Debate Update: ROMNEY REGURGITATES HIS WAR AGAINST LATINOS!

Romney regurgitated his war against Latinos. In last night's debate he said:
1. NO Amnesty: Instead put in place mandatory (though flawed) e-verify system. Mass "Voluntary" Deportation. Eliminate "Magnets" including Drivers Licenses.
2. Called Undocumented Workers "Illeegals."
3. Streamline (Reduce) Legal Immigration giving green cards only to those who graduate from college with "skills we need." (Northern European Countries)
4. Lied when he said "I didn't say Arizona Law was a model law." President Obama reminded him that he did say this and that Kris Kobach who wrote sb1070 - the racial profiling bill, is his chief Immigration advisor.

Democratic Convention Updates: Rep. Charlie Gonzalez Links Romney to Brewer, Arpaio and Kobach

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, talked to delegates and described Romney's immigration policies, tying him to the much-criticized immigration enforcement practices of Arizona. Gonzalez said, "The truth is that Mitt Romney has embraced the sb1070 racial-profiling policies of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio." At the same time, Romney has praised Arizona for another controversial immigration measure, saying during a debate that the state's employment verification law should be a model for the nation.
In January, Romney said he supports Self-Deportation - MASS DEPORTATION. It's also another phrase for what Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has advised Romney on immigration issues and wrote SB 1070, calls "attrition through enforcement."
Romney gave an address on immigration reform in June and said he supports broad changes to existing law, but without allowing undocumented immigrants currently in the United States a path to citizenship.
"The truth is ROMNEY would separate families that have been here for generations," Gonzalez said of Romney. "The truth is ROMNEY has embraced distrust and division at the expense of our American values."
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), another member of the Hispanic Caucus who spoke after Gonzalez, applauded President Barack Obama for his June announcement that some undocumented young people will be given work authorization and deferred action from deportation.
"Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is walking away from us," Velazquez said. "He walks with people who disrespect us and people who divide us."

U.S. argues Arizona immigration law unconstitutional

Politico.com reports: In a brief filed Tuesday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to find unconstitutional Arizona's law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants. "Petitioners assert that Arizona’s status as a border State that is particularly affected by illegal immigrationjustifies its adoption of its own policy directed to foreign nationals. But the framers recognized that the 'bordering States…will be those who, under the impulse of sudden irritation, and a quick sense of apparent interest or injury,' might take action that undermines relations with other nations, and regarded that possibility as a further reason to vest authority over foreign affairs in the National government," says the brief filed by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.

The Framers' quote is from Federalist No. 3, written by John Jay. One interesting note about the U.S. Government brief: it was signed by State Department Legal Adviser (and former Yale Law School dean) Harold Koh, underscoring the foreign policy-related argument against the Arizona statute.

Arizona's opening brief is posted here. The case is set to be argued before the high court on April 25.

Numbers of Border Patrol So High, Mexican Restaurant Opens 2nd Site; Meanwhile La Bruja Takes Racial Profile Bill sb1070 to Supreme Court on April 25!

Jan Brewer recently claimed "SB 1070 was Arizona's way of saying that we won't wait patiently for federal action any longer. If the federal government won't enforce its immigration laws, we will." She is pushing this hate bill so far that she has argued it to the Supreme Court who will hear the case on April 25.
Brewer is pursuing this action even though the Border Patrol and ICE reports indicate we are at the lowest rate of so-called illegal entry in over a decade. The Arizona border towns are safe and crime is at an all time low.
Brewer's claims are baseless. There is no need for the racial profiling bill sb1070.
"The Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act" enacted in 2010 has provided over $600 million of reinforcements for border security. We have 20,000 Border Patrol agents and 17,000 are on the U.S. - Mexico border.
The Act has brought so many Border Patrol agents to the Arizona border, one restaurant, Tachos Nachos, has named a Burrito after the Border Patrol Agents in their honor - "Border Patrol Burrito" or "BPB" for short. The Border Agents have increased this little Mexican Restaurant's business so much, they've opened up a second restaurant.

To Racial Profile or NOT to Racial Profile: Arizona's Racial Profiling Law to be Reviewed by Republican Controlled Supreme Court!

ALL EYES ARE ON THE SUPREME COURT! WILL THEY VOTE FOR RACIST RACIAL PROFILING OR WILL THEY VOTE FOR JUSTICE AND EQUALITY FOR ALL?

