Thru the Plexiglass: Immigration Today

The funny way to exposed the dysfunctional,unfair, bureacratic and inefficient Immigration System.

My punishment won't fit my crime? I found hard to believe that crossing the border the punishment will fit their crime.



let me remind you that the rule of law generally means that the "punishment" fits the crime. I suppose many of you also advocate the Islamic laws which include stoning women for adultery and cutting off the hands of someone who steals a loaf of bread to keep from starving. I imagine you were behind those militarized police who were shooting Katrina victims who were taking food from flooded stores... food that would be spoiled and trashed anyway...

I assume you've never committed a technical breach of the law: You never exceeded the speed limit, you never jaywalked, you never filed your taxes a day or two late, you never found a $5 bill on the sidewalk and stuffed it in your pocket instead of turning it in to the police, you never drove through a yellow light, you never drove under the influence of alcohol over the State limits, you never spit on a bus.


Even using undocumented Immigrants those so called populist anchor news to ranting their shows denigrating, diminishing, scapegoating, labeled them as terrorist, some demonized them and the list goes on and on.

Know Lawmakers in at least eight states are now sponsoring 350 bills to crackdown undocumented Immigrants but their problem on undocumented Immigration is just focused on His Panics, Latinos.

State lawmakers around the country are proposing hundreds of bills this year aimed at curbing Undocumented immigration, but experts say the cost and public opposition will keep many from becoming law.

Lawmakers in at least eight states are now sponsoring legislation similar to Oklahoma, which last May passed the nation's most comprehensive anti-immigration law.

It restricts undocumented immigrants' access to driver's licenses and other IDs, limits public benefits, penalizes employers who hire them and boosts ties between local police and federal immigration authorities.

The bills are among more than 350 immigration-related proposals unveiled in state legislatures in the first two months of this year, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Sharma Hammond, staff attorney for the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, believes states have been galvanized by the collapse two years running of a congressional solution.

"They feel like they have to take it into their own hands because the federal government is doing nothing," said Hammond, whose group helps states write the comprehensive bills and favors a freeze on nearly all immigration.

But it's questionable how many of the bills will become law. Many quickly lose momentum after they're introduced.

Out of more than 100 bills dealing with illegal immigration in the Virginia statehouse, only a few minor ones were likely to pass as the session was scheduled to end Saturday.

In Florida, lawmakers have proposed nearly a dozen bills targeting illegal immigration since January. But at a recent press conference at the state capitol, only two of the bills' backers showed. None of the state House leadership has offered support.

"People are still trying to keep this alive and get the federal government to pass something," said Ann Morse of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the bills. "But now that the legislation is introduced, states are wondering is this something we need to do right now, or do we need to study it more."

Morse thinks the new comprehensive bills are partly a tool to draw public attention to the issue, especially in an election year. She noted they tend to come with official titles such as "Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act."

Last year, more than 1,500 anti-illegal immigrant laws were proposed nationwide, with nearly 250 passing, according to a count by the National Conference of State Legislatures. And some of that legislation is now creating legal and financial trouble for state governments.

The Oklahoma law still faces a legal challenge by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In Colorado, a proposal to boost the state's immigration enforcement unit may be doomed by its $3.9 million price tag.

Although the University of Arizona saved roughly $70,000 last year by identifying illegal immigrants who are ineligible for in-state tuition under a new law, it estimates the annual cost of identifying such students will be equal if not greater than the savings.

John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said despite the flurry of new bills, he believes anti-immigrant sentiment is starting to cool somewhat.

In part, states may be responding to a national shift, with immigration taking a back seat to the economy and the war in Iraq. All three of the major presidential candidates support a comprehensive immigration law that would eventually legalize many of the country's 12 million illegal immigrants.

"States are finding it's costing them a lot of money," Trasvina said. "It's no longer a free ride, a quick press release."

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller summed up the perspective of a number of state legislatures.

"I don't think that the votes are there to pass a bill in terms of changing the status of immigrants in the state," Miller said. "That means not punitively and not to give them any form of tax advantages either."

The one bill likely to pass in Maryland this year: a study of the effects of immigration

These article is for those with their eyes, ears and mind closed to the truth. The nurture climate of fear





The story of Eva Ósk Arnardóttir: Cases like Eva happen everyday.


During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned. Now I am beginning to try to understand all this, rest and review the events which began as innocently as possible.

Last Sunday I and a few other girls began our trip to New York. We were going to shop and enjoy the Christmas spirit. We made ourselves comfortable on first class, drank white wine and looked forward to go shopping, eat good food and enjoy life. When we landed at JFK airport the traditional clearance process began.


We were screened and went on to passport control. As I waited for them to finish examining my passport I heard an official say that there was something which needed to be looked at more closely and I was directed to the work station of Homeland Security. There I was told that according to their records I had overstayed my visa by 3 weeks in 1995. For this reason I would not be admitted to the country and would be sent home on the next flight. I looked at the official in disbelief and told him that I had in fact visited New York after the trip in 1995 without encountering any difficulties. A detailed interrogation session ensued.

I was photographed and fingerprinted. I was asked questions which I felt had nothing to do with the issue at hand. I was forbidden to contact anyone to advise of my predicament and although I was invited at the outset to contact the Icelandic consul or embassy, that invitation was later withdrawn. I don't know why.

I was then made to wait while they sought further information, and sat on a chair before the authority for 5 hours. I saw the officials in this section handle other cases and it was clear that these were men anxious to demonstrate their power. Small kings with megalomania. I was careful to remain completely cooperative, for I did not yet believe that they planned to deport me because of my "crime".

