A New Low: Shooting Immigrants from Helicopters?

As a Kansan, yesterday I was saddened to hear a representative from my home state sink to a new low. The Lawrence Journal World reported that Kansas State Representative Virgil Peck (R) said, "It might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled—with hunters shooting from helicopters."

Unfortunately, this is not the first time a legislator in our nation has compared undocumented immigrants to animals or much worse. But advocating for shooting humans from helicopters is far beyond unacceptable. Ironically, Representative Peck’s comment comes just days after the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) launched its Pledge for Respect campaign. It appears the campaign couldn’t have come at a more timely moment.

Just last Thursday, hundreds of Latino leaders from NCLR’s Affiliate Network met with their members of Congress in Washington, DC and asked them to sign a pledge to respect the Latino community, commit to encouraging civil discourse in the political process, and publicly oppose irresponsible rhetoric that dehumanizes and scapegoats Latinos. 

Apparently we need to circulate the pledge in my home state of Kansas as well. To add insult to injury, when Peck was asked about his comment, he did not apologize. Instead he said, “I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person.” So not only does he see no problem with insulting immigrants and Latinos, now he’s adding Kansans to the mix.
 
He was then quoted as saying “I think it’s over” and that he did not expect any more controversy over his comment. Well, I beg to differ. 

Join me in telling Representative Peck that it’s far from over! 

He doesn’t seem to think that he has done anything wrong and he needs to understand that this type of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse. That’s why we are also asking Speaker Mike O’Neal of the Kansas House of Representatives to call for an apology and an end to this intolerance in the Kansas legislature. 

We understand that our country is tired of federal inaction on immigration reform, but dehumanizing and scapegoating immigrants is not a solution. We look to our elected officials as leaders in our nation and we demand that they start acting like it.

Kansans, and all Americans, deserve better.

Sincerely,

Janet Murguía
President and CEO

21st Century Apartheid? Tell AZ Governor to Veto Racial Profiling Bill

Please, inform your friends and family about this and ask them if this is ok with them, if this the United States of America they want to be living in.

 

Is it a CRIME to be Brown in Arizona? - 21st Century Apartheid  Racial profiling, SB 1070 will go hand in hand

 

If you disagree with this way of dealing with a problem, please, speak up!

 

Thank you,

 

Aurora

 

---

Imagine driving through the neighborhood you grew up in and being pulled over for no apparent reason. Your crime? Being brown in Arizona.

This might seem unimaginable in the 21st-century United States, but the Arizona State Legislature is on the verge of passing a law that would authorize officers to pull over, question, and detain anyone they have a "reasonable suspicion" doesn't have proper documentation. The legislation would essentially legalize racial profiling, creating a police state for immigrants.

The bill will be on the Governor's desk as soon as today.¹ This is a moment for all of us to stand with the people of Arizona against this injustice. Please join us in telling Governor Jan Brewer to do the right thing and veto this bill, and ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://act.presente.org/go/arizona?mid=2057-38634

According to the LA Times, "The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person's immigration status... Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state." ²

If this bill passes, Arizona is declaring itself an apartheid state, where people who "look" undocumented are treated differently than the rest of the population. Leading police chiefs and sheriffs have even come out against the bill, saying that it will cause immigrants to avoid reporting crimes, and divert officers' attention from going after violent offenders.³

The future of Arizona is now in the Governor's hands. Please join us in telling Governor Jan Brewer to veto this bill.

http://act.presente.org/go/arizona?mid=2057-38634

Thank you and ¡Adelante!

Laurie, Favianna, Roberto and the rest of the Presente.org team

References
1. "Backers defend AZ crackdown on illegal immigrants," Associated Press, 4-15-10,
http://bit.ly/a47Yjc
2. "Arizona passes strict illegal immigration act," L.A. Times, 4-13-10
http://bit.ly/b6f9IL
3. "Racial profiling, SB 1070 will go hand in hand," Arizona Daily Star, 4-16-10
http://bit.ly/cnoLiP

---

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
"What you want in a media system is an ostensible diversity that conceals an actual uniformity."
-- Joseph Goebbels
 
http://hladc-sf.blogspot.com
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.blogspot.com/

Conservative media consistently scapegoat undocumented immigrants, ACORN

SOURCE: Cynthia I.

MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA

Summary: In discussions of major news stories, conservatives in the media have repeatedly turned to two favorite bogeymen -- undocumented immigrants and ACORN -- in place of substantive analysis, even when those groups have little or nothing to do with the issue.

