It's Friday afternon and after reviewing the news and various other favorite blogs, I realize that I haven't shared some music for a while so I thought I would paste this for our readers to enjoy. The Friday music series has gotten mixed reviews, admittedly, and it's a hard thing to gauge since everyone's taste in music is different. we're just a plain, diverse community, something most Americans don't comprehend. Even for us who do, it's a challenge. Enjoy your weekend, folks!
The Band of Mana with a great song No ha parado de Llover. I remember this group when they were Sombrero Verde.

Joe Arpaio said it's an Honor to be called K.K.K.


Lou Dobbs and Joe Arpaio agrees that someone called you K.K.K. member is an Honor. Seems to me that their eating from the same enchilada then. Are you reading their lips? I know were they minds are for sure..

What if I Told you that Arizona Anti Immigrant Law had a Racist touch?

Anti Immigrants, Nativists and Minuteman Members are Dangerous?

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I just copied this video from Human League were they exposed the Nativist and how dangerous they are and will be.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Specially Lynn Stevens.
Lynn is one of many members of United For Sovereign America Vigilante group that terrorize Mexicans and Latin people in Arizona.

Anti Immigrants going Beyond the Wall of Ignorance..



I had posted a few of post regarding John Tanton the person behind the Anti Immigrants and Extremists on the movement against the Legal and Undocumented Immigrant.
This video details the common origins of many of the country's leading anti-immigration groups and their ties to White supremacists.

The feelings and effects in Childrens from Raids at Potsville, Iowa.



See how this kid U.S. Citizen described the effect and hardship for being separated from his parents.
At the same time this horrible feeling has make them judge and change their future minds for the miscarriage of justice and equal opportunitty for all.
This is the lead Nation of Human rights U.S want to be?

The solution to their moral crisis is deportation.


The Immigration system is dysfunctional, obsolete and Inhumane and As a result of immigration laws, immigrants are being detained and deported without access to due process and a fair day in court.

Tears for fears change to tears of Hope in Justice.
by Jane Guskin.




Nurses see everything in a day's work. But at the maternity ward of Nashville General Hospital, nurses caring for an immigrant woman in labor broke down and cried when the sheriff's deputy guarding the woman refused to remove the shackles chaining her leg to the bed. The undocumented woman was detained by local authorities because of a cooperation agreement between the county sheriff's department and the immigration enforcement agency, ICE.

In Seattle, a seasoned community leader couldn't hold back her tears at a press conference as she read excerpts from her organization's report about abuses and indignities suffered by immigrants at a local detention center. Female detainees described strip searches and genital and anal cavity inspections following meetings with attorneys; detainees affected by an outbreak of food poisoning were denied medical treatment for many hours; a group of detainees transferred out of the facility by plane to Alabama -- to clear room there for workers arrested in a raid -- were refused access to the bathroom and were forced to sit in their own excrement for the duration of the flight.

Following the May 12 immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, court interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas reported seeing attorneys "weep alongside their clients" as hundreds of immigrant workers were left no choice but to plead guilty to criminal charges.
At St. Bridget's church in Postville, where staff and volunteers have been providing humanitarian assistance to families traumatized by the raid, Father Ouderkirk quotes Sister Mary as saying: "Once you've cried for two straight weeks, you don't have any more tears. But it doesn't mean you stopped feeling."

I've covered immigration news in a weekly bulletin for over a decade, and co-authored a book about immigration which came out last year. Yet it took me three weeks to write about the Postville raid because I couldn't stop crying as I read about the indigenous Guatemalans and Mexicans, victims of labor exploitation, who were dragged through an incomprehensible legal process in makeshift courtrooms at a cattle fairgrounds and are now serving prison sentences; mothers hobbled with government tracking devices on their ankles as they try to care for their families, now without income; and hundreds of children who are grieving the sudden loss of a parent.

I can't even skim through our own book without crying. In the chapter on detention and deportation, the "Story of S." still burns me up, unleashing tears of helplessness, as I remember how ICE delayed releasing S. for a few extra days, saying we needed to prove we had arranged a safe place for her to stay, since she was a survivor of abuse. Yet when they finally released her, they dumped her on the street without letting anyone know -- not even her lawyer -- and without any money, even for a phone call, so she had to make her way on foot to a public library and ask to borrow the phone.

