Change.org To Feature Brothers Valenzuela In Email Campaign

San Francisco, California - Change.org selected a petition to the President of the United States to stop deporting U.S. Veterans and Bring deported veterans home.  

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Specifically, the petition is designed to stop the unfair harassment of two Viet Nam veterans, Manuel and Valente Valenzuela.  The Valenzuela Brothers found themselves in removal or deportation proceedings after applying to renew their driver's licenses.  The Brothers have lived in the U.S. nearly all of their lives and have a U.S. citizen mother.

Valente Valenzuela arrived in 'Nam shortly after the Tet offensive.  Valente soon found himself working in a section of the military whose activities remain secret today.  Valente says he still suffers nightmares from his experiences.

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Manuel soon followed Valente to serve the U.S. performing rescue services for at-risk military teams.  Like his brother Valente, Manuel put his life on the line in active duty combat situations.  Many soldiers never returned from theater, others returned severely maimed.  The brothers took that chance supporting the country they call home.

Upon return from Viet Nam, both Valenzuela Brothers suffered the disgrace placed upon them by U.S. citizens angry at the Johnson Administration for it's escalation of the war.  A soldier who places his life on the line has no say in how and where he is deployed, yet one of the brothers remembers clearly having human feces thrown at him upon his return to the U.S.

Please sign the petition to stop deporting veterans and bring deported veterans home!  Stop the injustice to the Valenzeula Brothers and all veterans!

Life continued for the Valenzuela brothers for many years.  Each brother encountered minor skirmishes with the law as they dealt with their memories and trauma of life and death in a war zone. Each brother worked hard to follow the rule of law set down in the U.S., especially in the 911 environment.  What a surprise was in store for the brothers when they renewed their driver's licenses.  They received a notice to report to Homeland Security.  From there, deportation cases were opened on the elderly Viet Nam vets.

That is when the Brothers Valenzuela, as they like be called, found out they are not the only soldiers to face the wrath of aggressive actions by the Department of Homeland Security.  Many soldiers have been deported.  Homeland Security says they don't really know how many, because they don't keep statistics on who is a veteran and who is not, when they institute deportation proceedings.

Fabian Rebolledo, Getty Images

I had the chance to meet Fabian Rebolledo when I traveled with the Valenzuela brothers to the border to conduct a protest over the deportation of veterans.  

I will never forget the interview I did with Fabian's son who had an extremely difficult time talking about what could happen to his father.







   You can help return deported veterans by signing the petition from Change.org

E-Verify Making Positive Gains, House Republicans Set Immigrants Back

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E-Verify, an electronic system to verify the legal status of an employee, is making positive gains with many employers, according to a survey.  E-Verify assists employers to determine the employee has legal status to work in the U.S.

The survey found:

E-Verify is easy to use and customers are overwhelmingly positive when describing their experience with the program. 

Almost all E-Verify employers believe that E-Verify is effective (92 percent) and perceive it to be highly accurate (89 percent).

Overall, 97 percent of E-Verify employers agree that the system is user friendly. 

Almost all E-Verify employers agree that the mandatory tutorial adequately prepared them to use E-Verify (93 percent). 

Almost all E-Verify employers (97 percent) reported using the program for all new hires.

E-Verify

E-Verify is not a program undocumented workers like much, because the program provides rapid verification of worker status.  Some employers also oppose the service because they want a source of cheap labor and they want to avoid federal employment taxes.  

Substantial work is done by undocumented people.  This includes on farms and ranches, in construction, landscaping and other low paying jobs.  Some work is done in the technical field to make computers and dot.com companies able to offer inexpensive Internet and technical services.  There is also a large demand for unskilled workers in the health care industry, which helps reduce the costs of citizen health care.

The United Farm Workers Union put out a national invitation on a national talk show in which undocumented immigrants offered to give up their jobs in the fields for any citizen who is willing to do the hard work.  Four people applied for the program, at least one being a celebrity trying to make hay out of the event.  The only serious candidate quit before the first day was over, because the working conditions were to harsh for him.

E-Verify is probably a good idea even for undocumented people.  With comprehensive immigration reform, undocumented workers could come onto the radar and employers would be forced to pay reasonable wages and collect and pay employment taxes.  Consumers benefit as well because some ranchers are unable to obtain necessary workers and their produce rots in the ground, driving up the costs of fruits and vegetables to the consumer.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform was passed in the United States Senate, thanks to effort on the part of Senator Bennet from Colorado.  Bennet forged a hard hitting immigration bill that would have helped roughly 60% of the immigrants in the country.  Bennet was able to enlist the cooperation of conservative Republicans and together they worked out a deal that secures the border and keeps families united.  The program left out people who need to be identified the most, people with criminal records.  

From both a liberal and conservative approach, giving immigrants with criminal records one last chance in exchange for registration protects the nation by registering all people within America's borders, and allows people who traditionally have limited access to legal protection one last chance to get it right.

However, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the House leadership, under John Boehnner, is saying no to all immigrants.  Republicans hope the lobby supporting immigration reform will rebel against Democratic leaders in the next election because reform has been stalled by Republicans in the House.  Republicans have not figured out that the primarily Latino voting base knows that Republicans are manipulating their family members for political gain.

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, USCIS, is doing it's part to help secure the nation and to insure employers are treating workers fairly, and employers pay taxes through the E-Verify program.  The U.S. House of Representatives under conservative leadership has failed to do it's part and is playing politics with America's food and labor supply, with no regard for people who break their backs to insure produce arrives at the tables of citizens.