American Forum Op-Ed

AMERICAN FORUM

By Christian Ramirez

Reforming our obsolete immigration system is a human rights issue that can no longer wait. Our nation needs a clear and workable path toward legal residency for the millions of undocumented workers and families living in this country.

Some proposals, such as the immigration-reform blueprint that Sens. Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham are spearheading, will only generate the needed path after creating a more militarized southern border. Border communities have for generations demanded accountability and respect for their quality of life, not more of the same failed policies.

Adding more patrols, or high-tech surveillance systems, to “secure the borders” does not make us more secure. The tragic deaths of at least 6,000 migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since the mid 1990s are a stark reminder that border control policies have only perpetuated suffering. Migrants are 17 times more likely to die today while crossing the border than they were in 1998.

We hear from lawmakers that trumpeting border security is necessary to make immigration reform possible. But where is the clear proof that the multimillion-dollar wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has curbed migration? Economists say the recession of the past two years has had more of an impact.

Stepping up ineffective border patrols, filling more detention jails across the country, and more wholesale deportations would only aggravate the climate of fear and uncertainty under which millions of families live. In fact, the Obama administration deported more undocumented migrants in its first year in office than in George W. Bush’s last year in the White House, based on the Department of Homeland Security’s own reports.

No wonder, then, that over 100,000 immigrant rights supporters converged on the streets of Washington, DC, on March 21st to protest any immigration reform that would expand the current ineffective and overzealous enforcement system.

Instead, they and millions of others are calling for an end to policies that split families apart and introduce policies that provide safe and swift paths to legalization. I believe that the seven core principles that the American Friends Service Committee proposed in A New Path Toward Humane

Immigration Policy will help achieve that goal quickly, fairly and humanely. The seven principles state:

1. Create justice with humane economic policies. International economic policies, including trade agreements, need to be consistent with human rights, trade justice, and sustainable approaches to the environment and economic development.

2. Protect the labor rights of ALL workers. All workers are entitled to humane policies that protect their labor and employment rights.

3. Develop a clear path to permanent residence. Inclusive measures must be enacted that lead to permanent residence for undocumented immigrants, multi-status families, refugees and asylum seekers.

4. Respect the civil and human rights of immigrants. Immigrants, regardless of status, deserve the same civil and human rights as all U.S. residents.

5. Demilitarize the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S.-Mexico border region must be demilitarized and the quality of life of border communities needs to be protected.

6. Make family reunification a top priority. Recognize the distinctly important and valuable role of family ties by supporting the reunification of immigrant families in a way that equally respects both heterosexual and same-sex relationships.

7. Ensure that immigrants and refugees have access to services. Public programs and services should not exclude immigrants or refugees.

As a nation, we should reject appeals to tie the future of millions of families to a broken, unjust system of enforcement as proposed by Sens. Schumer and Graham. Instead we should respect the human rights and dignity of immigrants through humane and fair immigration policies.
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Ramirez is the national coordinator of human migration and mobility for the American Friends Service Committee.
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Copyright © 2010 by the American Forum. 4/10

AMERICAN FORUM

By Ralph Paige

When President Abraham Lincoln created the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1862 he referred to it as the People’s Department. The problem is that its services have never been available to all the people. Although more recently, with the Clinton and Obama administrations, efforts have been made to correct discriminatory problems at the USDA, it's an unfortunate fact that the USDA’s history has been marred by rampant discrimination. This is why black farmers filed a 1997 lawsuit against the USDA that focused on discrimination in administration of its farm programs in the 1980s and into the 1990s.

The litigation -- referred to as Pigford vs. Glickman (now Pigford vs. Vilsack) and named after Tim Pigford a black farmer in North Carolina and then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman -- was settled in 1999, and more than 15,000 black farmers obtained relief for discrimination at the hands of the USDA. But the settlement itself triggered such an outpouring of pent-up frustration and demands for justice that more than 12 years later the case is still ongoing.

Black farmers originally needed to file claims by Oct. 12, 1999. While thousands of farmers met that deadline, many others were unaware of the lawsuit. As a result, the judge let people who missed the deadline petition to get into the settlement, providing they did so by Sept. 15, 2000. Again, thousands of farmers filed petitions and are now referred to as “late filers.”

Of these late filers, only 3 percent (2,700) were found eligible to file a claim in Pigford. This left a staggering 97 percent of late claimants (around 58,000 and more than 75 percent of all claimants) who were denied the opportunity.

Black farm groups and their advocates expressed concern that tens of thousands of black-farmer petitioners had been unable to file a claim. Many petitioned Congress and its leadership to resolve this issue. As a result, Congress included in the 2008 Farm Bill a provision to allow late filers into the suit, while establishing a budget of $100 million -- which unfortunately was not nearly enough to serve the farmers.

