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Weekly Immigration Wire: The White House vs. Reality

The Media Consortium — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:06:03 GMT

by Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

The immigration discussion is sometimes reduced to symbols or a war of "sides," be it on blogs, comment threads, or conference calls between legislators, media outlets, and activists. But it's important to remember what this fight is about: People. In last week's Wire, we covered the White House's June 25th meeting with lawmakers, during which an intention to address immigration reform was formally announced. The meeting yielded much celebration and discussion by advocacy groups and activists alike, but waiting for reform does not change the situation on the ground. This week, we look at everyday situations-from students who are deported upon graduation to the growing number of hate crimes-that make a clear argument for reform now, not later.
RaceWire's Julianne Hing reports on the "good immigrant/bad immigrant" fallacy inherent in even the DREAM Act's terms:

When the DREAM Act is passed, heck, when immigration reform gets passed, people in this country will feel so magnanimous. But families will still get torn apart because we insist on dividing immigrants into two camps: the good and deserving, and the bad and unworthy.

Hing writes this in reference to the case of Walter Lara, a child of immigrants, who wasn't aware of his undocumented status until attending college. He was nearly deported this July, but managed to stay thanks to a "a frenzied couple months of multi-pronged organizing" and petitioning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Hing calls Lara's halted deportation a "pyrrhic victory" for the movement.

The phrase "comprehensive reform" is used by media, activists. and politicians alike, but what does it actually mean? Will comprehensive reform include aid to those fleeing military corruption in Mexico? Or will our immigration policies keep them at bay with a wall or more border troops? In Mother Jones, Richard Bowden writes of reporter Emilio Guti?rrez Soto's flight from the Mexican Army and appeal for asylum in the U.S., even though "no Mexican reporter has ever been given political asylum." The U.S. supports Mexican President Felipe Calder?n's harsh Drug War policies, and yet our policies have forced this migrant and many others North, where they often end up in detention. With truly "comprehensive" reform, we could resolve this glaring hypocrisy.

In the video below, Guti?rrez Soto speaks about his belief in the U.S. justice system, and his hopes for the future.

Writing for RaceWire, Michelle Chen reports on Utah's newly introduced law that requires home childcare providers to show proof of immigration status in addition to normally-required background and safety checks. There is no argument that childcare standards are necessary. But laws like this don't take the realities on the ground into account. "Utah's crackdown on undocumented immigrants threatens to throw off a critical balance between quality and accessibility," writes Chen. The move will cause many to lose their jobs, "while pushing families to seek out less-regulated care."

In the absence of a definitive immigration policy, restrictionists use convoluted rhetoric to muddy facts. Walter Ewing, posting at Alternet, warns of the "Green Xenophobia" employed by hate groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Ewing handily debunks one of FAIR's "special reports" that ties greenhouse gases to immigrants. Simply put, the greenhouse gases emitted by the U.S. are "a function not of population size, but of the degree to which we as a society rely upon fossil fuels, power plants, industrial processes, and automobiles." Ewing also reminds us that John Tanton, an "uber nativist" is responsible for creating FAIR, and several other anti-immigrant groups (like NumbersUSA, and CIS.)

Finally, reporting for the Progressive, Yolanda Ch?vez Leyva writes a stirring appeal to our better natures as individuals, and collectively as a nation in "Recent Attacks on Immigrants Tell Us Who We Are." She asks, "What kind of nation are we that allows our youth to stalk and kill others for being 'different'?" and then draws a line. "It's time that we take the anti-immigrant rhetoric and its fear-mongering leaders for what they are - not protectors of this nation but destroyers." It's hard to argue with that.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration. Visit Immigration.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on immigration, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and health issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net and Healthcare.NewsLadder.net. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.

Holder Pushes Hate Crime Bill in Wake of Recent Wave of Hate

kesquivel@nclr.org — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:12:50 GMT

In the wake the recent shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and continued attacks against immigrants, Attorney General Eric Holder has asked Congress for a tougher hate crimes bill.

"If there was ever a doubt about the need for this legislation, I think that has been pretty much done away with by the events that we've seen in our nation here in Washington, DC... I think the time is right, the time is now for the passage of this legislation," he said.

We couldn't agree more. The FBI reports that hate crimes against Latinos have risen 40% over the past four years. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the number of hate groups targeting Latinos and immigrants has increased by 54% since 2000.

These are not just statistics. People are being beaten to death simply because they are Latino. Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old immigrant, was beaten to death in July of last year by a group of teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. One witness said that they told Ramirez's friends to get out of Shenandoah, "or you're gonna to be laying effin next to him."

On November 8, 2008, in Suffolk County, New York, 37-year-old Marcelo Lucero was going to visit a friend to watch a movie when he was attacked and murdered by seven teenagers. Originally from Ecuador, he had lived in this country for 16 years. According to Suffolk County police, the defendants wanted to "beat up some Mexicans."

In December, two Ecuadorean brothers were assaulted by three men yelling anti-Latino slurs in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. One of the brothers, a business man who had lived in the U.S. for ten years, died as a result of his injuries. The deceased, Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay, was the co-owner of a real estate agency in Bushwick and a native of Ecuador who had legally immigrated to the U.S.

Hate has always been present. But the recent spike in violence against immigrants is being fanned by the flames of the anger and hateful rhetoric being voiced in the debate over immigration. Words that used to be considered extreme have become mainstream and are parroted nightly by talk show hosts and elected officials alike.

Two weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee held "The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009" hearing. Hate crime legislation has been working its way through Congress for more than a decade. Given the hate-filled events of the last few months we can't afford to wait any longer.

American Border Patrol's Jaramillo: Gheen of ALIPAC a "Psychotic"

nezua — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:03:27 GMT

THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT/Anti-Mexican/Anti-Latin@/Anti-Reason crowd was kind of holding down the Sane and Well-Meaning fa?ade more or less okay...until one of their own pushed it a little too far and went on a little murder spree against a Mexican American family. Now? The fa?ade falls a bit more. Now the naked, grimy cheekbones jut out.

Ted Hesson, the online editor of Long Island Wins sent me this gem. He further notes via email that he has "verified by phone that the email was sent by Melissa Jaramillo." Melissa Jaramillo is Glenn Spencer's secretary. Glenn Spencer is the leader of American Border Patrol, and the sage who bestows us with ideas such as ""Mexican culture is based on deceit," and "Chicanos and Mexicanos lie as a means of survival."

Below is the letter sent from American Border Patrol's Melissa Jaramillo to ALIPAC founder William Gheen:

First - this email is from me and me alone. I am using my personal email
address to send it as I am NOT writing on behalf of any organization. No one
asked me to write this email. We are in America and we still have Freedom of
Speech. Know that Freedom of Speech does not include libel and slander.

