This is the Immigrant the Trumpies Want to Deport

I single him out not because he's unusual, but because he's typical.  All "real Americans" are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.  There is no such thing as an American who is not an immigrant or the descendants of immigrants.

As I have said before, the only people on this continent with the right to demand deportation of immigrants are full-blooded natives, who have a genuine grievance against the interlopers who have ruined their home.

This young man is us.  We are him and we always have been.  It's silly to say immigrants are the best of America, because immigrants are all of America.

From the Herald:

As 2nd Lt. Alix Schoelcher Idrache stood at attention during the commencement ceremony at West Point, New York, on Saturday, he was overcome with emotion. Tears rolled down both cheeks, but his gloved left hand held firm on his white, gold and black "cover," the dress headgear that Army cadets wear.

The photograph of Idrache, by Army Staff Sgt. Vito T. Bryant, was published Tuesday on the Facebook page of West Point's U.S. Military Academy, and it almost immediately went viral. Part of that is Idrache's background: He worked his way through one of the nation's most prestigious military schools after immigrating to the United States from Haiti, earning his citizenship and serving for two years as an enlisted soldier with the Maryland Army National Guard, according to Army records.

"I woke up this morning and found my face all over Facebook and with it myriad of amazing comments about my accomplishments," Idrache wrote Tuesday on Facebook. "I am humbled and shocked at the same time. Thank you for giving me a shot at the American Dream and may God bless America, the greatest country on earth."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article79994127.html#storylink=cpy

Haiti Two Years Later: Progress and Hope

Carl Hiaasen is no naif or pollyanna. If he says things are getting better in Haiti, you can believe it.

The news of the day is burning with big questions:

Who’ll be the next head coach of the Dolphins? Why is Rosie O’Donnell killing hammerhead sharks? Is Khloe Kardashian really a Kardashian?

And each of those stories is being devoured and debated by many thousands of readers, far more than are looking at the sober bylined reports from Haiti, which last week marked the two-year anniversary of its catastrophic earthquake.

Even before that disaster, Haiti was a place of such hellish poverty and corruption that people on the outside often turned away because it was all too much, too sad, too hopeless.

And too close to home.

The 7.0 earthquake was freakishly fierce for that part of the Caribbean, and it seemed to be almost a preternatural act of cruelty. No country in the hemisphere was more vulnerable and ill-prepared. Still the devastation was shocking.

Eventually the number of fatalities surpassed 300,000, a mind-blowing figure, almost 20 times higher than the death toll from last year’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami. For a few weeks the world took notice — volunteers arrived by the planeload in Port-au-Prince, and supplies poured in along with money.

Two years later, the question is: How is Haiti?

Of course it’s still poor, still in desperate need of jobs, competent political leadership and decent housing. More than half a million Haitians left homeless by the quake still live in tent cities, and a cholera outbreak a year ago killed more than 4,000, including many children.

Last week brought peaceful street demonstrations by those exasperated with the slow pace of rebuilding and the lack of work. Sadly, Haiti has no history of efficient governance and no template to work from.

SNIP

Throughout the long recovery, celebrities (including one of the genetically verified Kardashians) have popped in and out of the country. If nothing else, such fleeting though well-publicized appearances serve to remind distracted segments of the world public that Haiti is still there, still hanging on.

Others are in it for the long haul.

A musician who is a friend of mine has quietly funded a new grade school in the countryside. The actor, Sean Penn, arrived in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake and was so overwhelmed that he’s been a fixture ever since. He manages a tent camp for 55,000 persons who lost their homes in the disaster.

Dr. Paul Farmer, whose intrepid Partners in Health organization has been operating medical clinics for years in Haiti, last week described plans for a 320-bed teaching hospital — the country’s largest.

It is being built with private funds in the city of Mirebalais. When finished, the earthquake-proof facility will treat about 500 patients a day. Given the scarcity of good healthcare in Haiti, this is nothing short of a godsend.

