America's Voice Blog

Posted 07/31/09 at 08:59am By Web Team

Weekly Immigration Wire: Post-Racial Hypocrisy

Note: This is a weekly feature by Nezua, TMC MediaWire Blogger

Nobody said becoming a post-racial nation would be easy. The United States has its first black president, but as the son of a Kenyan immigrant, his citizenship and legitimacy are still being questioned. In the meantime, the White House is advancing programs like the 287(g) agreement, which have been linked to racial profiling and civil rights violations. It's a form of oppression made possible, perversely, by the very administration that many hoped would combat such injustices.

Not that the issue of race ever really went anywhere, but the topic is front and center in the news again since the June 18 arrest of Henry Louis Gates, a Harvard professor who was picked up by police in his own home. Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo runs through the "racially-charged attacks that have circulated against [President] Obama" since his comments on Gates' arrest. Kleefeld notes that this rhetoric has been a regular focus of the Right's attacks against Obama since "the phony rumors of a tape of Michelle Obama defaming whites."

But that's old news. Today's paranoiac can tune into the strange campaign spearheaded by CNN's Lou Dobbs known as "Birtherism," which is the belief held by a very fringe element of the Right that President Obama was not born in the U.S. and is ineligible to hold office. Dobbs has been obsessively documenting the fact-resistant Birther debate, supposedly because the group needs representation and a voice in the media. The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen reports on Dobbs' response to criticism from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: Lou is now calling Maddow names like the "Teabagging Queen."

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Posted 07/30/09 at 08:00pm By Lynn Tramonte

Senators Menendez, Gillibrand Introduce Immigration Detention Reform Legislation

Today, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced two bills which seek to improve deplorable conditions in immigration detention and prevent U.S. citizens from being locked up by mistake.

S. 1550, the "Prevent Detainee Deaths and Abuse Act" and S. 1549, the "Protect Citizens from Unlawful Detention Act," would drastically improve the plight of detained immigrants-- and even U.S. citizens.  These bills would require that immigration jails meet minimum standards like ensuring that U.S. citizens aren’t mistakenly detained, children are considered for humanitarian release, and detainees have access to adequate medical care and legal counseling. 

These are pretty basic standards, but ones that the Bush-era immigration enforcement regime consistently failed to meet, and that the Obama Administration hasn’t acted on either.

According to Senator Menendez, the bill’s lead sponsor:

“No American citizen ever deserves to be thrown into detention and have their freedom taken away for no reason, but this sort of thing is happening far too often. People who were born right here in the United States of America have been taken into custody without knowing why, and in some cases, kicked out of the land they call home to countries completely foreign to them. At the same time, people who are thrown into detention are being refused basic medical treatment for conditions that can become deadly. These are fellow human beings who haven’t committed any sort of violent crime, yet they are being treated as subhuman, even in the United States of America. Let’s make it clear – a detention should never amount to a death sentence. These legislative initiatives will help reinforce what our great country has always stood for: liberty, the rule of law and basic human rights.”

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Posted 07/30/09 at 05:21pm By Jackie Mahendra

Why Won’t DHS Create Real Immigration Detention Standards?

What's that line about things getting worse before they get better? We can only hope (oh, wait, someone already owns that one...) or should I say, make the case loudly, that this be the case over at DHS.

Nina Bernstein of the New York Times reports this week that the Department of Homeland Security, led by Janet Napolitano, has declined to make the growing detention industry in the United States legally accountable. The final decision came in on Tuesday, in time to meet a court-ordered deadline:

The Obama administration has refused to make legally enforceable rules for immigration detention, rejecting a federal court petition by former detainees and their advocates and embracing a Bush-era inspection system that relies in part on private contractors.

The decision, contained in a six-page letter received by the plaintiffs this week, disappointed and angered immigration advocacy organizations around the country. They pointed to a stream of newly available documents that underscore the government's failure to enforce minimum standards it set in 2000, including those concerning detainees' access to basic health care, telephones and lawyers, even as the number of people detained has soared to more than 400,000 a year.

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Posted 07/30/09 at 11:33am By Paco Fabian

DHS Enforcement Priorities Have Violated Human Rights

Today, we released a new video calling on DHS secretary Napolitano to investigate Bush-era home raids and focus on real, comprehensive immigration reform-- instead of half-baked enforcement measures that are only making communities less safe.

