Racists Use Flu to Foment Anti-Latino Hate

Deporting Citizens? Yes, If You Look 'Mexican'

There may be no greater example of institutionalized anti-Latino bigotry in this country than immigration enforcement as practiced by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and its deputized local police agencies.

The Vera Institute of Justice found 322 people with citizenship claims in 13 immigration prisons in 2007, up from 129 the year before. At this rate of error, ICE could be jailing and deporting as many as 75,000 U.S. citizens, many of them children and most Latino.

As the brother of one poor soul who was picked up in California and dumped in a Mexican border city until he was rescued three months later:

"It doesn't matter whether you are a citizen or not. If you look Hispanic, they can question you. Deportation can happen to anybody."

Where's the equal protection guaranty for Latino citizens? Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say 'except for Latinos'?

Also, imagine for one instance the outcry if federal blackboots were stealing away Canadian American children, mothers and fathers, forcing them into concentration camps, denying access to counsel or due process, and then deporting them to a foreign land where they're left to beg in the streets for help?

No way that would happen today to Canadians in America. It also wouldn't happen to German Americans, Irish Americans, nor to most other Americans, so why is it allowed to happen to Latino Americans?

Why no public outcry? No government apologizes? No changes in policies? Only denials, pathetic excuses and more of the same.

Links: Citizens held as illegal immigrants
US Citizens sent to immigration jails
Stop the Deportations and Other Abuses

AP photo: American Pedro Guzman was wrongly imprisoned, denied his citizenship rights and then deported to Mexico.

Latino Bashing, What would you do?

If you're like most people, ABC's John Quiñones learned, you'll do nothing.

Yep, Nada! Zippo!

Our reasons for inaction are, of course, pathetic. For example, one man's excuse was that the victim wasn't bleeding enough. Really! Another--a Latino--feared that the gang would target him. But even a group of young men chose to do shuffle away -- shoulders slumped in apparent shame.

Redeeming humanity were a few valiant individuals. Some called 911 as they watched from a distance. But a few took direct action. One was a solidly built African American man took immediate action to stop the violence by taking on the thugs. He told Quiñones he simply couldn't let happen to others what had once happened to him.
Another hero was a Latina who jumped out of her SUV, putting her small frame between the thugs and victim. A third was again a woman who sought to comfort the victim with a hug and a prayer.

Watching the bravery and compassion of the heroes was very touching -- they are very special people. But knowing most would do nothing to stop a racist gang attack on a Latino immigrant is very disturbing.

Hate Rising: 926 Groups

Hate group activity in the U.S. was disturbing and widespread throughout 2008, as the number of hate groups operating in America continued to rise. Last year, 926 hate groups were active in the U.S., up more than 4% from 888 in 2007.

That's more than a 50% increase since 2000, when there were 602 groups.

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by the national immigration debate. But two new forces also drove them in 2008: the worsening recession, and Barack Obama's successful campaign to become the nation's first black president.

Links:
The Year in Hate: Number of Hate Groups Tops 900
The Impending Perfect Wingnut Hate Storm

I.C.E. Took My Father

The Carreño family, from San Francisco's Mission District, was torn apart when the patriarch Refugio was deported and his wife Lupe was put under surveillance -- the incident activated their chronically ill, 15 year old daughter, Lupe.



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Photo: Lupe Carreño

Pat Buchanan Spews Anti-Latino Bigotry: 'Hispanics America's Biggest Threat

No joke!

'Hispanics' says racist baiter extraordinaire Patrick Buchanan are the biggest threat to the survival of the United States of America. We're a bigger threat, he warns, than even those dastardly Muslims in the Iraq and Kabul.

Question: We know why FOX keeps a stable of racists pontificators, but what's MSNBC's deal? Why possible good does it do MSNBC and its parent company GE to provide this very sick and harmful man on pay and airtime?

I will say though that at least Buchanan is an 'honest' racist. Unlike his brothers-in-hate, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rushbo, Buchanan doesn't pretend that his deep anti-Latino animus is really just concern about "illegal" immigration.

But again, doesn't MSNBC have professional journalistic standards regarding who they put on the air? If not, I hear that David Dukes would love a slot.

Sidebar: Buchanan was a pr flack for disgraced President 'Tricky' Dick Nixon--a documented racist as well--who's administration is credited with originating the label Hispanic.
As Bill Santiago says about Hispanic, "It has that word 'panic in it". He adds, "It's more of a warning label than an ethnic category. It sounds too much like Titanic, Satanic, Mechanic!"

Estadounidenses of Latin American heritage, how about a more authentic descriptor? I prefer Latino -- although Americano is intriguing. No? ;)

Anti-Immigrant Hate Crimes: Nativist Murders Suggest Effect of Rhetoric

[Marcelo] Lucero's murder caused many people to suggest that the Long Island county's recent acrimonious debates over local immigration laws and Latino day laborers had created a climate that fostered the violence. The killing followed FBI reports of a nationwide 40% rise in anti-Latino hate crime violence between 2003 and 2007, a period marked by ugly rhetoric from hundreds of nativist groups and politicians. Jack Levin, a hate crime expert at Northeastern University, said such demonizing speech often leads to hate crimes.

"Racist rhetoric and dehumanizing images inspire violence," Levin told the Intelligence Report.

County Executive Steve Levy came under particularly concentrated fire after he said that if Lucero had been killed in adjacent Nassau County, "it would be a one-day story." Since taking office in 2004, Levy had, among other measures aimed at immigrants, signed a measure to bar undocumented workers from being hired by county contractors and county licensees, and he clashed often with Long Island pro-immigrant activists.

SPLCenter's Full Article

Zack de la Rocha & 5,000 Arizonans' Peaceful Rage Against Racist Sheriff Arpaio

No Human is Illegal was one of the messages at the recent demonstration against Maricopa County's anti-immigrant, racist Sheriff Arpaio that drew some 5,000 protesters. One of the leaders of the action was Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha.

Links:
Phoenix television clip with de la Rocha interview
Arpaio Blog

Nezua & Weekly Immigration Wire: A Cry for Change from Coast to Coast

Nezua (The Unapologetic Mexican) introduces his latest project, The Media Consortium's Weekly Immigration Wire, an aggregation of the week's best news stories in progressive new media.

What's refreshing about the venture is that Nezua is authentic and believable -- and immigration--or the movement of people--one of the 21st Century's foremost challenges.

American Children Sue to Stop the Deportation of Their Mom

Question: How is arresting and deporting the mother of two young American children good for the children, the mother, this country or the country she's dumped in? It's immoral. It's inhumane. It's costly. It may be unconstitutional. And it's plain stupid.

Today, some 3 million American children are vulnerable to to just horrors.

Adults won't do anything about this gross injustice, so it's up to the kids.

When in December immigration agents picked up Maricela Soza in Pompano Beach, her two children took up the fight to keep their family intact.

Cecia, 12, and Ronald Jr., 9, are among more than 600 youths from across the country poised to participate in a lawsuit that aims to stop the government from deporting parents of children who are U.S. citizens.

Nice family values, America.

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