In coverage of major news stories, conservative media figures have repeatedly fallen back on two of their favorite bogeymen -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and undocumented immigrants -- frequently blaming national crises on one or both groups or accusing them of receiving undeserved benefits from the government. At best, these scapegoats are tenuously connected to the issues those figures are discussing; at worst, they are entirely unrelated. In some instances, the media linked their scapegoats to major news stories using misleading claims, and in others, they advanced outright falsehoods. Whatever the case may be, conservatives in the media consistently weave ACORN and undocumented immigrants into their coverage or commentary, instead of addressing the substantive policy issues or developing a cogent critique. Other media outlets follow the conservatives' lead, uncritically reporting their smears of ACORN and undocumented immigrants or reporting those smears as fact.

Media Matters for America has documented numerous instances in which conservative media outlets and figures have used ACORN and undocumented immigrants as scapegoats in reporting on major news stories recently, as well as other media outlets echoing their claims.

2008 financial crisis

Conservative media figures repeatedly invoked the specter of ACORN when discussing the causes of the financial crisis. For example, several in the media have claimed, suggested, or uncritically reported that ACORN contributed to the housing crisis by "bullying" banks into irresponsible lending to minorities. In many instances, media figures asserted that the group used the threat of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to intimidate banks into making risky loans. But as Media Matters documented, the media-promoted myth that the financial crisis was caused by banks lending irresponsibly to comply with the CRA has been widely discredited. According to housing experts, a large number of subprime loans were not made under the CRA, which applies only to depository institutions.

Media outlets and figures promoting the idea that ACORN contributed to the housing crisis include:

• Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, during the April 3 edition of his nationally syndicated show

• The Wall Street Journal, in a September 27, 2008, editorial

• Conservative journalist Stanley Kurtz, in a September 29, 2008, New York Post op-ed and an October 7, 2008, National Review Online article

• Then-chief White House correspondent Bret Baier, during an October 5, 2008, Fox News special, Saving Our Economy

• The Washington Times' John McCaslin, in his October 14, 2008, "Inside the Beltway" column

• Investor's Business Daily, in a January 27 editorial

In discussing the debate over the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (which created the Troubled Asset Relief Program), numerous media figures falsely claimed, suggested, or uncritically repeated Republicans' claims that Democrats were trying to steer money to ACORN through that legislation. In fact, neither the draft proposal nor the final version of the bill contained any language mentioning ACORN. Those making the false claim were misrepresenting a provision -- later removed -- that would have directed 20 percent of any profits realized on troubled assets purchased under the plan into two previously established funds: the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund, which, under the law authorizing them, distribute funds through state block grants and through competitive application processes, respectively.

Examples of media figures falsely claiming or suggesting that Democrats sought to divert funding in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to ACORN -- or of media uncritically repeating such claims -- include:

• Host Lou Dobbs on the September 29, 2008, edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight

• Politico's Daniel Libit, in a September 30, 2008, post to The Crypt

• Host Steve Doocy during the October 1, 2008, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

• Syndicated columnist Mona Charen, in an October 1, 2008, column

• Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, during the October 9, 2008, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes

• Baier, during the October 5, 2008, Fox News special Saving Our Economy

• The Wall Street Journal, in an October 14, 2008, editorial

Conservative media figures have also claimed or suggested that excessive lending to undocumented immigrants is responsible for the financial crisis, citing no credible evidence to support that claim. In several instances, media figures have baselessly claimed that according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 5 million mortgages taken out by undocumented immigrants are in default, or close to it. In fact, according to an October 9, 2008, Phoenix Business Journal article, HUD "says there is no basis to news reports that more than 5 million bad mortgages are held by illegal immigrants. A HUD spokesman said ... his agency has no data showing the number of illegal immigrants holding foreclosed or bad mortgages."

Nevertheless, conservative media figures continued to baselessly attribute the financial crisis in part to excessive lending to illegal immigrants, including:

• San Diego radio host Roger Hedgcock and radio host Joe Madison, during the October 9, 2008, edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight

• Phoenix radio station KFYI, in an article on its website

• The Drudge Report in an October 9, 2008, link to the KFYI article

• Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin in a September 24, 2008, column

• Limbaugh, during the October 10, 2008, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show

• Radio host Lee Rodgers, during the October, 10, 2008, broadcast of KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show

• Radio host Jim Quinn, during the October 10, 2008, broadcast of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn & Rose

Voter fraud

The media devoted great attention to charges of voter registration fraud throughout the coverage of the 2008 presidential primary and general election campaigns, repeatedly using those opportunities to smear ACORN and undocumented immigrants. Following reports that ACORN had submitted fraudulent voter registrations, some media figures falsely claimed that ACORN was accused of or involved in voter fraud that might alter the outcome of the 2008 election. Others repeatedly ignored relevant information in their coverage of allegations against the group, specifically: 1) that the statutes of most of the states in question require third parties registering prospective voters to submit all registration forms they receive; and 2) that actual instances of illegal votes being cast as a result of registration fraud are extremely rare.

