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NAME:
Claudia Smith
WHAT SHE DOES:
San Diego-based regional counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a migrant rights group assisting documented and undocumented workers
BIGGEST TURNAROUND:
Convinced the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to reduce detention time for the undocumented and try to keep deported families together
FAVORITE TARGET:
The INS; employers who flout labor laws

“Nobody should be exploited.” That’s the bottom line for Claudia Smith, 46, whose job entails moving undocumented farmworkers through the courts, tracking down skinflint employers, and helping workers get medical help and such basic services as water and a bed to sleep on.

Currently, Smith monitors Operation Gatekeeper, the federal program that has beefed up border patrols using heat sensors and high metal fences.

“They’ve given all sorts of thought to high technology, but not to the people,” says Smith, who immigrated from Guatemala 30 years ago. Among the problems she’s found: immigrants detained for days with no water or food; rooms so overcrowded people stand for hours; routine beatings; family members separated and deported at different border crossings.

Last fall, Smith’s report on Gatekeeper’s abuses spurred the INS to make changes. But Smith wants more: She wants nutritional meals for the detainees, cells cleaned on a regular basis, and food stops for deportees traveling long distances. If the INS does not comply, she may file a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States.

Smith maintains that Gatekeeper, California’s Proposition 187, and the like won’t deter immigrants from coming across the border. “The magnet is not public services,” she says.

“People come for jobs. The only nondiscriminatory option is to enforce labor laws–[penalizing] employers who do illegal deductions, flout health and safety standards.” The perception that the undocumented strain the economy, she thinks, masks the real issues. “In terms of taxes immigrants pay through rent, and what they get in services, it’s close to a wash.”

And, she contends, “Anglos are traumatized by the browning of California. Anti-immigrant sentiment doesn’t stop with the undocumented.” Smith wants to make sure such sentiments have nowhere to thrive.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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