undocumented
GRITtv: Got Docs: Two Americans
A 9-year-old child faces down Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this week's featured documentary, Two Americans. Katherine Figueroa is a US citizen born to immigrant parents, and when Arpaio targets them for deportation, she becomes the center of a fight against the sheriff's plans. In Arizona, the immigration battle has its ground zero, and this documentary follows the people at the center of it all.
Email this pageGRITtv: Betsy Reed: Exposing Lou Dobbs
Last week, The Nation uncovered evidence that Lou Dobbs, famed immigrant basher, had in fact employed undocumented immigrants on his estates. Dobbs' daughter is a championship equestrian, and Isabel Macdonald, the reporter for the magazine, spoke to several men who said they cared for horses owned by Dobbs while they were working in the country without authorization. Betsy Reed, executive editor of The Nation, stopped by the GRITtv studio to give us her thoughts on the controversy.
GRITtv: Robin Templeton: "Anchor Baby" Baiting
Any semblance of serious deliberation on immigration in Washington has degenerated into a racially charged assault on the children of undocumented immigrants. The attack itself isn't new--so-called anchor baby bills have been festering at the state level--but now it's gone national with viral speed. When Fox Television asked Lindsey Graham to respond to the judicial derailing of SB 1070 a few weeks ago, the Senator ducked and crossed, suggesting that what the nation really needs right now is anti-immigrant policing in its maternity wards.
GRITtv: Beyond SB 1070: Immigration Bills and the States
The Obama administration set up a clash with Arizona over the state's immigration bill, SB 1070, this week when it filed suit in federal court claiming that the law is a breach of federal authority. The law goes into effect later this month and would allow law enforcement officials to stop anyone on suspicion of being undocumented. In the wake of SB 1070's passage, states around the country have initiated copycat bills and other legislation aimed at cracking down on immigration. But in addition to the Holder Justice Department's lawsuit, progressive state legislators are fighting back on the state level, and activists are pushing for commonsense immigration bills on both a state and federal level. We are joined by Arizona state legislator Kyrsten Sinema and Suman Raghunathan of the Progressive States Network to discuss the continuing fight.
GRITtv: Rinku Sen: Arizona's Immigration Debacle
Last Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the country's most repressive immigration bill, SB 1070, which criminalizes undocumented immigrants and gives police the authority to demand papers from anyone they suspect of being undocumented. Though Brewer, a Republican who took over from Janet Napolitano when she left to become Obama's Homeland Security secretary, claims that there are protections in the bill to prevent racial profiling, it's hard to imagine a way that officers will decide from whom to demand papers that won't involve the color of their skin or the language that they speak. Rinku Sen of ColorLines and the Applied Research Center joins us to discuss the bill, the criminalization of immigrants, and what to do to fight back. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Got Docs: Immigrant Nation
This week's Got Docs feature uses one woman's story to tell the larger tale of the broken immigration system in the U.S. Elvira Arellano, a single mom in Chicago, fought deportation and became part of the larger struggle for comprehensive, humane immigration reform. Directed by Esa Melndez, the film has picked up recognition at several festivals and just won the Cine Latino award at the Washington DC Independent Film Festival.
GRITtv: Faces of Immigration
Victoria Marquez, a member of the Service Employees International Union, tells her story--of struggling for fair treatment in the workplace, and why the U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform now.