When 5 hours had passed and I had been awake for 24 hours, I was told that they were waiting for officials who would take me to a kind of waiting room. There I would be given a bed to rest in, some food and I would be searched. What they thought they might find I cannot possibly imagine. Finally guards appeared who transported me to the new place. I saw the bed as if in a mirage, for I was absolutely exhausted.



What turned out was something else. I was taken to another office exactly like the one where I had been before and once again along wait ensued. In all, it turned out to be 5 hours. At this office all my things were taken from me. I succeeded in sending a single sms to worried relatives and friends when I was granted a bathroom break. After that the cell phone was taken from me. After I had been sitting for 5 hours I was told that they were now waiting for guards who would take me to a place where I could rest and eat. Then I was placed in a cubicle which looked like an operating room. Attached to the walls were 4 steel plates, probably intended to serve as bed and a toilet.

I was exhausted, tired and hungry. I didn't understand the officials' conduct, for they were treating me like a very dangerous criminal. Soon thereafter I was removed from the cubicle and two armed guards placed me up against a wall. A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody. I have seldom felt so bad, so humiliated and all because I had taken a longer vacation than allowed under the law.

They would not tell me where they were taking me. The trip took close to one hour and although I couldn't see clearly outside the vehicle I knew that we had crossed over into New Jersey. We ended up in front of a jail. I could hardly believe that this was happening. Was I really about to be jailed? I was led inside in the chains and there yet another interrogation session ensued. I was fingerprinted once again and photographed. I was made to undergo a medical examnination, I was searched and then I was placed in a jail cell. I was asked absurd questions such as: When did you have your last period? What do you believe in? Have you ever tried to commit suicide?

I was completely exhausted, tired and cold. Fourteen hours after I had landed I had something to eat and drink for the first time. I was given porridge and bread. But it did not help much. I was afraid and the attitude of all who handled me was abysmal to say the least. They did not speak to me as much as snap at me. Once again I asked to make a telephone call and this time the answer was positive. I was relieved but the relief was short-lived. For the telephone was setup for collect calls only and it was not possible to make overseas calls. The jailguard held my cell phone in his hand. I explained to him that I could not make a call from the jail telephone and asked to be allowed to make one call from my own phone. That was out of the question. I spent the next 9 hours in a small, dirty cell. The only thing in there was a narrow steel board which extended out from the wall, a sink and toilet. I wish I never experience again in my life the feeling of confinement and helplessness which I experienced there.

I was hugely relieved when, at last, I was told that I was to be taken to the airport, that is to say until I was again handcuffed and chained.Then I could take no more and broke down and cried. I begged them at least to leave out the leg chains but my request was ignored. When we arrived at the airport, another jail guard took pity on me and removed the leg chains. Even so I was led through a full airport terminal handcuffed and escorted by armed men. I felt terrible. On seeing this, people must think that there goes a very dangerous criminal. In this condition I was led up into the Icelandair waiting room, and was kept handcuffed until I entered the embarkation corridor. I was completely run down by all this in both body and spirit. Fortunately I could count on good people and both Einar (the captain) and the crew did all which they could to try to assist me. My friend Auður was in close contact with my sister and the consul and embassy had been contacted. However, all had received misleading information and all had been told that I had been detained at the airport terminal, not that I had been put in jail. Now the Foreign Ministry is looking into the matter and I hope to receive some explanation why I was treated this way.

How undocumented Immigrants has been scapegoating, dimished, demonized by some political, Media and anchor news.

Who's behind the virtual fence? Large corporations profiting from the border wall rather than fixed the dysfunctional and obsolete Immigration system.

What's the real problem of Lou Dobbs with HIS PANIC specially with Mexicans?.




Geraldo Rivera Introduces the book of Why American fear Hispanics in U.S.


Geraldo Rivera won't shake "shameful", " hate monger ", " Hypocrite " Liar" Lou Dobbs' Hand. Well me either.

Geraldo Rivera appeared on "The View" today to promote his new book, His Panic, which prompted a discussion of how Americans fear immigrants. He explained that this fear is "a nativist reaction that started at the grassroots" and that it is "driven by the most savage talk radio campaign in history." When asked to name names, Geraldo targeted Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/03/geraldo-wont-shake-sham_n_89589.html

MUNCIE, INDIANA, MAN CONVICTED OF FEDERAL CIVIL
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AFTER BURNING CROSS


WASHINGTON - Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Timothy Morrison announced today that Kyle Milbourn of Muncie, Ind., was convicted by a federal jury for a hate crime stemming from a cross-burning last year that was directed at a woman and her three biracial children.

Milbourn was convicted of one count of interfering with the housing rights of another person, one count of conspiring to interfere with civil rights, one count of using fire during the commission of a felony, and one count of witness tampering. Milbourn faces a maximum punishment of 40 years of imprisonment and a $1 million fine.

According to the testimony at trial, on or about March 6, 2006, Milbourn and another individual – who previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 months in prison – built an eight-foot wooden cross, erected it in front of the victims’ home, doused it with gasoline, and set it on fire. Milbourn and his co-conspirator took pictures of themselves with the burning cross. Milbourn did this with the intent to interfere with the victims’ rights under the Fair Housing Act.

“The Department continues to commit its resources to prosecute hate crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison. “These cases can be difficult, but serve to reaffirm our resolve to pursue them.”
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Betsy Biffl from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and resulted from an investigation conducted by FBI Special Agent Charlie Rownd of the Muncie Field Office.

