9-24-2006: Aztlannet_News Report

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Aztlannet_News Report Weblink=
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/09/9-24-2006-aztlannetnews-report.html
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List of Titles of Articles with URL Weblinks
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Ches-Mystique.html
September 23, 2006
'Che' Guevara's Iconic Image Endures
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http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/0924border0924.html
Sept. 24, 2006 12:00 AM
'Border' exhibit comes across despite itself
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http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0579
9/29-10/1: Border Summit of the Americas, Tucson, AZ
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http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTk1OTgxJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Bill to require voter photo IDs upsets activists
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http://www.mylatinonews.com/latinocongreso/index.php
2006 Latino Congreso Coverage
September 23rd 2006 {Go to weblink!}
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060923/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_border_violence_1
Sat Sep 23, 2006
Mexican leader knocks U.S. crime rates
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2477188
Sept. 22, 2006
Immigration Bill Divides House, Senate
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http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/17871/
Friday, September 22, 2006
Too Little Time, Too Much Cost for Real ID
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http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/27528.html
Friday, September 22, 2006
Sacramento: Spray sickens farm crew
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http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/26830.html
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Beyond border security: 'New bargain' is urged
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http://www.statepress.com/issues/2006/09/21/news/697805
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Arizona State University: Students rally for immigrant rights
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4205332.html
Sept. 21, 2006, 5:57PM
Border agents find immigrants in sealed duffel bags
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http://www.workers.org/2006/us/immigrants-0928/
Sep 21, 2006 1:04 AM
In attack on all workers / Gov’t arrests thousands of immigrants
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-briefs21.3sep21,1,3766861.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
September 21, 2006
IN BRIEF / LOS ANGELES COUNTY / LOS ANGELES
Immigrant-Rights Groups Can Join Lawsuit
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Border01/message/3312
9/20 Tucson, AZ: Community Immigrant Actions Message List
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http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/immigration-rites/14522/
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 6:00 pm
Immigration Rites
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Aztlannet_ News Report Articles and Weblinks
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Ches-Mystique.html
September 23, 2006
'Che' Guevara's Iconic Image Endures
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) -- There's something about that man in the photo, the Cuban revolutionary with the serious eyes, scruffy beard and dark beret. Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara is adored. He is loathed. Dead for nearly 40 years, he is everywhere -- as much a cultural icon as James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, perhaps even more so among a new generation of admirers who've helped turn a devout Marxist into a capitalist commodity.

Of all the pop culture images that surround us, it is Guevara's face -- immortalized in the photograph taken by Alberto ''Korda'' Diaz Gutierrez -- that often stares at us, from T-shirts and posters, refrigerator magnets and tattoos.

Part political statement and part fashion statement, the image sometimes overshadows the man, as one T-shirt wryly acknowledges. Below the photo, a caption on the shirt reads: ''I have no idea who this is.''

Panayiotis Lambropoulos, a young Greek immigrant who lives in Chicago, is someone who actually took the time to learn more about Guevara. He saw his first Che shirts a few years ago, and thought everyone who wore one must be a subversive rabble-rouser. Then the young investment analyst ended up buying one for himself.

Fascinated with Guevara, he began reading whatever he could about the man who helped lead the Cuban revolution and promoted armed uprisings in Africa and Latin America until he was slain in Bolivia.

''In a way,'' Lambropoulos said, ''I've wanted to earn my T-shirt.''

The photo's journey from Cuba to that shirt has been a lengthy one. Taken in Havana on March 5, 1960, the shot captured Guevara -- eyes gazing off in the distance -- attending a memorial service for dozens who died in an attack on an arms freighter. Cuba blamed the incident on U.S.-backed counterrevolutionaries.

Korda, a fashion photographer turned photojournalist, was on assignment for the Cuban newspaper Revolucion. The photo was used publicly in Cuba from time to time, eventually becoming a symbol of national pride and the basis for a drawing of Guevara on Cuban currency. But the outside world didn't see it until several years after it was taken, when Korda gave copies to Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Feltrinelli made posters with the photo and, after Guevara's death in 1967, used it as a cover for some of the revolutionary's published diaries.

As the photo's distribution widened, so did its fame, with several artists doing their own variations, including a famous black and red version by Ireland's Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jack Kenny, a photographer from Ann Arbor, Mich., met Korda in the late 1990s while gathering images for a book on Cuba and saw a copy of the famous original hanging on Korda's living room wall.

''He was very proud of it. But when he took it, I don't think he realized what he had,'' Kenny says. Korda died in 2001 and received little compensation for his photo until later in life.

Working its way from art to pop culture and back again, the image of Guevara is widely considered one of the world's most reproduced and emulated photographs. Time and again, it surfaces -- on a Madonna album cover; on a T-shirt worn by guitarist Carlos Santana at the 2005 Academy Awards; in a New Yorker cartoon by artist Matthew Diffee that depicts Guevara wearing a T-shirt with Bart Simpson's face on it. It also has inspired gallery shows worldwide, one of the most recent -- ''Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon'' -- at England's Victoria and Albert Museum.

''This portrait of Che is an ideal abstraction transformed into a symbol that both resists subtle interpretation and is infinitely malleable,'' curator Trisha Ziff wrote in an introduction to the British exhibit. ''It has moved into the realm of caricature and parody at the same time it is used as political commentary on issues as diverse as the world debt, anti-Americanism, Latin-American identity, and the rights of gays and indigenous peoples.''

Those who despise Guevara and his role in helping put Fidel Castro in power in Cuba also have created their own images and T-shirts. There's the obvious one -- a red circle and line crossing out Guevara's face. Another features the Korda photo with Guevara wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

''The ultimate irony is the millions of dollars that capitalists and bourgeois merchants have made selling the image of Che. He's probably rolling over in his grave,'' says Henry Louis Gomez. A 36-year-old Cuban-American who lives in Miami, he sells T-shirts from his anti-Guevara Web site, including one that says ''Che is Dead -- Get Over It.''

Since creating the site a year and a half ago, Gomez estimates that he's sold 20 or 30 shirts -- a tiny number, he realizes, compared with the many worn by fans of Guevara.

Courtney Guertin, a 27-year-old resident of Bristol, R.I., is one of those fans.

She first learned about Guevara when she traveled to Cuba as a college student to study the country's tourism system and opportunities, or the lack thereof, for entrepreneurs. She still collects books about Guevara, along with pins, T-shirts and other memorabilia and considers him ''a man of incredible brilliance'' who had ''faith in the common folk.''

Pablo Garcia-Pandavenes, whose father was born in Cuba, also has artwork and posters with Guevara's image at his home in Oakland, Calif. Among other things, he credits Guevara, who was trained as a physician, with helping set up Cuba's socialized health care system.

As a way of honoring the man, he's gone as far as naming his dog Che. ''He's very elegant and different than a lot of breeds,'' he says of his Doberman pinscher. ''I hope Che would find it entertaining.''

Garcia-Pandavenes, who is 34, learned about Guevara from his father. As an adult, he visited a monument in Santa Clara, Cuba, that honors the native Argentinian who became a Cuban citizen after Castro took over in 1959. True of many Che fans, Garcia-Pandavenes was born after Guevara was killed. And yet, the man -- and that image -- still resonate.

''Guevara was the ultimate revolutionary because he fought to the death, and the ultimate poster boy because he was chic,'' says Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization based in Washington.

Such comments trouble Vargas Llosa, who authored the book ''The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty.'' He questions whether Guevara's admirers really understand who he was.
Among other things, his detractors accuse Guevara of overseeing the executions of scores of people who opposed the Castro regime.

