07/31/12 This past weekend, the editorial board of the Burlington Times-News in North Carolina roundly criticized local law enforcement officials who plan to attend a “training” hosted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Texas. Titled “Law Enforcement is Best to Avoid Bad Company,” the editorial calls the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office and Board [...]
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07/31/12 With the national conventions of both parties on the horizon, the countdown for the November 6 election begins. This means that it is also time to mobilize Latino voters. What will the candidates do? Read here the Spanish-language analysis by Maribel Hastings.
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07/30/12 “No papers, no fear.” That is the slogan that is driving (so to speak) a group of undocumented immigrants and allies of different ages from Arizona to cities where there is heated anti-immigrant sentiment. The group is calling out the injustices toward immigrants that have been taking place throughout the country, especially in states where there [...]
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07/30/12 Election 2012 is not for another three months, but already, an existential struggle over state voter ID laws is brewing—one that could help decide who wins the White House and determine who is allowed to participate in American politics. On one side stands groups like Mi Familia Vota and Voto Latino, which are busy registering [...]
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07/30/12 by LD Guest Blogger Casey Klofstad on 07/30/2012 Cross-posted from Latino Decisions. As we get closer to the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa Bay, FL, speculation grows as to who Mitt Romney will nominate as his candidate for Vice President. Marco Rubio, Cuban American freshman U.S. Senator from Florida, has been a very visible member of the short [...]
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07/30/12 In his column at the New York Daily News, Albor Ruiz explains the critical importance of  the immigration issue for Latino voters: Lately much noise has been coming from the Republicans about how immigration is not that big an issue for Hispanics and how it will not turn Latino voters away from Mitt Romney, their presumptive [...]
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07/27/12 Undocumented women run an especially high risk of being victimized by employers, romantic partners, and immigration enforcement officers. To combat this, Breakthrough–a group committed to building a “human rights culture”–has begun a campaign called “I’m Here.” The group is focused on shedding light and providing support to immigrant women who feel alone due to fear [...]
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07/27/12 Most days, Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio acts like a caricature of a Western law man: the cowboy, “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” the man who brought back chain gangs, parades prisoners around in pink underwear, and clearly believes he’s above the rule of law. “After they went after me,” Arpaio gloated in a 2009 speech to [...]
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07/26/12 Yesterday marked Day 3 of the Sheriff Joe Arpaio trial that is currently underway in Phoenix, Arizona.  It was the most emotional day of testimony yet. Below are two of the most heart-wrenching stories from immigrants who are accusing Sheriff Joe and his deputies of racial profiling: Daniel Magos, a 67 year-old Mexican native who [...]
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07/26/12 A new Wall Street Journal/NBC/Telemundo poll of both Latinos and general voters confirms two fundamental truths about the politics of immigration: 1) Latino voters see this issue as very important; 2) other voters are far less focused on it, but remain more open to practical solutions than some politicians would believe. When Latino voters were asked, “Using a short phrase or [...]
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07/26/12 President Obama’s June announcement (that DREAM Act-eligible youth would be spared from deportation and granted work permits) was widely applauded as a move that would finally grant relief to young immigrants and allow them to move toward legal status.  But a shady, cynical cadre of fraudulent lawyers and notarios has already sprung up, prepared to [...]
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07/25/12 This afternoon, NBC, the Wall Street Journal and Telemundo released its latest polling, which includes an oversampling of Latino voters. The President maintains a commanding lead: President Barack Obama remains broadly popular with Hispanics, a key voting bloc in this fall’s election, according to new data from the NBC-Wall Street Journal-Telemundo poll. The president leads presumptive Republican [...]
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07/25/12 When the notorious anti-Latino and anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the witness stand this week at his civil rights trial in Phoenix, he chose to play a game of duck and dodge, pinning responsibility for his offensive remarks and actions on others, including his deputies and the ghostwriter of his autobiography. Unfortunately for him and [...]
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07/25/12 Yesterday, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) took to the stage at the Center for American Progress to launch a new website featuring the lives and stories of DREAMers.  (We live-tweeted the event here.) Durbin has long been one of the foremost advocates of immigration reform and the DREAM Act, first sponsoring the bill to [...]
