San Diego Congressional Candidate Intimidated by Sheriff’s Dept.
On June 26 a sheriff’s deputy walked into a democratic fundraiser in a private home and pepper sprayed the attendees, most of whom were over 50 years old.
Francine Busby is a Democratic candidate running in 2010 for congress in California’s 50th District (including San Diego). In 2006 she lost the same seat in a controversial race against Republican Brian Bilbray. The Republican National Convention put 5 million dollars behind Bilbray’s campaign because of Busby’s growing popularity. Brian Bilbray is the chairman of the anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus and a staunch advocate of John Tanton’s anti-immigrant movement. The local minutemen chapter often praises him on their website.
Last Friday, one of Francine Busby’s supporters hosted a fundraiser in her home for the campaign. Ms. Busby made a brief speech in the host’s backyard, which ended at around 8:45 pm. The noise caught the attention of a neighbor who was so angered by their gathering, that he felt it necessary to shout derogatory comments about the candidate and homosexuals. Read more
Sustaining White America: Population, Environment, and Immigration
Ever since John Tanton launched FAIR three decades ago, the anti-immigrant movement has used population growth and its environment impacts to advance specious arguments for its restrictionist agenda. The Center 
for Immigration Studies’ (CIS) latest report touting “The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration to the United States” marks another step in the movement’s ongoing attempts to lay environmental degradation on the backs of the wrong people.
The anti-immigrant movement is deeply rooted in the population control movement of the 1960s/70s—a movement that often wavered between its racially-tinged, eugenics edges and full-bore blame on overly-consumptive “Americans” (i.e., whites) for the environmental crisis of that era. Today the movement has resolutely staked its claim on those old, racially-tinged edges in a disingenuous move to lure environmentalists into its fold. By doing so it has completely abandoned assigning any responsibility for the contemporary environmental crisis on a still-wealthy nation that consumes some forty percent of the world’s resources, regardless of immigration levels. Read more
Reviewed: Food, Inc.
Even as someone who has extensive knowledge of the US food system, this film was shocking. An extremely absorbing two-hour look into the US food system from seed to sale. From the farmers whose every decision is controlled by giant corporations to the mother who lost her little boy to E. Coli, Food, Inc. keeps the focus on real people. Nice to see too, a film that goes beyond the usual complaints about Wal-Mart and gets down to the hidden culprits, like Monsanto, Smithfield, Tyson, the FDA, etc.
“You look at the labels and you see farmer this, farmer that. It’s really just three or four companies that are controlling the meat. We’ve never had food companies this big and this powerful in our history.”
– Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation.”
Read more
Tell Obama and Congress to Move on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
President Obama has invited Congressional leaders to the White House tomorrow for a working session on immigration reform. In the last few weeks the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign has urged supporters to contact Congress, and the response was overwhelming. 200,000 faxes, 30,000 phone calls, and 3,300 personal notes poured into the capital.
But to move this beyond just a few high-profile meetings and turn it into workable solutions, Congress needs to continue to hear from you. I sent a personal email to my representative today:
Dear Representative,
Working as a school administrator three years ago I watched helplessly as the family of one of my students was ripped apart by the immigration system. The young boy’s mother was deported while his father, who was a legal resident, stayed behind in the US to maintain the family’s small business and ensure that he could continue to support his family. Read more
What is So Progressive About ‘Progressives for Immigration Reform’? Um, Nothing.
FAIR front group, Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) is continuing to assert itself into mainstream discourse. The John Tanton network of anti-immigrant groups have a long history of trying to hoodwink the public, so it comes as no surprise that they started an organization of fake progressives. The lame-duck group just released a “study” on self-identified liberals’ feelings on immigration.
Leah Durant, PFIR executive director, quoted herself in PFIR’s press release saying:
“The results of this poll demonstrate what many on the political left have known for some time. Immigration is not a partisan issue. There are many progressives and liberals that are concerned about the unintended consequences that large scale immigration has on the environment, economy, and other issues that many liberals are concerned about,”
I couldn’t agree more Leah! This certainly is not a partisan issue. So why did PFIR’s parent group, FAIR, build the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC), that is overwhelmingly Republican? Read more
Campaign to Renounce Anti-Immigrant Groups Needed to Stop Violence
We have been keeping a close eye on the murder case of Raul Flores and his nine-year-old daughter, Brisenia. Jason Bush, Shawna Forde, and Albert Gaxiola broke into the Flores’ home on May 30th and shot them, point blank, in cold blood.
The three suspects belong to the Minutemen American Defense (MAD), a vigilante anti-immigrant group. Shawna Forde is the leader, and has been tied to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. FAIR is frantically attempting to distance themselves from this horrible act of violence, which is proving a difficult task considering Shawna Forde was named as a representative of FAIR in 2006.
Nativist groups appear unrepentant in the aftermath of a tragedy they helped create. Jim Gilchrist’s group, Minuteman Project (which supported Forde), even had the nerve to post this article on father’s day.
