Mosques Subject to Protests and Harassment Across the Country By Alex DiBranco

One positive outcome of the outcry against what right-wingers have dubbed the "Ground Zero Mosque," an Islamic community center a couple blocks from the site of the World Trade Centerin a former Burlington Coat Factory, is that it has brought mainstream media attention to harassment and opposition faced by mosques and Islamic centers across the country.

As Laurie Goodstein writes in the New York Times, construction on mosques and Islamic centers in communities geographically far removed from the site of the 9/11 attacks have been met by protests and harassment, in locales from Tennessee to California to Wisconsin. In Temecula, CA, protesters brought dogs because they say Muslims hate the canines — but the bigger impact of this is to increase the intimidation factor against Muslims attempting to practice their faith.

In Murfreesboro, TN, a Republican primary candidate for Congress, Lou Ann Zelenik, has been using criticism against an Islamic community center to drum up support, to which Talking Point Memo's Evan McMorris-Santoro snarkily responds, "There's already a mosque in Murfreesboro, so Zelenik is stuck with being outraged over just the after-school programs and classrooms part of the equation here." Kyle on Right Wing Watch writes about protesters screaming at Muslims coming to prepare for Ramadan at a Connecticut mosque; one of the harassers shoved a placard at a group of young children and yelled, "Murderers." Police were called to intervene, and Muslim leaders are concerned about escalating attacks during the Ramadan holiday. There was also bombing of a mosque in Florida adds to such worries.

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

White Supremacists Shout Seig Heil at Anti-Immigration Rally By Martha R. Gore

Los Angeles was picked by white supremacists for rally because of its large immigrant population. Counter-demonstrators were kept away from them by police.

White supremacists gathering in Southern California chose the City of Los Angeles for an anti-immigration rally. A face-off with counter-protesters resulted in rock-throwing and assaults on members of the National Socialist Movement.

Police stood between the white-supremacists and the counter-demonstrators on Saturday, April 17, 2010 as the two groups faced each other on the south lawn of the Los Angeles City Hall. According to USA Today, the 50 members of the National Socialist Movement were met by hundreds of people that tried to shout them down.

Many of the white-supremacists wore flack jackets and black military fatigue uniforms. They shouted "Seig Heil" as their speakers took the podium, taunting the counter-protesters with racial, anti-Semitic and misogynistic epithets while waving American flags and swastika banners. One speaker told the counter-protesters that they ready to meet them head on.

The Detroit-based group chose Los Angeles because of its large immigrant population. They maintain that some of the immigrants take jobs away from Americans and also commit crimes. Members said the reason for demonstration was because there have been street marches across the United States that encouraged legislation to enact reform that includes amnesty for some illegal immigrants. The organization plans to back political candidates who agree with their stand.'

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

Jane Harman: My voting record isn't anti-immigration By Jane Harman

The Southern California congresswoman says a recent Times article mischaracterized her record.

April 05, 2010|Jane Harman

The Times' March 31 article. "Latino groups to release voting score card on immigration issues," inaccurately characterized my record on immigration policy.

Let me be clear: I support comprehensive immigration reform and providing the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in our country a path toward earned legalization.

The Times based its article on an analysis by the National Latino Congreso of seven immigration-related votes I cast from 2007 to 2009. The article said that I was "cited for votes to expand immigration enforcement to social service programs and to require those owning or renting publicly subsidized housing to prove their legal status."

The two votes mentioned in the story were amendments to two different bills. One of the amendments provided more funding to combat benefits fraud and barred the federal government from hiring undocumented workers. The second required those living in public housing financed by federal tax dollars to establish their legal residency with secure forms of identification. Both amendments reinforced already existing laws.

Many members of both parties voted just as I did, and Democrats unanimously supported both underlying bills. The National Latino Congreso characterized those votes as anti-immigrant. The group's leaders are entitled to their perspective.

I am the daughter of immigrants. I know firsthand the struggles and satisfactions of the immigrant communities of the South Bay. And I have been working on overhauling our immigration policy to recognize the value and contributions of hardworking immigrants.

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

Arizona appeals immigrant law ruling amid protests By Carolina Madrid and Tim Gaynor

PHOENIX, July 29, 2010 (Reuters) — Arizona on Thursday appealed a judge's decision to block key parts of the state's crackdown on illegal immigrants and police in Phoenix arrested scores of activists protesting the remaining measures in the law.

Tensions over the law have inflamed a national debate over immigration, which has festered for decades and promises to play into the elections in November, when President Barack Obama's Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress.Lawyers for Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to lift an injunction blocking the most intrusive parts of the law, known as SB 1070, and asked for the appeal to be handled quickly.

U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton on Wednesday blocked the law's most controversial elements, arguing that immigration matters are the federal government's responsibility.

The law had drawn wide popular support in this state bordering Mexico and across the United States as a whole, but was opposed by President Barack Obama and human rights groups.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Bolton had received hate mail following the ruling. Additionally, aides to a U.S. Congressman opposed to the crackdown reported finding a shattered window and a bullet at a district office in Arizona.

