Comparing Latinos and immigrants to grasshoppers? Really, Ted Poe?
Now, do you believe me when I call him a bigoted pig?
I guess this gives Dan Huberty a boost in HD-127? We’ll see.
Contribute to Joe Montemayor if you really want to get back at Ted Poe.
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Posted in Bigots and Liars
Texas Republican legislators, including Rep. Leo Berman, who abandoned his primary race against Governor Perry based on Perry’s promise to crack down on illegal immigration have indicated they will introduce legislation similar to the recently enacted Arizona law in the 2011 legislative session.
“The Arizona law violates basic American rights and freedoms,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie.
“For generations, Hispanic Texans have made great contributions to our state and fought to protect the freedom all Americans cherish,” Richie observed. “Every American should be insulted by a law that would require fellow citizens to carry a birth certificate when they leave home in case they are forced to prove their citizenship because of the way they look or speak.”
Richie noted that yesterday Governor Perry expressed “concerns” about the Arizona law that echo criticisms Democrats have voiced related to its impact on law enforcement.
“Unfortunately, given reports about the promise the Governor made to get Rep. Berman out of the Republican primary, his ‘concerns’ about the Arizona law appear to be another case of Rick Perry trying to have it both ways on a hot political issue,” Richie said, noting Perry’s recent appearance with far right commentator Glenn Beck and State Rep. Leo Berman, who responded that Perry’s most recent position on immigration breaks a promise Perry made to Berman just last year.
“For ten years as Governor, Rick Perry has played politics when leadership was needed on border and immigration issues, from wasteful border cameras that cost $153,800 per arrest, to his failure to involve border sheriffs in developing plans to prevent violence in their communities,” Richie said.
“Texans can’t afford any more ‘politics as usual’ from politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouth, we need leadership we can trust to move Texas forward,” Richie concluded.
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Posted in Chicano Politics, DREAM Act, Immigration, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege, Uncategorized
Considering that campaigns haven’t done a great job of disseminating reaction to the Arizona law, I have to hand it to the Texas Tribune for getting some answers.
Linda Chavez-Thompson for Lt. Gov.: Chavez-Thompson said the Arizona statute will cost that state’s economy, and that police are against it. “I’ll fight to ensure that Texas rejects the advice of those who don’t understand economics, who refuse to listen to law enforcement, and have little respect for the rights of citizens to be free of police harassment,” she said.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Attorney General: “The Arizona law should be declared unconstitutional,” she said. “Any similarly worded Texas law should also be declared unconstitutional. The government should not be in the business of violating individual U.S. citizen’s rights, regardless of the citizen’s appearance. The sitting Texas Attorney General, consistent with his belief that he has the power to sue the federal government for fair treatment of Texas should now insist that Texas receive its fair share of federal funding and assistance for enforcement and security. Texas taxpayers should not bear the burden for enforcement and border security, including our vital ports.”
And we saw Hank Gilbert’s the other day: “The fact of the matter is this: undocumented immigrants make up a significant segment of the agricultural labor force in Texas. These men and women help Texas grow food not just for our state, but also for the rest of the nation. If you take away their ability to move freely within our society and survive without being under constant threat of police action, they will go somewhere else for jobs,” Gilbert said.
The strongest statement from Texas Gubernatorial candidate Bill White is this one:
A lack of enthusiasm for Arizona’s law is something that the two gubernatorial candidates agree on. Yesterday in Lubbock, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White mocked the law.
“’How many of you have your passports or birth certificates with you?” He asked the crowd. When no one raised their hand, he gasped, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re all suspects!’
The thing is, it doesn’t help when a national Latino voter group is pushing Rick Perry’s response, even though we sure as hell know that Rick Perry’s record is one of lies and deception, as Phillip at BOR points out.
Meanwhile, the City of Austin is set to vote on limiting business it has with companies in Arizona. I sure wish the Mayor would do the same here in Houston.
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Posted in DREAM Act, Immigration, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege, U.S. Ethnic Relations, Uncategorized, Violence Against Latinos
Que Paso Ay Bill White?
