Showing posts with label Latinos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latinos. Show all posts

Monday, June 06, 2011

I am coming back...Get ready Anti Immigrants..


To those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice..." -Isaiah 10:1-2

Monday, January 17, 2011

I have a Dream. Russell Pearce's SB1070 Attracts Nazi Tourists



Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication which disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race or sexual orientation. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group. The law may identify a protected individual or a protected group by race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or other characteristic. In some countries, a victim of hate speech may seek redress under civil law, criminal law, or both. In some countries, such as the United States, hate speech laws have been held to be incompatible with free speech but has been protected by politicians and Law enforcement officials.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Center for Immigration Studies and the Arizona border

Center for Immigration Studies and the Arizona border

The trail behind of the Anti Immigrant sentiment and the rethoric language against Immigrants and political parties associated with.
This sad tragedy is a wake up call for all Arizonans and the Nation. It's time to take back Nation from the right-wing, anti-people demagogues and their corporate masters. We must demand that they stop blaming immigrants, muslims,Jews, Asians, African Americans for their failures.
we're angry at the political climate in Arizona and the that encourages these acts of terrorism. We're angry at the talk radio shows, the right-wing legislature, U.S. Senator, R-Ariz., and the elected officials who come up with one racist anti-immigrant or anti-worker bill after another. Meanwhile our schools and health care continue to rot. And we're angry with the corporate interests who own the politicians and the hate spewing radio stations.
Every event here is turning into a memorial. A press conference that had been scheduled to denounce the attacks on the 14th amendment and ethnic studies in schools was a case in point. Kat Rodriguez of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos summed it all up, "Our legislature started the year walking in hate." All the speakers pointed out that it's not only the talk shows that encourage violence but it's the governor, legislative leadership and other right-wing elected officials who have created a climate that encourages acts of violence and terrorism.

Political Rhetoric, Explained - Steven Pinker



Political Rethoric language often tends to be vague, empty, and bland.

Russell Pearce Says Obama May Be Asked For Papers If He Visits AZ



When will talking about rethoric language and disrepect of politicians. Republicans trended to climb the mountain faster than anyone else.
Just look this vidoe for a great disrespect for the President of the USA.


Russell Pearce says that the President may not visit Arizona for fear of being asked papers and He is the president of the Arizona Senate.


Other poor ignorants laugh at this bad and racist joke

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Racism climate on Immigration? Anti Immigrant said No, what about you?



Prince William County, Virginia becomes ground zero in Americas explosive battle over immigration policy when elected officials adopt a law requiring police officers to question anyone they have "probable cause" to suspect is an undocumented immigrant.

9500 Liberty reveals the startling vulnerability of a local government, targeted by national anti-immigration networks using the Internet to frighten and intimidate lawmakers and citizens. Alarmed by a climate of fear and racial division, residents form a resistance using YouTube videos and virtual town halls, setting up a real-life showdown in the seat of county government.

The devastating social and economic impact of the Immigration Resolution is felt in the lives of real people in homes and in local businesses. But the ferocious fight to adopt and then reverse this policy unfolds inside government chambers, on the streets, and on the Internet. 9500 Liberty provides a front row seat to all three battlegrounds

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wells Fargo reported 52 percent net income. I wonder why?




Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 52 percent jump in net income as it reaped quick rewards from its acquisition of Wachovia Corp., but the San Francisco bank also boosted credit reserves in anticipation of mounting loan losses in the months ahead. Are you wonder why too. right? Well, 'Boy, we're glad we had this economic crisis?.

The company said Wednesday that first-quarter net income reached a record $3.05 billion (56 cents per share), in line with the preliminary results announced two weeks ago that sent the stock soaring and fueled a broader Wall Street rally. Wells Fargo earned nearly $2 billion in the year-ago period (60 cents per share), before it picked up its wobbling Charlotte, N.C., competitor on the cheap, for about $13 billion in late December.

How to educate someone as bigotry like Lou Dobbs?



