The “secure the border” theory goes something like this: Build a
series of three parallel fences with barbed wire separated by “no-man’s
zone”; stadium type lighting and ground sensors; sufficient Border
Patrol and military troops to swiftly react to any intrusion. This will
only allow passage through controlled ports-of-entry. Does the theory
guarantee to stop the intrusions? An examination of similar or identical
theories actually put in practice sheds some light.
In the similar category falls the Berlin Wall attempting to keep
people in not out. The wall was well lit; there was barbed wire and
plenty of military personnel. It was effective, as more were killed than
got out over or through the wall. The South and North Korean no-man’s
land fences separating the two countries is another similar barrier.
This particular zone also has thousands of land mines between fences to
discourage trespassing.
By Kevin R. Johnson A few weeks ago, the Minutemen, whom
President Bush has called "vigilantes," massed at the Mexican border in
southern
Arizona with the support of, among others, arch-restrictionist Pat
Buchanan. A California legislator has proposed an initiative that would
create the California Border Police. Through the Real ID Act, Congress has
tightened the vise on immigrants, mandating state driver's license
requirements, making asylum claims tougher to prove and fortifying the
border fence with Mexico.
Although immigration regulation is a federal, not a state,
function, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has entered the immigration
imbroglio. After backtracking on his statement last month about the need
to "close the border" with Mexico, the governor recently endorsed the work
of the Minutemen on Los Angeles talk show radio. In 2003, Schwarzenegger
was catapulted into office by opposing the law allowing undocumented
immigrants to obtain driver's licenses passed by the Legislature.
Following his election, the Legislature repealed the law.
It seems that every new California political cycle creates an "out
from under the rocks" scenario that draws California political kooks into
sunlight.
This time it is State legislator Ray Haynes (Murrieta/North
San Diego County) who is spearheading another unconstitutional grab for
police powers that must frighten all Americans. The proper word is
constitutional "usurpation" or what friendly Germans would call a
constitutional "putsch."
The GRAB: Haynes’ proposal to go to the ballot to set up a
special state police unit that will patrol the border and hound California
employers and their employees looking for illegal resident workers. They
will have to be everywhere, in every business, in every residence and on
every street for there are an estimated 3-4-million illegals in
California.
By Armando Vazquez-Ramos
"Close the borders in California and all across
Mexico and in the United States. Because I think it is just unfair to have
all those people coming across, have the borders open the way it is, and
have this kind of lax situation."- - California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s xenophobic remarks on April 19, 2005 at the annual
meeting of the Newspaper Association of America in San Francisco,
California.
With this comment, the current governor of
California brought to a boiling point the perception that
California-Mexico relations have seriously deteriorated and that neither
public policy nor neighborly relations exist between our State and our
foremost business partner: Mexico.
The embarrassed governor was quick to blame
his poor English skills, as he explained the next day at a news conference
that he intended to say the US-Mexico border should be secured, not
closed. "Yesterday was a total screw-up in the words I used. Because
instead of closing, I meant securing. I think maybe my English, I need to
go back to school and study a little bit."
On May 6th 134 years ago, peons in Mexico celebrated the
May 5th clobbering of a French invader who, like all invaders,
overstayed his welcome. This year Americans are in the process of getting
clobbered by a bunch of Iraqi peons who do not like the fact that we have
invaded and overstayed our welcome. You see the Iraqis believe that they
are patriots! It is all about your point of view.
It has been a fun year watching the fascists get ready to destroy our
rights; they truly believe that we cannot be trusted with democracy. A
report has finally surfaced that shows that Bush the Lesser planned
to invade Iraq as early as Summer 2002. The report shows that the
research, investigations, and intelligence about Iraq were to be written
to support the policy of invasion.
By Judith F. Baca
An anti-illegal immigrant group SaveOurState of Ventura
County emboldened by their recent victory at the removal of a billboard
referring to Los Angeles, Mexico is now demanding the removal of a
twelve-year-old monument in Baldwin Park entitled Danzas Indigenous. I was
commissioned to produce this work in 1993 by MTA and the City of Baldwin
Park as collaboration with Kate Diamond architectural group.
The monument consists of a 20 ft arch, 100 ft plaza and
400 ft train platform. Produced with extensive public input the monument
includes five languages: English, Spanish, Gabrielino, Chumash, Luisueno and
is a layering of indigenous, Spanish, mestizo history, which is associated
with this site.
They’re among us. I can’t stand it anymore. I’m
playing the space card.