''As a Latin American, it puzzles me, fascinates me and makes me angry, all at the same time, that young Americans and Europeans should continue to idolize him, thereby reinforcing the notion that revolutionary socialism is the way to combat underdevelopment,'' says Vargas Llosa, a native of Peru.

''Perhaps my consolation is in the fact that people do not tend to associate Guevara with the Castro revolution but with an abstract idea of revolution that does not and will never exist.''

Others wonder if Guevara's cultural longevity has more to do with a modern-day wariness of politicians and a quest to find someone to believe in -- or if it's just a lemming-like wish to be trendy, sending a vague message of coolness without much depth.

''While former generations expressed themselves with protest posters, our own generation seems to believe that a T-shirt says it all, or enough -- and when they're bored, it's on to the next one,'' says Rachel Weingarten, a Gen Xer who tracks pop culture trends at her New York marketing firm. ''In other words, I care enough to wear a T-shirt, but not quite enough to actually rouse myself to make changes in my community or the world.''

Back in Chicago, Lambropoulos says he's trying to maintain a balanced view.

''I realize the dark side. I've read about it. People talk about it,'' he says. But he's still keeping his Che T-shirt, even if he's not ''a 100 percent fan.''

''He chose to fight on. I don't think you really see that today,'' he says of Guevara. ''I know at his age, I wasn't changing the world.''

Already, he's had Argentinians, proud of their native son, stop him on the street when they see his shirt. ''Do you know who that is?'' they ask, excitedly. He's also prepared for the inevitable angry response.

''If somebody came up to me and said, 'My uncle was executed,' I would ask questions,'' he says. ''I would welcome a conversation.

''Teach me.''
------
On the Net:
V&A Museum= http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/past--exhibs/index.html

Kenny's site= http://www.cuba-photo.com/

Gomez's site= http://www.trenblindado.com
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Martha Irvine is a national writer specializing in coverage of people 30 and under. She can be reached at mirvine(at)ap.org

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http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/0924border0924.html
Sept. 24, 2006 12:00 AM
'Border' exhibit comes across despite itself
Kerry Lengel / The Arizona Republic

"The Border Film Project" raises a number of interesting questions, but first among them is this: Is it art?

To be clear, this is not the most important question, given the urgency and high stakes of the subject matter (illegal immigration). But it comes to mind first because the exhibit is presented, qua art, at a major museum - and because, at first and even third glance, it doesn't look like what we're used to calling art.

The idea is simple: Project organizers distributed thousands of disposable cameras to two groups along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrants and their self-appointed watchdogs, the Minutemen. Several hundred of the resulting photos are included in the exhibit, all in standard snapshot size, along with a 20-minute video interviewing Mexican immigrants, Anglos in border states and the occasional government official.

The aesthetic value is minimal to non-existent. Photographic images are poorly framed, out of focus, obscured by thumbs. The video is amateurish, with simplistic editing, and it's viewed on a rudimentary screen shadowed by corrugations and a wooden slat from the framework. Sitting on the hard benches in the makeshift theater, you feel like a schoolkid watching an educational film projected onto the wall.

In another context, the label you would apply to this project isn't art but journalism - or less than that, the mere materials of journalism, presented without context or analysis. Is that white obelisk a border marker? Do this gun and cellphone belong to a Border Patrol agent? Is that middle-class mom (in the video) pulling statistics out of thin air?

Is it art? Before you can answer, you have to ask, "What is art?" This is the question that artists and art institutions continue to struggle with, particularly at a time when museums are under pressure to prove their relevancy, to break down the barriers between art and the real world.

And in fact, though "The Border Film Project" doesn't offer a lot of information that will be new to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the issue, it does deliver an experience that is not the same as, say, reading a magazine article or watching a documentary. Specifically, it's the contrast between the photos and the video that offers a glimmer of insight.

In the video, the border might as well be a wormhole connecting different planets. The Anglo-Americans all seem to be in rhetorical mode: Illegal immigration is a problem because of job loss/criminal elements/the risk of terrorism. The Mexican immigrants, on the other hand, speak only from personal experience: My family is poor, I need to help them. It has always been my dream to come to America. Crossing the desert was exhausting.

The line that seems so stark in film, however, is blurred in the photographs. Is this the Arizona desert, or is it in Mexico? Who took this photo, a migrant or a Minuteman? And if you knew, would that change the picture?

In some sense, the act of organizing and presenting these images in a particular way does make it art. It doesn't necessarily make this project good art, but if you bring some curiosity to the table, you'll come away with something worth remembering.

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http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0579
9/29-10/1: Border Summit of the Americas, Tucson, AZ
Released 16 September 2006
By Arizona Border Rights Foundation
For Immediate Release

Arizona Border Rights Foundation
Fundacin de Derechos Fronterizos de Arizona
P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702
Phone: (520) 770-1373 Fax: (520)770-7455
Contact:
Derechos Humanos: 520-770-1373; Email= kat@derechoshumanosaz.net
Mike Flores: 520-235-7599 Email= mmiranda@tocc.cc.az.us

Tohono Odham communities have gathered together in southern Arizona along with Derechos Humanos Coalition, American Indian Movement, International Indian Treaty Council and others to call for an urgent Border Summit of the Americas.

The summit will be held at the San Xavier District Cultural Center, Tucson, Arizona from September 29 through October 1, 2006. Campsite space and other nearby accommodations will be available. More detailed information will follow at later date. Mark your calendars now! Organizations are requested to send in a statement and or send a representative to the event.

The three day Border Summit will be facilitated with assistance from M.C., Dennis Banks, and Bill Means. Speakers on these and other concerns are yet to be confirmed. A Film 'Crossing Arizona' will be viewed on Saturday. Directed by Joseph Mathew and Dan De Vivo, is an up-to-the-moment look at the hotly debated issues of illegal immigration and border security on the US/Mexico border. Floyd Red Crow Westerman-artist, actor, and songwriter-will be on hand for an evening concert in solidarity with Nations along la Frontera!

Make your voices be heard!! Immigration policy proposals and homeland security have combined to create a volatile situation along U.S. international borders. Increased law enforcement and vigilantism along the U.S.-Mexico border, in particular, has sparked a wave of reactions across the United States, from massive demonstrations to calls for voter registration campaigns and targeted actions.

In addition, in the northern border, the Bush administration has initiated efforts to nullify the Jay Treaty, which recognizes the right of border passage to Indigenous Peoples. And, have also planned to introduce new legislation for new laws to require DNA tests to determine Indian blood. All of this is being done without consultation or informed consent by First Nations peoples, and in violation of their treaty rights.

Coupled with the failure of both political parties in the U.S. to address the critical issues specifically confronting Indigenous communities today along its border, and by abandoning any meaningful legislation in this pre-election period, is cause for major concern. There is increasing urgency for Indian communities along the border(s) to address U.S. border enforcement policy. Recent legislative proposals affecting immigration, increased militarization of the border and the rise of private militias along the border(s) have created volatile and dangerous environments for American Indian border communities. Each day the likelihood of conflict and violence is increasing.

Many deaths and injuries have occurred, and many of these deaths are of Indian people from Mexico, Central and South America. This Border Summit of affected communities will provide an important opportunity to document current community experiences with border enforcement activities, identify and discuss issues and explore potential responses. An opportunity to invite the participation of Indigenous peoples from Central and South America, many times victims of U.S. immigration prison camps, threats and intimidation is extended to share their perspectives and recommendations for broad networking to help achieve a common goal.