Evidence shows that government doctors "purposefully mischaracterized (Castaneda's) medical conditions as elective in order to refuse him care" and save money.


The family of an Undocumented immigrant who died of penile cancer that went untreated during 11 months of detention can sue government doctors for damages, a federal judge has ruled in a decision in which he condemned the defendants' alleged actions as deceptive and heartless.

The claims in Francisco Castaneda's lawsuit - that government medical staffers and immigration officials brushed off his complaints of severe pain and multiple lesions, told him they saw no need for surgery and finally discharged him rather than having the government pay for treatment - describe conduct that, if proved, "is beyond cruel and unusual," said U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson of Los Angeles.

His ruling, issued late Tuesday, allows Castaneda's family to sue the doctors for allegedly violating his constitutional rights and ask a jury to award punitive damages. Government lawyers argued that federal law allowed only a suit against the government, with a nonjury trial and a $250,000 limit on damages.

Castaneda, 36, died Feb. 16 at his Los Angeles-area home, a year after doctors amputated his penis to try to stop the spread of the cancer. He had entered the United States with his mother at age 10 after fleeing his native El Salvador during a civil war. His family will take over the lawsuit.

Attorney Conal Doyle of Oakland, who sued state and federal doctors and officials on Castaneda's behalf in October, called Pregerson's ruling "a tremendous and unprecedented victory" in a tragic case.
"Every American should be ashamed by the conduct of the government in this case," Doyle said.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said the government was reviewing its options, including an appeal.

Castaneda was convicted in 2005 of possessing methamphetamine and spent eight months in jail, then was held in immigration detention centers in San Diego and San Pedro while awaiting proceedings on deportation and his claim for political asylum.

According to his lawsuit, a doctor first noticed a growth on Castaneda's penis in December 2005, while he was in state custody, and ordered further tests that were never conducted.

Multiple lesions developed and his pain increased while he was in prison, but doctors and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officials turned down medical staff recommendations for a biopsy and surgery, the suit said.

Quoting government records, Castaneda's lawyers said the federal agency and its doctors knew Castaneda had a family history of cancer - his mother died of the disease at age 39 - but rejected a cancer specialist's recommendation for a biopsy, describing it as an elective procedure.

Castaneda "needs to be patient and wait," the agency's health service wrote in June 2006 as his condition worsened. Five months later, in response to observations of discharges from his lesions, the health service recommended that he receive a clean pair of boxer shorts each day.

A doctor finally ordered a biopsy in late January 2007 and said Castaneda probably had cancer, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him 11 days later rather than having him treated, the suit said. He underwent the biopsy and amputation at a county hospital.

Castaneda testified in October to a congressional committee looking into medical care at immigration detention centers. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who presided over the hearing, criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement afterward and said that "civilized people don't let the persons who are in their custody die for preventable reasons."
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in response that Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the health needs of its 300,000 detainees seriously, screened all new detainees for health problems and referred them to specialists when necessary.

In Tuesday's ruling, Pregerson said Castaneda's claims, if true, would show not merely medical malpractice - covered by the federal law that allows suits for limited damages - but intentional violations of his constitutional rights, for which juries can award higher amounts.
"The evidence that plaintiff has presented so far - through (government officials') own records - suggests a strong case for punitive damages because it shows that (their) behavior was callous and misleading," the judge said.

He said there was compelling evidence that government doctors "purposefully mischaracterized (Castaneda's) medical conditions as elective in order to refuse him care" and save money.

Our dysfunctional immigration system really worth the human pain it causes to migrants and the political pain it causes us as Latinos?


There is a hellish scene in the new Colombian film Paraiso Travel that should be watched by any American who has ever hired undocumented immigrants —and, for that matter, any American who has ever shouted for their deportation. A group of weary Colombian migrants, having waded across a rushing river from Guatemala to Mexico, is violently set upon by the Maras, bloodthirsty gangbangers who prowl that border corridor. Men are shot, women are raped, children are terrorized. It's an almost daily occurrence of migrant life in this hemisphere, and the film captures it with haunting authenticity.

What's almost as disturbing is that few if any good films have ever captured it until now. Latin America's poorly financed movie industry can be as erratic as the region's governments; but the infrequent hits are always worth the wait, and that's certainly true of Paraiso Travel, which opened last month in Bogota and is setting Colombian box-office records before it heads to New York's Tribeca film festival next month. Like other memorable Latin films of this decade, including Mexico's Amores Perros and Brazil's City of God, Paraiso Travel is as richly crafted as a fine Day of the Dead altar. But for Yanquis, this tale of a Medellin couple's harrowing odyssey to the U.S., and their hard but often humorous struggle in New York, packs a welcome bonus in the midst of a presidential race: a thoughtful, non-politicized take on America's immigration mess.

Immigration cranks like Lou Dobbs, but also the immigration advocates he lambastes, would do well to stop the cable cacophony for a couple hours and see this movie when it hits U.S. screens. "I wanted to make a film that makes Latin Americans think twice about traveling to the U.S. illegally," says its Colombian-born director, Simon Brand, "but one that also makes Americans think twice about how these people are treated once they get here." He scores on both counts. Adapted from the novel by Colombian author Jorge Franco, Paraiso Travel (paraiso is Spanish for "paradise") makes you consider the darker consequences of open borders and closed minds alike. The former lure indocumentados into risking their lives getting here and straining the social infrastructure once they do; the latter cause xenophobes to ignore the causes of illegal immigration — the deep poverty down there and the deep demand for cheap labor up here — and block the necessary and reasonable proposals for managing it (a la last summer's immigration reform debacle).

