Eric Ward, from Imagine 2050 blog, consistently produces some of the edgiest and most insightful content in the pro-migrant blogosphere. Yesterday, he outdid himself. In an action-oriented post, he outlined 7 ways to “defeat anti-immigrant bigotry”. So, everyone who reads this post must do the following (and since its Tuesday, I’m asking you to double-up and take on Monday and Tuesday’s task today – I’m sure you can manage!).
MONDAY: Email this blog to six other people who you think might be interested. Write three short sentences telling all of them why you will be participating. Ask them to participate too, and reply to your email letting you know either way.
TUESDAY: Remember all of those times when Fox News host Glenn Beck made bigoted statements about immigrants? Beck may choose to forget but let’s show him we haven’t. Beck is responsible for much of the anti-immigrant sentiment that has spread around the country. Over thirty companies agree with us and have stopped running their ads on the Glenn Beck show. Let’s help Color of Change get the message out even more. Go to http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/ and add your name!
WEDNESDAY: What can I tell you about Lou Dobbs that doesn’t already disgust you? Dobbs has falsely accused immigrants from Latin America of spreading Leprosy in the United States. When he got caught in his lies he simply lied again. CBS’s 60 Minutes didn’t buy his racist lies and neither do we. Now Media Matters is telling us that Dobbs will be participating in a national event organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a known hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It’s time for CNN to take responsibility. You can read the short media release by clicking here. Now, go leave a comment for CNN President Jonathan Klein at http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?35. Tell him that you read the letter Media Matters sent to him, and you demand that he respond. Let Klein know that you are disgusted that CNN is willing to use bigotry to generate profits.
THURSDAY: Today we are going to show tangible support for those who have stood up against anti-immigrant bigotry. Twice in its recent history the Sierra Club has had to fight off anti-immigrant attempts to take over its well-respected environmental organization and corrupt its mission. In 1998 and in 2004 the Sierra Club drew a strong moral barrier against anti-immigrant racism. In recent days the Sierra Club has been targeted by anti-immigrant leaders still upset by the trouncing they took. One leader, Brenda Walker, went so far as to write an article on the white nationalist website VDARE attacking the Sierra Club for its commitment to diversity. Let’s give a little love to the Sierra Club by taking five minutes to join the organization. Click here to join and let them know why! If you are already a member like me, give a gift membership to a family member or friend.
FRIDAY: Anti-immigrant Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been terrorizing members of the Latino community and their allies in Arizona under an agreement with Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano. America’s Voice points out the Napolitano, appointed by President Obama, could stop the insanity at any time with a single stroke of her pen. People have died under his custody, he has raided the offices of a newspaper that exposed his brutality, and he marched Latinos down the middle of the street in chains. Click here at the website of America’s Voice and send a message to Napolitano that “enough is enough!”
SATURDAY: Take five minutes to call a friend or family member. While catching up on the latest, be sure to spend five minutes telling them what you did this week to take a stand against anti-immigrant bigotry.
SUNDAY: Send me an email at imag2050@gmail.com. Let me know what happened and how it went!
And I’m adding one last action to take – text JUSTICE [JUSTICIA for Spanish} to 69866 and join the Cell Phone Action Network. We will send you news and alerts so you can be at the frontlines of the fight for immigration reform.
Enough is enough. Tell Secretary Napolitano to stop letting Sheriff Arpaio operate outside the law. Ask her to kick him out of the 287-g program, which allows Arpaio’s deputies to become local immigration agents.
This morning I was reading all the commentary that is rolling in about how Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor is a move to “buy time” on immigration reform for the administration. And, frankly, I think that folks are wrong about this. Below is an excellent post from Frank Sherry at America’s Voice about exactly why reform will move forward, regardless of Sotomayor and the attention her nomination is garnering.
Whether you celebrate Passover, Easter, or any other holiday this month, let’s take a stand together, as people of moral conscience, for families across America. Watch this video, send a fax to Congress, and share this with your loved ones.
Today, Members of Congress will hear testimony from an extensive list of witnesses on the civil rights implications of the so-called 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law. Recent studies have shown just how damaging this program can be to communities. It is this same law that allows infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio to continue his operations in Maricopa County, Arizona. Let’s hope that isn’t true for much longer.
Below is the full witness list for the hearing:
Panel I
Julio Cesar Mora
Avondale, Arizona
Antonio Ramirez
Frederick, Maryland Community Advocate
Deborah Weissman
Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of Clinical
Programs
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law
Ray Tranchant
Operations Director, Advanced Technology Center, Virginia Beach,
Virginia
Adjunct Professor at Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Panel II
David Harris
Professor of Law
University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Hubert Williams
President
Police Foundation
George Gascon
Chief, Mesa Police department
Mesa, Arizona
Kris Kobach
Professor of Law University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law
At a stop on the Family Unity tour, the top leader in Congrees called for reform of our country’s most inhumane immigration tactics. She said our immigration laws are tearing families apart. She also said that knocking down doors in the middle of the night to hunt undocumented workers is un-American.
Anti-immigrant radio hosts and TV commentators have launched a full-scale attack on Speaker Pelosi, calling her un-American for demanding reform to laws that tear husbands away from wives and mothers away from children.
Our friends at America’s Voice have started a campaign to thank Pelosi for her brave comments and to send a resounding message to the anti’s: Raids are un-American and Pelosi should be commended for her bravery.
Federal authorities told a high-profile Arizona sheriff Tuesday that they will investigate his department over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.
The U.S. Justice Department said in a letter to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that investigators will focus on alleged patterns of police discrimination based on national origin.