Have you ever seen one of those science fiction
movies where aliens from another planet take over the physical bodies of
unsuspecting earthlings? Somehow, the unsuspecting person is snatched up
and beamed aboard some sort of spacecraft where the transformation takes
place. (I’ve never been on one of these ships but I sure would like to get
a look at the inside of one). When they’re returned to earth, they look
exactly the same as before they were abducted. The abductees typically
have no near-term recollection of what has happened to them. Yet, they
behave quite differently. Let me explain:
By Robert Miranda
While there are illegal immigrants living in
Wisconsin, let us not forget they’re here because Corporate America hires
them because they provide cheap labor. Everybody knows this - including
the government – and only the Republican Party is doing something about
it. Unfortunately, the Grand ol’ Party (GOP) and some spineless Democrats
are moving in a direction that is causing more harm than good. Take for
example, the case of Regina Bakala.
Regina Bakala is a 43-year-old mother of two
children residing in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. The United States
government is moving to deport Regina to the Congo, her native land. If
Regina is sent back to the Congo, she will most certainly face death.
Her past political activism in that country,
as a pro-democracy advocate, makes her a threat to the dictatorship
fighting to stay in power in the Congo.
By Manuel Hernandez/HispanicVista.com May 16, 2005
When students make a connection to literature, they stay
awake (intellectually and mentally). When a Latino teen (born and raised
in the United States of Latino parents or recently arrived from Latin
America) reads a story, poem, drama or novel that is far away from the
student's personal, social and cultural background, the opposite occurs.
The greatest secret of success is to come to understand identity, and how
it intertwines with everyday living, reality and existence. The Latino/a
experience in the United States is a literary truth that helps students
have a close encounter with literature because their day to day
experiences are reflected in its texts.
The
connection to literature is dumbfounded when Latino teens are isolated in
classrooms and are separated from the mainstream (current classroom
practice in many schools across America).
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
(USCRI) applauds the introduction of comprehensive immigration reform
legislation and urges the President to quickly back this bi-partisan
effort to bring our immigration system into the 21st Century.
Today, senators McCain (R-AZ) and Kennedy
(D-MA), along with representatives Kolbe (R-AZ), Flake (R-AZ), and
Gutierrez (D-IL), will introduce legislation to permit carefully screened
applicants to study and work in the United States. The legislation would
require undocumented workers already in the United States to pay a
penalty, and then apply for work authorization. After six years of lawful
presence, they could apply for permanent residence. The bill would allow
undocumented students who have been studying in the United States to
participate in the program with proof of enrollment in schools or
universities. The bill would also allow workers outside the United States,
with proof of employment or an employment offer, to pay $500 at local
consulates to apply for a visa. The work visas would not tie the workers
to any particular employer or economic sector, a major innovation for
migrant labor rights.
In 1994, section 245(i) was added to immigration law.
Under this provision, a person who –if it weren't for his or her illegal
status - would qualify to immigrate (for instance, a spouse of a U.S.
citizen), may adjust status in the United States –after having paid a
fine- without having to go to their home country to do so.
However, Congress allowed this section to expire in
November 1997. In December 2000 –while President Clinton was in office-
the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act (LIFE) and LIFE Act Amendment
of section 245(i) was passed and signed into law. Instead of a full
restoration of section 245(i), it merely provided a short four-month in
which eligible immigrants could apply to adjust their status while in the
U.S. as long as they could pay the $1,000 fine.
By Robert Miranda
You’ve got to love the reaction on the faces of these Marquette students
that was plastered on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(Gold: Pan it or dig it, May 4, 2005). After the announcement by Marquette
University president, Father Robert A. Wild of the school’s name change to
GOLD, the pro-Warrior advocates stood there perplexed and dumbfounded.
I particularly love the reaction of the young man in the baseball cap behind
the flabbergasted guy with his hands on his hips, next to the student who
appears to have had a premonition and was already dressed like a gold
nugget. Talk about a “Kodak moment”.
The smiling young man with the baseball cap leaves me with the impression of
his satisfaction that poetic justice was handed to the insensitive
reactionary actions of a few who simply ignored the concerns of American
Indians.
I recently read in Hispanic magazine that 78% of our Latino population
is living paycheck to paycheck. I felt that this number was quite high so
I went out to research this situation. I found out that the high
percentage comes from a Met Life 2003 Employee Benefits Trend Study
conducted during the third quarter of 2003.
I decided to take my own survey and ask the same question of our East
Contra Costa Hispanics. Since I am not shy it was easy to start a
conversation at the local Home Depot and Wal-Mart with many Hispanics. I
was actually surprised to not only hear that so many are living paycheck
to paycheck but also how many are barely just getting by.