This is not just insensitive, it’s a clear signal that these extremist groups will not stop inciting hatred and violence. Not until reasonable Americans demand it. Read more
Anti-Immigrant (FAIR) Co-Chair Digs Fresh Pile of Bigotry
Donald Collins is the latest representative of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) attempting to publicly repair the organizations fast sinking respectability. Collins is Co-Chair to FAIR’s board of advisers. If he is serious, he should start by resigning from FAIR’s advisory board for his own ties to white supremacy.
It’s been a week since anti-immigrant activist Shawna Forde was charged with the murder of nine-year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona. In the days following, reports surfaced that Shawna Forde may have been a representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Since then, FAIR’s spin machine has been working overtime to deny any connection to Forde or white supremacy. Read more
FAIR Tries to Flee Sinking Anti-Immigrant Ship
The racist inspired pre-planned murder of the Flores family in Arizona on May 30, 2009 by anti-immigrant activists continues to stun the nation. Meanwhile the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), one of the nation’s most influential and controversial anti-immigrant organizations, is busy trying to spin itself out of the bigoted hole it has dug for itself over thirty year existence.
Over the last several days, writers across the blogosphere have been reporting that Shawna Forde, one of the murderers of nine year-old Brisenia Flores, was named as a representative of FAIR in 2006. Today FAIR finally released its own response to the charges. Instead of taking organizational responsibility for its role in creating the political climate that feeds anti-Latino hysteria, FAIR, in an Orwellian manner, uses its press release as an opportunity to attack the well respected civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Read more
Fortress Europe, Fortress America
The 27 nations of the European Union spend over half of their “migration management” funds for border enforcement, giving rise to the “Fortress Europe” moniker that civil, human, labor, religious, and immigrant organizations use in daily, derisive language about the collective mentality driving migration policy.
“The entire policy is designed to keep Europe white,” holds one outspoken German church leader. “It allows the EU countries to blame the EU and the EU to blame its members” for the harshness of the sweeping, criminalizing crackdowns on migrants carried out by Frontex, the Warsaw-based “specialized and independent body tasked to coordinate the operational cooperation between Member States in the field of border security.” Read more
Roy Beck (NumbersUSA) is a Big Fat Liar
“But ‘whatever our past may have been’ was the same as what we are now. NumbersUSA has never had connections with white supremacists — not in the past, not in the present, not in the future.”
So go the words of Roy Beck the executive director of the anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA responding to a blog I wrote on June 8th entitled “NumbersUSA Addicted to Bigotry.” Roy wrote his response as part of a larger piece available at the NumbersUSA website.
I wonder if Beck would be willing to explain the photo below:
The three images were taken from the Winter 1997/98 Citizens Informer the publication of the white nationalists Council of Conservative Citizens (The Council). The top image is Roy “has never had connections with white supremacists” Beck presenting his Immigration by the Numbers at the Council’s National Conference in November of 1997. Read more
Child Killer Represented National Anti-Immigrant Group
Brisenia Flores was too young to die. At nine years-old her life was cut short by bullets fired at the hands of anti-immigrant activists—individuals who had been instructed by a larger movement that the United States was being invaded. For years alleged pundits like Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin have sold this racial fantasy to the American public and now a nine-year old girl has paid the ultimate price.
For Shawna Forde (41), Jason Bush (34), and Albert Gaxiola (42) Brisenia was not just a young child with her whole life ahead of her, instead she and her family were forced against their will into a world where they became part of an alleged “foreign army” whose lives held no worth. Read more
Sheriff Joe Called Upon to Renounce Neo-Nazi Followers
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon came out swinging at Sheriff Joe last week, demanding that he renounce his neo-Nazi fan base in light of the Holocaust Museum shooting. Phoenix New Times Reports:
In a response to the tragedy today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where 88-year-old white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly opened fire killing a security guard before being severely wounded himself, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called on Sheriff Joe Arpaio to distance himself from his neo-Nazi and racist supporters.
“I’m calling upon the sheriff of Maricopa County to denounce the neo-Nazis and the Nazis today,” said Gordon during a press conference this afternoon.”Not that I believe that the sheriff is a Nazi or a neo-Nazi. Let me be very clear, he has given the sense of recognition to the neo-Nazis and Nazis that he’s associated with.” Read more
Deal-cutting the 14th Amendment: At the Intersection of Racism and Immigration
Filed under: American Identity, Immigration, Politics
Nathan Deal
In a cynical move to build support for his campaign for the governorship of Georgia, U.S. Representative Nathan Deal has rekindled racist fervor to gut birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. By doing so he has once again –boldly and baldly—positioned himself at the intersection of racism and immigration.
HR1868, the “Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009,” would permit citizenship status to children birthed in the U.S. only if at least one parent is a citizen or legal permanent resident. Now co-sponsored by 73 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives—53 of whom are members of the FAIR-fueled anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC)—the bill rekindles the fervor for dismantling a cornerstone of rights won by African Americans in the post-Civil War era. Read more
Is Water a Privilege?
