"ICE why did you take my mom? I want her back"

(see "oops" below...)

this is sad... it's also wrong...

Hundreds of Hispanics marched on Reno streets Wednesday in protest of a raid last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at 11 McDonald's restaurants.

The crowd was filled with young people who skipped school and mothers pushing strollers.

Six-year-old Julio Rodriguez, a first-grader at Smithridge Elementary School, carried a sign that said: "ICE why did you take my mom? I want her back."



Other Hispanic and community leaders met at a different spot to talk about how to tame community tensions and formulate a plan to deal with the fallout of last week's raids, which led to the arrest of 54 illegal immigrants.

are they here to destroy the fabric of the united states...? no... they only want what all of us want - financial security and a better life...

What the Hispanics who have immigrated to Northern Nevada really want to do is work, said Erica Lopez of Reno.

"If it wasn't for us, they wouldn't eat," the 20-year-old said. "We make their food."

She shouted to the counter protesters, "You need us."

i've often said that if all the hispanics in this country, legal or otherwise, were to stop working at the exact same moment, the country would immediately have to shut down...

but here's the really tragic part...

Many young people in the crowd said they were concerned how the raids split up families and wanted to show their support. Some wore duct tape over their mouths -- to signify people they believe do not have a voice -- and handcuffs.



"That's pretty wrong that the raid destroyed the families," said Maritza Solis, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Cold Springs Middle School. "We're only here to work, not to destroy the United States."

i've posted here before about my friend from mexico who, after three unsuccessful tries, managed to make it across the border to work construction with his brother in kansas, only to die in an automobile accident less than a year later, leaving a wife and daughter - my goddaughter - back in mexico without a husband or a father... these people are people, human beings, men and women who love and care for their families, not political pawns... this is absolutely not the way to handle the problem... meanwhile, mcdonald's business in the area takes a slight dip but will soon be back to business as usual... after all, the business of america is business...

[OOPS]

like a dummy, i forgot to cross-reference this post to the post i put up this past saturday about the immigration and customs enforcement office of detention and removal 2003-2012 strategy, titled ENDGAME [PDF], one of the more horrifying and orwellian documents i have ever run across...

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"There has been little or no justice in anything Alberto Gonzales has ever done; except resign"

james moore on gonzo's resignation...

it's a shame that the highest ranking hispanic ever to serve in the federal government chose to serve the dark forces of the bush administration... i'm sure karl rove, in his evil machinations, thought gonzo was a prize trophy to parade around as a minority stuffed suit, clear evidence of the importance minorities held for george bush... there are outstanding hispanic and latino people out there, dying for a chance to serve their country and their people... let's open the door and let THEM have a crack at things, and never let another sock puppet like gonzo sully a proud and noble heritage...

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Immigration has a human face

the persistent dehumanization of the immigration issue makes me furious, and this la times story gives me goosebumps... i have been, done and seen much of what it describes, including having a very close friend who, after three tries to get across the border, finally made it, only to die in a car accident in kansas while working construction with his brother, leaving his wife and a four year-old daughter - my goddaughter - back in mexico to fend for themselves...

and it's not only the dehumanization, it's the characterization of illegal immigrants as criminals, drug pushers and terrorists... sure, some may be, but i think the incidence of those types in the immigrant population is no more, and probably less, than the population at large...

Angelica Salas, who graduated in 1993, was back for another degree — this time an honorary doctorate. Her parents were in the audience last Sunday, standing and applauding proudly as she entered the hillside theater.

They had come to the United States illegally roughly 40 years ago out of economic desperation. They made a life, became legalized and raised a family.

And now their 36-year-old daughter Angelica, smuggled into the country by an aunt at age 5, was being called up to the podium by Dean Eric M. Frank, who spoke of her work to convince both Democrats and Republicans that the immigration system is badly broken.

[...]

Her job is to tell stories, Salas told me. It's not as easy for people to stand back and scream after they've heard a story and made a connection.

