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OSHA training offered at CoFiA Monday lunch program

A new program is being offered following the CoFiA Monday lunch programs at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Palisades Park–an introductory OSHA training.  OSHA trainers Stuart Sydenstricker and Diana Mejia invite workers who come for the hot lunch to participate in an informal OSHA session after lunch.  Several workers have testified about how they have been injured on the job, and how important it is to know how to work safely and what to do if an employer does not provide adequate safety information or equipment.

Workers who complete the full five-week program will receive a certificate.  People who are unable to attend regularly will benefit from the information provided and may be able to sign up for a full course at another time.OSHA TRAINING 2.25.13005 OSHA TRAINING 2.25.13004 OSHA TRAINING 2.25.13003

 

Pictures, from left to right:  Stewart addresses the group. A worker enjoying the session. CoFiA member Effie Giraldo assisting.

Business and Labor Groups agree on need for new visas

A recent article in the Bergen RECORD said that the US Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO reached consensus on an agreement on the need for a way to let businesses more easily hire foreign workers when Americans aren’t available to fill jobs.  This describes most of our friends in the day laborer community so we are happy to see this.

The article says the groups are calling for a new kind of woker visa program that does not keep all workers in a permanent temporary status and responds as the U.S. economy grows and shrinks.

As CoFiA members talk with the migrant workers in our communities we recognize that one of the major dysfunctional aspects of our broken immigration system is that it permits–even encourages–exploitation of the workers.  Because they come here desperate for work, they are forced to take almost anything that is offered to them.  There are many employers, large and small, who exploit that need, hiring people only on short-term bases and paying them far below the minimum wage–or not paying them at all.  Although all workers are covered by U.S. Labor laws, the deficits in the current immigration system actually encourage these practices, to the benefit of no one, neither migrant nor citizen.

A statement from the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO said, “We have found common ground in several important areas and have committed to continue to work together and with members of Congress to enact legislation that will solve our current problems in a lasting manner.  We are now in the middle–not the end–of this process.”

This is a signficant step in moving forward on immigration policy reform–especially important since some politicians (such as Florida’s Jeb Bush) are choosing to appeal to anti-immigrant groups to achieve short-term political goals.

 

 

46,486 parents of U.S.-citizen children deported in 2011

An article in “Yearning to Breathe Free,” the newsletter of the First Friends of NJ & NY Corp. “IRATE & First Friends”, points out that in the first six months of 2011, 46,486 parents of U.S.-citizens children were deported.  It also quotes the Applied Research Center (ARC) as estimating that about 5,100 children with detained or deported parents were in the public child welfare system in 2011.  Over the next five years, ARC estimates that an additional 15,000 children in the child welfare system could be at risk of permanent separation from a detained or deported parent.

These horrific statistics arise for several reasons.  The changes in U.S. immigration law in 1996 made it impossible for immigration judges to consider the harm that might be caused to a U.S.-citizen child by the removal of his or her parent or parents.  The parents are often removed suddenly, and may not be able to make any arrangements for their children while they are being held behind bars.  Further, a judge or caseworker could determine that a child who ends up in the child welfare system should be placed for adoption, rather than reunited with a deported parent or a responsible relative.

Congress must reinstate judicial discretion and eliminate “mandatory detention” laws as they relate to parents.  We must remember that the ICE practices that scoop up parents indiscriminately are heavily influenced by the motivation of private correctional corporations to keep their profitable institutions filled.

We are all complicit in these abuses of children if we do not speak out against them, and insist that our lawmakers listen–and act.

What Immigration Reform Means to NJ

immigration reform

immigration reformIn January, 2013, President Obama made the announcement that many of us interested in immigration reform have been waiting to hear: that this administration is going to do something to fix our broken immigration system.  Under the Obama immigration proposal, the millions of people who are in the United States without documentation would be given a path to citizenship.  We say hooray and it’s about time.

Often when people think of immigration reform, they think of it in abstract terms.  But the truth is that the current system has a deep impact right here in New Jersey.  We see it as close as with the workers we serve in Palisades Park, many of whom are undocumented and who are victimized by below-minimum wage pay, unsafe work environments and wage theft.  That’s right, all too often these men work hard for a contractor and at the end of a week (or a month or longer sometimes) they are told no pay is coming.  If they protest, they are threatened with exposure to the immigration authorities.  This is not the New Jersey (nor the America) we want to live in.

An analysis of 2010 U.S. Census data reveals that about 6% of New Jersey’s population is undocumented.  They represent about 8.6% of our work force, ranking us only behind California and Texas in percentage of undocumented workers.   That’s approximately 550,000 people in New Jersey alone, making a significant contribution to the construction, landscaping, farming and hospitality industries, to name only a few.  They are not “those illegal immigrants.”  They are our neighbors, who make our lives more pleasant and affordable and who pay taxes.  (Yes, they pay taxes, from sales taxes to income taxes).  Their labor is essential, but their current situations are unfair and untenable.