Then there's Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a friend and colleague whose case we covered in that same chapter. Farouk would be 60 now, but he died four years ago today -- on July 21, 2004, his 100th day of freedom after two years in immigration detention. It's not even Farouk's death that brings up the tears for me. It's the eight months he spent in solitary confinement, without seeing the sun, or breathing outside air -- in total violation of the government's own rules -- while our protests, vigils, press releases, and petitions were ignored. And the fact that his entire detention was a farce, since the government already knew Farouk was a man without a country who couldn't be deported.

Tears of rage, of frustration, of grief.

And tears of hope, when I see kids in Providence, Rhode Island, leading some 200 people in a noisy protest to support immigrant janitors arrested by ICE just a few hours earlier. Tears of hope, when I hear that Jewish and Christian communities are planning to converge in Postville on July 27 for a major demonstration in solidarity with the families affected by the Agriprocessors raid. Tears of hope, whenever I see resistance rising.

Hope that we will never get used to the brutality, the human tragedy, that our immigration enforcement system unleashes all around us. Hope that our tears will never dry up, our hearts will never cease to hurt, and our voices will never get tired of demanding justice

Immigration Court efficiency, Logic and resources in question mark (?).








The number of foreigners landing in Los Angeles Immigration Court has surged in recent years, while the number of judges has remained about the same, causing crushing caseloads and lengthy delays.

Expanded immigration enforcement, including the ongoing search for illegal immigrants in county jails, is causing much of the rise, according to judges, attorneys and experts.

"I don't think it's possible for a court to implode from weight, but we may see," said former L.A. Immigration Judge Gilbert T. Gembacz, who retired last month after more than a decade on the bench.

Los Angeles immigration judges heard 27,200 cases last fiscal year, up from about 17,800 in 2000. In the last fiscal year alone, the number of immigration cases rose nearly 40%.

Today, 23 judges are assigned to Immigration Court, just two more than in 2000.

Immigration courts nationwide mirror the trend. Last fiscal year, judges heard 334,600 cases, up from 254,500 in 2000. During the same period, the number of judges increased to 220 from 207.

"Because of the high volume of the immigration docket, there is a great concern that respondents appearing before us do not believe they are given adequate opportunity to present their cases," said San Francisco Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks, head of the National Assn. of Immigration Judges, the judges' union.

Cases are also becoming more difficult as laws change and new regulations are written, making it harder for judges to complete cases quickly.

"You are asking us to do death penalty cases in a traffic court setting with traffic court resources," Marks said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the courts are critical to the government's crackdown on illegal immigration.

"We can go out there and make arrests," she said, "but the efficiency of the legal process is going to have a tremendous impact on the outcome."

44 cases, 1 judge

On a recent day in Los Angeles Immigration Court, one judge had 44 cases on the docket. Every seat was filled, and a crowd waited in the hall. The judge heard the cases quickly, getting updates, asking questions and setting new court dates -- sometimes six months in the future.

A few floors down, immigration attorney P. Joseph Sandoval said he arrived 15 minutes early for his appearance, but the court was already packed and seven other attorneys had checked in before him.

"It's frustrating for both the clients as well as the attorneys, because the number of cases keeps increasing but the number of judges doesn't," he said.

As a result, Sandoval said, cases can drag on for years. He cited a Russian client who first appeared in Los Angeles Immigration Court in 2002 and whose case still has not been resolved. Now, he said, a recent appellate court decision may derail her chances of becoming a legal resident.

Beverly Hills attorney Ed Pilot said he has a Nigerian asylum case that has been going on since 1999. The case was about to finish in early 2007 when the assigned judge retired. Pilot said his client has not had a hearing since and is not scheduled to appear in court until December.

"It's sort of like an athlete who has put on his game face and is in game mode, all for naught," he said.

When another judge, Gembacz, retired, he was handling a workload of more than 1,600 active cases. Despite time pressures, Gembacz said, he let people tell their stories -- even if it took longer than necessary.

"They have waited two, three, four years," he said. "It's only fair to give them the time
But some judges are unable to spend that much time on individual cases, leading appellate courts to send them back for more thorough review.

