As DHS Officials Strip Arpaio of 287(g) authority, he Vows to Thumb his Bulbous Nose at Authorities & Continue his Racial Profiling Sweeps Anyway!

The Department of Homeland Security has made changes to the 287(g) program. DHS changed the program to focus on felonious criminals and drug cartels. The program was NEVER intended to Racially Profile Latinos and to target non-felonious criminals. The changes include requiring law enforcement officers enrolled in the 287(g) program to pledge to observe federal anti-discrimination laws, beefing up its supervision and flagging problems and complaints from the public. DHS officials said Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to expand the program and has renewed agreements with 55 state and local law enforcement agencies. Twelve more, they said, have reached tentative agreements.

As the changes have been rolled out, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who flagrantly abused the program racially profiling countless Latino neighborhoods, of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests.

Yesterday, flagrantly thumbing his nose at DHS officials, Arpaio dispatched deputies on a two-day, racially profiling, "crime suppression" operation in the western Phoenix valley, stopping and racially profiling and arresting at least eight Latinos who did not have their passport and social security card on them to provide evidence they were in Arizona legally. Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said he is carrying out these racially profiling operations under Arizona state laws which supposedly target smugglers and another federal law he SAYS allows him to detain illegal immigrants.

The outrageous Arpaio said while overseeing the operation in Surprise, Arizona, "Nothing has changed. We're still going to be doing what we've been doing tonight and during the last two and a half years. I don't take orders from anyone."
Reference:
DHS Changes Immigrant Policies
Arizona sheriff conducts migrant sweeps despite curb

NY Times Calls for an END to Arpaio and 287(g) Programs

NY Times reports:
Wrong Path to Immigration Reform
All last week the people of Phoenix witnessed public outbursts by their sheriff, Joe Arpaio, as he railed against the Department of Homeland Security for supposedly trying to limit his ability to enforce federal immigration laws. He vowed to keep scouring Maricopa County for (Latinos) people whose clothing, accents and behavior betrayed them as likely illegal immigrants. He said he had already nabbed more than 32,000 people that way, and announced his next immigrant sweep for Oct. 16. The spectacle raises two critical questions that the Obama administration is in danger of getting wrong.

One is the specific question of whether the federal government should keep Sheriff Arpaio in its 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to act as immigration agents in street patrols and in jails. The answer is absolutely not. Sheriff Arpaio has a long, ugly record of abusing and humiliating inmates. His scandal-ridden desert jails have lost accreditation and are notorious places of cruelty and injury. His indiscriminate neighborhood raids use minor infractions like broken taillights as pretexts for mass immigration arrests. To the broader question of whether federal immigration enforcement should be outsourced en masse in the first place, the answer again is no.

It was only days ago that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled a plan to repair the rotting immigration detention system. The Bush administration had outsourced the job to state, local and private jailers, with terrible results: inadequate supervision, appalling conditions, injuries and deaths. Ms. Napolitano wants to centralize federal control over the system that handles detainees. But she insists on continuing to outsource and expand the flawed machinery that catches them, including 287(g) and a system of jailhouse fingerprint checks called Secure Communities, which increase the likelihood that local enforcers will abuse their authority and undermine the law.

Rather than broadening the reach of law enforcement, using local police can cause immigrant crime victims to fear the police and divert the police from fighting crime. It leads to racial profiling, to Latino citizens and legal residents being asked for their papers. Responsible sheriffs and police chiefs across the country have looked at 287(g) and said no thanks. Programs like 287(g) rest on the dishonest premise that illegal immigrants are a vast criminal threat. But only a small percentage are dangerous felons. The vast majority are those whom President Obama has vowed to help get right with the law, by paying fines and earning citizenship. Treating the majority of illegal immigrants as potential Americans, not a criminal horde, is the right response to the problem.

Racial Profiling Sheriff Arpaio Says: ICE "Just Don't Want Me Anymore!"

Preliminary reports indicate Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have chosen not to renew their federal immigration arrest authority agreement (287(g) with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpiao indicated he will no longer be able to complete his "suppression sweeps" however he continues to maintain his authority over the jails. Apraio said of the changes, "this (ICE agreement) just includes the jail, and deep down, I feel that I ought to take it and rip it all up," Arpaio said. Federal officials also refused to comment further.

Under the new agreement deputies and detention officers could continue screening individuals once they are booked into the Maricopa County jail, but federal authorities had not offered to allow Arpaio's street-level "suppression sweeps" to continue. The Racial Profiling Sheriff said in a radio interview last night: "They (ICE) just don't want me, I'm the poster boy," snarled Arpaio. "I say, `they,' that's the Obama administration, the White House, certain members of congress, certain politicians here, [DHS honcho Janet] Napolitano, don't want me enforcing the 287 federal immigration laws on the streets. So they came down here last week. I shocked them by signing both parts of that agreement, on the streets and in the jails. They sent their top guy down the next day -- he took away my street operations and stuck us with the jails."