[...]

But Salas believes the tone of the debate has been and will continue to be changed by humanizing it.

the article's author, steve lopez, shares some powerful stories of his own...

I know she's right. I know because of the gardener who was shot in the chest on a job in Inglewood and returned the next day because he'd promised the homeowner he'd be done by Christmas.

I know because of the Mid-City school volunteer who lives in a cramped one-bedroom apartment with her children. If I went and saw the impoverished Mexican village she came from, she told me, I'd understand why she was so happy. So I did, and I do.

and here's angelica's story...

Serefino Salas, a broad-shouldered young man hungry for work in the 1960s, came to the United States from Durango, Mexico, in the bracero program. He later sneaked back to work at a Los Angeles laundromat, followed by many years as a racetrack groomer.

Rosie Astorga came shortly after her husband did and worked in the garment industry, while relatives in Mexico cared for Angelica and her sisters Rosa and Nidia.

Angelica doesn't recall much about being smuggled across the border, escorted by a 14-year-old aunt. But she remembers getting caught, being sent back and making it through on her next try. After two years of separation, the whole family was together, but it didn't last.

"My mother's factory was raided," says Angelica, who recalls her father searching for help after his wife was deported.

Salas discovered that because his wife had given birth to a son while living in Los Angeles, the child was a citizen and they could all become legalized under a program in place at the time.

Today, everyone in the family is a success, most of them living in Pasadena. Instead of being kept in the shadows at minimum-wage jobs, with no chance to improve their lot or make a bigger contribution, Salas became a roofer, Mrs. Salas is a hospital janitor, Rosa is a fifth-grade teacher, Nidia works in production for HBO and Serefino Jr. is a groundskeeper at Dodger Stadium.

angelica is absolutely correct... it's knowing about people like this that will make the immigration debate a human one, which, after all, is what it should have been in the first place...

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What an elected representative with INTEGRITY (and a REAL recovering alcoholic) looks like

talk about bringing the issue of voter fraud suppression down to earth... here you have not only THE definitive picture of what karl rove, scott jennings, susan ralston, alberto gonzales, monica goodling, kyle sampson, paul mcnulty, and the rest of the push-for-a-one-party-state crowd have been working so diligently to achieve, but also the clearest picture yet of what kind of a person it takes to stop it...

Against his doctor's advice, a stooped and feeble state Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. (D) arrives at the Texas Capitol each day, just to make sure his chamber does not take up a bill that would require voters to produce identification at the polls.

[...]

Gallegos is putting his health at risk to block a measure he and others say could prevent many minorities and the elderly from taking part in elections in Texas.

[...]

The Republicans pushing the voter ID bill say illegal immigrants are voting in Texas elections and must be stopped. But Democrats say thousands of legal residents would lose the right to vote because they lack proper identification. Opponents of the measure -- including Gallegos, a Mexican American -- say minorities, the elderly and the poor are less likely than others to have driver's licenses or other documents.

Most of Gallegos's Houston-area constituents are black or Hispanic, and about a quarter of them live in poverty. About one in five speak little or no English.

Doctors say the senator, a recovering alcoholic, should be resting and should be within 100 miles of the hospital where he received the transplant. Austin is about 160 miles from the hospital in Houston.

Under what is known as the Luna Precedent, named for a lawmaker who was hospitalized in the 1990s, legislators can ask for 24 hours' notice that a bill is about to come up. Gallegos was given such notice early this month. But lawmakers can invoke the Luna Precedent only once during a session.

this is not only what a REAL recovering alcoholic looks like (as opposed to you-know-who), THIS is also what an elected representative of REAL integrity looks like, someone who will uphold the constitutional right to vote and never stop doing the job his constituents put him in office to do even if it means putting his own recovery from a liver transplant at risk... gallegos is not only a true hero but an authentic leader... we need lots more like him...

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