Unique Concerns for Immigrants

Everyone living in the US, regardless of their citizenship status, deserves equal treatment under the law. All people, both citizens and non-citizens alike, are entitled to the following essential civil rights and liberties:^[1]

• Right to a fair public trial, including competent counsel, a fair bond, an impartial jury, knowledge of charges, and presumption of innocence.
• Right to privacy and freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures, including secret surveillance of phone and internet usage, and investigation of medical, financial, and library records.
• Freedom from arbitrary and indefinite detention and arbitrary and unfair deportation.
• Freedom from cruel and abusive treatment and punishment, including so-called ‘alternative interrogation techniques’, humiliating and degrading treatment, and torture as defined by international law.
• Freedom of speech and assembly, including the right to dissent without fear of government spying or intimidation.
• Freedom from discriminatory treatment based on race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, or political beliefs.

A 2006 ‘New American Exit Poll’ of voters found that more than 2/3 of King County Voters—immigrants and non-immigrants alike—indicated that discrimination against immigrants is a problem.^[2] Although rights are in-place for ‘all people, both citizens and non-citizens alike,’ immigrants and refugees experience disproportionate rates of civil rights violations.

The fear of deportation looms large for undocumented individuals. Even with the appropriate documents, there is still a fear of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents arresting individuals based on ‘probable cause.’ Legally, probable cause means a suspicion based on enough evidence that would lead a reasonable person to believe something is true.^[3] This definition lends itself to individual biases and prejudices, making the process undemocratic and highly problematic.

According to Washington Law Help, the law requires any immigrant 18 or over to carry an alien registration card; not carrying it is a misdemeanor.^[4] Government officers must have ‘reasonable suspicion’ that the individual is an undocumented alien before being able to detain someone. Like probable cause, it does not have to be grounded by fact.

For individuals who are detained, and in some cases deported, there is a great deal of fear and uncertainty. According to a Seattle Times article, one woman—a Mexican national and a mother of 2--was held for over a year.^[5] She was brought to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, along with 14 other women, and none of them were told where they were going, nor were they allowed to take any personal possessions or make any telephone calls.

ICE officials are now conducting more raids on work sites, and canvassing areas they believe immigrants might be. In the Pacific Northwest, the number of detention center beds has grown from 150 in 2004 to 800 in 2006, and was expected to grow by another 1,000 in 2007.^[6] This demonstrates a marked increase--7 times as many detention beds-- in just 3 years. Since the privately-owned Northwest Detention Center opened in 2004, there have been reported instances of human rights violations including lack of food and suspicion of food poisoning^[7] at that center, as well as another privately-owned detention center in Texas.^[8] Examples of human rights violations like these, as well as the fact the families are broken apart, frequently not knowing their loved-ones whereabouts, have led to considerable public opinions from individuals residing in King County.

The 2006 New American Exit poll of King County voters suggests strong opinions about surveillance and detention of “certain racial and ethnic groups that might pose a threat.”

• 65% of voters disagreed that the government should have more authority to engage in these practices
• 45% disagreed strongly^[9]
• 87% of voters also believed in policy solutions other than criminalization and deportation for undocumented immigrants.

Economic Security

Immigrants are more vulnerable to poverty than the population as a whole. Low-wage work is a major factor: in 1999, according to census data,

• fulltime, year-round workers earning less than $20,000 a year represented 36.3 percent of immigrant workers, compared to 21.3 percent of U.S.-born workers.
• Immigrants who fell in this category included 57.1 percent of workers from Mexico and Central America, 22.4 percent of those from Asia, and 16.2 percent of those from Europe.
• At the other end of the spectrum, professional and managerial workers included nearly 39 percent of Asian immigrants, 31 percent of U.S.-born workers, and 7 percent of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.^[10]

The labor market and education are intrinsically tied to economic security. Pew Hispanic Center found that immigrants mostly do jobs Americans don't want, which typically includes temporary, seasonal, low-wage, migrant/agricultural, construction and service industry work. The 2004 American Community Survey collected information around income, education and employment for foreign-born naturalized U.S. Citizens and foreign-born immigrants entering the U.S. after 2000 (and therefore, not eligible to become naturalized citizens at that time due to the 5-year mandatory residence requirement). Considering that the King County immigrant population has a fairly similar composition to the National immigrant picture, this data can be generalized to our area (note: King County has a higher immigrant representation from Asian countries and a slightly smaller representation from Africa and the Americas).

