Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Welcome to NY Secure Communities
7:04 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|New York|Secure Communities · No Comments
14 May 2012Despite efforts by local and national advocates and activists, the Secure Communities deportation program will go into effect in New York and other states tomorrow.
S-Comm is a Department of Homeland Security program that requires states to identify immigrants for deportation. While NY governor Cuomo and other governors across the country have expressed concerns regarding the difference between what how DHS says the program is implemented and what statistics show regarding the deportation of non-criminal undocumented immigrants. There have been mixed messages and allegations of a cover up regarding the mandatory nature of the program. The intense roll out of the program despite complaints and protests seems to make the mandatory nature of the program clear.
Given the latest report of racial profiling by the New York City Police Department which showed that 87 percent of those stopped were blacks and Latino, the implementation of S-Comm especially in urban areas with large immigrant populations is extremely concerning. Immigrants account for more than one-third of the city’s residents and 29% of all voters in New York.
While the federal government attempts to make an example of Arizona by challenging parts of SB1070 in the Supreme Court and by suing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, it continues to fast track a program that has contributed to racial profiling.
Gay Marriage Passes in NY but NYC Still not Friendly for Queer Communities of Color
7:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|New York|New York City|Politics|qtpoc · 4 Comments
28 Jun 2011I learned that gay marriage became legal in New York state in a hotel room in Detroit while there for the Allied Media Conference. While I am not a huge advocate of marriage in general, acknowledging that I am coming from it privileged as a mostly straight someone who always has had the option of being lawfully wedded, it was the right thing. Equity. My older daughter and I were happy. There maybe were some members of our family (biological & chosen) who would get married now. But I was also disturbed by some of the media coverage and some of the reactions from the lgbt organizations.
Being at the Allied Media Conference and the week before at Netroots Nation and being with and among the queer community of color, I scanned the faces of the people recorded in the gallery of the New York State Senate. There wasn’t alot of color. There wasn’t alot of people who presented as women and did I hear chants of “USA”? I could have sworn I did. Away from my state and my city, I could step away from what I knew was celebration in corners of my hood. Why was everyone acting like that’s it, like the struggle is over?
My mind meant to queer people of color and queer youth of color in New York City and how they have been harassed and brutalized by the police for decades. Earlier this month, the organization FIERCE released a statement ( link will open as PDF) to the press denouncing the continuation of of quality of life initiatives made popular under former Mayor Giuliani.
From the statement:
On Tuesday, May 31, two plainclothes Detectives from the 6th
Precinct stationed themselves in an unmarked car outside of 147 West 24th
Street, the location of FIERCE, the Audre Lorde Project, Queers for Economic Justice, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project—four community-based organizations working with LGBTQ communities of color, homeless and low-income community members and
youth of color. The Detectives proceeded to stop and question FIERCE youth members. They did not have a warrant, but informed FIERCE staff that they had been ordered to question youth entering and exiting the building.
The Face of New York Gay Marriage is Latino
7:38 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT|Media|New York · 2 Comments
2 Jun 2009The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) launched a website to push for the New York State Senate to pass a gay marriage bill before the legistlative terms ends. The focus of the site is featuring gay couples in New York as legitimate families that should have the right to get married. Pero the majority of the couples featured are white couples and males.
An exception to this is the couple featured in Blabbeando , who get an English video and a Spanish video about their coupledom (and they live in Queens)
See the English video after the jump
Read more…
New York State’s Most Vulnerable Immigrants Even More So Now
5:58 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|New York · Comments Off
18 May 2009
The line coming from the anti-migrants is that they aren’t against all immigrants, just the “illegal” ones but a New York State Court of Appeals decision takes a blow at some legal immigrants and their access to aid when they are elderly and or disabled.
Thousands of impoverished elderly, disabled or blind legal residents of New York State, including refugees, will be limited to $352 a month in public aid — about half of what lower courts have said they should get — under a decision by the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
The 5-to-2 decision, rendered on Tuesday, overturned the rulings of two lower courts, which had held that under the state and federal Constitutions, such legal residents could not be denied a higher level of benefits simply because they were not citizens. On narrower grounds, the high court held that the state had no duty to fill in for a federal program that had stopped benefits to most disabled legal immigrants in 1996
See the benefits of waiting in line and being a “good” immigrant? Too bad many of those legal immigrants who were plaintiffs in this case died.
Via / NYT
Latino Civil Disobediance : Mexicans in NY, Ricans in DC
10:04 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|Justice|Media|media justice|mexico|New York City|Newspapers|Politics|Washington DC · Comments Off
7 May 2009
The past few days have been busy for activists around the issues of Puerto Rico’s colonial status and Mexican political prisoners.And yet, I can’t seem to find much information about either act of civil disobedience in the mainstream news media.
From Narco News:
Today, May 4, 2009, the Other Campaign New York took over the Mexican Consulate in New York to demand the liberation of the 12 political prisoners who have been brutally repressed for resisting neoliberal urbanization projects that are destructive to human life and culture, specifically the construction of an airport in Atenco, and for protecting displaced flower vendors in Texcoco.
Today, on this third anniversary of the repression, the arrests, the violations, the torture, and the breaking and entering made by the military police in Atenco, a delegation of members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio succeeded in entering the offices of the Consulate of Mexico in New York despite the fact that these offices have been under strict and tightened security since precisely 3 years ago when Mexicans of The Other Campaign New York with real heart and memory, demanded the liberation of the political prisoners of Atenco. We succeeded in entering the offices to hold a non-violent protest demanding the immediate release of the prisoners of Atenco.
