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105 Chauncy Street, # 901
Boston, MA
02111
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Phone :617-350-5480
URL :
http://www.miracoalition.org/home
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Open Borders coalition composed of more than 130 organizational members
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Advocates for the expanded civil rights and liberties of illegal aliens
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Supports blanket amnesty for all illegal aliens residing in the United States
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Supports granting drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants
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Supports allowing illegal immigrants to attend college for lower in-state tuition rates
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"An unconditional general amnesty would provide undocumented immigrants an opportunity to obtain their legal permanent residency, thereby reunifying families and providing equal access to health care, housing, education, and workers' rights."
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"Some employers . . . hire undocumented immigrants, in many cases knowing that they can threaten workers if they protest their working conditions. All workers should have the right to organize for better working conditions."
Self-described "immigrant rights advocates" poured into the Gardner Auditorium of the Massachusetts State House yesterday to express, among other things, their desire to see amnesty and full civil rights granted to all illegal aliens living in the United States. A leading organization in this demonstration was the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, whose Executive Director Ali Noorani told a crowd of more than 600 people: "We have taken over the State House. Congratulations. Now we get to go bother our elected officials."
Founded in 1987, the the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) describes itself as a "multi-ethnic, multi-racial coalition" that "succeeds in mobilizing community groups and immigrant leaders to speak out with one voice about issues that affect them." Adds MIRA: "Combining capacity building, technical assistance, community education and policy advocacy with community organizing and civic participation, we are committed to fairness for immigrants and to sound public policies. With more than 130 organizational members, MIRA is a respected state and national leader on immigrant issues, and an authoritative source of information for policymakers, the media, and immigrant communities."
Beneath the veneer of this benign "pro-immigrant" rhetoric is an organization that unequivocally supports expanded civil rights and liberties, and ultimately fully legalized status, for all illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. To make a case for this agenda, MIRA, in its organizational literature, repeatedly uses the generic term "immigrants" to signify every foreign-born person residing in the U.S. -- regardless of whether they violated immigration laws to enter the country in the first place. On those rare occasions where MIRA makes explicit reference to illegal immigrants, it euphemistically calls them "undocumented." Here is a representative example of MIRA's verbal duplicity: "The U.S. is a country built by immigrants. Today immigrants continue to be an integral part of the U.S. economy, paying taxes and making up a large part of the labor force. Immigrant contributions extend beyond the economy, enriching the culture and ideas that shape our nation. Current immigration laws violate the basic human rights of immigrants. An unconditional general amnesty would provide undocumented immigrants an opportunity to obtain their legal permanent residency, thereby reunifying families and providing equal access to health care, housing, education, and workers' rights."
MIRA uniformly characterizes illegal immigrants as hardworking, law-abiding people who are victimized by oppressive immigration laws and demonized by an intolerant, xenophobic society. "There are approximately 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States (according to the latest Census figures)," says MIRA. "Many of these immigrants came to the U.S. to seek work opportunities that were not available to them in their native countries due to changes in the global economy. Because they lack legal status, they face barriers to protecting their rights." Distilled to its essential meaning, this MIRA statement maintains that known criminals should not be deprived of any of the "rights" to which they are presumably entitled.
MIRA further laments that illegal aliens in America are commonly subjected to "worker exploitation" and, because they must live in the proverbial shadows, lack the freedom "to organize for better working conditions." Such a state of affairs, says MIRA, "fosters discrimination . . . undermines civil rights . . . [and] criminalizes hard work." "The exploitation of undocumented workers is made possible by the current system of employer sanctions. Under this system, employers are required to check the immigration status of their employees. Some employers nevertheless hire undocumented immigrants, in many cases knowing that they can threaten workers if they protest their working conditions. All workers should have the right to organize for better working conditions."
As a solution, MIRA proposes blanket amnesty for all illegals in the United States: "A new legalization program would allow all newcomers to invest more in our communities by allowing them to fully participate in the democratic and civic aspects of U.S. society." Yet this cheerful recommendation ignores the fact that the most important element of the social contract to "fully participate in the democratic and civic aspects of U.S. society" is respect for the law - something for which illegal aliens have shown only contempt and disregard.
