My Classmates Blogs

Stephanie Ruiz:  ----->  http://www.tefiruiz01.blogspot.com/

I like the way she thinks on the immigration issue because we kind of have the same beliefs of this matter! Immigrants are treated unfairly and something must be done. I really like how she says that immigrants are equal because she is defending their rights and speaking for them that WE ARE ALL EQUAL. ;)




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Nelsharry Baerga -----> http://sharryknowsit.blogspot.com/


I support Nelsharrys point on saying NO ONE IS ILEGAL! For many people it may seem controversial, but for me it is very clever and most importantly, the truth! I like how she supports immigration and that she is pro-immigration. It really show me that she is a very caring person, and I really like how she expresses the way she feels when she sees how immigrants are mistreated 


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Hector Porrata-Doria  -----> http://sayhellogoodbyeoutloud.blogspot.com/


Hector's family story is very fancy and interesting. I have always liked his last name Porrata-Doria and now I like it more because of its story. I disagree with Hector on saying that it is right that immigrants in Arizona are being deported, I think immigration is a very serious matter and by him saying that people should be deported but that their situation makes him sad makes no sense! But I liked the fact that somehow he feels sorry for them!




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Stephanie Rivera    -----> http://www.ssrivera.blogspot.com/

The thing that I liked the most of Stephanie's blog was her family story. It is a really nice story how her grandparents met.  On the immigration issue I liked the fact that she sees it as a risk but that if it was necessary for the good of her family she would do it, that shows the caring person she is! We both kind of have the same idea about immigration: It is dangerous, but at the end it will worth it ;)

My great-grandfather: A Cuban Immigrant

My great grandfather was Marcos Colon Perez, a Cuban immigrant. He was born in Cuba and immigrated to Puerto Rico when he was still a child. He  along with his family came to Puerto Rico after Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. His family had sugar mills back in Cuba, they were one of the most wealthy families of Cuba but their plantations were taken away by Fidel Castro himself, as their situation worsen they became desperate and found no other option than immigrating to Puerto Rico. 


They could have never made a better decision than moving here. When they moved to Puerto Rico and established in Guayama they became successful easily. My great grandfather is one of the most well-known carpenter in Guayama's history. He even helped on the construction of what is today known as "La Casa Cautiño".  


I didn't know that I had immigrant heritage. I was very shocked because I consider immigrants as heroes and who would say that I was so close to one. His family was very courageous and successful and that really fills me with a lot of mixed emotions. I feel proud, excited and happy, because if they never had the guts to move here, maybe I would be living in Cuba, having a miserable life . I never got to meet my great grandfather, but I feel very proud of him. From now on he is one of my heroes!
(Now I realize why my father is so penny-pinching, because as you may know Cuban are really stingy, ha ha!)

My life as a Japanese immigrant!

My name is Mizuki, I am a 16 years old Japanese immigrant girl.  Me and my family had  moved to the United States from Japan looking for a better and easy life. Things were going on pretty well  not exactly as we imagined it, but at least it was a lot better than living back in Japan. We had a home and food. Me and my brother were attending school and  father had a good job.  Living in the United States was great. We were having the life we had always dreamed of, but things were about to change.

My dad has always been a person who fights for getting what he wants, the one who stands for his family sustaining all their necessities, but most of all a persevering man. For me, he is my example to follow. Being in the United States wasn't easy for him. He worked for many hours, every single day, but at least he was well paid. He worked very hard, he was so good at his job that he was now receiving a better payment than many Americans. His ability to succeed was seen as a menace for his co-workers and their hatred towards him grew stronger after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was fired and accused of treason. He was sent to jail and he is currently in it. 

Our life has changed from a dream to a nightmare. It sounds cruel and dramatic, but it is the truth. I felt so blessed and thankful when I came to America, because I thought that our suffering was over, but it was just the beginning of our tragedy. I feel like living in hell. My dad was thinking on saving some money and going back to Japan, but who would imagine that this could happen? That a thing like this would happen to us? I just live with the hope that someday things will be better just as they were when we arrived here!  I have never quit on dreaming, because even though we are now passing through a very hard situation, my prayers were once heard and fulfilled.