Examples of media outlets falsely claiming that ACORN had been accused of committing voter fraud that would, in the words of a Washington Times editorial, "rig" the election, and examples of media ignoring or downplaying key facts concerning allegations against ACORN of voter registration fraud, include:

• Numerous CNN segments aired from October 6, 2008, through October 15, 2008

• The Wall Street Journal in an October 14, 2008, editorial

• Host Megyn Kelly during the October 14, 2008, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

• Syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Dick Morris, during the October 15, 2008, edition of Fox & Friends

• The Washington Times in December 28, 2008, and October 15, 2008, editorials

Additionally, conservative media figures advanced the myth that undocumented immigrants are attempting or are likely to attempt, en masse, to vote illegally. Among them were Fund -- who did so in his November 2, 2007, Wall Street Journal column and during the November 3, 2007, edition of Fox News' The Journal Editorial Report -- and Dobbs -- in numerous 2007 appearances on Lou Dobbs Tonight and CNN's Lou Dobbs This Week, as well as during the November 14, 2007, edition of CNN's The Situation Room. This myth gained traction in reports about former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's (D) plan to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for a driver's license, which many in the media claimed would open the door to voter fraud by, they claimed, helping enable immigrants who are not here legally to register to vote.

2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

READ FULL ARTICLE

Our Opinion: Isabel Garcia: Compassion and courage earn reward

IMMIGRATION AND BORDER

SOURCE:

Arnoldo Garcia
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados
310 8th Street Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305
Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.blogspot.com
www.nnirr.org

December 12, 2008, 3:32 p.m.

Tucson Citizen
letters@tucsoncitizen.com

Congratulations to Isabel Garcia, whose determined and compassionate service to indigenous and immigrant communities finally has won positive national recognition.

Garcia this week was given the Lannan Foundation's $150,000 Cultural Freedom Award.

We would like to supplement that award with 1 million thanks.

Garcia has some spiteful enemies in the Tucson area, certainly, but they are outnumbered by her friends, fans and supporters.

She co-founded the local Coalición Derechos Humanos (Coalition of Human Rights), which defends immigrants' rights and publicizes conditions on our border with Mexico.

She also fearlessly puts herself front and center at every opportunity to raise awareness about the hostility and maltreatment doled out to indigenous peoples, including illegal immigrants.

Controversy erupted in July, for example, when she and other activists picketed outside a book-signing by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is accused in lawsuits of targeting Latinos specifically for harassment and arrests.

After young activists decapitated a piñata resembling Arpaio, Garcia carried the sheriff's faux head out of the parking lot.

The mere visual incited shrill calls for her to be fired from her job as a deputy public defender for Pima County. But the county's review of the incident showed no wrongdoing, and common sense prevailed.

Garcia even stirred controversy in Mexico when its Commission of Human Rights wanted to give her an award in November 2006.

She would not accept unless Mexico would let her speak on that nation's "silence and complicity in the deaths of over 5,000 migrants on the border."

Officials agreed but reneged once she was there. So Garcia refused to attend the ceremony and instead held her own news conference.

Now she has the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award, for "people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry, and expression."

Past recipients include Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet and human rights advocate; Helen Caldicott, physician and activist; and Robert Fisk, British journalist and author.

Clearly Garcia, who is investing most of her award back into Derechos Humanos, is in good company. And with her in our community, we're in good company, too. Congratulations.

News Roundup: How Latinos and Immigrant Voters Decided This Election

Community Organizers Welcome One of their Own to the White House

Standing FIRM:

An Online Community for Migrant Rights!

