Archive for the ‘North Carolina’ Category
Undocumented Youth Send Message Ahead of North Carolina DNC ; Are Arrested
6:31 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration|North Carolina|Secure Communities · 9 Comments
8 Sep 2011Ten undocumented youth were arrested on Tuesday during an act of civil disobedience at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to DREAM Activist , the action was a protest against a number of anti-immigrant policies in the state including discriminatory policies towards undocumented students at community colleges, and the criminalization of the undocumented community as a result of programs like 287g and Secure Communities, which is active in 100% of counties in North Carolina. The site was also chosen because and to hold the Democratic party accountable to their inaction and often supportive hand in perpetuating this current attack on the immigrant community. Charlotte was also targeted because it is the site of the Democratic National Convention next year, and the current Democrat led administration has so far deported over a million immigrants and have expanded enforcement policies. It also cannot be forgotten that when the DREAM Act came before Congress last year, Democratic North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan voted against the bill.
Lawsuit filed Against U.S. for Wrongfully Deporting U.S. Citizen
12:37 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|North Carolina · 7 Comments
14 Oct 2010Yesterday the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) officers over the wrongful deportation of 33 year old Mark Lytlle, a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican background who has mental disabilities.
According to the complaint( PDF File), in the fall of 2008, Lyttle was detained by I.C.E. in North Carolina, identified as a Mexican national and subsequently deported to Mexico. Lyttle had no ties to Mexico and spoke no Spanish. For four months he lived on the streets and in the shelters and prisons of Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
From the ACLU :
Lyttle’s entanglement with immigration authorities began when he was about to be released from a North Carolina jail where he was serving a short sentence for inappropriately touching a worker’s backside in a halfway house that serves individuals with mental disorders. Despite having ample evidence that Lyttle was a U.S. citizen – including his social security number, the names of his parents, his sworn statements that he was born in the United States and criminal record checks – officials from the North Carolina Department of Correction referred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an undocumented immigrant whose country of birth was Mexico. Lyttle had never been to Mexico, shared no Mexican heritage, spoke no Spanish and did not claim to be from Mexico.
Teaching That Only English Speaking Parents and Students Are Important in Schools
7:19 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|language|North Carolina · 5 Comments
12 Feb 2010When my daughter was in elementary school in the public school system of NYC, I spent alot of time trying to create equal access to information for Spanish speaking immigrant families. Despite NYC being an “immigrant” city, there is no standardized system of making sure that all parents, regardless of their home language get information that they can understand in order to support their child’s education and participate in the school community. Parent/teacher conferences were interpreted by children and school notices and meetings went home in English only. It was a struggle. Imagine what it is like in communities already less immigrant friendly. A recent incident in North Carolina doesn’t require our imaginations.
Ana Ligia Mateo, a former secretary at a Devonshire Elementary in North Carolina, was hired as a bilingual secretary — which makes sense, since nearly half of the school’s student population is Hispanic, and many come from homes where English is not their first language. But in 2008, a new principal instituted a policy barring faculty or staff from speaking Spanish to parents. The policy seems to be motivated solely by anti-immigrant sentiment and racism. Yet Mateo was a constant rule-breaker. When distraught or concerned parents with a language barrier came to the school, she couldn’t always bring herself to refuse to answer questions or translate so that they could understand. So she was fired.
Republican Congresswoman: Matthew Shepard Case “a Hoax”
3:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|crime|GLBT|North Carolina|Politics|society · 4 Comments
29 Apr 2009In 1998, Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered for being gay, drawing attention to the problem of hate crimes against LGBT people in this country and becoming a catalyst for much needed hate crime legislation. Since then, the Shepard case has been a cultural reference point both in the good and the bad sense; hate mongers like Fred Phelps have used Shepard as the target of their disgusting campaigns, and the general public has become more aware of hate crimes as a result of this much-publicized crime.
We all know this brutal murder was a hate crime. But one Republican Congresswoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, wants you think otherwise. Check out her speech on the subject in the video above.
Might this be a good example of the reasons why Senator Arlen Specter believes his party has moved too far to the right?
Angry? Give Rep. Foxx a call and tell her so: DC office Phone: (202) 225-2071 NC District office: Toll Free: 1(866) 677-8968 Phone: (828) 265-0240
Via / Politico
Oregon and Chatham County , NC Make Pro-Immigrant Moves
2:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|North Carolina|Oregon · 1 Comment
3 Feb 2009Not all cities and counties in the U.S. are putting anti-immigrant measures into effect. Chatham County NC, which towns include Pittsboro and Siler City, home to the majority of North Carolina’s poultry processors, passed a resolution indicating strong opposition to any of its law enforcement agencies contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (ICE)
The program in question is called the 287(g) program. It authorizes ICE and local law enforcement agencies to enter into an agreement to provide local law enforcement officers with training so they could function under the supervision of sworn ICE officers.
Under the program, every person charged with a crime, whether it’s for driving without a license or murder, is asked certain questions to determine if they are legally within the United States. If a person is determined to be an illegal alien, then the person would be held for deportation.
Meanwhile, in Oregon:
Columbia County Circuit Court Judge Ted E. Grove today issued a preliminary injunction that will prevent an anti-immigrant ballot measure from taking effect on February 2.The ACLU/NWJP challenge contends that Measure 1-590, which would fine employers for hiring or employing undocumented immigrants:
• Exceeds the powers of Columbia County as granted by the state of Oregon;
• Violates the Single Subject requirement of the Oregon Constitution; and
• Is preempted by existing state laws, as well as land-use statutes and regulations.Measure 5-190 relies on E-Verify, a federal database designed to check employees’ names against Social Security records. That database has proven to be very flawed and ineffective. One transposed digit or misspelled name could flag longtime citizens as “illegal.”
