As talk of comprehensive immigration reform has taken a backseat to more pressing issues like the economy, counties and municipalities all across the U.S. are passing laws restricting the role of immigration law enforcement. Sanctuary statutes have been popping up all across the country for the last twenty years.
Chicago and Cook County both have such laws in place. Chicago's sanctuary laws state city employees and agencies cannot ask about the legal status of persons when seeking city services. Unless it is an investigation of a criminal act, city employees and agencies cannot ask about or investigate legal status. In addition, agencies cannot “disseminate information regarding citizenship” unless order to by the court system.
The Cook County resolution, passed by the board in April 2007 and sponsored by Commissioner Roberto Maldonado (8th District), declares the county to have sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. Along the same lines as the city's ordinance, county employees and agencies are prohibited from seeking information regarding legal citizenship status unless the investigation is directly related to a criminal act. Additionally, the Cook County Sheriff's Department cannot aid in the “enforcement of federal civil immigration laws to the extent legally possible,” according to documentation from the National Immigration Law Center (NILC.)
Commissioner Maldonado was born in the South Bronx before his family returned to their homeland of Puerto Rico in 1955. At the age of 27, Maldonado returned to the U.S. 30 years ago from Puerto Rico. The introduction of the resolution spawned from Maldonado's belief of “systematic persecution” of Latinos.
“This is the civil rights struggle of this era,” said Maldonado. “How can you tell the difference between
When a person in taken into police custody in Cook County for a criminal act, deputies are allowed to ask about a person's legal immigration and/or citizenship status. Only after the court case has been completely disposed in the court system may Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials step in to begin the potential deportation process. Maldonado said there is an overwhelming amount of Latinos going through the court system, but most of their journey begins with a traffic violation, an offense below a misdemeanor.
After requesting to copies of ICE reports, Maldonado said he made an interesting discovery.
“If you look at (those) ICE reports that I saw, most of those people that were arrested originated from a traffic violation,” said Maldonado. “From below a misdemeanor to mushroom in which you find yourself before a judge on a felony or misdemeanor is just outrageous.”
Maldonado said three ICE officers attend bond hearings every day in Cook County and he has documentation of at least three U.S. citizens who have had ICE officials questioning their status.
The sanctuary provisions are mainly put in place to benefit the families living in the area, according to Fred Tsao, policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
“It's not just a matter of undocumented people,” said Tsao. “This is a matter of people coming forward with U.S. born children and spouses from other countries.”
Tsao said opponents of the resolution were most concerned about the cost to the county, something Joan Friedlander, immigration policy analyst from NILC agrees with.
Friedlander said she does not like to refer to such policies as “sanctuary,” but rather as community policing because of the sanctions placed on the areas cooperation with federal immigration law. It is expensive for cities to take on the enforcement of immigration law, but Friedlander sees the implementation of such laws as more about “community safety.”
Chicago and Cook County's laws are not as strict as those in San Francisco, Houston, and Hartford, Conn., which Jessica Vaughn feels are protecting criminals. Vaughn is senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies.
Vaughn does feel like the county's laws are”schizophrenic,” after she came to the area to testify about guest workers.
“I just found it odd the county was worried about the number of legal guest workers and how they were recruited considering they're worried about their skilled workers, but not they're unskilled workers,” said Vaughn.
-Source List
-Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado. Cook County Office Phone: 312-603-6386. District Office Phone: 773-395-0143. Interviewed at his office in the Cook County Building on 10-22-08.
-Fred Tsao. Policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Phone: 312-332-7360, ext. 213. Interviewed via phone on 10-20-08.
-Joan Friedlander. Immigration policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center. Phone: 202-384-1279. Interviewed via phone on 10-21-08.
-Jessica Vaughn. Senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies. Phone: 508-346-3380. Interviewed via phone on 10-22-08.
Jose Quintero remembers clutching his mother's hand on the tarmac of an airport in Havana, Cuba, on August 12, 1960. Soon Quintero would be in America, away from the rising Communist regime of Fidel Castro.
Thirty-four years later, Juan Carlos Subiza, Quintero's cousin, would make the same decision to leave his homeland, but would take a much more dangerous route. Subiza, along with 13 others, made a raft and set sail for America, praying the Cuban Coast Guard would not pick them up.
Hundreds of thousands of people have left their homeland of Cuba, an island off the coast of southern Florida since Castro took control by force in 1959.
Standing in his sunny kitchen in Quincy, Ill,, Quintero tells of a pleasant childhood on a corner lot in Havana, the capital of Cuba. Quintero's father had a lucrative job working on a government project and was a respected man in the sugar industry. The family lived in a compound consisting of four other homes where family members also lived.
An aunt still lives in the compound, but she says it has fallen into ill-repair. Other families were given the other homes in the compound by the government and Quintero has never seen pictures of where his family used to live.
Quintero was chauffeured to private school everyday, along with his two sisters. The family nanny was Celia Cruz, a well known Cuban singer, and servants were always watching over the children.
