APS Affirms Migrant Policy

From the Albuquerque Journal

By Hailey Heinz
Journal Staff Writer
Affirming a policy that has been in writing since 2006 and in practice since before then, an Albuquerque Public Schools committee voted Monday to strengthen language banning immigration officials from its campuses.
The revision was passed with no discussion, and was one of nine policies updated at the meeting, part of a monthslong process of bringing the rules in closer alignment with what is actually being done in the schools.
The ban on immigration officials was laid out in a policy adopted in 2006 but has been inconsistent in the district's written rules.
The policy was adopted during APS's negotiations with lawyers for three Del Norte High School students from Chihuahua, Mexico, who were detained by the U.S. Border Patrol outside the school in March 2004.
That incident prompted a policy that banned school employees from investigating students' immigration status or offering any information about a student to immigration officials. The same rule also said school employees must initially deny immigration agents access to students on campus.
The 2006 policy directs school employees to ask administrators whether any request for information about or access to students by immigration officials is lawful before providing it.
The policy, which deals with keeping students safe on campus, currently requires "close monitoring" of all campus visitors, including law enforcement, social services and immigration officials. The proposed revision would strike that language and add a sentence that explicitly says, "Immigration officials shall not be permitted on school campus at any time."
Board member Lorenzo Garcia, who often speaks about the rights of immigrant students, said strengthening the language is a positive move.
"The important thing is to keep children safe," he said, adding that schools should establish an environment where students and parents feel secure.

Read the rest of the article here.

Interview with Clearly New Mexico

Thank you to Tracy Dingmann and Clearly New Mexico for putting this piece together.

City Councilor Rey Garduño Speaks Out On Arizona Immigration Law Ruling

tdingmann on August 2nd, 2010

Albuquerque City Councilor Rey Garduño

By Tracy Dingmann

Albuquerque City Councilor Rey Garduño remembers what happened last May when he and fellow councilor Ken Sanchez introduced a measure calling for Albuquerque to stop doing business with Arizona over its controversial immigration law.

His city email and phone were besieged with calls from people telling the Albuquerque native to “Go back to Mexico” and stop being a “wetback lover.”

So it was somewhat satisfying for Garduño to hear that a federal judge in Arizona scaled back the law just before it was about to take effect on July 29. The judge struck down the most controversial parts of the law, under the premise that Arizona cannot not preempt federal law by making state laws on immigration.

Now banned are the provisions that would have forced local law enforcement to check the immigration status of those who they suspected were in the county illegally.

Relieved The Law Was Struck Down

Like many others who protested the law, Garduño believed it went beyond concerns about illegal immigration and would have invited abuses of citizens and non-citizens alike.

“My first thought was that I was glad that at least the judge realized how egregious this law is, and made sure that the parts that are flawed are not implemented or made into law,” Garduño said last week.

“The law is about wanting to make sure that people we don’t like or don’t agree with or don’t seem like the rest of us are criminalized and denigrated,” said Garduño.

“The parts that were taken out by the judge speak to the concerns that many of us had. The whole idea of wholesale just stopping folks, because someone thinks that someone is not, in their terms, documented. It gives police agencies carte blanche to do whatever they want. And racial profiling would occur as a result.”

“It’s just not the way this country should be run.”

Proposed Boycott

Back in May, Garduño and fellow city councilor Ken Sanchez introduced a proposal for the city of Albuquerque to suspend financial business with the state of Arizona as long as the law is in effect.

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Immigration Forum on Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Link from Facebook Event

The Independent, with KUNM and KNME, will host an immigration panel discussion with Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Roswell, who is a former FBI special agent; Marcela Diaz, an immigrant-rights advocate with Somos Un Pueblo Unido; and Dante DiGregorio, a professor at UNM’s Anderson School of Management who specializes in business relations between the U.S. and Mexico.

Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Location:
KNME studios
Street: 1130 University Blvd. NE
City/Town: Albuquerque,
NM
View Map

Along with this Forum, the discussion and push for comprehensive immigration reform continues. Below are a couple of links;

From Clearly New Mexico, Tracy Dingmann reads between the lines of FAIR's Report on Immigration Costs. Also, Matthew Reichbach from the New Mexico Independent has Governor Richardson's outlook for national immigration reform.