Posted by rachelfirm on November 6, 2008

I’m just going to let these speak for themselves:

CNN: Latino voters tip balance

Washington Post: Barack Obama built his victory in Florida

New York Times: Obama Wins Election; McCain Loses as Bush Legacy Is Rejected

Dallas Morning News: Obama wins over nation’s Hispanic voters, exit polls show

Associated Press: Obama buoyed by Hispanic voters

Miami Herald: Obama won big among Hispanics — with GOP’s help

Miami Herald: Blacks, Hispanics signal Florida shift

Newsweek: Obama’s Latino Edge

CNN: Latinos fleeing GOP

San Diego Union Tribune: Region’s Latinos get out the vote

Market Watch: Unprecedented Latino Voter Turnout Plays Critical Role in Early Outcome of the Presidential Election

Market Watch: Freddy Balsera: ‘How Obama Closed the Deal With Hispanics’

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• VIDEO: The Latino Vote, the Sleeping Giant Awakens
• Obama Reveals New Aspect of Healthcare Plan
• Opinions on McCain and Obama’s Hispanic outreach
• OBAMA AND THE LATINO VOTE

This entry was posted on November 6, 2008 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Elections. Tagged: election 2008, get out the vote, immigrant vote, latino vote. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Denogean: Anti-Hispanic rhetoric growing

From The Tucson Citizen
IMMIGRATION & BORDER
Published: 10.14.2008

ANNE T. DENOGEAN
Tucson Citizen

The vitriolic illegal immigration debate of the last few years has left Latinos feeling hurt and angry, according to a recent poll of both citizen and non-citizen Hispanics.

The finding isn't too surprising. It's what happens when one class of people becomes a scapegoat for a nation.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, which polled 2,015 Hispanic adults this past summer and released the results in September:

• Half of those surveyed said the situation for Hispanics is worse than it was a year earlier. Only 13 percent said it was better (the remainder said it was the same).

• Eight percent of native-born U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent said they had been stopped by authorities and questioned about their immigration status.

• One in 7 Hispanics said they had trouble finding or keeping a job because of their ethnicity. One in 10 reported that their ethnicity made it difficult to find or keep housing.

• More than two-thirds of those polled said they worry that they or someone close to them may be deported.

Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said the results reflect "the sad story of our times, where the understandable frustration about the breakdown in immigration policy has really spilled out and over into our communities."

You can't tell by looking at someone whether they are an immigrant or native-born. Unfortunately, that reality has put the entire Hispanic population, numbering about 46 million nationwide, "in the cross hairs of ugly vitriol," Kelley said.

"It's very tricky to talk about it because there are legitimate questions that need to be debated, discussed and disagreed on related to immigration policy. Absolutely," Kelley said.

"So, it's not as if you are a racist because you are raising questions about undocumented workers and whether they affect American wages. Those are legitimate questions."

But what has happened, she said "is that some folks are taking advantage of the frustration that the public feels and stoking hate and fears."

Hate groups and hate crimes targeting Hispanics and immigrants are on the rise, she said, an assertion backed up by the research of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League and FBI hate crime statistics.

The Immigration Policy Center has taken note of the spread of anti-Hispanic rhetoric from hard-core white supremacists and border state extremists to supposedly mainstream anti-immigration activists, media pundits and politicians.

Among its examples is a North Carolina sheriff who accused illegal immigrants of being "trashy," "breeding like rabbits" and spreading a culture of drunkenness and violence.

In Arizona, immigrants get blamed for everything from destroying the public school system to causing traffic congestion on the streets.

Some of the ugliest rhetoric I've seen anywhere comes straight off the Tucson Citizen's online comment line.

In January, when a 5-year-old Mexican girl was rescued by the Border Patrol after being abandoned by a smuggler in freezing mountain terrain, a commenter described the girl as a future breeder of "anchor babies."

I'm not easily shocked but that one caused my jaw to drop.

In Friday's column, I wrote that I wished the presidential candidates would discuss their plans for immigration reform. Such discussion is necessary, even if it rattles the cages of the extremists.

Kelley is hopeful that a renewed debate on the issue can be held at a civilized level.

What's been missing, she said, is a president "who's willing to take the issue on, call it out for what it is, be respectful of the policy components of it . . . but also denounce the heat and the opportunism by these groups that are sowing the seeds of anger."

There is good news on that front, no matter who wins the election, Kelley said.

"I see in both of these candidates a strong potential for a leader that can teach us all how to talk about this issue, how to think about people who come from diverse backgrounds, of different immigration status, to really begin believing in ourselves as one nation again. . . .

"I think, quite frankly, either John McCain or Barack Obama can do it. Either because of their background in the issue or their own heritage, they've shown an understanding of it," she said.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

When the Extreme Becomes Mainstream

Standing FIRM

An Online Community for Migrant Rights!