Second - you using the murder of that poor girl to attack others and solicit
funds shows me how disgusting your character is. You didn't give two-shits
about that girl or that incident until Shawna was arrested. Instead of
attacking and blaming everyone, send that girls family some money and apologize
for not trying to help psycho girl get better. Instead, you created a movement
for everyone to show hatred towards her. What did you expect would happen after
you were done "ruining her" and made sure that not just the opposition hated her
but those within the movement hated her as well. You really gave her nothing
left to live for. While Shawna had a thug with a gun to kill people, you are no
different, you just use a different media. Yes - you are no better than she!

Strong, strong stuff.

Read the rest of the letter here.

A Look Inside the Minuteman Project: "It's Just Like Hunting"

kesquivel@nclr.org — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:01:23 GMT

This week, The New York Times (NYT) delved into the Minutemen Project and Shawna Forde, former head of the Minutemen American Defense. Forde was recently arrested for the murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul. The murder happened during an inconceivable attempt to steal money for the development of an underground militia targeting undocumented immigrants.

NYT quoted former Minutemen American Defense member Merrill Metzger saying, "I had to take an oath, and part of the oath was that I couldn't eat Mexican food. That's when red flags went up all over for me. That seemed like prejudice."

Another former member, Chuck Stonex, said Forde had talked about buying a ranch near Arivaca, AZ and building a compound. According to NYT, Stonex said that he took an excursion in October into the desert with Forde, where, wearing camouflage and carrying handguns and rifles, they searched for illegal immigrants.
"It's just like hunting," Stonex said, describing the tracking skills the group used. "If you're going out hunting deer, you want to scout around and get an idea what their pattern is, what trails they use."

Read the full article.

Weekly Immigration Wire: White House Meeting a First Step to Reform

The Media Consortium — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:46:30 GMT

by Nezua, TMC MediaWire Blogger

After postponing twice, President Obama finally met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on June 25 to discuss moving immigration reform legislation forward. The meeting was applauded by activists and advocates for immigration reform, as the issue seemed to have stalled, and the acrimonious tone of the debate has proven deadly.
All parties emerged from the meeting with positive feelings about the prospect for progress, as I heard on last Friday's White House debriefing conference call. A confluence of positive factors are contributing to the momentum: Major labor leaders are united for reform, Democrats are leading much of Washington, and voters in the U.S. clearly want to see reform passed. President Obama made his intention to pass reform very clear and the White House predicts the process will begin late this year or early 2010.

New America Media calls the meeting a hopeful beginning, but makes it clear that nothing is guaranteed this year-despite the pressing need. And we can't wait too long for reform to begin. 2010 is the beginning of the 2012 Presidential election cycle and the issue could be "too easily politicized" at that time.

Wiretap Mag's M. Junaid Levesque-Alam writes that, while Obama complimented Senator John McCain for taking risks, he seemed averse to boldly stating what he hoped to see or would stand behind; that "nothing [Obama] said indicated significant political movement" on the issue. But, Levesque-Alam hypothesizes that Obama's caution is related to tension caused by "core contradictions not simply between but within the political parties." The immigration issue is contentious, even among members of the same party.

GritTV and The Nation teamed up to present a panel asking Is Immigration Reform Dead or Alive? (video). The panelists discuss a potential future in which immigration reform does not pass. Their predictions make a grim scene, centered around the horrors of a growing detention industry. Children are incarcerated in these facilities. Over 90 people have died in detention and they are damaging families. Guest Ravi Ragbir, now a member of Families for Freedom, spent two years in a detention center. Ragbir's young daughter was so disturbed by the sight of her father in shackles that Ragbir requested she no longer visit while he was detained.

A Truthdig article titled America's ICE Backwards Approach to Immigration details the broken legal system that further clouds the immigration process. Over 200,000 immigration cases are backlogged and the number of government attorneys who argue for deportation has risen by 35%, stressing the court system accordingly. Add a declining number of judges and a sharp increase in the number of border guards and the result is a setting where "the equivalent of death penalty cases" are heard "in a traffic court setting," according to Judge Dana Leigh Marks, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

New America Media also explores the results of a study that finds a low rate of crimes are committed by the undocumented, which is a stark contrast to the accusations of right-wing pundits. The undocumented population in Utah grew from 70,000 to 110,000 in the last four years, according to a new study released by the Sutherland Instituate, but the number of incarcerated undocumented increased by only 28. That's 28 people, not percent. In fact, the crime rate for undocumented immigrants in Utah is only 3.9% and dropping.

Finally, RaceWire's Michelle Chen reports on the impact of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative on Mexican Americans who want to deliver children using a midwife. The Initiative, which went into effect yesterday, "requires Americans passing across the Canadian and Mexican borders to have a valid U.S. passport or passport card." Previously, only a valid driver's license was required. This is yet another policy that refuses to recognize the long pattern of movement over the border area, and is culturally antagonistic to Mexican Americans.

Law indicates humankind's attempt to be just; it is an extension of a civilization's morality. Immigration reform must come soon; it is a moral duty. It must pass not just for the benefit of the undocumented community, but so we can live up to our national ideals, and also, to decisively stave off a destructive energy made possible by the lack of humane law.

Time for Immigration Reform Is Now [NAM]

nezua — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:34:05 GMT

I WAS ON a White House debriefing conference call on Friday (on immigration reform) and actually did much tweeting on it. (Talk about sentences you never thought you'd write....). I'll post some of those as well as talk about my own thoughts, hopes, and fears on the matter tomorrow (over here).

For now I'll crosspost the New America Media (NAM) op ed I was sent by NAM and asked to publish. And I'll also say that I'm definitely more in line with NAM's op ed than I am with the strategerizing from some of these cats that were on the phone call or even with Chuck Schumer and his whole Sound Meaner When Talking About Immigrants line. (Not that he doesn't deserve support for what he's doing to advance this issue in the first place (Yay Chuck!) but I'm really hoping he's not doing it for strokery but because he knows he is representing the ideals of the US, the wishes of his constituents, and more importantly, doing what is humane and right among humans.)
As a final note, I'll add that the White House, the advocacy orgs, Chuck Schumer, and reportedly, President Obama personally are all quite confident they will act upon legislation late this year or next year. (That phrase about "late this year or next) is used a few times, so I tend to think the WH plans on actually moving the legislation next year, but still-). Also on board are the major union leaders like AFL-CIO. It's a pretty rare atmosphere, it seems. So that is very exciting. Again, there's more to say on all of this, but I don't want to get out in front of this op ed too much more. It's a good op ed and isn't afraid or too shy to stand up for the whole moral enchilada. So that's a refreshing and welcome change.