The Border Summit of the Americas will also explore its future participation in the international arena with the newly created discussions at the UN to establish a Permanent Forum on Migration and Development, as a result of the impact of globalization on society. The Permanent Forum will also serve to gauge the progress of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000.

Let's not let the southern desert of the southwestern U.S. become another military strategic post for maneuvers similar to what is being witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the 25 tribes along the northern and southern U.S. borders, these changes in border security practices have had a dramatic effect.

Currently more than half of the apprehensions are made in Arizona, where just a fraction of the migrants used to cross. At present at least eight tribes/nations on the U.S./Mexico border between California and Texas are directly affected by migrations across their reservation lands; the Kumeyaay, Cocopah, Tohono Odham, Yaqui, Gila River, Pima, Yavapai, Ysleta del Sur (Tigua) and Kickapoo nations.

Issues to be discussed include: environmental threats, human rights violations, cultural rights, treaty rights, and sovereignty for Indigenous peoples and Nations, in particular those divided by international borders between Canada and the United States and Mexico and the United States.

The outcome of the Border Summit will be the development of recommendations for border tribal governments and other affected parties to communicate with local, state and national as well as international bodies. This effort lays the groundwork for non-violence on Indian land and a more secure border.

Donations for the summit can be sent to: C/O Arizona Border Rights Foundation, P.O. Box 1286, Tucson, AZ 85702, a 501(c)3 organization.

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http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTk1OTgxJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Bill to require voter photo IDs upsets activists
By MIGUEL PEREZ / STAFF WRITER

A bill that would require voters to present a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot in federal elections beginning in 2008 has been met with alarm and rejection by immigrant and civil rights activists in New Jersey.

The Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006, passed 228-196 by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, aims to prevent election fraud, especially voting by non-citizens. Beginning in 2010, the bill would require voters to present an ID at the polling place that proves U.S. citizenship.

"Undocumented immigrants are afraid to even go open a bank account," said Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey. "To think they are going to try to vote is absurd."

Perez said the bill is "just an effort to suppress the minority vote" by creating unnecessary barriers.

The bill's proponents and supporters argue that under the current system, with voter registration drives run by political parties, candidates and other partisan forces, non-citizens can easily be drafted into voting. They say the current requirement that voters must show some form of identification – from a birth certificate to a utility bill – is simply too vague.

"There is nothing radical about protecting integrity at the ballot box," said Audrey C. Jones, press secretary for Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage. She said Garrett voted for the bill "because it will help preserve the integrity of the voting process – protecting it from fraud and misconduct by ensuring that only those who are eligible to vote are allowed to do so."

Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the measure would disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minority voters, senior citizens, voters with disabilities and others who do not have a photo ID or the money to get one.

"It's sad that less than two months after the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, the House of Representatives chose to pass a bill that takes away voting rights from the very citizens the VRA was designed to protect," Jacobs said.

Ron Bass, who heads the Linden-based United Patriots of America, rejected the argument that some eligible voters might not be able to prove they are citizens.

"If somebody says they are legal but they can't prove it, I say, too bad, nice try, no cigar," he said. "If you can't prove it, you can't vote."

Although opponents insist the measure would create more problems than it would solve because voting by illegal immigrants is practically non-existent, Bass said Americans seeking tighter immigration controls consider voter fraud "a legitimate concern."

Democrats argue that because the people who tend to not have photo IDs are the poor, minorities and the elderly who usually vote Democratic, Republicans are pushing the bill in an effort to reduce Democratic turnout on Election Day.

Bass sees it from the opposite perspective. "All the Democrats want illegals to vote, so they don't even want to check on [citizenship]," he said. "But I think it's good that government officials are paying attention to this issue." However, Bass was not optimistic that the bill would become law. "The Senate will turn it down because they are a bunch of traitors," he said. "They don't care who votes."

Opponents of the bill argue that some citizens who don't have a photo ID would be required to purchase one and that no eligible voter should in effect have to pay to cast a ballot. They say those who don't have the financial means to acquire a photo ID would be discouraged from voting.

In Georgia on Tuesday, one day before the House passed the ID bill, a judge ruled that state legislators had overstepped their authority and issued a permanent injunction against a law requiring voters to produce government-issued photo identification.

"Nowhere in the [Georgia] Constitution is the legislature authorized to deny a registered voter the right to vote on any other ground, including a possession of a photo ID," wrote T. Jackson Bedford Jr. of Georgia's Fulton County Superior Court.

In New Jersey, where voters need some form of identification, but not necessarily a photo ID or one that certifies whether the voter is a citizen, immigrant rights activists are concerned about the federal legislation.

"This is an outright violation of civil liberties and rights," said Partha Banerjee, the executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network. "People fought for civil liberties and rights for a long time and now some legislators are trying to chip that away, one at a time. This is really a serious concern for all of us."

