Elizabeth Jorgensen, Dem. Now Soc 122

Elizabeth Jorgensen

3/17/14

Democracy Now

“Obama Is Trying to Vanish Us”: Immigrants Fight Record Deportations with Protests, Hunger Strikes

(http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/13/obama_is_trying_to_vanish_us)

Latino activist groups have challenged Obama and Immigration reform using a hunger strike in Washington at a detention center for their cause.Thursday March 13th marked the 6th day of the hunger strike by Immigrants fighting deportation reform issues for more than 750 people. Threats have been made by the guards at the Northwest Detention Center that they will be force fed with tubes if they continue the hunger strike protest. Individuals are fighting for better conditions at the detention centers, including better food and lower prices and higher wages. Immigration reform is being talked about but no action is being put into place which is why immigrants are uniting to take a stand in the hopes that change can be made to issues on immigration reform. Centers such as this charge the federal government 120-160$ daily per individual while paying them a dollar for up to 5 hours of work. The facilities save money as well by employing people at the detention centers into jobs that would otherwise cost them. Politically empowered undocumented individuals are taking a stand against the criminalization of immigrants, risking arrest in order to provoke change. 

War Workers: Vulnerable Foreign Laborers Swindled & Exploited to Toil on U.S. Bases in Afghanistan

(http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/10/war_workers_vulnerable_foreign_laborers_swindled)

There are 40,000 foreign contract workers on military bases in places like Afghanistan and Iraq today risking their lives providing jobs in war zones. These individuals are usually falsely recruited and promised high wages. Military agents bring people to Afghanistan with false hope for progress. The workers are exploited with most of their life savings in order to be recruited and much work for a long time in order to make enough money to return to their country. This is a form of human trafficking that has been happening for more than 10 years and is subsidized by American taxpayers money. The lowest wage jobs are filled by people that are forced into these positions after being lied to about expectations. 90-95% of workers in India and Nepal have paid high fees in order to recruited for these jobs. Mostly men in these countries who have little job opportunities at home and wish to make money overseas fall into these false traps at military bases in Afghanistan. The companies asked to manage military bases in places such as Afghanistan subcontract out for cheaper and are then able to make money. Everyone within this system is making a profit other than workers who are trafficked in terrible conditions. U.S. law has done very little besides outlawing unreasonable recruitment fees.