Governor’s 2nd Term To Focus On Helping Illegal Immigrants
Last Updated: Wed, 11/17/2010 - 1:56pm
The newly reelected governor who created a special council to help illegal immigrants integrate into society promises to spend his second term pushing for measures to benefit undocumented aliens in his state.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, former Clinton Administration official, assured open borders advocates this week that he’ll advance an ambitious agenda launched during his first term to assist illegal aliens. That means implementing all of the policy recommendations—labeled New Americans Agenda—made by his special immigration committee last year.
In all, the governor’s council offered 131 ideas aimed at integrating immigrants and refugees into the civic and economic life of the Commonwealth. The policy suggestions cover civil rights, education, employment and workforce development, access to state services and housing assistance.
Among the key recommendations is granting illegal immigrants drivers’ licenses and discounted in-state-tuition at public colleges and universities even though the Massachusetts legislature solidly rejected the tuition measure a few years ago. Regardless, Deval is committed to implementing his immigration panel’s recommendations before his second term expires.
“Now, as we stand on the threshold of another four years, I want to commit to you that we will implement this report in its entirety, working with you over the next several years,’’ Patrick told a cheering crowd of immigration advocates this week.
Immediately upon taking office in 2007, Deval, who was in charge of civil rights in Bill Clinton’s Justice Department, killed a policy that allowed state troopers to detain undocumented aliens. The governor has repeatedly come under fire for his other leftwing policies, including spending $430,000 to give welfare recipients free cars as an incentive to find work and a law to protect convicted criminals by concealing their records from potential employers and landlords.
Last year Deval’s lawyer wife accused the state’s largest newspaper of racism for describing her husband’s pricey luxury sedan as “tricked out.” The article pointed out that the taxpayer-financed vehicle, a Cadillac DeVille, was a departure from the less expensive model used by Deval’s predecessor. First Lady Diane Patrick, a partner at a major global law firm, said the term “tricked out” is not only racist but inaccurate because her husband’s fancy state car doesn’t have boom boxes or speakers on the outside.
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MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
TIME TO END THE INVASION AND START HELPING AMERICANS?
Cash flowing to native lands
Mass. residents sent $1.8b last year to loved ones back home
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | September 20, 2010
Delmy Aldana works two jobs — at a restaurant by day and the post office at night — to send hundreds of dollars a month to her native El Salvador. Half pays the mortgage on a house she built for her family, and the rest covers necessities for relatives, including a teenage son and 71-year-old mother she left behind.
“It’s really hard,’’ said Aldana, a 31-year-old Lynn resident. “The money I send my mother helps her to survive. What I send her pays her bills, the electricity, the water, the telephone. If I didn’t send money . . . I don’t know how she would manage.’’
Across the state, Aldana and other immigrants showed their enduring devotion to their loved ones last year by sending $1.8 billion home to more than 200 countries, according to the first full accounting of the cash that flows out of Massachusetts. The findings are based on a Globe review of annual reports that money-transfer companies such as MoneyGram and Western Union are required to file each year with the state.
The reports do not specify who sent the money, but industry analysts and government officials say that they believe the vast majority are immigrants, who favor money- transfer companies because they are quick and easy to use.
The top destinations for the money transfers last year — Brazil, the Dominican Republic, China, and Guatemala — closely mirror the major immigrant groups in Massachusetts. But the list also reflects the state’s remarkable diversity, with sizable amounts going to Ghana, Poland, and Taiwan.
In Massachusetts, where 14 percent of the population is foreign-born, and elsewhere, immigrants are under constant pressure to juggle responsibilities in two worlds. They work to cover daily expenses here while sending cash, known as remittances, to their native lands from tiny bodegas or big stores such as Walmart.
Back home, the money covers food, medicine, shelter, and small luxuries, such as washing machines, to ease daily life. Immigrants also send money for emergencies, such as the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti or the recent flooding in Pakistan, and for celebrations, such as India’s Diwali festivities or Mother’s Day in Mexico.
“These are not payments of convenience,’’ said Daniel O’Malley, executive vice president of the Americas at MoneyGram.. “They’re payments of love and support.’’
Money transfers slumped during the recent recession, but the amount immigrants send remains closely tied to the cost of living back home, said Manuel Orozco, an associate with the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research group.
