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Posts Tagged ‘Immigration’

Fake ICE Agent Kidnaps Infant, “Misrepresenting how the Government Works or Behaves in this Country”

3 Oct 2009

ALeqM5jmKc6IsGwelpJZpUA6AiJRxvKq2g Four day old Yair Anthony Carrillo and his mother, Maria Gurrolla of Nashville, Tennessee were doubly victimized by the fear that is the current immigration system in the United States on Tuesday, when the infant was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The fake official slashed Gurrolla after she initially refused to hand over the child though in the end Carillo was taken away from her.

As if having your newborn child violently taken from your arms weren’t traumatic enough, enter Yuri Cunza, president of Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and publisher of La Noticia, a Spanish language newspaper in Nashville who instead of connecting the long history of how immigration enforcement separates parents from their children, from Elvira Arellano to Cirila Baltazar Cruz, asks Latino immigrants communities to trust law enforcement and other state agencies who act as de facto ICE agents.

“I am really concerned about the possibility of newborn babies and Hispanic women can be targeted because of a level of vulnerability,” Cunza said…

Cunza said that the suspect posing as an immigration officer will create a chilling effect for Hispanics who regularly interact with immigration authorities. “It is misrepresenting how the government works or behaves in this country,” he said.

From Postville to Patchogue, the cries of immigrant mothers and children tell what is just another day on the job for those who continue to terrorize Latino immigrant communities and the carriers of hate who spread their racist gospel via the mainstream media. It is why children at a young age learn to stay close to their mothers in immigrant communities and maintain a low gaze in the presence of law enforcement. It doesn’t even matter if the ICE badge is real or not, just ask el espiritu de Brisenia Flores and her father. Yair Anthony Carrillo, with four days on this earth, is learning how to live in fear when he should be in his mother’s loving care and Latina motherhood is criminalized and victimized.

Updated: Late last night, after I wrote this post, Yair was found safe.

Via/ The Latin Americanist, Standing Firm, The Unapologetic Mexican

Roman Polanski: The Illegal?

1:26 pm By la Macha · Celebrities| Immigration| children| race| society · 3 Comments

29 Sep 2009

roman Anybody who follows the immigration debate knows the tired old explanation as to why undocumented immigrants are really “illegals” or “aliens.” They committed a crime! They are here illegally! They deserve the label!

Well, as I am sure many of you have heard, director Roman Polanski is currently in the news because 30 years after committing the crime of raping a 13-year-old girl, he was arrested in Switzerland and is awaiting extradition to the U.S. He has continued his life since his arrest and admission of guilt in a pretty unadulterated way. He works. He lives in multiple houses. He won a prestigious award. He has friends and supporters. And he lives (and has lived) quite openly as a man who likes to fuck young girls.

In short, if the U.S. really wanted him, the U.S. could’ve gotten him. And yet…it didn’t. And as I mentioned, after committing a crime, Polanski received no small level of support from others, up to and including “liberal” presses like NPR calling his crime “sex with a thirteen-year-old” rather than “rape.”

So, you have the case of families coming to the U.S. to get a job and help support families here and in other countries–and those people are no longer people. They are illegals. They are aliens. They deserve what they get.

You have the case of a man who *admits* to drugging and raping a thirteen-year-old child, and you have a “troubled genius” who, well, maybe isn’t that bad. I mean, not a rapist rapist. Just a regular rapist. A not bad rapist.

What is up with this difference? Why isn’t Glen Beck going after this scumbag? Why isn’t Lou Dobbs? Why isn’t the U.S. mobilizing an entire department to go after all the rapists? The illegal rapists? Why don’t we have an entire system of detention centers set up exclusively for all the rapists and their families to sit in until we can figure out what to do with them? If the rapists didn’t want their children locked up, they shouldn’t have raped, right?

I am not the only one who notices the differences in standards here. What I am wondering is will any of the “they are illegals” troupe be brave enough to account for the differences? And lest men think they are not the problem here, will any men be brave enough to account for why crimes against women and girls are so easy to forgive?