Column of the Americas
By Patrisia Gonzales
Xochitl Rivera prepared her life for a whole year when she became like
tender corn, or Xilonen. She was called this because she was about to
ripen into a maiden. She underwent a year-long rite of passage that
combined both an indigenous ceremony with a quinceañera. A growing custom
among Chicanas practicing indigenous traditions is that of the Xilonen
ceremony. Xilonen in the Aztec cosmovision or philosophy represents the
spirit of tender corn similar to corn maiden.
"When you're a Xilonen, your are going from a seed and you're growing,
growing until you become like a corn. There's going to be lots of changes
and your going to go through a lot, "recalled Rivera, now a young woman in
her twenties.
Actually, there are two
flies in two houses. One house is called the White House and the other
house is called the House White (translated from the Spanish). In the
White House, in Washington, on a big desk is a red telephone. This phone
is for very important calls. In the House White, in México City, on a
somewhat smaller desk is a yellow telephone also for very important calls.
The red phone is colored, as are important things, like fire engines and
so on. The yellow phone is because Mexicans like that orangey yellow a
lot. Some call it "Mexican Yellow" and that color is used all over the
place in México. The two flies that are going to listen to the telephone
calls are secret agents from your dedicated writer's organization.
The
yellow phone rings:
"Vince here.”
"W here.”
By Bernardo Méndez
We know that Latino population is
growing fast in the US and we are close to 40 million people now, a market
that is about the same size of the whole Mexican Market of 105 millions.
What we have to know is that California is the leading state in Latino and
Mexican population and nearly one million businesses and companies belong
to Latino entrepreneurs. According to a recent book by Professor David
Hayes-Bautista of UCLA Latino Children born in California make now more
than half of California births and very soon -maybe in a couple of years-
Latino students will be majority in k-12 public school system, his own
book title is a simbolic statement of Spanish presence in California and
USA: "La Nueva California: Latinos in the Golden State" by University of
California Press, 2004.
Of the 40 million Latinos
in the USA, Mexican descent population make more than 25 million of which
more than 10 million live and work in California. The San Francisco Bay
Area including San Francisco, Oakland, all East Bay, San Jose, Stockton
and Sacramento has close to 2 million Latinos...
Most people living in Los Angeles today have probably never heard of
the Expedition of 1781. However, if this expedition had not taken place
or fulfilled its objectives, Los Angeles would not be 224 years old this
year. This expedition of almost a thousand miles founded a small pueblo
on the outskirts of the extensive Spanish Empire. That small pueblo, now
known as Los Angeles, would eventually form the nucleus of a thriving
multi-ethnic, multicultural urban center with a population of almost 10
million people.
In 1774, King Carlos III of Spain had authorized the settlement of the
California communities we call San Gabriel, Los Angeles, and Santa
Barbara. He believed that the establishment of pueblos, missions and
presidios in these areas would serve as a bulwark against the looming
threat of the Russian and British empires, both of which were moving
closer to California.
Drafted By: Federico Bordonaro Power and Interest News Report (PINR
Recent developments in the international relations arena such as the new
Sino-Indian cooperation agreements and the Russo-German strategic deals,
both from April 2005, call for a theoretical interpretation in the context
of the current phase of world affairs. These relationships are often defined
as "strategic partnerships." A strategic partnership can be explained as a
bilateral relationship with the main function being to facilitate the
increase of power (at first in absolute terms) of the two states involved.
In this sense, it differs both from a classical security-oriented alliance
and from political and economic integration processes such as the European
Union.
Strategic partnerships are not necessarily directed against a common rival,
contrary to classical alliances. The main reasons for forging these latter
alliances have always been security concerns and the seeking of a balance of
power. Security was, therefore, the elemental concept in this kind of
relationship.
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.
In the wake of 9/11, a renewed push was
launched for a bad, old idea: a national ID card. The Big Brother-style
idea, scary to most Americans, was repeatedly rejected in the past,
especially in the 1970s and 1980s, and polls show that it isn’t favored
now. Led by Newt Gingrich and other authoritarian personalities, including
Oracle’s Larry Ellison—who offered free software—there was an overt effort
after 9/11 to enact it into law, but it died when it became clear that
enthusiasm in Congress was lacking. Since then, backers reverted to a sly
campaign to establish a “back door” national ID system, building on the
idea of a single, national database of drivers licenses. In 2004, the
chief sponsor of the latest effort, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R.-Wis.,
tried to include it in last year’s intelligence bill—but he failed then,
too.
