Blog the Debt

Obama should re-start immigration debate - and extend it beyond our borders

Check out Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies' great post on The Hill's Congress Blog:

The news that President Obama plans to put immigration back into the political debate is very welcome. The economic crisis has made this issue even more urgent for two reasons:
1. The crisis has made many immigrant workers even more vulnerable to abuse.

Ai-jen Poo, of the National Alliance of Domestic Workers, points out that when 10,000 Wall Street jobs are lost, 10,000 domestic workers’ jobs are in jeopardy. Poo reports that workers who remain employed are facing escalating labor and other human rights abuses as employers take advantage of these workers, who tend to be immigrants and are isolated in individual homes. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network reports similar problems facing their constituents. Latinos working in the housing industry were among the earliest and hardest hit by the crisis.

2. The global impacts of the crisis are intensifying immigration pressures in developing countries.

The immigration debate needs to extend beyond domestic measures. Reducing poverty and joblessness abroad is the only real solution to immigration concerns in this country. President Obama should follow through on promises to promote debt cancellation for impoverished countries, one of the most effect ways to fight poverty. He should also see his plans to reform trade policies as an opportunity to repeal rules, such as the agriculture provisions in NAFTA, that have caused massive unemployment in the Mexican countryside.

Once migrants arrive in the United States, their basic human rights need to be protected. Given a choice, however, most people would prefer to stay in their home country. The Obama administration’s immigration plan should include initiatives to help create the opportunities that will give more people that choice.

Busy Busy Busy

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind for Jubilee: combating the financial crisis, trying to prevent a new debt crisis, working to make sure that the decision's of world leaders are just and fair. Last week's G20 Summit changed the game - world leaders committed to giving the International Monetary Fund $850 million in new money. This is the institution whose policies helped start the crisis and one that is definitely not fair and just. Saying that, we've been working hard to make sure that the new money is an opportunity for serious reform of the IMF and a chance to use the money to help the most impoverished.

To get our voices heard, grassroots from across the country have been writing letters to the editor in their local papers and a number of our staff and religious leaders have also placed articles and opinion pieces. It's hard to post them all in full, so I'll leave them here. Take a few moments; browse, get educated, get inspired.

• Neil Watkins, "G20 and Global Poverty," Foreign Policy in Focus, April 8, 2009.
• Dr. Michael Harrington, “Debt relief is vital for poor nations,” Letters to the Editor, Financial Times, April 7, 2009.
• Kelly Trout, “Improving the IMF's Impact,” Letters to the Editor, Washington Post, April 7, 2009.
• Robert Brown, “Remember world's poor,” Letters to the Editor, Washington Live, April 4, 2009.
• Richard Cizik, “Obama Must Not Forget His Promise to the World's Poor at G-20 Summit,” The Christian Post, April. 01 2009.
• Rev. Mark S. Hanson, “A Test of Moral Leadership for President Obama at G-20” Religious Dispatches, April 1, 2009
• Susan Beckett, “In poor countries, downturn is deadly,” Ann Arbor News, Letters to the Editor. March 30, 3009.
• Susan L. Beckett, “Worldwide relief,” Letter to the Editor, Detroit Free-Press, March 29, 2009.
• Sister Karen Ann Wielaba, “Obama should work to expand debt relief,” The Reading Eagle (Pa.), March 20, 2009.
• Kristin Sundell, “As Global Recession Drives More Women into Poverty, a Challenge to Obama,” Women’s Media Center, March 13, 2009.
• Margot Friedman, “The G-20 Summit: An Early Test for Obama,” Tikkun.org, March 12, 2009.
• Elizabeth Palmberg, “Earth to the G-20: ‘The Developing World is too Big to Fail’,” God’s Politics Blog (Sojourners), March 11, 2009.
• Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, "What the G-20 Can Do for Haiti," Washington Post, April 2, 2009.
• Harry Olmstead, "Economic Crisis a Global Issue," The Birmingham News, March 26 2009.