Literacy brings immigrants closer to full participation in life

Native Spanish speakers break the code of the written word with help from an L.A. adult-education center, writes Hector Tobar.

In her one-bedroom apartment in the Pico-Union district, garment worker Julia Rodriguez lives surrounded by young readers.

Her oldest child, 10-year-old Santos, is giving Harry Potter a try. Nine-year-old Wendy devours girl-detective stories. Even her youngest, 6-year-old Marlyn, zips through early reader books.

"Tim spins," Marlyn reads from her book. "Tim spins his hat."

Julia listens to her daughter and beams. Until recently, the 34-year-old mother of three couldn't read the simplest sentence in any language. Having been illiterate most of her life, she feels deep, bittersweet emotions watching her children master reading.

Earlier this year, in the classrooms of the nonprofit Centro Latino for Literacy, Julia finally started learning to read and write herself.

Read the rest of Tobar's column here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image: Julia Rodriguez, 34, says her children, Santos, left, Marlyn and Wendy, inspired her to learn to read. "Before, there was no sun for me. Now I feel" more awake, Julia says. She recently bought her first book. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Tougher rules on policing illegal immigrants

Luz Maria Diaz knew what happened to illegal immigrants at the Wake County jail. But her teenage daughters didn't.

So when the girls were arrested after fighting on their high school campus in September, they freely admitted that they were born in Mexico. Detention officers at the jail checked their immigration status and promptly handed them over to federal authorities.

Now Diana, 16, and her sister, Yolanda, 18, are battling to stay in the country.

"I never thought this could happen ... for a simple fight," their mother said. "I was in shock."

Read more of this report from Anna Gorman here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.

Photo: Luz Maria Diaz, 35, worries about what will happen to daughters Yolanda, 18, left, and Diana, 16, right. The two were arrested after a fight on their school campus, then processed for possible deportation under a program known as 287(g). The program has drawn criticism after reported civil-rights violations, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has called for an end to it. In July, the Obama administration announced that participating agencies must focus their efforts primarily on serious and violent criminals. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Latinos and education: Survey examines 'attainment gap'

The schooling of Latinos in the U.S. has long been characterized by high dropout rates and low college completion rates. The problems have lessened over time, "but a persistent educational attainment gap remains between Latinos and whites," according to the latest report from the Pew Hispanic Center:

Nearly nine-in-10 (89%) Latino young adults ages 16 to 25 say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number -- 48% -- say that they themselves plan to get a college degree, according to a new national survey of 2,012 Latinos ages 16 and older by the Pew Hispanic Center conducted from Aug. 5 to Sept. 16.

The biggest reason for the gap between the high value Latinos place on education and their more modest aspirations to finish college appears to come from financial pressure to support a family, the survey finds.

Read more here on the Pew Hispanic Center website.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Making an example of American Apparel

American Apparel is in the process of firing all of its undocumented workers, under pressure from the Department of Homeland Security -- a move that will cause as much real harm to Los Angeles as it will imaginary good. Taking away as many as 1,800 jobs that pay $10 to $12 an hour plus benefits will probably drive those workers into an underground economy or into sweatshops, maybe into crime, maybe homelessness. They and their children will be more susceptible to poverty and hunger and more likely to require public assistance, argues this Los Angeles Times editorial.

Read on here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Latino TV personalities juggle a bilingual stage

They say things like "Antes de la break" and "Mira que cute." One is a clownish, Puerto Rican-born 28-year-old who ditched studying engineering to pursue a career in entertainment, another is an outspoken SoCal native who once had a penchant for crashing cars. The Spanglish? It just comes naturally, reports Yvonne Villarreal.

They're a new generation of Latino television personalities: attractive, plugged in and conversant not only in Spanglish argot but in a complex, shifting culture. Their employers believe they are offering young viewers a cool, and marketable, connection to this culture. Don Francisco, cuidado.

Read more here.

Photo: Yasmin Deliz, Yarel Ramos and Melissa "Crash" Barrera dish out programming that bridges a cultural gap. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Filmmakers document consequences of U.S. immigration raid

Back in May 2008, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up 389 undocumented workers in the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid was the largest in U.S history.