Then there’s former President Bill Clinton, whose interest in Haiti also predates the earthquake, and who has surely spent more street time there than any American political figure past or present. He returned again last week to mark the anniversary of the tragedy by visiting a Timberland shoe factory in an industrial park where about 7,000 Haitians are employed.

Clinton has been relentlessly pushing for more foreign investment in Haiti’s private sector, which is its only true hope for moving forward. While the earthquake brought a gusher of humanitarian funds from the United States, Canada, Brazil and other nations, the long-term prospects depend on firms like the Korean garment company that’s sinking serious money into a Haiti-based manufacturing operation.

Two years is hardly enough time to erase a century of ruinous policies, violent politics and graft, but there is something happening that resembles progress. For example, more people in Port-au-Prince can now get clean water than before the quake.

A new hospital here, a new factory there — these are small miracles but must be multiplied for Haiti to lift itself from the rubble of 2010. It won’t happen without the likes of Farmer, Clinton and others who are keeping this important story alive.

I have been a supporter of Farmer's Partners in Health for several years, ever since reading Mountains Beyond Mountains. No one - not Penn, not Clinton, not the UN - is doing anywhere near as much for Haiti, not to mention for as long or as efficiently, as Partners in Health.

Stick to Politics, Bill - It's What You Do Best

The tragedy of this is not that it's unusual, but that it's heart-breakingly typical.

From The Nation:

When Demosthene Lubert heard that Bill Clinton's foundation was going to rebuild his collapsed school at the epicenter of Haiti's January 12, 2010, earthquake, in the coastal city of Léogâne, the academic director thought he was "in paradise."

The project was announced by Clinton as his foundation's first contribution to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which the former president co-chairs. The foundation described the project as "hurricane-proof...emergency shelters that can also serve as schools...to ensure the safety of vulnerable populations in high risk areas during the hurricane season," while also providing Haitian schoolchildren "a decent place to learn" and creating local jobs. The facilities, according to the foundation, would be equipped with power generators, restrooms, water and sanitary storage. They became one of the IHRC's first projects.

However, when Nation reporters visited the "hurricane-proof" shelters in June, six to eight months after they'd been installed, we found them to consist of twenty imported prefab trailers beset by a host of problems, from mold to sweltering heat to shoddy construction. Most disturbing, they were manufactured by the same company, Clayton Homes, that is being sued in the United States for providing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with formaldehyde-laced trailers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina . Air samples collected from twelve Haiti trailers detected worrying levels of this carcinogen in one, according to laboratory results obtained as part of a joint investigation by The Nation and The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund.

SNIP

Wall, the former OCHA spokeswoman, responded by e-mail, "We all knew that that project was misconceived from the start, a classic example of aid designed from a distance with no understanding of ground level realities or needs. It has had a predictably long and unhappy history from the start."

Even Conille largely concurred, in a telephone interview, that there were many problems with the project, saying, "It made sense at that time, and I guess someone could argue it wasn't the best idea in retrospect."

For his part, Léogâne Mayor Santos Alexis says he is still waiting for Bill Clinton to follow through on his pledge to equip Léogâne with hurricane-proof school buildings. Asked about his view on the Clinton Foundation's claims to having completed an "Emergency Hurricane Shelter Project" replete with new classrooms for his town, Alexis is defiant. "If those at the Clinton Foundation are sure it's done then they should prove it, they should show it to us, because I know nothing about it," he remarked coyly, gazing out from behind his shades. Seated at his desk in a crumbling municipal building, the mayor said he is still waiting for the real Clinton Foundation schools, "built with norms that protect people from hurricanes and flooding."

Read the whole disgusting thing.

Liberals know real solutions to hard, long-standing problems are never cheap or easy, but take a very long time and cost a great deal of money.

Punishing Victims We Promised to Help

So you're walking down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly a giant SUV jumps the curb onto the sidewalk and hits you.

Bystanders rush to your side, call 911, chase after the escaping driver. The ambulance arrives and the EMTs load you in it. You've got two broken legs and a concussion.

