Stop Hunting Immigrants
Jorge G. Castañeda wrote a powerfully truthful op-ed on immigration in Saturday’s New York Times. In it he spelled out the cruelty of our immigration system as it stands under the Bush administration, saying:
Since late 2006, the Bush administration has been carrying out the “tough love” side of immigration reform without the generous and open-arms side, which would mean legalization for those in the United States today, and a migrant worker program for those it will need tomorrow.
It has pursued a humiliating and hostile policy of persecution and harassment of illegal Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Hondurans and many others. It changed the rules of the game without any warning or empathy, nor with the traditional understanding the United States has shown, more often than not over the past century, in regard to those who cross its borders without papers.
In a concise article, Castañeda both condemns the inhumane cycle of raids and detentions, and urges President-elect Obama to immediately move to stop the hunting of immigrants. Read more
Blog Highlight: AZ Sheriff Exercises Fascism
David Neiwert at Crooks & Liars posted a video and article about the Sheriff Arpaio’s ever more oppressive activities in Maricopa County, AZ:
I’m spending my Christmas vacation in lovely Maricopa County, AZ, this week with my in-laws. And I have to tell you that, thanks to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his gang of thugs deputies, I’ll be somewhat relieved when I leave.
After all, how would you like to live in a place where law enforcement actually arrests you for applauding briefly at a public county council meeting? Where they threaten and intimidate you just for showing up in the first place?
That’s what’s been happening here.
Read the rest of the article at http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/arizona-sheriff-turns-county-meeting. Read more
Dept. of Homeland Security Promotes Racist E-Verify on NPR
National Public Radio airs ads for E-Verify and draws sharp criticism.
The ad spots were purchased by the Department of Homeland Security and promote their E-Verify program, a controversial employee verification system. The ads run at the end of a segment and say, “‘Support for NPR comes from NPR stations, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), offering E-Verify, confirming the legal working status of new hires. At DHS dot gov slash E-Verify.” Read more
Suspect Data Used to Blame Immigrants for Economic Crisis
By Jessica Acee
To counteract the growing momentum for realistic immigration reform anti-immigrant bigots seek to inject false data into the conversation. A new report entitled “The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Coloradans” was released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). It’s apparent that FAIR prefers to dump their resources into faulty reports in an attempt to stir up more fear and hatred in an already tense economic landscape. Read more
Blog Highlight: Fox Reality Show glorifies “toughest” Racial Profiler
Henry Fernandez wrote a nice piece on Think Progress a few days ago about Fox’s newest reality show star, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Fernandez says:
Arpaio has diverted deputies from solving crimes to chasing immigrants — and done so with no real strategy other than to attract television cameras. Arpaio’s deputies carry out traffic stops and neighborhood sweeps that have reportedly stopped people for no greater “crime” than being brown. These sheriff deputies hope they find someone without identification who they can turn over to federal immigration officials. Arpaio even requires that victims and witnesses prove their immigration status – a sure way to get fewer whistleblowers to come forward, thus increasing crime.
Seems like an odd guy for Fox to highlight as a law enforcement icon. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Four
The immigration debate in the US has no relevance to the environmental issues that we are facing today. However, hate groups like Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) would like U.S. citizens to believe otherwise.
The anti-immigrant movement’s argument that immigrants are to blame for U.S. ecological degradation is deeply flawed. It has so many holes that it is transparent to anyone who thinks critically about the accusations they present. This is a strategic attack on immigrants, and cannot result in any productive environmental solutions. It only breeds more anti-immigrant hatred and leads Americans astray from real environmental progress. Read more
United States Charged with Human Rights Violations
By Christina Iturralde
It is obvious that the United States is violating the human rights of Latinos living within the country’s borders by failing to protect its Latino residents. Latinos have been targeted, attacked, brutalized and murdered because of their race and ethnicity in incidents with rising frequency and severity throughout the United States. Read more
Hate Crimes and Hate Group Activity Rising
Last week I asked our readers if they thought hate crimes were increasing. I posted the poll on a whim; we’d been writing a lot about hate crimes at Imagine 2050 and felt that there was something deeper and more menacing behind the recent spree of attacks. As of this writing 63% of you thought that hate crimes were increasing, and there is mounting evidence that you were right. We already know there has been a steady increase in crimes against Latinos since 2003, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This has been attributed to anti-immigrant rhetoric that has gone mainstream thanks to groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, anti-immigrant politicians and TV commentators, such as Lou Dobbs. And there is a very strong link between the communities where anti-immigrant groups are active and hate crime incidents. Read more
Bush Destruction Continues to the Very End
The Bush Administration has revealed devastating changes to an agricultural guestworker program. This program is known as H-2A, and has existed since 1986. It allows for farm owners and agricultural employers to bring in foreign born citizens to work on temporary visas.