Since passage of the 2008 Farm Bill, President Obama proposed adding considerably more monies to bring the total to $1.25 billion for the Pigford lawsuit, an amount much closer to what likely will be needed to cover all proven claims. Based on that proposal, attorneys for black farmers and the government have negotiated a settlement of the late-filer lawsuit.

All well and good, but the job remains unfinished. The Obama administration has already submitted legislative language to Congress but the settlement cannot go forward until Congress appropriates the funds requested by President Obama, and they have set March 31 as a deadline to do so. Time is short, and the whole effort is teetering toward failure.

We at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund recognize that work with farmers requires far more than a lawsuit can provide. This is why for 43 years we have offered Southern black farmers assistance with cooperative development, farm management, debt restructuring, alternative crop suggestions, marketing expertise and a whole range of services to ensure family farm survivability.

Black farmers with late-filer claims, however, have waited for decades for relief for USDA denial of services and credit opportunities. In the 10 years since the original claim period closed, many of these farmers died, others lost their farms or left farming altogether. It is a tragic injustice that thousands of black farmers are still being denied relief for discriminatory behavior from their own government. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, the Network of Black Farm Groups and Advocates, and the scores of organizations around the country supporting the network's efforts urge Congress to act expeditiously on providing necessary funding for the black farmer late-filer settlement.
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Paige is executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the American Forum. 3/10

AMERICAN FORUM

By Cindia Cameron

In March we look forward – eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring; and we look to the past – celebrating National Women’s History Month. Looking back, we might ask what our pioneer activists in women’s rights would say about tough choices working women still make to keep their families afloat. Looking forward, we can celebrate Women’s History Month by taking action to pass the Healthy Families Act.

One inspiration for action is the story of a young mother named Tahirah who lives in Denver, CO. At 26, Tahirah found a dream job: crew leader in an airport restaurant. The wages were low and the hours long. Still, the job offered a chance to supervise and a clear path to the management track. But there were two wrinkles: her preschool-age daughter has asthma and this job did not provide any paid sick days.

Tahirah managed to keep her job and home from falling apart – for a while. But there were times when her daughter was sick and her manager would not allow her to leave work. There were also times when Tahirah left her daughter home sick because she simply couldn’t risk being fired. One day her daughter was rushed to the hospital. A friend called to tell Tahirah to meet them there. But her manager didn’t give her the message for hours. Eventually she was forced to leave that job. She’s found others, but still none that offer the paid sick days she needs.

Everyone gets sick. Everyone deserves time to get better. The United States is the only developed nation in the world where no law provides this basic labor standard. Nearly 40 percent of private sector workers
in this country have no paid sick days. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, this number includes 78 percent of hotel workers and 85 percent of food service workers. It’s clear who suffers: struggling families, low-income working women, their children. However everyone in the community is affected.

As consumers we eat in restaurants where most servers face a choice between coming to work sick or losing income and possibly a job. As family members, many of us have parents or grandparents living in nursing homes where staff members face this same impossible choice.

Providing access to paid sick days will help struggling state budgets. Researchers in New Hampshire for example, found that workers with paid sick days are 14 percent more likely to visit a medical practitioner, which could translate into fewer severe illnesses and hospitalizations. They conclude that guaranteed paid sick days would lower medical costs by reducing emergency room and hospital use.

The solution for families, workplaces and public health is for Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act. This legislation would allow full-time workers to earn seven paid sick days each year to care for themselves or a family member. It would offer low-wage women in particular, the means to safeguard both their health and their jobs in these difficult economic times.

A national labor standard of paid sick days is a fitting way to honor women -- past, present and future -- by honoring their dual responsibilities: work and family.
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Cindia Cameron serves as organizing director for 9to5, National Association of Working Women, and chair of the Georgia Job/Family Collaborative.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the American Forum. 3/10

AMERICAN FORUM

By Linda A. Meric

On Tuesday, April 20, people across the nation will observe Equal Pay Day 2010 – representing the point when women’s wages finally catch up to men’s wages from last year. According to the most recent US Census Bureau statistics, women who work in full-time, year-round jobs earn, on average, 77 cents to every dollar earned by men working in full-time, year-round jobs.

For women of color, the wage gap is even wider. In 2008, the earnings for African American women were 67.9 percent of men's earnings and Latinas’ earnings were 58 percent of men's. As those pennies being lost add up, women and their families are being shortchanged thousands of dollars a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime.

Reaching pay equity means more now than ever before.

According to the Center for American Progress report, A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, women are now the breadwinner or co-breadwinner in two-thirds of all American families. With more women in the workforce, and more families reliant upon women’s paychecks to make ends meet, it’s clear to see how all of us – women and men – have such a huge stake in eliminating the wage gap.

The good news is that there is pending action that would positively impact the pay gap now. The Paycheck Fairness Act is federal legislation that passed the House last year. Now, the Senate is poised to take action and we must speak out.