Without an agreement that authorizes immigration "suppression sweeps" screenings on the street, deputies will need probable cause to detain a suspected illegal immigrant until federal agents can determine the suspect's immigration status.

"He's not going to be able to arrest people for those kind of routine civil-immigration violations," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arizona. The news was met with cautious optimism at the ACLU, which is working with plaintiffs in two lawsuits that accuse Arpaio's deputies of racial profiling in the normal course of their duties and in the "crime-suppression operations" the Sheriff's Office has conducted during the past 18 months.

A Republic analysis of arrest records from 10 of the sheriff's crime-suppression operations showed that MORE THAN HALF of the illegal immigrants arrested during the sweeps were held on federal immigration violations and hadn't committed another crime. During a crime-suppression operation in Chandler this summer, ICE agents told sheriff's deputies that they could not arrest suspected illegal immigrants who met that criteria and instead had to free them after giving them a "notice to appear" at ICE for processing.
References:
Sheriff Arpaio may lose some immigration authority
arpaio defiant on 287(g)

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Asks Barack Obama to Terminate 287(g) Program

The brave members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) are taking a stand against Racial Profiling. They have sent a letter to President Obama asking him to terminate the 287(g) program -- which has been so rife with Racial Profiling!
Members of the conservative community and the conservative MSM are already attacking the brave members of the CHC. We need the CHC to stand strong against their attackers and follow through until this program is terminated! STOP THE HATE!!!
From Phoenix New Times:
In a letter to Barack Obama dated Monday, September 28, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus called on the President to terminate the 287(g) program, and cease all of the so-called Memorandums of Understanding authorizing local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law. The letter -- which is signed by Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, Representative from New York, and Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Chair of the CHC's Immigration Task Force -- takes note of efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to reform the program with supposedly new and improved agreements with local cops. But the missive makes it clear that the CHC, an influential group of lawmakers in a majority Democratic Congress, sees the 287(g) program as fatally flawed. (You can read the letter in its entirety, here.)

"Although its stated purpose is to provide law enforcement a tool to pursue criminals," notes the letter, "it is our experience that state and local law enforcement officials actually use their expanded and often unchecked powers under the program to target immigrants and persons of color. It is our opinion that no amount of reforms, no matter how well-intentioned, will change this disturbing reality." The letter continues, with this verbal coup de grace: "For these reasons we ask you to reconsider your evaluation of 287(g) and instead of reforming it, end it entirely."

This communication comes less than a month after 521 organizations -- including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the ADL, and the ACLU -- signed a letter pressuring the Obama administration to end the much-hated 287(g) program. That letter and this recently-released one from the CHC, which can be viewed on the Web site of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, each cite the current U.S. Department of Justice investigation into 287(g)-poster boy Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office's racial and ethnic profiling ways.

In July, DHS honcho Janet Napolitano announced new agreements for the scores of local law enforcement agencies that DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have partnered with. The new rules were seen as aimed at Arpaio and as a sop to the Hispanic community over concerns that Latinos are being treated as second-class citizens by 287(g)-empowered cops. The new agreements have to be re-signed by the 60-plus agencies already involved within 90 days of the announcement. Those 90 days are almost up. Arpaio stated recently that he would sign the new agreement. But my sources inform me that negotiations are ongoing, and that Arpaio's side has sent DHS a "revised" version of the new agreement that would be acceptable to the sheriff.

Though federal worksite raids have generally been brought to heel under Napolitano, Arpaio continues to violate the terms of his old agreement with constitutionally questionable raids on businesses and neighborhood sweeps seeking undocumented Mexicans. This is why Arpaio remains a lightning rod for pro-immigrant and civil rights groups nationwide. But Arpaio is a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself, which is a deadly mixture racism and xenophobia. The Obama administration has allowed -- under the counsel of DHS secretary Napolitano -- this fever to strengthen. Now they are left with a metaphorical dilemma: Either sever a pox-ridden limb (Arpaio) from the corpus; or once and for all battle the infection to its core.

Whether the Obama-ites have the courage to lance the blisters of this grotesque pandemic remains to be seen. Phoenix civil rights activist Salvador Reza of the Puente movement alerted me to this letter to the President. Thursday morning, he and others in this struggle will demand that the Department of Homeland Security release -- under the Freedom of Information Act (if that still means anything) all correspondence between the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and ICE/DHS. The purpose of the request is to discover what back-room wheeling and dealing has been going on between the sheriff and the feds. If DHS and ICE do not cough up the docs, then you can safely assume they have something too hide.

