As in any other playoff, candidate rhetoric let loose during the U.S. presidential race can be tough. We’ve held a front row seat to the 2012 showdown for over a year, with tensions still rising as the general election looms nearer. Some of the barbs launched along the campaign trail have been laughable: Newt Gingrich’s television ad incriminating Mitt Romney for his ability to speak French comes to mind. Others are not. The dialogue surrounding U.S. poverty and inequality, two issues that are hotter than ever during a deep recession that the nation has shown incapable of simply shaking off [...]
Immigration
Alabama pays steep price for intolerance
Alabama’s radical new immigration law has wrought severe damage to the state’s economy, and will continue to do so until Alabama revises or repeals the legislation. Crops have rotted in the fields without workers to harvest them, business reputations lie ruined, and foreign manufacturers are leaving. Individuals and corporations can expect even greater economic... »
In New York, Mexican-Americans lag in education
The children of Mexican immigrants in New York City are abandoning school at an alarming rate, census data shows. About 41 percent of all such children ages 16-19 in the city have dropped out, almost double the percentage of the next-highest group. Indeed, the N.Y. numbers are worse than for the children of Mexican... »
‘Guest worker’ program can be doorway to hard labor
Florida’s hotel and resort industry now relies heavily on “guest workers,” foreign recruits with temporary work visas. The visas of these H-2B workers bind them to single employers for three years, making them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Many suffer virtual peonage, while others have fallen prey to fraud and human-trafficking rings. The Department... »
U.S.-citizen children of illegal immigrants protest higher tuition in Florida
An impending class-action lawsuit challenges Florida colleges’ right to charge out-of-state tuition rates to U.S. citizens whose parents are illegal immigrants. The students, legal residents of Florida, often must pay up to three times the rates their classmates pay. Faced with such prohibitive costs, many have abandoned hope of attending college. »
Unforeseen consequences of Alabama immigration crackdown
Immigrants in Alabama, both legal and illegal, are suffering from government-sanctioned dislocation and harassment. Many have left the state, leaving their homes, businesses, and employers’ work forces empty. Thus far, Alabama’s new anti-immigrant law has succeeded. Yet its success leaves crops unpicked, schoolchildren kept at home by frightened parents, and Alabama’s reputation in shambles. »
Family of critically ill immigrant ineligible for Medicaid
Jesus Cornelio, a legal resident of the United States, collapsed during a soccer game and suffered severe brain damage. His treatment has already accrued $120,000 of medical expenses, yet he is ineligible for Medicaid because he has not lived five years in the United States. As a result, his wife must choose between incurring... »
Recession forces household sizes to grow
The 2010 Census found that after a 50-year decline in household size, more people are living together under the same roof. The recession, unemployment and housing crisis are currently forcing people to double up with family or friends. Increases in the numbers of immigrants and of young adults who live with their parents after... »
Study suggests U.S.-Mexico border fence unequally affects minorities
A recently released study found that the U.S.-Mexico federal border fence has been built through the property of those least able to negotiate: the poor and uneducated, which often translate to minorities. The government has not made its methods to determine the fence’s placement public, but professors from University of Texas at Brownsville and... »
Children of California farmworkers face poverty, struggles
Many children in farming areas of California are the sons and daughters of seasonal workers, who make meager earnings cutting and packaging produce. These youngsters struggle with family mobility, neighborhood violence, and low academic expectations. About 97 percent of students in Sherwood, Calif., a town in the Salinas Valley, live in poverty, and now... »