"Hard work should be rewarded, not criminalized," says MIRA. "A law that makes people into criminals for working interferes with our greater goal of creating a vibrant participatory society. Their crime is putting food on the table, paying rent: living as citizens of this country without the benefit of safety." This remarkable statement is a gross mischaracterization of reality. Opponents of illegal immigration do not object to anyone paying to feed and shelter their families; the real issue at hand is the brazen violation of federal immigration laws and its implications for American national security.
MIRA detects not only racism and jingoism in current immigration laws, but also sexism: "Laws that make it a crime to work without papers give employers a weapon against women seeking protection from unwanted sexual advancements or discriminatory treatment on the job.
"In MIRA's view, granting full legal status to illegal aliens would be a boon to law-enforcement. The line of reasoning goes like this: "The current system denies equal protection and affects community safety. Without permission to live and work in this country, undocumented immigrants have good reason to fear the consequences if they report serious crimes committed against themselves, their families, or others. Undocumented workers also face extra hurdles in reporting dangerous working conditions, labor violations, sexual harassment, domestic violence, or environmental pollution." In short, dispensing with an entire category of law (i.e., immigration law) is MIRA's prescription for decreasing the number of identifiable criminals living in the United States. Yet MIRA does not explain why those who break immigration laws should face no consequences, while those responsible for "dangerous working conditions, labor violations, sexual harassment, domestic violence, or environmental pollution" should be punished.
Ali Noorani has been MIRA's executive director since November of 2003. Noorani, who holds a Master's degree in Public Health from Boston University, was formerly the director of public health at the Health Services Partnership of Dorchester. Noorani's views on immigration set the tone for the entire MIRA organization. Rhetorically blending legal and illegal immigrants into a single category, Noorani states, "We must remember our personal histories as immigrants and reach out to the newer members of our communities from around the world so they too can achieve the American dream." With no apparent sense of irony, Noorani is suggesting that people who willfully break America's immigration laws are somehow embracing the aspirations and values that Americans as a group hold most dear.
In an April 2005 article, Noorani characterized conservatives and proponents of immigration law-enforcement as "individuals willing to close America to the world," and accused them of having "hijacked the immigration reform debate." Moreover, he denounced the Minuteman Project, a nonviolent, volunteer, grassroots effort initiated that same month by private American citizens seeking to restrict the flow of illegal border-crossers. Minuteman volunteers monitored sections of the Arizona-Mexico border in an effort to assist the undermanned Border Patrol (which stations an average of scarcely 5 officers per linear mile along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Noorani characterized these volunteers as "armed vigilantes . . . taking the enforcement of immigration law into their own hands." He did not say whether illegal border crossers were, in their own way, also "taking the law into their own hands."
"These vigilante groups," Noorani continued, "are emboldened by political demagogues who . . . have no interest in our national security and are willing to dismiss America's values and history for the sake of political gain." Presumably Noorani believes that illegal immigrants, by contrast, feel genuine concern about the nation's welfare and security. "For generations immigrants," says Noorani (again making no distinction between the legal and the illegal), "have come to America in search of freedom, jobs, and a better way of life. It is our collective responsibility to live up to these values and come up with something better than armed vigilantes as a means of regulating immigration."
In addition to In-State Tuition for Immigrant Students in Massachusetts, MIRA's other "Current Legislative Priority" is the Student Adjustment/DREAM Act, a bill whose objective is to grant full legal status to illegal aliens who came to the U.S. as minors. In a "DREAM Act Statement of Support" featured on the MIRA website, the Act is described as follows:
"First introduced in 2001, the DREAM Act permits high-school graduates who immigrated to the U.S. as minors and lived in the U.S. for at least five years, to apply for legal status. The DREAM Act also eliminates a federal provision that discourages states from providing in-state tuition to immigrant students. The spirit of the DREAM Act is founded on the following two core principles: (a) Individuals who were brought to this country as children, stay out of trouble, and meet the universal requirements for high school graduation . . . should have equal opportunity to pursue postsecondary education, obtain legal status, and become citizens of the country they call home, the United States; [and] (b) The federal government should not compel states to discriminate in the allocation of their own educational resources. Rather, states should be free to provide in-state tuition at their institutions of higher education, and otherwise facilitate equitable access to higher education for immigrant students."
MIRA has also taken a stand against proposed legislation that would deny drivers' licenses to illegal aliens, justifying its position on the following premises:
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"Reducing eligibility for driver's licenses leads to more unregistered, inexperienced drivers on the road and unsafe conditions for everyone."