Well, Lou you are on my agenda for Immigration and History classes because you won't change you uneducated language and your Anti Journalism.

Clarissa Martinez De Castro, director of immigration and national campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, says that money inspires the anti-immigration rhetoric of talk radio hosts and CNN’s Lou Dobbs. She took part in a panel discussion at an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

The thing about Lou Dobbs is you can’t educate somebody like Lou Dobbs,” Martinez said. “Because what guys like Lou Dobbs does, or what he did at some point, at this point, I’m not sure if he’s lost it completely. Continue reading here:

African American, Immigrant and Refugee Forge Common Agenda.




In just three days, the lie that said that U.S. born African Americans reject humane immigration reform was utterly destroyed. In Baltimore, MD this weekend over fifty blacks from throughout the United States joined together to build the Black Immigration Network (BIN). The network will be made up of organizations and people of African descent who reside in the United States. Continue reading here:

Saturday, February 28, 2009

The consecuences of the Anti Immigrant sentiment.



Two Chilean students were killed and three others wounded when a man broke into a reunion in Pensacola (USA) and shot with a rifle attendees. Los jóvenes participaban en un programa de trabajo e intercambio estudiantil. Young people participating in a work program and student exchange.

The deceased are Nicolás Pablo Corp, for 22 years, and Racine Balbontín Argandoña 23. Los dos eran oriundos de Valparaíso (a 120 kilómetros de Santiago de Chile). Both were from Valparaíso (120 km from Santiago de Chile). Habían llegado a EE UU en diciembre, para una estancia de cuatro meses. Had come to the U.S. in December for a stay of four months. "Celebraban que les quedaba poco tiempo para volver a casa", explicó en declaraciones a este diario Rodrigo Balbontín, amigo de una de las víctimas. "Held that they had little time to go home," he said in remarks to this newspaper Balbontín Rodrigo, a friend of one of the victims. El cónsul chileno en Miami, Jorge Valdés, informó que uno de los heridos está en estado crítico. The Chilean consul in Miami, Jorge Valdes, reported that one of the wounded is in critical condition.

El presunto responsable es Dannie Baker, de 60 años, quien ha sido identificado por sus vecinos como "un racista", además de que había enviado correos electrónicos con amenazas a políticos demócratas, según informaron medios locales. The suspect is Dannie Baker, 60, who was identified by neighbors as a "racist", and had sent emails with threats to democratic politics, local media reported.

Un portavoz del Gobierno chileno se refirió a los hechos como "un crimen macabro" que significa "una tragedia lamentable y brutal". A Chilean government spokesman described the events as "a macabre crime" which means "an unfortunate tragedy and brutal."

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Anti Immigrants responsible for Hate crimes? Yes or no?


Our anti-immigrant Politics, and many Anchor news dehumanizes the undocumented Immigrant as the “worst enemy" the way our military does during wartime; it lessens the burden of our atrocities on our consciences. This new racism equates "illegal immigrant" with "criminal behavior" and makes bigotry and HATE crime acceptable. For even the most bigoted amongst them like Lou Dobbs presenting false, unworthy, or knowingly tainted news, undermining the existence of journalism and correspondence credibility.

I can understand why people would have a problem with that. I can understand the arguments of people who believe there are more pressing concerns or the economy can't handle more immigrants. I don't agree, but I can understand. What I can't understand is dehumanizing, denigrating, diminished and demonizing undocumented immigrants, who are often taking one of the few opportunities to better themselves in the midst of the despair and ugliness of a world that often seems beyond broken.

Thus contrary to Federal regulations, U.S. Constitution, Civil rights statues and Basic Humanitarian rights in which the United States of America pride its itself and so vehemently upholds, stands for, and preaches around the World: It’s allowing within populist anchor news and organizations to outright violate the mentioned laws, statues, regulations, ethic, and procedural due process under the veil of unjust laws incompassed in the guise of the War on Terrorism in propaganda fashion.

I want to point out a couple of points what Lou Dobbs promoting on his segment Broken Borders and Border Security.

