Should Latinos Support President Obama in the 2012 Election without passage of CIR and the Dream Act? I say "Seguro Que Si"

As my long time readers know, I am a long time advocate of the passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). I have supported CIR since 2006, prior to the introduction of the CIR Act of 2007, popularly known as the "McCain - Kennedy" Bill. The CIR Act of 2007 was a good bill. It was bi-partisan. However, it did not pass. The rabid ANTI groups, most Republicans, now turned Tea Partiers, rallied against it. They used derogatory language and misleading statements to derail this noble cause.

The Bill was beautiful and prolific in its simplicity. Here are the highlights:
1. Enforce our Borders with trained Border Patrol and technology
2. Employer Sanctions, especially for Exploitive Employers
3. Provide a pathway to citizenship for those here that are felony free.
4. Establish the Dream Act, allowing students to pay in-state tuition or serve in the Military.

While the Bush Administration said they supported the CIR bill, they also catered to the ANTI crowd by conducting massive ICE Raids all across the country, incarcerating whole families, including women and children. They conducted these raids in Poultry and Meatpacking plants, Construction, and manufacturing plants. Then, in 2008, as if to up the ante, they conducted MASSIVE raids in Postville Iowa and Laurel, MS. In Postville, they arrested nearly 600 workers, putting them in cattle barns - treating them like animals - as they shipped them off to unknown detention centers in Texas. They did the same in Laurel, MS, this time nearly 700 workers were shipped - most to the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, LA. which is part of the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison owners and huge contributors to the RNC and to the Bush Administration.

These actions were over the top, blatant, and so flagrant in Republican's intent to fill the pockets of their political cronies - just in case McCain lost the 2008 Presidential election.

These actions were also obvious to many Human Rights and Latino groups who raised a rallying cry, "STOP THE ABUSE!" This rallying cry motivated Latinos to go to the polls in massive numbers, at the highest rate in history, to vote for Hope and Change - to Vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 elections.

President Obama has kept many promises.
1. Stop Worker ICE Raids: He has stopped the worker ICE Raids. He said "no mas" to the despicable, inhumane raids in Postville, IA and in Lauren, MS.
2. Focus and only deport Felonious Criminals: The INTENT of the "Secure Communities Act" was for ICE to focus on felonious criminals for deportation. These felonious criminals have been deported in massive numbers. No more "very long stays" to feed the pockets of the cronies. Instead these felonious criminals were deported. This caused the numbers of deportees to increase. Additionally, over zealous local police and ICE officers took it upon themselves to detain and deport Mothers and Students. They should not have been included in the deportations. Some in the media and local Humanitarians have been very vocal about these detainees. This resulted in:
3. President Obama, via his Presidential authority, to exclude non-felonious criminals and Dream Students from deportation. This just happened this summer.

President Obama has said he supports CIR and he supports the Dream Act. He also supports Jobs for All of us and an improved economy. However, we can all see the Republican opposition he is facing. All we have to do is Look and Listen to what is happening. Or as my mother would say "Mira Nomas!"

1. 2012 Republican GOP Debates: All we have to do is listen to what is being said in the 2012 Republican Presidential Debates. Hermain Cain wants to ELECTROCUTE US! They ALL have begged for Arpayaso's support! Other Republicanos want to shoot us like Pigs! "Mira Nomas!"

2. Republican Racial Profiling Bills and Latino HATE Crimes: All we have to do is see what the Republicans are advocating with their Latino Racial Profiling and Hate Laws in state after state after state. "Mira Nomas!"

3. Republican Arpayaso - Racial Profiling / Hates the President: Look at Arapio in Arizona - the new Bull Connor. Look how he has abused his power and abused Latinos. Remember the pictures of children in church being scared to death while his masked volunteer goon deputies circled the Confirmation Mass? He also HATES President Obama. Just look at the antics of his "Cold Case Posse" re-investigating our President's citizenship. Arpayaso treats ALL of us, including the President, as if we were "Illeegals!" "Mira Nomas!"