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http://www.mylatinonews.com/latinocongreso/index.php
~~~ 2006 Latino Congreso Coverage ~~~
September 23rd 2006 {Go to weblink!}
William C. Velasquez Institute wrote:
Email: cbrugman@wcvi.org
Keynotes | Special Commentary | Participant Comments | Blog
MyLatinoNews.com is proud to present coverage of the 2006 Latino Congreso which is taking place in the City of Los Angeles from September 6 through the 11. Starting Wednesday we will begin to transmit both audio and video transmissions as well as blog commentaries.
To view the conference intro podcast, please click one of the following links:
Quicktime YouTube
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060923/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_border_violence_1
Sat Sep 23, 2006
Mexican leader knocks U.S. crime rates
By MARIANA MONTEMAYOR, Associated Press Writer

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexican President Vicente Fox said Friday that violence was a problem on both sides of the border and that U.S. officials need to work on their own rising crime rates.

U.S. officials have criticized the high murder and kidnapping rates in Mexican border cities and the danger they pose to Americans. The U.S. ambassador recently advised U.S. citizens to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Mexico.

"There is work to be done on both sides. As we've always said, it's a shared responsibility," Fox said while traveling in Puerto Penasco, a tourist destination in the northern state border of Sonora that's referred to in Arizona as Rocky Point.

"I saw that crime rates in the United States increased 3.5 percent so far this year. So they have their own problems," Fox said. "And with numbers of homicides, it's better we don't speak about them, because, even though they show up on the front pages every day, there are many fewer here than there."

On Thursday, high-level Mexican and U.S. officials agreed to redouble efforts to crack down on drug-related violence and kidnappings plaguing the border. They met in Laredo, Texas, across the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo. Scores of U.S. citizens have been abducted in Nuevo Laredo in recent years and more than two dozen cases remain unresolved.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2477188
Sept. 22, 2006
Immigration Bill Divides House, Senate
House Passes Border Security but Unlikely to Reconcile With Senate on Broader Immigration Bill
By JIM ABRAMS / The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Sep 22, 2006 (AP)— Republicans took a new crack at old border-security legislation Thursday as the House approved pre-election bills on deporting gang members, imprisoning tunnelers and empowering local police to arrest illegal immigrants.

With no prospects this year for passing broader immigration changes favored by the Senate, House GOP leaders said taking action to seal the border was a matter of urgency.

"We're running out of time in this Congress," said Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "The American people say border security first."

But Sensenbrenner's Republican counterpart in the Senate, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said, "I don't see how we can deal with the immigration issue on a piecemeal basis." There would be no motivation for the House to negotiate on the issue "if we take care of all of their priorities and none of the Senate's," he said.

The House passed legislation last December that concentrated on border security and enforcement of laws banning employment of undocumented workers. The Senate in May passed a broader bill, generally endorsed by President Bush, that included provisions for a guest worker program and ways for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.

There's been no progress in efforts to reconcile the two bills. The three border security bills the House took up Thursday were in large part already included in the bill passed last December.

House leaders said one plan was to try to attach the bills to Homeland Security spending legislation that Congress must clear before the end of the session, an approach that Specter, also a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, appeared to dismiss.

The Senate, meanwhile, was debating legislation passed by the House last week that would approve construction of a 700-mile fence stretching across one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democrats said Thursday's votes were an attempt to cover up the failure to pass more comprehensive immigration changes.

"It's political gamesmanship that forecasts an election" less than two months away, said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Congressional Democratic leaders, seeking to capitalize on Hispanic opposition to the get-tough policy on illegal immigrants, on Thursday unveiled plans to enact immigration changes and improve education and health care for Hispanic families. "For too long this do-nothing Republican Congress has ignored, and in some cases worsened, the critical challenges facing Latinos," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

The three House bills would:

Impose prison terms of up to 20 years for those who knowingly construct or finance an unauthorized tunnel under a U.S. border. People who permit the construction of such a tunnel could face 10 years in prison. Sensenbrenner said 50 tunnels, used to smuggle narcotics and illegal immigrants, have been discovered along the Mexican border since 1990, and 36 in the last five years. It passed 422-0.

Allow the Department of Homeland Security to hold illegal immigrants detained for crimes or as threats to national security beyond the current limit of six months, and set up expedited procedures for deporting these people. The bill also would make it easier to detain and deport illegal immigrants found to be part of criminal street gangs. It passed 328-95.

The National Immigration Forum voiced opposition to the provision, saying it "gives the attorney general the ability to designate any group as a gang and then punish an individual for belonging to that group, regardless of whether the individual committed a crime."

Reaffirm the authority of state and local law enforcement to arrest, detain and transfer to federal custody illegal immigrants. It would ask the Justice Department to increase the number of attorneys prosecuting immigrant smuggling cases. It also would close loopholes that have led to "catch and release" policies in which illegal immigrants, mainly non-Mexicans, are released because they cannot be immediately deported. It passed 277-140.
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On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/

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http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/17871/
Friday, September 22, 2006
Too Little Time, Too Much Cost for Real ID
By Eric Kelderman - States cannot possibly meet a May 2008 federal deadline for making driver's licenses more secure - or afford costs that could mount to more than $11 billion over five years, according to a survey of state motor vehicle administrators released Sept. 21.

Stateline.org - infoZine - This is the first comprehensive attempt by states to put a price tag on new federal standards that will require them to verify and reissue an estimated 245 million driver's licenses and identification cards. Motor vehicle administrations from 47 states responded to the survey, which was compiled by analysts from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the National Governors Association and the Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

State officials are asking the federal government for more time and money to comply with the 2005 Real ID act, which was passed to keep driver's licenses out of the hands of terrorists and to make it tougher for illegal immigrants to get state-issued IDs. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has yet to issue specific guidelines for the law.

"There's no question that state legislators believe driver's licenses should be as secure as is possible. The $11 billion question is, 'Who's going to pay for it?'" said NCSL Executive Director William T. Pound.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman, Jared Agen, said that the department has been in "continuous dialogue with the groups for over a year to address their concerns," and that the proposed regulations are expected to be published by the end of the year.

In 2004, state governments and the federal Department of Transportation were in the process of setting new driver's license security standards to fulfill some recommendations of a task force studying the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Four of the 19 hijackers in those attacks used state-issued driver's licenses to board planes they later crashed.

But Congress pre-empted that process, attaching the Real ID provisions to an emergency budget bill and passing it with no hearings, little debate and without any input from the states, said New York state Sen. Michael Balboni (R), who was involved in the 2004 rulemaking with federal transportation officials.

Under Real ID, all new and existing license applicants must present and states must verify: a form of photo identification, a document showing date of birth, proof of a Social Security number and a document with the name and address of the applicant.

In addition, all state-issued driver's licenses must include an individual's name, address, date of birth, gender, signature, driver's license number, a digital photograph and several features to prevent counterfeiting.

States have objected to the law for several reasons, but mostly because it may require all license holders to make an in-person visit to get the new identification within five years of the 2008 deadline. Currently, states offer a number of alternatives for renewing licenses -- such as through the mail or Internet -- which take less time and state personnel to process.

Not only would drivers face long lines at motor vehicle office to get new licenses, but the process would cost states an estimated $8.48 billion, according to the study.