Check out the video, based on a new report by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law:

Raise your voice - Sign the Petition to Secretary Napolitano today!

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law recently found that immigration agents engaged in widespread abuse during "home raids" over the last few years.  Some of the agents' most egregious violations include entering and searching homes without legal authority, seizing people without any basis other than their racial or ethnic appearance, or limited English proficiency.  DHS's response, from an e-mail to the New York Times:

"The men and women of I.C.E. are sworn to uphold the laws of our nation.  We do so professionally, humanely and with an acute awareness with the impact enforcement has on the individuals we encounter. While I.C.E. prioritizes our efforts by targeting fugitives who have demonstrated a threat to national security or public safety, we have a clear mandate to pursue all immigration fugitives."

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Posted 07/29/09 at 05:52pm By Frank Sharry

GOP Latino Outreach Strategy: Oppose, Ignore, Aggravate and Scapegoat

Note: Cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

GOP ashamedA series of events over the past several days and weeks show that the Republican Party still has not learned the lessons of the 2006 and 2008 elections. As Senator Tom Coburn might say -- they have some "splaining to do."

In a remarkable and mostly unconscious display of white identity politics, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee spouted condescending questions at the president's distinguished nominee for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. Failing to trip her up, all but one of the Republicans on the committee voted against her nomination.

This proved too much for conservative-leaning columnist Ruben Navarrette:

Judge Sonia Sotomayor cruised through her confirmation hearings without a scratch. Too bad we can't say the same about the seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who tried to dent her credibility and wound up demolishing their own. The problem wasn't that Republican senators challenged Sotomayor. That's their job. The problem was that they did their job in such an obsessive and boorish way so as to make clear to the entire country that they had no idea how to deal with someone like Sotomayor.

Navarrette added that the GOP missed a huge opportunity to make "lemons into lemonade by grabbing the moment and using it to make the point that their party does, on occasion, open doors for the talented but underrepresented. Instead, they gave the appearance of standing in the doorway."

Unsurprisingly, Ranking Minority Member Jeff Sessions became the GOP's point person in the opposition to Sotomayor. For a party needing to shed its reputation as an all-white club for Southern gentlemen, this proved to be an unfortunate development.

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Posted 07/28/09 at 01:13pm By Jackie Mahendra

Check out the America’s Voice - Netroots Nation Immigration Blogger Scholar Winners!

ComputerAmerica's Voice is pleased to send eight very talented people to the fourth annual Netroots Nation conference scheduled to happen this year in Pittsburgh from August 13 - 16, awarding them the opportunity to participate in four days of insightful panels, training sessions and networking opportunities, and the opportunity to share their unique perspectives on immigration with the larger progressive community.

So Congratulations, Netroots Scholars! For our readers, a brief introduction:

Nezua

Nezua is an artist and writer who publishes  www.theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete as well as writes for the Media Consortium at http://www.themediaconsortium.org/author/nezua/. He is passionate about the human rights abuses surrounding the immigration issue and his writing has appeared in many places, from La Opinion to Nuestra Voice to Alternet. He describes himself as "Warrior meets Jester" and has the bells to prove it. When he's not writing about immigration, he draws, paints, plays/composes/records music, and spends time with his daughters. He also enjoys freshly ground coffee from Guatemala - or thereabouts. Nezua is a Commonweal Institute Fellow.

Maegan Ortiz

Maegan Ortiz, who writes for www.vivirlatino.com as "La Mamita Mala", has 15 years of grassroots organizing experience working in the racial justice movement, with deep experience in new media, particularly focusing on issues affecting Latina women. She describes herself as a "radical, mami and artista," and hopes that her work provides immigrant communities with the resources and networks that would enable them to speak to wider audiences, helping them build a stronger community.

Annabel Park

Annabel's video blog, www.youtube.com/9500liberty, documents the immigration battle in Prince William County, Virginia and is considered a breakthrough in new media activism. Previously, Annabel produced a YouTube channel in support of Obama, featuring the music video "Si Se Puede Cambiar."  In 2007, she coordinated the historic Asian-American grassroots campaign for H.Res.121, the "comfort women" resolution, addressing the trafficking of girls into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during WWII. She is currently finishing a feature-length documentary version of the story, "9500 Liberty," and will also be presenting on Keith Kamisugi's panel at Netroots Nation: http://netrootsnation.org/node/1137

Margaret Haule

Margaret Haule, who writes for www.TheAustinTimes.com and www.LesWeForget.Blogspot.com, is passionate about writing on the subject of deportation, noting that it is many of those stories that remain "untold." She describes herself as creative and resourceful, and as "not only a victim, but a survivor...not only a writer, but a media activist. I not only blog about my experiences, but I am involved in grassroots activism and helping those who are refugees and/or immigrants."