4. Dirty Tricks by Republican Governors: There are numerous Republican Governors that are CHANGING The Voting Laws to Stop MINORITIES from Voting. One Example: In Texas, they've changed the law. While they ALLOW a Gun License to serve as your picture ID, they do NOT allow young people to use their College pictre ID. "Mira Nomas!"

5. Republican/Tea Party Thuggery: Did you also know that there are many "pretend" Latinos who say they are Latinos and blog against our President? You see them ALL THE TIME in newspaper Comment Sections and Blogs URGING Latinos NOT TO VOTE! on Election Day! This is ALL part of their dirty tricks to try and get as many of us (Latinos) to stay home and NOT VOTE! Republican Thuggery ala Watergate! "Mira Nomas!"

I believe in our President! I believe in the American Dream! I believe that WE THE PEOPLE can turn our Economy around and create a Better World for our Children! When my viewers and commenters on my Facebook page ASK me if I support President Obama in the 2012 Presidential election, I say what my Mother would say: "Seguro Que Si!"

President Obama Tours the Country Promoting Jobs Bill; Visits with Hollywood and Latino Supporters

President Obama is travelling around the country, from East Coast, to the Heartland, to the West Coast. He has kicked off a new effort to urge Congress to pass the American Jobs Act, piece by piece, to put WE THE PEOPLE back to work and strengthen the Economy. The President declared “we can’t wait" for Republicans to pass a bill -- that is why he is taking his message to the People. On Twitter and Facebook, people around the country have been talking about why we can't wait and the issues they care about the most. From Education to Firemen, Policemen to Construction - jobs in every city and every town in America. The President is talking about real American Jobs. He is also talking about affordable financing programs for Mortgages and for Education.

With the Republicans doing all they can to roadblock his efforts, he is taking his message to all of us, the American People. Massive crowds of Americans are welcoming him into their cities, into their homes. The President's approval rating continues to rise.

Last week, the President was welcomed in Nevada and spoke to many small business owners, teachers and local workers. After his Nevada visit, President Obama visited Hollywood.Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith attended one of the L.A. events, as did Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Magic Johnson.

President Obama also visited the home of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith who hosted a Latino/Hollywood Stars event for President Obama. Eva Longoria introduced the President by saying he "speaks to the Latino community because he knows he's the President of all Americans. And we applaud you from our community. We thank you for everything you're doing." Also present were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, activist Dolores Huerta and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

I agree with Eva Longoria. The President is NOT like the Republicans who continue to advocate Racial Profiling laws in every state and Mass Deportation. Instead, he supports jobs for ALL Americans and he supports the Dream Act. He has stopped the deportation of students and non-felonious workers, instead he is targetting Felonious Criminals for deportation. We know he needs to do more to support Comprehensive Immigration Reform. That is why it is so important that we register to vote and elect him and as many Democratic Congressmen as possible so CIR may be passed in 2013.

The President also spoke on the Tonight Show with host Jay Leno. The audience cheered and loudly applauded as he brought his JOBS message out to WE THE PEOPLE!

Jim Crow Lives On in Alabama: Hate Crimes Against Latinos Running Rampant Due to Alabama's Racist Immigration Law

It was a neighborhood basketball game. A team of Latino boys were playing basketball against a group of non-minority neighborhoods boys. The reaction was immediate and rooted in the state's new law on illegal immigration. One mother, witness to the incident said, "They told them, `You shouldn't be winning. You should go back to Mexico." Latino children are facing more bullying and taunts at school since Alabama's tough crackdown on illegal immigration took effect last month. Many blame the name-calling on fallout from the law, which has been widely covered in the news, discussed in some classrooms and debated around dinner tables.