State workers also would become responsible for verifying applicants' documents, but only one of five necessary electronic systems to accomplish that is available nationally, the report states. Making those programs available to all states and training employees to use them will cost states an estimated $1.42 billion.

Designing licenses to prevent counterfeiting could cost states another $1.11 billion. While most states already use security features, a single, nationwide standard could force many of them to overhaul their existing cards.

Security clearances and other measures to screen employees who produce and issue licenses would cost another $44 million, the report states.

Legislatures in Kentucky, New Hampshire and Washington state already have considered bills to reject the Real ID mandates, and several more could follow that path if the rules are not modified, said Matt Sundeen, a transportation specialist with NCSL.

The penalty if states do not conform to the act is that its citizens would not be able to use their driver's licenses for federal identification purposes, such as boarding an airplane or entering a federal building, he said.

Comment on this story in the space below by registering with Stateline.org, or e-mail your feedback to our at Letters to the editor sectionletters@stateline.org .
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Source: Contact Eric Kelderman at: ekelderman@stateline.org

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http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/27528.html
Friday, September 22, 2006
Spray sickens farm crew
Potent pesticide sends dozens to hospital
By Susan Ferriss, Pamela Martineau and Edie Lau - Bee Staff Writers
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A17

About 45 farmworkers in San Joaquin Delta fruit orchards were exposed Thursday to an extremely toxic pesticide sprayed by a nearby aircraft. Workers said they noticed a small plane spraying a nearby asparagus field, and their throats and eyes began to burn when a foul odor -- like a skunk's spray, they said -- wafted through an apple orchard on Grand Island near Walnut Grove.

Some of the workers said they left the orchard right away and showered at a nearby labor camp, then drove in groups to Methodist Hospital in Sacramento. They went to the hospital to seek medical attention under orders of a company foreman following state law. At Methodist, the workers complained of nausea and skin irritation -- classic signs of intoxication by the organophosphate pesticide Di-Syston, which the Sacramento County Agricultural Commissioner's Office identified as the substance sprayed over the asparagus field.

Five workers who hadn't showered and a hospital nurse who became ill after touching them had to be placed in a decontamination tent erected outside Methodist in a parking lot. They stripped off their clothing, and were washed with copious amounts of water, said Sacramento Fire Department officials.

Hospital spokeswoman Adriane Varozza said 34 workers in total showed up at the hospital - at different times - and were examined by staff doctors who decided it was not necessary to admit anyone. No one complained of respiratory distress, which signals a potentially lethal dosage of the farm chemical. No blood tests to measure traces of the pesticide were taken.

"We don't know yet if there were violations," by the pesticide applicator, said county Agricultural Commissioner Frank Carl. "Was it OK? No, it wasn't OK because the workers were affected and we don't want workers to be affected."

Carl, who visited the site of the incident, said that some workers sought private medical examinations. He said the affected workers seemed to be at least 600 feet away from the aerial spraying, which is more than the required 300-foot safety buffer.

"We suspected that they reacted to the odor," Carl said, "rather than the toxicity of the product."

Nevertheless, his office will be investigating, with plans to interview every affected worker, the growers and the pesticide application company, Alexander Ag Flying Service, Inc. He said the pilot, who owns the company, is cooperating with the investigation. An application company is responsible for determining if weather conditions are proper for spraying and for not causing harm to workers or anyone else. Wind can cause a pesticide to drift.

"These kinds of things absolutely should not happen," said Veda Federighi, spokeswoman for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. She said the agency will take samples from fields and from workers' clothing to determine if there was drift of the pesticide.

None of the workers who sought exams at Methodist Hospital appeared ill by midafternoon. They stood outside waiting for a few others to be released. All Spanish speakers, some said they were most concerned about the possibility of not getting paid for the day.

"This means we've lost a lot of work time," said Eduardo Diaz, 23. He said he agreed to go to the hospital to be examined, "so as not to have doubts" about the exposure.

Diaz and other workers said they received instructions to put their contaminated work clothes in a bag and wash them repeatedly without mixing them with other clothing. Some of the workers had been given fact sheets in Spanish about the pesticide.

"It was a neighbor spraying. Nobody advised us it was happening," said Alfonso Castillas, a foreman for DH&P Orchards, whose owner called Castillas on his cellular phone after hearing a news radio report about the incident.

Staff of the Sacramento County Agricultural Commissioner's Office talked with workers in Spanish outside the hospital, and tried to persuade them to take urine tests to look for traces of the pesticide. Some workers drove off before they could be stopped, and many seemed nervous about submitting to more exams. Only one worker volunteered.

Federighi said the agricultural commissioner can levy civil penalties of up to $5,000 a person if violations of pesticide spraying are found.

A major exposure of an organophosphate can affect the nervous system and even lead to death, according to information provided by Art Craigmill, a toxicology specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension.

The incident occurred on the west side of Grand Island, southwest of River and Leary roads.
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About the writer:
The Bee's Susan Ferriss can be reached at (916) 321-1267 or sferriss@sacbee.com
Staff writer Kim Minugh contributed to this report.
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See additional images {@ websource}
Nurses Hillary Mitchell, center, and Teleasa McGlother on Thursday assist farmworkers outside the Methodist Hospital emergency room after about 45 workers in an orchard near Walnut Grove were exposed to pesticide being sprayed by a nearby crop duster on neighboring asparagus fields. = Sacramento Bee/Lezlie Sterling

A hazardous materials official, left, speaks with Alfonso Castillas, among the farmworkers affected by pesticide Thursday in a Walnut Grove orchard. The workers were taken into a decontamination tent. = Sacramento Bee/Lezlie Sterling

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http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/26830.html
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Beyond border security: 'New bargain' is urged
By Susan Ferriss - Bee Staff Writer
(916) 321-1267 or sferriss@sacbee.com

Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A20

While Congress voted Wednesday on anti-illegal immigration measures, the former vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission said the country would be better served by reforms that offer more options for foreigners to legally fill U.S. job shortages.

"Our economy is creating more jobs than native-born people can fill," said former Indiana congressman and 9/11 Commissioner Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of a bipartisan Washington, D.C.-based task force that released a report Wednesday called "Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter."

"We have to grasp that we really are in a new era," Hamilton said during a press conference in Washington with telephone links to reporters nationwide.

He said the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future is urging a "new bargain" on immigration that doesn't rely on enforcement alone to reduce illegal entries.

The task force recommends measures to prevent immigrants from illegal border-crossing, and to prevent others from overstaying tourist and other temporary visas. It also suggests better tools for employers to check the veracity of documents, including a Social Security card that might include fingerprints and photos.

But the report also urges Congress to better manage immigration with a simpler system of temporary, provisional and permanent visas, many of them linked to jobs of all skill levels with proven labor shortages.

"The current system has too many loopholes and overly complicated categories," Hamilton said.

"One thing we learned from the 9/11 Commission is that terrorists will study and exploit every vulnerability created by poorly performing systems."

But overhauling the immigration system, Hamilton said, "would make it less bureaucratic, more rational and, frankly, safer."

The task force calls for the creation of an appointed body to evaluate the ebb and flow of workplace labor needs to the President and Congress.

"We are, for the first time, a country that is aging," without enough younger workers to fill economic needs, added Doris Meissner, a former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner who directed the task force. She is a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, which published the report.

The report acknowledges that the American public, for various reasons, has lost confidence in the U.S. immigration system. Levels of illegal immigration, the report says, are "unacceptable" and are causing strife. Employers' abuse of illegal immigration, the report says, "can lead to declining labor standards that undercut the position of native-born workers."

The report recommends granting earned legalization for an estimated 10 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants who are employed, have clean records and learn to speak English.