When Castro assumed power, democracy was promised but by late 1959 and early 1960, it was clear that was not the case, said Quintero. The children were not allowed outside the compound alone. Quintero's mother even had the barber come to the house for fear of anything happening. Movies were particularly off limits as movie complexes were being blown up.
“We heard gunfire every night,” said Quintero. “We would turn off the lights.”
Quintero's mother owned a small business, but Che Guevara had begun taking money out of the banks and freezing assets. The family's flight to the U.S. began soon after. Quintero's father assets were either sold or given to Quintero's aunt to secure visas for the family. Quintero's father also had many connections in the U.S., and already had a job when the family arrived.
Quintero and his family were placed on the last flight leaving Cuba for the U.S. Before the plane had left Havana airspace, the pilot was told to turn around, but he ignored it. His mother hid her wedding ring in her hair and the entire family had one small suitcase plus the clothes on their back.
“We thought we were going on a trip, but I think Dad knew when he left it would be the last time,” said Quintero. “He knew it would not be short.”
The family landed at what is now Kennedy Airport in New York City, and then went on to Philadelphia, staying at a motel called The American. The children had already been enrolled in school and started on time that fall. Quintero said he felt no discrimination, but rather acceptance because the other children in school were eager to learn about these new foreign students. Despite being in the fourth or fifth grade, Quintero frequently was in the first grade class in order to learn English, which he knew none of upon arrival.
“The kids were kind of infatuated with us, like a toy,” said Quintero laughing. “And of course, we were taught by nuns.”
Quintero went on to college in Missouri. He has taught Spanish at the public high school in Quincy for the past 20 years and has also coached football and basketball. He and his wife Kathy have two adult children, Drew and Ashley.
The Cuban heritage is not lost on Quintero's son. Drew has a tattoo on the inside of his bicep of the outline of the Cuban island with the national flag on the inside and recently threw a Cuban themed party for family and friends.
While Quintero had an easy life and transition, Subiza's story stands in sharp contrast.
Subiza had a hard life in Cuba. Although he said he always had a job, the worth of Cuban money is not high.
“I made about $20 a month and could not own my own house or car,” said Subiza. “How would you like to live like that?”
Subiza came to the U.S. in 1994 with his girlfriend and 11 others. They spent two days in the water before hitting land.
“It feels like you've been living in the dark,” said Subiza. “I was 25 when I came here and it felt like I was seeing the light for the first time.”
Everything was new to Subiza upon his arrival, especially democracy. When interviewed, Subiza was getting ready to cast his vote on Election Day in Connecticut. Part of Subiza's journey was recorded in the documentary Balseros, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Quintero and Subiza both became U.S. citizens. Quintero waited the standard five years before he and most of his family applied for green cards and eventually citizenship. Subiza became a citizen on November 3, 2003.
Adjustments must be made when coming to the U.S. and for Cubans, and there are many, according to Dr. Andy Gomez, assistant provost and senior fellow at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami.
“The biggest adjustment is the psychological transformation of values and attitudes,” said Gomez.
Gomez explained Cubans are not used to having liberty and freedom, so when they arrive in the U.S., they do not know what to do with it. Also most of the early arrivals from Cuba were whole family units who have been in the U.S. for years without any family or friends back in Cuba. Now the newer arrivals are more individuals who are leaving family and friends behind, said Gomez.
Gomez himself left Cuba at the age of six and a half and moved with his family to Venezuela before coming to the U.S. in 1965.
Source List
-Jose Quintero. Address: 1924 W Wilmar Dr., Quincy, IL, 62301. Phone: 217-222-3103. Interviewed in person on October 5, 2008 at his residence.
-Juan Carlos Subiza. Phone: 860-882-8751. Interviewed via phone on November 4, 2008.
-Dr. Andy Gomez. Assistant Provost and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami. Phone: 305-284-9431. Email: agomez@miami.edu. Interviewed via phone on November 6, 2008.
Most of the blogs about the tiny country of Liechtenstein deal with the latest financial situation. Apparently Liechtenstein is like Switzerland, a mecca of sorts for the rich to store their money free from taxes and prying eyes. And this is causing problems. The first blog I found considered the reaction of Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein to “Germany's Fourth Reich.” The prince is upset because German intelligence is wanting files from Liechtenstein's national bank about German tax evaders, stating Liechtenstein has already lived through three German installations.
A second blog from Don Surber of the London Daily Mail also harassed Liechtenstein about its financial governances. But this time Surber found humor in the U.S. joining Germany in its questioning of Liechtenstein's rules. A quote from IRS acting commissioner Linda Stiff said finding people avoiding taxes with off-shore accounts was a top priority. Apparently finding ways to turn the now official recession around for middle class Americans is not...
On a brighter note, the Deputy Speaker of the Liechtenstein House of Representatives, the Hon. Carmelo Abela, will be speaking at the Third European Small States' Conference of Presidents of Parliament. Abela will be helping smaller European principalities and countries discuss immigration, tourism and labor market issues as they specifically relate to their small populations. Having spent two hours in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, during a European vacation, I think tourism is the least likely of its problems. Maybe they should stick to hiding tax funds for the rest of the world...