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07/25/12 In court yesterday, the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” ran from his record of terrorizing immigrant communities. Gone was the swagger, and under the light of overwhelming evidence, he tried to scramble away and evade responsibility for all of it. 1. “I don’t get involved in those operations. I’m not there on the street patrolling and [...]
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07/24/12 Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio is expected to take the stand today, when a civil trial probing into his department’s chronic abuse of racial profiling resumes. The no-jury, single-judge trial began last week in Arizona, with plaintiffs arguing that Arpaio and his department regularly profile and detain Hispanics without probable cause, often only so that [...]
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07/24/12 Yesterday’s webinar revealed the results from polling national latino voters, which included negative sentiments toward Arizona’s SB 1070, unenthusiastic feelings about Mitt Romney regarding his views about SB 1070, and more trust in the democratic party when it comes to immigration. Here’s what others in the media had to say about it. According to Elise [...]
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07/23/12 On a webinar today, experts from Latino Decisions and America’s Voice released the final results of a new national poll of Latino registered voters, revealing how these voters view the politics of immigration in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on SB 1070 and the President’s decision to stop the deportation of DREAM-eligible youth. [...]
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07/23/12 We’ve long said that what’s happened to the GOP in California over the last twenty years—as the Latino population expanded, and the Republican Party aligned itself with restrictionist immigration policies instead of more inclusive ones—is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation.  Today’s front-page New York Times story titled, “Republican Party in California [...]
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07/20/12 Today, United We Dream (UWD), the largest network of immigrant-youth led organizations in the country, announced its campaign to educate 500,000 DREAMers on Obama’s relief policy. They spoke about their plan to educate their communities about the process, the guidelines and documents needed; as well as warned the community of potential notario and other types [...]
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07/20/12 This week, notoriously anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio heads to court, facing charges of civil rights violations, namely racial profiling.  (For a rundown of the worst things Sheriff Joe Arpaio has done, view this list.) Here’s what the media covered the trial: From Edvard Pettersson and William Hermann of Business Week: Stanley Young, a lawyer for [...]
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07/20/12 Cross-Posted at Mom’s Rising: I’d like to believe that most Americans, perhaps with the exception of the hard-core nativists, like Rep. Steve King and Romney advisor Kris Kobach, knows our nation’s immigration policies need to be fixed.  But behind these failed policies are real human beings:  those who make decisions about how to enforce the [...]
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07/19/12 Cross-Posted at Jack and Jill Politics: Today, at an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Steve King (R-Peanut Gallery) ominously threatened to sue DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano unless she reversed the Obama Administration’s popular new policy to grant temporary relief to DREAMers. In case you don’t know him, Rep. King is one of [...]
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07/19/12 Today, Latino Decision’s Gary Segura spoke on a panel entitled “The Latino Vote, 2012 and Beyond”, with Representative Becerra (D-CA); Angela Kelley, VP for Immigration Policy and Advocacy, Center for American Progress; and Janet Murguia, National Council of La Raza (we live-tweeted here). Below are findings of part II of the polling commissioned by America’s [...]
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07/19/12 Cross-Posted at Latino Vote Matters and Latino Decisions: In polling data released today, Latino Decisions reports that Latino registered voters oppose the Supreme Court decision to uphold the controversial provision in Arizona’s SB1070 law that would require state and local police to check immigration status if they suspect a person they have stopped is an [...]
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07/19/12 Maribel Hastings is a senior advisor at America’s Voice: Last week Craig Romney, son of de facto Republican nominee Mitt Romney, made an appeal to Latino voters in a Spanish-language ad called “Los Invito” (“I Invite You”) to get to know his father better in order to support his candidacy. However, it might be helpful [...]
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07/18/12 Several opponents of Arizona’s SB 1070, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, went to Court today to stop implementation of the “show me your papers” provision of that law. The groups are “seeking a court order that would prevent authorities from enforcing a rule that requires [...]
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