HispanicVista Columnists - May 9th, 2005

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

April 25, 2005

 

If the news that US citizens will need passports to re-enter the country after visiting, even for a few hours, border cities like Tijuana, was a surprise, you’re in good company – so was President Bush.  “What’s going on here?” was his reported reaction after reading about it in a newspaper. “I think it’s going to disrupt honest flow of traffic,” he added.

Well, it was President Bush’s signature on December 17, 2004, that created the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA, also known as the 9/11 Intelligence Bill). The law mandated that the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, “develop and implement a plan to require U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to present a passport or other secure document when entering the United States. This in turn created the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

By Marty Lich
MichNews.com

Dear Readers. You may have read the following column by Mr. Bill Dahl, a contributing columnist for the Hispanic Vista (www.hispanicvista.com) who wrote: “Hispurgatory, or Innocent Hispanic Students Trapped Between Heaven and Hell in the U.S.,” Magic City News, Maine. (www.magic-city-news.com/article_3773.shtml)

 In part, Mr. Dahl states the following: “For these Latinos, the hope for citizenship in the U.S. is heaven. Visions of better jobs, education, healthcare, housing, protections against discrimination, racism, the ability to be all one can be, to contribute to the United States economy and culture on an equal footing…these are the elements of their hope. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this, the Promised Land. Let them in America!”

By Bill Dahl/HispanicVista.com

May 9, 2005

 

We’re pregnant America!

“Adoption NOT Abortion” screamed the intensely illuminated red billboard against the black darkness of a Colorado night. Who says you can’t be startled out of a profound state of travel exhaustion while seated in the back of an empty shuttle bus on the way to your hotel? 

The shock of it all sent my mind whirling through the relationship between the arguments supporting the right to life v. right to choose debate, and the current national dialogue concerning U.S. immigration policy reform. Yeah, I know. I don’t understand why my brain works like that either. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

By Ashok Jethanandani

India Currents, Commentary,
New California Media

It happened so fast that I literally did not know what had hit me. I was driving my mom to a doctor’s appointment. The morning commute traffic on Capitol Expressway in San Jose was heavy, but moving smoothly. Then a car ahead of me on the left moved suddenly into my lane and banged into my left fender. The impact pushed my car into the fast-moving traffic in the right lane. Tires squealed as cars swerved to avoid hitting me on the right. For a few unnerving seconds I was completely disoriented before regaining control of my steering and moving back into my lane. Meanwhile, the offending car changed two more lanes to the right, quickly turned right into Story Road, and disappeared.

By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

May 2, 2005

  Immigration has been with us a long time, in fact as long as the history of man itself. A year or so ago, the National Geographic Magazine mapped the history on the migration of man from the original "Garden of Eden" in Africa to the dispersal all over the world. And, of course, there is the statement at the base of the Statue of Liberty museum that reminds us that we, or our ancestors, are all immigrants the Western Hemisphere. This is especially true in North America.  The massive immigration that occurred after the discovery of the "New World" brought profound impact on those civilizations that were in existence before their arrival. Sometimes I make a bad joke to my wife: "While your ancestors walked over the Bering Straight, my ancestors came over on the Mayflower".

"The local people whipped themselves into a mold of cruelty. Then they formed units, squads, and armed them - armed them with clubs, with gas, with guns. We own the country. We can't let these Okies get out of hand."
(John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH)
The vigilantes are back. In the 1850s they lynched Irishmen; in the 1870s they terrorized the Chinese; in the 1910s they murdered striking Wobblies; in the 1920s they organized "Bash a Jap" campaigns; and in the1930s they welcomed the Joads and other Dust Bowl refugees with teargas and buckshot.

By Domingo Ivan  Casañas/HispanicVista.com

May 9, 2005

   As human beings we experience so many fears in our lives, many actually have fears of flying, being in a confined place, driving, elevators, public speaking, death, and so many more.  But, do they have the fear of God?  Do we know what the fear of God is?  The fear of God is so very essential to a meaningful life; a Godly fear is awe and profound reverence for our Creator.  God does not want people to serve him simply because they are in awe of Him.  God is love and he wants us to respond to Him by loving Him in return.   But can a Godly fear and love be compatible?  I say yes! The reason is because we need to think of a small child that loves and respects his father, a child that trusts his own father looks to him for guidance and confident, the child also admires his father and wants to be loved by him and want to make him proud.   That same child also fears his father’s actions when it comes to disappointing him, lying to him, doing bad things that are not moral. 