The task force criticized a bill passed by the House of Representatives last December that failed to increase the number of work-based immigrant visas. Permits are especially limited for low-skilled jobs. The House bill would make illegal immigration a felony and could criminalize offering aid to illegal immigrants.

A bill passed by the Senate last May includes legalization provisions and a dramatic increase in the number of jobs-based visas employers could seek.

The task force report describes the Senate bill as "preferable because it is more comprehensive and bipartisan," but says it is "overly complex to implement" because it adds new visa categories without correcting "systemic problems in immigration law and policy."

Californians on the task force include Rep. Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood, and Leon Panetta, former Monterey congressman and Clinton Administration chief of staff. University of California, Davis, law professor Bill Ong Hing also served on the task force but dissented from the report's recommendations because of his concerns regarding human rights and family-based immigration.

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http://www.statepress.com/issues/2006/09/21/news/697805
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Arizona State University: Students rally for immigrant rights
Prop 300 doesn't address larger issue, student leaders say
by Jonathan J. Cooper
Email= jonathan.cooper@asu.edu

Banning in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is unfair and doesn't tackle the broader immigration issue, ASU student leaders said at a rally Wednesday. The rally attracted about 25 people to protest Proposition 300, which would ban state-funded financial aid for illegal immigrants and require them to pay nonresident tuition at Arizona's universities.

"This is a nightmare initiative," said Joaquin Rios, president of the ASU Young Democrats. "It does nothing to address immigration, and it does everything to hurt Arizona kids."

Rios joined Undergraduate Student Government President Ross Meyer and Ed Hermes, student regent for the Arizona Board of Regents. Erin Mills, a political science and Spanish senior, represented the All Saints Catholic Newman Center, which hosted Wednesday's rally.

Representatives from the Valley Interfaith Project and the Arizona Catholic Conference also spoke.

The proposition would require an expensive new ASU bureaucracy to verify legal residency, the students said. But referendum sponsor Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, said the suggestion that Proposition 300 requiring an expensive new bureaucracy is a "red herring."

"We will save millions of dollars by ending the subsidies for illegal immigrants that we can use to lower the tuition for everyone," he said. "These subsidies are very expensive."

Proposition 300 is designed to reserve state-subsidized benefits for legal Arizona residents, Martin said.

"We need to not be giving a benefit to citizens of foreign countries who broke the law to get here," he said. "Why should we give a subsidy to someone of another country that we won't give to our own U.S. citizens [from other states]?"

The proposition would also triple the tuition for students affected, which would price most of them out of higher education, Hermes said.

"They would be forced to give up their dreams," he added.

Many undocumented students at ASU were brought to the U.S. as babies, Meyer said.

"Why are we targeting students for a decision they did not make?" he said.

Dulce Juarez, a communication sophomore, said many illegal immigrants are motivated to work hard by the prospect of earning a college degree in America.

"[If Proposition 300 passes], you'll have more immigrants not striving for success," she said. "It's going to stop a lot of students from achieving their dreams and goals."

ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer said the University would not take a position on the proposition.

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4205332.html
Sept. 21, 2006, 5:57PM
Border agents find immigrants in sealed duffel bags

FALFURRIAS — Agents working an immigration checkpoint found three illegal immigrants hidden in sealed nylon duffel bags, Customs and Border Protection said today. None of the immigrants found during the two consecutive stops Wednesday was harmed. All declined medical attention, though agents said they were sweating profusely.

In the first stop, agents searched a Dodge Durango with a Border Patrol dog after the driver and passenger appeared nervous. They found five people, including a woman and 5-year-old in a zipped duffel bag. The driver, a 39-year-old U.S. citizen, and the passenger, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, were arrested and charged with alien smuggling.

Agents then searched the next vehicle after seeing a foot move under the back seat. Agents found four illegal immigrants, one concealed in a duffel bag. The driver, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested and charged with alien smuggling. The immigrants were returned to Mexico. Falfurrias is about 75 miles north of the Mexican border.

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http://www.workers.org/2006/us/immigrants-0928/
Sep 21, 2006 1:04 AM
In attack on all workers / Gov’t arrests thousands of immigrants
By Heather Cottin, Freeport, N.Y.

After rising up strong in defense of its rights last spring, the immigrant section of the working class is now under strong government attack.

The Department of Homeland Secu rity’s Immigration and Customs Enforce ment (ICE) agency says it is picking up 1,000 immigrants per week for deportation. Across the U.S., immigrants are living in fear that a knock at the door can mean imminent arrest and deportation.

Those who return to the U.S. after having been deported face a felony conviction punishable by up to 20 years in prison. ICE calls them “absconders.” Some 40 ICE teams across the country are focusing on what one official estimated are 600,000 “absconders” presently in the United States. (Vail Daily News, Sept. 14)

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has ended the policy that released detained undocumented immigrants after setting a court date. The insulting name given that policy—“catch and release”—likened the arrests of these workers to sport fishing. But now the policy is even worse. Chertoff has ordered that anyone caught crossing the border be immediately arrested and deported.

Over the Labor Day weekend, agents converged on immigrant workers’ homes in Stillmore, Ga., with guns and bulletproof vests. Since Sept. 1, ICE has arrested 120 Mexican immigrants in Stillmore. During one of the raids, Rosa Lopez, the mother of a two-year-old, left her son with neighbor and friend Julie Rodas. With tears running down her cheeks, she asked Rodas to “please take care of my son because I have no money, no way of paying rent.” (“Immigration raid makes a ghost town,” Associated Press, Sept. 16)

Reaction to the raids in Stillmore has been angry. David Robinson, the owner of a trailer park where the Mexican immigrants lived, said, “These people might not have American rights, but they’ve damn sure got human rights. There ain’t no reason to treat them like animals.” He hung a U.S. flag upside down in protest.

“This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo coming in and yanking people up,” said Stillmore mayor Marilyn Slater.

At a construction company in Alpha retta, Ga., 30 immigrants were arrested right at their workplace. (Gainesville Times, Sept. 15) ICE officials brag that Atlanta-based field agents incarcerated or deported 4,216 immigrants in 2005.

But Georgia is not the only place where ICE raids have meant to terrorize the local population. In Bradenton, Fla., during a raid on a nightclub, ICE agents arrested 27 immigrants. (Bradenton Herald, Sept. 16).

In Tallahassee, ICE arrested 55 workers at General Building Maintenance, Inc., a janitorial services company contracted by the state of Florida. It deported 21 of them. (Tallahassee Democrat, Sept. 16) Six others were arrested at another work site.

In Miami-Dade County, ICE officials arrested 15 Mexican and Guatemalan men working in construction. (Miami Herald, Sept. 17)

In West Michigan, 55 undocumented immigrants were deported as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s racist “Return to Sender” operation, which has arres ted 2,179 people in Ohio and Michi gan since June. (Grand Rapids Press, Sept. 16)

In the Western Slope region of the Colorado Rockies, ICE reported it had arrested 34 immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. “Taking fugitive aliens off our streets is a top ICE priority,” said Douglas Maurer, head of ICE’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Denver. (Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 13)

In California, ICE arrested 107 undocumented people in Santa Cruz, Watson ville and Hollister. But some 50 community members then participated in a public denunciation of the sweeps at Resur rection Catholic Community in Aptos, and the community scheduled a meeting to denounce the crackdown. (Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sept. 17)

In August, in the five-state area that includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, ICE deported 875 undocumented immigrants. (Louisi ana Weekly, Sept. 18)

These Gestapo-type raids undermine the rights of all workers. In some communities, resistance has already started.

On Long Island , N.Y., for example, ICE targeted the villages of Brentwood, Hempstead and Freeport, picking up 35 workers, most of whom were merely passing by during ICE raids. The newly formed Long Island Coalition for Immigrant Rights is organizing a rally and protest in Freeport for Sept. 25, urging the Village Board to make Freeport a sanctuary for immigrants.

Immigrant Solidarity Network activist Ceci Wheeler in Pittsburgh organized mass actions against the anti-immigrant mayor of Hazelton, Pa. Urging nation-wide vigils and rallies against the ICE raids, she said, “The bad news is the detentions [and] deportations. The good news is that our movement is large and we can communicate faster than a decade ago.”

