Voice of Witness

California-based writer Sandra Hernandez worked as an interviewer for Underground America, and recently wrote this article for the Daily Journal on an appalling home raid conducted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agents:

“Sisters, One a Legal Citizen, Charged After Home Raid”

When federal immigration agents arrived at Edna Funes’ Van Nuys home this month, the 46-year-old Guatemalan national refused to open the door.
      Thirty minutes later, Funes sat handcuffed in a van. Her 5-year-old U.S.-born son stood alone in the apartment. And Funes’ sister, a naturalized citizen who witnessed the arrest, tearfully rode alongside her.
      Edna, and her sister Elva, now face federal criminal charges for allegedly assaulting, intimidating and interfering with four immigration agents during the July 10 home raid.
      Their arrests come as federal immigration officials step up enforcement of existing laws, increasingly turning to worksite and home raids.
      But …

San Francisco: 826 Valencia will be hosting a discussion of Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives on Tuesday, July 29 at 7pm in the Mission. Speakers will include Peter Orner, Dave Eggers, and Daniel Alarcón, along with other guest speakers. Registration for this event is now closed. Thank you.

On May 12, an immigration raid of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, led to the arrest of almost four hundred workers. Some nine hundred Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers took part in the raid.

Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas was on hand for the aftermath, serving as a Spanish-language interpreter for the court proceedings. He later wrote an essay describing the tragic mishandling of justice he witnessed. Click here to read that essay. Or here to read a New York Times op-ed on the subject.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, first prosecutor at the ICC, has requested an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This action comes after decades of atrocities in Darfur and South Sudan masterminded by Bashir. The New York Times reports the full story here.

From Birnbaum’s blog, The Morning News:

Novelist Orner (The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo) edits the third volume in McSweeney’s Voices of Witness series, an oral history collection of undocumented immigrants. No doubt they will never get the attention that cable TV blowhard and anti-immigration advocate Lou Dobbs garners, but this tome is a start.

John Freeman reviewed Underground America for the News and Observer. To read the full text of the review, click here.

CAIR Coalition Fundraiser and Book Party

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

At: Busboys and Poets

2021 14th St., (at V St), Washington, D.C.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition brings together community groups, pro bono attorneys, volunteers, and immigrants to work for fair and humane immigration policies. CAIR Coalition is the only organization in the Washington metropolitan area that provides direct legal services to immigrants being held in detention, including asylum seekers and long-term permanent residents.

Please join contributors Annie Holmes, Doug Ford and Elizabeth McGrail (CAIR Coalition’s former Legal Director) as they read and discuss excerpts from this powerful collection, published by McSweeneys in the Voice of Witness series.

There is no cover charge, but you will have the opportunity to make a donation to support the work of the CAIR Coalition and to buy copies of the book. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from …

The Washington City Paper finds Underground America “refreshing” and “memorable.” Click here to read the full review.

Starred Review

McSweeney’s Voices of Witness series continues (following Voices of the Storm and Surviving Justice) with this collection of oral histories from undocumented immigrants, aka “illegal aliens”: “We hear a lot about these people in the media… [how] they are responsible for crime… take our jobs… [and] refuse to speak English. But how often do we hear from them?” Culled from new interviews, the book’s 24 subjects come from around the world (Mexico, China, South Africa, Colombia, Cameroon and others), each offering a vivid, personal, often wrenching and occasionally enraging first-person look into the immigrant experience, what editor and novelist Orner calls a “state of permanent anxiety.” Roberto, for instance, details narrow brushes with government agents as well as the everyday dangers inherent to unregulated work: “Nectarines are covered in this dust that makes your skin itch… You wear gloves …

Many of the interviews conducted for Underground America did not make it into the book. Over the next few months, we’ll be editing and posting those interviews on our website. Click to read Alejandra’s story.