This week, former CEO Sholom Rubashkin of kosher slaughterhouse Agriprocessors pleaded “not guilty” in court to 12-counts involving undocumented immigrants, identity theft and bank fraud.
When the kosher meatpacking plant was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, authorities found not just undocumented workers at the plant, but child laborers, and an employer guilty of a host of crimes, including exploitation, abuse and illegal drug production. The New York Times reported,
“Some [workers] said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.”
Echoing remarks made from both Republicans and Democrats, Congressman Xavier Becerra speaks about how Latinos view the immigration policies of republicans and its implications for the future of the Republican party.
It looks like someone is getting the message that being anti-immigrant isn’t a winning strategy. The Virginia Commission on Immigration plans to send Gov. Tim Kaine 24 recommendations, “most of which would help immigrants instead of penalizing them.” The recommendations include creating an immigration assistance office, allowing more legal immigrants to qualify for health benefits, offering in-state tuition to immigrants who meet specific criteria, and increasing the number of English classes available.
The Commission will also call upon the federal government to increase the number of visas for foreign workers and pass comprehensive immigration legislation. Commission chairman Sen. John C. Watkins, a Republican from Chesterfield, echoed the frustration that states and localities are feeling across the country and stated that, “This is really a federal issue. They have pushed it down toward the states, and the time has come for them to deal with it. We have no jurisdiction.” Read the rest of this entry »
In an interview published in Gannet News Service over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke candidly of plans to both address and pass immigration reform legislation in the 111th Congress.
“On immigration, there’s been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. … We’ll do that.”
The Senate Majority Leader went on say that he did not expect “much of a fight at all,” and expressed his optimism about passing common sense immigration reform in the near future.
Keystone State Skinhead Tries to “Soften” His Image
USA Today is reporting that “…the white-power movement is changing its marketing strategy to broaden its appeal.” And immigrants are at the core of its new business model.
Skinheads, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klan members are all joining the anti-immigrant bandwagon in an attempt to better “market” themselves to “middle America.” Jeff Schoep, head of the largest neo-Nazi group in the U.S.—The National Socialist Movement—disturbingly explained:
“Historically, when times get tough in our nation, that’s how movements like ours gain a foothold…When the economy suffers, people are looking for answers…We are the answer for white people…And now this immigrant thing in the past couple of years has been the biggest boon to us…The immigration issue is the biggest problem we’re facing because it’s changing the face of our country. We see stuff in English and Spanish. … They are turning our country into a Third World ghetto.”>
There’s no one better than a border governor to lead an office in charge of securing our borders and heading immigration enforcement and services.Recent reports indicate Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) is emerging as the front runner for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the new Democratic administration. DHS is responsible for protecting the U.S. from terrorism, responding to natural disasters, as well as heading customs and border enforcement, citizenship and immigration services, and the secret service.
In choosing Napolitano, the incoming administration is tapping someone who has experience with a variety of enforcement measures, while at the same time signaling their desire to have a strong advocate for immigration reform running the agencies that manage and execute immigration policy in America. Read the rest of this entry »
Does Facebook have connections to ardently anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA? Insiders at Clarium Capital, the $5.3 billion hedge fund run by Facebook investor Peter Thiel are claiming their boss has made a $1 million donation to NumbersUSA.Rather than denying such serious accusations, Thiel hasn’t done anything more than say that the company doesn’t comment on “gossip and heresy.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, NumbersUSA is part of a network of organizations—some which have been designated as “hate groups”—created by John Tanton, a “major architect in the nativist movement” who is known for his white nationalist views and close ties to the Pioneer Fund—“possibly the last remaining funder of eugenics in the country”.Tanton both founded and funded NumbersUSA—quite possibly with Pioneer Fund money.
Crosses along the border wall memorialize those who didn’t make it. Photo by keiforce.
It’s not enough that DHS is building hundreds of miles of walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, creating physical and emotional barriers between us and our neighbor, ally, and trading partner.But now there is a plan to build a wall around a portion of the wall.
Friendship Park in San Diego is known as a place where families and friends on both sides of the border can meet each other, have a conversation, and see loved ones through the fence.People on the Mexican and U.S. sides have been known to kiss, dance, pray, protest, and eat “with” each other at the fence. Read the rest of this entry »
Anti-immigrant zealots, as part of their never-ending crusade to blame immigration for virtually every economic and social problem in the United States, continue to insist that the collapse of the subprime mortgage market was rooted in nefarious home purchases by undocumented immigrants. On November 18, a rambling post to the “Political Awareness and Responsibility” blog managed to blame the 1965 Immigration Act, Senator Ted Kennedy, and ACORN for unleashing hordes of undocumented home buyers with subprime mortgages upon an unsuspecting American public. The author follows in the footsteps of anti-immigrant columnist and commentator Michele Malkin, who helped kicked off this round of subprime immigrant blame-gaming back in September. Read the rest of this entry »
San Diego County recently announced that it would soon be partnering with ICE and dedicating its energy to identifying immigrants in jail for deportation.ICE unveiled its new program – The Secure Communities Program – in March 2008.It gives jails access to ICE and FBI databases so that they can identify inmates who lack legal status or have a criminal history and then turn them over to ICE for deportation. Through this new initiative, ICE plans to eventually have a presence in every one of the 3,100 local jails throughout the U.S.
While removing dangerous criminals from the U.S. is an understandable goal, Secure Communities appears to be the latest in ICE’s attempts to get states and localities to do their jobs for them.The best known of these is the 287(g) program, through which local police are trained by ICE, and agree to jointly enforce immigration laws. Read the rest of this entry »
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