America's Voice Blog

Posted 10/30/09 at 01:08pm By Adam Luna

Speaking for God and for America’s Top Cops – the Center for Immigration Studies

America’s top religious and law enforcement leaders are taking a strong stance in favor of sensible immigration reform and it’s made the anti-immigrant crowd very nervous.

In response, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the anti-immigrant lobby’s “think tank,” released two reports, written by the same author, claiming that Los Angeles police chief William Bratton and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, don't know what they're talking about.

An offshoot of the Federation for American Immigration Reform – designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – CIS’ role is to halt the anti-immigrant movement's dwindling credibility.  They do this by releasing reports written by their "experts” to counter the views of actual authorities in their fields.

CIS’ credibility took a hit earlier this year with a report blaming immigrants for global warming and another when CIS director Mark Krikorian called on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to pronounce her name in a less ethnic-sounding way.  But the widening chasm between actual experts and the CIS peanut gallery has become almost laughable.

Let's meet one of the Center's "experts":  James R. Edwards, a principal of the MITA ("Man in the Action") Group. Despite not having a badge or a collar, Edwards is a CIS “expert” on law enforcement, the Bible and a number of other issues.

Here's how the Center for Immigration Studies and Edwards defend America's broken immigration policies:

Step One:  Law enforcement experts discuss changes to our ineffective immigration enforcement policies – July 22, 2009.

Step Two: CIS releases a report claiming to be the real law enforcement experts - October 27, 2009.

Click here to read more.
Posted 10/30/09 at 10:27am By Jackie Mahendra

TGIF Immigration Roundup: Tea Parties Get New Target, Gheen Says “Make My Day, Punk”

It's gonna be in bullet points. Why? 'Cause it's Friday, people.

  • David Neiwert kicks things off over at Crooks and Liars, reporting, "Yesterday, a genuinely historic moment passed with scarcely a blip of attention from the media: President Obama signed into law the nation's first genuine federal bias-crimes statute." He goes on to slam Pat Robertson for not actually reading the legislation before claiming it doesn't protect people against those with religious bias.

  • BarbinMD launches a heated discussion over at Daily Kos with Teabaggers Have New Target -- check it out. The piece begins, "The immigration restrictionist group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) said it’s flooding Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, and planning another round of Tea Parties, to motivate what they hope will be a huge backlash against any attempt to legalize any undocumented immigrants in the United States."

  • Jennifer McFayden, over at About.com writes about the ALIPAC Tea Parties: "Peaceful, maybe, but ALIPAC president William Gheen is known for his hard line approach." She quotes him saying telling Congressman Gutierrez (D-IL) to ""Make my day punk!"(Seriously?) and then goes on to say, "I don't know what poll Gheen is using, but if he's quoting the recent CNN poll that's making the rounds, he might want to look at this blog post from America's Voice."

  • Another detention tragedy reported in the Boston Globe, in Detained immigrant’s death leaves far-reaching questions.

  • Did folks watch it? What'd you think?

    Finally, Maegan la mala of Vivir Latino had the story yesterday about our "Drop the Hate, Drop Dobbs" TV ad airing across the country, in CNN Wasn’t Having It, But MSNBC Says Yes to Drop Dobbs Ad. Politico also covered the story, reporting: "Today, America’s Voice announced that the “Drop Dobbs” ad will get some play in major markets beginning tonight on one of CNN’s rivals: It will air during MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

So, did you watch the ad on Rachel Maddow? Sign the letter to CNN yet?

Leave us some comment love -- it's Friday!

Posted 10/29/09 at 04:08pm By Jackie Mahendra

Don’t Wreck the Census- Tell Your Senator to Stop Vitter Amendment

VitterFrom Joaquin Guerra, over at the SEIU Blog--the latest action in response to the Vitter-Bennet Amendment:

Check out our latest effort in the Don't Wreck the Census Campaign:

"Some politicians come up with dumb ideas. Some come up with impractical ideas that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars. And then there are those lawmakers with crazy proposals that would violate the United States Constitution."

Republican Senators Vitter and Bennett hit the trifecta by trying to wreck the US Census.

Click here to read more.
Posted 10/29/09 at 01:15pm By Jackie Mahendra

Tell CNN to Tune in to MSNBC

Together, we raised the $16,000 needed to run our TV ad on CNN – telling the station to drop Lou Dobbs’s one-sided, anti-immigrant “news” show.