The Department of Justice is monitoring bullying incidents linked to Alabama's law.
"We're hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we're studying," the head of the agency's civil rights division, Thomas Perez, said during a stop in Birmingham. The Justice Department has established a bilingual telephone hotline and special email account for residents to report any violence or threats based on racial or ethnic background that are linked to the law. Federal officials say some parents -- particularly Latinos -- may not report bullying to teachers and principals because they fear coming into contact with government officials.

Supporters of the law claim it is vital to reducing the cost of state and local government by getting illegal immigrants off public assistance, though they have no facts to prove their allegations. They also argue the measure will create jobs for legal residents by opening up positions that had been held by people living in the country illegally. However, Americans have shown little to no interest in the backbreaking, low-paying jobs at farms and poultry factories that are held by many of the Latinos they are targeting with the law.

Those that oppose this racial profiling law say the law is creating a climate of fear and mistrust in the state that's unsettling for all Latinos -- citizens and immigrants. Immigrants tell of dirty looks in grocery stores, and online forums are full of angry, anonymous comments from both supporters and opponents of the law.

Machine shop manager Hector Conde said his family has seen the problem firsthand. He Latino and his family are citizens. Conde, whose family lives in Autauga County north of Montgomery, was appalled when his 12-year-old daughter, Monica Torres, told him a schoolmate called her a "damn Mexican" during a school bus ride. "She is a citizen. She doesn't even speak Spanish," said Conde, a U.S. citizen originally from Puerto Rico. "The culture being created (by the law) is that this sort of thing is OK."

A Hispanic woman said her 13-year-old niece was called a "stupid Mexican" and told to "go back to Mexico" by a classmate in Walker County. "She said, `If you're not going I'm going to punch you."'

Courts have struck down sections of the law, including a provision that required public schools to verify the citizenship status of students. Other sections remain in effect, including a part that lets police check a person's immigration status during a traffic stop. Courts also can't enforce contracts involving illegal immigrants, such as leases, and it's still a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state for basic things like getting a driver's license.

U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, the lead federal prosecutor for north Alabama, said many Hispanic parents may be afraid to report bullying for fear of coming in contact with government officials. Under the law, authorities are supposed to detain suspected illegal immigrants found living in the state and hold them for federal immigration authorities. Parents may be afraid to even go to school teachers and principals, she said. "It seems likely to me that people are trying to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble," said Vance.

Charles Warren is school superintendent DeKalb County, where about 18 percent of the 8,900 students enrolled in public schools are Hispanic. He doesn't see much tension between Hispanic students and others -- Crossville High School has had a Hispanic homecoming queen the last two years, he said. "The kids get along great, it's the adults who are the problem," Warren said. "There are a lot of similarities to what went on back in the `50s and `60s with the civil rights movement. A lot of people are out of work now and they want to blame someone. I think the Hispanic people are catching a lot of that."

PROOF: Alabama Immigration Law is RACIST Against Latino Legal Citizens!

When Alabama's sweeping new immigration law went into effect last month, Birmingham business owner Steve Dubrinsky realized he had a serious problem. Dubrinsky runs Max's Delicatessen, a classic Jewish deli, in the city's Inverness neighborhood. In the kitchen he employs several Latino workers, all of whom, he says, provided the necessary documentation when he hired them, and none of whom have given him reason to believe they're in Alabama illegally.

And yet several of them have told Dubrinsky to start looking for replacements. Even though his employees say they're here legally, they've told him they either have undocumented relatives who they must leave with, or they simply no longer feel comfortable as Latinos in Alabama. The new law authorizes police to demand documentation if they have "reasonable suspicion" someone is in the country illegally.

Dubrinksy was so concerned about his burgeoning staff problem that he spoke to the Birmingham News about it last week. "They are scared and I can't blame them," he told the paper, speaking about his documented employees. "It is affecting a lot of restaurants. It's a mess." Suddenly, Dubrinsky had much greater problems.