"There are no doubt many conscientious, dedicated and thorough immigration courts across the country," one federal appellate judge wrote in a 2006 asylum case. "Unfortunately, their hard work is overshadowed by the significantly increasing rate at which adjudication lacking in reason, logic and effort from other immigration courts is reaching the federal circuits

To manage the growing caseload, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts nationwide, uses videoconferencing, sets timelines for judges to complete cases and tries to hire judges where needed. The budget for the agency has increased from $147 million in 2000 to $227 million last year, but more is always needed, said spokeswoman Susan Eastwood.

"We are a federal agency, and Congress controls our money," she said. "We ask for money, but we don't always get what we want."

Nevertheless, Eastwood said she was confident that the judges would be able to handle any further increased caseload.

Immigration courts need to be properly funded because people have a right to their day in court in a timely manner, said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. In addition, she said, "Having them function effectively is important . . . to get the return on the enforcement dollar."

Too few attorneys too

In Los Angeles, about 45 government attorneys rotate through Immigration Court, depending on other enforcement needs, said Kevin Riley, deputy chief counsel of the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Riley said the attorneys also have to deal with the challenges of heavy and complex caseloads.

To ease the numbers, the federal government processes some cases without going to court. For example, if someone has previously been ordered deported and then returns to the United States, agents simply reinstate the order and deport the illegal immigrant again.

In other areas, government attorneys are trying a pilot program to keep a sole government attorney on a case from start to finish.

Vera Weisz, a Los Angeles immigration lawyer, said there are "huge inefficiencies" in the system but acknowledged that court delays are not always a bad thing.

"It works to some people's benefit, because we are trying to keep them here as long as possible," she said.

For example, time has helped Mexican immigrant Tomas Garcia's case. Since he has been fighting in court to stay in the U.S., his wife has become a U.S. citizen and filed a petition for his green card. The petition was approved, and his next court date is in January, but Weisz said it would probably be a year before a judge approves the green card.

Garcia said he understood that his is one of thousands of cases, but he wished he didn't have to live in limbo for so long.

"If I got it at the first court appearance," he said, "it would have been better because there wouldn't have been worry or stress."

Raids in Postville, Iowa. leading our nation to a moral, legal and humanitarian crisis.









Postville, Iowa, has been turned into a ghost town. Nearly a third of its residents, mostly undocumented workers from Guatemala and Mexico, sit in jail convicted of identity crimes or awaiting deportation. Hundreds more hide in fear. Their children, too scared to go to school, have left the town's classrooms nearly empty. For this, Postville should thank their local police, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), and a failed immigration policy.

Aided by local law enforcement, ICE arrested 389 workers during the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history at the Postville meatpacking plant, the area's major employer. In an unprecedented move, ICE criminally charged 302 of these workers with aggravated ID theft and/or using false social security numbers. Within days, ICE resolved their fate: 297 men and women pled guilty and were sentenced to prison and subsequent deportation. Only a few await criminal trials or immigration hearings.

Postville is one of the latest in a series of immigration raids that have intensified in the past three years. These raids are leading our nation to a moral, legal and humanitarian crisis.


Lawmakers on Thursday questioned the legality and effectiveness of the government’s tactics in a May raid that led to the arrest of nearly 400 immigrants.

The crackdown on a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa _ called Agriprocessors _ represented the largest single immigration raid in the nation’s history. Most of the workers, who faced charges of aggravated identity theft for using immigration or Social Security numbers that did not belong to them, accepted plea agreements on a lesser charge of Social Security fraud. Most now face five months of jail followed by deportation.

The raid has come under fire from immigration reform groups and now lawmakers who objected to group prosecutions that they say violated due process and who criticized the decision to disproportionately go after workers instead of employers.

"This looks and feels like a cattle auction, not a criminal prosecution in the United States," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a former immigration lawyer and chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, which held a five-hour hearing Thursday on the Postville raid.

The workers were given seven days to decide whether to accept the plea agreement, and they appeared in groups of 10 at the plea hearings.

"Defendants did not know what a Social Security number was," said Erik Camayd-Freixas, one of the interpreters brought in to translate at the court proceedings.

Deborah Rhodes, senior associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, defended the "fast-tracking" process, which she said averted flooding the courts and resulted in reduced sentences.

Lawmakers also expressed concern about the government’s priorities, arguing that the mass raid complicated an existing investigation into labor, food safety and environmental violations at the Agriprocessors plant.

Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, whose district borders Postville, said he was concerned that rounding up, jailing and deporting the plant’s workers would impede the Department of Labor’s investigation.

"Unless we enforce our laws equally against both employees and employers who break the law, we will continue to have a serious problem with illegal immigration in this country," Braley said.

Undocumented Immigrants draining the social services. Sounds familiar to you. Then Someone Lie to you.








MISSOURI HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO PAY U.S. $60 MILLION TO SETTLE FALSE CLAIMS ACT ALLEGATIONS.

WASHINGTON – Lester E. Cox Medical Centers, a health care system headquartered in Springfield, Mo., has agreed to pay the United States to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute between 1996 and 2005, by entering into certain financial relationships with referring doctors at a local physician group and engaging in improper billing practices with respect to Medicare. Cox, a not-for-profit healthcare organization, will pay the United States $60 million to resolve these claims.

Under the Stark Statute, Medicare providers like Cox are prohibited from billing the federal health care program for referrals from doctors with whom the providers have a financial relationship, unless that relationship falls within certain exceptions. The United States contended that certain relationships between Cox and physicians ran afoul of the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits offering inducements to providers in return for patient referrals, and the Stark statute. Additional claims being resolved concern Cox’s inclusion of non-reimbursable costs on its Medicare cost reports and improper billings for services provided to dialysis patients.

“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that the best interests of federal health care program patients are not compromised by unlawful payments to physicians,” said Gregory G. Katsas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The resolution of this matter resulted in a significant recovery for taxpayers, and it exemplifies our dedication to vigorous enforcement of the Stark and Anti-Kickback Statutes.”

As part of the $60 million settlement, Cox has entered into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General. The Corporate Integrity Agreement contains measures to ensure compliance with Medicare regulations and policies in the future.

“Today’s settlement furthers both our commitment to protecting patients from improper billing practices and the continued ability of Cox to provide quality medical care in Springfield and the Ozarks,” said John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney in Kansas City, Mo. “I am pleased that we were able to resolve this matter without litigation.”

The settlement with Cox was the result of a coordinated effort by the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri; HHS’ Office of Inspector General, Office of Counsel to the Inspector General, and Office of Audit Services; and the FBI

Undocumented Workers do no paid taxes.!!!!!! That Sounds familiar to you.



LOS ANGELES MAN WHO MADE ‘DONATIONS’ TO JEWISH GROUP AND TOOK BOGUS TAX DEDUCTIONS AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY.


A Los Angeles man who made “donations” to several charitable organizations associated with a New York-based orthodox Jewish group – “donations” that were largely refunded – has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax evasion charges.

In a plea agreement filed today in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Uri Mandelbaum, 70, of the Hancock Park district of Los Angeles, has agreed to plead guilty to two felony tax charges and to pay back taxes totaling more than $1.5 million.

The plea agreement with Mandelbaum is the first one involving a “donor” to charitable organizations associated with Spinka, which is at the center of a scheme alleged in a related criminal case. Spinka is a religious group within Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn, New York. The Grand Rabbi of Spinka, his assistant, several other defendants and five Spinka charities were indicted last year on a host of federal charges related to a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud U.S. government agencies, to operate an underground money transfer system and to launder money through an Israeli bank (see: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2007/164.html). According to statements made during court during proceedings in that case, prosecutors have expanded their investigation, which now targets more than 100 individuals who were contributors to Spinka organizations.

In the plea agreement filed today, Mandelbaum admits that he evaded the payment of $296,731 in federal income taxes for the years 2005 and 2006, the two years that are the subject of the criminal charges. During 2005 and 2006, Mandelbaum made $892,483 in contributions to Spinka organizations, and then 95 percent of the contributions were returned to Mandelbaum. However, Mandelbaum admits that he claimed the entire $892,483 as charitable contributions on his federal income tax returns for the two years.

In the plea agreement, Mandelbaum also admits that he made contributions to Spinka-related entities from 2001 through 2004 that were reimbursed at a 95 percent rate. During those four years, Mandelbaum admits that hundreds of thousands of dollars went through the Spinka organizations, resulting in tax losses of $1,285,591.

