2009
Featured Entries
Protecting our Right to Education
The Obama Administration's Immigration Policy
Americans: Much More Than a Profile
Census Messaging Manual Available Online!
This Message Manual was developed as a resource for those working to encourage people to take part in the 2010 Census.
Available Online Here!
First female AME bishop to visit High Point
The resume of the first female bishop in the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Vashti Murphy McKenzie, could serve as a sermon.
McKenzie will speak at the 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services Dec. 20 at Williams Memorial CME Church, 3400 Triangle Lake Road, High Point.
As a pastor in Baltimore, McKenzie oversaw the purchase of a building on a drug-infested corner that created a $1.8 million economic development center that houses a senior adult day care, a Head Start and other businesses.
McKenzie’s first assignment after her 2000 elevation to bishop was as presiding prelate in eight southern African countries.
There, she established a program to build group homes for children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.
McKenzie, who holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in divinity, is the author of several books, including “Journey to the Well.”
As president of the Council of Bishops , she is the highest- ranking woman in the predominantly Black Methodist denomination.
She is also the national chaplain for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority .
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First Lutheran Church has launched Meals at the Manger, a statewide campaign encouraging churches to collect food for the needy on Christmas Eve.
Last year’s service at First Lutheran drew 1,072 people bearing 1,500 pounds of food — food that otherwise might not have been collected, according to Frank Moore , First Lutheran’s director of community ministries .
This year, the church is asking congregations across the state to ask members to take at least one canned good or food item per person to Christmas Eve services.
First Lutheran also is encouraging churches to set up manger scenes in their yards or elsewhere with large boxes to hold the Christmas Eve donations.
Each church can donate the goods to the food bank or soup kitchen of its choice after the holiday.
A suggestion: Have children or youth of the church do the artwork for the outdoor or indoor manger scene.
“ This is a simple yet powerful way to feed the hungry and personify the hope that defines Christmas,” Moore said.
Need help getting started? Contact Moore at 292-9125 , Ext. 102, or frank@firstlutheran.com.
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FaithAction International House is offering a personal appeal to church leaders and congregations to get involved in the U.S. Census Bureau count.
“So many decisions are made based on the U.S. Census count,” FaithAction executive director Mark Sills explained in the nonprofit’s newsletter. “Virtually all federal grants are allocated on the basis of census data. The decision about where to build roads, schools, hospitals, child-care centers and many other structures important to your people — all based on census data.”
FaithAction, which got a $3,000 grant through the Southern Coalition for Social Justice to help explain the census to immigrants, is also trying to get the word out to faith groups.
In the last census, North Carolina might have lost millions in funding because of an undercount, according to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.
The Census Bureau can provide your congregation packets of information that has been designed especially for faith-based organization partners.
Questions? Contact Kathryn Murphy at 327-8531 or kathryn.m.murphy@census.gov .
Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com
Minor wrongs still risk deportation
The federal government said it was revamping its deportation agreements with local sheriffs to focus on ridding the country of dangerous felons. But some North Carolina sheriffs who signed the agreements have not been asked to change their practices.
Lawyers and advocates say the controversial program, which allows sheriff's departments to help identify illegal immigrants and begin deportation proceedings, is operating virtually unchanged - resulting in the deportation of people charged with offenses as minor as disorderly conduct and driving without a license.
A month after the new agreements took effect, Wake County is still putting into deportation proceedings more illegal immigrants who were arrested on misdemeanor charges than those detained in felony cases.
Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison confirmed that his department has not changed the way it implements the program.
"We do the same thing if you're charged for murder or if you're charged with no operator's license," said Harrison, one of seven North Carolina sheriffs who have the program. "Nothing has changed for us."
Officials with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in July that they would ask all participating law enforcement agencies to sign new agreements, which they said would bring the program in line with its original goal of removing drug offenders and violent criminals from the country. Departments were required to sign the new agreements by mid-October.