Brewer issued a statement saying she had filed the appeal, asking that the suspended provisions "go into effect pending a decision on the merits of this case." The case was widely expected to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Republican-controlled state legislature passed the law three months ago to try to drive nearly half a million illegal immigrants out of Arizona, and stem the flow of human and drug smugglers over the border from Mexico.

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

America’s Real Dream Team By Thomas L. Friedman

Went to a big Washington dinner last week. You know the kind: Large hall; black ties; long dresses. But this was no ordinary dinner. There were 40 guests of honor. So here’s my Sunday news quiz: I’ll give you the names of most of the honorees, and you tell me what dinner I was at. Ready?

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

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Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.

No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?

O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.

Indeed, if you need any more convincing about the virtues of immigration, just come to the Intel science finals. I am a pro-immigration fanatic. I think keeping a constant flow of legal immigrants into our country — whether they wear blue collars or lab coats — is the key to keeping us ahead of China. Because when you mix all of these energetic, high-aspiring people with a democratic system and free markets, magic happens. If we hope to keep that magic, we need immigration reform that guarantees that we will always attract and retain, in an orderly fashion, the world’s first-round aspirational and intellectual draft choices.

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

Pro-immigration groups ready to fight By Stephan Dinan

Pro-immigration groups are more united, better-funded and, unlike the last battle in 2007, are ready to fight back against what they say is a wave of hatred from opponents as they gear up for another bruising immigration fight in Congress.

The groups range from businesses and Hispanic rights organizations to labor unions and religious denominations. They lost their fight for immigration reform three years ago after finger-pointing and disagreements between businesses and labor.

The groups also blame a Washington-centric strategy while their opponents ran a spectacularly successful grass-roots campaign.

"We're in much, much, much, much better condition than we were in 2007," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union and one of the key organizers of the coalition. "We have a united labor movement, and we have, I think, a tighter-knit network of immigrant rights advocates, organizations, churches and others around the country."

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

Texas to seek same anti-immigration law as Arizona By Marci Stone

Tuesday, Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle in Texas said that she would push for an anti-immigration bill that is similar to the one that Arizona just passed. Riddle said that she would introduce the new measure in January during the legislative session, according to the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle.

The new Arizona immigration law that was passed Friday will require police officers to question people about their immigration status and ask for documentation.

Riddle said that if the federal government was doing its job "Arizona wouldn't have to take this action, and neither would Texas."

Monday, anger grew over the new Arizona immigration law that the governor signed Friday. Thousands of protestors gathered at the Arizona state capital and smeared refried beans on swastikas. Civil rights activists believe that the new law will lead to racial profiling because police officers will carry out the law.

Friday, President Obama warned that it could lead to police abuses, and he asked his administration to look into the legality of it. Later that day, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law.

Full Article here

(posted by Zona Keo)

Immigrant rights groups adjust focus to passage of AgJobs, Dream Act

By Krissah Thompson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Some immigrant rights groups are shifting the strategy in their so-far unsuccessful push to overhaul immigration law: They're calling the new tactic the "down payment" approach.

"We are aware that the clock is running out, and there are no guarantees that a Congress that is supportive of immigration reform will be returned in November," said Antonio Gonzales, president of the William C. Velásquez Institute, a Latino public policy group. "We took a deep breath and said, 'Okay, we need a Plan B.' "

That plan centers on lobbying hard for the passage of two bills: AgJobs and the Dream Act. AgJobs is a compromise between farmworker unions and agriculture business groups, which was negotiated more than five years ago and is intended to provide legal farm labor and protect the rights of immigrant workers. The Dream Act would give some undocumented students the ability to apply for permanent residency. Both bills have had Republican support in the past.

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)

House approves $600 million for more agents and surveillance drones on Mexican border

Published August 10, 2010

Associated Press

In a rare moment of bipartisanship Tuesday, the House approved $600 million to pay for more unmanned surveillance drones and about 1,500 more agents along the troubled Mexican border.

Getting tougher on border security is one of the few issues that both parties agree on in this highly charged election season. But lawmakers remain deeply divided over a more comprehensive approach to the illegal immigration problem, and it's unclear if Congress will go beyond border-tightening efforts.

...

The bill would offset its costs by raising fees on foreign-based personnel companies that use U.S. visa programs to bring skilled workers to the United States. These include the popular H-1B visa program. India says higher fees would discriminate against its companies and workers.

...

Congress and the White House felt a greater urgency to act on border security after Arizona passed a law directing its law enforcement officers to be more aggressive in seeking out illegal immigrants. A federal judge struck down the law's main provisions, but many voters throughout the country favor crackdowns on illegal immigration.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., asked the Senate to move quickly. She said it's time for the federal government "to stop letting us down and start getting the job done" on tighter border security.

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)

ICE director John Morton: 'I don't support amnesty,' and neither does President Obama

By Michael Sheridan

Thursday, August 12th 2010

The head of the nation's Immigration and Customs Enforcement says "no" to amnesty, despite a union's claim to the contrary.

Director John Morton denies the Obama administration favors giving amnesty to illegal immigrants, and says his agency is doing all it can to deport those who have entered this country illegally.

