Politics

The Politics of Immigration Reform After SB1070

Written by Garat Ibrahim

In the last couple weeks the issue of immigration reform has come to the front burner due to draconian laws created by the anti-immigrant movement. One such law has been passed by Arizona state legislature and almost ten more state are on the way to introduce similar laws.

Many people in our society have spoken about it, but at the end of the day our elected leaders are the ones that change policy. In this situation, they have put politics before policy. This is what causes passions to boil up whenever this issue is talked about; the underlying understanding that politicians won’t tackle this issue because of upcoming elections.

Immigration

Tanton Network’s New Front Group Exploits Veterans

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

The anti-immigrant movement in America is much like the legend of Medusa – for every snakehead that is cut off another grows in its place.

In 2007, a group calling itself Vietnamese for Fair Immigration (now defunct) was exposed as a front group for radical and racist individuals with ties to white supremacy groups. The spokesperson, Tim Binh (real name Tim Brummer), turned out to be a white, Southern California man who justified misrepresenting himself as a Vietnamese refugee by stating, “I speak Vietnamese. I eat Vietnamese food. I live with Vietnamese. In my mind, I’m half Vietnamese.”

The anti-immigrant John Tanton Network did something similar when it essentially put on blackface and… Read more

Politics

NumbersUSA Running Low on Hot Air

Written by Jill Garvey

NumbersUSA comes up with new reasons to hate immigrants each week. It’s actually impressive the sheer number of bad things it can link to immigration – maybe the only impressive thing about it.

Ranging from the environment to unemployment to high taxes, somehow, according to NumbersUSA, immigrants are to blame for everything that is wrong with America. Some of these arguments can be quite compelling, but all of them are rooted in distortions and outright lies. At this point the group can’t even come clean about its own origins. On its website you won’t find one mention of controversial white nationalist John Tanton, but that’s exactly where NumbersUSA started.

Politics

Cross-post: The Far-Right Movement Behind Arizona Copycat Bills

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Colorlines published a fantastic article by Seth Freed Wessler exposing the work of Tanton Network affiliate State Legislators for Legal Immigration.

The growing number of immigration-enforcement bills in state legislatures around the country are not merely following Arizona’s lead. Rather, the bills—which legislators have discussed or introduced in at least 11 states—are the fruits of a concerted political strategy seeded by the far-right group Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has taken money from a eugenics foundation and was created by a man who warned of a “Latin onslaught.”

State lawmakers pushing a new crop of immigration-enforcement bills are overwhelmingly affiliated with a network tied

… Read more

Politics

Hope for Victims of 287(g)?

Written by Glenn Hutchinson

An immigrant victimized by 287(g) gets some hope. Maybe hope can spread to Arizona.

After being wrongly arrested, Abel Moreno, 29, can remain in the U.S. for six more months as he applies for a visa.

In a recent blog, I wrote about Abel Moreno’s story. Last December in Charlotte, police officer Marcus Jackson pulled over Moreno and his girlfriend. According to Moreno, after she got out of the car, the officer sexually assaulted her and fondled her breasts.

While the abuse happened, Moreno called 911 to report it. Officer Jackson ordered him to get off the phone and then arrested him (click to hear 911 call). When taken to jail, Moreno’s immigration… Read more

Immigration

Oil Spill Brings Out Best & Worst of Environmental Groups

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

An environmental disaster hit the Gulf coast on April 20, after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.  With 210,000 gallons of oil seeping into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the damage will be catastrophic. Thousands of birds, fish and shrimp have been removed, covered in oil. New Orleans can already smell the aftermath.  The Gulf can’t seem to catch a break with oil fumes choking its atmosphere. We are facing clean-ups, displaced communities, and families uprooted from their homes.

Disasters like these throw into stark relief the twisted analysis of anti-immigrant organizations like Negative Population Growth (NPG), a group that regularly blames environmental degradation on immigrants and people of color.

The… Read more

Politics

Yes We Won’t?

Written by Guest Blogger

Co-Authored by amalia deloney and Steven Renderos

We had high apple pie, up in the sky hopes for the promise of an open Internet. Why were communities of color and the poor so happy? Because the key to the Obama Administration’s success in the 2008 elections was harnessing the power of the Internet. Much like the innovation of an open Internet, Obama’s 2008 campaign mobilized communities across the U.S. to engage in the democratic process in ways never conceived before. Excuse the Sinatra references but the problems of a deregulated Internet haven’t gone kerplot. Despite the “hope” offered by President Obama’s promise to ensure an open Internet, the “change” we expected is being threatened as… Read more

Politics

Flagstaff AZ Courageously Opposes Racist, Anti-immigrant Law

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

What does the immigrant community have that neither the Republican Party nor the Tea Party has? A backbone! After Arizona passed racist S.B. 1070, hundred of thousands of people took to the streets throughout the country in protest on May 1. In Flagstaff, Arizona a town of 60,000 people, 500 came out to say ‘we are no longer afraid, we will not be silent and are here to fight until S.B.1070 is repealed.’ The undocumented and documented community of Flagstaff stood unified in protest on May 1, and last night the Flagstaff City Council voted unanimously to enact a resolution authorizing a legal challenge to S.B. 1070.

Immigration

Breaking: the Tyranny of the Majority

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

In spite of the stated intent of its founding documents guaranteeing the rights of the minority, the tyranny of the majority—not majority rule—is the prevailing narrative of the American story.

That narrative, of course, continues in the immigration debate. In spite of the political firestorm set off by Arizona’s immigration law, a sixty percent majority of Americans believe that law to be “about right”—or that it “doesn’t go far enough,” according to a New York Times/CBS poll released yesterday. As well, a staggering majority are certain that immigrants take “American jobs” and don’t pay taxes or Social Security. Dominant myths are rock hard and difficult to crack, and facts play little role in the… Read more

Politics

Date SB1070 Goes Into Effect Significant

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Do you know where you will be July 28, 2010? Of course that is the date that S. B. 1070 is due to take effect in Arizona.

This is a date of significance in history. On this date in 1868 the 14th amendment was ratified. The 14th amendment has three major clauses dealing with people inside of the United States. Each of these three clauses is under attack in Arizona as well as other parts of our Constitution.

The first clause of the 14th amendment called the Citizenship clause states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the… Read more