The revamp came after Joe Arpaio, sheriff in Maricopa County, Ariz., drew national scrutiny by using the program to round up illegal immigrants and imprison them in tents in the desert.
Most North Carolina sheriffs use a different model of the program, in which they check the immigration status of those brought into jails for other crimes, but their programs have also drawn accusations of racial profiling. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina says the program encourages law officers to jail immigrants on minor crimes for the purpose of checking their immigration status.
ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said last week that the new agreements discourage profiling by requiring that local agencies see through all criminal charges against illegal immigrants before they are deported. In the past, many minor charges were dropped and the inmates handed over to immigration authorities.
She also said the agreements "clearly articulated ICE's priorities: identifying and removing criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety or a danger to the community."
New intent, old methods
The agreement, however, does not lay out new practices for sheriffs. All foreign-born people who come through participating jails - the vast majority of whom are accused of misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes - continue to have their immigration status checked and, if they are here illegally, to be processed for deportation.
Harrison signed the new agreement Oct. 16. His statistics show that the number of immigrants put into deportation proceedings has not declined since it went into effect.
In October, 150 inmates were processed for immigration violations, and 84 percent of their crimes were misdemeanors. So far this month, 82 illegal immigrants have been processed, and 60 percent of the charges against them were misdemeanors.
Harrison said he continues to check the status of all foreign-born inmates; he would consider it discriminatory to "pick and choose" inmates to screen based on the seriousness of their alleged crimes.
Harrison said checks sometimes reveal that immigrants arrested for minor charges are wanted for more serious crimes or have previous deportation orders. "ICE hasn't said anything to us about changing anything," Harrison said.
Randy Jones, spokesman for Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and one of the state's first sheriffs to join the program, also said he has not changed the way he does immigration checks.
"We're doing it just like we've always done it," Jones said.
Jones and Harrison said it's the federal government's responsibility to decide which immigrants are deported.
'Really petty'
Marty Rosenbluth, a lawyer with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham who provides free services to immigrants, said he has represented people deported after such crimes as playing loud music and missing a child's truancy hearing. A few months ago, two teenage girls ended up in deportation proceedings after being involved in a fistfight at Wakefield High School.
Since the new agreements took effect, Rosenbluth said, he continues to field five to 10 calls a day, the majority from people picked up by local immigration programs.
"It's mostly driving and minor misdemeanors in every county," he said. "Most of the cases we're seeing continue to be really petty."
Rebecca Headen, an attorney with the Raleigh office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new agreement does little to address concerns that the program allows officers to target immigrants for minor crimes.
"It's more of an aspirational suggestion," Headen said.
One North Carolina sheriff, Earl "Moose" Butler of Cumberland County, declined to sign the new agreement and dropped out of the program.
Debbie Tanna, a public information officer for the Cumberland Sheriff's Office, said the program used county resources to help deport mostly minor criminals while largely failing to turn up dangerous felons or immigrants wanted for crimes in other states.
"The sheriff did not like the way the program was working," Tanna said. "He said it was more of a headache than a working tool."
Interview with SCSJ Census Coordinator Avery Book
From An interview with Avery Book, the SCSJ Census Coordinator, by Pat Murray about the importance of the 2010 Census.
An interview with Avery Book,…
Courting Justice: A Celebration of International Human Rights Day
Heir’s Property Facilitating a Solution for the Worst Problem You Never Heard Of
“It’s the worst problem you never heard of,” David Dietrich, co-chair of the ABA Property Preservation Task Force, recently told the ABA Journal. “These cases can be thoroughly messy and complex because you are talking about multiple heirs with multiple, and sometimes conflicting, interests.”