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"We all want to be safe from terrorism, but this new legislation would force DMV personnel to enforce complicated immigration law. Hard-working, tax-paying immigrants will be wrongly denied driver's licenses, but determined and sophisticated terrorists will easily circumvent the restrictions included in the amendment."
The MIRA website contains links to more than 130 affiliated and member groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the National Immigration Project (of the National Lawyers Guild), and the Service Employees International Union.
Much of MIRA's revenue is derived from foundation grants. The Foundation Center reports that between 2001 and 2004, MIRA received a combined total of $495,000 from the Boston Foundation, the Hyams Foundation, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Teresa Heinz Kerry's Heinz Family Foundation has also supported the organization. Moreover, MIRA solicits individual and corporate donations to help finance its activities.
MIRA is an endorser, along with hundreds of leftwing organizations, of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Coalition (IWFRC), which works to secure civil rights, civil liberties, and amnesty for illegal aliens. IWFRC also advocates immigration policy reforms that include no provisions at all for any restrictions on immigration. Among MIRA's co-endorsers of IWFRC are: the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; the American Immigration Lawyers Association; the National Immigration Forum; the National Immigration Law Center; the National Lawyers Guild; the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; the American Civil Liberties Union; the Bill of Rights Defense Committee; the Center for Constitutional Rights; the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants; the League of United Latin American Citizens; the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; the Southern Poverty Law Center; the Service Employees International Union; the American Friends Service Committee; Pax Christi USA; ACORN; the Border Action Network; Citizen Action; the Council on American-Islamic Relations; the Democratic Socialists of America; Gamaliel; Global Exchange; the International Socialist Organization; ISAIAH; the Muslim Public Affairs Council; the National Council of La Raza; the National Council of Women's Organizations; the National Organization for Women; Not In Our Name (Seattle); the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; and the Workers World Party. The individual co-endorsers of IWFCR include Noam Chomsky, Tom Hayden, Howard Zinn, Susan Sarandon, and Martin Sheen.
In the final analysis, MIRA exhorts U.S. lawmakers and the general public to "embrac[e] those newest Americans who have chosen to [illegally] live, work, and raise their families here, and who have enriched and revitalized economically countless communities across our nation." But it offers no balance to this perspective, neither addressing nor acknowledging the fact that illegal immigration has created a massive law-enforcement crisis in the United States. Consider, for example, some startling facts that Heather MacDonald notes (in the Winter 2004 issue of City Journal) about illegal immigration and crime in southern California (the state where 24 percent of all illegals reside): (a) In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens, as do up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000); (b) At least 60 percent of the members of southern California's brutal 20,000-member 18th Street Gang are illegal, and police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The gang has experienced dramatic growth over the past 20 years, recruiting primarily illegals from Central America and Mexico; and (c) The leadership of the Columbia Lil' Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the Los Angeles drug market, was approximately 60 percent illegal in 2002.
But the problem extends far beyond southern California. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, approximately 30 percent of all inmates currently in U.S. prisons are illegal aliens. Recently the governors of Arizona and New Mexico - two of the states most heavily affected by illegal immigration - declared a state of emergency because of the high crime levels that illegals have brought to those states.
Neither is MIRA's position influenced by such harsh economic realities as these: (a) California's nearly 3 million illegal immigrants cost taxpayers almost $9 billion annually (source: Federation for American Immigration Reform); (b) illegal aliens cost the federal government $10 billion more each year than they pay in taxes (source: Center for Immigration Studies); and (c) it costs taxpayers $750 million annually to house the 18,000 illegal aliens in California prisons (source: U.S. Government Accounting Office).
Nor does MIRA give even the barest shred of credence to speculation that America's porous borders constitute an open invitation to aspiring terrorists. A September 2004 Washington Times report stated, "A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said." This report was buttressed in even more ominous tones by the July 2005 issue of Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, which revealed: "[T]op U.S. government officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger assault on America - one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history. . . . According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the 'American Hiroshima' and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups."
A September 2005 Center for Immigration Studies report found "widespread terrorist violations of immigration laws," and concluded that "strict enforcement of immigration law . . . must be an integral part of our efforts to prevent future attacks on U.S. soil." This study found, for example, that "[o]f the 94 foreign-born terrorists who operated in the United States [between the early 1990s and 2004], . . . about two-thirds (59) committed immigration fraud prior to or in conjunction with taking part in terrorist activity."
