Voice of Witness

By Sarah Morrison

There was widespread celebration earlier in the year when Obama’s administration announced an ambitious plan to transform the nature of national immigrant detention centers. But while there has been some movement towards law reform, immigrant and civil rights groups are concerned that the most vulnerable immigrant populations remain at risk.

John Morton, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced in August that the government would transform the way the nation detains immigrant violators, creating what he called a “truly civil detention system.” But while there have been small inroads made by the Administration – including the lifting of the twenty-two year long ban on travel to the U.S. by people with HIV – immigrants detained in the country with the virus are still not offered the care they desperately need.

The HIV travel ban was enacted in

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En las Sombras de Estado Unidos, the newly released Spanish edition of Underground America, is featured in   El Sol newspaper this week. Join us at the launch this Thursday 19 Nov at San Francisco Main Library, 6-7:30pm.

En las Sombras de Estados Unidos: Narraciones de Inmigrantes de Indocumentados

Locations: Main Library Latino/Hispanic B

Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)

Event Time: Thursday 19 Nov 2009, 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m

The San Francisco Public Library and Voice of Witness are proud to present this event in honor of En las Sombras de Estados Unidos: Narraciones de Inmigrantes Indocumentados. Edited by Peter Orner and Sandra Hernández, En las Sombras de Estados Unidos is the Spanish edition of the critically acclaimed Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, a powerful collection of oral histories from men and women struggling to carve a life in the United States. The book has been described as “no less than revelatory” (Publishers Weekly) and “essential” (Daniel Alarcón, author and editor of Etiqueta Negra).

Featured speakers: …