Not that Paraiso Travel doesn't also depict the uplifting immigrant success stories and the broad economic benefits the U.S. derives from its underground workforce. But what distinguishes the film is its entrancing, flesh-and-blood glimpse into the quirky, angst-ridden workings of the indocumentado world: heated kitchen-table debates back home, demeaning labor cattle calls and desperate housing improvisations in the U.S. (including makeshift rooms over loud, 24-hour racquetball courts in Queens). It's a milieu ripe with characters like a stuttering S&M photographer played with delightful understatement by Golden Globe nominee John Leguizamo (To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar); and a gorgeous street vendor and aspiring salsa singer played by Ana de la Reguera (Jack Black's heartthrob in Nacho Libre).

Leguizamo and De la Reguera are the film's only Hollywood stars, and they deliver stellar supporting performances. But Brand gets superb portrayals from his Colombian leads: Angelica Blandon as the teen sexpot Reina; and Aldemar Correa, whom Brand calls "the next Gael Garcia Bernal," as her bewildered boyfriend Marlon. Blandon and Correa, who were discovered in Medellin's theater scene, play lower-middle-class kids driven less by economic straits than by a gratuitous belief that even the worst of the U.S. is preferable to the best their own country can give them. Sitting in a dank, cubicle-size hostel room after arriving in New York, a skeptical Marlon reminds Reina that even America has "sh--." Her response: yeah, but it's "Americans sh--." She may sound naive — but she's also a reminder of how Latin America's ineffectual governments continue to drive away even those citizens who seem to be living semi-comfortably in their homelands.

In lieu of U.S. tourist visas, which post-9/11 are increasingly difficult to get, Reina convinces Marlon — using sexual seduction powers that make Salome seem like a nun — that they should pay a Medellin travel agency, Paraiso Travel, $3,000 for what could be called the illegal package. It's a flight to Panama and then a Dantean journey by bus and foot to the U.S., through squalid hotels and scorching deserts — including nightmarish hours hidden by smugglers in a truckload of suffocating, hollowed-out logs. Paraiso Travel's screenwriters, Franco and Juan Rendon, interviewed a number of real migrants who have made the journey. "I'm fortunate to live in the U.S. legally," says producer Santiago Diaz, a Bogota native, "but we all know people living here illegally, and their story should be told. We made this film for them."
It will also do a lot for Colombian cinema, which came of age in 2004 with the Oscar-nominated, Colombian-U.S. production, Maria Full of Grace, and looks set to join Mexico, Brazil and Argentina as Latin American countries with bona fide industries. All have been aided in recent years by new government financing and generous tax breaks for businesses that invest in film — sources that made up almost a quarter of Paraiso Travel's $4.7 million cost. The movie takes the Colombian boom up a notch, into the realm of films like City of God that Latin American critics are calling la buena onda — a more consistent "groove" of first-rate moviemaking that showcases a distinctive Latin feel, a documentary-style realism splashed with artful devices like hopscotch flashbacks and colorfully detailed shots. "These are films that more genuinely reflect Latin American culture," says Diaz.

Most of Paraiso Travel is set in America, where Reina and Marlon discover that the awful crossing they've just finished was only the beginning of their odyssey, as migrants and as a couple. To the boy, in fact, Reina morphs into a metaphor for America itself: Is she — is it — really worth the trials he's suffering? When the two become separated, his search for her is conflated with the larger question. And perhaps another: Is our immigration dysfunction really worth the human pain it causes migrants and the political pain it causes us?

Another Anti Immigrant site going down the drain. Glenn Spencer announced today effective February 29, 2008 will be the last publication of The American Patrol website. Let's celebrate.....


This site and his owner (Glenn Spencer)has being known for the most rhetoric, bigotry, incoherent, and racist comments against Mexicans.

See for yourself. Please, do not waste your money donating money to the Anti Immigrants. Let's be constructive on moral values, embrace human values, encourage and fund non profit organizations who's constructing and rebuilding the trust, innocence, and happiness to abused children's rather than waste your money funding anti Immigrants and Minuteman Groups.

I am on your way Lou Dobbs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.americanpatrol.com/

The Titanic Minuteman base groups meltdown. Groups Anti Immigrants fighting for Money and power. Gilchrist said groups like ALIPAC see him as competition for fundraising dollars.


Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist says group’s goals have been hindered by in-fighting and some members’ ‘defecting.

Traditionally tight-knit anti-illegal immigration organizations are roiled in internal conflict.
Struggles for power and finances have led leaders in the movement to split ties with Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project.

Bickering continues over who has control of the original Minuteman organization and once-faithful members are now deserting the group. Barbed e-mails and accusations fly among the former Minuteman loyalists.

“I’m fighting on three fronts,” Gilchrist said. “I’m fighting the federal government, I’m fighting the reconquistas, and I’m fighting the people defecting from my own organization.”

Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project, which has become nearly synonymous with the anti-illegal immigration movement, is under fire from many other like-minded groups.

William Gheen, of the North Carolina-based Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee (ALIPAC), said Gilchrist is a threat to the anti-illegal immigration movement. Gheen said people in his organization receive bizarre e-mails from the Minuteman founder.

“We see Gilchrist as ... prone to act against the good of the movement,” Gheen said. “He has a pattern of broken alliances and relationships.”
Gilchrist said groups like ALIPAC see him as competition for fundraising dollars.

“As long as the Minuteman Project exists, we take away from their donor base,” Gilchrist said.