Honduran Immigrant Faces Deportation After Helping Her Sister Report Domestic Violence

WASHINGTON  -- An undocumented Florida woman who helped her sister report domestic violence now faces an order of deportation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though her lawyers say she never should have been detected by ICE agents in the first place.

The woman, Rita Cote, 25, is married to a U.S. citizen and has four children, all of them citizens. She has no criminal record. But when police arrived to respond to the domestic-violence call on Feb. 16, 2009, law enforcement instead took Cote into custody, detained her for a week and handed her over to ICE.

Cote now faces deportation at any time to her native Honduras, which she fled as a child in 1998 to escape Hurricane Mitch and its aftermath. If deported, she could be separated from her husband and children for up to a decade.

While law-enforcement officials seek to work closely with their communities to prevent or solve crimes, immigrant-rights advocates say cases like Cote's hurt that cause. The threat of deportation can have a chilling effect on the willingness of undocumented immigrants to turn to the police, they argue, even in similar cases of violent crime, leaving areas heavily populated by illegal immigrants more dangerous and lawless.

ICE officials say their enforcement priorities first target illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes, but in practice, the agency more often rounds up those whose only crime is being in the country without documentation. The Obama administration has set a record for deportations of immigrants without a criminal record -- expelling so much people than those with a criminal record, although deportation of criminals has also increased.

In a pair of lawsuits filed on Jan. 25, the American Civil Liberties Union claims that the chain of events leading up to Cote's removal order began with racial profiling. The lawsuits accuse the Tavares Police Department, which responded to her sister's 911 call, and Lake County, which held Cote in a detention center for a week, of overstepping their bounds by asking her for identification and taking her into detention.

John Makholm, an attorney representing the City of Tavares, told HuffPost the city rejects the ACLU's characterization and insists that the responding officers followed standard procedure. Officials in the county sheriff's office declined to comment on the ACLU lawsuit facing them because it had not yet been served.

ICE officials had previously issued Cote a removal order while she was still a minor, but ACLU and immigration lawyers said she never received notification of the order.

In 2009, Cote appeared on ICE's radar once again following the 911 call on behalf of her sister, who does not speak English. She was still present when police responded to the call. At that point, ACLU lawyers say the responding police officers swayed from normal protocol and required everyone at the scene to present identification. According to ACLU lawyer Glenn Katon, the police took Cote to jail after demanding that she show her passport rather than another photo I.D., which had her married name.

The ACLU lawsuit contends that asking Cote for an I.D. -- and taking it to the level of demanding a passport -- was a matter of racial profiling by the police and claims police and the county had no authority to detain her. "I find that hard to believe that if this was a white family and someone got into a fight at a party, they'd ask everyone for I.D.," Katon told HuffPost.

Makholm, the lawyer for the city, said the police scanned Cote's identification under normal procedure and found a warrant in the federal database filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They then confirmed the warrant with ICE before an ICE agent called back and asked police to detain Cote, he said.

"In terms of this case, the officers acted appropriately, and she was not targeted because of any ethnicity," Makholm told HuffPost. "She was the person who was wanted on the warrant, and the arrest was made pursuant to U.S. customs. Our view is that if there is a problem, the problem is with U.S. customs laws, and not with the City of Tavares Police Department."

U.S. immigration law leaves little room to maneuver for undocumented immigrants who, like Cote, entered as children. Even though she is married to a U.S. citizen, Cote cannot apply for citizenship under normal marriage visa laws because she entered the country illegally. Instead, she would need to return to her native country and wait 10 years before returning, unless immigration officials waived that waiting period. The Dream Act, a bill that would have offered paths to legal status for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children, failed to pass the Senate in December.

Cote's second order of removal was issued after the ACLU filed its lawsuits against the city and county. Her immigration lawyer, John Barry, said Cote would likely be granted a reprieve from deportation because of the circumstances of her case. (High-profile cases are more likely to dropped by immigration officials, lawyers say.) Several Florida newspapers, along with Latino news outlets, followed the story of her arrest and the ACLU lawsuits.

"You need media attention, plus something else," Barry told HuffPost. "A health problem or some other kind of compelling family circumstances ends up being helpful."