1.-Racism, Anti Immigrant Sentiment: Against a particular race, color, creed of people not only to those now labeled as Aliens/Illegal Immigrants of Mexican descendency, heritage and culture, but to those whom are Mexican American Citizens, Chicanos, or Hispanic Origin.

When Lou Dobbs speak of broken borders, and border security because of a terror threat from Al Qaeda, assimilates and associates two very different issues!! That of predominately Mexican migrant workers to this continent, and those of foreign Muslim Al Qaeda fighters. Thus a migrant people who come to work and live the American Dream and those foreign Immigrants with motives Terrorist.
This misleading, distorting, and twisting of the facts has expressively been sensationalized against the Undocumented worker as an Anti Immigrant sentiment.
This issues have been created a hostile, prejudice, fearful, and aggressive environment for a Hispanic race of people or those with Hispanic surnames in particular Mexican Americans, Chicanos, or just because looks kind a Mexican. See picture.











Lou Dobbs has polarized the Nation by sensationalizing the unjust laws, immigration reform, and blaming every social ill in the U.S. on the Mexican People as tough they are solely responsible.

Lou Dobbs has exploited and bashed the Mexican people for crossing the border. Which in itself is a minor offence? By, But not limited to discriminating, affiliating, associating, and profiling Mexicans, Hispanics, Latino people legal or undocumented with groups or organization of Terrorists implying that Mexicans could bring a Dirty Bomb. This is false and outrageous when the sons and daughters of Mexican descent are spilling their blood in the War WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq, and is in violation of constitutional rights. Thus creating an environment of hostility, anger, depriving freedom from fear of persecution and Liberty

Undocumented Immigrants draining social services? A Lie or a Fact?


Let the sunshine in!!!! How many times did you hear undocumented Immigrants draining the social services like Medicare, Medicaid, Medical, etc?
Well Thousands of Children migrate to the United States each year. Many of these children’s come fleeing war, violence, abuse, or natural disaster; other comes to reunite with family members already here, or to seek a better life for themselves. They undertake difficult journeys, often across International borders, and often alone. Children and woman are the most vulnerable who cross our borders, the desert, and are in need of special appropriate to their situation. Yet they faced additional hurdles upon arrival. They are in detention centers placed like prisons intended for the incarceration of criminals, many were commingled with the delinquent population, subject to handcuffing and shackling, forced to wear prisons uniforms and locked in prisons cells like you see the of Inhumane and civil right violations like Joe Arpaio demonstration, while their immigration cases proceed through the courts and they must undergo adversarial immigration proceedings, often without a help or a Lawyer or Guardian.
Well many were de facto denied to legal and social services critical to their pursuit of asylum or other forms of relief of care because they were housed in detention centers far from hospital, and care available services.
Something that Society do not understand Latinos are the trend to be the youngest population so they're going to be part of a work force that will be supporting the Medicaid programs and all these senior programs. As a proportion, they'll be paying more and more of these taxes. Their taxes are going to be far more important to our economy than their parents' taxes are. So the contrary the Anti Immigrants, Nativist, and Protectionists claiming that Undocumented Immigrant will overcrowded classrooms and emergency rooms. Overwhelmed police and fire departments. Bankrupt Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs. Skyrocketing taxes but is it fact or fear-mongering?
I will say Fear mongering; they based those arguments with estimation, fiction, calculations on fictitious numbers. My theory is based on facts and there it goes..
A review of the arrest warrant declaration is a detailed lesson in health care fraud and how it begins and occurs at every level. It also is a lesson for those in the health care business (physicians, therapists, nurses, patients, marketers, purchasers of businesses, and others) that they need to be careful or they can get caught up working at or for a facility that is committing health care fraud and those nativist, protectionists, Minuteman members, and Anti Immigrants groups stop blaming undocumented Immigrants because If you buy the shares of a business, you could also be liable for prior illegal billing and overpayments. Social services is being taken advantage of by everyone, no matter who they're affiliated with; And I can't say it's just individuals or companies who are doing it. It's subjective. The ironic thing is that these providers try to involve the undocumented Immigrant as a scapegoat and make them seem like part of the main problem.