Brazil, a South American nation that includes skyscraper-studded metropolises and struggling small towns, tends to have a higher cost of living, so immigrants send an average of $500 a month, he said. Remittances to Haiti, a poorer nation, average $120 a month.
Brazil saw remittances from Massachusetts plunge $100 million last year, probably because that country’s economy is stronger and cash-strapped immigrants here could send less. But they rose about $17 million to Guatemala, a nation racked by poverty and natural disasters that depends heavily on money from abroad.
In El Salvador, more than one in five families rely on money from abroad, according to the US State Department.
Aldana, a bubbly mother of four, came here in 1997 from the Central American nation and stayed after two devastating earthquakes in 2001 killed hundreds of Salvadorans. By working in Massachusetts, she was able to build her mother a house in El Salvador that is bright and clean and protected by an alarm system. In Lynn, her three children are safe and thriving in school.
She misses her mother and the 13-year-old son she left behind, but said her work in the United States offers all of them a better future.
“You have to have something,’’ she said. “I do it for my children and for my mother.’’
Many immigrants are also directing the money toward bigger dreams, such as launching small businesses back home, prompting advocates for immigrants to urge the state to court these investors. They say state officials should pay closer attention to the cash flows and suggest that immigrants set aside a portion to invest here, too.
“This is a huge amount of money,’’ said Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit that is hosting a major national conference later this month on integrating immigrants into the United States. “There is a loss here that needs to be addressed.’’
Frances Martinez, executive director of La Vida Inc., a nonprofit group in Lynn, said she counsels immigrants to face the reality that many of them will never return home. She advises them to reserve a portion of their remittances, $50 to $60 a month, for their children’s college educations.
“Every time I go to the Dominican Republic, I see these humongous mansions and all these investments with the money from the United States,’’ she said. “When I see them I say, ‘Wow, they are probably never going to live there.’ ’’
Nixon Andama of Watertown, a native of Uganda, said immigrants struggle with conflicting priorities. The 40-year-old real estate analyst is building his career here, but he also bought a farm in Uganda to appease his mother, though he doesn’t plan to return. In Uganda, he said, people are typically buried on their farms, and owning land is an important tradition.
“It’s a social thing,’’ said Andama, who still sends money to his relatives there. “When you become an adult in society in Uganda, everyone expects you to build your own home. If not, it will be the talk of the village, and you’re kind of looked down at because you didn’t build.’’
The state Division of Banks, which licenses money-transfer companies, requires them to file an annual financial report to ensure that they comply with state licensing laws, said David Cotney, chief operating officer of the division.
The agency does not review the data to gauge the industry’s impact on the economy, though Cotney said he hopes to collect the reports electronically by the end of 2011, which would make the data easier to analyze.
Some say the state should tax remittances or find another way to make money from them, since the cash is leaving the state.
“That is money that is not spent in the Massachusetts economy,’’ said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors stricter controls on immigration. “Obviously that is lost. It is certainly a factor that ought to be considered when formulating immigration policies.’’
But Orozco said his research in Latin America shows that immigrants send only 15 percent of their income. Money-sending does not vary widely by immigration status, either, he said, though naturalized citizens tend to send more than those in the country illegally, because they tend to have higher-paying jobs.
The state’s reports show that more established groups, such as Italians, Irish, and Portuguese, are still sending money, though less than newer arrivals. Massachusetts residents sent nearly $24 million to Portugal last year, $20 million to Ireland, and about $10 million to Italy.
Today’s immigrants can transfer money far more easily than their predecessors, who sent it in letters or with friends visiting home. Now, senders fill out a form at a money-transfer outlet, hand over the cash, and pay a fee. Remittances to Latin America, for example, cost about 5 percent of the total amount, according to the Inter-American Dialogue.
In Massachusetts, the leading money-transfer companies are Western Union, which sent 35 percent of the state’s total remittances in 2009, and MoneyGram, which sent 12 percent.
In Waltham, the money-transfer service at La Chapincita is as popular as the cans of beans on the neatly stocked shelves and recent editions of Prensa Libre, a major daily newspaper in Guatemala. Braulio Mazariegos, one of the store owners, said he opens even during snowstorms to keep the money-transfer service available to his customers.
“Many families depend on the money they send,’’ he said. “The immigrants never let them down.’’
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @mariasacchetti.
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