Click here to read more.
Posted 07/28/09 at 12:11pm By Jackie Mahendra

Republican Leaders Skip Top Latino Advocacy Conference, Raise Eyebrows

As Greg Sargent reported today, over at The Plum Line:

The National Council of La Raza, a top Latino civil rights group, is taking a shot at RNC chair Michael Steele and several prominent GOP figures for skipping its ongoing annual conference, saying it raises questions about the GOP’s interest in wooing Latinos.

NCLR spokesperson Marie Watteau confirms to me that Steele, along with three Republican governors, were all invited to its conference, which is concluding today with a big speech by DNC chair Tim Kaine. But Steele and the three governors — Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, and Puerto Rico’s Luis Fortuno — all declined the invitations through the RNC, Watteau says.

Paging the GOP Hispanic Outreach Team... 

Posted 07/28/09 at 08:20am By Patty Kupfer

Center of the storm: 100 Police Chiefs Gather to Talk Immigration

PoliceThe stories have barely begun before the frustration boils over.

Those of us who came to observe the convening see the nods and sense the recognition as more stories came out.  Police chiefs have journeyed from Mesa, AZ, Prince William County, VA, Salt Lake City, UT... from all across the US. It wasn't at first obvious to an outsider what these police chiefs had in common, but after an hour's worth of discussion it became clear:

They've all been caught at the center of an immigration fire storm, without ever choosing to be there.

Several police chiefs participating in the Police Executive Research Forum's daylong summit on local immigration enforcement explained what it is like to be stuck in the middle. They described how local politicians pandering to an extreme base had created policies that severely compromised public safety. Chief George Gascon of Mesa, AZ, alluding to his battle with the Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his infamous neighborhood sweeps, lamented:

"I have seen the ugly side of this enforcement."

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Posted 07/27/09 at 12:04pm By Jackie Mahendra

Sen. Kyl on the “Impossibility” of Immigration Reform this Year (Here We Go Again)

Sen. KylOver the weekend, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stated:

"To try to do immigration reform this year would be an impossibility."

He listed all the items on Congress' "already crammed" agenda to prove his point. But one item he mentioned on that agenda is the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court Justice. Despite the best efforts of Kyl and his colleague, Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, that should be wrapped up by the end of next week. In all probability, we'll be calling Sonia "Justice Sotomayor" before our good Senators settle in for August recess.

Here's the thing. A whole lot of people, starting with President Obama, have already been building broad consensus on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. A whole lot of people (a clear majority of the American people, in fact) want comprehensive reform, including a whole lot of Republican voters (63% generally, shooting up to 89% when these voters hear the details). The Council on Foreign Relations also recently laid out a set of clear, bipartisan principles for immigration reform.

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Posted 07/24/09 at 03:51pm By Paco Fabian

CNN Contoversy Continues, SPLC Says ‘Fire Dobbs,’ MoveOn Demands Apology

Lou Dobbs is proving to be a huge embarrassment for CNN. This time, he may have finally gone too far.

Over the past couple weeks, Dobbs has taken up the cause of the extremist "birthers." Those are the far right-wingers who claim Barack Obama wasn't born in America, and, thus, isn't constitutionally qualified to be President. Most of the birther talk has been limited to FOX and right-wing radio. But, Dobbs has jumped in with both feet.

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center, noting the racist underpinnings of the "birther" movement, asked CNN's President, Jonathan Klein, to fire Dobbs:

As he has in several other instances, Mr. Dobbs, in taking up the birthers' claims, is adopting an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that originated on the radical racist right. As Gawker.com has reported, this particular conspiracy theory was first developed by an open anti-Semite and circulated by right-wing extremists who cannot accept the fact that a black man has been elected President of the United States. Among its adherents was neo-Nazi James von Brunn, the alleged murderer of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., this June. Von Brunn had helped spread the birthers' claims on the Internet and attacked the "dishonest & conspiratorial Media" for not taking them up.

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