LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN

By Noel Pangilinan

Several immigrant youth leaders recited “Let America Be America Again”, a poem by Langston Hughes, at a vigil to protest the detention of immigrants at the Liberty State Park, NJ on Feb. 13, 2013.
Among those who participated were from the New Jersey DREAM Act Coalition, Pax Christi NJ and AnakBayan NJ.

______________________________________________________

U.N. CONVENTION PROTECTS RIGHTS OF MIGRANT FAMILIES

By Noel Pangilinan

On Dec. 18, 1990, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families. It took effect in 2003.

The convention recognizes the growing number of migrants all over the world and the immigrants’ contributions to the development of both their host and native countries. It also promotes and protects the rights of migrant workers and their families.

Sadly though, the United States and several other migrant-receiving countries have refused to sign the agreement.

(This slideshow was first posted on the website of the General Board for Church and Society of the United Methodist Church in September 2012.)

__________________________________________________________

NEW YORK CITY LOVES ITS IMMIGRANTS

By Noel Pangilinan

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”

Perhaps no other city in the entire United States adheres more faithfully to this passage from Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus”, than New York City.

The poem is engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty.

Fatima Shama, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, gave an overview of how New York City is helping its immigrant residents.

(This video was first posted in Queens7.com in June 2011)