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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-briefs21.3sep21,1,3766861.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
September 21, 2006
IN BRIEF / LOS ANGELES COUNTY / LOS ANGELES
Immigrant-Rights Groups Can Join Lawsuit
From Times Staff and Wire Reports

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday gave four immigrant-rights groups permission to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit brought by the taxpayer group Judicial Watch. The suit challenges the Police Department's Special Order 40, which generally prohibits police officers from asking people about their immigration status.

Judge Rolf Treu allowed the groups Break the Cycle, Los Jornaleros, El Comite de Jornaleros, and El Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California to join the case so they can argue for the special order.
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Border01/message/3312
9/20 Tucson, AZ: Community Immigrant Actions Message List
[version en espanol sigue abajo]

September 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Luis Judiz, (520) 270-7765 (Spanish)
Alexis Mazon, (520) 390-1604 (English)

What: Press Conference in front of Tucson Police Headquarters, 270 South Stone (at 13th St)
When: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 12 noon
Who: Tucson April 10th Coalition members

Community puts Tucson on Trial for Police and Vigilante Violence at Historic April 10th March

(Tucson, AZ) - “If anyone else had put bruises on my daughter’s face like that, they would have been punished, but the police don’t have to answer to anyone,” said Maricela Garcuía, the mother of an 11-year old girl who was struck in the face by a police officer at the largest march in Tucson’s history. Across the country, millions marched for human, civil and worker rights for immigrants on April 10, 2006, but Tucson was the only city where armed vigilantes and police attacked peaceful protesters.

In response, the Tucson April 10th Coalition will present a multi-media theater performance entitled, Tucson on Trial, this Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Sunnyside High School. This community event will raise awareness about the links between police violence, vigilante violence and border militarization. The performance will also call on the City of Tucson to take responsibility for the police and vigilante attacks against the community at the April 10th Immigrant Rights Rally in Armory Park in Tucson.

The City of Tucson and the Tucson Police Department allowed Roy Warden and armed members of the hate group, Border Guardians, to incite violence at the rally by burning Mexican flags and shouting racial slurs in the middle of 15,000 demonstrators. Instead of keeping the vigilantes at a safe distance from Armory Park to protect demonstrators, Tucson police themselves charged the crowd, pepper-spraying youth, shouting racist insults and throwing people to the ground. Without justification, police then arrested 6 demonstrators, charging them with purportedly resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

“On Saturday we will send a strong message to the City that we will not accept this upsurge of official and unofficial violence against our community. April 10th was a glaring example of how the militarization of the border region is breeding repression, posing great risks to our personal safety and promoting impunity,” said Nancy Gallen, a former school teacher and member of the April 10th and Derechos Humanos Coalitions.

The Tucson April 10th Coalition has repeatedly gone to the City Council to demand that the records of the six marchers arrested be cleared, that the City of Tucson conduct an independent investigation of the police brutality on April 10, that the City of Tucson and TPD issue a public apology to the community and that the City guarantee that the community can engage in peaceful protest in the future without risking their personal safety. Despite City Manager Michael Rankin’s acknowledgment that ‘mistakes were made’ on April 10, the City has refused to take responsibility for the police and vigilante violence that occurred.

Vigilante Roy Warden was eventually charged with assaulting a Fox News cameraman at the April 10 rally and with criminal damage for the fires he set at the rally site. Warden has also been charged with a separate assault against a Chicano 14-year old, which took place in front of Tucson’s Mexican Consulate in June. In addition, Warden has emailed death threats to community leader, Isabel Garcia, made general death threats to anyone who ‘crosses his perimeter,’ and disrupted numerous immigrant rights events in Tucson by burning Mexican flags, shouting hate speech and intimidating participants.

Members of the community are invited to attend the Tucson on Trial theater performance, which will be held at the Sunnyside High School Auditorium (1725 E. Bilby, at Campbell Avenue, Tucson) on Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
###
[sin acentos]
PARA PUBLICACION INMEDIATA
20 de septiembre de 2006
Contactar: Luis Judiz, (520) 270-7765 (Espanol)
Alexis Mazon, (520) 390-1604 (Ingles)

Que: Conferencia de Prensa frente a la Sede de Policia de Tucson, 270 S. Stone (esq. Calle 13)
Cuando: Miercoles, 20 de septiembre de 2006 a las 12:00 p.m.
Quien: Coalicion 10 de Abril de Tucson

La Comunidad Enjuicia a Tucson por la Violencia Policiaca y Vigilante en la Marcha Historica del 10 de Abril

(Tucson, Arizona) - “Si cualquier otra persona hubiera dejado moratones asi en la cara de mi hija, hubieran sido castigados, pero la policia no tiene que rendir cuentas a nadie,” dijo Maricela García, la madre de una nina de 11 anos que fue golpeada en la cara por un policia durante la marcha mas grande en la historia de Tucson. El 10 de abril de 2006, a traves del pais, millones de personas marcharon por los derechos humanos, civiles y laborales de los migrantes, pero Tucson fue la unica ciudad donde vigilantes armados y oficiales de policia atacaron a manifestantes pacificos.

En respuesta, la Coalicion 10 de Abril de Tucson presentara una obra de teatro de multi-medios entitulada, Tucson en Juicio, este sabado, 23 de septiembre de 2006 a las 5:00 p.m. en la escuela Sunnyside. Este evento comunitario levantara la conciencia publica sobre los vinculos entre la violencia oficial, la violencia vigilante y la militarizacion de la frontera. La obra tambien exhortara a la Ciudad de Tucson a que acepte responsabilidad por los ataques protagonizados por la policia y los vigilantes en contra de la comunidad durante la Marcha por los Derechos de Los y Las Migrantes el 10 de Abril en Tucson.

La Ciudad de Tucson y el Departamento de Policia de Tucson (TPD) les permitieron a Roy Warden y otros miembros armados del grupo de odio, Guardianes de la Frontera, provocar violencia en la historica manifestacion al quemar banderas Mexicanas y gritar insultos racistas en medio de 15,000 manifestantes. En vez de mantener a los vigilantes a una distancia segura del Parque Armory a fines de proteger a los manifestantes, los policias mismos atacaron a la multitud, echando gases lacrimogenos, gritando insultos racistas y tirando personas al suelo. Sin justificacion, los policias luego arrestaron a 6 manifestantes, imponiendoles cargos de “resistir arresto†y “alterar el orden publico.â€

“El sabado le enviaremos un fuerte mensaje a la Ciudad que no vamos a aceptar esta subida en la violencia oficial y no oficial contra nuestra comunidad. El 10 de abril fue un ejemplo muy claro de las consecuencias de la militarizacion de la frontera. Esta generando mas represion, creando grandes riesgos a nuestra seguridad personal y promoviendo la impunidad,” declaro Nancy Gallen, una miembra de la Coalicion de Derechos Humanos y la Coalicion 10 de Abril que antes fue una maestra de escuela.

La Coalicion 10 de Abril ha ido repetidamente al Consejo de la Ciudad para exigir que se limpien los records criminales de los 6 manifestantes que fueron arrestados, que la Ciudad de Tucson realice una investigacion independiente de la brutalidad policiaca el 10 de Abril 10, que la Ciudad de Tucson y el TPD pidan disculpas de la comunidad publicamente y que la Ciudad garantice que la comunidad pueda participar en protestas pacificas en el futuro sin arriesgar su seguridad personal. A pesar del reconocimiento por parte del Gerente de la Ciudad, Michael Rankin, que “se cometieron errores” el 10 de abril, hasta la fecha la Ciudad se ha rehusado a aceptar responsaibilidad por la violencia policiaca y vigilante que ocurrio.

Al vigilante Roy Warden se le acusaron, eventualmente, de un cargo de asaltar a un camerografo de Noticias Fox presente en la marcha del 10 de abril y asi como tambien un cargo de dano de propiedad por los incendios en el sitio de la manifestacion. En junio, Warden fue acusado de un cargo de asalto adicional, por atacar a un joven Chicano de 14 anos frente al Consulado Mexicano de Tucson en junio. Es mas, Warden ha enviado amenazas de muerte por correo electronico a la lider comunitaria, Isabel García, ha hecho amenazas de muerte generales a cualquier persona que “cruce su perimetro,†y ha interrumpido numerosos eventos en pro de los migrantes en Tucson al quemar la bandera Mexicana, gritar palabras de odio e intimidar a los participantes.

Se invita a toda la comunidad a asistir a la obra de teatro, Tucson en Juicio, la cual se realizara en el Auditorio de la escuela Sunnyside (1725 E. Bilby, esq. Campbell, Tucson) el sabado, 23 de septiembre de 2006 a las 5:00 p.m. El evento es gratis y abierto al publico.
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National Immigrant Solidarity Network
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
Key Webpage= http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org

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http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/immigration-rites/14522/
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 6:00 pm
Immigration Rites
Requiem for a movement. The real aliens are in Congress
By DANIEL HERNANDEZ

