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Arizona Boycott Called Off? NCLR Says So.

12:53 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration · 10 Comments

13 Sep 2011

This past weekend, when I received an email announcing that the National Council of la Raza (NCLR) was declaring the economic boycott of Arizona over, I admit that my first reaction was confusion.

I was confused because I didn’t remember the boycott solely being “owned” by any one organization. I was confused because I thought that the boycott (which I have been following and respecting as have my children) was supposed to remain in effect until the anti-immigrant law SB1070 was repealed. Did I misunderstand?

So I went back.

Various organizations and localities called for boycotts. No one can own an act of resistance.

The demand of the boycott was that SB1070 be repealed.

That hasn’t happened.

According to reports in the media, NCLR is cancelling the boycott because they feel that they have successfully discouraged other states from enacting similar laws (never mind not so successfully discouraging the president from his enforcement/deportation party). NCLR and other orgs are pointing the millions of dollars lost because of the boycott including the cancellation of conferences and conventions in the state. Additionally, The Arizona Republic says Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon’s office sent NCLR letters last month asking it to end the boycotts and work toward immigration reform. Based on the official press release announcing the calling off of the boycott, it’s all about the money honey. Both the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau are quoted in the official release, talking about the importance of “getting back to business”.

I know I am not the only one confused by this decision. Certainly the boycott in and of itself is controversial. There is debate as to the effectiveness of such an action, just like there is debate as to the effectiveness of civil disobedience. What both boycotts and cd’s share in common is that on their own, they are useless. On a small scale, people not buying a Stone Cold Creamery ice cream cone or blocking a highway are meaningless unless they are connected in a real way to work on the ground for a long time. The work of protest is not supposed to be easy. That is why it is called struggle. And to clarify, work on the ground does not just mean funded policy promoting as is currently happening with across the board in the immigrant rights advocacy world. The immigrant “movement” at the moment has been completely co-opted by non-profit orgs and their funders. There is no direction while on our blocks deportations rise.

And then we wonder why we are unable to find a Latino “leader”.
And then we wonder why Latinos are criticized for being unable to create sustained actions.

I’ve gone from confusion to cynical anger at the state of “movement building”.

Does NCLR’s backing off the boycott mean their national convention will be in Phoenix next year?

Parts of Arizona’s Show Me Your Papers Law (SB1070) Remain Under Injunction

9:21 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Politics · 1 Comment

12 Apr 2011

Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift an injunction on the most controversial aspects of SB 1070, including the provision that required police to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being undocumented, the show me your papers portion of the notorious law. The injunction is expected to stay in place until the Department of Justice lawsuit against SB-1070 is decided.

Salvador Reza of the Puente Movement responded, “SB 1070 and the on-going court battles could be avoided if the Obama administration simply ended its ICE Access contracts with Arizona. A simple stroke of the President’s pen could resolve much of the human rights crisis in Arizona. ”

And may I add, across the country. It’s important to remember that the federal lawsuit against SB1070 is based more on the idea that it is the job of the federal government to enforce immigration laws, than on the idea of racial profiling being a disgusting way to feed the prison system. And enforce the federal government has done (i.e Secure Communities).

The continuance of the injunction hopefully will also serve as a warning to states, like Georgia, that are pushing laws like SB1070, that these laws will be challenged by the legal system, but perhaps more importantly and less talked about, by our communities.

Latinos, Immigrant Advocates Nationwide Send Unambiguous Message in Light of Brisenia’s Murder: Stop the Hate, We are Watching

12:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice · 1 Comment

21 Feb 2011

VivirLatino is a proud endorser of the statement below.

The guilty verdict in the case against Shawna Forde is not justice, as it doesn’t bring little Brisenia Flores or her father, Raul, back from the dead. The verdict will not stop hate crimes, it will not stop the waves of anti-Latino and anti-immigrant laws being presented across the country. But yes we are watching, we are taking note and taking action(s).