Breaking News: Janet Napolitano Revises 287(g) Program! Will Arpaio be Reigned In?

Breaking News:
Joe Arpaio Reined In? Homeland Security Revises 287(g) Agreements Nationally
Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security has just issued a press release announcing new, standardized 287(g) agreements that all law enforcement agencies participating in the program will have to sign, including Sheriff Joe's MCSO, which boasts a massive 160-man 287(g)-trained force, the largest in the nation. "DHS and ICE will begin working with their current 287(g) partner agencies to re-sign the standardized agreements," reads the press release. "Ultimately, only those agencies with newly signed agreements will be permitted to continue enforcing immigration law."

Furthermore, there will be provisions that might put a crimp in Arpaio's future anti-immigrant dragnets in Maricopa County. "The new MOA aligns 287(g) local operations with major ICE enforcement priorities," states the announcement, "specifically, the identification and removal of criminal aliens."

Speaking to me via phone from DC, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said by "criminal aliens," DHS means "people who present a public safety threat." That is, persons suspected of "major crimes," such as rape, murder, drug running, etc. Not car washers, landscapers, or folks running water slides. Indeed, a side by side comparison provided by Chandler of the key aspects of the old agreements versus the new agreements details ICE's three levels of prioritization regarding criminal aliens. Currently, the MCSO does not make any such prioritization during its raids and sweeps.

Chandler also indicated that if Arpaio wanted to use his 287(g) authority in a sweep or worksite raid, an "ICE supervisor" would have to approve "a copy of the operation plan" for the action. He told me DHS was asking for these new agreements to be signed within 90 days by the respective LEAs involved.

The press release also makes clear that Arpaio cannot arrest someone on a bogus charge just so they can end up being turned over to ICE. "To address concerns that that individuals may be arrested from minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings," says the release, "the new agreement explains that participating local law enforcement agencies are required to pursue all criminal charges that originally caused the offender to be taken into custody." Chandler clarified that no matter what charge an individual is originally arrested for, the law enforcement agency will have to "see it through to the end," if 287(g) authority is used during the arrest.

The bad news with announcement is that Arpaio will be able to keep his 287(g) agreement with ICE, if he accepts the new dictates. This, despite being under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department over civil rights violations that are a direct result of the use of his 287(g) authority. Should Arpaio accept these new rules, he could still conduct sweeps and raids using his state authority, but using his federal authority in these situations would be problematic, and, subject to administrative approval by ICE and DHS. These new rules are not only for Arpaio. ICE has 66 agreements with law enforcement agencies across the country, all of which will have to be redone. Eleven new agreements under the new language were announced today as well.

Will Arpaio accept this curtailment of his 287(g) power with a shrug? Or will he denounce the new rules, thumbing his bulbous nose once more at federal authority? Something tells me we won't have to wait long to find out.

Sheriff vows to continue immigration enforcement
PHOENIX (AP) - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he'll keep up his immigration enforcement efforts even if he decides to opt out of a deal giving 160 of his officers the power to enforce federal immigration law.

Arpaio and 287(g) DOJ Hearings Underway in Congress

Congressional hearings on Immigration Enforcement began today. A BIG THANK YOU to the Phoenix NewsTimes for their LIVE Blogging of the DOJ Hearings. I've listed Congressman Nadler's announcement and a summary of PNT's Live Blogging below.
from Congressman Nadler's office:
Joint Hearing on the Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws
Washington, D.C. - The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration,Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, and theSubcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, will hold a joint hearing on Public Safety and Civil Rights Implications of State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws. The hearing will be co-chaired by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Jerrold Nadler and will focus on wide-ranging allegations of racial profiling in connection withthe Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program. The hearingwill also examine allegations of unconstitutional policing and immigration enforcement tactics by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in MaricopaCounty, Arizona.
LIVE Reporting: 4/02/09
-- California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who is chairing the hearing, has just made her opening remarks. "It's important as we try to enforce the law, that we follow the law," said Lofgren. "And that's what this hearing is all about."
-- New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler made his remarks after Lofgren's and those of a member of the Republican minority. Nadler suggested that an unnamed law enforcement entity (Maricopa County) might have to have its 287(g) status yanked. He mentioned this agency's "retaliation against reporters," and stated that it should not be "open season on someone who looks foreign to someone else."
--Ranking Congressman Lamar Smith from Texas, has just gone through a list of cases where people were killed or raped by illegal aliens.
--Congressman John Conyers, chairman of the whole House Judiciary Committee addressed the hearing with his opening remarks. "Immigrant bashing is a pretty popular sport, unfortunately, in some areas," he noted. Conyers suggested that brown is the new black, as far as racial profiling goes.