The little known problem in question is heirs’ property, which is most prevalent amongst black families in the South. Heirs’ property is land owned by numerous family members who received it as an inheritance from an ancestor who has died without a will. Once the land is passed along in this manner the heirs hold the property together as tenants in common, wherein each owner holds an undivided interest with the right to use and possess the property. If land continues to pass in this manner through multiple generations it can result in dozens of family members having a small interest in this land. Such fractional ownership can lead to many problems. Often times, family members with a small interest in the land will not even know they are a part owner. On other occasions family members have moved away from their ancestral land and do not have the time for or interest in the upkeep of the land. In those instances an indifferent owner might sell their interest in the land, often times to someone outside of the family or to a developer.
Unfortunately, in North Carolina once a non-heir has an interest in the property, the family often loses the ability to use the land as they see fit. Our state’s laws permit any party with an interest in the land, regardless of how small, to file a partition action. If the petitioner can prove that a physical partition of the land would harm its economic value, then he or she can force the land to be sold at auction, regardless of the size of his or her interest and regardless of the wishes of the actual heirs. Not only can a partition auction lead to land selling for less than its market value, but also, even with it being available for less than its market value, the land may remain too expensive for cashpoor families to successfully bid on. These partitions have contributed to a stunning loss of black land in the South over the past century. According to the Land Loss Prevention Project, of the 15 million acres of land African Americans acquired after Emancipation, only about 2 million acres remain owned by their descendants. In Alabama, where this problem has been thoroughly researched, the number of black-operated farms dropped from 46,032 in 1954 to 1,381 in 1992. Both of these rates of decrease far outstrip the loss of white land ownership over the same time period.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is active on multiple levels in the effort to stem the tide of heirs’ property land loss. During the course of the 2009 legislative session, we worked with Representative Angela Bryant to make North Carolina partition legislation more equitable. Though we did not realize all of our goals, we did improve procedural fairness in partition sales by, among other things, increasing the time for respondents to respond to a petition for partition, assigning representatives to protect the interests of unknown or un-locatable heirs, and underlining the availability of mediation in partition actions. In addition, our organization represents families responding to partition actions filed by developers pro bono to ensure they receive the best deal possible out of this tough circumstance.
However, our preference is to get involved helping families manage their heirs’ property before a partition action is filed. This permits families to be proactive and take the long view about how to best use their land for their benefit. It is also a role in which facilitation and mediation skills are imperative to overcome the challenges unique to heirs’ property
cases.
After identifying all heirs to the property in question, the first, unique challenge often becomes apparent: this will be a family introduction as well as a family mediation. In one of the cases currently handled by SCSJ there are more than 60 family members with an interest in the heirs’ property, meaning many family members and tenants in common have never met before, let alone resolved potentially contentious issues. Even in situations with fewer heirs to the land there are still many relatives who must be re-introduced after, for example, last seeing a cousin more than 30 years ago at a family reunion. In these situations, the facilitation must work to foster trust between these distant relations so that they move forward, hopefully reaching consensus in regards to managing their land. The attorney facilitating must also be cognizant of the divisions between family members still living on or near the heirs’ property and those with limited or no connections to the land, aiming to address and then transcend disagreements about whether “outof-towners” voices should count as much as those still “living at home.” Only when such trust has been established and obstacles overcome can progress be made.
Another challenge to heirs’ property facilitation is something much less unique: sometimes family don’t get along. As anyone who has ever attended a holiday celebration can attest, just because you have the same blood in your veins does not mean you are necessarily going to like someone, much less agree with him or her on something so personal as how to manage your family’s ancestral lands. Along the same lines, there are often factions within families that do not see eye to eye on issues, including, but not limited to, the heirs’ property. The facilitator must help the family navigate this minefield to reach a consensus that all family members and family groups can accept. Again, the first step in this process is identifying these conflicts and, if possible, some of the reasons underlying said conflicts. Having done so, the facilitator will not only be prepared for points of conflict along predictable battle lines, but also can formulate a strategy for de-fusing these conflicts. Often times, allowing family members to air these unrelated grievances before steering the family back to the larger and different issues at stake is a wise start. If discussions digress it is often helpful
to have a family member who is respected by all parties as a neutral arbiter serve as an ally in your efforts to get the conversation back on track. And, yes, sometimes just taking a break to let everyone clear their head and come back fresh is the best medicine. Regardless of the approach, and as Thanksgiving dinner has likely taught us all, these conflicts must be handled effectively to realize familial goals.