Latino Commission on AIDS to Release Report Today
9:56 am By Maegan La Mala · Alabama|Georgia|Health|Mississippi|North Carolina|South Carolina · Comments Off
1 Dec 2008
Commemorating the 20th annual World AIDS Day, today at noon EST, the Latino Commission on AIDS will release a new report focusing on the state of HIV/AIDS prevention and care services for Latinos in the Deep South: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. The report, Shaping the New Response: HIV/AIDS and Latinos in the Deep South, follows 2 years of fact finding.
Date: Monday, December 1st
National Call-In Press Conference: 12:00 PM EST ( English and Spanish). Dial-in number (888) 387-8686 password 4615450
In-Person Press Conference: 1:00 p.m. EST (English and Spanish) Latino Commission on AIDS at 24 West 25th Street 10th Floor, New York City (Bet 6th Avenue & Broadway)
For more information and to arrange interviews, call
Guillermo Chacón (212) 920-1611 or gchacon@latinoaids.org (Spanish)
Tim Frasca (917) 689-9475 or tfrasca@latinoaids.org (English)
For more information visit The Latino Commission on AIDS.
Problems with Early Voting
7:55 am By Maegan La Mala · North Carolina|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
22 Oct 2008
Jack from Angry Brown Butch blogs that various news outlets are already reporting problems in early voting that has begun in some states. Not surprisingly, mots of these problems favor John McCain voters while disenfranchising likely Barack Obama voters, that is voters of color. This doesn’t look good for actual election day, now less than 2 weeks away.
McCain Supporters Harass Obama Voters in North Carolina
In North Carolina, over 200,000 residents have already cast ballots in early voting. In Fayetteville, a group of John McCain supporters heckled and harassed a group of mostly black supporters of Barack Obama as they voted on Sunday. The Washington Times reported the McCain backers shouted and mocked the voters as they walked into the voting place. The website Facing South reports the McCain supporters likely broke the Voting Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits anyone from intimidating or threatening a person for voting or attempting to vote. On that same day in Fayetteville, North Carolina, thirty people reported having their tires slashed after attending an Obama rally.
More voter harassment after the jump.
ICE Swoops Down Again : This Time in North Carolina
10:22 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|North Carolina · Comments Off
13 Aug 2008
President Bush’s administration has made it very clear that he’s gonna go out with a bang, not with a wimper when it comes to attacking immigrant communities.
Just yesterday there was a report of another raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), this time in Ashville, North Carolina.
Federal officials have taken nearly 60 employees of an
Asheville company into custody as part of an operation to arrest suspected
illegal immigrants.The 57 people are employees of Mills Manufacturing Corporation, a government
contractor that makes parachutes for the U.S. military.U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ivan L. Ortiz-Delgado said
that arrests are part of a targeted investigation.Ortiz-Delgado said that Mills Manufacturing is not a target of the
investigation and has been fully cooperative. The 59 workers who have been
detained are out of a total company workforce of 160, Ortiz-Delgado said.In all the case so far, the workers detained used fraudulent documents, ICE
officials said.Most of the people detained are from Mexico, but others are from Guatemala,
Ecuador, Honduras and El Salvador.About half of the people detained were released for humanitarian reasons,
ICE said. Those reason include child care and medical situations.The rest are being held at the Henderson County Detention Center. The county
has a an agreement with ICE to process and hold people accused of
immigration violations.
Obama Wins North Carolina Primary, Clinton wins Indiana
7:44 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Indiana|North Carolina|US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment
7 May 2008
There were no big surprises coming out of yesterday’s Democratic primaries, held in North Carolina and Indiana. Barack Obama won North Carolina easily (by 14 percentage points), and Hillary Clinton just barely won Indiana. Many have attributed Hillary’s slight victory in Indiana to older voters who have been loyal to her, and Obama gaining votes from lower class white voters who have traditionally voted Clinton.
Obama’s clear victory in North Carolina, besides raising his delegate and popular vote count, also proved that the Rev. Wright drama hasn’t impacted his campaign as many thought it would.
Via / NYT
The Face of North Carolina Latinos
12:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · North Carolina|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
6 May 2008
North Carolina has the fastest growing Latino population in the country.
According to the US Census, the Latino population in North Carolina has grown 394%, from 76,726 in 1990 to 378,963 in 2000.2 Latinos now make up 4.7% of the North Carolina population in comparison to 1.04% in 1990.3 Other sources estimate the population to be even larger, with numbers closer to 530,328 in 2002.4Many terms are used to refer to the richly diverse Hispanic/Latino communities. No consensus has emerged among the Hispanic/Latino community on which term to use.Most of the Latinos in North Carolina are of Mexican origin (65.1%).7 Puerto Ricans (who are US citizens) comprise 8.2% of the North Carolina Latino population, and Cubans or Cuban-Americans are 1.9%. The remaining 24.8% are from other Central or South American countries, or other Hispanic categories.
Nearly two-thirds of the North Carolina Latino population are foreign-born (64.2%) (Table 2:1). Almost all of North Carolina’s foreign-born Latinos are non-citizens (58.3%); only 5.9% have been naturalized.
North Carolina Latinos are younger than the general population. The median age of all people living in North Carolina is 35.3 years whereas the median age of Latinos is 24.
Via / The North Carolina Institute of Medicine
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