Mandelbaum additionally admits that he received cash from Spinka organizations in order to give kickbacks to other contributors. During 2005 and 2006, Mandelbaum received $662,068 in cash that he relayed to others, according to his plea agreement.

Mandelbaum has agreed to appear in federal court in Los Angeles for an arraignment on July 28.

The statutory maximum penalty for the two counts of tax evasion is 10 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine.

Two of the defendants charged in the main Spinka indictment have pleaded guilty (see: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/091.html). The other defendants are scheduled to go on trial before United States District Judge George P. Schiavelli on November 12.

Are you Smarter than a Naturalized Citizen?



This video will demostrate how Naturalized Citizen assimilated to this Country on History, Knowledge, Moral, socially and Country Values.

More Green Card Soldiers become Naturalized.


Naturalization ceremony held at Al Faw palace for a large group of servicemembers serving in Iraq. Scenes include shots of the crowd, the singing of the national anthem, servicemembers taking the oath of citizenship, receiving certificates and taking photographs with Lt. Gen. Austin and a participant talking to a military reporter about the significance of receiving citizenship.

Green Card Soldiers become Naturalized


Non-citizen U.S. Soldiers becoming naturalized at a ceremony on LSA Anaconda. Scenes include Soldiers taking their naturalization oath, receiving their papers and getting their photos taken with the deputy director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The US is toughening its immmigration laws. New fees come into effect which include a price hike for citizenship applications. For Undocumented immigrants already in the country the situation is already dire-with many living in fear. Jose - an Undocumented immigrant from Honduras about what it means to live and work in America.

Could you imagine a SD Minuteman leader behaving at home. Well, Know is time to show his normal conduct at home and Public. Please, make sure are not kids around, The behavior of this Leader is unspeakable. Rated F (Funny), Rated R (reprochable). You rate his conduct.

Border Towns against The Fence, The Barrier, The Wall..








The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency plans to build a nearly 700-mile fence along the southern border of the United States to curb Undocumented immigration. The fence, which could be completed by year's end, would split border towns and alter the relationships between U.S. border communities and their neighbors in Mexico. Eagle Pass, Texas, Mayor Chad Foster, a proponent of border control without physical barriers, has worked with other border communities on the issue as president of the Texas Border Coalition. American City & County talked with Foster about how a physical barrier could affect his community.

Q: What is Eagle Pass' relationship like with the neighboring Mexican community, Piedras Negras?

A: If there's a fire in Piedras Negras, the Eagle Pass Fire Department responds to it. If there's a fire in Eagle Pass, the Piedras Negras Fire Department responds to our needs. Mexico endured their first tornado in the history of the country on April 24, 2007. I called Piedras to see what their needs were. There was an older neighborhood [that] needed chainsaws and generators to [remove debris]. [The] tornado [came] from Piedras, jumped the river and hit Maverick County, Texas. The governor of Coahuila, Mexico, [went] to Piedras Negras with resources to help [the city] with their cleanup. [Then], he sent manpower and equipment and helped us with our cleanup and never asked for a dime. That's the way we work on the border. We're two countries that have historically worked as one community.

Q: How would the proposed border fence affect Eagle Pass and other border communities?

A: In the lower Rio Grande Valley, there's 69.9 miles of fencing to be done. With that fencing done, we're, in actuality, ceding 2,400 acres to Mexico [that] are going to be on the wrong side of the fence. We're going to see [our historic] Fort Duncan Park, the basis for the existence of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, fenced out. Our municipal golf course, which goes to the river's edge, and our city park will be on the wrong side of the fence.

Q: What alternatives do you propose?

A: We're not advocating doing anything less than securing our border. The Texas Border Coalition [advocates] security as our priority, but one size does not fit all. In Texas, we have a bamboo-like plant that will grow 30 feet high and in some areas of the river, [it] can be as deep as a half a mile from the river's bank. Any illegal activity that gets into that cane is out of sight. So, we're advocating the eradication of [the plant]. That facilitates line of sight for border patrol agents. [Along] the Texas border, we have camera towers along the banks of the river, and we have border patrol boats that are physically patrolling the river. We've seen a 70 percent decrease in apprehensions with no physical barriers. We feel that we can secure our Texas border without the need for any physical barriers.

Q: Why would the fence not be an effective way to secure the border?

