DHS Accused of Racial Profiling
It has been over six years since Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) was founded. Since its inception, they have caused enough harm for national research groups to accuse ICE of racial profiling. The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity of UC Berkeley recently released a report entitled “The C.A.P. Effect Racial Profiling in the ICE Criminal Alien Program”. For those who work within immigration, the deplorable actions of ICE do not have to be proven in a research document. However, the recent report lends credibility to critiques of ICE – both in terms of its history of human rights violations and in terms of the implementation of programs such as 287 (g) and CAP (Criminal Alien Program), which call for federal-local cooperation for immigration enforcement. When local police are acting as an arm of the Department of Homelands security, it is more likely than not, that you will be stopped simply for looking Hispanic.
The Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity conducted research in Irving, Texas to examine the racial implications of local and state police working alongside ICE. What they found, is that within 24 hour access to ICE, local police arrest of Hispanics for minor offenses increased significantly, while the arrest of African Americans and white people remained steady. The correlation between ICE’s access to Irving officials and the increase in Hispanic arrests for minor offenses supports the contention that the aggressive profiling of Hispanics increased through the collaboration.
“Green” Fuel Has Human Cost
Governments and big business displacing landowners around the globe is nothing new. So it comes as no surprise that since 2005 there has been a resurgence of land theft in Colombia to make way for biofuel, and not so coincidentally, a re-mobilization of paramilitary groups.
BBC News covered the conflict in Colombia on June 3, exposing the human rights violations of the Colombian biofuel industry. An excerpt from the report states:
In rural areas, there is evidence that some people have been forcibly displaced to make way for biofuel production. Last year, the United Nations stopped its investment in the sector in Colombia. But while ethanol production in Brazil has been pored over by experts and activists, the challenges faced by Colombia remain relatively unexamined.
Inhabitants standing in the way of the biofuel industry are subject to paramilitaries arriving at their property and forcibly displacing them. Read more
De La Rocha Speaks to Thousands in Phoenix
By Dan Weiss
On Saturday February 28th, I joined thousands in Phoenix, Arizona to march against America’s most hated Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. The four mile long march was the latest step in bringing national attention to Arpaio’s blatant civil and human rights violations.
Men and women of all ages attended the event with shirts, signs, and banners expressing their outrage. Small children showed their pride, holding signs reading “We are Human” and wearing “un-sentenced” t-shirts. Police watched and listened as chant after chant blared, and fist after fist pumped. Read more
Audio: (Part 1) Hip-hop artist One Be Lo talks music, youth, and empowerment.
During this month’s hip-hop show “Stop the Circus. Stop Arpaio!” in Phoenix, Arizona, I got a chance to sit down with the popular underground hip-hop artist One Be Lo. So join us as we get the positive scoop from this positive artist as he looks at identity, hip-hop culture and youth. He was also kind enough to share read more
Napolitano, Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio is your Problem
It’s been 48 hours since over 200 undocumented immigrants were handcuffed, marched through Phoenix streets and abandoned in a tent city surrounded by an electric fence in the middle of the desert. This latest publicity stunt by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a clear violation of human rights law. Based on a recent report showing that ICE has been lying, and purposely targeting immigrants with no documented criminal activity, it’s very likely that some of these people have not committed crimes.
Meanwhile, sitting comfortably in DC, newly minted Secretary of Homeland Secretary (and former AZ governor) Janet Napolitano is being called “the best advocate for sense and sensibility.” But where is her sense of justice and humanity when residents of her own community are isolated not for any specific crime but because of their nationality? This is ludicrous. Read more
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
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
Today We Stand for Human Rights
Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - a document that has had a profound affect globally on human dignity. Despite 60 years of clearly defined and generally accepted freedoms, we are still struggling to meet the standards set down in that Declaration. Today is a particularly crucial time in our nation’s history to recommit ourselves to upholding human rights. Read more
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