However, unfortunately, CNN isn’t having it. They called to say they won’t take our money and have refused to air our “Drop the Hate” TV ad.

But we’ve worked too hard to give up, and we need your voice now:

Please stand with us in telling CNN's President, Jonathan Klein, that he can't silence our growing movement!

By refusing to deal with Lou Dobbs and his nightly tirade against immigrants, Latinos, and people of color, CNN is quickly losing credibility as the “Most Trusted Name in News.”  As people become aware of the network’s one-sided coverage of immigration, they will start changing the channel -- which is exactly what we did. America's Voice is airing the ad on MSNBC!

Tune in to the Rachel Maddow show at 9:00 pm EST tonight, October 29th, to see the ad that you so generously supported. We've purchased air time on local cable networks in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, DC. Most importantly, help us make sure that CNN's president gets the message that we're not going anywhere.

The Dobbs Ad Will Air at the Following Times, Thursday, October, 29, 2009
Washington, DC

9 PM
Atlanta, GA
9 PM
11 PM
Los Angeles, CA
6 PM
9 PM
Chicago, IL
8 PM
10 PM
New York City, NY
9 PM
11 PM
Click here to read more.
Posted 10/29/09 at 12:06pm By Web Team

Weekly Diaspora: Legislating Hate

Anti-immigration groups and pundits cling to phrases like "Illegal Alien" because they only focus on foreignness and danger. These extreme factions are all about casting immigrants as what ails our society, conjuring up demons upon which to focus national ire, and perpetuating a subhuman category of being. It's a convenient distraction from things that are actually endangering our nation. A new web-only series from ColorLines called "Torn Apart by Deportation" is the perfect antidote to people like CNN's Lou Dobbs.

The stories in this series are thoroughly investigated, not sensationalized, and haunting. "Torn Apart" reveals how the push against immigrants in the U.S. is, once all the pieces come together, a cultural death wish on families of color. "Torn Apart" gives faces and feelings to the results of the nation's post-1996 immigration policies, which made it easier deport undocumented people for any criminal infraction. Two articles are currently available:

  • "Home in Name Only" follows Calvin James, who was deported after living in the US since the age of 12, back to Kingston, Jamaica. James is percieved as an undesirable and unwanted part of Jamaican society, which pins its crime rates on deportees. James was uprooted from a loving, productive life in the US and cast into a criminal class spanning two nations.

  • "Double Punishment" explores the nexus that people like James find themselves in, where they suffer under a clash of laws that target immigrants and criminals in a justice system already slanted against people of color.

Wiretap tackles the issue of the upcoming census count slated for Spring 2010. The census has become a point of political contention and moved abruptly away from its very practical purpose of counting all people in the country. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) are trying to add an amendment to an appropriations bill that would include a question about citizenship status to the census form, disrupting the entire well-established process of the census. The move would also cement growing fear in immigrant communities that the census is not to be trusted.

Click here to read more.
Posted 10/29/09 at 10:29am By Jackie Mahendra

Minutemen PAC Endorses Candidate in New York—What’s the big deal?

BriseniaAccording to Andrea Nill at the Wonk Room, an extreme nativist PAC, the Minutemen PAC, has gotten deeply involved in a New York Congressional race. Nill reports:

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for New York’s traditionally Republican 23rd District, has just won the right-wing support of the Minuteman Political Action Committee — the political action arm of a “nativist extremist” armed vigilante group. The Minuteman PAC is currently running Independent Expenditure radio spots and predicts that Hoffman is “positioned to win a landslide victory” over Republican Party nominee Dede Scozzafava.

So what's the big deal?

The Minutemen came under increasing scrutiny several months ago when a Minuteman activist, Shawna Forde, was investigated for the alleged murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores (pictured at right). Police suspect Forde had plotted the deadly home invasion in order to fund Minuteman activities in Arizona.

Dave Neiwert, blogger at Crooks and Liars, posted the 911 recording of the sole survivor of the deadly attack, and had this to say of the Minutemen in "Some 'neighborhood watch': Forde's Minuteman spinoff outfit was about 'starting a revolution against the government'":

The problem, as always, is its inherent vigilantism:

    The reality-based picture of the Minutemen that's emerging is not of a friendly "neighborhood watch" for the border, but of a chaotic collection of hatemongers who seem intent on a kind of populist mob rule fueled by angry paranoia. It becomes a cover not for law and order, but for the ugliest kind of brutal authoritarianism.