"The President doesn't support amnesty, the [Secretary of Homeland Security] doesn't support amnesty, I don't support amnesty," Morton told Neil Cavuto on FOX Business Network Wednesday night.

The dust-up over amnesty began with an 11-page memo that leaked recently, suggesting the administration would move to authorize a sweeping legalization of illegal aliens.

The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents thousands of ICE field agents, voted unanimously last week in favor of a "vote of no confidence" in Morton and his leadership as a result of the memo.

The union feared the ICE chief had "abandoned the Agency's core mission of enforcing United States Immigration Law and providing for public safety, and have instead directed their attention to campaigning for programs and policies related to amnesty," union president Chris Crane said in a statement.

...

"There is no administration in the history of this country that has removed more people from the United States," Morton said.

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)

Obama as border cop: He's deported record numbers of illegal immigrants

New data suggest that the dramatic rise in deportations for illegal immigrants since 9/11 has continued under President Obama, hitting record levels in 2009.

By Lourdes Medrano, Correspondent / August 12, 2010 Tucson, Ariz.

A parade of states led by Arizona says the federal government is not doing enough to combat illegal immigration. But by one measure – deportations – the federal government is doing more than it has ever done.

In 2009, the United States deported a record 387,790 people – a 5 percent increase over 2008. Nearly two months before the end of the 2010 federal fiscal year, the deportation rate is down slightly from 2009, but the number of removals is still likely to be more than triple what it was in 2001.

The numbers come from a recently released study by Syracuse University in New York. Among the other significant findings: An increasing share of deportees are immigrants who have been convicted of a crime, reflecting President Obama's desire to reorient the deportation process toward targeting criminals.

Critics of Mr. Obama worry that the focus on criminals could mean a pass for most noncriminal illegal immigrants. They also note that deportation alone does not represent a comprehensive immigration policy. But the deportation trend does run counter to many perceptions in border states and beyond about federal anti-illegal immigration efforts.

“We have never, ever deported so many people from the country as we are doing now,” says Douglas Massey, an immigration expert at Princeton University in New Jersey.

The only other time deportations came close to existing levels was in the early 1930s, during quasi-official deportation campaigns against Mexicans. Expulsions peaked at 136,000 in 1931 and "were done primarily by local officials and don't show up in federal statistics on deportations,” Professor Massey says.

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)

US border violence: Myth or reality?

28 July 2010
By Katie Connolly BBC News, El Paso, Texas

With Arizona's controversial immigration law due to come into effect this week, the national debate over border security is poised to reignite

Fears over Mexican drug cartel violence near the border are fuelling the debate over immigration and border control, but is the idea that the killings are spreading into the US just a myth?

Related stories

• Arizona judge hears immigration law challenge
• El Paso feels Mexico drug war
• Inside Mexico's most dangerous city

Once upon a time, Spanish settlers named the crossing El Paso Del Norte - the pass to the north.

The border city of El Paso, Texas, lies along the Rio Grande, in the chasm between two inhospitable mountains.

Each day, thousands of people in cars, buses and on foot cross the short bridge that connects El Paso with its Mexican sister city, Juarez, one of the world's most dangerous places.

In the past two years, more than 5,000 people have been murdered in Juarez as drug-related crime has soared.

Politicians, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, tend to portray border towns as being pushed to crisis point.

"We see this crime on a daily basis. The federal government must respond more effectively, step up their enforcement and protection of the border before more American blood is shed," Mr Abbott told Fox News.

"It is more dangerous to walk the streets of Juarez, a few blocks from El Paso, than it is to walk the streets of Baghdad. There is a very serious problem that is beginning to bulge at our borders and put American lives at risk."

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)

Borderlines (New Yorker)

By William Finnegan
July 26, 2010

When the topic is illegal immigration, some of our political leaders reliably produce more heat than light. On April 28th, in a letter to President Obama, seventeen members of Congress, most of them from the Southwest, demanded immediate action to increase border security, noting that “violence in the vicinity of the U.S.-Mexico border continues to increase at an alarming rate.” Two days earlier, Senator John McCain, of Arizona, in a floor speech defending his state’s newly passed law requiring local officers to investigate individuals’ immigration status, described “an unsecured border between Arizona and Mexico, which has led to violence, the worst I have ever seen.” He went on to cite numbers for illegal immigrants apprehended last year “that stagger.”

In fact those numbers are surprising: they are sharply down, according to the Border Patrol—by more than sixty per cent since 2000, to five hundred and fifty thousand apprehensions last year, the lowest figure in thirty-five years. Illegal immigration, although hard to measure, has clearly been declining. The southern border, far from being “unsecured,” is in better shape than it has been for years—better managed and less porous. It has been the beneficiary of security-budget increases since September 11th, which have helped slow the pace of illegal entries, if not as dramatically as the economic crash did. Violent crime, though rising in Mexico, has fallen this side of the border: in Southwestern border counties it has dropped more than thirty per cent in the past two decades. It’s down in Senator McCain’s Arizona. According to F.B.I. statistics, the four safest big cities in the United States—San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso, and Austin—are all in border states.

Full article here.

(Posted by Alice Bynum.)