But they don't take you to the hospital. They take you to jail. You protest, pointing to your injuries, begging for medical attention. Sorry, the jailers say, we have to keep you here until the police finish investigating the accident.

But I'm the victim, you protest. Why should I have to be locked up without help? Those are the rules, they shrug.

Impossible, you say? It's happening right here, right now, to the survivors of the Haitian earthquake.

Blue Girl has the details:

Reading this article in today's New York Times made me shake with rage.

Did you know that there are Haitian refugees whose only crime was surviving the earthquake that devastated Port au Prince on January 12 who were evacuated to the United States when they sought shelter and food at the airport, only to be locked up in immigration detention centers as soon as they arrived in the United States without visas and held for deportation, even though deportations to Haiti were suspended immediately after the quake?

Legal advocates who stumbled on the survivors in February at the Broward County Transitional Center, a privately operated immigration jail in Pompano Beach, Fla., have tried for weeks to persuade government officials to release them to citizen relatives who are eager to take them in, letters and affidavits show.

Meanwhile, the detainees have received little or no mental health care for the trauma they suffered, lawyers at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center said, despite an offer of free treatment at the jail by a local Creole-speaking psychotherapist.

Their plight is a result of the scramble to cope quickly with the immigration consequences of the quake's destruction and death toll. Some Haitians who arrived without papers were handed tourist visas, only to find that status barred them from working; the more fortunate received humanitarian parole, an open-ended status that permits employment. Those already in the country illegally were allowed to apply for temporary protected status, which shields recipients from deportation for at least 18 months and lets them work.

Almost at random, it seems, immigration jail was the ad hoc solution for these 30 survivors and for others still hidden in pockets of the nation's sprawling detention network. Some of the 30 have already been transferred to more remote immigration jails without explanation.

I blame the system of private jails we have allowed to mushroom in this country.

When the government operates a jail, it is in their best interest to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce recidivism, keeping prison populations as low as possible. This dynamic is reversed with private jails. It is in the best interest of the detention facility owners and operators to keep headcounts high, because they bill the government a set rate for each prisoner. The more people in detention the more money they make.

The cynic in me sees the bean counters for the private detention centers telling their jailers to move the detainees around in a sick and twisted shell game that keeps innocent, already traumatised victims of a natural disaster locked up in hellish conditions so the people who own stock in private prisons can make a few bucks.

When the Times started asking questions, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the detainees in question were "being processed for release."

Advocates for the detainees said they have been waiting for weeks for the policy to be handed down from Washington on how to deal with a group of people, most of whom were ordered deported in February, who have been ordered to be deported, even though deportations to Haiti are suspended for at least 18 months. "Their prolonged and unnecessary detention is only exacerbating their trauma," the advocates wrote to the agency on March 19, after receiving no response to detailed, individual requests for release by two dozen of the detainees. "There is no reason to spend taxpayer dollars detaining traumatized earthquake survivors who cannot be deported and who have demonstrated that they are neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community."

Most of these people have relatives who are legal immigrants to the United States who are willing - eager even - to take them in.

So let them.

This is the real danger of failing to keep a sharp eye and a short leash on government bureaucrats: not mythical black helicopters and death panels, but innocent people locked up for lack of clear instructions and personal accountability.

Pecholes (Welcome)

The record snow and near-record cold greeting them could not be worse, but the welcome is still warm.

A month ago, Guilene Honore was pulled from the rubble of her Port-au-Prince apartment — only to learn that Haitian hospitals couldn’t repair her shattered hip.

On Tuesday, three weeks after undergoing surgery in Miami, she clutched her scarred arm as her wheelchair was pushed through Louisville’s airport, and toward her new home.

Noticeably thin and still recovering, Honore, 24, accompanied by her 58-year-old mother, Alice Michaud, were met by a group of local Haitians and Kentucky Refugee Ministries officials, who are resettling them at least while she recuperates.

