As immigrant women continue to seek better lives in the United States—51 percent of new immigrants are women—we cannot neglect the impact health-care policies and anti-choice legislation have on their lives.
New York State has the second largest immigrant population in the
nation—one in five New Yorkers, or four million, are foreign born. More
than 150 languages are currently spoken in New York City alone, while
more than 30 are spoken in the upstate city of Utica.
Immigrant women’s health care is severely compromised by the immigrant detention system, two new reports find.
Lynda Waddington reports that Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive officer and vice president at Agriprocessors, was arrested on a criminal complaint that alleges he conspired in immigration-related offenses.
Just over 40 women, originally detained in the unprecedented May 12 immigration raid on the town’s kosher meatpacking plant, were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement back into the town on humanitarian grounds to either care for children or for medical conditions.
A number of local and county police departments are now allowed to arrest people for immigration violations. In Tennessee, a pregnant, undocumented immigrant woman was arrested for driving without a license and gave birth, mostly shackled, in jail focusing new attention on local immigration enforcement.
In the four weeks since the May 12 federal immigration raids at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, St. Bridget’s Church has been a refuge for the plant’s undocumented workers.
More than two weeks have passed since the federal government launched an immigration raid — the largest single-site raid in American history — against Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, and more stories of abuse continue to surface.
