Politics

No More Money For Sheriff Joe’s Well Compensated Attorneys

Written by Jill Garvey

It doesn’t take a genius to know that when the dust settles in Arizona, Sheriff Joe and a slew of other elected officials will be exposed as corrupt and spendy little buggers.

Sheriff Joe, in addition to being the focus of a Department of Justice investigation into civil rights violations, racial profiling and abuse of power, is also the reason for $46 million in lawsuits brought by county officials who say they were wrongfully arrested, abused, or investigated by the Sheriff.

But that’s not all – Arpaio has also been funneling County money to private attorneys to implement his anti-immigrant agenda and defend him in various legal entanglements.

Immigration

U.S. Spends Money Arming the Border While Drug Traffic Flies Overhead

Written by Axel Fuentes

A sophisticated wall and thousands of soldiers and border patrol agents are wrongly sending the message that militarizing the border between Mexico and the U.S. will make this country safer as a whole.

Crime, drug trafficking, and unauthorized immigration are the excuses for the greater security measures taken at the border on which the U.S. is spending millions of dollars.  However, most of the drugs are not coming on the backs of immigrants crossing the border, but rather on ships, airplanes, and through custom points. An immigrant walking in the desert for three days with no food or water is not able to carry 40-50 lbs of drugs on his back.

The biggest drug busts… Read more

Politics

Most Disturbing Moments of Anti-immigrant Hate Rally

Written by Stephen Piggott

We know that the anti-immigrant rally on June 5 was a disaster, attended by some of the most racist anti-immigrant activists around. Here’s a list of the most disturbing things seen or heard at the rally:

Signs stating “Sheriff Joe for President!!”

This overly enthusiastic attendee:

Alice Novoa-Benson stating that Aztlan is “a radical Islamic, Mexican, Catholic movement that plans on taking over our nation and getting rid of and killing all American Europeans.” The scary part is that Novoa-Benson is currently running for office in Arizona – as a justice of the peace.… Read more

Politics

Border Cities Are Safest in Nation But Deadly For Immigrants

Written by Jill Garvey

Just as rampant myths blaming immigrants for high crime are debunked, alarming stories of violence against immigrants along the border are being reported.

In the past two weeks alone several immigration agents were involved in tragic encounters that have rocked border communities. Perhaps the one receiving the most attention is the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy by Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas. Less publicized incidents include a man who was shot and killed with a stun gun by a border agent in San Diego, and Read more

Immigration

Attacks On LGBTQ Community Part Of The Anti-immigrant Agenda

Written by Chris Bober

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, is in the news again attacking immigrants. This time his target is the LGBTQ community – specifically bi-national, same-sex families.

In a June 4 article in the Boston Globe, Mr. Krikorian went on record opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to grant a temporary parole to Genesio Oliveira of Brazil. The humanitarian parole allows Mr. Oliveira to be reunited with his spouse, Tim Coco, for one year. Although they were married in Massachusetts in 2005, Mr. Coco has been unable to sponsor his spouse for legal residency because their marriage is not recognized under federal law.

In the same article, Mr. Krikorian… Read more

EPA Has AgBiz Giants Run Farm Advisory Table

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

One has to wonder what the leaders of the Environmental Protection Agency were thinking when they invited the world’s agribusiness giants to sit at and run the agency’s gargantuan-named Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC).  Chaired by a representative of Del Monte Foods the “independent advisory committee”  also includes the global giant, Syngenta (seeds), the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, and the multinational meat conglomerates, JBS (beef) and Smithfield (hogs).  Perhaps the EPA didn’t get last November’s announcement about the U.S. Departments of Justice and Agriculture joint hearings on competition (or lack thereof) and regulatory issues in agriculture—hearings at which the agbiz giants are rightly… Read more

Politics

Phoenix Anti-Immigrant Rally Flops

Written by Cloee Cooper

Arizona’s pro-SB 1070, anti-immigrant rally on Saturday, June 5 was a big flop. Not only was it poorly attended, but the organizers’ attempts to wipe their hands of racist allegations and appear mainstream failed miserably.

The rally kicked off at 2:30pm with a motorcycle procession led by White Boy Society. According to White Boy Society’s website it believes “that if the white race is to survive we must separate and rule over our own destiny.”

Only white males (non-Jewish males of wholly European ancestry to be exact) who accept as their own the goals of the White Boy Society are eligible to join. In the picture below White Boy Society members… Read more

Politics

Harassment of Somali Students in Minnesota Investigated By Federal Agency’s Office of Civil Rights

Written by Garat Ibrahim

Saint Cloud, Minnesota has been in the news lately because of the daily hostility Somali students faced at school. Among the complaints: an “I hate the Somalians at Tech High” Facebook page, bacon shoved in the faces of Muslims as a provocation by students who know Islam forbids the eating of pork, an inflammatory essay about Somali Muslims posted on an English class blog, and even student complaints of mistreatment by teachers.

As a result of what many believe was a failure of school administrators to address the complaints, the federal government’s Department of Education will now investigate the matter.

More than eight accusations were filed with… Read more

News

Media Watch Group Demands O’Reilly Retract False Reports About Immigrants & Crime

Written by Jill Garvey

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) is calling out Fox host Bill O’Reilly for his vilification of immigrants.

The national media watch group has documented a pattern of gross bias and outright falsehoods in O’Reilly’s reporting in the wake of Arizona’s draconian immigration law, SB 1070. After issuing an alert on May17th, the group is turning up the pressure with a petition demanding that O’Reilly retract his claims linking immigrants to high crime rates.

O’Reilly has persistently blamed immigrants for Arizona’s soaring crime rates and as a reason to support Arizona’s racist immigration law. There is only one problem, crimes rates aren’t soaring in Arizona. In fact, according to the city of … Read more

Politics

Rep. Linda Sanchez Tells The Truth About Senate Bill 1070

Written by Stephen Piggott

Many politicians have recently spoken out publicly about Arizona’s SB 1070, but few are telling the whole truth. Some, like Rep. Luis Gutierrez, attack the law and rightly argue that it encourages racial profiling. Others take the opposite view, praising Arizona’s law as a response to the failure of the federal government to act. Then you have flip-floppers like John McCain who turned his back on immigrant reform advocates and took “a tougher stand” on immigration in response plummeting opinion polls in a race against anti-immigrant challenger J.D. Hayworth.

At the state level you have anti-immigrant politicians like Daryl Metcalfe who are attempting to pass copycat  laws in their home states. You also have… Read more