No one expected a million people to show up in Los Angeles for the last “big” immigrant-rights rally a couple weekends ago, at the closing of the National Latino Congreso. A few thousand maybe, but a few hundred? Or less? Or, as we saw, hardly anyone at all.

On the dusty expanse of the Cornfields near Chinatown on September 9, just a smattering of people stood and listened to speakers and bands. Everyone in attendance seemed somehow directly connected to advocacy organizations, churches or friendly media outlets. “I think the momentum was lost a little bit; a lot of it was very spontaneous,” said Aquilina Soriano, executive director of the Pilipino Workers’ Center in Los Angeles, in a concession, if not an understatement, that many other organizers have been repeating for weeks.

But, Soriano added, “Before there was the marches, they didn’t talk about any kind of amnesty or legalization program. It was only after March 25 — that’s when they started talking about it.”

True enough and, yes, a worthy success. But the signs of defeat are everywhere. Not even Eddie “El Piolín” Sotelo, the morning DJ credited with triumphantly generating the 500,000-plus turnout on March 25 in downtown L.A., could muster more than a few thousand people at the same spot for a march over the Labor Day weekend. The marchers called for a moratorium on immigration raids and the breaking up of families. Days later, back in Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, as promised, that authorizes 700 miles of double fences along the U.S.-Mexico border, a virtual death wish for migrants who have already proven themselves determined to risk their lives to reach jobs in the U.S.

Given the setbacks, is it now safe to declare the immigrant-rights movement officially deceased?

“Translating from the numbers who were in the rallies into voting power, that takes preparation to do it right, it takes organizing into the right kinds of events,” explained Maria Elena Durazo, executive director of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. “I’m not making excuses, I’m just trying to say there’s a lot more behind this.” The surge in the number of Latino voters after California’s anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in the 1990s did not magically materialize right after voters passed the measure, Durazo said. “It wasn’t within two months, I guarantee you.”

Indeed. But in the spring marches, leaders like Durazo were leading fierce chants of “Hoy marchamos, mañana votamos” (“Today we march, tomorrow we vote”). With only seven weeks left before the November election, and even less time left for new registrations, advocates have all but failed to fulfill the call. The Associated Press, reporting from several cities that were sites of massive marches in the spring, said the demonstrations did not produce significant increases in voter registration among Latinos and new citizens. Instead, it started appearing as though “the giant” had gone back to sleep.

“What the marches did was just at least neutralize [Congress],” offered Alvaro Huerta, communications director for CHIRLA (the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles). “Right now we don’t really have a counterproposal.”

Whatever reasoning or excuse is settled upon for the flat-out fizzling, the reality is the immigrant-rights movement has morphed. It’s moved away — whether by default or design remains unclear — from a mobilization-based, show-of-force type of movement to a fragmented, multipronged effort that is measuring success by incremental victories and setbacks. This inevitably means the movement now contains boards of directors, internal squabbles, corporate sponsorships of big events, goodie bags and lobbying trips. In other words, it’s starting to look like the environmental movement, the gay-rights movement and the labor movement.

You got this sense at a late-August general-membership meeting of CHIRLA, in a stuffy, windowless conference room on Third Street near MacArthur Park. A few dozen Spanish-dominant immigrants and their children sat through a three-hour meeting filled with field reports from organizers working on various projects. During a breakout session, immigrants wrote down their border-crossing experiences on a sheet of paper, and later, a selection was shared with the whole group. Many tears were shed. Earlier, in a leadership-training workshop, members named their historical leadership role models before concluding that they themselves were leaders in the movement, every man, woman and child.

“What are we going to do? Wait for a Gandhi? Wait for a Martin Luther King? There’s no time. The anti-immigrant forces are already preparing a new HR 4437,” said one member, referring to the draconian anti-immigrant House bill that sparked the spring marches.

“And we have to do it with love,” an elderly woman interjected. “When we do it with love, it will come out better, and we’re going to win!”

It was a brassy challenge to the doubters, naysayers and outright haters who have been dogging the movement since the beginning. While the immigrant-rights agenda has danced artfully and successfully around the political land mines attached to its efforts — foreign flags at marches, the “cutting in line” argument, perceived racial tensions —skeptics persist.

In L.A., the immigrant-rights movement did not, as some openly and secretly wished, bust open a rift between the city’s established blacks and new Latinos. Black newspapers across the city covered the marches comprehensively, including columns and op-eds that discussed immigrants’ contributions to the economy and recalled the civil-rights movement. Fringe protests notwithstanding (think Ted Hayes, the dreadlocked, homeless black Republican), African-American leaders have consistently been present at rallies, roundtables and hearings, in addition to local Asian and Asian-American leaders. In Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the standard-bearer of black civil rights in the Deep South, has taken up the legal fight for migrant workers cheated out of payment during the Katrina reconstruction. At the CHIRLA meeting in August, the members present, all recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America, cited Martin Luther King Jr., “el líder de los afroamericanos,” as their primary role model.

This is not to say tensions do not exist, but, as some leaders have asked rhetorically, are we to focus on divisions or improve upon unity? “Let’s be brutally honest about the impact,” said civil-rights attorney Connie Rice, during a roundtable on ethnic politics at the start of the National Latino Congreso, “but let’s also keep in mind that we have the power to write the script so that everyone gets in the story.”

Yet these sorts of statements are not new. In fact, not much of anything that’s been said during the fledgling immigrant-rights movement is particularly striking or transgressive. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who mentioned the immigrant-rights struggle during a talk on the environment at the NLC, used the sort of maddening, middle-of-the-road rhetoric common among Clintonian Democrats when recalling “these people,” the immigrants he said he greeted with deep pride at City Hall on March 25.

“They come here to work, they come here for a better life, they come here to participate in the American Dream,” Villaraigosa said. “And while we all recognize that every country has the right to secure its borders and enforce its laws, to hold people accountable for breaking the law, a great and generous America also should and must provide a pathway for citizenship for these people.”

In the end, isn’t it our artists who are our seers?

Over the weekend, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the gender-bending, border-busting performance artist, came to town to present a new work exploring the connections between “war on terror” and the “war on immigrants.” At one point, Gómez-Peña led a call-and-response incantation with the audience. He shouted out the name of a major city and an aspect of its corresponding cultural reality. “Repeat after me: London! Is! Pakistan!... New York! Is! Puerto Rico!” and so on. And when he called “Los Angeles! Is! Central America!” I found myself making the call plaintively up to the ceiling.

Los Angeles is Central America. All you had to do was see MacArthur Park on Sunday, when the Central American community gathered for its annual fiestas patrias festival. Stalls were set up selling Honduran, Salvadoran, and, of all things, Filipino cuisine (“as eaten in Spain!”). Others hawked suburban-subdivision parcels in Guatemala at $5,800 a pop. Reggaeton, cumbia and ’80s electro-pop blasted from speakers placed all over. The Central American diaspora, in all its multishaded glory — fair, brown and black — strutted about Wilshire Boulevard bearing flags and headbands of their home countries, dressed as cowboys, cheerleaders, hip-hop heads, in pairs, as families and, of course, selling stuff without permits.

There were far, far more people in attendance than at any of the recent immigrant-rights rallies.

“You just didn’t hear a lot about it,” explained Sylvia Escobar, a 24-year-old house cleaner who immigrated from El Salvador four years ago.

“Wasn’t it just for women?” asked her friend Guadalupe, a 28-year-old Mexican immigrant, also a house cleaner.

Both women, both undocumented, said they attended the big marches in L.A. in March and May. This time around, they just didn’t bother. Why? They replied with shrugs.

“We’re just waiting,” Escobar said.

Waiting seemed to please them just fine.

After all, regardless of what Congress does this year, which likely won’t be much, everyone knows you can just buy your authentically inauthentic California ID, the carrying card of a true Americano, a short walk away down at Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street. It’s good ole supply and demand, as American as chop suey and veggie burritos. And a reminder that the only aliens in this new brown nation, as it turns out, are on Capitol Hill.

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Liberation Now!!!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta de Aztlan
Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
Sacramento, California, USA

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