Live Witness Reporting: 1st Panel
1. Julio Cesar Mora, 19, testified to the U.S. House judiciary committee that in February, two sheriff’s office SUVs pulled over the vehicle he and his father rode in. Mora is a US Citizens and his father is a permanent legal resident. Mora was driving his father to work at HMI Landscaping in Phoenix, when his car was stopped more than 100 yards from the business. They were detained, zip-tied, and made to wait for three hours while their papers were gone through. During their detention, Mora's father, who is diabetic, was not allowed to use the restroom, and was only allowed to urinate next to a car. Mora, too, had to use the restroom. He was accompanied by deputies, still zip-tied. He had to urinate with his hands bound in front of him. `What's the matter, you can't find it?'" he said the deputies asked him, as he fumbled. "I didn't understand why they trapped us like that," Mora wondered to the committee. "They patted us down and tied our hands together with zip ties, like we were criminals." New York Representative Jerrold Nadler questioned Mora about MCSO deputies wearing ski masks at the February HMI raid, and whether they told him and his dad that there was a raid going on.

2. Next up was the emotional testimony of Antonio Ramirez, a Maryland community activist, who held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution, and declared that he would die for this country, that he believes in this country, and that he wants to be treated like any other person legally in the United States, instead of being singled out for scrutiny. Representative Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, asked Ramirez what he would say to Trenchant, who lost his daughter because of an undocumented migrant. Ramirez answered that he knew what it was like to lose a loved one, but that he was not a criminal.

3. Following Ramirez, came Professor Deborah Weissman, of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill law school, who helped author a comprehensive study of the 287(g) program in North Carolina. The study concluded that the 287(g) program is fatally flawed, and should be ended. She spoke of more than one redneck sheriff in the Tar Heel State who has made racist comments and threats regarding Mexicans that, she says, Joe Arpaio wouldn't say on his worst day. She also gave the example of a university professor who was racially profiled because he was Hispanic.

4. Ray Tranchant then gave his sad testimony. His daughter and her best friend were killed by a drunken driver who was also an illegal immigrant.
--King insinuated that Mora's dad should have informed authorities about the undocumented people he was working with at HMI.
--Illinois Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez pointed out that the Irish and Italians were labeled as bringing crime to this country, just as Mexicans and other Latinos are now. He also attacked King's suggestion that Mora or his father should be checking people's immigration status at work.

Live Witness Reporting: 2nd Panel
1. David Harris, Professor of Law at University of Pittsburgh: wedge driven between law enforcement and undocumented residents because of the 287(g) program, as it makes immigrants afraid to talk to the police about crime in their communities, and that endangers us all. He also talked about the inevitability of racial profiling under the 287(g) program.

2. Hubert Williams, President of the Police Foundation: among illegal immigrants, the crime rate is five times lower than in the general population. He insisted that police need to balance their responsibilities in law enforcement with protecting civil liberties, and that there needed to be trust between the police and the immigrant community.

3. Mesa Police Chief George Gascon: discussed the negative impact of the 287(g) program on community policing. "Increased political pressure on local law enforcement to reduce undocumented immigration coupled with the Federal deputation of local police to enforce federal immigration statutes is jeopardizing sound and well-established policing practices," warned Gascon. "The constitutional concerns created by the current state of affairs should be troubling to all of us," he continued. "In some cases it is setting the police profession back to the 1950s and 60s, when police officers were some times viewed in minority communities as the enemy." His statement also included more than one veiled swipe at Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
"Often poorly conceived and politically motivated enforcement efforts are placing officers in harms way," stated Gascon, "leading to accusations of police misconduct."
Gascon talked first about Arpaio's sweep in Mesa, harshly criticizing the sheriff for "paying back a political favor" by going into Mesa. He talked about the lack of communication with the MCSO over its raid on the Mesa library seeking illegal cleaning staff. He descibed the video of the raid, with "large numbers of sheriff's officers in tactical gear storming two buildings." Congressman Lofgren and others will receive and review the video in detail. (Republican Arizona Congressman Trent Franks came to Arpaio's defense, calling criticism of Arpaio a "witch hunt" that's actually aimed at America's immigration policies. He said Arpaio had personally assured him that he was not racially profiling. --LOL)

-- Congressman Nadler addressed something the controversial Kris Kobach, law prof and shill for nativists, had said in his testimony about the SPLC's letter calling him out. "Never in my life have I heard the SPLC called a `spurious institution,'" said Nadler, warning Kobach not to interrupt him. He praised the SPLC's work, and told Kobach if they did not like what the SPLC said about him, "You can sue them if you want."