Huntington Beach resident and California Coalition for Immigration Reform founder Barbara Coe was one of the former Minutemen who wrestled the organization away from Gilchrist in 2007.

Coe was one of the first to rush to the border with the Minutemen in 2005, but she said the unity that once brought the activists together has devolved into internal strife.
“I am very distressed about the shadow that has been cast on the movement,” Coe said.

The struggles make it difficult for anti-illegal immigration groups to present a united front, limiting the effectiveness of the movement, Coe said.

Gilchrist sees the same phenomenon.

“You’ve got every group attacking every other group,” he said. “Ninety percent of our time is spent on infighting, and 10% is devoted to the issue.”
The bickering is surprising considering how close anti-illegal immigration activists have traditionally been. Groups such as Immigration Watchdog and Save Our State have large online forums that keep the groups in close contact.

Laguna Beach activist Eileen Garcia has been fighting to shut down Laguna’s Day Workers Center. She has organized multiple protests against the center.

Garcia said the groups’ close contact helps in organizing large demonstrations.

Garcia founded Gilchrist’s Angels, a women’s auxiliary of the Minutemen.

She too split with Gilchrist’s organization in 2007, founding the Betsy Ross Patriots — another anti-illegal women’s group.

Illegal immigration is one of the hot-button issues of the presidential primary elections, thanks in part to anti-illegal immigration groups and activists who have been touting the issue for the past several years.

The efforts of various border enforcement advocacy groups have brought the issue to the forefront of political debate — especially in Republican circles. The fractures within the once tight-knit coalition of anti illegal-immigration groups have become even more apparent during the presidential primaries.

Garcia supported Mitt Romney, as did Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a vocal opponent of illegal immigration in Congress. Many anti-illegal activists like Coe supported Ron Paul’s candidacy.

Gilchrist has thrown his support behind former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The endorsement has earned Gilchrist more criticism from within the anti-illegal immigration movement.

Gheen and leaders from more than 80 immigration activist organizations signed a letter decrying Gilchrist’s endorsement.

“We denounce Jim Gilchrist’s solo endorsement of a pro-amnesty and open-borders candidate for president. Mr. Gilchrist does not speak for us,” the letter read.

Gilchrist said he was contacted by the Huckabee campaign and asked to come aboard. Gilchrist said he asked campaign members to outline Huckabee’s immigration policies before he signed on.

The Huckabee campaign responded by posting a detailed immigration plan on its website.

Huckabee campaign manager Ed Rollins said the Huckabee immigration plan is to build a fence within 18 months, deport illegal immigrants and make legal immigration faster and easier.

Rollins said they believe they have the best plan for illegal immigration, but sometimes passionate groups split with leaders.

“In any group that has strong emotions, which certainly the Minutemen and others have, there’s always leadership battles. There’s always people that don’t like people that get too much attention,” Rollins said.

Gilchrist said he supports Huckabee as a more moderate candidate than Ron Paul, who is popular with his critics.

He said Paul supporters are generally of the ultra-right mentality.

The extremism of this faction of the anti-illegal immigration movement is a factor in its demise, Gilchrist said.

“While Ron Paul himself is a pretty good guy, his supporters are lunatics,” Gilchrist said.

“They’re as dangerous and vile as the reconquistas on the left.”

The presidential primaries are just one example of an issue causing rifts within the border enforcement movement, but some activists say the differences may not be such a bad thing.
“Internal turmoil and dissension is always the sign of a growing and expanding movement,” Rohrabacher said

According to Garcia, the movement is fracturing because illegal immigration has become a major issue that no longer needs a united front to survive.

“A lot of established groups are starting to split up because it’s much more mainstream,” Garcia said.

“There’s no longer a need to place yourself into a niche and say, ‘I’m a Minuteman’ or ‘I’m a member of Save Our State.’ All concerned citizens of America can call themselves Minutemen.”

Rohrabacher agrees with that assessment. He said upstart movements have to stick together.

“When a movement is small and inconsequential, people tend to get along better because it’s almost family-like,” Rohrabacher said.

 Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo and Chris Simcox founded the Minuteman Project in 2005. They organized citizen patrols along the Arizona-Mexico border. The action shined a spotlight on the issue of illegal immigration.

 Simcox cut ties to the group later that year over financial disputes and founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Gilchrist changed tactics from physically watching the border to trying to influence public policy and opinion.

The unworkable solution to the Immigration backlog and how affecting Legal and Undocumented Immigrants.



"I haven't done anything wrong". Why they threating me like a terrorist? "Wouldn't you want to know immediately if this person is a threat or not?"

Delaying the Immigrants applications for years that's a clearly violation of the Immigration Laws..

Three North Texas residents accuse the federal government of violating immigration laws.
The men are from the Middle East and are now suing, claiming their applications for naturalization have been delayed for years.

Aymen Alasad, a native of Jordan who now lives in Arlington, accuses the federal government of failing to timely process his application to become a permanent resident alien.
"Doesn't make sense to me. It will take a year, two... after September 11, I can understand," said Alasad. "But it's been seven years."

Suing Fed For Violating Immigration Laws

He's now suing the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees naturalization and other federal agencies.

Alasad is not alone. Hicham Salloum and Hasan Hajmohammad are also suing the government.

Salloum, a native of Lebanon now living in Las Colinas, said he's been waiting for permanent residency status for four years. But he said the Federal Aviation Administration cleared him to work with import/export firms at DFW Airport.

