2010 October | VivirLatino

Archive for October, 2010

Con la Vista al Voto : Something Scary on Halloween. Look Who is Voting

9:05 am By Maegan La Mala · Con la Vista al Voto|Midterm Elections 2010 · Comments Off

31 Oct 2010

Con la Vista al Voto : From now until election day 2010, VivirLatino is going to have at least one post a day looking at the midterm elections and issues around the election including policy and the much hyped Latino vote.

I really hope that those who have been celebrating Halloween and/or Dia de los Muertos are having a safe and beautiful time with their families (chosen or other).

Presente.org has just put out a scary video and I think a pretty effective video, showing who will be voting for sure on Tuesday.
While I think it’s an effective scare tactic to move people to the polls, it’s also pretty angering and I support well placed, righteous anger to move people into action through voting or any other tool in their revolutionary toolbox.

Con la Vista al Voto : Sheriff Joe’s Latino Voter Suppression Army

6:54 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Midterm Elections 2010|Politics · 2 Comments

31 Oct 2010

As if things in Arizona, especially in Maricopa County, weren’t hard enough for Latinos, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on Friday:

“STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd.”

We already know that Sheriff Joe decides who is and isn’t legal by looking at who looks Latino. And while the part of SB1070 that allows for asking for people’s papers based on their ethnicity, alleging voter fraud is just an attempt to make Latinos walk around with their “papers” and to intimidate people who may be voting against Jan Brewer.

Almost immediately after Arpaio’s shout out, America’s Voice launched a petition targeting Attorney General Holder, demanding that he send election monitors to Arizona.

On Friday afternoon, the Justice Department announced that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 400 federal observers and department personnel to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for the Nov. 2, 2010, general election. One of those jurisdictions is Maricopa County in Arizona.

The other areas being monitored are:

o Autauga County, Ala.;
o Bethel, Alaska;
o Apache and Navajo Counties, Ariz.;
o Riverside County, Calif.;
o Randolph County, Ga.;
o Kane County, Ill.;
o Salem County (Penns Grove), N.J.;
o Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.;
o Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
o Shannon County; S.D.; and
o Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson Counties, Texas.
o Maricopa County, Ariz.;
o Alameda County, Calif.;
o Seminole County, Fla.;
o Honolulu, Hawaii;
o Neshoba County, Miss.;
o Colfax County, Neb.;
o Passaic County, N.J.;
o Orange County, N.Y.;
o Lorain County, Ohio;
o Philadelphia, Pa.;
o Bennett and Todd Counties, S.D.;
o Shelby County, Tenn.; and
o Harris County, Texas.

ICE Raid in Nashville Shows U.S.’s Immigration Agenda

6:40 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Nashville · 3 Comments

30 Oct 2010

While the Tea Party and the candidates they support constantly twist the U.S. Constitution to fit their agenda, the current administration seems to have it’s own constitutional issues especially with how it treats those suspected of being undocumented.

On October 20th Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid at The Clairmont, a South Nashville, Tennessee apartment complex. As is the usual line, the raid was supposed to target the “dangerous” or “bad” undocumented, in this case alleged “gang” members from MS-13 and SUR-13.

From the Tennessean:

“In this case, ICE’s Fugitive Operations Team was assisting local law enforcement with field interviews of suspected street gang members and targeted ICE fugitives,” said ICE spokesman Temple Black from the New Orleans field office.

Except residents and advocates have a different perspective.
Read more…

Con la Vista Al Voto : Meg Whitman’s Double Speak on Immigration

6:19 am By Maegan La Mala · California|Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Midterm Elections 2010|Politics · 2 Comments

30 Oct 2010

For much of the campaign trail, Republican California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has been courting the Latino vote out of one side of her mouth while cursing Latinos out of the other. When it was revealed earlier this campaign cycle, that her former housekeeper was undocumented, Whitman turned on the dramatics saying she considered Nicky Diaz Santillan part of the family yet fired that “family member” when she learned of her status. Now Whitman is calling for her former housekeeper to be deported.

From Calitics :

Wednesday, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Whitman answered the question head on. “Well, the answer is it breaks my heart, but she should be deported because she forged documents and she lied about her immigration status,” Whitman said. “And it breaks my heart. Gloria Allred pulled off a political stunt. And you know what? On Nov. 3, no one’s going to care about Nicky Diaz. But the law is the law and we live in the rule of law. It’s important.”

I know plenty of people, VivirLatino included who care about Nicky Diaz and the many like her whose names we do not know who are threatened with deportation. What people shouldn’t care for, is Whitman’s using the real life of a woman in order to promote her enforcement heavy immigration agenda. Whitman is using Diaz as a poster child for E-Verify, the problematic system that

Viernes Video : The Other 67%, Adding Options to the DREAM Act

8:41 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration · 3 Comments

29 Oct 2010

This video comes to us via Producciones Cimarrón and features a young Latino named Juan, who would benefit from the passage of the DREAM Act as it stands now, but he argues that DREAM as it stands now, especially the Education clause, would only help a small portion of young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Juan argues that the majority of undocumented youth (67%), whose access to quality higher education is limited because of finances and the way the education in our neighborhoods works, would have to opt for the military option in order to become legal residents. Juan proposes adding additional components to the DREAM Act, like community service and financial assistance, in order to lessen the likelihood of DREAM being used as a military recruitment funnel.

In Spanish

67% is Not A Choice. from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.