Postville Raids Documentary

1:26 pm By la Macha · Immigration · 1 Comment

25 Sep 2009

Remember the Postville Raids?

via Racewire

When the US government stormed a Kosher meat plant in the American heartland, arresting nearly 400 undocumented workers, a Guatemalan village wept. The biggest immigration raid in US history severed an economic lifeline to one of the poorest corners of the Western Hemisphere while pushing an Iowa farm town to the brink of collapse.

Well, there is a new documentary out about the raids:

In the Shadow of the Raid – trailer from Streetdog Media on Vimeo.

Documentaries like “In the shadow of the raid” have the potential to change public support of deportations because we don’t often hear about the impact on families, friends and communities of the workers who were detained.

The film will be premiering at the Morelia International Film Festival, in Mexico between Oct. 3 and Oct. 11, but we at RaceWire can’t wait for it to come to the other side of the border.

For more information on screenings of “In the shadow of the raid” visit Street Dog Media.

More Crazy Gringos : Joe Wilson, Newt Gingrich and Yes, More Lou Dobbs

8:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Controversia| Immigration| Politics · 3 Comments

23 Sep 2009

Call me jaded, call me having been watching this Latino political/media game too long, pero there is little that surprises me or makes me gasp especially when it comes to hypocrisy that knows no party boundaries.

First up is Joe ” you lie” Wilson, who after flipping out in Congress over the undocumented getting health care, which thanks to Obama and amigos won’t happen ::sigh of relief::, it was revealed that Wilson helped an undocumented immigrant stay in the U.S.

A second allegedly gasp inducing moment came when Newt Gingrich launched a website for ~~Latinos~~ err Hispanics. The site, called The Americano is a bilingual website run by Sylvia Garcia, his director of Hispanic outreach and the goal is, to lure Latinos to the GOP and to cash in on Latino Hispanic Heritage Month. I will restate the obvious. Yes, it’s a hypocritical move. You’ll remember that in 2007 Newt said that Spanish was the language of living in the ghetto and now he launched a site that has Spanish. Newt then apologized and now he has seen the light and is using Spanglish, the real language of the ghetto according to some of my detractors. I mean The Americano? Shouldn’t it be el Americano or the American? Pick a language carajo! Some peeps are all caught up on the title, The Americano which translates to the “American”. I guess my question is when Newt speaks of “Americanos” is he using it to mean just people from the U.S. or Latin Americans across the Americas? Maybe Obama can offer some clarification?
Read more…

Those Crazy Gringos Videos

23 Sep 2009

Seems like racist white people in the media are getting alot of attention this week from various organizations and websites and some of that negative attention is well deserved. But negative, reactive pressure against some of these crazy gringos is only as effective as the values and goals behind them.

Our first video link is the latest edition of News with Nezua : Crazy Old White Guys.

News With Nezua | Crazy Old White Guys from nezua on Vimeo.

I already told you about the Basta Dobbs campaign. America’s Voice launched their own campaign aimed against Lou Dobbs. They are seeking donations to help buy ad space countering Lou Dobbs and his hate speech. (full disclosure: they have purchased ad space on VL).

Every weeknight, CNN airs one full hour of Hate TV — it’s called, “Lou Dobb’s Tonight.”

Boricua en la Luna : Why Citizenship and Identity Don’t Always Intersect

11:50 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Culture| Immigration| Latin America| Politics · 2 Comments

19 Sep 2009

Apparently Citizenship Day came and went. The entire I pondered my citizenship: how I was born into it, how my parents were born into it, and how my abuelos, when they were toddlers, woke up with it one morning. My U.S. citizenship, with all it’s rights, privileges, and associations is held somewhat heavily along with my passport and other “proofs” that I “belong” here. When I level criticisms against the U.S. and it’s policies, I am told to go back where I came from. Leave. As a Puerto Rican U.S. Citizen living within the 50 states, I can vote. If I were to reside in Puerto Rico, I could fight wars in the name of the United States but suddenly would have no say in who the Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces should be. I have considered going Juan Mari Bras style: moving to Puerto Rico and renouncing my U.S. Citizenship, after all, to quote the poeta Mariposa, Yo no naci en Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico nacio en mi. Pero when people ask “what are you”, I stumble a bit. Sometimes I say Nuyorican, placing myself firmly in the city I love while holding on to who my family is. Sometimes I say straight up, Rican. Sometimes I say Latina. Pero I never, ever say “American”, at least not the way people want me to say it.
Read more…

Obama’s Health Care Reform Pitch : Why Reform isn’t the Same as Change

12 Sep 2009

In my interactions with the beltway over the past few weeks, be it via email or watching Obama’s speech to Congress and the “American” people on his health care reform package, I have been re-reminded of one fact. When D.C. speaks of reform, this has nothing to do with rights : human, civil or rights of any stripe.