"If they say you're clear, then you're good to go on the airplanes," said Salloum. "I haven't done anything wrong. So that means I don't have anything in my record, so why won't they clear my name?"

Hajmohammad, a native of Jordan living in Irving, has also waited four years to become a citizen. He claims the U.S. is unfairly making the process difficult for Muslims.
"We really believe in the system, but the way they are treating Muslims at this time, they are just clearly discriminating against them," said Hajmohammad.

Officials with the Department Citizenship and Immigration Services deny the allegation.

While a spokeswoman can't comment on these lawsuits, she acknowledges there has been a backlog of cases nationwide, because it has taken a long time to fully investigate a person's background.

"Unfortunately, we are stuck in this situation," said Marilu Cabrera, a spokesperson for the department. "We have to do background checks. We owe it to the American people to make sure everyone we naturalize is of a good moral character and will not do us harm."

The government has just recently changed its procedures and will approve applications within 180 days, unless it finds a problem. If problems arise later, the government will deport the individual.

The attorney for the three men, Husein Abdelhadi of Dallas, said lawsuits sometimes speed up the process, but shouldn't be necessary.

"If a person is a terrorist or a threat to the security of the U.S., why are you letting them live here," he said. "Wouldn't you want to know immediately if this person is a threat or not?"
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Violating.Immigration.Laws.2.663587.html

Are we waiting to change the world or change ourselves to change the world? Why segregating people of color?, Why racism? Why HATE Hispanics? What Mexicans did to deserved to be persecuted, scapegoated, diminished, demonized? Are they were part of Sept 11, 2001?

Lou Dobbs HAMMERED by Border Angels and Mexica Movement

Lou I see your expertise on immigration. Which school did you attended to learn those expertise you claimming on Immigration Lou? you are failing to demonstrate the principles of Journalism. Show the true about Immigrants not being bigotry and racist against Mexicans

Who said that the Minuteman members are not incited to violence and using derogatory and racist comments.!!!!!!!. Lou Dobbs are you there???

I am wonder who's funding these people to do unconstructive waste of time and Racial profiling to Legal and undocumented Immigrants.
If they got paid for their time. I am wonder if they paid taxes. IRSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MINUTEMAN GROUPS NEEDS FINANCIAL HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

My dream ended on the Border.


Since 1994, more than 5,000 Mexicans have perished in their attempts to cross the border. For some the Humanitarian help came on time for others was too late.


Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said more than 5,000 migrants have died trying to cross the border into the United States over the past 13 years. During a meeting with representatives of U.S. and Mexican non-governmental organizations in the border city of Tijuana, commission chairman Jose Luis Soberanes demanded that officials in both countries take responsibility for the deaths.

“A minimal form of justice for the emigrants who fell on the border is to at least acknowledge their deaths. The governments of Mexico and the United States should accept that responsibility,” Soberanes said.

The commission chairman said Mexico should take such a step “for being incapable of providing better opportunities for maintenance and development to the Mexicans who emigrate,” while the United States should do so “because emigrants take increasingly greater risks to life due to its policy of containment.”

“No more violence! Not one more death in the border region!” Soberanes said at the meeting with representatives of Humane Borders, the Coalicion Pro Defensa del Emigrante, American Civil Liberties Union and Angeles de la Frontera.

The rights commission chief warned that the number of emigrants killed while trying to cross the border could top 500 this year and criticized the U.S. Border Patrol.

“We come to demand justice for the emigrants persecuted by Border Patrol agents, those who are harassed and treated like criminals,” Soberanes said.

“We regret that when a person seeking work escapes, they do not report the escape but instead pursue the migrant aboard all-terrain vehicles and prefer to go to the extreme of reporting their death,” the rights official said. Soberanes said Border Patrol agents enjoyed “impunity” in firing on immigrants.

“Not only with premeditation and advantage, but sometimes they shoot them in the back,” he said. Soberanes said that instead of barriers, both physical and legal, better understanding of migration should be sought by Mexico and the United States.
“The walls and extreme surveillance have only strengthened organized crime and increased the chances that migrants will end up in the hands of those who traffic in people or will be unable to gauge the extreme temperatures that claim the lives of so many of them,” Soberanes said.

Some 11 million Mexican-born people live in the United States, of whom 6 million are illegal immigrants.

U.S. deports over 21,000 Guatemalans in ‘07 including 1,097 childrens.


The United States deported 21,062 Guatemalans during 2007, or 6,172 more than last year, the General Migration Agency said. Of the total number of Guatemalans deported, 19,113 were men, 852 women and 1,097 children.

The last 126 deportees for this year arrived Friday on two planes chartered by the U.S. government and were met by Guatemalan Foreign Ministry and International Organization for Migration, or IOM, personnel.

On average, according to the IOM, more than 200 Guatemalans leave home each day for the United States in search of better opportunities, but only 40 make it into that country. Some 1.3 million Guatemalans are living in the United States , the majority of them illegally.

Despite the increase in deportations, remittances from Guatemalans living in the United States rose this year. The Bank of Guatemala said remittances during the first 11 months of this year totaled $3.79 billion, or 17.51 percent more than during the same period last year.

In 2006, according to the central bank, Guatemala received a record $3.61 billion in remittances, well above the $2.99 billion registered in 2005 and the $2.55 billion that flowed into the Central American country in 2004.

The Bank of Guatemala estimates that more than $4.2 billion in remittances will have been received by the end of 2007.

Neglected wave of oppresion, crime against our Mexican American History.