Well, Rick Perry has beaten Bill White to the punch and said, “The Arizona law ain’t right for Texas.” You know, I’m not the most expensive consultant in the bunch and I still offered the advice for free: Jump on it, Bill! Make Rick look like a right-wing freak! No, he went with his high-dollar bellhops, instead, and took the “enforcement only” approach. Now, Rick Perry takes the high-road and what can Bill White say?
White can either challenge the enforcement-only Perry approach, or he can take the best approach and apply some pressure on the “Democratic” Congress to get a sane law passed and signed. The choice is simple.
And Where’s Mayor Parker?
You know, there’s been one City Councilman who has been pretty outspoken lately challenging pretty much anything Mayor Parker has been doing. Can we hear something from him? It’s really getting frustrating when our City of Houston leaders aren’t slamming Arizona.
And in the Si Se Pedo Dept.
President Obama went from, “We need comprehensive immigration reform,” to “the appetite is not there” in a matter of three days. In the meantime, GOPers Karl Rove, Marco Rubio, and even Rick Perry are playing nice.
If the Democrats think that Republican vitriol will be enough to drive Latinos to the Democratic side again, they are sadly mistaken. That worked in 2006, but 4 years later, we would like to see a little action.
It’s like Luis Gutierrez said when he spoke in Houston, whether we win or lose the CIR battle, we’ll sure as hell support anyone who fights for us to the end. Well, no one wants to fight. Don’t be surprised if folks stay home on November 2nd. Don’t even get me started on 2012.
The Story We Might Be Missing in Arizona
There may be a bigger story to the whole Arizona debacle, according to the sleuthy Greg Palast.
Brewer, then secretary of state, had organized a racially loaded purge of the voter rolls that would have made Katherine Harris blush. Beginning after the 2004 election, under Brewer’s command, no fewer than 100,000 voters, overwhelmingly Hispanic, were blocked from registering to vote. In 2005, the first year of the Great Brown-Out, one in three Phoenix residents found their registration applications rejected.
That statistic caught my attention. Voting or registering to vote if you’re not a citizen is a felony, a big-time jail-time crime. And arresting such criminal voters is easy: After all, they give their names and addresses.
So I asked Brewer’s office, had she busted a single one of these thousands of allegedly illegal voters? Did she turn over even one name to the feds for prosecution?
No, not one.
In the land of Bettencourt and Loser Leo Vasquez, we should be thinking outside the box, too.
Headed to the MegaMarcha
If all goes as planned, I will be at Dallas’ MegaMarcha on Saturday. Have a great weekend!
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Posted in Thoughts on Viernes, Uncategorized
From the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
PHOENIX, AZ – Today, MALDEF, ACLU, ACLU of Arizona, and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) held a news conference on the House of Representatives Lawn of the Arizona State Capitol Building in Phoenix, Arizona to announce their upcoming legal challenge to Governor Jan Brewer’s recently signed SB1070. In addition, the organizations sought to address misinformation and fears that have been spreading throughout the Latino community across Arizona. Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF President and General Counsel, ACLU, ACLU of Arizona and NILC leaders were joined by civil rights leaders Dolores Huerta, Richard Chavez and multi-Grammy winning artist and human rights advocate, Linda Ronstadt.
“Today, the three most experienced immigrants’ and civil rights legal organizations nationwide — MALDEF, ACLU, and NILC — announce their partnership, together with local Arizona-based counsel, to challenge SB 1070 in court,” stated MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz. “The Arizona community can be assured that a vigorous and sophisticated legal challenge will be mounted, in advance of SB 1070′s implementation, seeking to prevent this unconstitutional and discriminatory law from ever taking effect.”
“This law will only make the rampant racial profiling of Latinos that is already going on in Arizona much worse,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona. “If this law were implemented, citizens would effectively have to carry ‘their papers’ at all times to avoid arrest. It is a low point in modern America when a state law requires police to demand documents from people on the street.”
Linton Joaquin, General Counsel of NILC, added, “This unconstitutional law sends a strong message to all immigrants to have no contact with any law enforcement officer. The inevitable result is not only to make immigrants more vulnerable to crime and exploitation, but also to make the entire community less safe, by aggressively discouraging witnesses and victims from reporting crimes.”
