03/25/09 "End the raids." That's the message from Cardinal George, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in USA Today. Folks, it just doesn't get any simpler than that. You've probably heard the uproar - led by Lou Dobbs- over Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's recent statements at a church in her hometown. She called on Congress to end immigration raids that tear families apart, a process which she called "un-American." Well, it turns out that Lou Dobbs was right...
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03/24/09 The Washington Post's George Will has a great column on Police Chief Jack Harris, who argues that Washington's failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform directly affects his ability to fight crime in Phoenix. 'For now, the U.S. "has turned immigration policy over to Mexican thugs." So, we have reached a point at which barbed wire, car batteries and acid become the business tools of kidnapper-torturer-extortionists.'
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03/16/09 Lawrence Downes writes about a factory worker who rolled up his sleeves and wrote a traditional Mexican "corrido" about injustice: "Mr. Linares's subject, the Maricopa County sheriff, is infamous for abusing prisoners, strutting on TV and arresting Latinos on flimsy pretexts. To his victims he is a figure of fear and mockery, part Bull Connor, part Buford T. Justice from "Smokey and the Bandit." Citizens from across the country have stood strong in protest of Sheriff Arpaio's heinous tactics -- and their voices are being heard. Downes reports, "Last week the Justice Department told the sheriff he was being investigated over accusations of racial profiling, and Congress members denounced his "reign of terror."
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03/16/09 Daily Kos has a piece up on the front page today that lays out both the moral and political arguments for planting real immigration reform firmly within the administration's agenda. In it, Kos cites an article in Roll Call that discusses the 19-city Family Unity Tour that is making stops from Texas to Philadelphia: "Gutierrez's campaign attempts to humanize immigration by featuring children who are U.S. citizens bereft of their illegal immigrant parents." Nativists advocate a hardline against immigrants, but their loud and aggressive efforts have proven to be an electoral bust.
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03/13/09 Factcheck.org has a good analysis of this wide-spread misinformation campaign by restrictionist groups like the Center for Immigration Studies: "Q: Will 300,000 illegal immigrants get construction jobs through the stimulus package? A: There's no way of knowing how many illegal immigrants may or may not end up with a job from stimulus funds. But this inflated estimate comes from conservative groups concerned about the absence of employee verification requirements in the final bill."
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03/13/09 Today the Associated Press is reporting that former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice deeply regrets not getting an immigration overhaul done during the Bush administration: "We need immigration reform." According to the AP, "She said immigrants were critical to the country's financial health, and that reform was needed to fuel the next round of economic growth." Moral of the story: Better to get reform done early and well then regret it later.
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03/12/09 So, Lou has officially gone �loco,’ as Barbara Morrill noted yesterday in her Late afternoon/early evening open thread on the front page of Daily Kos. It’s hard to imagine how he gets off smearing the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is made up primarily of small and large American business owners of Hispanic descent, as a down-and-dirty drug cartel. Dobbs used to be known as “Leprosy Lou” for his wild imagination when it comes to all things immigration, but now he can safely be called "Lou, El Loco." Crazy stuff is right.
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03/11/09 Check out Spanish-language coverage of today's call for an investigation of Arpaio, a full-length feature by Maribel Hastings. Legisladores, activistas y funcionarios aplaudieron la pesquisa en contra del Alguacil Joe Arpaio que conducirá el Departamento de Justicia, y el presidente del Comité Judicial de la Cámara Baja, John Conyers (D-MI), anunció que cuatro paneles camerales conducirán audiencias conjuntas sobre los excesos del alguacil y sobre el empleo de perfiles raciales y otros abusos en los programas que permiten a jurisdicciones locales aplicar las leyes migratorias.
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03/11/09 Representative John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the US House Committee on the Judiciary, spoke first. Part of his speech was captured in the video below. He said we need to “end Arpaio’s reign of terror”and explained how grave the charges against Arpaio really are. He said they reflected a major civil rights crisis that needs to be addressed immediately. Rep. Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties gave an impassioned speech that rallied the crowd, part of which we caught on tape. Check it out.
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03/11/09 Last Night Sheriff Joe Arpaio finally got what he's been asking for: an investigation by the Department of Justice. Today Representative Conyers and other members of the House Judiciary Committee join civil rights leaders to endorse a major petition delivery, listen to testimony, and call for an end to the Sheriff's questionable tactics. Over 35,000 petition signatures have been collected by a diverse array of social justice organizations, alongside America's Voice.
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03/10/09 In an interview with NPR yesterday, I lay out some of the pitfalls of local immigration enforcement in the absence of federal solutions. The 287-g program, taken at its worst, breeds the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The issue for many local sheriff offices is, at its core, community safety. Will immigrant communities partner with law enforcement in reporting crimes if they fear that encounters with police will invariably lead to checking people’s immigration status? Unlikely.
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03/09/09 In "Pelosi: End raids splitting immigrant families," the San Francisco Gate describes the powerful 5th stop along the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' "Family Unity Tour." The Speaker," who has said securing U.S. borders is a top priority, used the forum to call for a comprehensive immigration program that recognizes the broad contributions immigrants have made to the fabric of the country," according to the San Francisco Gate. She argued the case passionately: "Our future is about our children...Taking parents from their children ... that's un-American."
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03/06/09 In “Immigration reform movement looks to evangelicals, children left behind by deported parents,” the Chicago Tribune describes Congressman Luis Gutierrez’s (D-IL) new “Family Unity Tour,” which launched last weekend and has already reached thousands across the country. In the words of Congressman Luis Gutierrez: "As a nation, as citizens, we cannot wait any longer for fair and just immigration reform. Across America, parents and children, husbands and wives are being torn apart by a system that values quotas over family values and which undermines our economic security in a time of crisis. It is for this reason that U.S. citizens in each of these cities are joining this campaign and standing up for real, lasting change."
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03/05/09 In a new report published by the Immigration Policy Center, Debunking the Myth of Sanctuary Cities: Community Policing Policies Protect American Communities, I explain how opponents of comprehensive immigration reform have pushed a dangerous policy that would alienate immigrant crime victims from state and local police, a policy that would make entire communities less safe. These politicians share the same worldview as notorious Latino residents of Maricopa County who have committed no crimes into Public Enemy Number One, while thousands of outstanding felony warrants languish on his desk.
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03/03/09 The media is starting to tell it like it is, and the Nativists are getting even more restless. In “Leader says FAIR is no hate group,” FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) President Dan Stein takes issue with a recent article by the Frederick News-Post Online, chronicling the quiet, but sinister, rise of hate groups across the country. FAIR was founded by a supporter of eugenics, John Tanton, with funds from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation committed to the belief that some races of people are genetically and intellectually superior to other races. Tanton continues as a leader of FAIR and sits on its board of directors.
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