Immigrant Rights
Freedom, not Reform: If we don’t demand it, it can’t happen
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:16pmTuesday, August 4, 2009
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform that is thus far being optimistically put forward stinks of the racism that has been intentionally spread by wealthy and powerful men and other white supremacists. This is a racism that intentionally ignores the root causes of “illegal” immigration, and promotes and excuses the exploitation, imprisonment, and even deaths of migrants. This is certainly not a consensus, and it is not an attitude developed organically, but politically and economically. Another voice must be heard: one that demands freedom, not reform.
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Satire for Russell Pearce
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:13pmSunday, July 12, 2009
Satire for Russell Pearce
No more catch and release of the unwelcome male
(or, what if you took the extremist position of our anti-immigrant Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, and put it in a different context?)
by Senator Valerie Solanas Pearce
I sat ashen as I watched the news reports. Several chiefs of police stood at a press conference and publicly refused to enforce the law. Less than a month after the brutal murder of a police officer at the hands of a male, they snubbed the opportunity to make necessary changes and violated their oaths of office for the sake of political correctness. Meanwhile, people are killed, maimed and raped. Men cost citizens billions to educate, medicate and incarcerate, and they take jobs from women.
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Audits: A Friendlier Face on the Same Old
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:12pmFriday, July 3, 2009
An article in the Arizona Republic yesterday, called ICE audits 32 Arizona companies over hiring describes a new approach to the immigration "problem".
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Immigrants-as-Trespassers Law Closer to Passing
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:10pmTuesday, June 16, 2009
Seriously, this could be the most f-ed up thing that happens this year, as far as state legislation goes. A bill that Arizona Senator Russell Pearce wrote (SB1175) would make it so undocumented immigrants' existence in this state would be considered trespassing, and would also prevent any policy that restricts the police or other state agencies from enforcing federal immigration law. This bill just passed in the senate this week.
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Minuteman Group Members Murder Young Girl and Father
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:07pmTuesday, June 16, 2009
A couple minuteman group members took it upon themselves to murder a man and his nine year old daughter in their home in Arivaca, a border town in Arizona.
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Secure Communities Plus New Laws Mean More Problems for AZ
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:06pmTuesday, June 9, 2009
Just in time for ICE's newest program, "Secure Communities" to be headed Arizona's way, the police in Arizona are talking about how they might not recognize the Matricula Consular, the ID that Mexicans use in place of a driver's license, whether they are legal or not. The article, Police in Ariz. may stop accepting Mexican ID card, discusses how people who show this identification are likely to be, as one presumes, charged with a crime, and brought to jail.
The new program called "Secure Communities" that ICE is implementing will come with a new set of problems. Basically, the program will target "criminal aliens" by linking up various law enforcement and immigration databases to be accessed when a person is in police custody. The new and existing laws and policies would give the police cause to arrest, detain, and check the databases on the suspect, and since undocumented immigrants would then have charges against them that they wouldn't otherwise have had, they will more likely be face the consequences of being labeled "criminal aliens".
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If Phx and Mesa PD are arresting more immigrants, why is focus on Arpaio?
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:05pmSaturday, May 30, 2009
It's one thing after another hitting arpaio these days (such as this lawsuit). But today i came upon another example of why focusing on Arpaio is not the best strategy for immigrants' rights. This came in a guest column in the East Valley Tribune, by the title, The numbers don’t match Arpaio’s hype. The retired police officer who wrote the article blasts arpaio, but not exactly for the reasons you'd imagine. This is an excerpt:
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Overpopulation Codeword in Concerns Over Hunger, Environment
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 2:01pmThursday, May 28, 2009
I happened to pick up a free slightly out-dated copy of Scientific American and started reading the article called "Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?" during which, i realized that there was a diagram with the article that basically pinned overpopulation as the cause for food shortages and environmental destruction. However, the article itself focused more on the facts that raising animals for their meat requires a lot of grain, as well as the shift to producing ethanol to fuel american cars. I actually didn't read the whole article (yet). Frankly i don't care too much if food shortages are civilization's downfall- i care more about the people and the earth. What i found interesting was how this diagram ended up showing overpopulation as the main culprit of these problems when that wasn't exactly being said in the article. I suppose overpopulation leads to more people eating meat and more people driving cars, plus more people who need to just eat whatever they can afford. Nonetheless, overpopulation tends to be codeword for "too many brown people," but the article clearly showed that it was mostly the people who are driving around a bunch and demanding their meat that are causing these problems.
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Rape, Racism, and Recent Protests
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 1:59pmSunday, May 24, 2009
The blog post i pasted below shows a lot of the hypocrisy surrounding anti-immigrant folks' focus on crime/rape by undocumented immigrants. This is not an isolated situation out of Oregon. I have seen various anti-immigrant groups and individuals shouting about rape and molestation and i know those people only want to scapegoat immigrants and not actually solve/prevent those crimes. In fact, as the author mentions below, some of these people are actually perpetrators of these types of crimes. They are perpetrators and/or promoters of violence towards undocumented immigrants or anyone who they think might be undocumented as well.
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CAROB flier for Border Security Expo
Submitted by chaparral on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 1:57pmWednesday, May 13, 2009
This flier was passed out by CAROB and associates nearby the Border Security Expo that took place in Phoenix recently. It was handed to passersby- mostly baseball fans, others coming from the light rail station, a few people from the expo itself, and whoever else happened to be walking by...
The same mindset that has brought us freeway cameras is behind a Border Security Expo being held this Tuesday through Thursday at the Phoenix Convention Center. The event is sponsored by Raytheon, a company that manufactured a missile that killed 62 civilians in a Baghdad market in 2003*. Some of these technology companies are raking in millions, even billions of dollars to “secure the homeland”. But where does that leave us?
What does it mean that Homeland Security has nothing to do with making sure we all have homes?
Especially when so many people are losing their homes, security should mean shelter, food, health care, safety… Not more creepy biometrics devices. The government clearly is more concerned about fortifying the military and helping big business than it is about us.
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