1.- A married couple from Groton were charged Friday as fugitives from justice for a $1.3 million health care fraud scam in California. The couple with multiple counts of heath benefits fraud, grand theft, receiving stolen property, identity theft, and money laundering, all felonies.

2.- Six Miami-Dade County residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami clinic that purported to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.
The indictment alleges that the physicians ordered medically unnecessary infusions and injections, and falsified medical records to make it appear that the HIV services were necessary. The indictment also alleges that many of the infusions or injections were never actually provided. Midway Medical billed more than $10 million to the Medicare program for services that were medically unnecessary and not actually provided between September 2002 and June 2005. During that time frame, Medicare paid more than $4.8 million on those fraudulent claims submitted by Midway Medical.

3.- State auditors recovered more than $269 million in Medicaid fraud and waste between October 2007 and March 2008, officials from the state's Office of the Medicaid Inspector General told The New York Sun. He said that going forward, his auditors would look at "every sector that gets significant public funds," including hospitals. He also described a method for rooting out Medicaid billing problems known as "data mining," in which a computer identifies mistakes or cases of fraud.

4.- It was created 40 years ago to provide health care for the poorest New Yorkers, offering a lifeline to those who could not afford to have a baby or a heart attack. But in the decades since, New York State's Medicaid program has also become a $44.5 billion target for the unscrupulous and the opportunistic. It has drawn dentists like Dr. Dolly Rosen, who within 12 months somehow built the state's biggest Medicaid dental practice out of a Brooklyn storefront, where she claimed to have performed as many as 991 procedures a day in 2003. After The New York Times discovered her extraordinary billings through a computer analysis and questioned the state about them, Dr. Rosen and two associates were indicted on charges of stealing more than $1 million from the program.


5.- A Concord, N.H., mental health counselor has been convicted of defrauding Medicaid, getting reimbursed for services that he never performed.
Fifty-five-year-old Lee Bird provided therapy services to clients who were eligible for Medicaid benefits. The Attorney General's office says after he stopped seeing some clients, Bird continued billing Medicaid for therapy services. That happened between January 2004 and February 2007.

6.- The state has overpaid day care providers at least $13.7 million in recent years - including millions of dollars spent on bogus child care that was never delivered, according to the state's own records.
When regulators have tried to collect the misspent taxpayer-funded money, parents and providers have stiffed the state to the tune of $6.4 million, the Journal Sentinel has found.
A four-month Journal Sentinel investigation published last month detailed a million Wisconsin Shares child-care lack of regulatory controls within the $340 Millions subsidy program - a system prone to abuse and fraud that can go undetected. Even with lax oversight, state regulators have identified millions of dollars that should not have been paid to providers.
The state of Wisconsin shut down 20 providers suspected of fraud in the last five years who owed $1.3 million. More than $1.2 million of that amount has gone uncollected.
For instance in one eight-month period, Wiley-Jorgensen (U.S. Citizen) appeared to have overbilled the state by $103,575, regulators calculated. The state didn't believe she was actually caring for the 24 kids she claimed in her reports
And so far I had not seen any document stated that any undocumented Immigrants has been part of this problem.

7.-According to their 2008 SEC filings, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) - founded by the family of former Senator and Majority Leader Bill Frist; After his Senate career, Frist became a partner with health-care investment firm, and chairman of a nonprofit (????) charitable (???) foundation focusing on Global health initiatives and Education issues- reports that in 2008 about 49% of their revenues and 59% of their hospital admissions were Medicare and Medicaid "related." In 2007, HCA reported revenues of $26.9 billion, approximately $16 billion of which was paid for by American taxpayers.