Politics-watchers from all points on the
left-right spectrum are trying to figure out what Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger had in mind late last month when he picked up his cell
phone, called a Los Angeles talk-radio show and praised the work of
volunteer border patrols in Arizona called the Minutemen.
"I think they have done a terrific job," Schwarzenegger said.
With that, the immigrant governor jumped into perhaps California's
most volatile political issue, one that erupted 11 years ago during a
political campaign...
She worked for 30 years at a California hospital before having to take
disability leave. But when 60-year-old Joan Stevenson felt well enough to
return, the hospital turned her away.
The evidence was clear: age discrimination, something explicitly
outlawed by the California Legislature. Stevenson sued. Each of the
California Supreme Court justices agreed with her.
Well, all but one.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown didn’t dispute the charge of age
discrimination. She just felt the legislature shouldn’t prohibit it.
“Discrimination based on age,” she wrote, “is the unavoidable consequence
of ... time.”
Cambridge, Mass. —. One of the paradoxes of global warming is that
developing countries, which were not responsible for most of the
greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the climate and did not reap
the benefits of industrialization, will bear the brunt of the
consequences. One of these consequences will be rising seas, which in turn
will generate a surge of "climate exiles" who have been flooded out of
their homes in poor countries. How should those of us in rich countries
deal with this wave of immigrants? The fairest solution: allowing the
phased immigration of people living in vulnerable regions according to a
formula that is tied to the host country's cumulative contributions to
global warming.
Miguel Contreras, 53, suffers apparent heart attack
By Rick Orlov
(Los Angeles) Daily News Staff Writer
Friday, May 06, 2005 - Miguel Contreras, the Los Angeles labor chief who
rose from the ranks of Cesar Chavez's farm labor movement to head one of
the most powerful unions in the nation, died Friday of an apparent heart
attack, officials said. He was 53.
Contreras, as executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County
Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, took control of the umbrella organization of
unions and built it into a potent political force that today includes more
than 300 affiliates and 800,000 members and wields enormous influence
across Southern California.
VATICAN CITY, MAY 12, 2005 (Zenit.org).-
Benedict XVI confirmed his commitment to peace and the defense of
fundamental human rights, in an address to the Diplomatic Corps Accredited
to the Holy See.
Speaking today to ambassadors from the 174 countries that have full
diplomatic relations with the Holy See, the new Pope confirmed the
commitments he made in his first message to the world, read in the Sistine
Chapel on April 20, the day after his election.
The Holy Father said he regards the issues of peace and human rights as
particularly important because of his experience as a youth in Germany,
where he was a victim of Nazi oppression, and witness of the division
caused by communism.
Immigration reform legislation introduced Thursday would boost border
security and interior enforcement of immigration laws while at the same
time reducing the flow of illegal immigrants by offering them visas to
work in the United States, according to a bipartisan group of House and
Senate sponsors.
To carry out the mandates, the Homeland Security, Labor, and State
departments and the Social Security Administration would take on
significant new responsibilities.
The bill, the 2005 Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, would
allow illegal immigrants who pay fines and fees of at least $2,000, take
English and civics courses, and undergo medical and background checks, to
apply for green cards and eventually citizenship.
Hundreds of civil liberties groups, immigrant support groups and
government associations oppose the Real ID Act, a piece of legislation
that critics say would produce a de facto national ID card, cost states
millions of dollars and punish undocumented immigrants.
Yet despite widespread opposition to the bill, it passed through
the House last week and is expected to easily pass through the Senate on
Tuesday.
The legislation is raising questions not only about privacy and
costs but about the ways in which critical legislation gets passed in
Congress.
The U.S. Border Patrol is doing a
comprehensive assessment of every mile of the nation's borders to
determine what resources and personnel it needs, a top homeland security
official said.
"Over the last few years, the Border Patrol has gained better control
over larger areas of our border, certainly than we had before," Customs
and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner told Government
Executive. "But we don't have the degree of control we need to have."
While the assessment is being done, the
Border Patrol will continue an aggressive campaign to gain control over an
outlaw area in western Arizona that has been overrun with drug smugglers
and illegal immigration, regardless of how long it takes, Bonner added.
A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress
yesterday seeks to revise the current immigration system by allowing
millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to apply to be
temporary guest workers and permit residents of other countries to seek
the same status if they can prove that a job is waiting for them.
The new visa program proposed by Sens. John
McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would allow immigrant
workers to leave and enter the United States as they please over the
three-year life of the temporary visa.
McCain said current immigration policy
is "unacceptable," in part because it forces Mexican nationals and
others...