I was interested in hearing Obama’s health care reform pitch for a number of reasons which cross that political/personal line. I am one of the millions of uninsured. My family has a history of cancer and I have personally seen what being uninsured and underinsured has meant for some of the most beloved members of my family (including death). My children are insured thanks to the public health system. Will Obama’s plan mean that I, who am poor enough to have my kids get medicaid but not poor enough to have myself covered (in large part because the government doesn’t accept my proof of income as an independent worker), finally will see a doctor? The last time I saw a health care provider was 2 and a half years ago when I was pregnant. Do I have to get knocked up again to get health care? And if there is no public option, will I be fined (money I don’t have) because health insurance is mandated and I still can’t afford it? What about my vecinos and members of my extended family who didn’t even bother watching Obama because as undocumented immigrants they have already been thrown under the bus? When the speech was over, when the heckling was quieted, and everyone stopped applauding, Obama had lost what tiny pedazo of support I had left for him.
Read more…

What is 287(g)? : A Short Film

8 Sep 2009

I’ve written extensively on 287(g) and it’s recent expansion and how it is essentially presented as separate from the immigration reform debate, even by DC orgs and insiders, while clearly laying the groundwork for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform policy that criminalizes Latinos. Amigo Nezua from The Unapologetic Mexican made an amazing little film that breaks down the program and the problems with it. This film is part of a weekly series of videos featured over at la Frontera Times.

News With Nezua | Sept. 07, 2009 | 287g from nezua on Vimeo.

You can also see the video here (UMX), over the Xolagrafik Theater, or at la Frontera Times.

Southern Poverty Law Center Report Tells What Latinos in Suffolk County Know and Live

5:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| New York| Violence · 2 Comments

2 Sep 2009

43427060 Todos somos Marcelo Lucero. We are all Marcelo Lucero.

That’s the reality that Latino immigrants in Suffolk County, New York have been living with for a while now. Just two weeks ago, another life was nearly lost in the Long Island community of Patchogue. The idea of immigration reform coming in 2010 offers no comfort for those, who according to a report to be relased later today live in a : Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, N.Y.

The report will show what those of us who live in immigrant communities have been saying for years, that as new groups move in, especially immigrants of color, residents are less than welcoming. Instead of making room for us in that melting pot, we are run off the road, beaten, killed.

So while the Obama administration postures behind all the Latino names it has brought into the beltway, off the Long Island Expressway, those with Spanish last names live in fear of losing their lives.

I look forward to reading the full report (I think the gmail failure of yesterday put me behind on getting an early copy). Pero at 10:30 this morning there will be a press conference in Hauppauge to release the report and to announce a bilingual hotline – (800) 328-2322 set up by LatinoJustice-PRLDEF to take calls from victims and witnesses of crimes, especially hate crimes, on Long Island against Latinos.

Immigration Act of 1965

12:46 pm By la Macha · Immigration · Comments Off

26 Aug 2009

As I’ve been doing research on Edward Kennedy, I’ve discovered that he was one of the driving forces around the Immigration Act of 1965. What this act did was remove the racial quotas that privileged immigration from European countries over other (i.e. brown) countries.

It abolished the national origins system set up in the Immigration Act of 1924 and modified by the Immigration Act of 1952. While seeming to maintain the principle of numerical restriction, it so increased the categories of persons who could enter “without numerical limitation” as to make its putative numerical caps—170,000 annually for the Eastern Hemisphere with a maximum of 20,000 per nation plus 120,000 annually for the Western Hemisphere with no national limitations—virtually meaningless within a few years.

It was pretty difficult to find even this fairly simple explanation of the act on the internet–for some reason, there is website after website of nativist rhetoric explaining exactly how this legislation was one of the worst pieces of legislation ever created in all of history.

Whatever could the reason for these websites be? Read more…

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