This program has never been popular with unionizers and farm worker rights groups due to it’s negligent and oppressive nature. In fact it’s predecessor, the H-2, program ended over the controversial abuse workers in the program endured. Read more
The DePaul Conservative Alliance: the Next Generation of Anti-immigrants
The DePaul Conservative Alliance is a group that has received a lot of attention during my time at DePaul University. The Alliance cannot get enough of the limelight and is constantly stirring up controversy at DePaul. The first time I saw it was in January of 2006 when the group held a “bake sale” in the DePaul University Student Center. The bake sale was a platform for the group to push their anti-affirmative action agenda. Conservative Alliance members sat around a table with cookies and brownies that they offered to anyone who walked by. Read more
Murder in Brooklyn Latest Hate Crime Against Immigrants
By Ken Brown
Last night I was busy fuming over some personal betrayals when I received a call from a colleague who told me that Jose O. Sucuzhanay, the Ecuadoran immigrant who, along with his brother, was severely beaten in Brooklyn on Sunday, had now been declared brain dead. Apparently, their attackers shouted anti-Latino and anti-gay epithets (making assumptions because they were walking with arms around each other) before assaulting them. I further learned that, according to reports, the perpetrators of this foolishness were believed to be African American. Read more
Jane Addams: Advocate for Immigrants
By Joan Flanagan
Jane Addams was only 29 when she opened the Hull House Settlement in 1889 on Chicago’s tough west side with two friends, Miss Ellen Gates Starr and Miss Mary Keyser. All three were so naive they didn’t even lock the door the day they moved in. But they quickly learned the challenges facing their immigrant neighbors. Read more
Growing Up Latino in the Heartland
By Carlos Rich
Growing up as one of a few Latino immigrants in my Midwestern town was less challenging than one might think. Unlike a community of Latinos living in a historically all-white town, I was so outnumbered I don’t think I was ever a threat to the monoculture surrounding me. Plus my adoptive parents are white - lending me more acceptance. Read more
Fight for Citizenship Should Engage Blacks and Gays
California’s recently passed Proposition 8, a constitutional measure, now defines “marriage as between a man and woman” and eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Many people, either in error or racist intent, have attempted to argue that Proposition 8 passed because of the large black voter turnout for President-Elect Barack Obama.
The real truth, devoid of bigotry, according to Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, is that new voters for Obama overwhelmingly voted to defeat the measure. New black voters were stronger supporters of gay rights than the “more experienced voters” that the mainstream LGBT leaders were focusing on for support. Read more
Blog Highlight: Immigrants and Economic Crisis
Juan Tornoe over at AC360° blog recently posted on Latino immigrants and the economic crisis. His analysis was mainly directed towards marketers of Latino consumers, but he brought up some interesting points, saying:
“First, let’s get one thing out on the open, documented or not Hispanic immigrants came to America in search of a better future for them and their families that for whatever reasons their native country could not offer. For the most part, they bet all their chips on the United States believing it is The Land of Opportunity. So, the U.S. is going through a rough patch right now… Seriously, this is NOT a big deal if Read more
Giving Thanks in a Foreign Land
I spent this Thanksgiving, as the past four, with my neighbors. As I frantically cleaned my house and helped in food preparations, I could not avoid remembering my first introduction to one of the biggest annual events in America. In 1995 after escaping Sarajevo and living in a refugee camp for seven months, I was finally reunited with my husband in Chicago. It was the summer of 1995 and I was beginning to recreate my life in a new country, with language and customs other than those of my birth place. Read more
Americans, Europeans, and Immigration
Americans aren’t the only ones dealing with immigration. The United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, France, Germany and the Netherlands have also found themselves contradicting their values when in comes to immigration. Read more
Brooklyn Still Haven for New Immigrants
Brooklyn continues its long tradition as a comfortable haven for new immigrants. A resurgence of western European immigrants are reshaping Williamsburg, which has been better known for its hipsters and indie music scene the last several years. But in changing, Williamsburg and other New York neighborhoods are merely remaining true to the best versions of themselves. Read more
Philanthropists Fuel Anti-Immigrant Bigotry
When well-known philanthropists give money to national anti-immigrant groups it gives a new twist to the axiom “throwing good money after bad.” The result is increased discrimination and violence against immigrants and their families.
Controversial anti-immigrant leader John Tanton used to brag that from 1983 until 1986 famed financial leader and philanthropist Warren Buffet made yearly gifts of $90,000 to his organization, U.S. Inc. While Buffet is thought of as a man who donates selflessly to the public good he is also remembered as supporting bigotry. Read more
Hate and Death: The Federation for American Immigration Reform Harvest in Suffolk County
When I first journeyed to Suffolk Country eight years ago to work with religious, civic, and immigrant rights groups facing growing anti-immigrant activity stoked by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, I was stunned to witness the depth of anger and hostility that the group’s organizer had helped unleash. It all started “respectably” enough. But the attempt in 2000 by neo-Nazis to kill two Mexican workers was a harbinger of where growing, unchecked anti-immigrant fever and fervor could go; other violence followed. Now, an Ecuadoran immigrant, is dead at the hands of area youth who reportedly set out to beat up “some Mexicans,” bringing the tragedy of Suffolk County to its inevitable end. Read more
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