Two weeks later, filmmakers Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan started filming "In the Shadow of the Raid," a documentary film showing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. A 15-minute edit of the film was recently broadcast on PBS "Frontline's" website.

"In the Shadow of the Raid" delves into the consequences of the ICE raid for Postville and for some of the the migrants who were arrested and deported back to their homes in two rural villages in Guatemala.

Following the closure of the meatpacking plant, Postville businesses failed and livelihoods were destroyed.

In Guatemala, migrant Willian Toj returned to his wife and parents. Awaiting him was a massive debt that he accrued from his trip to the U.S. He had been working in the Postville plant for 20 minutes before the ICE raid.

Toj can barely earn enough to pay the monthly interest on the $7,000 debt, let alone get the funds to treat his mother's worsening cancer.

The tone of the documentary is observational rather than preachy, in the same vein as other recent works such as "Los Que Se Quedan / Those Who Remain." The filmmakers try to reflect some of the realities that contribute to why so many Central Americans and Mexicans head to the United States. But there are no ICE officials interviewed, no legal redresses sought. Brosnan and Szymaszek focus on the people affected by the raid, and the resulting film is a photographic testament to a sad reality.

Watch the video for more.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.

Video: An interview with Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan, directors of "In the Shadow of the Raid." All non-interview material courtesy of Szymaszek and Brosnan. Video interview by Deborah Bonello.

Cartoonists take on illegal immigration

"The now-infamous Capitol shout-out from South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson was blogged, scribed, tubed and 'tooned to death, but precious little commentary actually dealt with illegal immigration, the spark that lit his short fuse. Steve Sack took a shot at needling irrational nationalists taking needless shots. John Branch signed off on a huge multibillion-dollar border checkpoint. And Matt Bors used borderline taste in his verbose abortion piece.(Guess that Bors dude is sick and un-American.)"

-- Joel Pett

Joel Pett is the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky. His cartoons also appear in USA Today.

See more here.

Cartoon: Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Immigrant population in California declines

More than three decades of rapid growth in the country's foreign-born population came to a halt last year, census data show, as surging unemployment made the U.S. economy less attractive to outsiders, report The Times' Don Lee and Alana Semuels.

In California, which has a long history of attracting immigrants, the number of foreign-born residents actually declined, falling 1.6%.

"This is clearly a consequence of the economy, with the biggest impact on Mexican and low-skilled immigrants," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census figures, which are to be officially released today. "It shows that these immigrants respond to the economy."

Nationwide, the number of foreign-born residents fell an estimated 99,000, or 0.3%, to 37.97 million.

Read more here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Obama takes heat from other side of immigrant healthcare debate

Trying to quell a conservative uproar over his healthcare agenda, President Obama has proposed barring illegal immigrants from a possible government-arranged health insurance marketplace -- even if the immigrants pay with their own money.

The move has surprised some of Obama's fellow Democrats and infuriated immigrant advocates, who on Tuesday attacked the position as political pandering and bad policy, reports Peter Wallsten from Washington.

Read on here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

E-mails on illegal immigration are eye-opening

The e-mail that popped into my inbox started with an insult and included an attachment full of "facts," writes Hector Tobar.

After calling me a "crybaby" for writing a sympathetic story about Mexican immigrants, the sender insisted I read a series of statistics on the effects of illegal immigration on Los Angeles and California. Hospitals, law enforcement and other public services, he said, are being overwhelmed.

At first, because of the sender's tone, I ignored the attachment. Then it arrived again, this time forwarded by a friendly reader. He didn't believe the e-mail, he said, but wanted me to know that three friends had sent it to him. And 10 of its facts were said to have originated in this newspaper.

I started reading the chain letter, which carried the title "Just One State." It asked me to forward its message to at least two other people. "If this doesn't open your eyes," it declared, "nothing will."

I'm all in favor of having my eyes opened -- and then making sure my eyes don't deceive me. So I took the 10 "stats" and focused a little light on them. I waded deep into The Times' archive with the help of our librarian Scott Wilson, and made a few phone calls too.

What did I find? A stew made up for the most part of meaty exaggerations and spicy conjecture, mixed in with some giblets of truth. Two of the "stats" are the musings of a conservative op-ed writer. Another takes its information from a government "report" that is, in fact, a work of fiction.

Read the rest of this article here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City