Immigrants and Dalits are Always Targeted
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
http://www.allheadl inenews.com/ articles/ 7008988472
Rights Groups Claim Immigrants Were Targeted During Wildfire Evacuations
October 29, 2007 7:31 p.m. EST
Jessica Pupovac - AHN News Writer
San Diego, CA (AHN) - Immigrant rights groups in San Diego are reporting widespread "racial profiling" during southern California's wildfire evacuations, which they say could have kept thousands of immigrants from receiving vital services.
The Immigrants' Rights Consortium of San Diego and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) say they have documented multiple cases of human rights abuses over the course of the past week. Some immigrants, they say, were forced to work through the evacuations. Others were ejected from or denied entrance to evacuation centers if they could not present valid identification.
In one case, on October 24, a family of six undocumented immigrants took supplies from a table of donations at Qualcomm Stadium and were apprehended, and later deported, by Border Patrol agents on site.
During the fires, over 100 federal agents were redeployed from their posts in order to lend assistance to evacuees.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, says they detained the family for "looting," and later discovered their legal status. The case represented an isolated incident, they say. "We are not arresting fire evacuees. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest otherwise," Lauren Mack, ICE spokeswoman, told the L.A. Times.The IRC has also denounced FEMA and the Red Cross for an alleged lack of Spanish-language warnings and Spanish-speaking volunteers.
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, told the Times that while he regrets the fact that some people living in remote migrant camps did not receive evacuation orders, it was not part of a conscious effort to target migrants.
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS is an Advocacy Platform committed for Dalit Human Rights at the Grass root, National and International levels. Dalits In News aims at sensitizing Civil societies, HR Mechanisms and providing updates of HR violations on Dalits for their Intervention.
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Dalits In News
October 31, 2007
DIFFERENT WALK- Tlegraph India
http://www.telegrap hindia.com/ 1071031/asp/ opinion/story_ 8491681.asp
Amritsar dalit's killer surrenders before Punjab police- Punjab News Line
http://www.punjabne wsline.com/ content/view/ 6310/38/
Communication development workshops for weaker sections- Express India http://www.expressi ndia.com/ latest-news/ Communication- development- workshops- for-weaker- sections/ 234323/
Tlegraph India
DIFFERENT WALK
http://www.telegrap hindia.com/ 1071031/asp/ opinion/story_ 8491681.asp
To be quiet is not to be ineffectual. Not if close to 25,000 people remain quiet and determined. The Janadesh march organized under the auspices of the Ekta Parishad originated in Gwalior on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday and ended 26 days later and 350 kilometres further in Delhi. Landless farmers, tribal people and Dalits from 15 states simply walked all the way to tell the government that it was time it formulated the long-promised land reforms policy so that poor landless families may live with dignity. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, responded quickly to this display of powerful non-violence by immediately announcing the formation of the national land reforms council that he will chair. This is presumably the first step towards the formulation of the land reforms policy that the quiet army of the landless is demanding. The government will set up another panel side by side