Time for Immigration Reform Is Now
The White House and members of Congress must move quickly on enacting a just and humane immigration reform package that will reunite families, reinvigorate the economy, and remove the term "illegal or undocumented immigrants" from the dialogue in this country. Ethnic media, which reaches over 60 million adults in the United States, calls on Congress to move decisively on immigration reform because there are few issues as important to the nation's well-being as an overhaul of the inefficient, inhumane and economically debilitating immigration system. More importantly, we are also urging our readers and viewers to contact their Senators and Congressmen and let them know that immigration reform must be a national priority.
The immigration system is broken not just for 12 million undocumented immigrants, but also for specialized workers blocked from joining the American economy because of narrow quotas, and mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens who must wait for years before being reunited with their families.
Our nation needs comprehensive immigration policies that will replace a broken system of raids and roundups with one that protects all workers from exploitation, improves America's security and builds strong communities. It's time to end the division between workers, which has allowed big business to exploit both sides. Clearly, working-class citizens and immigrant workers have much in common - dreams of better homes, education for their families and quality healthcare. There is more that brings us together, than separates us. United we can be a strong force for change, changes that that bring more workforce safety and humane conditions.
Immigration is often portrayed as an explosive, divisive issue. In reality it's not. Since the repeal of the national origins quota system in 1965, which discriminated against certain immigrants, a consensus has been building towards an immigration system that respects the country's core values. These include economic opportunity, equality under the law regardless of ethnic background, and an embrace of the world's most innovative, energetic and ambitious workers. Now, with the country facing serious competition from workers abroad, it's more important than ever to create a world-class immigration system. It's for the good for families, good for communities and good for America.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican

Torture: "These Weren't the Kind of Men You Send to Jail"

Nightprowlkitty — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:37:43 GMT

(Crossposted from Daily Kos)

Today is Torture Accountabilty Day. There will be events across the country, American citizens making the case that those who committed the moral crime against humanity of torture be held accountable for their actions.

Holding those in the highest positions of power to the law, what a notion. We know the politics that prevents this, the powers who want these crimes once again swept under the rug.

We heard on Monday from the Supreme Court that Valerie Plame's suit against Cheney, et al., will not be allowed to go forward. Scooter Libby was found guilty of obstruction of justice. Mister Bush commuted his sentence. And surprise, surprise, there now is no case, even as we all know what happened. There is no accountability.
From Kai over at Zuky:

On this day in 1982, Chinese American immigrant Vincent Chin was beaten to death with a baseball bat, at his own bachelor party, by racist white auto workers in Detroit who blamed Japan for layoffs in the US auto industry. The murderers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, were convicted of manslaughter. They served no jail time, were given three years probation, fined $3,000 and ordered to pay $780 in court costs. Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman said, "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail."
On July 14, 2008, Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez was beaten to death by racist white teens shouting anti-Mexican epithets, in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. The murderers, Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak, were convicted of simple assault. Two days ago, they were respectively sentenced to 6 and 7 months in county jail. Piekarsky's lawyer Frederick Fanelli said, "You would be proud to have any of these kids in your classroom, and any of them as your children."

And what does all this have to do with holding those in power accountable for torture? What are these connections I am making?

I could cite so many examples of the two-tiered supposed "justice" we see in America. I could write about Postville, Iowa, where justice was utterly subverted because those who were harmed had no power and did not have white skin. I could write about our prison system, and how the disproportionate number of people of color incarcerated begins before they even finish school.

And I could write about the people of color who have been tortured in the name of a War on Terror and how the architects of that torture are walking free today, living well, still given crediblity in our media and our national discourse.

"These weren't the kind of men you send to jail." Socially desirable white boys or highly powerful and mostly white men. But these are the kind of people, the powerless, the targets of our fears, who because we fear them, we can do anything we wish to them with no consequences. No consequences.

From The Editors here at The Sanctuary, "The Luis Ramirez Murder: A Logical Step in the Process of Establishing a Subhuman Class" (emphasis mine):

The process of defining a subhuman class and institutionalizing discrimination and violence against that group is not new. How quickly and conveniently some of us allow our collective memory to cover its own tracks. Parasite, diseased, leeching, dangerous, over-breeding, vermin. These terms and this imagery have been deployed for ages, on various groups of people, on various pieces of land, in the service of various endeavors; and always to bring about the same ends. To demonize and dehumanize a group of people so that other people come to understand that the social compact with the demonized group is broken; that discrimination and violence against the dehumanized class now carries no moral consequence. That is the meaning of this latest ruling by an all-white jury in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Racial murder of a Mexican carries the same consequence as walking up to a white person and punching them in the belly: simple assault.
The notion of a categorically subhuman class of persons who exists below the rules and obligations the rest of humanity warrants is as simple as it is ugly. Ugly like the prison at Guant?namo, where unfortunate bodies from the Middle East are deprived of anything resembling the law, ideals, or morality most Americans feel they deserve by mere existence. Ugly like Abu Ghraib. Ugly like the prisons in Baghdad and Bagram, where atrocities appear to be the norm. Even as our government promised that it was "fighting Them There" in order to prevent "Them" from coming "Here", an ideology of dehumanizing terror was propagating and swelling in our own ranks and within our own borders; an ideology which devalues "Hajis" in the same way that it foists hatred upon Mexicans and all others who sound or appear somehow Latin American.

Can we see the connections here? Can we see how whether it be torturing at Gitmo and Bagram, hate crime murders and disproportionate and unfair imprisonment here in the USA, we are slowly losing our humanity when we don't hold the criminals of hatred accountable for their actions? How many are now above the law and how many are victims of the law, and what does it take before the law itself becomes irrevocably destroyed?

We cheer the young men and women in Iran as our own country has tortured their neighbors in Iraq and Afghanistan and no one has been held to account. No one, that is, other than a few powerless lower level soldiers who have been blamed for the orders of their superiors.

And those who have committed this crime walk free and prosper and remain influential in our culture.

George W. Bush. Richard Cheney. Jay Bybee. Condoleeza Rice. Scooter Libby. Karl Rove. Douglas Feith. Donald Rumsfeld. David Addington. Alberto Gonzalez. William Haynes. John Yoo. Stephen Bradbury. A partial list. They belong in jail.

And how would this change our system of justice, how would this help those folks now in prison or who are victims of hate crimes?

I believe it would change our system of justice. I believe it would let all the citizens of this country know that no matter how powerful or well connected, dehumanizing another human being whether by torture, bad judicial or law enforcement decisions made for expediency or fueled by cultural prejudice, will be discovered, and those who now feel above the law in making those decisions and committing those acts will be held accountable. And it would let those people who have suffered for so long under this unequal system of justice know that we are not a nation who is indifferent to their humanity, that we are all equal under the law.

What You Hath Wrought and With Vitriol Sought

nezua — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:49:22 GMT

SHOULD I BOTHER LINKING to any of the posts where we talk about how the energy of stalled immigration combined with lunatics like Michael Savage combined with the hateful energy of groups like the Minutemen combined with the Democrats' obsessions with appearing vicious in order to get love from GOP have all resulted in a toxic brew of anti-Latin@ hate in this nation with very drastic consequences? I mean why? You, being a regular reader, already know all about it and read it almost every day. Then again, maybe someone new needs to find out about all this. I don't know.