By Alex Sanchez

Council On Hemispheric Affairs

The crowning of Chilean Minister of the Interior José Miguel Insulza as Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), marks the end of a long and hotly contested hemispheric campaign. With the sudden, but not entirely unexpected, withdrawal of Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez, Insulza achieved victory by default. Although the OAS race has received significant media coverage in the last several months, Insulza’s election is of little significance to hemispheric relations as he is not likely to embark on a new binge of innovative inter-American policy making. However, the Chilean’s victory is the first time in the more than a half century history of the organization that Washington’s preferetti has not been elected to the OAS’ secretary-general position.

By John P. Schmal/HispanicVista.com

The Spanish Empire got off to a bad start at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In addition to her Caribbean, Central American, and Mexican possessions, Spain had gained possession of France's extensive Louisiana territory in 1769. However, in 1800, Emperor Napoleon of France forced Spain to return Louisiana to France by the Treaty of San Ildefonso. Three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. 

The loss of Louisiana was the beginning of the end for Spain's large American empire. The stage for the political revolutions about to take place was set by an important development that took place in Europe early in the Nineteenth Century. In 1807, Emperor Napoleon lured King Carlos IV of Spain and his family to France for a visit. Once there, the Spanish royal family was thrown into prison, and King Carlos was forced to abdicate the throne. Napoleon thereupon announced that his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, would become the new King of Spain. 

By Margaret Spellings

Secretary of Education

Three years ago, the stars aligned: The American people decided it was finally time to reform our public schools. Parents demanded accountability, taxpayers demanded value, businesses needed better-educated employees and children stuck in poor-performing schools needed change. The message was heard at the highest levels of government. And the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law was born.

As any mom can tell you, a surprising amount of progress is made in the first three years of life: from learning to crawl all the way to learning a language. Like a child, this law has accomplished a lot in three short years. All 50 states now have accountability plans in place that have laid the foundation for continuous school improvement and student achievement from year to year. The groundwork is set — and rapid progress is being made.

By Laura Carlsen/IRC.org.

May 4, 2005

The May 2 victory of Chilean Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza as secretary general of the Organization of American States ends one phase of a drama that is only beginning.

The showdown over the leadership of the OAS began when Costa Rica’s former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez resigned in October 2004 due to corruption charges in his home country. Rodríguez was elected by consensus and had served only three weeks of his five-year term when forced to leave.

Elections at the OAS are typically a foregone conclusion, with the United States picking successors year after year. When the increasingly powerful and rebellious nations of the Southern Cone united behind Mr. Insulza’s candidacy, it threw a monkey wrench into the smooth--if not very democratic--workings of the past.

From the Congressional Record – House

Mr. GUTIERREZ: Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to begin what I hope will be the start of a constructive dialogue about our Nation's immigration laws.

There has been a lot of heated rhetoric about this topic in recent months. But what I believe has been lacking from this debate is a discussion of real solutions and an accurate portrayal of the real contribution of our Nation's immigrant community.

In Congress, on cable shows and in newspaper columns across the country, we witness undocumented workers being unfairly and inaccurately blamed for all of our Nation's ills. In fact, it seems as though there are some cable show hosts out there who have made this practice the cornerstone of their programming. Just look at Lou Dobbs and his ``Broken Borders'' segment. If you ask me, it should be called the ``Broken Record'' segment. Because night after night after night, it is the same thing. It is about giving a platform to anti-immigrant extremists so they can espouse their misguided, misleading, and often malicious views.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com

May 9, 2005

 Cinco de Mayo, the 5^th of May, will comes and goes with lots of beer consumed by revelers celebrating something they mistakenly think is Mexican Independence Day.  Hundreds of thousands of people will mill around Los Angeles streets celebrating the enormous victory of Mexicans over a French Army touted as it was as Europe’s best on the 5^th of May, 1862.  Few will pay attention, however, to April 30, 1863.

The 5^th of May and April 30 both refute alleged “scholarly” papers circulating among the white supremacists among us that claim that Mexicans have never defeated a white European Army, or any European military.

By Duf Sundheim

The surging Latino population in California has provided a tremendous opportunity to expand the California Republican Party.  And the California Republican National Hispanic Assembly (CARNHA) is at the heart of that effort.

Hispanics are now recognized as the rising political force in California politics.  The beliefs of the party are consistent with the hopes and aspirations of Hispanics.   Both desire to (a) maintain family and religious values; (b) have less government involvement in their lives; (c) reduce the tax burden placed upon them by the government; and (d) encourage free enterprise and individual initiative, which have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

It is now a matter of awareness and education to bring these parties together in a new and exciting way for the benefit of both. 

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual to save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.

