Politics

Dept. Homeland Security Welcomes Neo-Nazi, Deports Immigrant Students

Written by Eric Ward

Janet Napolitano, the head of The Department of Homeland Security should stop the harassment of immigrant workers and students and focus on real threats. Searchlight Magazine, an anti-racist European monthly, has alerted civil rights organizations in the United States to the arrival of Nick Griffin. Griffin is the leader of the British National Party (BNP), a racial extremist political organization based in the United Kingdom.

Griffin, scheduled to speak at the now canceled white nationalist American Renaissance conference, will be appearing February 18 at Michigan State University. The student group sponsoring the event, Sons of Liberty, also states in its media release that Griffin “is expected to make an appearance at the… Read more

Bridging the Digital Divide is Crucial

Written by George Garza

Recently I have been involved in organizing a campaign to rally support within a cross section of communities for Digital Inclusion. This topic has already presented itself as the over-arching focus for my personal grassroots efforts this year.

Today, February 15th, 2010 marks our first National Day of Action for the cause and you can keep up with all the real time action on Twitter by searching the hash tag #mediajustice and of course you can keep up with all the San Antonio happenings, including live updates from our press conference by following any one of these feeds.

What began a couple years back with new colleagues in… Read more

Politics

Cross-post: Going to the Chapel Gay Marriage, Immigration

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Faren D’Abell writes in Windy City Times about the ongoing struggle of LBGT people for equal marriages and the added complication of the flawed immigration system that doesn’t allow same-sex couples to sponsor one another for residency.

In Roman times, the story goes, when military enrollment was down, ‘Claudius the Cruel’ cancelled all weddings and engagements. The Christian priest Saint Valentine secretly married couples, and for this he was murdered.

This week, on Valentine’s Day, thousands of gay couples in committed relationships will again ask their local county clerks for marriage licenses. Groups like Lambda Legal, the National Organization for Women, and Human Rights Campaign have, for years, pushed the idea that equal rights for

… Read more

Culture

The Names Will be Changed

Written by Joan Flanagan

When my very Norwegian mother was selling ads for the Chicago Daily News in the 1930’s, the company assigned her the name “Miss Kelly.” This was so that irate or flirtatious customers could not track her to her home address. How different from today when people will tell 350 million total strangers every bit of their so-called private lives on their Facebook pages!

Obviously there are sound commercial reasons for changing a name. Would you flaunt a polo shirt from Lifshitz? Fraydl and Frank Lifshitz were immigrants from Belarus and named their son Ralph Ruben Lifshitz. But he changed his name to Ralph Lauren to sell his wildly successful ultra-preppie clothing line emblazoned with… Read more

Politics

287(g) in Charlotte: Sexual Assault & Deportation

Written by Guest Blogger

by Glenn Hutchinson

On December 29, a man sees his girlfriend being sexually assaulted by a police officer in a parking lot. He calls 911 for help. The officer arrests him.

Since then, that officer (Marcus Jackson) has been suspended and six other women have reported that he had attacked them too. But what about the boyfriend? The one who reported it to 911? That man who tried to help his girlfriend?

Well, since he is undocumented, he may be deported. Even though he tried to stop the officer from fondling his girlfriend, the police went ahead and did an immigration check because he was arrested. So, he’s likely to be kicked out of the… Read more

Politics

Imprisoned Freedom

Written by Axel Fuentes

The days pass and pass; it has been more than a year of promises and hopes of freedom for the immigrants in this nation. At this point they have not seen any of the promises fulfilled and hopes are vanishing. It is hard to accept that in this nation of freedom and justice for all, that freedom and justice are imprisoned by the decisions of a few politicians.

I remember a time when the presidential campaigns were offering immigration reform to obtain votes from the Latino population, but now I see that immigration reform is a subject that is not discussed. Now it is another year of elections and I don’t hear a lot… Read more

Politics

Just a Chip Off the Old Block

Written by Joan Flanagan

Last week Fox News commentator Glenn Beck went on a rant against Barack Obama simply because his mother and father chose to name their baby after his father. He has been named Barack for 49 years, and managed to do very well in school, work, and civic affairs. But media buffoon Beck thinks that he can determine how “American” someone is just by the sound of his name.

Glenn Beck said of President Obama: “He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe,… Read more

Immigration

FAIR and Lyndon LaRouche: Of Soul Mates and Front Groups

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

When it comes to creating bogus front groups, few organizations in the U.S. today can match the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Its most recent incarnation—“Progressives for Immigration Reform”—is all dressed up in a caringly liberal-like web site, professing its commitment to protect American workers and the environment, and to “improve the lives of people worldwide.” One has to wonder if someone at FAIR got schooled in its front groups strategy by Lyndon LaRouche, the wacky, right wing demagogue and political operative and whose capacity to create political confusion through his fronts is the gold standard to which FAIR may aspire.

Sports

Super Bowl Commercials Throw Women to the Wolves

Written by Eric Ward

There is an old folk tale about a noble lord and his coach driver who threw the lord’s new bride to the wolves chasing them in order to survive. The lord and driver reasoned that the bride was less valuable. Madison Avenue, with the permission of CBS, did something similar to women last Sunday.

On Sunday evening about thirty minutes before the Super Bowl game began I decided to place a message in my Facebook update status. The message was simple. “Super Bowl Sunday is the day with the highest incidences of domestic violence against women.” I urged my friends to “check themselves” and break the cycle. My friend Ken D. pointed out that Read more

Politics

Sheriff Arpaio Joins Forces with Anti-immigrant Attorney

Written by Sarah Viets

Joe Arpaio has found a new friend who is just as controversial as the sheriff himself. Kris Kobach and Arpaio appeared together at a press conference yesterday afternoon to unveil a new program that trains officers to target immigrants. Kobach, a GOP candidate for Secretary of State in Kansas, works for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). According IRLI’s website, it is the “public interest law affiliate of the Federation for American Immigration Reform” aka FAIR, designated as a hate group by the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center.

Before detailing FAIR’s controversial relationships with white nationalists, let’s first examine Kobach’s colleague at IRLI, Mike Hethmon. Hethmon has worked… Read more