CHANNEL: Immigration

The new Indian Americans of Lexington (Mass.) group is a bustling social and civic network for the town's 700 Indians. One member recalls when he was the lone (and lonely) Indian in town in 1970.

Wilson Hernandez, VP of the Ecuadorian Civic Center of Greater Danbury, and Danbury (Conn.) Councilor Tom Saadi disgree on a proposed city partnership with ICE that would allow their police to act as immigration agents.

The details of what the partnership's Memorandum of Understanding would spell out have yet to be revealed.

Danbury police participation with ICE would do great harm, says Celia Bacelar, publisher of a Portuguese- and English-language newspaper in Conn. And can police really tell by looking if you're from Ireland, Brazil or the Bronx? (In Portuguese and English)

Ve Y Vota (It's Time, Go Vote), a new nationwide campaign, seeks to mobilize immigrants to vote. Juan Vega, of Centro Latino de Chelsea, talks about the campaign and the progress and challenges of Latino enfranchisement.

Politicians, policy makers and the public in general have misformed perceptions about immigrants, says Vega, a former city councilor in Chesea, Mass.

One way to change mispercpetions is by getting people to vote, as Ve Y Vota intends to do.

The mayor, police chief and Common Council of Danbury, Conn., are foolish to push an official police partnership with ICE – without knowing the specifics of the deal – says publisher Eliette Matos of El Canillita.

Students interns at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., have produced a film about the history of immigration to Lynn, Beverly, Peabody, Gloucester and other North Shore cities. The film will air Jan. 26, reports the Irish Emigrant.

Some 500 immigrants waited at Fuller Middle School in Framingham, Mass., on Jan. 24, hoping to be one of 165 winners for free English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, reports NEWz's Eduardo A. de Oliveira.

A business coalition was formed in Danbury, Conn., to protest the city's new partnership between its police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group placed a TV ad on CNN, reports the Tribuna newspaper, based in Danbury. (**EM PORTUGUES**)

Laws should be enforced for immigrants who commit crimes, but the new partnership between Danbury, Conn., police and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not the answer, says Celia Bacelar, publisher of the Tribuna. (**EM PORTUGUES**)

A new coalition of organizations in Mass. has united to counter the "toxic and very negative" environment towards immigrants, says Maria Elena Letona of Cambridge-based Centro Presente, a member of the new group.