Something needs to change, when US citizens already suffering from a terrible loss are attacked by other citizens en masse, and for what? For having Spanish names! Wow. I feel like the past has reared up, the days of Civil Rights era struggle, the days of anti-Greaser hate, the days of Los Vatos Locos and the dangerous fabled Pachuco. We are still fighting. La Lucha Sigue.

WASHINGTON - The family of a woman killed Monday is dealing with more than just grief in the aftermath of Metro's deadliest accident in history.
The family of Ana Fernandez says they have been getting hate-filled telephone messages about whether or not Fernandez, a mother of six, was a legal immigrant.
Are there, truly, such people out there? They read a Hispanic last name, read that she had immigrated years ago from El Salvador, read all of this in an article about her death in a public transportation crash, and call her sister and six children to badger them with cable news-esque spittle about their deceased family member's immigration status?
-Metro Victim's Family Getting Hate Calls

Today, at least, I do not struggle to contain the barely containable rage I once did to hear things like this, to watch my own nation turn on my own people, be it in the form of the law, the mob, or supposed allies. These days, I harbor more of a deepening anxiety and a quiet wariness. There is conviction and hope. Oh, and there is anger too. Pero I am being careful about how much I add to the mix, and when. Not only do we out here need to stay clear and ready, but there are enough dangerous elements bubbling all around for my liking as it is.

I am, however, prouder than ever of my heritage, my name, my family. You will not beat that out of me or terrorize that away from my community. Nor will the Democrats be able to walk back from what they are helping to bring about. Even if Democrats take to swinging sticks at errant Latinos on the street, they won't please either the GOP or the hate groups like FAIR.

President Obama and others: you can talk all you want. Know, meanwhile, that only action will push back on this terrible trend of hate and violence unleashed in our nation. Dally at risk.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican

Family of Latina Killed in Train Crash is Victimized by Hate Calls

kesquivel@nclr.org — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:37:39 GMT

In an astonishing display of insensitivity, a number of callers paid their respects to the family of a victim in Monday's tragic WMATA train collision, not with condolences, but with hate. Callers harassed the family of the late Ana Fernandez, mother of six, seizing onto her Hispanic surname and reports that she had emigrated from El Salvador as an excuse to intimidate her children and relatives.

According to wtop.com, the family of Fernandez received several threatening phone calls questioning her legal status and that of her children. Ana's sister has said that Ana was here legally and that all of her children were born in the U.S.

Our condolences go out to the family, and our outrage goes to those who made these calls.

D.C. Metro Crashes Hate Into A Family

Manuel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:26:12 GMT

The recent collision of two metro cars in Washington, D.C. was center-stage in the news recently. There were several fatalities, many more casualties, and the investigation is ongoing as to the cause of the wreck.

That wasn't the only thing the train collided into, however; add the familia Fernandez to the mix. The hate has flowed heavily in their direction after the matriarch of their family died in the accident:

HYATTSVILLE, Md. - As people's hearts continue to go out to the family of victims killed in Monday's tragic Metro crash, some grieving family members say they're being harassed.
Forty-year-old Ana Fernandez, an immigrant from El Salvador, was on her way to her cleaning job when she was killed in Monday's Metro collision. On Wednesday, her family and friends gathered outside their home where her daughter said they need help but are upset with prank phone calls they have received.
"And I'm serious if you're going to call and leave messages like that, don't call at all," Evelyn Fernandez, the victim's daughter
WJLA.com

The immigration system is one thing that needs to be overhauled, the other is the country's coraz?n. There's too much hate, and too much ignoring of it by our political leaders.

Weekly Immigration Wire: Reform Stagnates, Polarization Grows

The Media Consortium — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:59:12 GMT

by Nezua, TMC Mediawire Blogger

President Obama has often stated that immigration reform cannot be approached in a piecemeal fashion, and that his administration would tackle the issue in 2009. This week, Obama will be meeting with members of Congress to kick off a bi-partisan approach to reform. These meetings don't guarantee any legislative action will take place this year, but are at least an encouraging sign. In the meantime, the deportation industry shows no sign of slowing, hate crimes are rising and hate groups are being main streamed. As a result, the polarization between reform advocates and foes is getting worse.

New America Media's Jun Wang writes about the disapointing consensus reached by a panel of immigration activists last Thursday at California State University in Los Angeles. A lack of movement around immigration reform won't help curb rising rates of hate crimes against Latino/as, and compounds other instances of "othering" and racism. According to one panelist: "Employers in conservative cities" are learning that "they are better off not hiring people who are 'foreign looking or having foreign sound names.'”

Not content with simply raiding homes, workplaces, or storming the local 7-11, Immigrations Customs and Enforcement (ICE) is escalating its enforcement tactics. Also in New America Media, Hiram Soto reports on the joint operation between the Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in deporting three high-school age girls, one as young as 16, who were stopped by ICE on their way to school. Immigration attorney Lilia Velasquez, who is representing the minors, said she "hasn’t seen anything like this in her 25-year career," because the children are being let back into the U.S. to fight their deportation.

The plight of these girls is proof that the destructive deportation fetish sweeping the Department of Homeland Security is producing increasingly ridiculous results.

Pundits like Michael Savage are also feeding the violent and anti-immigrant, anti-Latino/a energy in the U.S. Samhita Mukhopadhyay at Feministing writes that these broadcasts are are created "for the purpose of inciting violence against immigrants and to fuel racial tension." Exposing Savage's "paranoid" and fearful obfuscation of reality, Mukhopadhyay clears up the anti-immigrant propaganda by pointing out that despite Savage's tortured logic, the truth is that Immigrants are the "working base" of California, and not the ones creating a drain upon it. California's immigrants pay roughly $40 billion in taxes every year.

One of the loudest politicians feeding anti-immigrant hostility is Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman from Colorado. The Colorado Independent has linked Tancredo to the Minuteman American Defense (MAD) and its former Executive Director Shawna Forde, accused of murdering Raul and Brisenia Flores, via a letter expressing the politician's solidarity and gratitude to the organization for organizing a rally. It turns out that not only was this beaming "boilerplate rejection letter" (as campaign chair Bay Buchanan hopes to position it) sent to Forde, but a story published by the Everett Herald in 2007 places official Tancredo campaign staff at the event. The connections don't end there and only grow more unsettling.

Those fighting for justice and on the side of human rights are hardly laying low in this time of legislative uncertainty. In a guest column for RaceWire, undocumented immigrant Sonia Guinansaca writes about how over 500 students from all over the U.S. attended a "Mock Graduation ceremony" on Capitol Hill last Tuesday. The ceremony was intended to both draw attention and show support for the DREAM Act. Guinansaca reminds us of our country's most inspiring ideals: To be a nation where "nothin' is impossible."