From Presente.org

Thursday, February 17th, 2011, Tucson, Arizona – As Latinos and immigrant rights advocates from all over the United States applaud the guilty verdict in the trial of Shawna Forde – a leader of the hate-group Minuteman American Defense (MAD) convicted of murdering 9 year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores – a strong message resonates throughout the nation: We Are Watching. We are watching those who provide a platform to promote hate-crimes and call on the media to be socially responsible by reporting the linkages between Forde’s proven extremism and that of extremist groups she represents.

On May 2009, Forde and two accomplices – MAD Operations Director Jason Bush and local MAD member Albert Gaxiola – broke into the Flores’ home in the border town of Arivaca, Arizona. Without compunction, they shot Raul Flores, his wife Gina Gonzalez and their daughter Brisenia who screamed, “Please don’t shoot me!” before being shot twice in the head; Gonzalez survived the incident.

Brisenia’s murder has galvanized the entire Latino community. This gruesome act reflects in the starkest terms the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino hatred promoted by extremist groups. Latinos – the fastest-growing and largest ethnic minority group in the U.S. – understand and experience the hatred gripping the United States. In response, Latinos and immigrant advocates are closely watching media outlets that provide a platform for hatred promoted by extremist groups like MAD and the Federation for American Immigration Reform – a group Forde represented on a PBS show, for instance.

The details revealed in the murder trial have touched us all in a deep and unique way; indeed, no one will forget Brisenia. These important details-the organized hatred, the dehumanization of Latinos, the utter disregard of a child’s innocence- reflect the deepening and mainstreaming of the most noxious and dangerous strands of hatred in the United States. The growth and expansion of this hatred moves us to continue efforts to make sure there are no more hate-crimes and to take action condemning those media outlets that help disseminate hatred.

We call on the all media to be socially responsible by, for example, reporting the intimate link between Forde’s proven extremism and that of extremist groups she represents, so that the intellectual authors of the anti-Latino, anti-immigrant industry that has been growing in the nation -and the violence they perpetrate- may be known, discussed and confronted with greater urgency.

Endorsed by:

America Para Todos, Houston, TX
America’s Voice Educational Fund, Washington, DC
American Association of Jews from the Former USSR, National
Brazilian Total Assistance, Inc., Massachusetts
CARECEN, Los Angeles, CA
CASA de Maryland, Maryland
Center for Media Justice, Nationwide
Central American Resource Center (CRECEN), Houston, TX
Chicano Consortium de Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
Coalición de Derechos Humanos, Tucson AZ
Cuentame, Nationwide
El Centro del Inmigrante, New York
FIEL Houston, Inc, Houston, TX
Florida Immigration Coalition, Miami, FL
Fresno Unit of the Brown Beret National Organization (FresnoBBNO), Fresno, CA
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Atlanta, GA
Latino Leadership, Inc, Orlando, FL
LatinoPolitico.net, Nationwide
MinKwon Center for Community Action, New York
New Immigrant Community Empowerment, New York
New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Albuquerque, NM
New York Immigration Coalition, New York
OurNewAnahuac.net, Houston, TX
Ohio Action Circle, Ohio
Presente.org, Nationwide
Rockland County Immigration Coalition, New York
Salvadoran American National Network SANN, Nationwide
The Hispanic Community Dialogue of Virginia, Virginia
Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, Virginia
Vivir Latino, Nationwide
Voces de la Frontera, Milwaukee, WI
Westchester Hispanic Coalition, New York
William C. Velasquez Institute, Nationwide

Update on Arizona Young Man Facing Deportation

2:51 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|DREAM Act|Immigration · 1 Comment

18 Jan 2011

Two days ago I wrote about Pedro, the 22 year old living in Arizona who was brought here as a young child from Mexico and was facing deportation today.

Today there is a little bit of good news. Pedro was granted a 30 day window by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ‘s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency office in Phoenix, AZ to remain in the country while his case is being further reviewed.

“I now realize that the only way for me to be able to stay in Arizona, my home, is for President Obama to allow for me to stay. It is his choice whether I am deported to a country I do not know or if I am allowed to stay in Arizona and give back to my community. I ask President Obama to please let me serve this nation,” says Pedro.