As the struggle for immigrant equality and justice is waged in the streets and heated debate fills Congress, a wave of hate crime has been unleashed upon the Mexican/Chicano community in the Southwest, a violent wave not without precedent in U.S. history. This “open season” declared by white supremacists, haters and xenophobes given the pretext of the ultra-right nationally fabricated “immigrant crisis” was witnessed in the April 22 assault on a 16-year-old Mexican American boy near Houston. The young Mexican American suffered through a 15-minute attack in which the attackers shouted ethnic slurs and which included head-stomping with steel- toed boots and sodomization with the sharpened plastic tube of a patio umbrella, which was later filled with bleach and administered onto the young victim. After this modern day lynching the youth was left for 10 hours before an ambulance was called.

David Tuck, 18, and Keith Turner, 17, may be convicted of capital murder if the juvenile football team star at Klein Collins High School dies, along with the aggravated sexual assault charges they currently face. Texas prosecutors, representing a state with an ominous record of anti-Mexican/Chicano institutional racism, have refused to seek hate crime charges against the pair. Says County Prosecutor Mike Trent, “Whether it is one or isn’t a hate crime, and it may be, that will make no difference here.”

Since the year 2000, the FBI has reported over 2,500 hate crimes against Latinos based on race and ethnicity — and how many more have gone unreported? The pattern of anti-Latino violence suggests that hate crimes against Mexicans/Chicanos continue unabated. This climate of hate, according to the Anti-Defamation League, has been stoked by “the extreme fringe of the anti-immigration movement [which] includes white supremacist groups, anti-Hispanic hate groups masquerading as immigration reform groups, and vigilante border patrol groups who have conducted armed patrols along the borders of the United States.”

The hate crimes of this far-right sector — aroused with the current rhetoric of “immigrant invasion,” “Mexican territorial expansion” and “race war” suggested by the corporate media in conjunction with ultra-right political forces currently exercising power — are deeply rooted in the history of the U.S. Southwest and for the Mexicans/Chicanos are only the latest incarnation of what has existed since the beginning.

It is an often-neglected part of U.S. history and the Mexican/Chicano civil rights struggle that following the Manifest Destiny-inspired 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, in which Mexico lost over half of its territory to the U.S., the violence against and lynchings of Mexicans in the territory now known as the “U.S. Southwest” began.

In the period following U.S. colonialization of the Southwest, Rodolfo Acuna, author of “Occupied America, a History of the Chicanos,” writes, “lynching became commonplace and Mexicans came to know Euroamerican democracy as ‘Linchocracia.’”

With no political power or social standing in the new nation, the Mexicans whom the border “crossed over” had no recourse or protection as the wrecking ball of corrupt individuals and institutions of the new nation waged class and race warfare with impunity. Suggests Luis Angel Toro of the University of Dayton, “The Anglos who poured into Texas and the rest of the Southwest brought their apparatus of racial terror, developed to hold the African American people in bondage, to the newly conquered territories. Mexicans became frequent victims of beatings and lynching.” Records indicate the disturbing statistic that between 1848 and 1870, 473 out of every 100,000 Mexicans in the Southwest died from lynchings.

In 1884 Mexicans around Fort Davis, Texas, fled daily lynchings as area Anglos, spurred on by the racist Texas Rangers (“los Pinches Rinches”), voiced the opinion that the lynchings should continue until the Southwest was rid of Mexicans. The hateful climate was further exacerbated as poor Mexican immigrants, refugees of the Mexican Revolution, poured into the Southwest from 1910-1930 for agricultural and other low-wage, unskilled-labor jobs.

These workers were forced to settle into communities that did not care for their presence. In communities that were told the Mexicans were only staying temporarily, Mexicans suffered segregation and victimization, and were despised by the surrounding white population. This abuse of Mexican laborers eventually escalated into racial oppression comparable to that of African Americans in the Jim Crow South. Tony Dunbar and Linda Kravitz suggest in “Hard Traveling,” “For a Mexican living in America from 1882 to 1930, the chance of being a victim of mob violence was equal to those of an African American living in the South.”

Today the culture of violence and racism seeded over 150 years ago is being revisited upon the Mexican/Chicano in the Southwest with a renewed impetus fostered by groups like the Minutemen, the American Patrol and the Arizona Ranchers Alliance. The Houston hate crime is a symptom of this culture of hate coming out of a long and shameful tradition. The drive for equality for Mexicans/Chicanos and for all immigrants will not be stopped by such incidents. They will only intensify the united struggle for justice, and for making our common history as a colonized and oppressed people more widely known. “El Movimiento” will only continue to build

Are Mexican Americans and Mexicans driving down wages?



Since when Mexican Americans, Mexicans has been treated equally to others; even African Americans has not being treated fairly regarding labor, wages, and benefits. Let's make a common sense and stop being ignorants to the equation of the problem. Equal Rights.
Or America forgot the depression of the World War II?

World War II marked another sharp reversal in the course of Mexican American history, renewing hope where the Depression had brought despair. The Depression had left in its wake a population decline, devastated communities, and shattered dreams; the war brought population growth, resurgent communities, and rising expectations.

World War II caused a tremendous labor shortage. When the military forces called for recruits, Mexican Americans responded in great number and went on to serve with distinction. Some 350,000 Mexican Americans served in the armed services and won 17 medals of honor. The war also brought industrial expansion, further aggravating the labor shortage caused by growth of the armed forces. Mexican Americans thus managed to gain entry to jobs and industries that had been virtually closed to them in the past. These new opportunities liberated many Mexican American from dependence on such traditional occupations as agriculture.