The mother and daughter are the first of what could be a dozen or more injured Haitian earthquake victims evacuated to Florida hospitals who are being resettled by Kentucky Refugee Ministries while they recover. Catholic Charities is also awaiting word on whether they’ll be asked to bring dozens of injured Haitians to Louisville in the coming months, officials said.

Read the whole thing.

Giving Secularly

The earthquake in Haiti is not an act of an invisible sky wizard; it's the result of tectonic plates colliding.

The rescue of survivors buried for more than three days is not a miracle; it's the result of human effort and determination meeting human resilience.

The human and economic disaster in Haiti is not supernatural punishment; it's the logical and predictable consequence of two centuries of destructive leadership in both Haiti and the United States.

This is an entirely secular catastrophe, and it will be alleviated only by an entirely secular response.

Now, you can make sure that your contributions to the Haiti rescue/relief/rebuilding effort goes to organizations founded on reason and science rather than pointless prayers.

PZ Myers explains:

If you haven't already donated to disaster relief in Haiti, here's your chance: a new umbrella organization to coordinate charitable giving for the godless has been set up. In the first two hours that this was created, over $11,000 has been donated. Get on the bandwagon!

Spurred by the horrific suffering in Haiti, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) has set up a dedicated bank account and PayPal facility to collect donations to non-religious relief organizations. This new account is in the new name of Non-Believers Giving Aid, with all of the money donated being distributed to disaster relief.

Clearly the immediate need is for the suffering people of Haiti, and all the money raised by this current appeal will go that cause, but the new account will remain available for future emergencies too. There are, of course, many ways for you to donate to relief organizations already, but doing it through Non-Believers Giving Aid offers a number of advantages:

100% of your donation will be go to these charities: not even the PayPal fees will be deducted from your donation, since Richard will personally donate a sum to cover the cost of these (Capped at $10,000). This means that more of your money will reach the people in need.

When donating via Non-Believers Giving Aid, you are helping to counter the scandalous myth that only the religious care about their fellow-humans.

It goes without saying that your donations will only be passed on to aid organizations that do not have religious affiliations. In the case of Haiti, the two organizations we have chosen are:

Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières)

International Red Cross

You may stipulate using a dropdown menu which of these two organizations you want your donation to go to; otherwise, it will be divided equally between them.

Preachers and televangelists, mullahs and imams, often seem almost to gloat over natural disasters - presenting them as payback for human transgressions, or for 'making a pact with the devil'. Earthquakes and tsunamis are caused not by 'sin' but by tectonic plate movements, and tectonic plates, like everything else in the physical world, are supremely indifferent to human affairs and sadly indifferent to human suffering. Those of us who understand this reality are sometimes accused of being indifferent to that suffering ourselves. Of course the very opposite is the truth: we do not hide behind the notion that earthly suffering will be rewarded in a heavenly paradise, nor do we expect a heavenly reward for our generosity: the understanding that this is the only life any of us have makes the need to alleviate suffering even more urgent.

The myth that it is only the religious who truly care is sustained largely by the fact that they tend to donate not as individuals, but through their churches. Non-believers, by contrast, give as individuals: we have no church through which to give collectively, no church to rack up statistics of competitive generosity. Non-Believers Giving Aid is not a church (that's putting it mildly) but it does provide an easy conduit for the non-religious to help those in desperate need, whilst simultaneously giving the lie to the canard that you need God to be good.

Please help us to help the suffering people of Haiti.

Read the whole thing.

Jack Conway is Still a god-Sucking Putz, But ...

He did send out this email today:

Over the past year, our campaign has come to you periodically to update you on our campaign for the United States Senate and about political and social issues that affect Kentuckians. We have also come to you at times asking for your donations. We appreciate all of the support you have given us.

It is our confidence in your generous spirit that has prompted me to come to you today, asking not for your support of a political cause but of a humanitarian one. Our hearts go out to all the men, women and children of Haiti who are suffering the devastating aftermath of a magnitude seven earthquake, which struck earlier this week.