Live Witness Reporting: Closing--
ANTI Republican Congressmen Ted Poe (TX), Steve King (IA) and Trent Franks (AZ) did not challenge the honorable Police Chief of Mesa George Gascon for his truthful statements about Sheriff Arpaio's Racial Profiling tactics in the Latino neighborhoods nor his abuse of detainees. Instead, they put on their McCarthy masks and grilled him about a non-issue, his airline ticket. Gascon did not burden the taxpayers and responded his inexpensive coach ticket was paid for by an Immigration Reform group. Childishly, Poe asked, "You gotta dance with the one that brung ya." Gascon recounted his resume, his service in the armed forces, and with the Los Angeles Police Department saying, "I take offense to that sir. I don't dance with anyone." The issue, of course, was a red herring. They could not refute any of the charges of Arpaio's Racial Profiling abuses. Ultimately, the Republicans were running defense on the 287(g) issue, and not too well.

Final: Phoenix New Times did an interview with Police Chief Gascon after his testimony. I will be updating this blog once that interview is published.

References:
1. U.S. House 287(g) Hearings: "Immigrant Bashing" is a "Pretty Popular Sport"
2. Testimony: MCSO illegally detained father, son
3. U.S. House 287(g) Hearings: First Round of Witnesses Includes U.S. Citizen Harassed by Joe Arpaio's Men

Living through the Civil Rights Movement. Is there HOPE for the Future?

I grew up during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. My Dad, Mom and siblings suffered from the racism of that era. My Dad was a migrant worker/field supervisor. His peers were white. However, he was not allowed to eat at the same lunch counter, drink from the same fountain nor use the same bathroom as his peers, even though he worked side by side with them in the fields.

In the late sixties, the Civil Rights Act was passed and the law said we were all equal. The Jim Crow laws were cast aside. They were against the law. In reality, they continued on for many years. In the late sixties, riots occurred as minorities spoke out against the continuing abuses. (We are reliving these same times today!)

I didn't understand racism. As a child, I too was a migrant worker. In first grade, in Catholic school, I didn't understand the reason the other children laughed at me when I stuttered in shyness. They thought I stumbled over my words because I was a stupid mexican. They whispered to themselves I was a dumb mexican. When the nun explained to them that I was just as intelligent as they were, most were skeptical. However, my advocate, our teacher, the nun, helped me and all other students understand that I was their equal and I was just as intelligent as they were. Like them, I could be anything I wanted to be.

Through the sixties, most teachers explained to all their students, we were ALL equal. There was discrimination and injustice in the past, but that time was over. Not all teachers said this. I remember a few predicted I was going to get pregnant and I should take typing/vocational courses because I was never going to college and college prep courses wouldn't help me. It is a good thing I didn't listen to them.
In the late sixties, the riots occurred. I marched alongside other equal rights believers of all colors. We thought we could change the world. We thought all of us were equal. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we were free at last.

After I finished my education, I started working for a large corporation and gradually progressed upwardly as a manager, continuing my education. I was going to be "That Girl!" I was going to have a career, a family, and be as equal as every other American in this glorious United States of America.
It is unbelievable to think so much change has occurred within one lifetime, my lifetime.
In the 70's, I met my husband, a big, handsome, strapping, lumberjack of an Irish American guy. We fell in love. In 1978 we married. In 1979 we had our first son. In 1985, we had our second son. Now, we have two young grandsons.

I thought we overcame the racism of the past. Little did I know that after 9/11, the racist groups who felt such a loss after the Civil Rights movement, who were still hanging on to their racist beliefs, would come back to haunt us. I didn't realize they were creeping back up on us until the May 2006 Immigration marches. Then they started planting their seeds of hate again. Their movement grew.

I heard all of their rhetoric on various cable news networks featuring Buchanan, Dobbs, Beck and others. I decided to learn more. I joined various websites and started my own blog in 2007.
It seems as if we reverted back in time to a certain degree. On a daily basis, I read about the Hate Crimes, Racial Profiling, the ICE Raids and the heinous Detention Centers. I read about the 287(g) local Sheriff assaults on workers. I see the persecution, incarceration, the humiliation, the inequality, the abuse.
Most Americans are like me. We are living in the new millenium. We understand we are a nation of Immigrants. We understand we are ALL equal. We understand we are a thriving, multi-cultural society. I look into the big beautiful eyes, eyes just like my Dad's, of my multi cultural, multi racial, multi ethnic grandchildren and I know our equality is the truth.