Current immigration laws create all kinds of unfair situations for the undocumented.  Here are a few:

  • Very often they pay payroll taxes, but they are ineligible for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and more.  We’re exploiting them.
  • Many are long-term residents of New Jersey, but can’t take advantage of residency benefits, such as in-state college tuition.
  • If they are stopped by police, they run the risk of being put into the rampantly unfair immigration detention system, where they have no right to a lawyer, no right to a speedy trial and can often be cut off from the world for months, even if they’re found not guilty of the offense for which they were originally picked up.
  • They suffer terrible family separation issues.  When one member of a family is undocumented but others (such as children) are citizens, parents get deported, children get put into foster care and families get torn asunder.
  • They are disproportionately victims of crime, and their fear of the police (brought on by the very real fear that their immigration status may make them vulnerable to deportation) makes them much less likely to report crimes such as domestic abuse, theft and rape.

Bringing everyone into the light and giving them a path to citizenship makes a stronger New Jersey and a better America.  If we continue to hold the ideals on which this country was founded – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – it is time to give our undocumented neighbors a chance to live fully realized lives as contributing, thriving members of society.  It is time for comprehensive immigration reform.

 

By Maria E. Andreu

CoFiA member Dr. Hung-en Sung publishes article on wage theft

Professor Hung-En Sung, Ph.D., of the Department of Criminal Justice of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, will have an excellent article on wage theft published in Outside Justice: The Criminalization of Immigrants in Policy and Practice (Springer).  The article, “Tyrannizing Strangers for Profit: Wage Theft, Cross-Border Migrant Workers, and the Politics of Exclusion in an Era of Global Economic Integration” is based on research done in Palisades Park, using survey data collected from 160 day laborers.

Dr. Sung cites CoFiA as one of several organizations that are working to assist the laborers.

The article concludes that “incoherent immigration legislation without a vision of a good society generates unintended consequences that derail law and order and distort labor markets.  It is time to bring rationality and morality back to our immigration practices.”

Pre-publication copies of the article will be available at the CoFiA annual meeting on December 13, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Leonia.

 

 

G.U.D. and MIGUA sponsor dance, December 7, 2012

On Friday, December 7, 2012, our friends in G.U.D and MIGUA are sponsoring a “Gran Baile” at La Elegancia Centro Americana, 572 57th St., West New York, NJ 07093.  The event will feature La Marimba Lira Huehueteca and DJ’s.  Guatemalan snacks will be available for purchase.

Tickets are $20 in advance, and $25 at the door.

For information call 201-362-3928.

 

CoFiA announces December 13, 2012, Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the Community of Friends in Action, Inc., will be on Thursday, December 13, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Leonia, 181 Fort Lee Road, Leonia, NJ 07605.  The evening will begin with a brief business meeting including election of officers, followed by a potluck supper and program.  Please call Carolyn Sobering at 201-543-1652 to let us know what you will bring to the supper.

 

Several of our Guatemalan members will share their stories of growing up in Guatemala and coming to the United States, and their hopes and dreams for the future.

 

 

Workers’ Link program has new fans!

We recently received this nice testimonial from a householder in Leonia:  “I needed a small job done–moving some very heavy furtniture upstairs.  I called the Community of Friends in Action yesterday, and this morning two able, careful, really lovely men showed up as promised and did the job beautifully!  A great resource for us all.”

And from Teaneck:  “Thanks to the Community of Friends I can count on reliable, competent assistance from a Workers Link person whenever I need help.  He does many things–cleans gutters, washes windows, trims the bushes, paints–whatever I need to have done!  It is a pleasure to have him here.  The work he is doing in the U.S. is giving his children in Guatemala opportunities he never had–completing their public school education, going to university, training to be teachers!”

For more information or to request help call CoFiA at 201-598-2253.

 

 

You’re invited! Dance, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

Our friends in G.U.D. (Guatemalans United for Development) have invited all of us to a dance at La Elegancia Centroamericana, 572 57th St., West New York, NJ, 07093.  The dance is to raise money for the Guatemalan float in the Hispanic Day Parade on October 12.

Checks payable to CoFiA may be mailed to Joan Kramer, 322 Park Avenue, Leonia, NJ, with “Dance” on the memo line.  Tickets are $15 each, but donations of any size are very welcome.

For information call 201-362-3928 (Spanish) or 973-873-4217.

Project to identify bodies of 44,000 “disappeared” in Guatemala continues

The June, 2012, issue of SOJOURNERS magazine includes an article, “Can These Bones Live?” The author, Rev. Emilie Teresa Smith, who is a Canadian Anglican priest living in Guatemala, reports on her visit to the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) site where workers are laboriously attempting to identify bones of people who were thrown into “bone wells” during the Guatemalan civil war, 1978 – 1984. The U.N. commision that investigated the war and genocide estimates that 200,000 people lost their lives.  FAFG believes that some 44,000 people were detained and disappeared.

Many of the people in the Guatemalan community in Bergen County experienced these atrocities, which were carried out under the training and direction of the U.S. CIA.  This story, from the point of view of “Mr. Elias”, is told in the CoFiA/Grupo Ella Tu video, “Why I Am Here.”   Many other people tell us they have similar stories.

For more information on the video, or to order, go to “Contact Us.”  The videographer and subject are also available to present public screenings.