A: Border Patrol has admitted [that] this fencing will only slow an illegal entry down three to four minutes. We just don't think that's good enough when the Congressional Research Service [studied] the expense of building 700 miles of fence. Maintaining it for 20 years will cost the taxpayers in excess of $49 billion. It makes no sense, especially when we have technology available to secure our border rather [than using] the antiquated solutions that haven't been used since the 16th century. No one knows our border better than those [of us who] live and raise our families

The Border: A wall or a Barrier?








In the current flap over building a wall between Mexico and the United States, it would be well to keep in mind Robert Frost’s injunction “something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” That “something” is that a wall is a barrier.

In the case of a “wall” between the United States and Mexico, a wall is a manifestation of conflict, just as the Berlin Wall was a manifestation of conflict. Essentially, conflict is an interactive process or behavior. That’s why the Berlin Wall escalated the Cold War. And why a wall be-tween the United States and Mexico will only escalate the enmity between the two countries.

Ronald Reagan’s plea to Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”—referring to the Berlin Wall—is not what brought down the wall. On the contrary, it was Mikhail Gorbachev’s response that brought down the wall. Instead of escalating the cycle of conflict, the Soviet leader chose to ignore the rhetoric of conflict and for whatever reasons take the first step in repairing U.S.—Soviet relations. There is no doubt that the U.S.—Soviet conflict had developed mutually destructive patterns of interactive behavior, the consequences of which heralded Armageddon.

When asked about the U.S.—Mexico wall in a 2006 visit to the United States, Mikhail Gorbachev responded that the United States seemed to be building the Great Wall of China between itself and Mexico (Midland Reporter-Telegram, 10/18/2006).

In the current American rhetoric about controlling the nation’s borders the question looms large: Why on the one hand did the U.S. want the Berlin Wall torn down and on the other hand does it want to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico? There is no evading the possibility of racism and selective amnesia about the history of walls.

While the Berlin Wall did function as the perimeter of a "prison" state, its principal objective was to keep out extra-territorial influences that were anathema to the state dictum of the Soviet Union. A U.S. wall on its border with Mexico has the same objectives -- to keep out extra-territorial influences (the uninvited, the unwelcome, the Undesirable, and the unwanted) that are deemed anathema to the apodictic values of the United States

In Europe and well understood the nature of the Berlin Wall. But a wall between the United States and Mexico is not about penetrability. It’s about “good neighbors.” Why not a wall between the United States and Canada? Or a wall along the Florida coast to keep out Cubans? The inference is that Canadians and fleeing Cubans are good neighbors; Mexicans are not?.
Will a wall between the United States and Mexico help the United States in controlling its border with Mexico?.

In a piece on “Fences and Neighbors,” Rick Toone characterized the U.S.—Mexico wall as “a shining symbol of American economic and environmental arrogance.” And in a washington-post.com article (Sunday, May 27, 2007; B01), Luis Alberto Urrea quotes the Mexican consul in Tucson calling the U.S.—Mexico wall “the politics of stupidity.” In the National Geographic (May 2007), Charles Bowden concludes that “Fences may make good neighbors, but the barriers dividing U.S. and Mexico are proving much more complicated.

Enforce the Rule of Law.....It's getting ugly out there.
Hate crime against Hispanics has been rising at top levels.!!!!!!!!.




We see too often Hispanic leaders, Immigration advocates and Hispanics has been receiving a Death Threats, hate mail, do to their position and support on Comprehensive Immigration reform.

For North Carolina's Hispanic leaders, the biggest hazards of the job were once long hours. Now, they include death threats.
A pair of the state's most prominent advocates, Andrea Bazán and Tony Asion, say that for the past several months, each time they have spoken publicly, they have gotten a raft of profanity-laced messages, some of them exhorting them to return to their home countries and others denigrating Hispanics. Several legislators say they have also gotten messages recently that cross the line into racism, and one got a menacing voice mail.

Threats of violence are becoming common enough that Bazán, president of the philanthropic Triangle Community Foundation, has requested protection at some public appearances. Asion, director of the Raleigh Hispanic advocacy group El Pueblo and a former police officer, said he has received two handwritten death threats at his office since May.

This is not about immigration," Bazán said. "This is not about debating policy. This has moved on to another sphere. This is hate."