Some groups like the KKK, White Supremists, the NSMs and others are attempting to brainwash our children and others that are weak minded. They are attempting to convince them "illeeeegals" are the enemy. They are attempting to convince them to racial profile, assault, arrest and abuse these workers. No one knows what an "illeeeeegal" looks like, so these groups convince their members to attack and abuse ALL Latinos or anyone speaking Spanish. That is why we have seen crimes like the Caucasian Crew murdering Marcelo Lucero, the football jocks murder Luis Ramirez, or Dannie Baker murder innocent Chilean students.
The hate groups have convinced some local Sheriff departments (as in Northern Florida) to continue the worker ICE raids even though Janet Napolitano put a STOP to these practices. These sheriff departments could care less about the employers. They are not arresting them. They could care less about the Drug Cartels. They could care less about the felonious criminals. Instead they arrest and incarcerate the workers at the worksites, even though all they are doing is working.

I participate in various comment sections of the local news sites reporting these occurrences. It is alarming to see the degree of hate, anger and violence in some commenter responses. What is also interesting to note is ALL, without an exception, ALL of these commenters that spew so much HATE against latino workers (and they are ALL Latino workers), also hate our President, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic party. They also hate Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and the entire Democratic Party. They do not chastise employers hiring those they term illeeeegal and they do not seem all that angry about Bernie Madoff or other big business billion dollar thieves. The majority also do not approve of Gays, the right to Choose, Gun Control, Health Care or Global Warming. Most are Limbaugh, Beck and Dobbs viewers and approvers. These are the same extreme right wingers who say they will hold on to their beliefs and their guns with their last breaths. I am sure their ancestors were primarily slave owners and chastised Kennedy/Johnson through the Civil Rights Movement. They are advocating White supremacy and Mass Deporation of the 12M here. They also say they will never change their minds.

My goal in writing my blog is to help all Americans, and especially Americans of Latino descent understand we MUST remember the past. We must remember how recently the Civil Rights movement occurred. We MUST remember how recent the actions of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta occurred. The Civil Rights abuses happened in my lifetime. They were worse in my father's lifetime. We have to remember how fragile our history is and how many accomplishments our parents sacrificed to get us to this point. We have to remember we are a Land of Immigrants and WE are ALL Equal. We should do everything in our power to stand up for the newer Immigrants and to achieve Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We must also encourage all of our children to continue their education and never indulge in drugs.

God Bless America!
God Bless Our President Barack Obama!

Another Workplace ICE Raid, this time in Murderer Dannie Baker's Neighborhood!

On Thursday, March 19, another workplace raid occurred. Bay County Sheriff's Office Illegal Alien Enforcement Unit (a 287(g) group) and the Panama City ICE group conducted the raid. Workers were arrested at "Construction Enterprise Inc." located at the Waterside Apartments of Jenks Avenue construction site in Panama City, FL. Panama City is just miles down Highway 30 from Chilean Student murderer Dannie Baker's Miramar Beach, FL neighborhood. Panama City is also the Headquarters for the "League of the South", a group listed as a racist hate group by the SPLC.

No employers were arrested even though this company has had previous ICE worker violations.

Eight construction workers were arrested, 1 from Mexico and 7 from Honduras. They were all jailed at the Bay County Jail with a hold for ICE.

In a separate racial profiling incident the same day, the 287(g) Sheriff's Unit also arrested two other men who were going to a separate job site in the Bay County area. The two workers arrested were also from Honduras.

-------------

What is sad is, this area was impacted by the hurricanes a few years ago and welcomed in these workers to rebuild their state. As noted by several local commenters, these workers worked hard through the summers, rebuilding their homes and offices. They are wondering why the local Sheriff's office and ICE didn't go after drug dealers and violent criminals instead.

References:

Ten Arrested by Illegal Alien Enforcement Unit in Bay County

New PEW Report Provides SHOCKING Link between Racial Profiling Against Latinos and Latino Federal Prison Sentences!

According to a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, Latinos accounted for 40% of all people sentenced to federal crimes in 2007, even though they made up only 13% of the U.S. adult population. This is clearly a result of all of the Racial Profiling brought about by the 287(g) policies and the restrictionist policies promoted by the ANTI Immigration Reform forces.

The study, which relied on data from U.S. Sentencing Commission statistics, analyzed the ethnic makeup and citizenship status of offenders sentenced in federal courts in the U.S. from 1991 to 2007.

