03/26/13 A month after Sen. John McCain faced hostile Tea Partiers opposed to immigration reform at an Arizona town hall, McCain was at it again—and this time found lots of love from Arizonans applauding McCain’s leadership on immigration legislation. Yesterday in Arizona, Mi Familia Vota Education volunteers, with other community organizations, came to a McCain town [...]
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02/21/13 “The only thing that stops them, and I’m afraid to say but it’s too damn bad, but is a gun.  That’s all that will stop them,” said one.  “Cut off their welfare and their stuff and they’ll go back!” another said. These are just a few choice quotes shouted by anti-immigrant die-hards at a recent [...]
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02/21/13 While cable news channels have been in its usual hysterics over a few hard-core anti-immigrant cranks showing up at a Senator John McCain town hall meeting this week, the person most unbothered by those cranks has been Senator John McCain himself.  He dismissed the confrontation as a normal event, saying “I’ve done town halls for [...]
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01/22/13 Last week, we learned that since President Obama announced the deferred action (DACA) program last June, 154,404  eligible DREAMers have made it through the process and been approved. Via Univision: To date, 154,404 young undocumented immigrants have been approved for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama administration program active since August. The program gives [...]
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01/09/13 The Illinois General Assembly passed a bill yesterday that will grant temporary drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, moving the bill to the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) who plans to sign it into law.  The legislation passed due to the tireless work of advocates like the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), the support [...]
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01/03/13 With the passage of SB 1070 in 2010, Arizona became the first state in the nation to sanction the kind of ugly anti-immigrant politics that states like Alabama and Georgia now also practice.  Despite warnings about its racial profiling provisions and the potential for negative impact on the state, the anti-immigrant zealots in Arizona were [...]
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12/13/12 This is a headline we like to see: Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Loses Bid to Dismiss U.S. Bias Lawsuit The loss against Sheriff Joe means the lawsuit against him will proceed: Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department that accuses him and his officers [...]
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11/30/12 Could some in the non-extremist wing of the GOP be slowly starting to “get it” on immigration?  Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported that the state of Nevada—led by Republican Governor Brian Sandoval—is the latest to confirm that it will allow DREAMers recognized by President Obama’s deferred action (DACA) program to apply for driver’s licenses.  From the Elise Foley: Receiving [...]
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11/27/12 Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one of the worst anti-immigrant extremists our movement has ever had to contend with — and you and other activists on our side have officially voted him Turkey of the Year! With his history of racial profiling and corruption, we all probably have worse names for Sheriff Joe Arpaio –but in [...]
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11/14/12 Voter ID struggles from this year’s election have culminated in Arizona, where 324,362 ballots remain uncounted.  Between the seriously questionable pre-election materials that were distributed, local officials’ delayed response in counting all the ballots, and the fact that the ballots could make a difference in who wins key races in Arizona—the voting crisis is quickly [...]
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11/13/12 Last week, we reported on the alarming number of provisional ballots left over from last week’s election that still to be counted in Arizona.  Here’s a quick recap from the Arizona chapter of the ACLU: According to the Arizona Secretary of State, as of November 8 there were more than 630,000 ballots yet to be [...]
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11/09/12 Election 2012 isn’t quite over yet.  In Arizona, there are still over 600,000 yet to be counted, and in Maricopa County alone—where we’ve been keeping a close eye on efforts to unseat the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio—it’s estimated that over half of the ballots have yet to be counted. According to the Phoenix New Times, [...]
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11/02/12 It looks like Tom Horne, the Arizona Attorney General who walks in lockstep with state Governor Jan Brewer about all things related to SB 1070 and immigration, is in a bit of trouble.  From the Associated Press today: FBI agents allege Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne left the scene of a minor automobile accident because he was [...]
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10/26/12 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer this week decided to inject herself into the super-close Senate race between Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D), using her political action committee (JanPAC) to spend $100,000 printing and supporting mailers supporting Flake over Carmona. As Capitol Media Services reported yesterday: PAC spokesman Paul Senseman said his boss believes she [...]
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10/23/12 UPDATED: Unbelievable! The Maricopa County Elections Department has just admitted that they once again gave Latino voters the wrong date for next month’s election. This time, it’s bookmarks distributed by the elections department that incorrectly lists the general election date in Spanish as November 8, while the correct date (November 6) is listed in English on the [...]
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10/19/12 Maricopa County, Arizona residents are used to seeing tent cities, chain gangs of prisoners, and pink underwear.  This fall, as Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a much closer reelection for Sheriff than usual against Paul Penzone, residents are also seeing impassioned protests in unusual forms, involving chickens and monarchs. Yesterday, the anti-Arpaio group Citizens for a [...]
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10/11/12 The Arizona Senate race between Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D) has emerged as one of this fall’s surprise toss-up races.  With analysts recognizing that the state’s rapidly growing Latino voter population could tilt the outcome, immigration has become one of the key flashpoints in the contest. At issue is Rep. Flake’s lurch [...]
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10/10/12 Anti-immigrant extremist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) hasn’t debated challengers since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.  But even he is caving this year, agreeing to a series of debates with Democratic challenger and former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. Not so for Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the rogue lawman running Maricopa County.  In [...]
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10/09/12 Today, at a live-streamed panel at the Cronkite School, Arizona State University in downtown Phoenix, political analysts, advocates, and community leaders from Arizona and across the country discussed how Latino voters and immigration reform will shape the presidential, Senate and House races in this state and beyond.  Latino Decisions principal Gary Segura and Arizona State professor Rodolfo Espino released fresh polling of Latino [...]
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10/09/12 Last week, America’s Voice with Latino Decisions released two brand-new polls on the Latino vote in Florida and Nevada, finding—among other things—that Obama leads Romney 61-31% among Florida Hispanics and by an even greater percentage in Nevada. Today, we are releasing a new poll on the Latino vote in Arizona.  The poll will answer questions [...]
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10/05/12 This week, as a range of national and state polling demonstrates the popularity of pro-immigration reform positions like the DREAMer deferred action program, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made it clear that he would shut down the DREAMer protection program as soon as he got inaugurated.  As immigration is a pivotal issue in 2012 Senate [...]
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09/20/12 We live-tweeted the interview with Mitt Romney yesterday — check out tweets on that from us and others. We’ll also be live-tweeting the President’s interview today, at 2:10 PM est, so be sure to follow us @americasvoice and tune in. Univisión’s Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas grilled Mitt Romney on immigration and other topics [...]
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09/19/12 As we reported, yesterday a U.S. District judge lifted an injunction against the “show me your papers” provision of Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigrant law, allowing this draconian provision to go into effect.  Many agree that the implementation of this provision will involve rampant racial profiling of Latinos in Arizona. No doubt, additional legal challenges will be brought [...]
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09/18/12 It’s an ugly day for justice in Arizona: A judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday that police can immediately start enforcing the most contentious section of the state’s immigration law, marking the first time officers can carry out the so-called “show me your papers” provision. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is the latest [...]
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09/11/12 Today, America’s Voice is releasing the second and third installments of our “State Spotlight: Immigration, Latino Voters, and the 2012 Elections” series with analyses of Latino electoral politics in Florida and Arizona.  Today’s fact sheets follow an earlier installment about Nevada, and in the coming weeks America’s Voice will release additional fact sheets highlighting the [...]
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09/06/12 Yesterday featured some stark reminders of why politics and elections matter. On stage at last night’s Democratic National Convention, DREAM Act advocate Benita Veliz spoke to the assembled delegates and television audience and shared her compelling personal story: “I graduated as a valedictorian of my high school class at the age of 16, and I [...]
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08/31/12 While Arpaio was basking in the spotlight at the Tampa Bay Zoo, things weren’t as good for the nation’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” back in his home state of Arizona. Apparently federal appeals court reinstated a suit against him, adding to his already long list a “federal civil rights and conspiracy lawsuit.”  Think Progress has more: [...]
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