In addition to the ACLU's presence, Cote's case attracts attention because she is married to a combat veteran, Barry said. He said ICE agents had indicated that Cote will not be deported, but may instead be granted parole status.

Other immigrants in similar situations, though, may not be as lucky, particularly as enforcement programs such as Secure Communities and 287(g) expand ICE's reach.

"They're screwed over, and it's a crime," Barry said. "What this case does is show that the only thing unique about Rita's case is that she happens to be married to a retired U.S. service member. You could think of her being married to any other person who didn't have a combat record, and there's not much that can be done for those people."


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     I think this is really unfair. Immigrants are treated so badly as if they were nothing. Events like this should be marked as a violation to our rights. People are so mean to the immigrants, they do not see the position in which immigrants stand at.
     Rita was not doing anything wrong, but helping her sister with such a serious situation as domestic violation is. I think she acted the way she had to because it was her sister, her blood, who was involved and I would've done the same thing without caring what could happen if I was caught. Rita is a great example of what people is capable of for their loved ones, she is just as other people who struggle to survive in such a difficult world, to be exact: immigrants. When I think about it and put myself into Rita's position, it really affects me.I know I would've done the same thing for my sister, but facing deportation really scares me.  All for what Rita has fought for, all the hard work she has done, everything that she has gone through  in order to be where she is today is at risk, what will she do if she is deported? I really can't  imagine myself being in her situation, of just thinking about it scares me!
     It makes sense the fact that immigration has been banned because they might take away the jobs from the Americans and also to prevent the United States from being overpopulated, but this do not mean that immigrants should be treated so badly. I thing something should be done to present things like this from happening. Immigration shouldn't be a bad thing, if a person immigrates to the United States for a good and fair reason they should be able to stay, if not then it's another side of the story and further action should be taken! But SERIOUSLY, the government should consider the people who goes to the US for a better and easy life!

History of Japanese Immigration

The start of the great period of Japanese immigrantion  to the United States was in the 1880s. Japanese people dreamed of a better life and more opportunities. They left their homeland seeking for peace, stability and prosperity.People from Japan began migrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that was output on the United States, Japanese immigrants were sought by industrialists to replace the Chinese immigrants. By 1900 the demand for additional mining, railroad, and farm labor brought a stream of young Japanese males to the Western United States. 

From 1885 through 1894, over 28,000 Japanese migrated to Hawaii,  Many Japanese migrated to Hawaii because the sugar industry had caused an economic boom in the state. By 1900, almost half of all Japanese immigrants in the United States lived in Hawaii, making more than half of Hawaii's population. The majority of these immigrants were mainly farmers and laborers.  After making money in the sugar industry or in Hawaii, many of them would return to their home country, Japan. 

Life wasn’t easy for Japanese immigrants. They struggled to make lives for themselves. Most Japanese immigrants were put to work chopping and weeding sugar cane on vast plantations, many of which were far larger than any single village in Japan. The workday was long, the labor exhausting, and, both on the job and off, the workers' lives were strictly controlled by the plantation owners. The Japanese immigrants practiced a wide range of religions. They practiced different types of Buddhism, Christianity, or Shinto. The majority of Japanese immigrants practiced Mahayana Buddhism. Some of the other forms of Buddhism that the immigrants practiced include Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, and Zen. Living in Hawaii was better than living in the mainland,  for which is one of the main reasons why the Japanese immigrants stayed there. Japanese immigrants didn't encountered problems with the Americans but their rising advancement and success were seen as a menace threatening the living standards of American workers, businessmen, and American society in general. The Japanese community's ability to overcome great hardships and succeed made them targets of envy and prejudice by many white Americans. Anti-Japanese sentiment grew throughout communities in the West, particularly in California. Tensions, prejudice and hatred towards the Japanese grew stronger after Pearl Harbor's attack. 

Immigration is a very serious matter. People risk their lives seeking for a better one for them to be able to sustain themselves along with their families. They come to the United States thinking that they will finally have the life that they have always dreamed of, but what they encounter with is a very different side of the story. I personally don't see immigration as a bad thing and I don't think people should see it as such either. Learning about Japanese immigration has made me see life from another point of view. Now I feel blessed for being American and of having the life that for some may be the best.

Japanese arriving at Immigration Stations
http//:www.angelisland.org