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On Wednesday, the House Committee on the Judiciary convened a hearing on the supposedly posh conditions at the Department of Homeland Security's immigrant detention centers. The hearing, dubbed "Holiday on ICE" by chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), focused on the false premise that the Obama administration rules intended to prevent sexual abuse and inhumane conditions at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities made detention too fancy. "Congressmember Lamar Smith compared federal agents to a “concierge” and refused requests from Democrat committee members to change the obscene title to the hearings. More than 33,000 are held at these inhumane and vermin infested detention facilities daily, according to ICE. Some of these facilities have been under investigation for inadequate medical care, cases of sexual assault and other abuses. Most of these are private prisons owned by supporters of the Republicans in power. As is well known, detainees are kept under extremely harsh conditions, without proper food or water.
SHAME ON LAMAR SMITH!!
Tea Party Republican Lamar Smith has AGAIN outed himself for being the RACIST he is! Racist Smith is threatening DHS's Janet Napolitano to release the names of Dreamers and Non Felonious Workers SAVED by President Obama's Morton Memo.
As I have frequently reported, President Obama has SPARED deportation of thousands of Dreamers and non Felonious criminals due to modification of deportation guidelines established by the Morton Memo on Prosecutorial Discretion, issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in June, 2011.
Tea Party Repubican Racist Lamar Smith, is NOT HAPPY with the Morton Memo. Smith is threatening to enforce a subpoena for "criminal" immigrant information "to the fullest extent" of the law, after claiming the Obama administration "stonewalled" his request.
Since June, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith has been seeking a comprehensive list of names and other information for the thousands of Dreamers and non-felonious immigrants who are flagged, but not taken into custody or deported due to President Obama's "Morton Memo." Earlier this month, a subcommittee on Smith's panel subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for the information, claiming the DHS was "not acting in good faith." It was the first subpoena issued by Smith's committee since it came under GOP control.
On Friday (11/18/11), Racist Smith wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging her to "immediately comply" with the subpoena. Smith's memo stated: "If you do not comply, the committee will be forced to seek enforcement of the subpoena to the fullest extent allowed by the law."
(and share ties!)
(and bad rugs!)
Fellow Latinos and Humanitarians,
We may be upset by the Dream Act not passing and no movement with Comprehensive Immigration Reform, but if even half of the rhetoric I've been reading on the ANTI blogs comes to fruition, we are in for very tough times in 2011. The ANTI blogs are giddy with anticipation as their Tea Party Republican thugs are taking over the reins of Congress. These ANTI-Latino zealots are rubbing their hands together, making plans to propose racial profiling bills that make Arizona's racial profiling sb1070 look like a "tea party."
What bills are they planning on proposing in 2011?
1. Changing the 14th Amendment, ending Birthright Citizenship
2. Mandatory e-Verify
3. Official English
4. End to Sanctuary Cities If you look at each of these proposed bills, something immediately jumps out at you. Each will blatantly and outrightly racially profile Latinos. It will be a witchhunt. Bad times for Latinos are clearly in the forecast ahead, especially with extreme right wing Tea Party Republicans like Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, who will chair the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who is expected to chair the committee's immigration subcommittee, leading the charge!
Guest Voz Suzanne Gamboa provides additional insights:
The end of the year means a turnover of House control from Democratic to Republican and, with it, Congress' approach to immigration. In a matter of weeks, Congress will go from trying to help young, illegal immigrants become legal to debating whether children born to parents who are in the country illegally should continue to enjoy automatic U.S. citizenship. Such a hardened approach -- and the rhetoric certain to accompany it -- should resonate with the GOP faithful who helped swing the House in Republicans' favor. But it also could further hurt the GOP in its endeavor to grab a large enough share of the growing Latino vote to win the White House and the Senate majority in 2012.
Legislation to test interpretations of the 14th Amendment as granting citizenship to children of illegal immigrants will emerge early next session. That is likely to be followed by attempts to force employers to use a still-developing web system, dubbed E-Verify, to check that all of their employees are in the U.S. legally. There could be proposed curbs on federal spending in (Sanctuary) cities that don't do enough to identify people who are in the country illegally and attempts to reduce the numbers of legal immigrants. Democrats ended the year failing for a second time to win passage of the Dream Act, which would have given hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a chance at legal status.
House Republicans will try to fill the immigration reform vacuum left by Democrats with legislation designed to send illegal immigrants packing and deter others from trying to come to the U.S. Democrats, who will still control the Senate, will be playing defense against harsh immigration enforcement measures, mindful of their need to keep on good footing with Hispanic voters. But a slimmer majority and an eye on 2012 may prevent Senate Democrats from bringing to the floor any sweeping immigration bill, or even a limited one that hints at providing legal status to people in the country illegally.
President Barack Obama could be a wild card. He'll have at his disposal his veto power should a bill denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants make it to his desk. But Obama also has made cracking down on employers a key part of his administration's immigration enforcement tactics.
Hispanic voters and their allies will look for Obama to broker a deal on immigration as he did on tax cuts and health care. After the Dream Act failed in the Senate this month, Obama said his administration would not give up on the measure. "At a minimum we should be able to get Dream done. So I'm going to go back at it," he said.
The president has taken heavy hits in Spanish-language and ethnic media for failing to keep his promise to address immigration promptly and taking it off the agenda last summer. His administration's continued deportations of immigrants -- a record 393,000 in the 2010 fiscal year -- have also made tenuous his relationship with Hispanic voters.
John Morton, who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a recent conference call that there are no plans to change the agency's enforcement tactics, which are focused on immigrants who commit crimes but also have led to detaining and deporting many immigrants who have not committed crimes. The agency also will continue to expand Secure Communities, the program that allows immigration officials to check fingerprints of all people booked into jail to see if they are in the country illegally. Both illegal immigrants and residents can end up being deported under the program, which the Homeland Security Department hopes to expand nationwide by 2013.
Many of those attending a recent gathering of conservative Hispanics in Washington warned that another round of tough laws surrounded by ugly anti-immigrant discussions could doom the GOP's 2012 chances. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a possible 2012 candidate, cited Meg Whitman's failed gubernatorial bid in California despite her high spending. When 22 percent of the electorate is Latino, candidates can't win without a vigorous presence in the Hispanic community and a "message that is understandable and involves respect," Gingrich said. Even so, Gingrich was unwilling to call on his fellow Republican senators to drop their opposition to the Dream Act, saying the legislation should not have been considered without giving lawmakers a chance to amend it.
The next Congress will be populated with many newcomers elected on a platform of tougher immigration enforcement. They'll have ready ears in Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, who will chair the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who is expected to chair the committee's immigration subcommittee. That's a recipe for more measures aimed at immigration enforcement, including requiring businesses to use E-Verify rather than eyeballing paper documents to check workers' citizenship and legal residency status.
"I've already told the business community it's going to happen," said Beto Cardenas, executive counsel to Americans for Immigration Reform, a coalition of business leaders who support overhauling immigration laws. Changes to immigration law contained in appropriations and authorization bills, where immigration enforcement hawks are likely to tuck some measures, would also be tough to reject. But more controversial measures such as attempts to deny citizenship to children of people who are in the U.S. without permission could be tempered by GOP leaders aware of the need to curry more favor with Hispanic voters.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on the Judiciary convened a hearing on the supposedly posh conditions at the Department of Homeland Security's immigrant detention centers. The hearing, dubbed "Holiday on ICE" by chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), focused on the false premise that the Obama administration rules intended to prevent sexual abuse and inhumane conditions at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities made detention too fancy. "
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