Bazán and others say they've gotten disturbing hate mail before. A 2005 effort to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants brought reams of it, but that furor died down fairly quickly. Now, they say, threats and racist messages are becoming routine.

State legislators who supported a bill this year that would have guaranteed illegal immigrants the right to attend state colleges got a raft of messages, some of which smeared immigrants.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat who sponsored the bill, said she received one phone message warning that "my days are numbered." She said the message, which included profane insults, felt like a threat.

"I have not seen anything like what illegal immigration elicits," Harrison said. "It's revealing a very ugly side of humanity that I've never seen before."

Beyond the crackdown

Immigration has become an especially controversial subject in North Carolina and across the nation, fueled by the failure of a federal immigration reform bill last year.

Since then, sheriff's departments have started enforcing immigration law, the state's community colleges have barred admission to illegal immigrants, grassroots groups opposing illegal immigration have grown and some politicians have made an immigration crackdown the centerpiece of their campaigns.

Even those who have advocated a crackdown say they don't condone hate mail or threats.

"Certainly, any kind of threatening or antagonistic tone to any debate is unwarranted," said Brian Nick, spokesman for Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who has joined with sheriffs to push for the deportation of illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
But some say anti-illegal immigration activists have given the impression that Hispanics are to blame for all of society's ills, including crime, illness and unemployment.

Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, a New York group founded in 1913 to combat prejudice against Jews, said the ideas and language that have come to define the debate could fuel fringe groups.

"When you describe immigrants as Third World invaders or murderers, or say that they are swarming or coming in hordes, this is dehumanizing language," Lauter said. "That kind of rhetoric inspires others who might act out on hate."

William Gheen, a Raleigh man who has built a grassroots organization to oppose illegal immigration, often accuses Hispanic immigrants of carrying deadly diseases, raping and murdering Americans, plotting to merge the American and Mexican economies, or even reconquer parts of the Southwest for Mexico. He organizes e-mail campaigns against those he doesn't agree with.

Gheen said he does not condone violence or racism and has never made threats, and he dismissed claims that groups such as his could spark threats. "The only violence I'm seeing are the dead, maimed and raped Americans ... that are victims of illegal aliens," Gheen said.
However, other anti-illegal immigration activists say the movement has developed an ugly side.

"Something has gotten distorted, and it's creating a lot of hate," said Jim Gilchrist, the Southern California founder of the Minuteman Project, which organizes citizen patrols of the Mexican border.

Gilchrist said there are extremists on both sides of the issue and that he has received threatening messages from people on the pro-immigrant side of the debate. But lately, he said, he gets more hate mail from people on his side of the issue. He said groups are now fighting among themselves, and some have adopted messages that he considers racist.

Gilchrist said one California Minuteman chapter made a fake video depicting its members shooting a Mexican crossing the border illegally.

Blogs as soapboxes

Bazán said that in the past few months, she has gotten several nasty calls at home and has been the subject of violent talk on blogs, where she was referred to as a target.

The talk frightened her enough that she sent her children to stay with her ex-husband and stayed away from home for several days in June, when it was announced that she was the new board chairwoman of the well-known Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza.

On the day of the announcement, a person commenting on one blog about her new post commanded others to "buy guns" and referred to Hispanic immigrants as "monkeys." "The time is coming to fight back and yes many will die in this fight," the comment read.

Bazán said she has met with Durham police to make them aware of the threats.

When she speaks publicly, a guard often protects her. She had a full-time private guard last week at a La Raza convention in San Diego.

Bazán, along with some other Hispanic advocates, said they have begun reporting messages they consider hateful to the state Human Relations Commission.

G.I. Allison, director of the commission, which was formed to ensure equal opportunity in housing and other areas, said he receives regular complaints of hate messages and threats against Hispanics. The commission recorded 38 hate incidents in the first half of this year, but it doesn't track how many are against Hispanics.

Asion said he frequently receives messages that he considers racist, but the recent death threats were the most troubling.

The author claims to be watching Asion, threatens bombings and dismemberment, invokes the Ku Klux Klan and commands Asion to "go home Mexico."

Asion said he hasn't gone to police because there is little they can do. But he said he now fears for his staff members.

"I tell my folks, if you get a box and it doesn't have a return address, you don't know where it's from, don't open it," Asion said. "These are the times that we're living through."