RaceWire also brings us more news of youth behind change in Immigrants’ Kids File Lawsuit Against US, and Other News. In this political lull, "the kids of hundreds of deported parents are filing a lawsuit against the government claiming their constitutional right to stay in the U.S. is violated by the deportation of their parents."

*Editor's note: The original version of this post implied that all movement towards immigration reform had halted. We've updated this blog to reflect recent developments. Stay tuned to next week's Wire for in-depth analysis of the push for effective immigration reform.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration.

Visit Immigration.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on immigration, or follow us on Twitter.

And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and health issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net and Healthcare.NewsLadder.net.

This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.

Keep the Nomination Process Civil, Respectful and Constructive

kesquivel@nclr.org — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:12:49 GMT

Supreme Court nominations get political, even with nominees as qualified as Judge Sonia Sotomayor. However, that does not mean that politicians get a free pass to attack nominees solely on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender. Such outbursts are reprehensible not only to Hispanics and communities of color, but to all Americans. More than 4,000 people have stood up to the nonsense and signed NCLR's (National Council of La Raza) petition asking the Republican leadership to restore the debate on Judge Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination to a more civil level of discourse.

http://capwiz.com/stopthehate/...

NCLR will be presenting the petition to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Please join us in asking these Republican leaders to denounce this smear campaign and keep the nomination process civil, respectful and constructive. If you haven't already done so, please sign NCLR's petition today. If you have, forward it on to your family and friends. Let's make sure that this petition has 5,000 supporters by the time it lands on Michael Steele's desk.

http://capwiz.com/stopthehate/...

Your Papers, Se?orita?

nezua — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:55:19 GMT

IS ICE ASHAMED of its tactics? No. A Department like ICE has no conscience, of course. Just directives (like "make 400,000 arrests this year") and a great concern for its public image. After all, ICE needs to keep functioning to funnel cash to the Corrections Corporation of America. That is why, obviously, they are so tight lipped, issuing only steel-plated machine-stamped public statements stinking of the PR room or flat, faceless (and sometimes false) phrases like "We did everything by the book."

Is it "by the book," I wonder, to hang out on train platforms or stations and interrogate brown high school girls? Ask for their papers and when they cannot produce any, to solicit confessions about legal status, have them sign a paper "agreeing to voluntarily return to Mexico without seeing an immigration judge" and then ship across the border?

Is that really "the book" the Obama/Napolitano administration is using?
SAN DIEGO-Three high school students who were arrested last month on their way to school and sent to Mexico by Border Patrol agents have been allowed to return to the United States. The teenagers, ranging from 15 to 17 years old, returned Wednesday to San Diego after the federal government allowed them to stay with their parents while they fight their cases in immigration court. ...

The students' arrests on May 20 at a trolley station in Old Town San Diego provoked outrage among immigrant rights advocates who questioned whether border agents should be arresting children.
Lilia Velasquez, an immigration attorney representing the students, said authorities didn't follow required procedures, and failed to give the students a special form that outlines their right to speak with an adult.
"They treated this as any other raid," Velasquez said. "I think it is implicit of the mere fact they agreed to this rare type of procedure of paroling the students back into the U.S. that they did something wrong. And they want to do damage control."
-3 teens let back in US after sent to Mexico

If DHS/ICE has to resort to loitering in train stations and bullying high school girls into Mexico, they have no game plan whatsoever. And I'm not surprised they are trying to hide acts like this. How pathetic. But you know. For ICE, it's just another day of terrorizing the Latin@ community.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican

Immigrant Narratives : Choose Your Mother or Your Child

MamitaMala — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:55:09 GMT

Crossposted from VivirLatino

Quick. Choose. The house is burning and you have to choose. Your mother or your child? Who do you save?

The current framing of the immigration reform movement and the immigrants it claims to represents takes place against a backdrop of human lives. And in our house, the United States of America, is aflame. The framing of the current immigration reform movement however, the good vs. bad immigrant narrative that we have written about and discussed extensively, forces advocates and the media into a corner. Choose. The idea is that we can't have it all when it comes to immigration reform. That we need to make compromises, find workable solutions to borrow an often heard phrase from the Reform Immigration for America Summit. That means choosing between your mother or your child.
Your Mother:

She didn't make it like Sonia Sotomayor. Didn't graduate from college and in fact can't even speak English. This makes her dangerous, marked and an unfit mother.

Request for Action from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA):
Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to her baby girl in November of 2008 at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS. She speaks very little Spanish and no English, as her native language is Chatino, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, Mexico that is spoken by some 50,000 people.
The hospital provided her with an "interpreter" who is from Puerto Rico and does not speak Chatino, the language of the mother. Because of the language barrier and the misunderstanding by the hospital's interpreter who only spoke Spanish and English, a social worker was called in.
The hospital's social worker reported "evidence" of abuse and neglect based on the following:
* The "baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;"
* The "mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula." (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* "She does not speak English which puts baby in danger."
Ms. Baltazar Cruz's baby was snatched from her after birth at the hospital and given to an affluent attorney couple from the posh Ocean Springs who cannot have children.
The authorities made no effort to locate an interpreter in her native tongue. MIRA located an interpreter who is fluent in Chatino in Los Angeles CA and has interviewed the mother extensively with the interpreters help. The mother has been accused of being poor and not being able to provide for this child. No one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.
Meanwhile, there is word in the Gulf Coast community that the "parents to be," have already had a baby shower celebrating the "blessed arrival" of this STOLEN child!
PLEASE MAKE CALLS & WRITE LETTERS DEMANDING THE SAFE RETURN OF BABY & REUNITE WITH HER MOTHER
If you believe this is unjust and outrageous and goes against all moral and religious beliefs and values, please call or write to the presiding Judge and the MS Department of Human Services to STOP this ILLEGAL ADOPTION! Stealing US born babies from immigrant parents is a growing epidemic in the United States. Many Latino parents have lost their children this way!
Honorable Judge Sharon Sigalas
Youth Justice Court of Jackson County
4903 Telephone Rd.
Pascagoula, MS 39567
(228)762-7370
Children's Justice Act Program
MS Dept. of Human Services
750 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39202
Call (601)359-4499 and ask for Barbara Proctor
For more information please call MIRA at: (601) 968-5182
MIRA Organizing Coordinator
Victoria Cintra at (228) 234-1697 or Organizer Socorro Leos at(228) 731-0831

Your Son: It could even be your daughter. I thought about inserting Brisenia Flores here or the 9 year old nena who was left parentless after an immigration raid in Sheriff Joe country. But even those little girls are tainted in the eyes of many. They didn't do enough to merit being fought for. Forget that they are small children. We can choose our son. Our son who assimilated so well and doesn't know/remember the country where he and his parents came from. Our son who was educated and can speak the language and won't be a burden on the system.