No, it’s not. Water is a basic human right. But some people in this country seem to think (or pretend to think) otherwise. I’ll start with an incident I heard about last week. A volunteer with No More Deaths, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert in Southern Arizona, was found guilty of littering (yes, littering) after leaving fresh water jugs for migrants lost in the desert. Feetin2worlds reports:
[Walt] Staton, 27, a volunteer with No More Deaths, was cited by the Border Patrol for leaving water containers in the park south of Tucson. Staton, who faces up to a year in prison for the charges, told the Arizona Daily Star he will continue to place water in the desert. “We’re not asking permission from the United States to save people’s lives. We never have, because we know they’d say no,” Staton told the Tucson publication.
After a two day trial Staton”s attorney, William Walker, pointed out a glaring irony to this whole process, “What really surprised me, though, was . . . this trial must have cost the government more than $50,000 . . . they say there aren’t enough agents on the border, that they can’t stop terrorists from coming into the country . . . and then they spend all of this time and money prosecuting a humanitarian who is putting out water to save lives.” Read more
NumbersUSA Addicted to Bigotry
The anti-immigration group NumbersUSA is continuing to strengthen its relationship to white nationalists despite claims to the contrary made by executive director Roy Beck. The national civil rights organization Center for New Community made public a new video produced by NumbersUSA that allegedly speaks to immigration and the economy. But it actually spotlights individuals affiliated with a network created by white nationalist John Tanton.
According to Roy Beck, the video released on June 5 called Immigration 103 — American Trauma: Jobs and the Economy serves to give these individuals “a soapbox to explain how elected leaders use high immigration to drive down the wages of — and throw out of work — many of the country’s most vulnerable citizens…” Beck’s NumbersUSA intentionally ignores two important facts in the video. The first is that the claim that immigrants are destroying the economy is utterly false and the second is that eight of the ten experts highlighted in the video are part of the John Tanton Anti-Immigrant Network, a network with ties to political extremists including white nationalists. Read more
National Town Hall Meeting: We Can’t Wait
Among cheers of “Sí se puede!” and “Time is now!” hundreds packed into the Church of the Reformation for a National Town Hall meeting on Capitol Hill. Their calls were clear - we can’t wait, we need comprehensive immigration reform now.
Farmworkers certainly can’t wait. Last year a pregnant teenager, María Isabel Vásquez Jiménez, died after working in a California vineyard in blistering heat without access to water or shade. Her’s is just one of many deaths due to inadequate protections for undocumented workers. How many more farmworkers will die in the fields before our system is reformed? Read more
Immigration Reform Naysayers Should Embrace Possibility
Ben Jealous, President, NAACP
This morning I found myself at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. I was there to observe the public launch of a new campaign Reform Immigration for America. The campaign unites labor, faith, civil rights, pro-immigrant, business and law enforcement to help President Obama make good on his promise to pass immigration reform in 2009. The press conference is one of over 40 events taking place throughout the United States this week.
As I stood amongst the crowd of over 100 media and supporters one thing became crystal clear. This is our historic opportunity, our historic moment, our time to stand together as Americans to unite families, secure worker’s rights, and strengthen our nation. It is no longer good enough to mouth simple platitudes; we must now stand up and more importantly step forward. Read more
Unparalleled Push For Comprehensive Immigration Reform Begins
It has begun. The most respected voices on immigration, civil rights, labor, business, and faith joined forces today in an unparalleled call for comprehensive immigration reform.
Their message? We need a common-sense solution to our broken immigration system in 2009. At a press conference this morning Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP, Janet Murguia of NCLR, and Ali Noorani of National Immigration Forum were just a few of the national leaders on hand to launch a push for immigration reform. They aren’t alone. Hundreds of organizations from around the nation are joining with them this week in Washington DC for three days of activities to demonstrate their support.
Over 700 representatives from these organizations have traveled far and wide to talk to members of congress and encourage their local constituents to do the same with faxes, text messages and email.
In a statement released today Ali Noorani said, “The broken immigration system is a symbol of how Washington has been avoiding tough problems for too long. It’s time for leaders to do what a majority of Americans want done - fix our immigration system.” Read more
The Climate of Fear and the Illusion of Freedom
Red lights flashing, the State Trooper pulls up behind the car with no front plate. License please. No license, just a passport. Let’s see it. It’s at home. Let’s go get it; I’ll follow you.
They drive to the trailer. The Trooper follows the driver inside. Others are there. The passport is found and handed over. The Trooper asks the others for their papers. Tells them he has to take the documents in and check them with Immigration. He leaves. The people flee. Call the church for help. Call others for help. They don’t return to the trailer. They flee. They leave everything behind. They flee.
Blue lights flashing, the Officers pull up beside the teenager walking home with his friends. Identification. Let’s see it. It’s at home. Pats him down. Get in the car. Let’s go see. Read more
Sotomayor is a Beacon of Opportunity for All Women
To all the women out there who fight for women’s rights, let me introduce you to our new hero, Sonia Sotomayor. Maybe you’ve heard of her already.
If confirmed, Sonia will be only the third woman to ever sit on our nation’s highest court. And the first woman of color. One more thing, Sonia knows what it is like to be poor.
Sonia said something indicating that she might be a better judge because of these things - because she is a women, a child of immigrants, a minority, a person of moderate means she may be a better choice for our high court than just another white man. Read more
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