The Republican Controlled Supreme Court took another step into the political fray this morning when it agreed to determine the fate of several key provisions in Arizona's controversial racial profiling bill - SB 1070. The case, Arizona v. United States, tests states' abilities to pass their own racial profiling type immigration measures. Immigration Laws are areas of the law typically reserved for the Federal government. This ensures these type of laws which have significant impact on minorities, are not swayed by corrupt and bias local governments.

Debates over the Extremist Conservative issues (eg: Immigration, Healthcare, Ending Regulation, Ending Social Security/Medicare, Ending Unemployment Benefits, Ending Child Worker Laws/Ending Minimum Wage, Ending Civil Rights Laws, Ending Women's Rights Laws, Ending Unions -- all in all, Republicans WAR Against the Middle Class) have dominated the Republican primary contest and will surely play an outsized role once the Republican nominee squares off against President Obama. The justices' decision to rule this term on the constitutionality of both SB 1070 and the Affordable Care Act will place the Court at the storm center of American politics.

The United States is hoping to preserve its victories over Arizona in the lower courts, which blocked four sections of the law from coming into effect. Two of the blocked sections would make it a crime under state law for an undocumented immigrant to be present in the state, fail to register with the federal government and attempt to obtain work or to hold a job without governmental authorization. Another section requires state and local police officers to check the immigration status of anyone who has been arrested, stopped or detained that the police reasonably suspect to be in the country illegally. The fourth provision at issue allows for the warrantless arrests of individuals that police officers have probable cause (RACIAL PROFILING) to believe have committed deportable offenses.

The 9th Circuit held that each of these provisions improperly invaded the U.S. government's comprehensive immigration regulation authority under federal law. Yet Republican Tea Party Arizona argues that these racial profiling provisions supplement, rather than step on, those federal laws. In its petition to the justices, Republican Tea Party Arizona characterizes SB 1070 as directing "state law-enforcement officers to cooperate and communicate with federal officials regarding the enforcement of federal immigration law." The Court's ruling in this case will likely impact similar immigration laws passed by Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Utah.

To the detriment of all fair minded people in America, Justice Elena Kagan selflessly recused herself from the case because of her involvement as Solicitor General when the United States decided to bring suit against Arizona in 2010. Justice Kagan's absence raises the sad possibility of a 4-4 deadlock among the justices, which would uphold the 9th Circuit's decision for the United States (whew). If past is prologue, however, Kagan's recusal may not make a difference.

Last term, Kagan recused herself from another immigration case coming out of Arizona that many viewed as a trial balloon for SB 1070's legality. In a 5-3 decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy gave his crucial vote to the Court's conservative wing. Kennedy wrote a majority opinion that allowed Arizona to revoke the business licenses of employers that knowingly hired undocumented immigrants, and also allowed the state to require businesses to check their employees' immigration status on the federal government's electronic verification system. The three dissenters believed that federal immigration laws pre-empted Arizona's efforts.

For both Arizona v. United States and the review of the Affordable Care Act, the Court will hear oral arguments in March or April, and hand down decisions by the end of June -- just in time to insert itself as a political football for the general election.

The Real Border Issue: Arrest Drug Lords Not Landscapers!

Most people who advocate sealing of the Mexican border have never been to a border town. In border towns, hundreds if not thousands of people cross the footpaths and streets back and forth, to and from Mexico. People shop and do business daily. This is called commerce and border-living. Families, cousins, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, live on both sides. When one visits a border town, there isn't much security leaving the U.S. There is much more security coming back in. Border Patrol man the booths along the border entries and patrol the border fences and barriers, both on foot and via vehicles. They also have electronic and video surveillance along well travelled points of entry and paths. Additionally, about 10 miles in from the border, there are Border Patrol booths set up to check the IDs of everyone travelling back into the U.S. from border towns.

Anyone who lives along the border will tell you. People who live along the border, people of all colors and ethnicities, have very good relationships with residents on both sides of the border. However, about 10 years ago, with the increase of drug use in America, a new group of travellers migrated both ways across the border. These are the drug cartels. Anyone who lives along the border will tell you, there is a huge difference between those that come here to work and those that carry drugs across the border. The drug carriers carry or sneak in by vehicle, bales of marijuana, meth, marjuana laced with meth and cocaine. They also carry prescription pills including vicodin and percocet/oxycontin. Many of these drug carriers are American citizens, like the Bowen family, and also take guns/weapons and ammunition back into Mexico to provide to the cartels. You see, Americans help finance both sides of the Mexican drug war by purchasing illegal drugs and smuggling weapons.