There are a number of serious constitutional problems with the law, the groups say. It violates the supremacy clause by interfering with federal immigration power and authority. The law also unlawfully invites racial profiling against Latinos and other people of color.
“What we are witnessing today is the blatant targeting of an entire American population, Latinos,” stated civil rights leader, Dolores Huerta. “We must not give in one inch to Arizona’s effort to blame our community for all the ills of the state or their efforts to run us out. We have worked this land, built and maintain these buildings, and sacrificed as much as any other. We must put an end to SB1070.”
“My family, of both German and Mexican heritage, has a long history in Arizona. It has been our diverse and shared history in this state that unites us and makes us stronger,” stated Linda Ronstadt. “What Governor Brewer signed into law last week is a piece of legislation that threatens the very heart of this great state. We must come together and stop SB1070 from pitting neighbor against neighbor to the detriment of us all.”
Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the “law firm of the Latino community,” MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org.
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Posted in Chicano Politics, DREAM Act, Houston Politica, HoustonVotes 09, Immigration, Mayor Parker, National Democrats, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege, U.S. Ethnic Relations, Violence Against Latinos
I’ve given the comprehensive immigration reform outline submitted by Reid-Schumer-Menendez the once-over and I am getting ready to give it another 2 or 3 passes.
I am forming my opinion, but given the strong enforcement nature of it and the Democrats balking at “benchmarks” that are quite Republican in nature while the Obama Administration has already stepped up enforcement efforts (worse than George W. Bush ever did), I am not quite as supportive.
The eight-year backlog provision (the “back of the line” part) seems to show us that the Democrats are not all that committed to increasing resources to the point of making Citizenship and Immigration Services a well-oiled machine, as they want for the enforcement side. I am all for balance, and it seems to me that the Democrats truly missed the mark.
I remember the good ol’ days when Democrats would actually begin debate on the left side of things and somehow end up in a sane middle-ground. I miss those days because I expect the Republicans to bring out a whole case of cans of crazy.
More as I dissect the outline some.
First-term State Representative Armando Walle (D-District 140) released a statement on Arizona’s SB1070 and the possible introduction of a similar bill in Texas.
“Core American values should not be excluded in pursuit of border security, or in making a statement on immigration. The passage of S.B. 1070 in Arizona represents a giant step backwards, and a movement away from our core American values such as equal protection and due process. This new, anti-American law will also undermine public safety and trigger a greater budget deficit in Arizona. Texas cannot afford to go down Arizona’s misguided and wasteful path.
Fair treatment, regardless of the color of someone’s skin or the language they speak, lies at the heart of our American values. Arizona’s new law fails to provide equal protection for folks in Arizona because “reasonable suspicion” that someone is undocumented could be as simple as how they look or speak. Arizona law enforcement agents will now have the power to require proof of lawful presence. In reality, immigration judges are the best referees of determining whether or not someone is in the country legally. In granting these sweeping powers to law enforcement, Arizona’s new law is chipping away at the right to due process.
Imagine always having to leave home with your birth certificate in hand, or living in constant fear of the authorities who are supposed to keep you safe. This divisive law will cut off immigrant families from healthy communication with the authorities, and make it harder for law enforcement to do their job. And public safety in all neighborhoods will suffer.
Already there are calls for Texas to pass similar legislation. It would be a fiscal nightmare. If Texas were to pass a similar law, it would spell losses of $69.3 billion in economic activity 403,000 jobs. While Arizona moves backwards, Texas must take stock of what is best for the safety of our communities and the health of our economy, and follow our values away from Arizona’s example.”
This just in from the campaign of Hank Gilbert for Texas Agricultural Commissioner.
TYLER-Hank Gilbert, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, noted Wednesday that an Arizona-style immigration law requiring that law enforcement verify the citizenship of potentially undocumented individuals-even on routine traffic stops-would have disastrous consequences for Texas agriculture and seriously overburden local government.