We extend our thoughts and prayers to all those affected by the devastation in Haiti. While we know there are families right here in Kentucky who bear their own daily hardships, we also recognize the compassionate spirit and helping hands of those in the Commonwealth. My staff and I have pledged monetary support to the relief efforts in Haiti and we urge you to do the same. Please visit the Red Cross website, the White House page on Haitian relief or former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative relief website to learn more about ways you can help those who desperately need it.

Thank you once again for your time, consideration and help. Please keep the victims in Haiti in your prayers.

Sincerely,



Jack Conway

Nailed it, right up to the last word. Forget prayers; the Haitians need your money, and your strong, passionate voice echoing President Obama's commitment to helping them rebuild.

America At Our Best

This is it. This is what we do. This is who we are. This is what makes us exceptional.

I've directed my administration to launch a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives and support the recovery in Haiti.

The losses that have been suffered in Haiti are nothing less than devastating, and responding to a disaster of this magnitude will require every element of our national capacity -- our diplomacy and development assistance; the power of our military; and, most importantly, the compassion of our country. And this morning, I'm joined by several members of my national security team who are leading this coordinated response.

I've made it clear to each of these leaders that Haiti must be a top priority for their departments and agencies right now. This is one of those moments that calls out for American leadership. For the sake of our citizens who are in Haiti, for the sake of the Haitian people who have suffered so much, and for the sake of our common humanity, we stand in solidarity with our neighbors to the south, knowing that but for the grace of God, there we go.

This morning, I can report that the first waves of our rescue and relief workers are on the ground and at work. A survey team worked overnight to identify priority areas for assistance, and shared the results of that review throughout the United States government, and with international partners who are also sending support. Search and rescue teams are actively working to save lives. Our military has secured the airport and prepared it to receive the heavy equipment and resources that are on the way, and to receive them around the clock, 24 hours a day. An airlift has been set up to deliver high-priority items like water and medicine. And we're coordinating closely with the Haitian government, the United Nations, and other countries who are also on the ground.

SNIP

None of this will seem quick enough if you have a loved one who's trapped, if you're sleeping on the streets, if you can't feed your children. But it's important that everybody in Haiti understand, at this very moment one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti. More American search and rescue teams are coming. More food. More water. Doctors, nurses, paramedics. More of the people, equipment and capabilities that can make the difference between life and death.

The United States armed forces are also on their way to support this effort. Several Coast Guard cutters are already there providing everything from basic services like water, to vital technical support for this massive logistical operation. Elements of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division will arrive today. We're also deploying a Marine Expeditionary Unit, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and the Navy's hospital ship, the Comfort.

And today, I'm also announcing an immediate investment of $100 million to support our relief efforts. This will mean more of the life-saving equipment, food, water and medicine that will be needed. This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy.

To the people of Haiti, we say clearly, and with conviction, you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster and recovery. And through it all, your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So today, you must know that help is arriving -- much, much more help is on the way.

And what Blue Girl said.

Katrina/Rita/Levees Times 100

The U.S. Coast Guard arrived in Haiti this morning, and this is what they found:



Read about the Coast Guard's first-on-the-scene rescue effort here.

U.S. rescue efforts, from Agence France-Press.

From CNN:

The earthquake's power matched that of several nuclear bombs, said Roger Searle, a professor of geophysics in the Earth Sciences Department at Durham University in England. He said the combination of its magnitude and geographical shallowness made it particularly dangerous.

About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross said. About 10 million people felt shaking from the earthquake, including 2 million who felt severe trembling, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated.

Talking Points Memo has constant updates here.

Kentuckians are trying to reach friends and family in Haiti, as are Americans everywhere.

Digby has the best list of organizations on the ground in Haiti needing your help.

I'll second the recommendation for Partners in Health. If you're looking for a Haiti-founded, Haiti-focused group that does the most for the worst-off, PIH is the one.