In 2007, nearly half of all Latino offenders were sentenced for an immigration offense. The heightened focus on immigration enforcement changed the citizenship profile of federal offenders. Among sentenced immigration offenders, most were convicted of the civil violation of unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S. Fully 75% of Latino offenders sentenced for immigration in 2007 were convicted of merely entering the U.S. unlawfully or residing in the country without authorization.
Some groups of offenders were more likely than others to receive a sentence. Fully 96% of immigration offenders received a prison sentence in 2007, compared with 95% of drug offenders, 94% of firearms offenders and 94% of violent offenders. In 2007, 96% of Latino offenders, and 98% of non-U.S. citizen Latino offenders, were sentenced to prison. In contrast, 89% of black offenders and 82% of white offenders received a prison sentence. Hispanics are much more likely than whites or blacks to be sentenced for an immigration or drug offense (due to Racial Profiling)—two of the crimes most likely to be punished with a prison sentence. In 2007, 85% of Hispanics were sentenced for either a drug or immigration offense. This was 40 percentage points greater than any other racial or ethnic group: 46% of black offenders and 37% of white offenders were sentenced for drug or immigration offenses.

As I previously reported, a new report from the Migration Policy Institute details the FAILURE of the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP), led by ICE, to remove fugitive aliens. Even though the NFOP budget has soared from $9M to $218M since 2003, the results have been a reduction of convictions of criminal aliens from 39% to a mere 9%. As I have been reporting for some time, ICE has taken the EASY WAY OUT. They boosted the rate of ICE Raids to meet their NFOP targets. The findings of the MPI report details that ICE has resorted to targetting non-criminals, including seamstresses, meat-packers and technical workers, just to meet their arrest quotas.

What is most alarming is the impact of Racial Profiling on the Latino Community.

MESSAGE TO JANET NAPOLITANO -- Stop the Racial Profiling! Stop the 287(g) programs. Consider the Costs of these unneccessary, lengthy incarcerations. Consider the FAILURE of the NFOP programs. Consider the abuses in the privately owned (RNC Crony Owned), vermin infested, non-humanitarian Detention Centers. Now is the time for Comprehnsive Immigration Reform!

References:

Pew Hispanic Center Report: Hispanics and Federal Crime

Collateral Damage: ICE's Failure to Focus on Felonious Criminals!

MPI Report: An examination of ICE's Fugitive Operations Program

Conservative Pundit Kondracke Predicts Comprehensive Immigration Reform May Pass in 2009!