The turnaround from the labor surplus of the 1930s to the labor shortage of the 1940s had a special impact on agriculture and transportation. For help, the United States turned to Mexico, and in 1942 the two nations formulated the Bracero Program. From then until 1964, Mexican braceros were a regular part of the U.S. labor scene, reaching a peak of 450,000 workers in 1959. Most engaged in agriculture; they formed 26 percent of the nation's seasonal agricultural labor force in 1960.

Along with opportunities, World War II also brought increased tensions between Mexican Americans and law-enforcement agencies. Two events in Los Angeles brought this issue into focus. In the Sleepy Lagoon case of 1942-1943, 17 Chicano youths were convicted of charges ranging from assault to first-degree murder for the death of a Mexican American boy discovered on the outskirts of the city. Throughout the trial, the judge openly displayed bias against Mexican Americans, and allowed the prosecution to bring in racial factors. Further, the defendants were not permitted haircuts or changes of clothing. In 1944, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee obtained a reversal of the convictions from the California District Court of Appeals, but the damage had been done. Los Angeles newspapers sensationalized the case and helped create an anti-Mexican atmosphere. Police harassed Chicano youth clubs, and repeatedly rounded up Chicano youth "under suspicion."

In the aftermath of the convictions and the press campaign, conflict broke out between U.S. servicemen in the area and young Mexican Americans who often dressed in the zoot suits popular during the wartime era. Soldiers and sailors declared open season on Chicanos, attacking them on the streets and even dragging them out of theaters and public vehicles. Instead of intervening to stop the attackers, military and local police moved in afterward and arrested the Chicano victims. Spurred on by sensational, anti-Mexican press coverage of the "zoot-suit riots," these assaults spread throughout Southern California and even into midwestern cities. A citizens' investigating committee appointed by the governor later reported that racial prejudice, discriminatory police practices, and inflammatory press coverage were among the principal causes of the riots. The Sleepy Lagoon case and the zoot-suit affair provided the basis for Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit, which in 1979 became the first Chicano play to appear on Broadway.

Despite such events as these, the World War II era proved to be generally positive for Mexican Americans and is often viewed as a watershed in their history. Progress continued after the war. The G.I. Bill of Rights gave all veterans such benefits as educational subsidies and loans for business and housing. Moreover, returning Mexican American servicemen refused to accept the discriminatory practices that had been the Chicanos' lot. The G.I. generation furnished much of the leadership for post-war Mexican American civil rights and political activism.

Veterans were instrumental in the founding and growth of a variety of Chicano organizations. Among the heavily political organizations, the Unity Leagues and the Community Service Organization registered voters in California and supported Chicano candidates. These groups also engaged in such diverse activities as language and citizenship education, court challenges against school segregation, and assistance in obtaining government services. Even more overtly political has been the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA).

Mexican American progress since World War II is reflected in occupational patterns. Changes in Mexican American job concentrations reflect to some extent changes in the state economy. Since 1940, California has experienced a manufacturing boom and rapid growth in such areas as government, product distribution, consumer-oriented activities, and professional services. Percentages of Mexican Americans in agriculture and unskilled labor positions have declined, while percentages in professional, technical, managerial, clerical, skilled craft, and semi-skilled occupations have risen.

The post-Depression era brought socio-economic gains for Mexican Americans, but not equality. Although percentages of Mexican Americans in professional, technical, managerial, and clerical positions have increased, they still fall far short of parity according to their population numbers. Moreover, in nearly every major occupational group, Chicanos tend to hold inferior jobs, and Chicano earnings in the same job classifications tend to be lower than those of Anglos.

Inequitable economic conditions are paralleled by comparatively low Chicano educational attainment and severe underrepresentation among elected officials. The latter has resulted partially because thousands of Mexican immigrants have lived in California for decades without obtaining U.S. citizenship. With Mexico so close, many come with plans ultimately to "return home," although these dreams often go unfulfilled. Some Mexican immigrants, although harboring no desire to live in Mexico.

Other factors have also contributed to Chicano electoral underrepresentation. In 1977, for example, a California legislative committee on elections partially attributed Chicanos' limited representation on most city councils in cities with significant Chicano populations to the predominant use of citywide at-large elections instead of district elections. There were no Chicano council members at all in 42 such cities in California. The committee argued that local at-large elections prevent "minority voters from exercising their potential political weight," since "their votes disappear in a sea of majority group votes." On the other hand, some contend that at-large elections make it less likely that candidates will write off minority votes as irrelevant, as can happen in ward-based contests.

When it comes to military service, combat decorations, and wartime casualties, however, Mexican Americans have been overrepresented in terms of population. Because of their lower educational attainment and restricted employment opportunities, Chicanos have traditionally viewed military service as a viable economic option. And since they were underrepresented in higher education, Mexican Americans did not benefit from student deferments as frequently as Anglos.

Finally, the 1970 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report, Mexican- Americans and the Administration of justice in the Southwest, documented unequal treatment of Chicanos by law-enforcement agencies and the judicial system. Among widespread abuses cited in this and other studies are the lack of bilingual translators in court proceedings; underrepresentation of Chicanos on grand juries, as judges, and as law-enforcement officers; unequal assignment of punishment and probation to convicted Chicanos; excessive patrolling of Chicano barrios; anti-Mexican prejudice among police and judicial officials; and even wrongful use of law-enforcement agencies. In the search for undocumented Mexicans, the U.S. Border Patrol has exacerbated antipathy among Mexican Americans by periodic raids on houses, apartments, restaurants, and bars in Latino communities and predominantly Mexican American places of employment