The morning the article ran, Dubrinsky hopped in his car and turned on local talk radio, only to discover that the discussion topic was Dubrinsky himself. The host and his guests were trying to decide whether or not they should boycott the deli. Dubrinsky grabbed his paper and read the Birmingham News article just to make sure he hadn't been misquoted, perhaps voicing support for undocumented immigrants. Indeed, he was quoted accurately, showing sympathy for the area's properly documented workers.

It hardly mattered. Dubrinsky was being tarred as an illegal-immigrant lover. "People twisted what the story said," Dubrinsky told HuffPost. "I was under attack." The article had been shared on an anti-immigrant website, and Dubrinsky was soon bombarded with vitriolic hate email. One reads: "well u can bet your ass that i will never eat in your resturant agian and will tell everybody i know what kind of person you are for suporting those dam wetback that are ruining our country."
Another: "if you cant keep the doors open and employ legal people then it is time to close."
And another: "I hope your unamerican establishment closes down!!!!"

The assault on Dubrinsky and his restaurant shows just how risky it can be for a business owner to publicly stake out even a moderate position in Alabama's immigration debate. Dubrinsky's wife happens to be a U.S. citizen from Mexico, and he says he never imagined he could be attacked for supporting the Latinos who, like her, have every right to be in the country. The nastiness of the past week has left him shocked and saddened.
"This hatred being spewed anonymously," he says, "it's very scary."

Just as bad as the hate mail was the hit to his restaurant's reputation online. After the article ran, Google was quickly flooded with negative reviews of Max's Deli from people, many who had probably never eaten there. By Dubrinsky's count, it was more than 70 reviews in two days, and they all remain on the web today. His loyal customers tried to chime in with positive words, but they were drowned out in a chorus of hate from first-time reviewers, dropping his rating to 1.5 stars out of 5. One recent review reads, "You could not pay me to patronize this place!" "Not one American worker in the place. Move your Deli to Mexico," read another by a reviewer who was only identified as Cherie. "Food is marginal at best. Employs only Illegal immigrants. Owner and entire staff are rude. Don't go here!!!" reads a third review, which, like many of the recent reviews, came from first-time reviewers.

(The vicious reviews stood in stark contract to the reputation of Max's Deli at Urbanspoon.com, the popular foodie site, where registered users have given the restaurant an enviable 81 percent rating out of 49 reviews.)

Not all of the hatred has poured in from out-of-state. Last Wednesday, many businesses were closed as Latinos skipped work to protest the new law, which is the harshest of its kind in the country. Dubrinsky convinced his workers to come in for the day, though he decided to shut down early -- at 5 p.m., as opposed to the typical 8:30 p.m. -- in a show of solidarity with his staff. He hung a sign on his door explaining his compromise.
He was pilloried for the early closing, too, receiving more hate emails -- emails that, sadly, could have come only from his fellow residents who noticed the sign.

Dubrinsky has remained remarkably diplomatic through it all. After receiving a nasty email from a woman he didn't know, Dubrinsky wrote an email back to her, sending her a link to the story and explaining his side of things. They had a little back-and-forth, and the woman ended up apologizing and asking him for forgiveness. When he received a nasty phone call from a stranger in Michigan, Dubrinsky tried to explain himself rather than simply hang up. But the woman couldn't be reasoned with.

Regardless of what happens to his reputation, Dubrinsky says he's worried about losing longtime staffers who he describes as good workers as well as good people. "They're like family to me," he says. Despite a national unemployment rate above 9 percent, he says that finding non-Latino workers willing to toil in his hot kitchen for modest pay has not been easy, just as many farmers are having a hard time finding non-Latino workers willing to pick their fields.

"It's easier said than done," says Dubrinsky. To prepare for his vacancies, Dubrinsky offered a job to a woman at $8.25 per hour a couple of weeks ago. After initially accepting, she called back to say she couldn't take it because she'd lose her food stamps and government-funded health care. More recently, Dubrinsky hired a man to work the grill in the kitchen. He showed up on Sunday but didn't last long. Dubrinsky says the man disappeared after just two hours, leaving only an apron in his place.