Notwithstanding all this, MIRA steadfastly persists in portraying illegal immigrants as desirable, contributing members of American society - and victims of repressive laws that deprive them of an opportunity to pursue the "American Dream." Denying that illegal immigration poses any substantial security threat, the organization opposes the Patriot Act antiterrorism legislation, characterizing it as "very troubling." In June 2002, MIRA instructed its followers thusly: "Please do NOT aid people in applying with INS unless you are familiar with their immigration history and are certain they would not be at risk of deportation by doing so. Always refer clients to an attorney if they are out of status or have a criminal record of any kind. It is very important that we, as service providers, do not put people at risk even as we try to help them."
On October 25, 2005, MIRA staged a demonstration of "400 supporters to represent the number of Massachusetts high-school graduates every year who are denied access to higher education." "Let's show the legislature that everyone deserves the right to an education," MIRA declared. The unmistakable implication was that a great injustice is being perpetrated against several hundred young adults each year who, for some unjustifiable reason, are barred from the halls of academe.
But what was in fact at issue, behind MIRA's righteous sounding allegations about the denial of "access to higher education," was an In-State Tuition for Immigrant Students in Massachusetts bill that would allow high-school graduates who are illegal aliens residing in Massachusetts to attend public state colleges for the same reduced tuition rates that other Massachusetts residents pay. MIRA, which supports this bill, summarizes the matter this way: "Currently, students without permanent legal status must pay out-of-state tuition to attend state and city universities and colleges. Out-of-state tuition is often three to five times the cost than in state tuition. As most of these students cannot afford to pay out-of-state tuition, they are forced to forego college and work in low-paying, low-skilled jobs." "Many of these children," MIRA elaborates, "are excellent students who, given the opportunity, could achieve great success. . . . It is a shock to them, and a loss to the country, that they are unable to live up to their full potential and contribute their talents to American society."
Trumpeting "the importance of the In-State Tuition Bill" for helping "to ensure that our best and brightest students are able to achieve the American dream," MIRA impugns Republican opponents of this legislation for allegedly trying to "win seats by promoting anti-immigrant sentiment" and running "on a platform railing against immigrant youth and families." Singling out Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for his opposition to the bill, MIRA Executive Director Ali Noorani adds: "Apparently, the Governor puts politics before people when it comes to the Massachusetts immigrant community. The Governor's political decision ignores the dreams and goals of over 400 immigrant youth per year, and sets Massachusetts back in the competition for a highly trained workforce. That he is willing to deny immigrants and refugees education and health opportunities - in the face of broad legislative support - shows that he is playing political games with people's lives."
In a press release encapsulating what transpired at the October 25 rally, MIRA stated: "Asking why the [Massachusetts] Legislature is playing politics with their lives rather than increasing education opportunities, students, clergy and community called for a debate and vote on the In-State Tuition Bill." One featured speaker at the event - a female student identifying herself only as "Patricia," said, "I have lived here since I was 6 years old, my family has paid taxes and worked hard, how can you say I am not a resident of the Commonwealth? We want to pay the same rate to go to college as our high school classmates." Another student speaker, identified as "Carlos," said, "We are residents of Massachusetts, and we are here with the simple request: equal access to education. We can't wait because every day that we don't pass this bill is a denial of our existence." "The time is now to pass the In-State Tuition Bill," Ali Noorani told the assembled crowd. "Concerned citizens across Massachusetts have asked their legislators to support the In-State Tuition Bill. The fact is supporters of this legislation outnumber opponents exponentially, and it is up to each legislator to stand up and be counted representing their pro-immigrant constituents." The In-State Tuition Bill is by no means the only issue over which MIRA has clashed with Governor Romney. Last month, for instance, when Romney expressed his concern over American law-enforcement's inability to gather vital information about the possible jihad-related activities and teachings of radical mosques in the United States, he was excoriated by MIRA and a host of Muslim-American interest groups. The comments that sparked the controversy were these: ''How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states? Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them? How about people who are in settings -- mosques, for instance -- that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror. Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what's going on?"
To Romney's remarks, Ali Noorani responded: "There's a need for the U.S. government and the intelligence system to better understand the Muslim community. The way not to do it is to wiretap and surreptitiously surveil an entire community." |
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