Posted by rachelfirm on September 30, 2008

Last week, I mentioned a recent Pew Hispanic Center Study which found that 1 in 10 Latinos has been stopped and asked about their immigration status by police or other authorities.

While this is certainly the most shocking statistic to come out of the study, it is only the tip of the iceberg for Latinos living in this country.

From the Huffington post:

One in seven Latinos are reporting ethnic discrimination in finding or keeping a job and 10% said the same thing about housing. But the most stunning finding is that nearly one-in-ten Hispanic adults–native-born US citizens and immigrants alike–report that, in the past year, the police or other authorities have stopped them and asked them about their immigration status. One in ten Latinos were stopped and asked for “papers.” What can that statistic represent other than a gross abuse of power by federal and local authorities?

Vicious public denunciations of undocumented, brown-skinned immigrants — once limited to hard-core white supremacists and a handful of border-state extremists — are increasingly common among supposedly mainstream anti-immigration activists, media pundits, and politicians and are surely fueling the problems that Latinos are facing.

While their dehumanizing rhetoric typically stops short of openly sanctioning bloodshed, much of it implicitly encourages or even endorses violence by characterizing immigrants from Mexico and Central America as ‘invaders,’ ‘criminal aliens,’ and ‘cockroaches.’

The hate speech that is fueling the current anti-migrant fervor has somehow left the area of “hard core” or “extremist” thought and trickled into the mainstream, becoming pervasive on shows like Lou Dobbs Tonight or Bill O’Reilly and pushed by hate groups like FAIR.

We must stand up to the powers that want to dehumanize and entire portion of the population.

Living in fear of deportation and discrimination and worrying about your livelihood and safety is no way to live and it’s certainly not how Americans expect to live. In fact, it’s the sort of life that our forefathers sought to protect us from. Debate, discussion, and disagreement around the pressing immigration issue are natural, legitimate, and necessary. Hate, fear and vitriol rhetoric are not.

One in Ten Latinos Asked for Papers for LWL: Living While Latino

This entry was posted on September 30, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Hate groups, Immigrant Rights, immigration news. Tagged: 1 in 10 latinos questioned, bill o'reilly, FAIR, Hate groups, Hate groups, huffington post, immigrants, immigration, latino hate crimes, lou dobbs, pew hispanic center, racial profiling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

"Border Wars"

Bordering on Success

College Times

By Aaron Tavena

Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: News

Every filmmaker hopes to not only make a quality film, but also to get that film to the widest audience possible. Having secured distribution on Amazon.com, Netflix and Blockbuster, you could say that Collins College film professor Ryan Noble succeeded on both counts.

Set in Arizona, Noble's film, "Border Wars" tackles the ever-present immigration issue, using three misguided patriots who believe that patrolling the borders for illegal immigrants is their civic duty.

Released on DVD last Tuesday, "Border Wars" has already picked up steam on the Amazon charts, very much credited to Noble's success as a writer and a director.

Recently, Noble spoke with College Times about making the film, and what it took to get it on the map.

College Times: How did the film come together?

Ryan Noble: I was creating a documentary series […] about immigration issues. It ended up not getting picked up. But I was really still interested in the topic. The timing was right to do this. I had an idea, so I wrote the script. Because of my connection with Collins, I was able to put this together.

What was shooting like?

We shot it in the fall of 2006. So it's been a couple of years. It was essentially a 14-day shoot. So we had a lot of 12 to 16 hour days. It was late September, early October so it was pretty hot. We shot it out on the west side of town Tonopah, Avondale – it was pretty crazy.

What can you say about casting the film?

The main three actors – two of them were graduates of Collins that had acted in some student films. I knew that they could do it. But this was they're first big film project. Most of the other parts were filled by local well-known actors around here. Shane Black, who plays the father, is pretty much in every independent film around here. [But] most were first-timers.

What do you hope people will take away from this movie?

Honestly, my entire intention was to bring awareness to the dangers of using rhetoric that is borderline hate and even crosses the line into hate speech. I think here's a lot of talk show hosts that use the political issue of immigration to spread hate speech. That can be dangerous – obviously we're demonstrating a danger that is much more palpable and physical.

How did you go about getting distribution for this film?

We played at some film festivals last fall. And then we just started putting the word out to potential distributors. We went through various iterations of interest and non-interest until we settled on York Distributors. They're really good mass distributors and they specialize in distributing directly to DVD. Of course the brick and mortar stores pick and choose based on the internet sales. […] On Amazon, we jumped up 59,000 spots and we're hoping that maybe we can crack the top 1,000.