Finally, heirs’ property facilitations are challenging because in such family settings there are always differing levels of legal sophistication. Often such families will include an attorney, business person, or farmer who has some familiarity with how the legal system generally and property law specifically operates. On other occasions most of the family members around the table at a facilitation will have a high school diploma or less and very limited interaction with and understanding of legal processes. In both instances one of the highest priorities is de-mystifying the legal process for family members. It is also essential that the facilitator drill down, not just accepting reluctant nods as true understanding of confusing legal concepts. Perhaps most importantly, the facilitator must lay out the various options family members could pursue and encourage robust dialogue about these alternatives. Without dialogue the facilitator could unwittingly dominate the discussion and make decisions on behalf of deferential, overwhelmed family members that are contrary to the family’s wishes and adverse to their long-term goals. The key is reaching out to family members to make sure their questions are solicited and answered, and then striking a balance between serving as a needed source for legal information while not driving the discussion to reach a conclusion preferred by the facilitator, but not necessarily the family.
“The worst problem you never heard of ” is a problem that alternative dispute resolution can play a large role in addressing. Though legislative reforms are necessary and some contentious partition actions are inevitable, many of the challenges associated with heirs’ property can be met by attorneys pro-actively utilizing alternative dispute resolution techniques. Properly employed, these techniques bring together distant family members, smooth out familial acrimony, explain complicated legal options, and allow for ancestral land to remain in and to provide benefits to families.
Tougher Rules on Policing Illegal Immigrants
From Luz Maria Diaz knew what happened to illegal immigrants at the Wake County jail. But her teenage daughters didn’t….
Luz Maria Diaz knew what…
Oct. 2, 2009: SCSJ Applauds Law Enforcement, Congressional Caucus' Opposition to I.C.E's 287(g) Program
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 2, 2009
Contact:
Marty Rosenbluth, Immigration Attorney
(919) 323-3380x113, (919) 949-9050 cell; Marty@SCSJ.org
Elena Everett, Community Media Director
(919) 323-3380x112, (919) 413-1276 cell; Elena@scsj.org
Durham, NC – Yesterday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a letter to President Obama urging him to “immediately terminate all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) under the 287(g) program and cease to establish further such agreements.” The caucus calls for action due to a “serious concern” of local law enforcement agencies using these “new powers to target communities of color, including a disproportionate number of Latinos, for arrest.”
Additionally, two Massachusetts law enforcement agencies – the Framingham police and the Barnstable County sheriff’s department – have discontinued their participation in the 287(g) program, stating that they felt pressured by federal officials to broaden their enforcement in ways inconsistent with department policies.
The 287(g) program was initially established by I.C.E. with a stated goal to combat terrorism and criminal activity by partnering with local law enforcement agencies. Currently, Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg, Wake Counties and the city of Durham have 287(g) agreements.
In February 2009, the UNC School of Law Immigration Human Rights Clinic and ACLU of North Carolina released a 152-page report on the problematic outcomes of law enforcement agencies' partnerships with the 287(g) program.
On August 27, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice was one of over 500 civil rights, community, and immigrant rights organizations to ask that the program be immediately terminated. In a letter to President Obama, these organizations, which included the NAACP, ACLU, MALDEF, and Anti-Defamation League, cited the civil rights abuses, specifically the racial profiling, endemic to the program.
"It is our hope that law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and around the country acknowledge the legitimate concerns of the Congressional Caucus and follow the lead of their Massachusetts counterparts by ending their involvement in this dangerously misguided program," stated Marty Rosenbluth, immigration attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.