By David Bacon, In These Times, Feb. 28 2011

Radio host and author Thom Hartmann has a new book, Rebooting the American Dream. Hartmann has a progressive reputation, and his book supports unions, calls for eliminating tax cuts for the rich and advocates other sensible ideas. But like many liberals, when it comes to immigration his tune changes. In one chapter, Hartmann says he wants to “Put Lou Dobbs Out to Pasture.”  But Hartmann, like Dobbs, criticizes corporate power and then turns his fire on workers and immigrants. Instead of taking Lou Dobbs on, Hartmann repeats many of the stereotypes and falsehoods that gave Dobbs a reputation as one of the most anti-immigrant commentators in U.S. media. Hartmann, like Dobbs, claims to speak for the interests of working people. And his ideas do reflect the thinking of a certain section of the U.S. working class. That makes it important to understand the impact of his recommendations.

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By Apostolis Fotiadis, IPS, Feb. 4 2011

A hunger strike by migrants is emerging as a test case for how far migrants can go to fight for rights, and how far the government can go to clamp down on them. On Jan. 25, about 200 immigrants living in Greece entered a faculty building at Athens University Law School and declared that they would hunger strike until their demands were met. The strike shows no signs of coming to an end, but Greek authorities are not sitting idly by.

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Op-Ed by SAMIR SHAHEEN-HUSSAIN, Montreal Gazette. Thursday, December 04, 2008

The story of a newborn baby whose birth documents were initially withheld by an obstetrician (“Marley’s the baby who didn’t exist,” Nov. 27, and “Pediatrician offers to treat baby Marley,” Nov. 28) exposes a lamentable, all-too-frequent reality. It represents the tip of a much more significant problem faced by people who do not have permanent residency status in Canada. Dr. Yvonne Vasilie from the Lakeshore Hospital withheld baby Marley’s birth documents because her parents, Laura Cobian and Wayne Samuels, were not able to fully pay the fees for the obstetric care provided to Cobian.

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Friday October 3, 2008 VANCOUVER-  Women centres and women organizations are joining refugee rights group No One Is Illegal in Toronto and Vancouver in calling for the immediate cancellation of a deportation order against Ms. Isabel Garcia Rivas and her children. The family is currently residing in Toronto, having fled domestic violence from Ms. Rivas’ ex-husband in Mexico, but is under a deportation order. In a letter to Minister Stockwell Day, Vancouver-based womens rights organizations including Women Against Violence Against Women, Philippine Women Centre of BC,  Grassroots Women, Friends of women in the Middle East- BC Chapter, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women-Canada, and Vancouver Status of Women have written “We are specifically requesting that you suspend the removal order against the family until a decision on both their Humanitarian application and a decision on the Judicial Review of their Pre Removal Risk Assessment is made. We also ask you to look favourably upon their Humanitarian application and grant them permanent residency.”

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The House of Commons concurred in a report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that calls on a moratorium on deportations. The motion passed by 147 votes for to 115 against.

FOURTH REPORT

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee adopted the following motion: That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee recommends that the government place an immediate moratorium on deportations of all undocumented workers and their families who pass security and criminality checks while a new immigration policy is put in place.

You can find the record of who voted for and against by clicking here.