What most people may not know is that HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and was hit with a $1.7 billion fine – far and away the largest such fine in history - for Medicare fraud. These fines, it seems, were a minor bump in the road for HCA, on their way to grabbing hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars in the years to come. Doctors and hospitals reap the financial benefit of surgeries, whether they are warranted or not. American taxpayers, both in terms of Medicare/Medicaid payouts and higher insurance premiums, pay the real price.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Empowering Youth hispanics to join drugs, gangs, crime and they are the least educated. According to Lloyd Carter

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Apology...No way..look at the tone of voice and his face remarks. I am wonder where Mr. Carter buying his foods?. Look at video and judge for yourself.

So I am proud to say that both my parents were hard working farmworkers. So, if we apply your theories about farmworkers and their children to me, I am not educated, I am a criminal, I am on welfare and I must be dealing in drugs with my gang.

This may be news to you, but I am educated (I have a BA in International Laws). I am also proud to say that I have never been arrested, been on welfare, never using drugs and I have never had a desire to belong to a gang. And by the way, when it was time for my mother she never use any Goverment benefits at all..imagine that!!!

Also, please stop referring to human beings as illegal aliens...i would recommend that you refer to them as undocumented workers. God give you a lighted guidance for your soul. God Bless you...

When you write 'KKK' and let's shoot the n-word in the head' and use confederate flags, you can't hide behind a free expression law.

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The NAACP told a UNC commission why a hate speech policy is needed throughout the UNC Systems' 16 schools.

This comes in light of racist graffiti that was painted on North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel after Barack Obama was elected President.

The NAACP started its presentation to the commission by displaying a picture of one of those racist statements painted on the Tunnel that reads, "let's shoot the N****r in the head.'"

"When you write 'KKK' and let's shoot the n-word in the head' and use confederate flags, you can't hide behind a free expression law," said The Rev. William Barber, NAACP President.

The commission is tasked with deciding if the UNC System needs a policy on hate speech. On Monday, Dr. Barber made his case why he believes it's necessary. He said the incident at NC State is not justifiable as free speech.

"That speech is not merely offensive, it's threatening and it's not protected (under the First Amendment)," said Dr. Barber.

Barber said the UNC System needs to define how it will investigate hate crimes and what the penalities are. Also, he said, "we need a clear curriculum that teaches us more about how we must interface and be one community."

But Barber said this issue extends beyond NC State. It's something he believes boils down to peoples' mindsets.

"We may not be able to change their mind, but we need laws and regulations that will prohibit actions," he said.

Barber was allowed to address the commission alone today because he was unable to attend the public hearing earlier this month.

The commission's next meeting is February 9th at 1 p.m. at the Spangler Center. Commissioners will have to decide by the end of March whether to implement a hate speech policy. They are also taking a look at whether students should be required to take diversity traning courses.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Used, Abused, and Know treated as the worst Criminals. Outrageous.



There was all the symbolism necessary for the glory he seeks: hundreds of men dressed in prison stripes with pink underwear protruding from their waists,
surrounded by even more heavily armed guards and at a given moment an old man gave a signal and they were marched through a public street into a tent jail that would house only other men of their color and status surrounded by a high electrified fence... and the old man pontificated about the law...Chihuahua hasta cuando esto va a parar, This a reminder to all Latinos, Hispanics and those looks kinda a Mexican.
We need to stop the continues violation of our civil rights, we have been diminished day by day, they are killing us by their hatred emotions day by day, They are demonizing everyone just because we look kinda a Mexican....I ask myself what's wrong with being or look like Mexican? or that Racism?. Do you believe you have been attained or acquired equally rights as Hispanic or Latino?. Nooooooo. do you ever heard this comment from Real State Agents: Do not buy a house on this neighborhood; you will better off on Latino or Hispanic community. How many times do you hear this comments at Dealerships, You are not qualified for this loan because your credit is bad?; But someone else with the same credit or even worst get better rate and loan performance. We always have been used and abused, stereotyping, discriminated, demonized and racially segregated. We need to stop and send a clear message. Enough is enough. We are entitled to a same and equal rights like everybody else.