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Occupation

In terms of occupation, the graph below reveals that foreign-born naturalized citizens are more represented in the management/professional and sales/office occupations compared to immigrants who entered the U.S. after 2000; while the latter group is more represented in service and construction/maintenance occupations.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 American Community Survey

Education

In terms of education, the only major differences between the two groups are for the less than high school graduate category, the some college or associate’s degree category and the graduate or professional degree educational attainment. Foreign-born individuals who entered the U.S. after 2000 experienced either less than a high school education or had higher rates of a graduate/professional degree compared to foreign-born naturalized citizens. It is likely that these individuals came to the U.S., having already obtained a graduate or professional degree. This could have been a contributing factor in facilitating the immigration process for those individuals.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 American Community Survey

Income

Income for these two groups reveals a striking earnings gap considering the fairly comparable rates of educational attainment and representation in various occupations. Foreign-born immigrants entering the U.S. after 2000 are overrepresented between $10,000 and $24,999 annual income; while being underrepresented in all categories above $35,000 annual income. Level of poverty paints a similar picture: For those determined to be living below the poverty level in 2004, 10.1% of Foreign-born naturalized citizens lived below 100% of the poverty line compared to 25.8% of Foreign-born immigrants entering the U.S. after 2000. At the other end, 80.9% of the Foreign-born naturalized citizens live at or above 150% of the poverty level; whereas just 58.8% of the Foreign-born non-naturalized immigrants are in this category.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 American Community Survey

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Housing

Also closely linked to poverty and economic security, is housing. It has been proven that owning a home and the benefits associated with this endeavor contribute to wealth gaps between those who have this ability and those who do not. In terms of the Foreign-born population, huge disparities exist when it comes to owning versus renting a home. In 2004, those who have become naturalized citizens have owner-occupied homes more than four times the rate of foreign-born immigrants who have entered the U.S. after 2000 (68.7% compared to 15%, respectively). Eighty-five percent of the latter group has renter-occupied housing compared to not even a third of foreign-born naturalized citizens.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 American Community Survey
 

Language

During the naturalization process, immigrants must prove their English language proficiency. However, language barriers are ubiquitous for foreign-born citizens and non-citizens alike. 2005 estimates claim there were 118 languages spoken in all of King County.^[11] In fact, King County was ranked as the county having the second highest linguistic representation in the United States.^[12] The most concentrated diversity of languages exists in South King County, with 116 languages; while East King County is home to 77 different languages.^[13]

A society heavily dependent on the English language, coupled with limitations in the ability for many to communicate in English, results in diminished opportunities to seek and receive services. More debilitating yet is when an entire household has limited English speaking capacity, a population the Census refers to as “linguistic isolation.” The 2005 American Community Survey estimated that 53,125 households in King County were “linguistically isolated.” This represents 26.3% of households where English is not the household language.

Specifically:

• Spanish speakers 26.8% were isolated
• 19.7% of Indo-European speakers were isolated
• The Asian non English speaking population showed 30.5% were isolated
• Other Languages reported 28.0% were linguistically isolated

Within the school districts, the OSPI Limited English Proficiency (LEP) program tracks participant numbers rather than all students with a primary language other than English. This may under-represent some much of the rich variety of languages in the region.^[14] What we do know, however, is in all of the King County School Districts (except Skykomish in East King County), there are almost 25,000 school age youth who have limited English speaking proficiency.^[15]

The number one non-English language spoken in King County schools is Spanish, representing 42.1% of limited English proficiency youth compared to 57.9% of all other languages combined.^[16]

Also noteworthy is that South King County has the most students with limited English proficiency (with over 14,000 students). Coupled with the highest diversity of languages, the South sub-region has needs vastly different than the other areas. This places demands on schools to ensure youth and parents are effectively receiving the information they need and progressing at the same pace as the other students.

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