Op-Ed & NEWS, May 9th, 2005

The Immigration Backlash

By Mark Potok, Editor

Southern Poverty Law Center/Intelligence Report

Five years ago, the tale of Roger and Don Barnett was everywhere. Virtually every major news outlet, from network and cable television channels to the leading newspapers and newsweeklies, described how the brothers, frustrated with illegal immigrants crossing their Arizona border ranchlands, rounded up thousands of men and women at gunpoint and turned them over to immigration authorities.

The coverage was sympathetic. The brothers were frequently depicted in downright heroic terms, as two men struggling against a human tide that was leaving fences cut and property littered.

What was almost totally ignored in the national news reports were quiet but persistent complaints that the Barnetts and others like them were actually bigoted, dangerous vigilantes…

The Foreign Born in the Armed Services
By Jennifer Yau
Migration Policy Institute

The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have focused considerable media attention on foreign-born members of the United States armed forces.
This Spotlight uses data from the Defense Manpower Data Center within the Department of Defense, and other sources where noted, to examine the foreign born’s participation in the United States military.
There are approximately 69,300 foreign born serving in the US armed forces.

• The foreign born in the armed forces represent approximately five percent of the total on active duty. 
• Across regions of birth, foreign born from Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for the highest percentage of the foreign born active in the military.

They should all be legal

By Tamar Jacoby

As New York's estimated 650,000 illegal immigrants know, the chief problem with living in the shadows is the uncertainty that comes with it. It's not like being a fugitive on the run. You can usually manage to hold down a job, either with false papers or in the underground economy. Many of your friends and neighbors also are undocumented. You learn to survive - it can even come to feel "normal."

But try to get a driver's license or enroll your kid in college or bargain with your boss or even just take a vacation in your home country - all things that most of the rest of us take for granted - and you will suddenly be reminded: Though Americans are happy to look the other way while you work hard to help grow our economy, we also are determined to punish you for entering the country illegally…

After the 'Minutemen'
By Linda Chavez

The "Minutemen" have left their posts along a short stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico after their month-long effort to stem the flow of illegal immigration. The Minuteman Project, which ended May 1, never drew the thousands of volunteers organizers predicted would show up along the 23-mile stretch of desert in Cochise County, Ariz., which has been a favorite crossing point for thousands of illegal aliens. At month's end, fewer than 900 men and women had joined the ragtag group that some hailed as "citizen volunteers" and others condemned as vigilantes, and only 335 illegal aliens were apprehended as the result of their efforts.

The "REAL ID" Act: A Real Nightmare for Department of Defense

By Margaret Stock

Immigration Daily

If you watched or heard the congressional debate over H.R. 418, the "REAL ID Act of 2005," you might have thought this proposed law—which passed the House of Representatives Friday, February 11, 2005, by a vote of 261–161—was all about stopping terrorists from getting on airplanes. But you would be wrong. This bill—which sets new rules for state motor vehicle departments (DMVs) — promises to be a more of a nightmare for Department of Defense (DoD) than a deterrent to any terrorists.

Consider this language, which is found in the section creating federal standards for state driver's licenses and identification cards: "Beginning 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act…

REVIEW & OUTLOOK 

Immigration Reality Check

Wall Street Journal

"Seal the border" populists on cable news and talk radio maintain that anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. is ascendant. But a recent Senate vote shows more support for the type of guest-worker initiative that President Bush proposes. Economic reality bites -- even in Congress.

Last month 53 Senators voted for a temporary-visa program to address labor demands in the agriculture industry. And while that was fewer than the 60 votes needed to add the measure to an Iraq spending bill, it does indicate a recognition by a majority of Senators that enforcement-only approaches to illegal immigration won't work.

Public prayer? Where's the outrage!
By Mark Alexander

The Federalist Paper
 Yesterday, much to the vexation of the ACLU and company, President George W. Bush invited a group of religious leaders to the East Room of the White House. There, he talked about the importance of prayer, and then (you'd best sit down) he prayed. Yes, on government time and on government property, he prayed.

Who does he think he is?

In this enlightened era when progressive, free-thinking liberals insist on the removal of all religious references and symbols (Crosses, Ten Commandment monuments, etc.) from federal, state and local public places, the President of the United States impudently promoted the merits of prayer and encouraged all Americans to do the same.

But wait, it gets worse.

What Didn't Happen In Ohio

By Russ Baker

TomPaine.com

Back in January, I wrote a piece for TomPaine.com questioning widely circulated claims that the election in Ohio had been stolen. I had done some poking around, anticipating that at least some of the frightening anecdotes filling our mail boxes and raging on talk radio would be borne out. In spot checks on a few popular fraud anecdotes, I found credible alternative explanations such as incompetence, structural problems, politicization of decision-making and other failings— but no evidence of deliberate fraud designed to hand the election to Bush.