Herman Cain's Message to the Unemployed: "Get a Job You Bunch of Bums!"

Herman Cain does NOT blame Wall Street or Big Business for their part in the Jobs Crisis. Instead, he blames the Unemployed, basically saying, "Get a Job you Bunch of Bums!"
Cain, a Tea Party Republican - Koch Brothers' minion, continues to cater to the Rich, the Lobbyists and to Wall Street. He blames the Unemployed for NOT having Jobs!
Herman Cain: "If You Don't Have A Job And You're Not Rich, Blame Yourself"
Unbelievable!

Republican Debate PROVES Obama the Right Choice in 2012!

I've recently read reports about the increased number of deportations by the Obama Administration vs the number of deportations during the Bush Administration. Some in the Latino Blogger Community are upset by this. I'm not. Here's why. The Obama Administration has been focusing on deportation of felonious criminals. I support this. They have put in place measures to stop the deportation of Students and non-felonious criminals. I support this.
The Bush Administration was not so focused on the number of Deportations. What they were focused on was massive ICE Raids and arrest/detention of Latino workers. The largest ICE raids in US History happened during the Bush Administration. The highest rate was in Laurel, MS. The 2nd highest in Postville, IA. The next in meat packing plants, including Swift and Pilgrim, all across the US. Their focus was on ARRESTS, RAIDS, keeping those arrested in Detention Centers owned by their private prison owner Political Contributers. They arrested Moms and Dads and Kids and put them in deplorable, privately owned prisons.
During the Obama adminstration, we have seen NO massive ICE raids, no massive detentions. Instead, the focus has been on Felonious Criminals, then deporting them as quickly as possible.
I support our President.
To even consider anyone in the Republican Presidential Candidate field in Downright Scary!
Consider what they are saying right now about Latinos. I'm watching the Republican Debates and I realize we cannot allow any of these zealots to become President. Right now, they are on the topic of Immigration. All of them are ANTI Immigrant and ANTI Latino.
Herman Cain: Continues to advocate an Electrical Fence on the Mexican Border. He said, "Kill Them! Yes. Secure the Border FOR REAL. Yes. Fence. Yes. Electricity. Yes. Military. Enforce Current Laws (aka: Mass Deportation.)"
Perry: Boots on the Ground. Predator Drones. Mitt Romney hires illegal immigrants.
Bachmann: Obama's Uncle & Aunt are Illegal. I will build a double walled fence along the entire (2000 mile) border. I will Enforce Official English (no Spanish). No Benefits. Repeal the 14th Amendment. No more Anchor Babies.
Romney: Loves legal immigration. Secure Border. Turn off magnets. Turn off Tuition Breaks (the Dream Act).
Gingrich: Don't differentiate Latinos from other immigrants. Just work hard and come here legally, otherwise face the consequences.
Paul: Rights don't come in bunches and neither do people.

Imagine a Country where ANY of these Republican Tea Party Zealots becomes President! I say NO! Vote for President Obama!

Herman Cain in League with Arpaio (the Devil!)

PHOENIX (AP) - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he'll meet Monday with Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain before the candidate attends a GOP fundraiser in Phoenix.

Arpaio says Cain will be the fourth GOP presidential candidate who sought his endorsement this year.

The sheriff hasn't yet endorsed any candidate, but backed Mitt Romney in 2008.

Arpaio met with candidate Michele Bachmann last month and says he spoke on the phone recently with Romney and Rick Perry.

Arpaio says he has talked to them on subjects ranging from military service and family to the sheriff's jail tents and immigration enforcement.

He says none of the candidates has raised the federal civil rights investigation of Arpaio's immigration efforts and a federal grand jury that's investigating allegations that the sheriff's office abused its powers.