“If you want to talk about driving up food costs, slashing tax revenues, and damaging our economy, then Leo Berman’s bill is exactly what you want,” Gilbert said. “I cannot imagine someone proposing something so irresponsible or damaging to Texas agriculture,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert noted that labor costs for some Texas agricultural products were already as high as $26.51 per acre and that Texas farmers could not sustain the massive labor cost increases that would come with laws such as those proposed by Berman.
“The fact of the matter is this: undocumented immigrants make up a significant segment of the agricultural labor force in Texas. These men and women help Texas grow food not just for our state, but for the rest of the nation. If you take away their ability to move freely within our society and survive without being under constant threat of police action, they will go somewhere else for jobs,” Gilbert said.
“Now, I know that’s probably what Representative Berman wants-he’d rather undocumented individuals go to Oklahoma or Louisiana to work. But the fact is that we have a vital ag industry in Texas, and we have work for people who come to Texas from Latin America and Mexico,” Gilbert continued.
“While it may be good Republican politics to scream and shout about illegal immigration, it is both bad economics and tantamount to racial profiling,” Gilbert said. “I personally do not want to live in a state where Hispanic Americans are constantly stopped and asked for their ‘papers.’ It is reminiscent of living in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union where identity papers were required at all times. Texas doesn’t need that,” he said. “Human beings from south of our border who are coming and working in Texas-who contribute more in tax revenue than they cost the state in services -deserve some dignity. It is not the responsibility of the state to enforce or enact Federal immigration laws,” Gilbert said.
In addition, Gilbert noted that forcing local government entities such as police departments, sheriffs’ departments, and county jails to check immigration status and detain undocumented individuals would cost significant sums of money annually that would have to be raised from additional taxes.
“At the end of the day,” Gilbert said,” It’s exactly the thing you’d want to do if you want to cause long-term damage to the economy in Texas.”
OK…Who’s Next?
Debbie Riddle, the state representative who once compared free public education to the “pits of hell…Russia” is singing (and quite badly) the same old song she’s been singing for the last few sessions of the Texas House of Representatives.
Yet, again, Riddle is promising to file a bill similar to the one just signed into law in Arizona. And no, this is not the first time she’ll do it. Riddle has made it standard Republican practice to attack the civil rights, liberties, and equal opportunities of Latinos for quite a while now. She has filed so many anti-Latino and anti-immigrant bills that it’s becoming hard to keep track of them. To date, all of her racist bills have died thanks to Democratic leadership.
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat and former president of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, called the law “extremely damaging and hateful.”
Van de Putte predicted failure for any similar measures in Texas and said the GOP would suffer politically for such a move.
Still, Riddle stands to rile up the right-wing and bring with her any slightly-thinking Republican. If played correctly by Democrats, Riddle’s racist antics could cost the Republicans dearly in November.
El Compadre Cobarruvias has more.
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Posted in Chicano Politics, DREAM Act, Houston Politica, Immigration, National Democrats, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege, U.S. Ethnic Relations, Uncategorized, Violence Against Latinos
While we await a stronger response from Houston Mayor Annise Parker, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has joined New York City Mayor Bloomberg in blasting Arizona for their new racial profiling law. Newsom has called for a ban of all City-related travel to Arizona.
The moratorium is effective immediately as the mayor and others are considering an official city boycott of the state and take steps “to develop a smart and effect boycott that sends the appropriate message to Arizona while protecting the city’s financial interests,” Newsom said in a prepared statement.
And it’s not all talk. Newsom is putting his words into action.
In order to work out details regarding the extent of such a boycott, Newsom announced the formation of the Arizona Boycott Workgroup, which brings together the city controller, purchaser and treasurer along with members of the city attorney’s office, among others.
Meanwhile, my friend Kuff has some tips on how to put pressure on local sports teams to continue a growing trend against Arizona sports teams, major sporting events in Arizona, etc. What is bad for Arizona could be good for Texas and Houston, but we need a show of leadership.
Along with Kuff’s sports contacts, I would also suggest contacting Mayor Parker’s office to request a stronger response to Arizona similar to that of Bloomberg and Newsom.
Email: mayor@cityofhouston.net
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