In the absence of the DREAM Act, which would have allowed Pedro an opportunity to stay in the U.S., Pedro’s attorney is seeking for Pedro to be allowed to stay in the U.S. via deferred action based on the fact that he wants to enlist in the U.S. Marines.

Young Arizona Man Faces Deportation

10:05 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|DREAM Act|Immigration · 3 Comments

16 Jan 2011

22 year old Pedro was brought to the United States from Mexico when he was 7 years old by his grandmother, who raised him. The young man, who lives in Arizona and has no living relatives on either side of the border, has been told that he has until Tuesday to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who could deport him.

You can send an electronic fax to DHS/ICE

You can add your name to the petition and make calls.

Friday Fast News Links

12:01 pm By Maegan La Mala · Linking Latinos · 1 Comment

14 Jan 2011

Mami’hood is making it hard for me to write anything too in depth today so for now I am giving you this quick roundup of news stories and blog posts that I think are worthy of your attention.

*Landslides in Brazil due to flooding has claimed close to 500 lives and left thousands homeless.

*Marcia Alejandra, the first recorded transgender woman to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in Latin America, passed away.

*Check out Alto Arizona’s A History of Hate : Political Violence in a Rogue State (Arizona).

The Other Arizona Shooting

10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 6 Comments

11 Jan 2011

Before Congresswoman Gifford and others were shot in Tuscon, Arizona , 17 year old Ramses Barron Torres was shot and killed by a bullet originating in Nogales, Arizona. There have been no national moments of silence for the apparently unarmed teenager. No memes speculating on the sanity of the shooter(s) or if violent rhetoric played a role. That’s probably because Ramses Barron Torres is Mexican and was shot by U.S. Border Patrol.

The story on what actually happened to Torres depends on what source you believe. From Immigration Clearinghouse:

It took the players all day to get their stories to a point where it was agreed that the agents fired their weapons into the air, and they put Torres as either “in the US, throwing rocks at agents, when he fell and hit his head on a rock and died”, or, he fell from the fence which he was trying to scale while chunking rocks at BP agents, a truly awesome display of athletic ability were it to be true.

But something wierd happened. Torres body showed up at a hospital in Nogales Sonora with a gunshot wound, throwing all to hell the claims that he was in the US throwing rocks at BP agents.

…

The Sonora State Investigative Police, or PEI, said 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres, who died shortly after 3 a.m. at a Nogales, Sonora hospital, was shot in the back of the right arm, with the bullet continuing into his chest cavity, puncturing a lung, and lodging in the left side of his ribcage.

In “the back of the right arm” meaning Torres would have had his back to the BP agents who murdered him.

Legal Battles Begin Around Arizona’s HB2281

1:19 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Education · 6 Comments

4 Jan 2011

Just like part of the push back against Arizona’s SB1070 includes legal wrangling, so does the fight against HB2281, which bans Ethnic Studies in the state.

Arizona State Attorney General, Tom Horne, started the year by claiming that the Tucson Unified School District is out of compliance with HB2281 because of a Mexican-American study course, If found out of compliance and do not cut the course within a 60 day period, TUSD could lose 10 percent in state funding, an estimated $15 million.

TUSD has some options. The first is a hearing to prove that they are in compliance with HB2281. Additionally 11 teachers are filing a lawsuit claiming HB2281 violates the first and fourteenth amendments.

Via / KGUN9 and UPI

New Year in Arizona Brings More Anti-Latino Laws

7:31 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Culture|Education · 14 Comments

2 Jan 2011

In the Show Me Your Papers state of Arizona, ringing in the new year means that bells won’t be ringing to start Ethnic Studies classes in the state since effective yesterday HB2281 bans them.

The official reasoning behind the ban is to prevent courses that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity “instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” But really what the ban does in precisely the opposite. It codifies the normalization of whiteness with furthers the “othering” of everything else. It socializes young people into consent and acceptance of “American” culture as dominant and superior, meaning everything else is inferior. HB2281 is like the changes made to textbooks in Texas but applied to the art and liberty of teaching.
Read more…

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.”

VivirLatino