Hospitals in California are expected to receive a large portion of the
money earmarked by the federal government for facilities whose finances
are strained by the cost of providing emergency room care for illegal
immigrants.
Hospitals can begin applying today for the funds under a four-year,
$1-billion program announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human
Services.
California hospitals are in line to receive more than any other state —
nearly $71 million in the first year of the program, or about 30% of the
initial national allocation of $250 million. Funds are distributed based
on a state's percentage of undocumented immigrants and on the number of
apprehensions of individuals in the state illegally.
Several management problems that doomed the former Immigration and
Naturalization Service live on in security agencies responsible for
enforcing the nation's immigration laws, a top government auditor recently
said.
INS was dismantled after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the Homeland
Security Department was created and the bureaus of Customs and Border
Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement took over enforcing
immigration laws. CBP is responsible for inspections and border patrol,
while ICE is in charge of investigations, intelligence, and detention and
removal operations.
Tucson, AZ- On May 30, 2005, a diverse group of individuals will
begin a 75-mile walk to call attention to the human rights crisis that is
occurring on our borders. The Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life is a
joint endeavor of community groups and individuals, including Migrant
Trail Walk Committee, Christian Peacemaker Team, Derechos Humanos/Alianza
Indígena Sin Fronteras, and o More Deaths. The walk will begin in Sásabe,
Sonora and arrive at Kennedy Park on Sunday, June 5th for a
closing ceremony.
“We call for action now to prevent the tragic deaths of migrants in
the desert,” says Hector Suarez of No More Deaths. “Thousands of men,
women, and children have died due to border militarization and unjust
immigration and international economic policies. These deaths must stop.”
The US is losing billions of dollars as international tourists are
deterred from visiting the US because of a tarnished image overseas and
more bureaucratic visa policies, travel industry leaders have warned.
“It's an economic imperative to address these problems,” said Roger
Dow, chief executive of the Travel Industry Association of America,
tourism's main trade body, which concluded its annual convention this
weekend in New York.
Mr. Dow stressed that tourism contributed to a positive perception of
the US, which spread across to business. “If we don't address these issues
in tourism, the long-term impact for American brands Coca-Cola, General
Motors, McDonald's could be very damaging,” he said.
The first is about
the grass roots effort that the Catholic Church is undertaking to promote
support for comprehensive immigration reform.
In it, a
spokesperson from FAIR (an anti-immigration group) is quoted as stating
that there is little support among voters for comprehensive immigration
reform.
But the second article from RollCall included here is about an
extensive poll showing that there is wide spread support for immigration
reform that is not "enforcement-only".
Quoting from that report:
Unusual trees and rocks are both landmarks and warnings for those
who cross border illegally.
By Richard Marosi,
The scrub oak tree that marks the human smuggling trail into
California invites migrants to rest from the arduous mountain crossing.
Weary men, women and children drink from water bottles and seek shade from
the searing sun.
When the migrants sit back — still facing a six-hour hike to the border —
the bandits pounce.
They
steal the migrants' meager belongings and strip off their clothing looking
for money stitched into the seams. The underwear is then tossed into the
branches.
Baja
California News NAFTA
Commission to Review Baja Ecology complaint The
Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has agreed to
review a binational citizen complaint against a natural gas re-gasification
terminal planned for a zone off the coast of Baja California. Pursued by
environmental groups and activists from Mexico and the United States, the
complaint charges that a terminal slated
near the Coronado Islands threatens the breeding grounds of the endangered
seabird Xantu's Murrelet and other species considered at risk. The
submitters of the complaint include Greenpeace Mexico; The Center for
Biological Diversity, Alfonso Aguirre; Shay Wolf; American Bird Conservancy;
Los Angeles Audobon Society; Pacific Environment and Resources Center; and
Wildcoast.
Warning on Counterfeit
Pharmaceuticals Purchased in Mexico- FDA
and Mexican federal health officials Investigations of illegal
pharmaceuticals & counterfeits cause suspension of 19 pharmacies
-- 105 tons of medicines confiscated or recalled
COSTA MESA CA
USA -- MEDICAL INDUSTRY E-MAIL NEWS SERVICE(TM) -- MAY 12 2005 -- On May 10
2005, the FDA issued a warning about the sale of counterfeit versions of
Lipitor, Viagra, and an unapproved product allegedly promoted as "generic
Evista" to US consumers at pharmacies in Mexican border towns.
By
Bill Dahl/HispanicVista.com
By Manuel Hernandez/HispanicVista.com
By
Erika Robles
By Patrick Osio,
Jr./HispanicVista.com
By
Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com
By 
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com