It's still unclear what this kind of ugly extremism will mean for our nation's long-term cultural and political identity.

Posted 10/29/09 at 10:02am By Maribel Hastings

Senate Republicans: Just Say NO to Honoring Spanish Press

Note: Posted yesterday at MaribelHastings.com (translated from Spanish).

The Huffington Post reported yesterday that a Senate resolution honoring the Hispanic media passed without a single Republican co-sponsor. The resolution, declaring October 25th-31st “National Hispanic Media Week,” was on hold for several days while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) struggled in vain to find Republican co-sponsors for the resolution, Senate sources told America’s Voice.  Senator Reid ultimately introduced it along with a group of his fellow Democrats, and it was adopted swiftly.  But if Senate Republicans don’t show interest in the issues that matter to Latino and immigrant communities, why should they have to applaud the media outlets that keep these communities informed on the rants against Latinos and immigrants that certain Republicans engage in?

Read more at MaribelHastings.com.

 

Posted 10/28/09 at 05:10pm By Mahwish Khan

Obama and Corzine Know the Power of the Latino Vote

Obama is asking New Jersey’s Latino voters to back Governor Jon Corzine in his bid for reelection. How? In a 60 second campaign radio ad that went on the air today – half in English, and the other half in Spanish.

   

The ad is being played on radio stations in the New Jersey-New York metropolitan area, as well as in the Philadelphia region. 

Obama has been an ardent supporter of the Governor, having attended Corzine campaign rallies first in July and then again last week.  And on Sunday, President Obama plans on return to New Jersey to rally even more support.  Needless to say, it has gotten the Governor some enormous coverage. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A July rally with the president led to a television ad for Corzine, and Obama-Corzine billboards popped up in urban areas around the state, including Camden and on one of the roads leading to the event yesterday.

Governor Corzine, who took office in 2006 after resigning from his role as state Senator, is running against Republican candidate, Christopher J. Christie.

Posted 10/28/09 at 11:26am By Mahwish Khan

High-Profile, Bay Area 9500 Liberty Premiere Tomorrow Night

One of the most impressive films about the immigration debate to come out this year, 9500 Liberty is hitting the West Coast with a splash. The film premiers tomorrow night, October 29, in the Bay Area at the Sundance Kabuki Theater.  There's more reason than ever to watch the film in San Francisco, according to an email forwarded by one of the screening's main sponsors, Netroots Nation:

As the city is embroiled in a tense debate about its immigration policy, the documentary film 9500 Liberty comes to San Francisco to share one extraordinary chapter in the larger immigration debate with the Bay Area community.

And if you're not sold on that, there's always the added benefit of catching netroots icon Markos Moulitsas, founder of the popular political blog, Daily Kos.

With the filmmakers in attendance, the screening will kick off with a cocktail reception at 6 PM, to be followed by an introduction by Markos.  Others prominent attendees include President of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, David Chiu; District 1 Supervisor, Eric Mar; and District 9 Supervisor, David Campos.

The documentary was recently awarded the "Indie Truth Award for Best Documentary" at the Charlotte Film Festival, and was also featured opening night at the 10th Annual DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival to a sold-out audience.

More information about the Bay Area screening is posted on the documentary's Web site, where you can also find ticket information for the event.

Posted 10/28/09 at 07:39am By Lynn Tramonte

CNN Immigration Poll Redux: 2/3 Favor Legalization Over Deportation

fuzzy mathHere’s the headline CNN put on a poll it released last week, which has already made the rounds on Lou Dobbs Tonight, and all the top immigration-restriction websites:

CNN Poll: 3 out of 4 want illegal immigration decreased

Sounds pretty tough on immigrants, right? Rough week for common-sense immigration reform? Actually, no. 

See, CNN asked whether Americans wanted more or less illegal immigration. Since both advocates and foes of comprehensive immigration reform agree that more illegal immigration would be undesirable, this question doesn’t say much.

Real reform means a streamlined immigration system that people go through and not around, as well as creating a pathway to legal status for the undocumented immigrants already living, working, and raising families in our country.

CNN could have just as easily released their poll with this headline:

CNN Poll: 2 of 3 Americans want immigrants legalized, not deported

Sounds a bit different, eh?

Click here to read more.

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