We the undersigned are coalescing to support our friend, Walter Lara. Walter came to the United States from Argentina when he was just 3 years old, and almost 20 years later, he is being deported for reasons we are still trying to understand. On February 17, 2009, Walter was with his boss (a DirectTV contractor) about to get on a ferry that would take him to Fisher Island so they could work on some installations. In ten minutes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities surrounded the vehicle and bombarded Walter with questions which he innocently responded to. Couple of minutes later, Walter was arrested and sent to a detention center. As of today, he is set to be deported by July 6th to a country he has never known.
Walter has lived in the United States his whole life, completely oblivious to his undocumented status until he tried applying for college. He has never had any problems with the law. All he ever wanted to do was to go to school and have a successful career - but our country's laws prevented him to continue his education after he graduated from the Honors College at Miami-Dade College. He has even demonstrated the amazing asset he is to our community, by completing 1000 hours of community service just in his high school years. It would be a disservice to both him and to our country's values to deport him. After all, what crime did Walter commit? Why are we squandering all of his talent?
We, [as leaders or allies] to the grassroots youth movement:
1 UNDERSTAND that Walter's story is just one of numerous others, and we should not have to save each one of them case by case, because unfortunately, many end up falling through the cracks.
2- RECOGNIZE the urgency in passing a private bill that would allow this American to stay in the only home he's ever known.
3- WILL PUSH for the enactment of the DREAM Act (H.R.1751 and S.729) now!. It is the key piece of legislation and it is of utmost importance to millions of undocumented students like Walter currently living in the shadows.
4- DEMAND a meeting with the Department of Homeland Security to halt all deportations of those eligible for the DREAM Act. If we continue our ruthless raids and senseless deportations, the DREAM Act will not be able to save those who need it most.
For more info on how to get involved in this movement contact: SWERwolfson@gmail.com

The way even Barack Obama frames the narrative, Cirila Baltazar Cruz would fail. She would perish in the fire because she doesn't speak the language. Her child loses a mother.

He said they must pay a fine and taxes, learn English and "go to the back of the line" of people trying to enter the United States from their home country.

I think my activist roots have made me unreasonable and unwilling to have to choose. We cannot let the immigration justice movement allow the most vulnerable to perish while the successful ones get saved. In my movement, no one gets left behind.

Unauthorized Youth Rise Against Oppression Nationwide

kyledeb — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

It's a story that has been told time and time again. It has been written in poems. It has been captured in photos. It has been screened in videos.

If you're on the Internet and you haven't heard of the DREAM Act, you're not doing it right. Seriously, just throw your computer out the window right now. Keeping your computer is not worth your money or your time...

If you're still here, I'll let you get away with watching this video:

A Dream Deferred. from Jeesoo Park on Vimeo.

Today, in one of the most impressive youth-led campaigns of the contemporary migrant rights movement, hundreds of youth from over 15 states will converge on Washington D.C. to demonstrate for the DREAM Act. For those who cannot make it solidarity actions will be planned in a dozen states. The National DREAM Act Graduation Day on June 23, 2009 "will underscore the importance of advancing the 'DREAM Act' and the 'American Dream Act' to give these youth a chance to attend college and pursue their goals."
If you won't be in D.C. or you can't be at one of the solidarity actions, make sure you take 10 actions in favor the the DREAM Act.

The United We Dream Coalition, of which Citizen Orange is a member (or better said, a supporter), has led the charge in pressuring for the passage of the DREAM Act. The way people converge around the DREAM Act is unlike anything I've ever seen. There's real movement here. The organizing going into passing the DREAM Act will last long beyond the passage of a piece of legislation.

The biggest victory, so far, of the National DREAM Act Graduation Day has been a powerful endorsement of the DREAM Act by the Service Employees International Union:

Remember what it was like when you had a dream? For many immigrant students their dreams of pursuing higher education can't be realized because of their immigration status -- even though they may have lived here most of their lives. Unlike their U.S. born classmates, they can't work legally or qualify for a driver's license or federal financial aid for college, and they are forced to live in constant fear of deportation to a land they barely remember.

On Tuesday, over 500 immigrant students from all over the country are coming to Washington, DC in pursuit of making their dreams come true.

While they are here, they'll be lobbying their Senators and Congressmen to pass the Dream Act, which would allow immigrant students who've grown up here to hope for a better future and a chance at higher education. And to dramatize the contribution they could make -- if only given the chance -- they will hold a graduation ceremony outside of the U.S. Capitol .

Help make their dreams come true by signing their diploma in support of the Dream Act and at the graduation - with your help - I'll unfurl the diploma at the ceremony for the graduates to see our support.

http://action.seiu.org/page/s/dreamactseiu

A disproportionate number of these DREAMers are valedictorians, honor students, class presidents or student leaders, and they include SEIU members and the children of our members.

Their DREAM - passage of the Dream Act -- is a part of the battle for comprehensive reform that our union strongly supports. It will be included in any comprehensive immigration reform that makes it through congress. It also could be enacted on its own, and if that happens, it would be a hopeful signal that comprehensive immigration reform is on its way. (emphasis mine)
Josh Bernstein - SEIU (19 June 2009)

Pay special attention to the passage that I bolded. This is extremely strong language in favor of the DREAM Act. This strong language is in no doubt due to the influence of Josh Bernstein, the new Director of Immigration for SEIU, and one of the nation's greatest legislative champion's for the DREAM Act. When (not if) the DREAM Act is passed unauthorized youth will owe a great debt to the efforts of Josh Bernstein.

Bernstein is taking an extremely aggressive stance in favor of the DREAM Act, one that is favored by myself. I believe strongly that we need a victory on migration policy as quickly as possible. Migrants have suffered too long under a horrific policy of attrition through enforcement. I'm willing to wait until the fall to see if the push for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) is going to happen, but as soon as CIR looks like it's going to get pushed back to 2011, I will push hard to get the DREAM Act passed on it's own. The U.S. migration movement needs a victory, and I believe the DREAM Act is the best chance at victory.

In considering these broader legislative strategies, it is important that I acknowledge the work that has put the DREAM Act in such a good position. It is the work of the United We Dream Coalition, and the online work of dreamactivist.org that has brought us to this day. If you do nothing else after reading this entire post, sign the petition in favor of the DREAM Act at dreamact2009.com.

From Vincent Chin to Luis Ramirez

Kai — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:05:28 GMT

On this day in 1982, Chinese American immigrant Vincent Chin was beaten to death with a baseball bat, at his own bachelor party, by racist white auto workers in Detroit who blamed Japan for layoffs in the US auto industry. The murderers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, were convicted of manslaughter. They served no jail time, were given three years probation, fined $3,000 and ordered to pay $780 in court costs. Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman said, "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail."