Conservative Pundit Mort Kondracke (Fox News-Beltway Boys) says there is a strong possibility Comprehensive Immigration Reform may pass in 2009. The PRO Immigration Reformers have found their Sea Legs with their strong Latino Democratic showing in this year's election and are pushing their agenda with President Obama. Meanwhile, President Bush said one of his biggest failures was not pushing CIR strongly enough and he pandered to the Republican base with his workplace raids, mass deportation efforts and rigorous employment verification.
Kondracke said the ANTI Immigration Reformers will continue to push their so called "ANTI Amnesty" (Mass Deportation) platform, but to no avail. He believes if CIR is not passed this year, at least key Immigration issues, including Ag-Jobs plus, Reduction of the Immigration Backlog and passage of the Dream Act, may be passed in 2009. I agree with this list. In addition, I would add: an end to the 287(g) programs (e.g. Arpaio racial profiling) and the reduction of workplace raids/Detention Centers. For these two, there is no need for Federal legislation.
We will see if my predictions come true in 2009.
Reform Is Coming On Immigration, But Problems Remain
By Mort Kondracke
Given last year's election results, major immigration reform ought to pass in 2009 - but first, the incoming Obama administration has to decide what to do about some draconian policies put into place by the Bush administration. After failing to pass its own reform bill in 2007, Bush & Co. launched a policy of high-visibility workplace raids, mass deportation and rigorous employment verification designed to show that they were tough on illegal immigration. President-elect Barack Obama denounced the raids during the campaign, but canceling George W. Bush's policies could open the new administraton to charges that it's "soft" on enforcement - especially at a time of high unemployment among American workers...
The best solution - as even Bush officials acknowledge - is to pass comprehensive immigration reform that would control the U.S. borders; allow in a regular flow of immigrant workers, especially for agricultural jobs; and identify and legalize the status of otherwise law-abiding illegal residents and give them a chance to become citizens.
Bush acknowledged in an interview published Tuesday that, in retrospect, he erred in not pushing for immigration reform after his re-election and in trying for Social Security reform instead. His Social Security initiative failed and, by the time Congress got around to considering immigration reform, anti-immigrant groups and right-wing radio talk-show hosts had whipped the Republican base - and GOP Members of Congress - into a frenzy of opposition to "amnesty" and insecure borders, killing that initiative, too...
"But given that Congress has not passed it (Immigration Reform), the most important thing we can do is enforce the law the way it has been written, and therefore we've arrested record numbers of illegal aliens ... and we've deported almost 350,000 in the past year. That is a record." Chertoff also reported that he'd doubled the size of the Border Patrol, built nearly 500 miles of fencing along the Mexican border and increased "worksite enforcement actions" by 27 percent - all to reduce illegal immigration and restore lost credibility for the federal government.
Longtime immigration reform advocate Frank Sharry, now director of America's Voice, said that "Chertoff worked admirably" for reform, "but after it failed, what he did was disgraceful. He let the enforcement cowboys loose on residential neighborhoods, conducted those employment raids that mainly targeted helpless workers, not the employers, and terrorized the immigrant community," Sharry charged. He said, "the administration was heavily responsible" for the fact that Latino turnout jumped 40 percent in 2008 over 2004, and went from 56 percent Democratic to 66 percent. In 22 Congressional races where an "enforcement hawk" was running against an advocate of comprehensive reform, the reformer won in 20, according to America's Voice.
The election results have encouraged reform advocates to expect that Obama will push for comprehensive reform this fall. He's declared it a "top priority" of his administration and it was the focus of one of his transition task forces. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and various immigration groups are holding events this week to press the cause.
Precisely what a reform package should contain, however, is uncertain. Hispanic Members of Congress and most pro-immigration groups definitely want it to include a certain path to citizenship for illegal residents who have clean records and pay a fine. Others, like Rick Swartz, founder of the National Immigration Forum, thinks that - in spite of Democratic domination of the government and the party's promises - "amnesty" for up to 12 million illegal immigrants could still derail reform in Congress. He advocates an incremental policy of "Ag Jobs-Plus" - passage of a widely supported bill, sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to admit agricultural workers seasonally and let them earn green cards over a period of years, plus measures to reduce the years-long backlog of people waiting to join family members in the United States. Swartz's agenda also would include passing the DREAM Act, allowing 1 million students brought into the U.S. illegally as children to become citizens, and giving green cards to 600,000 or so holders of high-skill H-1B visas.
Because of massive job losses by American workers and opposition from the AFL-CIO, most reformers this year are willing to drop a provision in previous legislation allowing non-agricultural workers to enter the United States and eventually become legal residents.
The Obama transition team reportedly has recommended creation of a commission to recommend solutions to any issues not included in legislation the administration backs in the fall. Matters covered in legislation and left to the commission might depend on how strong 2010 election prospects are for Democrats from conservative states and districts.
Even though they were trounced in 2008, anti-immigration forces are still ready to agitate for expulsion (mass deportation) - not legalization - of illegal immigrants. And they have high U.S. unemployment operating in their favor. So, in spite of his promises and the vote in November, it will still take courage and political skill for Obama to figure out how to do the right thing, and do it.

BREAKING NEWS!! Latino Civil Rights Group Accuses U.S. of Failing to Protect Latinos

A Latino Civil Rights Group is Pleading for an END to Latino Hate Crimes and taking it to international Court! They are seeking to:
1. End Hate Crimes against Latinos
2. End the 287(g) program (the end to Arpaio´s Racial Profiling tactics!)

Rights Group Accuses U.S. of Failing to Protect Latinos
Published: December 18, 2008
A civil rights legal advocacy group, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, filed an unusual international petition Thursday accusing the United States of failing to adequately protect Latinos living within its borders, regardless of citizenship. The claim was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, of which the United States is a founding member. It charges that the United States is failing to live up to the group’s declaration on human rights, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. It cites violence against Latinos, including the murders over the past five months of three immigrants: José Sucuzhañay in Brooklyn last week, Marcelo Lucero in the Long Island town of Patchogue on Nov. 8, and Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pa., on July 14. In all three cases, prosecutors say the assailants used anti-Latino slurs. Hate-crime attacks on Latinos rose 40 percent between 2003 and 2007, the petition says, citing the F.B.I.
The complaint also cites the rising use of agreements that allow local communities to deputize their police forces to carry out immigration law. They were created after Sept. 11, 2001, to increase cooperation between local police departments and federal immigration authorities. The group argues that deputization leads the police to treat all Latinos as suspects of immigration violations, engenders mistrust of the police among Latinos, divides communities and promotes a belief that Latinos can be attacked with impunity. The complaint notes that such an ordinance was adopted in Shenandoah and was under consideration in Suffolk County, where Patchogue is situated. The United States has not recognized the commission’s decisions as binding, but has sometimes responded to them in the diplomatic arena, lawyers at LatinoJustice say. The State Department had no immediate comment on the petition.