While on Immigration there are valid arguments on both sides of the issue, the debate has also been framed, at times, by vitriolic anti-immigrant – and particularly anti-Hispanic – rhetoric and propaganda. Purveyors of this extremist rhetoric use stereotypes and outright bigotry to target immigrants kinda look like Mexican and hold them responsible for numerous societal ills. Why?. see some of the vitriols arguments from Anti Immigrants groups:

1.-Describing immigrants as "third world invaders," who come to America to destroy our heritage, "colonize" the country and attack our "way of life." This charge is used against Hispanics, Asians and other people of color.


2.-Using terminology that describes immigrants as part of "hordes" that "swarm" over the border. This dehumanizing language has become common.


3.-Portraying immigrants as carriers of diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, Chagas disease (a potentially fatal parasitic disease), dengue fever, polio, malaria.


4.-Depicting immigrants as criminals, murderers, rapists, terrorists, and a danger to children and families.


5.-Propagating conspiracy theories about an alleged secret "reconquista" plot by Mexican immigrants to create a "greater Mexico" by seizing seven states in the American Southwest that once belonged to Mexico.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Why Anti Immigrants groups are in charge of any Immigration Reform?.

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Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA. Although on the surface they appear quite different — the first, the country's best-known anti-immigrant lobbying group; the second, an "independent" think tank; and the third, a powerful grassroots organizer — they are fruits of the same poisonous tree.

FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA are all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. As the first article in this report shows, Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a "neo-Nazi organization." He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were outbreeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.

Key Quotes from the Report:

"CIS' creation was part of a carefully thought-out strategy aimed at creating a set of complementary institutions to cultivate the nativist cause – groups including the Federation for American immigration Reform (FAIR) and NumbersUSA."

"…these organizations are frequently treated as if they were legitimate, mainstream commentators on immigration. But the truth is that they were all conceived and birthed by a man who sees America under threat by non-white immigrants."

On FAIR: "The nativist lobby's action arm has an ugly record of promoting racist ideas, conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant hatred."

On CIS: "The nativist lobby's supposedly ‘independent' think tank has never found any aspect of immigration it likes."

Monday, February 02, 2009

Mexican Americans are entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment?


Facts of the Case

Pete Hernandez, an agricultural worker, was indicted for the murder of Joe Espinoza by an all-Anglo (white) grand jury in Jackson County, Texas. Claiming that Mexican-Americans were barred from the jury commission that selected juries, and from petit juries, Hernandez' attorneys tried to quash the indictment. Moreover, Hernandez tried to quash the petit jury panel called for service, because persons of Mexican descent were excluded from jury service in this case. A Mexican-American had not served on a jury in Jackson County in over 25 years and thus, Hernandez claimed that Mexican ancestry citizens were discriminated against as a special class in Jackson County. The trial court denied the motions. Hernandez was found guilty of murder and sentenced by the all-Anglo jury to life in prison. In affirming, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that "Mexicans are...members of and within the classification of the white race as distinguished from members of the Black Race" and rejected the petitioners' argument that they were a "special class" under the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Further, the court pointed out that "so far as we are advised, no member of the Mexican nationality" challenged this classification as white or Caucasian.

Question

Is it a denial of the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause to try a defendant of a particular race or ethnicity before a jury where all persons of his race or ancestry have, because of that race or ethnicity, been excluded by the state?

Conclusion

Yes. In a unanimous opinion delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment protects those beyond the two classes of white or Black, and extends to other racial groups in communities depending upon whether it can be factually established that such a group exists within a community. In reversing, the Court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment "is not directed solely against discrimination due to a 'two-class theory'" but in this case covers those of Mexican ancestry. This was established by the fact that the distinction between whites and Mexican ancestry individuals was made clear at the Jackson County Courthouse itself where "there were two men's toilets, one unmarked, and the other marked 'Colored Men and 'Hombres Aqui' ('Men Here')," and by the fact that no Mexican ancestry person had served on a jury in 25 years. Mexican Americans were a "special class" entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment

In 1951 in the town of Edna, Texas, a field hand named Pedro Hernández murdered his employer after exchanging words at a gritty cantina. From this seemingly unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. A team of unknown Mexican American lawyers took the case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican Americans.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents A Class Apart from the award-winning producers Carlos Sandoval (_Farmingville_), and Peter Miller (_Sacco and Vanzetti_, The Internationale). The one-hour film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters— activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader story of a civil rights movement that is still very much alive today.