I looked especially closely at the theory that fraud is the only way to explain the large gap between the early exit polls, which showed Kerry doing very well, and the final result giving Ohio’s key electoral votes to Bush. According to this theory, there was no way the actual tally could vary so greatly from the exit polls…

 Mexico's democracy

The New York Times

President Vicente Fox of Mexico made one of the most important speeches of his presidency last week when he promised that Mexico City's mayor, the front-runner in the presidential elections to be held next year, would not be barred from the race by a dubious legal move. By showing that a fair process is more important than his party's advantage, Fox acted like the leader of a real democracy.

The mayor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will now certainly be the candidate of the leftist party in the July 2006 election. Before Fox spoke, this seemed unlikely. López Obrador faced a trial because his administration continued construction on a service road to a hospital after a judge ordered it stopped. The road was started by a previous administration, and the mayor's staff supervised the project. Yet Mexico's attorney general decided the matter warranted criminal charges - which would have barred the mayor from running for president.

The Battle of 'Georgiafornia'

In Georgia, where nearly 1 million Hispanic immigrants have arrived since 1990, xenophobic hatred and violence are on the rise
By Bob Moser

Southern Poverty Law Center/Intelligence Report

On a frigid afternoon last February, Domingo Lopez Vargas decided to call it a day. A diminutive 54-year-old with bowl-cut hair and a gold tooth that gleams when he smiles, Lopez had left his dirt-poor Guatemalan farm village 15 years before, determined to earn some decent money for his wife and nine children.

After picking oranges in Tampa, Fla. — "too hot!" Lopez says — he'd joined a mid-1990s wave of immigrants heading for the piney hills and exploding exurbs of North Georgia. Lopez settled in Canton, a former mill village 35 miles north of Atlanta.

With the construction boom spreading ever northward from Atlanta, the area was fast becoming one of the most popular — and lucrative — U.S. destinations for immigrant workers.

Juarez Leaders Slam U.S. Plea Deal in Narco-Graves Case
Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua News

Opinion molders in Ciudad Juarez criticized the United States government this week for a plea bargain that allowed a reputed Juarez drug cartel figure to escape murder charges in return for pleading guilty to conspiring to smuggle drugs into the U.S. In a deal struck with U.S. federal prosecutors in San Antonio last month, Heriberto Santillan Tabares was sentenced to 25 years in prison but avoided a potential death sentence when murder charges were dropped. Santillan had been accused of carrying out 5 Juarez killings while conducting  a criminal enterprise in the United States. The 51-year-old, self-proclaimed “farmer” was linked to the house in the middle-class Las Acequias neighborhood where the bodies of 12 men were unearthed in January 2004. The victims, all presumed to have run afoul of the Juarez cartel, were brutally tortured and killed.  Santillan’s plea bargain prevented a public trial, which was set for San Antonio in early May. 

California proposed state Border Patrol seeks ballot initiative

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – May 5, 2005 - Saying the U.S. government has failed to secure the border with Mexico, California activists who helped recall former Gov. Gray Davis said on Thursday they would promote a ballot measure calling for the state to fund its own border patrol.

They unveiled the measure, the California Border Police Act, as the Minutemen citizens' group that patrolled Arizona's border with Mexico in April prepares for a similar effort this summer south of San Diego along California's border with Mexico.

"California has been trying to pressure the feds for 20 years to do a better job and they haven't," said Dave Gilliard, the measure's political strategist.

The campaign took its first major step on Wednesday by filing a draft of its measure with California's attorney general with the aim of placing it on the June 2006 ballot.

He's drawn a line at the border - Chief making name for himself with crackdown on illegal immigrants 

By Daniel Barrick

Concord Monitor staff (New Ipswich, Conn.)

Jorge Ramirez, a 21-year-old roofer living in Waltham, Mass., was driving home from work last month when a police officer here asked for some identification. When he couldn't produce an American driver's license, Ramirez - an illegal immigrant from Mexico - became the latest in a series of arrests that have pushed New Ipswich to the center of the national immigration debate.

Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain has vowed to arrest any illegal immigrants he finds in his town. He's fulfilled that pledge three times in the past year, relying most recently on a unique application of an anti-trespassing law to arrest Ramirez. Chamberlain's use of local law to round up illegal aliens has earned him praise from immigration-reform activists, right-wing politicians and conservative commentators.

Measure would penalize employers of illegal immigrants

By Howard Fischer

Arizona Daily Star/Capital Media Services

State senators approved yet another measure Tuesday designed to crack down on illegal border crossers, but with a twist: This time they also want to go after the companies that hire them.