Women were earning a mere 59 cents for every dollar a man earned when the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. Enforcement of the Equal Pay Act, and other civil rights laws, has helped narrow the wage gap. But huge disparities remained. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act into law, helping ensure that victims of discrimination have fair access to the courts. But we’re not there yet. Additional steps are needed.

One such step, the Paycheck Fairness Act, would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, enhance remedies, prohibit retaliation against workers who share wage information, and provide the government with new tools to monitor and address pay inequities. Passage is critical -- particularly in these economically perilous times when the self-sufficiency of women and their families is so at risk.
LaTerrell Bradford – a Denver woman who testified about pay inequity before her state legislature– calls equal pay a “non-negotiable.”

She was working as part of an all-female support team when a man was hired in the same job classification. Her supervisor – a woman – discovered that he was to earn much more than any of the women were earning. She went to human resources and the company agreed to pay everyone at that higher rate. “It would not have been fair,” Bradford says, “nor legal, to sit next to him, do the exact same work and have him be paid more.”

Are women workers really worth less than men?

Any American of good conscience would say “no.” We must ensure that our laws and workplace practices say “no” as well by ensuring family-flexible workplace policies, basic labor standards like paid sick days and, yes, an end to the wage gap.

At the rate we’re going, we won’t see pay equity until the year 2057. Women and their families just cannot afford to wait that long! Congress must tighten wage disparity laws now to ensure equity for every worker.

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Meric is National Director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the American Forum. 4/10

KENTUCKY FORUM

By Michael Aldridge, Craig Cammack, Chris Hartman, Travis Myles and George W. Stinson

January of 1966, with Gov. Edward T. Breathitt's signing of a law Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the strongest and most comprehensive civil rights bill passed by a southern state,” the Commonwealth of Kentucky became the first state in the south to adopt a Civil Rights Act with enforceable repercussions for acts of discrimination. Two years later, Kentucky was again first in the south, this time in the passage of a statewide fair housing law, which cemented our commonwealth's legacy as the nation's southern civil rights leader.

At its core, the purpose of the Civil Rights Act is to guarantee equality for everyone. It ensures all Kentuckians have the same opportunities to earn a living, be safe in their communities, serve their country, and care for the ones they love. When there has been a history of a particular group's lack of access to these fundamentals of the American dream, the just and appropriate response has been to add that group to existing antidiscrimination laws.

Today our state has the opportunity to once again stand as the pioneer of fairness and equality among its southern peers, and we challenge each and every Kentuckian to add their voice to the call for comprehensive civil rights in the commonwealth.

On Jan. 5, a proposal for a statewide fairness law was introduced to amend our state's Civil Rights Act to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classifications. This would prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Kentuckians in employment, housing and public accommodations. Even today, any person suspected of being gay or transgender outside Lexington, Louisville or Covington may be legally fired from their job, denied housing, or withheld access to any public accommodation — such as a bus ride or service in a restaurant.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia currently enforce such fairness protections, and of the 29 states that do not, more than 70 of their cities and counties extend protections to their gay and transgender citizens. Approximately 25 percent of our state's population resides in the three communities with existing fairness laws, and Census data indicates that large numbers of individuals also commute into these communities during the workweek. Consequently, approximately 30 percent of Kentuckians are protected from this type of discrimination, yet this simple equality proposal has never even come to a committee vote.

This year marks more than a decade since Lexington and Louisville passed their fairness ordinances — the same year a Decision Research Poll documented 73 percent of Kentuckians supported statewide fairness protections. This law is long overdue in our commonwealth, and if we do not act quickly, we will surely lose our place in history as the nation's southern leader of equality.

On June 2, 2008, Gov. Steve Beshear adopted an executive order stating a broad and inclusive policy of nondiscrimination in state government employment. Governor Beshear recognizes the time has come for Kentucky to join the 21 other states that have already enacted laws protecting gay and transgender people, and we must too.

Just as Kentucky led the south in 1966 by becoming the first southern state to pass a civil rights law applicable to employment and places of public accommodation, and led the region in 1968 by becoming the first southern state to pass protections in housing, we must now boldly, resolutely take up the challenge to lead the south into a new era of equality for everyone. We must affirm our commonwealth's legacy by becoming the first southern state to stand united for fairness.

If you cherish Kentucky's rich history as the southern civil rights leader, then look not only to our past, but also to our fair and equal future.
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Aldridge is executive director of ACLU-KY. Cammack is chairman of Lexington Fairness. Hartman is director of the Fairness Campaign Louisville. Myles is chairperson of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. Stinson is chairperson of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. They are all members of the Kentucky Statewide Fairness Coalition. The Statewide Fairness Day and rally in the Capitol Rotunda is being held in Frankfort on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the Kentucky Forum. 2/10