Politics

Cross-Post: Fantasy Voter Fraud

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published in the Phoenix New Times by Terry Greene Sterling Thursday, Dec 2 2010:

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was dissed by Russell Pearce over Prop 200′s dismissal.

In late October, days before the election, state Senator Russell Pearce directed his e-mail wrath at retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, whom he decried as an “activist judge” with a “lack of trust and respect for ‘we the people.’”

Russell Pearce contended that Sandra Day O’Connor should be charged with ethics violations.

The reason: O’Connor, who occasionally serves as a stand-in federal judge, was one of two judges in a three-judge Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: Bookworms

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published in the Phoenix New Times by Terry Greene Sterling Thursday, Dec 2 2010

To FAIR patriarch John Tanton, The Camp of the Saints, a 1973 apocalyptic book by French novelist Jean Raspail, stimulates honest discussion.

The graphic book tells the story of the downfall of Western civilization and the decline of the European white race at the hands of immigrant invaders. The setting is southern France, where “a million poor wretches, armed only with their weakness and their numbers, overwhelmed by misery, encumbered with starving brown and black children,” invade and destroy the country.

The heroes are the white nationalists who vainly defend their Western culture.

Politics

DREAM Act supporters stand boldly in the face of anti-immigrant attacks

Written by Cloee Cooper

Despite the climate of fear the Tanton Network has tried to create, DREAM Act supporters have been at the forefront of resistance. DREAM activists have risked deportation, protested outside of the ICE headquarters in Arizona and staged hunger strikes among other measures.

The DREAM Act would provide certain undocumented students the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. The Tanton Network, a constellation of anti-immigrant organizations including FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA, vehemently opposes any pro-immigrant legislation, including access to higher education.

In the last month the fight to pass the bill has intensified. DREAM Act supporters… Read more

Immigration

Got Water? Immigrants Blamed for Water Shortages in the Southwest

Written by Guest Blogger

By Martha Pskowski

The anti-immigrant movement, under groups like The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), blame immigrants and population levels in the American Southwest for lack of water and potential water shortages.  We know droughts are becoming more frequent and are lasting longer.  There are real causes for water shortages in the Southwest and equitable access to water is highly important.  The anti-immigrant movement, however, has only one cause and one solution: blame immigrants.

In The Center for Immigration Studies’ new report, “Population, Immigration, and the Drying of the American Southwest,” the group asserts that the key to addressing water scarcity is immigration.  According to CIS, immigration is causing the Southwest population… Read more

Politics

Anti-immigrant groups try to crush the DREAM Act

Written by Cloee Cooper

Despite the intense efforts of undocumented students and supporters to pass the DREAM Act, anti-immigrant groups continue to drive an aggressive agenda to defeat the bill. Rather than representing a popular voice of opposition to the bill, these groups are instead part of an orchestrated effort spearheaded by John Tanton organizations such as FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies, and NumbersUSA.

Last week, an LA Times article titled “He’s a Cal State Fresno student body president – and an illegal immigrant,” quoted Steven Camarota of anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

Camarota has contributed to efforts to criminalize Read more

Politics

Village Voice Media uncovers deception of powerful anti-immigrant movement

Written by Jill Garvey

An investigative report by Village Voice Media has revealed the people and the organizations behind one of the nation’s most malicious movements to dehumanize immigrants.

The report starts in a place that has become uncomfortably familiar to many Americans – ground zero for the immigration debate – Phoenix, Arizona. Journalist Terry Greene Sterling describes a scene in which state Senator Russell Pearce is basking in the glow of national attention due to his passage of SB 1070.

Like many successful illegal-immigration populists, Russell Pearce gets his “hard costs of illegal immigration,” and his talking points, from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based, self-described public interest nonprofit founded in 1979.

International

World AIDS Day brings awareness to prevention, stigma

Written by Amy Spicer

Today, December 1 is World AIDS Day, and in the midst of the holiday rush provides good reason to pause and reflect.

This year’s theme is “Universal Access and Human Rights” as part of the Light for Rights campaign. Created primarily to cut infection rates and stigmas associated with the disease, World AIDS Day was also established to shed light on past and present victims of this disease. An adversary for 30 years now, AIDS has claimed millions of lives and it is estimated there are close to 33 million people worldwide currently living with the HIV.

Although significant progress has been made in HIV prevention, treatment and care, the focus this year is… Read more

Immigration

Leader in the movement to dehumanize immigrants defends attacks on gays

Written by Jill Garvey

Mark Krikorian, executive director of anti-immigrant think-tank Center for Immigration Studies, has made a series of comments indicating that his xenophobia also manifests as homophobia.

Most recently, Krikorian defended the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that spearheads national campaigns bashing gay and lesbians. Not long before, in a September post on National Review Online, Krikorian wrote, “So now McCain has two extreme Obama positions on immigration to attack: driver’s licenses for illegals and immigration for gay couples. Will McCain ever use them to criticize Obama?”