2010 May 19 | VivirLatino

Archive for May 19th, 2010

A Look at Another Kind of Racial Profiling of Latinos : Yo Soy el Army

11:57 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Education|Immigration|Media|military · Comments Off

19 May 2010

One of the disturbing aspects of the DREAM Act to me has always been the military service as a path to legalization for the young and undocumented. The reason this disturbs me is complex. It has to do with my own history as a daughter of Puerto Ricans. My parents were born on an island that I (and the United Nations among others) consider a colony and occupied. My father was in the Air Force for some time before I was born. I have family who have served in the U.S. military and some who still do. I am anti-imperialist and am opposed of U.S. military interventions and invasions that line the pages of Latin American history and global history really. It’s not just history, it’s now. It’s the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and it’s my daily commute through the 74th Roosevelt Ave. subway station with military recruiters targeting the young and the Latino to become human frontline fodder for the military industrial complex.

Yesterday, Democracy Now had a report specifically about how the U.S. military targets Latinos. It really is worth watching, listening to, and reading (transcript after the cut). I think about two of my high school boyfriends, smart Latino young men, one who was politicized at the same time I was, and how both ended up U.S. Marines. I think of my own cousins, whom I love. I think about the way the “American Dream” is sold to us as Latinos and how that dream is defined for us, turning it into a stereotype nightmare.

I am not against the DREAM Act and I think that the report below glosses over the education aspect of the DREAM Act that so many of the DREAM Activists I know and love are behind. But I do think that as a movement we need to be honest with ourselves with some of inherent contradictions. I don’t think the DREAM Activists are stupid and haven’t considered this, as the filmmaker featured seems to imply. I think it’s complicated and something we need to wrestle with.

ACLU and Others File Lawsuits against SB1070 and for Day Laborers

9:31 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice|New York · 4 Comments

19 May 2010

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) certainly has been busy filing two separate lawsuits that seek to end discrimination and racial profiling of immigrants and Latinos.

First in Arizona: On Monday the ACLU, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the National Immigration Law Center, National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center filed a lawsuit to stop SB1070 on the grounds that it violates the Constitution’s 1st and 4th amendments, among other reasons.

From the L.A. Times:

The individual plaintiffs include a 70-year-old U.S. citizen of Spanish and Chinese descent who says he’s been stopped twice by Arizona police asking for “papers”; a Latino citizen studying at Arizona State University whose New Mexico driver’s license would not be accepted as proof of citizenship under the law; and a Jamaican immigrant who fears police will not believe the photocopy of a judge’s order that he be allowed to stay in the country, the only paperwork he has that gives him legal status here.

Fighting for a DREAM

7:31 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|arizona|Education|Immigration · 1 Comment

19 May 2010

The decision to escalate action, move from petitions to rallies to putting your body on the line takes on different meaning when you are undocumented in the United States. The recent actions of the DREAM Act students arrested and now in I.C.E. custody after a sit-in at Senator John McCain’s office in Arizona exemplifies this. Wanting access to education free from fear should not be something that young people need to risk their freedom over and yet that is the situation they find themselves in. For that we need to be grateful, respectful, and supportive.

The rhetoric around comprehensive immigration reform has yielded lukewarm media attention and harsh political action through the growth of enforcement heavy policies like 287 (g) and most recently SB1070 in Arizona, feeding detention centers. Now these detention centers feed on our young.

The way I see it, there is no political will to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the beltway. Promises have fallen flat like the fucked up proposals on the table. Throughout the years here on VivirLatino I have written about some of the problems with the DREAM Act, because like any law pushed through the white halls of Washington D.C., political efficacy demands the inclusion of some sort of complex (military industrial, prison industrial). Pero, I think of Tam and Cinthya. I think of the DREAM’ers in I.C.E. detention now and how justice delayed has meant justice denied.

This does not have to be an either or situation. Let’s push for the DREAM Act to be passed. Everyone loves to talk about a path for reform. Let’s create one by pushing for the DREAM Act.

Immigrant Students Detained for the DREAM Act from Barni Qaasim on Vimeo.

Please sign this petition, for the students currently in detention and for all students, por nuestro futuro.

Karen: Have you see the census figures for 2010? Latinos are not all that diverse. Most" Latinos" are Mexic [...]

Maegan La Mala: Hi Karen, I agree but only in part. I think that people do get up in cults of personality but th [...]

Maegan La Mala: I haven't heard anything about a rally being held Jose Luis. i know Presente.org is organizing a pet [...]

Karen: Also, Al Sharpton, now a host on MSNBC, brought attention to the Trayvon Martin case because he knew [...]

jose luis: when the rally is going to be held in SAn Diego..if there is on??? [...]

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Archive for May 19th, 2010

A Look at Another Kind of Racial Profiling of Latinos : Yo Soy el Army

ACLU and Others File Lawsuits against SB1070 and for Day Laborers

Fighting for a DREAM

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