On July 14, 2008, Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez was beaten to death by racist white teens shouting anti-Mexican epithets, in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. The murderers, Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak, were convicted of simple assault. Two days ago, they were respectively sentenced to 6 and 7 months in county jail. Piekarsky's lawyer Frederick Fanelli said, "You would be proud to have any of these kids in your classroom, and any of them as your children."

Weekly Immigration Wire: Why Are Hate Crimes on the Rise?

The Media Consortium — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:55:56 GMT

by Nezua, TMC MediaWire Blogger

On May 30, 29-year-old Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia Flores were shot to death, purportedly by a group of far-right anti-immigrant activists who broke into the Flores home by posing as police officers. On Friday, Shawna Forde, anti-immigrant activist and Executive Director of the Minutemen American Defense, (MAD) along with accomplices Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola were arrested on two counts of first-degree murder and burglary charges related to the Flores murders.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes that the MAD website denounces the murders, but wryly adds that the distancing is "a tad belied by headlines down the page," like "Subhuman Mexicans (God's Children?) Prey on Countrymen." The Flores murders are part of a palpable political and social climate of hostility and revulsion toward Latin American immigrants that is running amok in our nation.

As Democracy Now reports, the FBI has noted a rise in hate crimes against Latinos, which isn't difficult to verify anecdotally. And, according to Laura Flanders at GritTV, "economics, racial panic, immigration, [and] right wing rhetoric" all play a crucial role in this rise. If our government continues to spend resources that help portray people as both predatory and "subhuman," it will continue to foster a perception that violence against this class can be committed in good conscience.

This national, anti-immigrant fervor has resulted in a courts system in which "countless immigrants are subjected to harassing or denigrating treatment" and "have no assistance in navigating the byzantine court process," writes Mary Giovagnoli at AlterNet. She reports that "misguided deportation-only strategies have led to a breakdown in our immigration court system." The system is overloaded, backlogged, and not operating effectively or humanely.

The U.S. immigration process is in disrepair due to neglect and improper stopgap measures (like agreement 287(g)), just as broken bones will fuse in any manner if not set correctly. We are mired in an interim period and tensions will continue rising until we take on the challenge as a nation. In any part of the process, from application to arrest to detention to deportation, there are glaring problems. RaceWire touches briefly on the lack of accountability in the detention system.

Is the increasing absorption of virulently racist mentalities into mainstream groups a terrible confluence of unrelated factors, or a predictable reaction to the "browning" of this country? At the same time the U.S. military has relaxed its rules on accepting recruits with ties to white supremacist movements, so have circumstances allowed for "a new crop of anti-immigrant groups to enter the mainstream dialogue, even though many have ties to hate groups with violent records," as Miriam Zoila Pérez writes for Feministing.

The video above depicts Shawna Forde as a spokesman for one of these hate groups, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR made news on Tuesday for disingenuously presenting statistics that demonize immigrants as a strain to the economy. At AlterNet, Walter Ewing exposes the tortured logic FAIR employs and makes the case that "once ... inconvenient truths are taken into account, FAIR’s 'cost' evaporates."

It wasn't long ago that we reported on how many anti-immigrant pundits were using the Swine Flu to create a toxic anti-immigrant/anti-Latino climate. And sadly, none of those people understand how hate speech leads directly to violence. Talking Points Memo makes the alleged murderers' ties to the anti-immigration movement clear.

When the government build walls to stave off fears, it is, ironically, reinforcing that same emotion of fear. When hostile and punitive legislation is enacted, fear of the Other is mixed with aggression. When a fearful and aggressively rigid mindset is applied to social fluctuations that require flexibility and change, the result is an increase in the return of that negative energy.

And yet, hope will live on. And sometimes that hope will lead to historic change. Which is why we must keep writing and talking, keep pushing, and keep challenging all the injustice we find.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration.

Visit Immigration.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on immigration, or follow us on Twitter.

And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and health issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net and Healthcare.NewsLadder.net.

This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and was created by NewsLadder.

Bad Apples in A Decaying Orchard

nezua — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:39:01 GMT

WHEN LUIS RAMIREZ WAS BEAT TO DEATH in the street for simply being Mexican While in Public, the Founding Editors of (award winning site!) The Sanctuary penned this piece. We did it carefully and over a few days, because we had a point we wanted to make very clear; one we did not see being underlined in the media. A point crucial to understanding the Ramirez killing as well as the killing of Marcelo Lucero and Wilter Sanchez and Jose Sucuha?ay...and so many other vicious attitudes and assaults against the Latino comunidad.
The point was that this was not A Killing, not even simply A Hate Killing. (Hell, the all-white jury decided Ramirez's cracked-open-skull-n-brains wasn't even worth a murder charge, but only a Simple Assault!) The point is, this most-decidedly hateful Hate Crime was but one "data point" (if you like phrases like this) in a larger quotient. As such, all these killings are.

That is, it does not help us see any valuable truth or approach any larger societal problem to isolate the event and wall it off from the larger context of anti-immigrant and thus anti-Latino hate and hostility in this nation. The pandering anti-immigrant politicians (mostly on the Right tho not all by any means); the Lou Dobbs/BilloReilly/Glen Beck/Rush Limbaugh/Sheriff Arpaio (and I include this creaky bigot with this crew because he fancies himself a TV star now)/Jon Justice entertainerhaterz; the stall on humane immigration legislation combined with the ICE movement/detention industry which paints immigrants/latinos as criminals; and the thinly-disguised hate groups like FAIR and the Minutemen and NumbersUSA and ALIPAC-all these factors collude to create an intense soup of racist hate that is marking Latinos/as fair game for violence and for the dehumanization that makes it possible to view this violence as nothing more than "isolated incidents" as well as let hate-motivated murderers off with a "Simple Assault" charge.

Obviously, we-The Sanctuary editors-were on target with our message, as the Ramirez piece has been picked up by La Voz de Esperanza, a publication of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in San Antonio, Texas, to be printed in their June 2009 issue. They told me they feel it best contextualizes the event as well as the climate in our nation today that leads to such hate crimes. This was a great satisfaction to us, but obviously getting even the right message into print will not stop the hate or the violence. That will take all of us. Though to get there, we do need to be having the right conversation. That's hard to do when even people who condemn the killing equate murdering children with "extremists" on the other "side." As if pro-migrant groups could ever be compared with such vile actions!

I agree that it is important to delve into and discover the other criminal associations and deeds of Shawna Forde and Eugene Bush and all the Minutemen who are murderers, thieves, rapists, etc. Dig it all up and put it in the light. Of course we must and should. Sadly, though, the effect of all this digging, unfortunately seems to be coupled with the message that so many hate groups would also want to broadcast, a message not unlike the one that says Conservatism can never failed, only be failed by poor actors. It is "these were lone wackos not acting in line withour movement." This would be an utterly deceitful line to offer, as it's well-known that Forde was not an unknown outsider within the anti-immigrant (and... more to the point... anti-Mexican) movement, as amigo Richard puts it.