 The underlying legislation makes even more services legally off limits to illegal entrants than Proposition 200 which was approved by voters in November.

 For example, if HB 2030 becomes law, only citizens and legal residents could get adult education classes and subsidized child care. And students at state universities and community colleges would have to pay the higher tuition normally charged to out-of-state residents.

 But senators first tacked on a series of amendments to also deal with the other side of the equation of illegal border crossers: They would financially penalize companies…

Four powerful moderate Democratic Senators oppose Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

By Jim Abrams
Associated Press Writer

Four Democratic moderates who are crucial swing votes in Republican efforts to win approval of a free trade pact with Central America said Wednesday they would oppose the agreement because of what they consider weak labor provisions.

"As ardent supporters of fair trade, we cannot support the existing proposal and we call upon the president to go back to the drawing board," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., chair of the centrist group New Democrat Coalition.

Rep. Cannon doubts whether Coloradan (Tom Tancredo) should be in GOP

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
Rep. Tom Tancredo ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party, a Utah congressman said Wednesday after the two GOP lawmakers put an intraparty rift over immigration policy on full public display.

"I think he ought to consider his views and decide whether they're consistent with the Republican Party," Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said of the Colorado congressman after the two clashed repeatedly during a forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic business group.

Can You Sell It in Spanish?

By Eugene Robinson

Washington Post
Our aspirations drive the American consumer economy, so any change in the sacred process -- we see, we want, we dream, we buy -- has to have major implications. Such a change is just beginning to sink in: In today's America, more and more of our aspiring is being done in Spanish.

On 19 evenings so far this television season, the network that captured the biggest number of viewers between the ages of 18 and 34 -- the young consumers whom advertisers covet above all others, the pampered royalty of couch-potatodom -- was not NBC, CBS, ABC or Fox, as the Wall Street Journal noted earlier this week. The winner was Univision, which broadcasts in Spanish.

Bush Pitches Plan to Hispanics - Boosting Financial Literacy Will Aid Investing, He Says

By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer
Even though his 60-day campaign to promote his Social Security plan ended over the weekend without attracting much public -- or congressional -- support, President Bush told a Latino business group yesterday that he has no intention of abandoning his effort.

"There's a lot of moving parts, as they say -- which says to me, I better keep working on it," Bush said. "And I'm going to. I'm just getting started."

Speaking before the Latino Coalition, a public policy group, Bush said his plan to restructure Social Security by curbing future benefit...

A hero's welcome in Brownsville

By Macarena Hernandez
Rio Grande Valley Bureau

He stood on the stage Monday, grinning and clutching the bronze medal dangling from his neck as hundreds chanted his name: FER-NAN-DO! FER-NAN-DO! FER-NAN-DO!

Fernando Spada Jr. had just returned from a weeklong trip to Greece where the 7-year-old placed second in the Under-8 age group at the first world school chess championships.

His teammates, wearing their hunter green chess club T-shirts, waved posters proclaiming Fernando the "king" and a "hero," while the other Hudson Elementary students clapped loudly and frantically shook purple pompoms.

Hispanic wages lower

By Meena Thiruvengadam
San AntonioExpress-News Business Writer

A few years ago, a Hispanic worker in the U.S. could expect to earn about $420 a week. But as the presence of Hispanics in the labor force rises — in economically vital jobs such as painters, roofers, sewing machine operators, plasterers, maids and hazardous materials removers — Hispanics' median weekly wage is dropping.

According to a report released by the Pew Hispanic Center on Monday, "the rapid growth of Hispanic employment appears to have come at the price of lower wages." The median wage is now around $400 a week.

Border Patrol Agents Accused of Smuggling
May 4, 2005
Mexican authorities arrested two U.S. Border Patrol agents late last week on charges of smuggling ammunition. Border Patrol agents German Verdugo and David Allen Navarro were detained by Mexican customs officials and turned over to the federal prosecutor's
office last Friday after the pair was stopped trying to enter Mexicali while allegedly transporting bullets.
According to the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR), Verdugo and Navarro were attempting to drive a vehicle with California license plates through one of the customs lanes at a Mexicali port of entry when the inspection light flashed red, triggering a mandatory inspection.

More money sent home to Mexico

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY – May 6, 2005 - Mexicans living abroad sent more than
$4 billion home in the first quarter of 2005, a 20 percent increase over the same period a year before, the Bank of Mexico said this week.

The largest total went to western Michoacan state, where residents received $546.2 million in the first quarter, according to figures posted in recent days on the Bank of Mexico's Web page.

The remittances, the majority from migrants living in the United States, are Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income after oil.

Last year, Mexicans sent home $16.6 billion, 24 percent more than in 2003.