Immigration - March 2007

Most Popular Change Type Size Young immigrants rally to support legislation on college assistance
Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 12, 2007 12:00 AM

About 30 local high school students gathered on the state Capitol lawn Sunday and rallied for a shot at an affordable education.

The students are pushing Congress for approval of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act, which would let students who entered the country illegally as children to legalize their immigration status and qualify for in-state tuition and financial aid.

Lawmakers from California and Florida recently reintroduced the DREAM Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. advertisement




"We want to let the community know . . . we need their support," said Marina, an 18-year-old senior at Carl Hayden Community High School. "It's something wonderful for students. If they want us to integrate into society, we need this opportunity. It's for students who care about their education and want to contribute to their country."

Marina has lived in the United States since she was 7.

"We know no other country," she said.

Students asked that their last names not be used because of their immigration status.

Some of the students pushing for approval of the federal, bipartisan measure are members of Carl Hayden's award-winning robotics program, which this weekend won the Arizona Regional Chairman's Award for the third time. Those inner-city students have garnered national attention for their repeat victories at national competitions, even over prestigious colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"If given the opportunity, these students are tomorrow's scientists, engineers and business leaders," Marina said. "They need the opportunity."

CADENA, a grass-roots community organization, is leading a campaign to promote the DREAM Act because it says the act will remove the obstacles in the way of students' success.

As it now stands, the Arizona Board of Regents gave universities permission to implement Proposition 300, a voter-approved initiative that prevents undocumented residents from getting in-state tuition.

Students who want in-state tuition but don't apply for federal financial aid must present an Arizona driver's license issued after 1996, a passport or a birth certificate.

Out-of-state tuition costs about three times more than what Arizona residents pay.

2007-03-12 18:48:36 · 7 answers · asked by illegals_r_whiners 2

2007-03-12 18:42:41 · 6 answers · asked by mariarhernandez@sbcglobal.net 1

NEWS online print edition
Print Article Email Article Most Popular Change Type Size 'Little Oaxaca' sprouts in Phoenix
Mexican immigrants find familiar culture in Sunnyslope neighborhood
Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 12, 2007 12:00 AM

If Sunnyslope had a patron saint, her name would be the Virgin of Solitude.

The black-cloaked woman is the saint of Oaxaca, Mexico, but her image drapes walls in homes and businesses throughout Sunnyslope, one of the Valley's oldest neighborhoods, nestled at the bottom of Phoenix's North Mountain.

Over the past decade, so many immigrants from the southern Mexican state have moved into Sunnyslope that the working-class community in north-central Phoenix is becoming known as "Little Oaxaca." advertisement




Sunnyslope has always been a haven of sorts. Its first settlers were Midwesterners who suffered from tuberculosis, rheumatism and asthma and set up tents in the early 1900s in the desert after being forced out of Phoenix. In the mid-1980s, refugees from Vietnam and immigrants from Asia made Sunnyslope home and a section was known as "Little Saigon."

Now, waves of Mexican immigrants fleeing poverty in Oaxaca are drawn to Sunnyslope for its affordable housing and its access to major bus routes, which provide quick rides to jobs throughout the city. Many in the neighborhood are undocumented immigrants, and longer-term residents help newcomers find places in the community where legal status isn't required.

They are transforming pockets of the neighborhood, and re-creating pieces of the Mexican villages they left behind. Immigrant enclaves are as old as this country. In Sunnyslope, Oaxacan immigrants are creating an indigenous-flavored subculture within the Valley's Mexican culture.

On soccer fields and street corners, men and women speak with the sing-song accent of Oaxacan Spanish. In restaurants, families flock for plates of mole, a dark chocolaty sauce. Oaxaqueños live side by side in fixer-uppers and reminisce about the green, mountainous fields of their homelands, finding comfort in familiarity.

"Everyone here in this neighborhood is going through the same thing," said Rogelio, a day laborer waiting for work one recent morning. He asked that his last name not be used because of his undocumented status. "You miss your family, your country. The greenness of everything down there (in Oaxaca). The good thing is, you can always find someone from Oaxaca around here to talk to about it. They're everywhere."


New land portals


Immigrants from all over Latin America live throughout the Valley. But there are areas where concentrations of people from different Mexican states influence entire city blocks with their regional cultures.

Along stretches of Van Buren Street in west Phoenix, for example, hundreds of immigrants from Sinaloa fill homes, taco shops and Western-wear businesses. Central Mesa is known for its large population of Guatemalans and Peruvians. And north Phoenix's Palomino neighborhood is home to Mexicans from the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua.

The neighborhoods typically begin with the arrival of a few immigrants from a Mexican town or city, said Steve Murdock, state demographer of Texas. They grow as those immigrants send word of good-paying jobs in hotels, kitchens and golf courses. Sons, relatives and friends follow, and many send for wives and children later.

The neighborhoods help cushion immigrants' adjustment to the U.S., experts said, and allow them to still feel close to their homelands. Earlier immigrants help recent immigrants navigate, introducing them to people in the neighborhood, showing them how the bus system works and connecting them to priests and churches.

The neighborhoods also create opportunities for immigrants to climb the economic ladder. Many open businesses and sell region-specific food and other products to their neighbors.

"The new enclaves become a . . . stepping stone for immigrants," said Gregory Rodriguez, an Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank where he studies acculturation.

"It's lonely and disorienting, moving to a land with different expectations. These neighborhoods help ground people and help root them in the past, even as they're obviously charging forth in the future."


Feeling at home


In Sunnyslope, Oaxacans boom banda music from stores and homes. Their cars and trucks announce Oaxacan pride with stickers on rear windows in the shape of the state. Families fill Sunnyslope's five Oaxacan restaurants and panaderias (bakeries), which opened in the past decade.

Mini Mercado Restaurant Oaxaca, on the corner of Central Avenue and Hatcher Road, has become a gathering place for the Oaxacan community. Immigrants stop in to buy bags of mole ***** (black mole), little loaves of the region's sweet egg bread and pounds of strong Oaxacan coffee. Some pop in just to pray in front of a shrine for the Virgin of Solitude or drop off money that is donated to churches in Oaxaca.

Jorge Lopez Sr., an immigrant from Oaxaca, opened Mini Mercado in 1999. He saw that the Oaxacan community was growing and no one in the area was selling regional products.

Today, the restaurant is a cornerstone of the Oaxacan community, and Lopez plans to open a stand-alone bakery across the street.

"(Sunnyslope) is like a town of Oaxacans," Lopez, 38, said.

In Oaxaca, Roberto Bolanos, 32, worked the region's cornfields until a few years ago, when the water dried up and the crops died, he said. Three months ago, Bolanos and his wife, Beatriz Herrera, both undocumented, moved to Sunnyslope, where they share a rental house with a cousin. They are saving money they earn cleaning movie theaters and hope to return to Oaxaca in a year.

2007-03-12 18:41:57 · 4 answers · asked by illegals_r_whiners 2

My fiancée was adopted in September of 2000, at 15 years of age, by two US Citizens. At the time, she was a citizen of Indonesia, in the country legally on a current B2 Visa. She immediately became a permanent resident, and is currently in possession of her Green Card.

My question is, does the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 make her a citizen of the United States, and if so, how should she go about getting this recognized by the INS?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

2007-03-12 18:29:38 · 4 answers · asked by creysoft 1

2007-03-12 18:19:04 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous

I think so, there should be no such thing as dual citizenship

2007-03-12 18:14:48 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-03-12 18:01:50 · 10 answers · asked by Victor Nunez 1

if youre married with same sex, is gay/lesbian community will support with this matters

2007-03-12 17:50:15 · 5 answers · asked by Lloyd H 1

2007-03-12 17:31:18 · 2 answers · asked by mom2courage 1

2007-03-12 16:34:38 · 21 answers · asked by John P 1

I'm having problems with the argument that we should pacify immigrants by allowing them to have the benefits of being citizens without being citizens. In other countries, including Mexico, this would not be allowed, would it? I'm not saying to be cruel, rude, or dehumanize undocumented immigrants -- I'm merely trying to get more clarity.

2007-03-12 16:30:59 · 12 answers · asked by curious one 1

Which passport do you use for the US check-in agents, at the gate, in Europe at passport control, check-in, emmigration, and at US immigration?

2007-03-12 16:25:56 · 4 answers · asked by presidentrichardnixon 3

my husband is in ghana and am all alone here with two little girls and i need to file for him as soon as possible

2007-03-12 16:23:53 · 5 answers · asked by sheridanlicha 1

Born in mexico. Brought here at age of one. Mom became us citizen and child is reported on these papers. Child went to school and graduated. Has a social security card and license. Since the person was on legal documents years ago was it all taken care of then or is ther more this person needs to do to not be at risk of deportation. The person has been here a long time and has children???? There is so many different rules so I thought someone may help that has a similiar situation. Thank you.

2007-03-12 16:08:46 · 7 answers · asked by cortezm 1

2007-03-12 15:51:31 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous

Check this out if you would like to see me www.myspace.com/rolandsdisc

I have a question regarding the above. What is the easiest way for a Canadian citizen who was born in Mexico to get into the US LEGALLY? I`m a singer songwriter and muscian, also do some recording in my studio. Put I have thought of starting a buisness in the US. My dad who is not a blood mexican either, has a buisness in Mexico. We would probably work together but one buisness in the US I would work at. It might be a corporation. Nothing big though. Would this help me to apply for permanet residence green card etc?
I heard one guy had to have some card showing he used to be a mechanic in Mexico then he worked for about five years in the US where his boss signed some papers and now he has permanet residence. How could i do this or how does this work.
I like mexico. But to be among more white people like me and all thats just more me. I feel like an american in so many ways.

Any contact info

2007-03-12 15:20:07 · 3 answers · asked by rolandtroy 1

Say if there is an immigration raid should the parents have plans in place for what to do with their kids if that should ever happen ?

2007-03-12 14:50:58 · 14 answers · asked by Zoe 3

This act means a 700 mile wall will be constructed between Mexico and the U.S. Is it a good idea?

2007-03-12 14:34:26 · 13 answers · asked by jumanji 2

i need to know this for AP Human Geo.

2007-03-12 14:26:36 · 1 answers · asked by ladylisha 1

Since they get Federal Funding ?

2007-03-12 13:53:28 · 4 answers · asked by Zoe 1

is there any way i can bring her AND her 3 kids to the U.S.? she's not married and i hate that she has to live in such poor conditions with my niece and nephews =( the kids are all between the ages of 11 and 3. should i get a lawyer or what? HELP PLEASE!!!

2007-03-12 13:49:19 · 4 answers · asked by crayzmamii 2

Hopefully they've been incinerated.

2007-03-12 13:30:06 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous

Im 16 and Ive Lived in USA since i was 3. Im originally from canada. I really don't want to have to wait until im 18 to become American but my parents aren't willing to go through the process with me. Is there Any way I can become a citizen as a minor without Making my parents become citizens as well? PLEASE help. any websites with info, informational numbers anything! thanks

2007-03-12 13:28:35 · 5 answers · asked by Michael F 1

Why is it not O.K for me to break the laws I don't like?

2007-03-12 13:05:52 · 14 answers · asked by Matt 5

I’m a U.S. Citizen, I live in Dallas, Texas, I got married at Taiwan, and I would like to bring my Taiwanese wife to U.S. ; We are Not register as husband and wife here in U.S. but we are legally married in Taiwan.
What is the process and place to file? Should I file it from Taiwan or should I file it from U.S. ? If filling from U.S what is the process? Where should I sent my document to? If I need to file from Taiwan, what is the process? Thank you

2007-03-12 12:58:39 · 5 answers · asked by MICHAEL K 2

So if i was a foreigner in san francisco, i could have been a citizen?
Damn wish i lived there

2007-03-12 12:52:53 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous

So many of our "problem" people, legal and illegal, are put in the most "undesireable" jobs. Would you want that for your vunerable parents or children? Especially since that is who they have their most contact with?

2007-03-12 12:48:27 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous

The United States Lies to Children and Teenagers in School about how Foreigners are suppose to enter the United States the right way and yet they let millions and millions of people enter the WRONG way.

2007-03-12 12:36:09 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous

Every city should be doing exactly what they are doing! They are trying to clean up their city and get rid of criminals - the ILLEGAL immigrants. What's so wrong about that?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_o...

2007-03-12 12:35:58 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous

I been living in the U.S. for more than 20 years legally, I was wondering how I can apply for U.S. citizenship and not get denied because I never applied for Selective Service when I was able too, between the ages of 18-25, but I am now 26 about to turn 27.

2007-03-12 12:25:58 · 9 answers · asked by sorianp 1