The truth is, it really doesn't matter how wacked out Eugene Bush or Lou Dobbs or Shawna Forde are, or if Forde was crazy or planning to overthrow the US. What matters is how well she fit into the FAIR/Minutemen/CIS/NumbersUSA/ALIPAC crowd, how on-point and on-message Bush and Forde were, and how indicative their attitudes and messaging is of the current anti-immigrant "Nativist Lobby" that the Southern Poverty Law Center reports on.

Media Matters is holding a panel on this topic, and drawing the frame around on consequences of growing culture of violent rhetoric in right-wing media. And that's good. But that's not the bullseye, to my way of aiming.

No matter what legislation passes, no matter what pundits are censured, no matter what mealy-mouth backpedaling any politicians do when they sense the sway and national mood is not with anti-Latino hate, no matter how high in number the hate crimes against my people grow, what WILL continue, I'm afraid, is the detention industry's growth. As Amnesty International reports, "[t]ens of thousands of people languish in U.S. immigration detention facilities every year - including a number of U.S. citizens - without receiving a hearing to determine whether their detention is warranted."

ICE projects 400,000 more arrests this year. And these ain't hotels they are sticking people in.

And why is this business so untouchable? Why is this business kept out of the spotlight? Because the US Prison Industrial Complex needs it's cashola.

It is not just "Right Wing" "violent rhetoric" that poses danger to Latin@s, though that is no small thing to be dismissed or overlooked. But this violence and this view on migrants, Mexicans and brown people in general is part and parcel of our entire national lust for incarceration. And the stats will tell you who beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is non-whites being locked up in greater numbers. Sadly, even the US military is doing its part.

The Liberal blogosphere and Left wing groups can stand apart and aside from the Wackiest of Loners and point at them if it makes them feel better. But the wise would lift their eyes and see the larger picture unfolding before us all. It is not pretty. After all, when you send a message to the nation in many ways-large, small, loud and quiet-that brown people are criminals and the way to deal with their growing numbers and power is to break down their doors with weaponry and jail them...why do you imagine humans will not learn the lesson and join in? They will, as we see from incident after "isolated" incident. And now, a dour and fearful miasma surrounds us all. The nation-in the form of pundits, radio hosts, politicians, ICE, and "anti-immigrant groups"-is terrorizing Latin@s.

And that stink? It is not a bushel of rotten apples we can toss in a box. It is an orchard full of trees, and many of them drooping with insidious rot.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican

Hate Crime Laws May Make Us Feel Good Pero They Won't Save Our Lives

MamitaMala — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:29:22 GMT

Cross-posted from VivirLatino

I think I have had to write this over and over many times, every time there is a hate crime against a Latino pero it is worthy of repeating.

Defining what makes a hate crime is a political act. The reason I write this is that I am reading many media reports and blogs that keep referring to the shooting at the Holocaust Museum as a hate crime but not that many referring to the murders of Brisenia Flores and her father as a hate crime. On a legislative level, states each have their own hate crime statutes that aren't consistent with each other so what may be a hate crime in one state may not be in another. Often the definition of a hate crime is hinged on the use of an epithet or slur, not the history of the community where it happened. This is why some advocates have been pushing for Federal hate crimes legislation, that would create one standard that would be followed across state lines and these moves make people feel good, offer a sense of protection, except they are only good once there is a victim.

U.S. Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), Steve Israel (D-NY) and José E. Serrano (D-NY) announced the introduction of the National Hate Crimes Hotline Act of 2009. "Far too many victims silently bear the burden of the crimes committed against them, which is why we are taking steps to provide a place for them to be heard. A National Hate Crimes Hotline would allow New Yorkers and victims across the country to safely report to the police and find vital assistance. In addition, accurate reporting will improve local responsiveness, increase prevention efforts and help bring an end to these heinous acts," said Rep. Velázquez.

The problems with this model are many. For example what if you or your family has been the target of hate for years and have tried to involved law enforcement to no avail? What makes this system inspire trust. What if it is law enforcement who is committing the act of hate as in cases of police brutality and violence from the ICE? Is there really the expectation that the Feds will prosecute their own? And for the undocumented, where is the assurance that reporting a hate crime will protect their family from being separated?

The murder of Angie Zapata and subsequent "successful" prosecution has raised questions for activists in terms of the way justice works. We have seen that it is considered a victory to lock up a man of color for killing a woman of color. Will locking up a white person for killing a Latino man or woman elicit the same sense of victory?

Jason Eugene Bush aka Gunny, one of the three implicated in the deaths of Brisenia Flores and her father, was just charged in connection to the 1997 stabbing death of Hector Lopez Partida, a homeless man in Washington state.

An informant told Wenatchee police that Bush bragged about killing "a Mexican" behind a store and that Bush had ties to white supremacist groups, according to court documents. Prosecutors say he was linked to the death through DNA evidence.

Bush clearly has a bias against Mexicans (Latinos) but will this be entered into evidence as proof of a hate crime, of a pattern and practice, or will it be dismissed as coincidence since that crime was 12 years ago?

We must be cautious with expecting a system that targets our communities already to be the one to bring us justice and safety.

Via / Diversity Inc. , Immigration Talk With a Mexican American

Flores por Brisenia

nezua — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:59:29 GMT

I'M VERY SORRY TO SAY that Brisenia Flores and her father Raul are dead. That's her on the left. The Flores familia was sleeping when anti-immigrant crusaders busted down their door and invaded their home, ICE-style, before shooting the father and daughter to death.
A real class act, these anti-immigrant Minuteman types. Whether it's being thieves and deceiving those they work with as well as whom they raise money from, or kicking down doors and shooting little girls and their families in bed, they are hard at work defending their diseased sense of reality from the world.

An outspoken anti-immigration activist who was at the center of a series of violent crimes in Everett earlier this year now stands accused of the home-invasion killings of an Arizona man and his 9-year-old daughter.
Shawna Forde, 41, and two associates in her Minuteman American Defense group are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Arizona.

The May 30 killings were believed to be premeditated and part of a plan to steal money and drugs to finance the Minuteman group she leads. Forde's own family said that the woman weeks ago had discussed using robberies to raise money for her cause.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told the Green Valley News and Sun that Forde was trying right up until her arrest Friday "to get together a large amount of money to further sophisticate the type of operation she's interested in."
-[Anti-Immigrant] Activist Shawna Forde charged in double slaying

Salud, Raul y Brisenia. I can only imagine the pain your wife/mother has to live with, now. May she find some relief and healing as soon as possible. And may justice come swiftly for those who have gouged so much amor y sangre from her life, and taken you all away from each other for a while.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican