08/30/12 Yesterday, during MSNBC’s coverage of the Republican National Convention, Reporter Ron Mott secured an interview with Governor Jan Brewer – one that turned out to be gleefully surprising for us…and perhaps horrific for her (which, I must say, added to my joy). Mott asks: Let me ask you, if you’ve had conversations with Governor Romney [...]
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08/29/12 Russell Pearce, once of the champions of the Arizona anti-immigrant law, went down to defeat yesterday in his Republican State Senate primary…for the 2nd time! He lost by nearly 12 points to businessman Bob Worsley. He also lost to Jerry Lewis in a historic recall election last February. This primary was supposed to be Pearce’s comeback bid. Pearce crafted [...]
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08/29/12 At a lunchtime panel with the Hispanic Leadership Network, Susana Martinez, Brian Sandoval, and Jeb Bush sat down to talk about being governor of their respective states, and interestingly, how to talk to Latino voters about immigration. While Jeb Bush has consistently been moderate on immigration, both Martinez and Sandoval have mishandled the issue in [...]
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08/20/12 The reviews are in about the first few days of deferred action, with a range of observers praising the program and citing inspiring stories of young people who have a new opportunity to contribute to the only country they know as home.  Describing an application workshop held by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee [...]
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08/17/12 Just how far will Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer go? On Wednesday, a day when DREAMers all over the country were celebrating the beginning of President Obama’s deferred action program, Governor Brewer was busy playing the Grinch by issuing an executive order that would prevent local immigrant youth from being able to access state services like [...]
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08/16/12 Yesterday, when Mitt Romney visited Birmingham, Alabama for a fundraising event at the city’s exclusive restaurant — “The Club” — he was met outside by a number of protestors from the Immigrant Youth Leadership Initiative of Alabama. The group chanted “education, not deportation” and held up signs that read “no papers, no fear.” Last year, [...]
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08/16/12 Yesterday’s official launch of the deferred action program for DREAMers offered a reminder about how public policy changes can sometimes directly affect people’s lives.  Unfortunately, yesterday also brought a reminder of the way politics can butt in on even the most celebratory of days, bringing into view the sharp distinctions between the parties on immigration [...]
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08/14/12 Joe the Plumber is back. The hapless handyman from 2008 who became famous overnight for supposedly being the embodiment of the working class is now a Congressional candidate in Ohio, where, among other things, he has been blaming the Holocaust on German gun control. Last Friday he was speaking at a fundraiser in Arizona held by Republican [...]
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08/02/12 Yesterday was Day 6 of the Melendres vs. Arpaio civil lawsuit under way in Phoenix probing into whether Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office are guilty of routinely engaging in racial profiling. A post at Fronteras sums up how the trial has been going so far:  So far the federal judge hearing the case has [...]
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08/01/12 As the trial against “America’s Toughest Sheriff”, Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio, continues,  the bar has been set high to prove that he is guilty of racial profiling, despite “offensive letters, tearful stories and reams of statistics”. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: Arpaio has repeatedly denied the racial profiling allegations. And experts say [...]
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08/01/12 The Supreme Court’s ruling that finds most of Arizona’s SB 1070 as unconstitutional is impacting other states that have passed similarly egregious legislation. Indiana, for example: Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller [a Republican!] conceded Tuesday that a key portion of the state’s anti-illegal-immigration law is unconstitutional, and it appears unlikely lawmakers will revise the statute [...]
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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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07/25/12 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 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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07/20/12 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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07/19/12 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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07/18/12 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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07/18/12 Today, Latino Decisions released a poll commissioned by America’s Voice and Center for American Progress, revealing how the SCOTUS ruling on SB 1070 has increased Obama’s standing with Latino voters. So, Jan Brewer  and her obsessive push for that onerous and discriminatory anti-immigrant law has actually helped Obama increase his lead. It’s 70% – 22% [...]
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07/16/12 This week, notorious anti-Latino and anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio will head to court as a civil rights lawsuit against Arpaio’s tactics moves forward.  Between this upcoming trial, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070 law–in which most of the law was struck down and the sole remaining “show me your papers” provision continues [...]
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07/12/12 Cross-Posted at California Progress Report Years ago, California tried to take the punitive and xenophobic approach to immigration with Prop 187 — a 1994 ballot initiative whose stated goal was to keep undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits, but would have essentially turned California into a police state for immigrants. Fortunately, Proposition 187 was invalidated [...]
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07/09/12 Over the weekend, Steve Holland from Reuters wrote an article about “Mitt Romney’s campaign missteps” and how those missteps have caused concern for Republicans. One of the issues highlighted by Holland was immigration: Romney’s missteps on issues such as immigration and healthcare – and images of him on a jet ski during a vacation at [...]
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07/06/12 Yesterday, California took a key step in positioning itself as the “anti-Arizona” on immigration enforcement, with the state Senate passing a bill that would restore common sense to states’ approach on immigration. Ironically, California was the first state to embrace an extremist approach to immigration with the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994. Fortunately, the [...]
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07/05/12 Major progress in the California State Senate this afternoon. We got the good news via twitter from National Day Labor Organizing Network’s (NDLON) Chris Newman: TRUSTACTpassed out of the California Senate — Chris Newman (@newman_chris) July 5, 2012 This bill is basically the antithesis of Arizona’s SB 1070. It’s designed to ensure that the federal “Secure Communities” [...]
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07/05/12 For the past few weeks, it’s been hard to get Mitt Romney to say anything publicly about immigration reform. That’s a marked change from the GOP primary campaign, when the now-Republican nominee never missed a chance to burnish his anti-immigrant credentials to the nativist base of his party. Romney is trying to dodge the issue [...]
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06/27/12 In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on SB 1070, many have been left wondering what does this mean, what happens now and where do voters stand on this decision?  A fact sheet and polling round-up from America’s Voice Education Fund helps sift through the legal implications and next steps after the decision as [...]
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