This announcement was made Tuesday and on Wednesday America’s Voice delivered the online petition with over 38,000 signatures supporting the DOJ investigation. Below is a video from the event that features Rep. Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
Thanks to everyone who signed the America’s Voice petition and helped in the effort to Bring Joe to Justice!
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona has made a career out of hunting immigrants, stroking his own massive ego and grossly violating human and civil rights. All this while being supported by the Federal government under the 287(g) agreement, which gives him the ability to enforce Federal immigration law.
Recently, Sheriff Joe has brought his outrageous antics to a new level, marching detainees in chains through the streets of Phoenix to a tent city, surrounded by barbed wire. Obama may have closed Gitmo, but Arpaio has set up his own version of the notorious prison right here in the U.S. of A.
America’s Voice has been circulating a petition demanding a Department of Justice Investigation into Arpaio (something that was also recently demanded by the House Judiciary Subcommittee). The petition – which can be found at www.sheriffjoemustgo.com - will be delivered to the DOJ on March 7th and we are hoping to have at least 10,000 signatures by that date. Right now, there are 8,000 people signed on to the petition. Have you signed it? Have your friends signed it? Has your Grandma Lucy signed it?
But really, Joe Arpaio’s actions are no joking matter.No official is above the law, and yet Sheriff Arpaio has engaged in racial profiling and civil rights abuses for years with impunity.
Today, the House Judiciary Committe released a letter to Janet Napolitano and the Attorney General, calling on the Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. And I couldn’t be happier.
Last week, Sheriff “Arpayaso” reached a new low, when he paraded over 200 immigrant detainees to a “tent city”, surrounded by electric fences, shackled and forced to wear striped prison uniforms. This move, a horrofic publicity stunt that used people as props, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Sheriff Joe’s Human Rights and Civil Rights abuses.
Arpaio is a modern day Bull Connor and his publicity-seeking crusades have made the Latino community scared and Maricopa County less safe by prioritizing racial profiling over executing the felony warrants that have piled up on his desk. His most recent scheme, rounding up immigrants and shipping them off to separate “tent cities,” is just the latest in a career filled with dangerous and anti-Latino demagoguery.
It is also great news to hear that the Judiciary Committee is recommending an investigation of the 287(g) agreement between DHS and Maricopa County – it is this agreement that gives Arpaio the ability to enforce Federal immigration law, but not “to create mini Gitmos”.
The letter was sent from the office of Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and stated:
“Racial profiling and segregation are simply not acceptable.” said Conyers. “Media stunts and braggadocio are no substitute for fair and effective law enforcement.”
Arpaio must be stopped, before his brand of hate is normalized and becomes an acceptable form of “law enforcement”. He is not just an isolated rogue, but rather the pulse of the racist anti-immigrant movement that is working to dehumanize immigrants and strip them of their rights.
For more on this, check out www.sheriffjoemustgo.com and sign onto the petition from America’s Voice.
FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform), the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA. I have mentioned these anti-immigrant groups before – they purport to be “think tanks” or “grass roots orgs” and have a “common sense” approach to immigration policy, but are really espousing the type of hateful and inhumane immigration policies that have been responsible for the last 8 years of rising hate crimes and enforcement-only tactics.
For more information, check out my previous posts on these guys: here, here and here.
Some have dubbed these guys the “anti-immigrant lobby”, seeing as how they can turn every single issue in American politics into a soapbox for their xenophobic and radical anti-immigrant beliefs. Just recently they tried to deny immigrant children healthcare and burden businesses with mandatory use of the fatally flawed E-verify program. Last summer, they went as far as blaming immigrants for Global Warming. No, really.
Well now, more than ever, these guys are being exposed for what they really are “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. last week, the New York Times featured an editorial on these extremists groups – here’s an excerpt:
The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism. Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.
Today, the Southern Povery Law Center released a report that proves undoubtedly just how extreme these groups really are. And America’s Voice has built a website where people can take action to help stop the hate in the immigration debate.
We know that organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies, Numbers USA, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) are not mainstream voices on immigration, but our politicians and media need to know it, too. Visit America’s Voice to take action against the extreme in the mainstream.
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Tonight, Lou Dobbs hosted his last show ever on CNN. Yes, our dear friend Lou has officially resigned from the nation’s ‘most trusted name in news’ to bring his special blend of xenophobia and hate-mongering elsewhere. This is incredible news and due in no small part to the efforts of the Drop Dobbs and Basta Dobbs [...]
Yesterday, a video of Chuck Norris being interviewed by Geraldo Rivera was making the rounds. The clip shows Chuck Norris – yes the same Chuck Norris who has counted to infinity, twice – talking about his ideas for immigration reform. Check it out: Not that I have ever doubted Chuck Norris’ superhuman powers (the man can slam [...]
Folks, we are in the home stretch of the long and brutal fight for health care reform. After months of vicious debate, this weekend the House of Representatives will be finally voting on the bill. The truth is, we are still short the votes we need to finally pass this vital piece of legislation. And, right on [...]
The most recent post from Standing FIRM’s guest blogger, Robert Gittelson. In the wake of Tuesday’s off year elections, the results of which were decidedly mixed and thus open to wide interpretation, the so called “Blue Dog” moderates are whimpering for their mommies. On Wednesday, their cries were pathetic. They were begging their fellow democrats [.. […]
Yesterday, the Senate voted 60-39 to stop any further debate on the census effectively killing the Vitter amendment requiring proof of citizenship. I blogged about the politicization of the census and the use of immigration, yet again, as a wedge issue last month. The pro-migrant community has been awaiting the vote on this amendment for [...]
Today, the House Judiciary Committe released a letter to Janet Napolitano and the Attorney General, calling on the Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. And I couldn’t be happier.
