Archive for May, 2010
DREAM Act Students Keep The Pressure On : L.A. and San Fran Civil Disobedience & Michigan Hunger Strike
8:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|California|Education|Immigration|Michigan|youth · 3 Comments
21 May 2010President Obama may have reaffirmed his commitment to Comprehensive Immigration Reform, again, but DREAM Act students aren’t having it anymore. Tired of living in limbo and having their experience used as a wedge issue in the wider immigration reform movement, they have been stepping it up hardcore through a series of civil disobedience actions and now hunger strikes aimed at getting a stand alone DREAM Act.
The escalation was set off by the brave actions of students in Arizona, who now face deportation following a sit-in in Senator John McCain’s Arizona office. Fear is not winning however, as more students risk arrest and deportation in the name of having their DREAM fulfilled.
Yesterday, 9 U.S. citizen students were arrested in an act of solidarity with their undocumented brothers and sisters for blocking Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Oyster Bay Long Island Ordinance Targeting Latino Day Laborers Halted
6:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor|New York · Comments Off
21 May 2010That was fast. An Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY ordinance targeting Latino day laborers seeking work was shot down yesterday by a Federal Judge, who issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the law until a full hearing on the matter on May 28th.
The decision came following a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union
The law used the excuse of public safety, claiming that day laborers seeking work in Farmingdale and Locust Valley presented a danger to pedestrians and drivers. Most Latino immigrant workers and their supporters say the law was racial profiling and anti-immigrant.
For now day laborers can return to seeking work in order to provide for themselves and their familias.
Que Que? Fox News to Start a Latino News Site?
1:33 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media · 4 Comments
20 May 2010
How do you say “no comprendo” in racist.
I’ve read at least three reports on how Fox News is launching a Latino website called “Fox News Latino”.
“About a third of the country is going to be of Latino heritage by 2050 and we thought it was time to launch a site with more of a focus,” said Michael Clemente, Fox News’ senior vice president of news editorial.
I’m not stressing this becoming competition for VivirLatino pero que en carajo does Fox News know about Latinos? Since when has Fox News ever been fair or respectful of the Latino community? Y que? Ahora they well talk shit about us in Spanish or Spanglish or will they use this as more proof of how much Republicans really love Latinos, well certain Latinos, good Latinos? My guess is that Fox Latino will also feature Latino vendecomunidades who will say how much they are against “amnesty”, etc.
In NYC Blacks and Latinos Are All Criminal Suspects Until Further Notice
11:41 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|New York City|race · Comments Off
20 May 2010The unlawful stopping and and frisking of people of color in NYC has been a problem for over a decade now, but technology and the current anti-Latino and anti-immigrant climate raise the stakes for these communities, our communities.
The NY Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit against the New York City Police Department over the racial profiling during increased stop and frisk operations in NYC (over 80% of those stopped are Black or Latino) and over the fact that regardless if those stopped are found doing something “criminal” or not, their names are entered in an NYPD database to be kept indefinitely creating a class of permanently criminal residents.
Girl questions Michelle Obama about immigration
9:19 am By la Macha · children|Family|Immigration|Obama · 14 Comments
20 May 2010Michelle Obama went to an elementary school classroom yesterday, and a girl in the classroom posed some heartbreaking questions:
The student shyly raised her hand and said, “My mom … she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers.”
Mrs. Obama replied: “Yeah, well that’s something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.”
The girl then said quietly, “But my mom doesn’t have any …” and trailed off.
Mrs. Obama replied: “Well, we have to work on that. We have to fix that, and everybody’s got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That’s right.”
Here is video of the exchange:
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go lay down and sob my brains out.
Saundering Across Borders: Laughter from the VivirLatino Inbox
8:47 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Bizarro|From the Inbox|Funny|Immigration · 1 Comment
20 May 2010Hate mail and comments are as routine as breathing here at VivirLatino. I cannot even begin to calculate the time spent deleting hateful comments and emails telling us and you, our readers, to go back where we came from and to speak English (the fact that this site is in English apparently escapes them). Usually I ignore the comments and stupidity, pero sometimes, the idiocy is so great, so humorous, that I have to share.
Yesterday, VL’s inbox received a press release titled : “CALL ME CRAZY but Will Just One US President PLEASE STAND UP To Protect American Citizens”
It’s not hard to guess what the message was. Undocumented immigrants are characterized as stealing jobs and causing the economic downturn. Nothing new to see here folks.
But here’s the thing. If people calling themselves “Conservative Pundits” want to complain and send out releases, shouldn’t they be required to do a spell-check? By definition, a pundit is someone who claims authority on a subject. I cannot take you seriously if:
1: YOU INSIST ON USING CAPS IN YOUR RELEASE! There is a handy little punctuation symbol called an exclamation point. Use this for emphasis. CAPS IS CONSIDERED SCREAMING. I don’t need to scream. My words are emphatic and forceful enough.
2: You are historically inaccurate. The release starts off like this:
Is it me….or is it what it is? Since the first surge of illegal immigrants hit our country, not one President has had the cohunes’ to protect the citizens of the United States of America from…
What exactly are you considering the first surge of “illegal immigrants”? Where I’m from those are Europeans who came here. Apparently this person is using a textbook from Texas
3: You use the wrong words and render your argument incoherent.
Did you catch the mistake above? In an effort to use strong language, the writer of said release tries to use the Spanish word “cojones”, balls or did the writer intentionally mean to use the word meaning a type of palm tree and/or the nut from said palm tree?
Other laughable mistakes include:
CALL ME CRAZY but HAS ANYONE EVER WONDERED WHY GEORGE W. BUSH LEFT OUR BORDERS OPEN AFTER 9-11 TO ANY TERRORISTS WHO DESIRED TO SAUNDER ACROSS OUR OPEN BORDERS WITH A SUITCASE BOMB ON HIS BACK?
Saunder? I don’t know anyone who saunders across anything, including a border. Is this a new skill that the undocumented have developed?
and finally:
But hay; at least we have always had a President on hand to see it through to our determent.
Hay is for horses and determent prevents action.
You wanted us to call you crazy but can I call you stupid instead?
DREAM Activists Held by ICE after Sit-In in McCain’s Arizona Office Released
6:40 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|arizona|Education|Immigration · 4 Comments
20 May 2010A little bit of good news coming out of Arizona, the three undocumented DREAM activists, arrested and subsequently detained by I.C.E following a sit-in in Senator John McCain’s Arizona office have been released. Mohammad Abdollahi of Michigan, Yahaira Carrillo of Kansas, and Lizbeth Mateo of California were issued a field released supervision by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They are facing federal charges of trespassing as well as deportation.
From Change.org:
“We are relieved to be released from ICE, however our hearts go out to all of the DREAM beneficiaries we met while we were being detained, all of whom would likely be deported because they do not have the same support that we do. We ask that leaders within both the Senate and our communities take the same stand we did and push for the DREAM Act to become a reality this year,” said Mohammad.
Upon release, Yahaira stated “We decided to own our power and make our voices heard. While we are glad to be out, remember that this action was not and is not about us as individuals. It is imperative for all to continue to push the DREAM Act, to work like we’ve never worked before and make this a reality this summer. We’ve surpassed the days of sitting idly by while others make decisions for us, while others tell us to wait. We cannot wait. Waiting is no longer a option. The DREAM Act must pass and it must pass now.”
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 2010One 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 2010The 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 2010The 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.
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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