the press might give a brief nod to their daily hardships, and they can publically declare themselves fully part of the United States after living here for many years. They boarded the bus because they have no advocacy tools other than their voices, despite the very real risk that their actions would result in arrest, jail time, or deportation.

    If Miguel were to become an American citizen, he would want to own his own business, he said. If his deportation case moves forward, he will leave behind 14 years of his life, a wife, and three kids, two of whom were born in the United States. For him, coming to the DNC was less of a choice than a final gesture of hope that democracy can actually work, that defending a belief peacefully, publically, and at serious personal risk can change our policies.

    Read More »
  • Undocumented immigrants push Obama to realise their American Dream

    Undocumented immigrants push Obama to realise their American Dream

    Immigrant rights activists have succeeded in putting stalled immigration reform back on the agenda, but they're not done yet

    "We are here to ask President Obama what his legacy will be," Rosi Carrasco said as she climbed down from the "UndocuBus", colorfully painted with butterflies, that the activists traveled in from Arizona.

    "What we want to say to President Obama is, on which side of the history is he going to be? Is he going to be remembered as the president that has been deporting the most people in US history, or he is going to be on the side of immigrants?"

    Rosi's husband, Martin Unzueta, said:

    "I am undocumented. I've been living here for 18 years. I pay taxes, and I'm paying more taxes than Citibank."

    Read More »
  • Familia de Chicago se arriesga a la deportación en la Convención Demócrata

    Mientras delegados participaban en la Convención Nacional Demócrata(DNC), miembros de una familia de Chicago se arriesgaron a la deportación tras participar en una protesta.

    Martín Unzueta, Rosi Carrasco, su hija Ireri Unzueta Carrasco y miembros de la gira por autobús “Sin Papeles, Sin Miedo – Gira por la Justicia” fueron arrestados tras bloquear una avenida cerca de donde se lleva a cabo la convención de los demócratas, en Charlotte, Carolina del Norte.

    La familia Unzueta, conocida por su activismo en Chicago, participaba en la gira que empezó protesta por la política migratoria del presidente Barack Obama, que algunos indican ha sido el presidente que más personas a deportado.

    Read More »
  • Undocubus connects immigrants to civil rights legacy at DNC

    Undocubus connects immigrants to civil rights legacy at DNC

    The Undocubus, a busload of undocumented activists from Arizona, rode across the Deep South throughout the month of August to call attention to immigration policies that criminalize immigrants and separate families. The group arrived at the Democratic National Convention on Saturday, 48 years and eight presidential administrations after civil rights activists enacted a similar strategy in 1964.

    The legacy of the civil rights movement holds rich implications for contemporary struggles over immigrant rights. In the lead-up to the 1964 presidential election, organizers working in Mississippi hosted Freedom Summer, bringing hundreds of whites from across the nation to spend their summer living alongside blacks and registering them to vote in some of the most violent segregated towns in the South.

    Read More »
  • ‘Undocubus’ immigrants released from jail; feds take no steps to deport them

    ‘Undocubus’ immigrants released from jail; feds take no steps to deport them

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. Ten undocumented immigrants who were arrested in a Charlotte protest Tuesday have been released from jail, and none have been referred for deportation, federal authorities say.

    “ICE has taken no enforcement action against the Ride for Justice activists arrested Tuesday in Charlotte,” said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”

    Read More »
  • Video: Undocubus – A Journey From Arizona to the DNC 2012

    In an action against President Obama’s immigration policies, 10 undocumented immigrants were arrested for civil disobedience in front of the gates to the Democratic National Convention yesterday evening. The 10 arrestees were riders on Undocubus, which made its way cross-country to Charlotte after leaving from Phoenix more than a month ago. After their arrest, immigration authorities questioned them in jail—but following an all-night call-in and petition campaign, all 10 were released this morning.

    Read More »
  • No Papers, No Fear: Risking Deportation at the DNC

    No Papers, No Fear: Risking Deportation at the DNC

    On the evening of Wednesday, August 15, the Democratic National Convention made history by inviting an undocumented immigrant to address the delegacy. Benita Veliz told the crowd how she came to the U.S. as a young child but lived with the knowledge that she could be deported at any time—until June 2012, when President Obama signed the DREAM Act, an executive order granting temporary residency status to thousands of children of immigrants. She praised Obama for his support of the Act, saying: “President Obama has fought for my community.”

    But just the previous day, a few blocks outside the convention center, a group of undocumented immigrants had used their bodies and voices to draw attention to what they say is Obama’s flawed and unjust immigration record. That record includes about 1.1 million deportations, more than any other president since the 1950s.

    Read More »
  • Why did immigration officials release a group of undocumented activists arrested outside the DNC?

    Despite the threat of deportation, Julio Sánchez protested in Charlotte on Tuesday.

    After police arrested ten undocumented activists protesting outside the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, those arrested were turned over to federal immigration authorities.

    Hours later, however, the activists were released from custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

    “ICE has taken no enforcement action against the Ride for Justice activists arrested Tuesday in Charlotte,” an ICE spokesperson told USA Today in a statement. “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”

    Read More »
Page 1 of 7 Next
Back to Top