The film begins with the little known history of Mexican Americans in the United States. In 1848, the Mexican-American War came to an end. For the United States, the victory meant ownership of large swaths of Mexican territory. The tens of thousands of residents living on the newly annexed land were offered American citizenship as part of the treaty to end the war. But as time evolved it soon became apparent that legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing, equal treatment would be quite another.

“Life in the 1950s was very difficult for Hispanics,” Wanda García, a native of Corpus Christi, explains in the film. “We were considered second-rate, we were not considered intelligent. We were considered invisible.”

In the first 100 years after gaining U.S. citizenship, many Mexican Americans in Texas lost their land to unfamiliar American laws, or to swindlers. With the loss of their land came a loss of status, and within just two generations, many wealthy ranch owners had become farm workers. After the Civil War, increasing numbers of Southern whites moved to south Texas, bringing with them the rigid, racial social code of the Deep South, which they began to apply not just to blacks, but to Mexican Americans as well.

Widespread discrimination followed Latinos from schoolhouses and restaurants to courthouses and even to funeral parlors, many of which refused to prepare Mexican American bodies for burial. During World War II, more than 300,000 Mexican Americans served their country expecting to return home with the full citizenship rights they deserved. Instead, the returning veterans, many of them decorated war heroes, came back to face the same injustices they had experienced all their lives.

Latino lawyers and activists were making progress at state levels, but they knew that real change could only be achieved if Mexican Americans were recognized by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — something that could only be accomplished by bringing a case to the Supreme Court.

In his law office in San Antonio, a well-known attorney named Gus García listened to the desperate pleas of Pedro Hernández’s mother, who traveled more than one hundred and fifty miles to ask him to defend her son. García quickly realized that there was more to this case than murder. The real concern was not Hernández’s guilt, but whether he could receive a fair trial with an all-Anglo jury deciding his fate.

García assembled a team of courageous attorneys who argued on behalf of Hernández from his first trial at the Jackson County Courthouse in Texas all the way to Washington, DC. It would be the first time a Mexican American appeared before the Supreme Court.

The Hernandez lawyers decided on a daring but risky legal strategy, arguing that Mexican Americans were “a class apart” and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only black and white Americans. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous, and at times, terribly flawed men.

“They took a gamble,” says University of California-Berkeley professor of law Ian Haney-López in the film. “They knew, on the up side, that they could win national recognition for the equality of Mexican Americans, but they knew, on the down side, that if they lost, they would establish at a national level the proposition that Mexican Americans could be treated as second class citizens.”

The Hernandez case struck a chord with Latinos across the country. When funds to try the case ran out, the Mexican American community donated to the cause in any way they could, despite limited resources.

“They would come up to me and they would give you crumpled-up dollar bills and they’d give you coins. These were people who couldn’t afford it, but couldn’t afford not to,” recalled attorney Carlos Cadena, Gus García’s partner in the case.

On January 11, 1954, García and Cadena faced the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Cadena opened the argument. “Can Mexican Americans speak English?” one justice asked. “Are they citizens?” asked another. The lack of knowledge stunned Gus García, who stood up and delivered the argument of his life. Chief Justice Earl Warren allowed him to continue a full sixteen minutes past the allotted time, a concession a witness noted had not been afforded to any other civil rights lawyer before García, including the renowned NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall.