The residents on both sides of the border want the cartels to stop. They want America to stop using drugs. They want the cartels to stop delivering drugs. Most of all, they want the violence to end.

You would think anyone familiar with the situation on the border would understand what is happening. Reports from both sides of the border indicate the majority of the violence is in Mexico and has not crossed over to the U.S. side of the border. Violent Crime is down in the U.S., particularly in border states. However, extremists and sb1070 supporters want you to believe otherwise. They want you to believe border violence has increased. They exploited the murder of rancher Robert Krentz and want you to believe all "illeegals" are responsible for his death when in fact the police don't know who committed the crime and believe it was someone from the U.S. since the tracks went from North to South.

The zealots also exploited the so-called shooting of Deputy Puroll. Tapes have recently surfaced regarding his explanation of the shooting. The tape totally conflicts with early reports of the shooting provided by his spokesperson Tammy Villar. Yet, this shooting also is blamed on all "illeegals." Their lies are set up to instill fear and terror into border residents. They believe in the political adage, "If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth."

The facts are: we have a drug problem in the U.S. We are the number one abuser of drugs in the world. Drug cartels from China, Columbia, Brazil, the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela, etc. are falling all over themselves to be our drug provider. We have a Drug problem in the U.S., not an "illegal immigration" problem. Border Security is a big factor in that we need to STOP the flow of drugs from coming into our country and we need to stop the flow of weapons, money and cash back to the Cartels both here and in Mexico.

The facts are: sb1070 has NOTHING to do with stopping drugs or even securing the border. The primary intent of sb1070 is to Mass Deport all the "illeegals" in Arizona and their citizen children too. It also criminalizes citizen friends and families of the 11M here. It also encourages citizens to become amateur Border Patrol by encouraging them to call the police every time they see who they suspect is an "illeegal" (aka brown person).

The worst part of sb1070 is it deters police resources from going after the real danger, the drug cartels. Instead, if sb1070 is enacted, Law Enforcement will be doomed to spend their time, as arpaio and his masked goons do, in terrorizing latino neighborhoods with suppression sweeps. No time to hunt down the felonious drug lords on both sides of the border. Jails will be filled with landscapers and restaurant workers. No room for violent drug dealers.

Why don't people understand the truth? We have a DRUG problem, not a migrant worker problem. We need our Border Patrol Agents and Law Enforcement focused on targetting felonious criminals, especially drug cartels and drug dealers, not conduct round-ups in well established latino neighborhoods rounding up agjob workers and cooks.

Remove the xenophobia and restrictionist attitude from the work that needs to be done. Allow the 11M to come out of the shadows, pay a fine and begin steps to apply for legal status. Let's bring some sense back to the immigration discussion. We need the Federal Government to pass CIR.

The Obama Administration has made a good start. On a visit to Mexico in March by several senior Obama administration officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; they met with key Mexico officals and expanded on and improved programs already under way as part of the Mérida Initiative that was started by the Bush administration including cooperation among American and Mexican intelligence agencies and American support for training Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors and public defenders.

Under the new strategy, American and Mexican agencies will work together to refocus border enforcement efforts creating systems that allow goods and people to be screened before they reach the crossing points. The plan also provides support for Mexican programs intended to strengthen communities where socioeconomic hardships force many young people into crime. The most striking difference between the old strategy and the new one is the shift away from military assistance. More than half of the $1.3 billion spent under Merida was used to buy aircraft, inspection equipment and information technology for the Mexican military and police. Next year's foreign aid budget provides for civilian police training vs equipment. Military-to-military cooperation was expected to continue. This revised strategy will first go into effect in Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, the largest cities on Mexico's border with the United States. Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.7 million, has become a symbol of the Mexican government's failed attempts to rein in the drug gangs. Finally the Administration is focusing on the right issues. Stop the drug cartels. Nip them in the bud. Partner with Mexico to stop the cartels at inception. On the American side, do the same. Infiltrate, Arrest and stop them!