Once inside, the compañer@s of the Other Campaign New York, amongst the clamor of: “Freedom for political prisoners (Presos politicos, libertad)!, Liberty, liberty, to those prisoners for fighting (Libertad, libertad, a los presos por luchar)!, We are all Atenco (Todos Somos Atenco)!”, along with other chants, and with our signs, some with prison bars to look like a cell, and also with bandanas, gave out to our fellow country men and women at the Consulate DVD’s of the video “Breaking the Siege”, about the repression in Atenco, and informational flyers where we explain our main demands.
Later, we demanded to speak with the consul Ruben Beltran in order to give him a letter of demands. First, they told us that he was not there because he was in Mexico, but we knew that this was a lie, since the day before the consul was in El Barrio at an event proselytizing for PAN during the imposed Cinco de Mayo celebration.
After a while, the authorities of the Consulate told us that the Consul was in New York but that he could not be found in the Consulate, and they closed consular services to the public, asking all of their clients to abandon the offices. By the end of our action, the consul arrived. We gave him a giant size letter on a poster-board with the following
demands:1. Liberty for the political prisoners in Atenco.
2. Cancel the arrest warrants for those 2 who are being persecuted.
3. Revoke and appeal the sentences.
4. Complete respect for the human rights of the detained and the persecuted.
5. Punishment for those responsible for the violations of human rights.
The consul, Rubén Beltrán, first told us that he was open to engage in dialogue with all Mexican people in New York and listen to all opinions, but then blamed us – and our cause, the liberation of the prisoners in Atenco – for having closed the services of the Consulate and for having left so many people unattended.
See la Mala REAL HOT and en persona
6:11 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Events|New York|VivirLatino · 1 Comment
10 Aug 2006
Back in June we told you about Mamita Mala’s nomination as one of REAL HOT’s 100 Hotties. Well, now, if you in the New York area you can attend a hot party honoring the hotties themselves, among them our own Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz. Here are the deets from the invite:
Join us as we celebrate the first annual REAL hot 100 and honor 100 young women from around the country who are breaking barriers, fighting stereotypes, and making a difference in their communities and the nation. These women are smart. They work for change. They are the REAL hot 100.There will be an open bar until midnight provided by Mãe de Ouro, exhibited artwork by women artists, music provided by The Housekeeper, DJ Kwala, and performers from the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls… plus the chance to win some REAL hot prizes.
Where: KFMK Galleries, 515A West 29th Street, New York, NY
When: Saturday, August 12, 2006. 9:00 pm to 2:00 am.
Why: To support the cause of REAL hot women who are making a difference in their communities…and to meet La Mala.
Visit REALhot100′s website for more info and buy a ticket!
Wave of protests nationwide: birth of a movement?
11:26 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Immigration · Comments Off
10 Apr 2006
Large-scale “immigration justice” protests are slated for today in numerous cities across the country. CNN reports:
On what is dubbed a “national day of action for immigration justice,” Atlanta’s was one of 30 marches in the South alone as focus on the immigration issue turned from Congress to the streets.Other large protests are planned in New York, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
According to CNN, protesters in New York will cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and march on City Hall. The Nation’s blog reports:
…even more massive pro-immigration demonstrations are scheduled for 140 more American cities in a national day of protest. Once again Los Angeles is predicted to be the epicenter of the day’s activities. As many as a quarter million of a people are expected there as well as an equal number in New York and Washington DC– perhaps a total of two million or more nationwide.
Half a million people took to the streets in Dallas yesterday in solidarity with immigrant workers. From The Nation:
The Dallas demonstration –- which mushroomed to ten times the size anticipated by authorities — rivaled the scope of the so-called “Gran Marcha” in Los Angeles two weeks ago – an event that to many observers marked the birth of a new civil rights movement.
Do these protests indicate the birth of a new civil rights movement or a knee jerk reaction which will likely die down? Leave your comments and debate.
Via / CNN.com and The Nation
Photo: AP
Undocumented futbolistas and sports “racism”
2:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|race|Spain|Sports · 1 Comment
24 Feb 2006
I was talking to a journalist this morning who was bringing me up to speed on a story that’s been buzzing about New York media in the last few weeks: that Mets coach Omar Minaya is being called a racist for saying that he feels more at home with Latino players. And apparently Minaya is a racist just for the mere fact that he has brought so many Latin American players to the club. I know nothing about baseball, but if they are playing well, who cares? And what’s wrong with “helping a brutha out”? People do it all the time. It’s called cultural affinity and it’s sometimes the only thing that keeps immigrant populations united in places where they should feel isolated.
Sports and immigration aren’t really topics that tend to cross much, but my eyebrows raised at a headline in today’s 20 Minutos newspaper from Spain: Futbolistas “sin papeles” debutan en la División Regional Preferente de Melilla
Nuyorker: a new blog en español
1:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Internet|New York City · 1 Comment
7 Dec 2005
My friend Oso tipped me to Nuyorker, a new blog that just launched that’s all about NYC, in Spanish. I must say it immediately got my attention because the first post I read was about rapper 50 Cent’s entrepreneurial endeavors — apparently he is promoting his own line of vibrators:
El hip hopero y actor de cine 50 cent va a sacar una linea de “sex toys”. El articulo estrella es una version de 50 cent motorizado con un vibrador igualito a su miembro viril, pero azul (salvo que 50 lo tenga realmente azul) “para que todas las chicas puedan experienciar lo que es tener sexo con 50″.
Hola!
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