On May 3, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Hernandez v. Texas. Pedro Hernández would receive a new trial — and would be judged by a true jury of his peers. The court’s legal reasoning: Mexican Americans, as a group, were protected under the 14th Amendment, in keeping with the theory that they were indeed “a class apart.”

“The Hernandez v. Texas story is a powerful reminder of one of many unknown yet hard-fought moments in the civil rights movement,” says AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Mark Samels. “It’s easy to forget how far the country has come in just fifty years, reshaping our democracy to include all Americans.”

You are on Indian Land.By Mort Ransen 1969.

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The film shows the confrontation between police and a 1969 demonstration by Mohawks of the St. Regis Reserve on the bridge between Canada and the United States near Cornwall, Ontario. By blocking traffic on the bridge, which is on the Reserve, the Indians drew public attention to their grievance that they were prohibited by Canadian authorities from duty-free passage of personal purchases across the border, a right they claim was established by the Jay Treaty of 1794.

Stimulus bill for Liars like Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly.


From what I've been able to find on reputable sites, (New York Times, Factcheck.org) and from my own knowledge Undocumented Immigrants pay more than 7 billion dollars into the system each year in Social Security payroll deductions and 1.5 billion dollars in Medicare taxes.

Most of the people use fake social Security cards or ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) to get jobs and most don't collect. Both Social Security and medicare would be in even worse shape if the undocumented workers were able to collect benefits but they are not entitled to any benefits.

Even if some are getting benefits, the overwhelming majority pay into the systems but never get anything from the system.

I'm not making excuses; I am just trying not to be blinded by the message of hatred from those who really are reacting without thinking their positions through.

Pushing false information has lasting consequences on the image of immigrants, and those perceived to be foreign.

On January 29, 2009, Associated Press staff writer Julie Hirschfeld Davis, released the article “Hill Republican: Stimulus aids illegal immigrants” where the false assertion was made that the Stimulus package would provide money for undocumented immigrants:

The $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure making its way through Congress could steer government checks to illegal immigrants, a top Republican congressional official asserted Thursday.


Shortly after its publication, the story gained a lot of public attention by the conservative news site The Drudge Report, CNN’s Lou Dobbs, and FOX News. Hours after the false claim was retracted by the AP (3:02 p.m. ET), these “news organizations” repeated it nonetheless. The Drudge Report kept the link to the uncorrected AP story up for 4 hours. Dobbs made the claim at 5:27 pm ET. FOX News repeated the claim at 6:09 pm ET, and then again at 8:16 pm ET on Bill O’Reilly’s.

As it turned out, the one single anonymous source was later withdrawn and the article was rewritten to show the information provided by that source had been false.

A senior GOP congressional official expressed concern Thursday that the bill could steer government checks to undocumented workers, but in fact the measure prevents anyone without a Social Security number from claiming tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple.


Stories like these tend to instigate anti-immigration sentiments given the controversial topic, and Fox News, Lou Dobbs, and the Drudge Report only add fuel to the fire. The point is simple: pushing false information has the lasting consequences on the image of immigrants, and those perceived to be foreign. Ineffectively informing the public about two important issues, immigration and the economy, will only strengthen the tensions amongst the various ideologies debating these topics.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Latinos always has been the primary focus for U.S. Recruitment.

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The US military says it has met its recruitment goals for 2008, However, signing new soldiers is getting more difficult, with an unpopular war in Iraq and open-ended commitments both there and in Afghanistan.

New figures reveal there has been a 40 per cent drop in African-Americans signing up for the army. The Pentagon wants to expand the size of the army to 547,000 soldiers by the year 2010, and are counting on Hispanics to fill the gap. To do so, recruiters are turning to incentives to bolster their numbers. Mike Kirsch explores the sometimes questionable tactics being used to entice Latino recruits into the US army.
Back then in 1967 most of the young chicanos were about to gain a new title from the draft board. Letter "A" And it's mean that they should be the first to be shipped out to Vietnam to dodge bullets. How come on the Military services the Minorities are the Majority? It's a lot easier for our students to carry a gun than a book?.