SB 1070′s Direct to Prison Pipeline?

6:30 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration · 2 Comments

29 Oct 2010

In August and September of this year, VivirLatino drew your attention to a possible connection between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signing SB1070 into law and the for profit prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Now a new report from NPR draws a line connecting the author of SB1070, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, and “a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. Insiders call it ALEC”. Members of ALEC include the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil, the National Rifle Association, and Corrections Corporation of America.

According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in “a significant portion of our revenues” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants.

In the conference room, the group decided they would turn the immigration idea into a model bill. They discussed and debated language. Then, they voted on it.

“There were no ‘no’ votes,” Pearce said. “I never had one person speak up in objection to this model legislation.”

Four months later, that model legislation became, almost word for word, Arizona’s immigration law.

They even named it. They called it the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.”

Con la Vista al Voto : Sharon Angle Thinks Living Undocumented is a Game

11:58 am By Maegan La Mala · Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Midterm Elections 2010|Nevada|Politics · 4 Comments

28 Oct 2010

The latest from the Sharon Angle hate machine is a “game” or rather a campaign ad disguised as a Monopoly type game. The ad depicts Reid, dressed as Mr. Moneybags, as spending the voters’ money and giving jobs and amnesty to the undocumented. Friends of Angle, the official org behind the ad uses stats from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Republican Angle, who is running against the Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid, according to the latest poll released yesterday by CNN and Time, is leading. This poll was questioned on MSNBC last night, with talking heads suggesting oversampling. Today, even the right wing is calling the latest numbers into question, saying no one under 50 was polled.

Con la Vista al Voto : With Democrats Like This…

6:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Ohio|Politics · 1 Comment

28 Oct 2010

I lean way left, which is why I come down on both of the main political parties in the U.S. I pointed out the disgusting campaign ads coming from some Republicans hoping for votes next week, but today I bring you an ad from a Democrat in Ohio.

Transcript: “I’m Zack Space and I approve this message. Bob Gibbs genius jobs plan: more free trade with China. Now his latest gem: a so-called guest worker program for illegal immigrants. Here’s what Gibbs just said: “We need a guest worker program so they can come in for a good job and then go back to their country.” Brilliant, Bob. So while you’re fighting to keep your job, Gibbs wants to give it to illegal immigrants. Bob Gibbs: a jobs plan for Mexico and China—not Ohio.”

Con la Vista Al Voto : Fear of a Brown Ballot

10:54 am By Maegan La Mala · Colorado|Con la Vista al Voto|Midterm Elections 2010 · 1 Comment

27 Oct 2010

The right wing political machine isn’t just asking Latinos not to vote in order to increase their chances at a power grab. They are accusing non-partisan get out the vote campaigns geared towards Latinos of submitting fraudulent voter registration forms.

False Accusation:

On Friday, Jim Hoft of BigGovernment.com, a website backed by right-wing conspiracy theorist Andrew Breitbart, falsely reports that Mi Familia Vota dropped off 3,000 voter registration forms in Yuma, 65% of which were supposedly found to be invalid. That same day, the same right-wing blogger Jim Hoft posted a similar accusation on conservative blog First Things, claiming that Mi Familia Vota turned in 6,000 fraudulent voter registrations in Colorado—which is a complete misrepresentation of an unrelated court case from 2008 that has nothing to do with voter registration forms submitted by Mi Familia Vota.

Not surprisingly, Michelle Malkin ran the same piece of misinformation on her blog by Monday and was then interviewed by Fox News later that day. All of Malkin’s claims have already been dismissed in an investigation by Media Matters.

Here are the Facts:

* Mi Familia Vota has registered 298 voters in Yuma County Arizona over the past two months. Immediately following the accusation, the Yuma County Recorder stated that she had no reason to expect fraud in any of the voter registration forms dropped of by Mi Familia Vota. She has since gone on the record stating the same.
* Mi Familia Vota has registered 157 voters in Colorado over the past year, of which every single voter file has been deemed valid by their respective county clerks, and the Secretary of State.
* Mi Familia Vota canvassers have been trained in the law and they know the law. Mi Familia Vota takes any accusations of voter fraud very seriously and will be redoubling efforts to review the laws with its canvassers to ensure full compliance with the law in the final days of the Election.

I think that this is less about false accusations of voter fraud and more about fear regarding the power of the changing demographics of the United States. I also don’t think it’s coincidental that these accusations are being launched against organizations who would likely be registering voters that have lived and experienced how anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric work and where that rhetoric is most clearly coming from. Organizations like Mi Familia Vota, don’t need to be partisan. Such accusations rely on the assumption that Latino could be voters are stupid and cannot make informed decisions. I also think that in these districts, Republicans are setting the groundwork for what their excuse will be if they lose in these key areas. They can blame the undocumented, the Latino, the brown.

Con la Vista al Voto : Attacking from all Angle(s)

26 Oct 2010

Just a week away from the midterm elections an Republicans across the United States are pulling out all the stops, that is appealing to the lowest common denominator by representing all immigrants as Latinos and Latinos as criminals, hellbent on riding in limos and denying little white children access to the English language.

Think I’m exaggerating? Look at Louisiana Senator David Vitter’s ad. Then we have Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, Sharron Angle who can’t tell the difference between Latinos and Asians (and those that may be both) when speaking to Latino youth, but seems to be crystal clear as to who (white) families need to blame and be afraid of.

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