2012 September 23

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown Says NO to the DREAMers: Sorry, Kids, You Are Here Illegally

September 23, 2012 by Rebeldes 1 Comment

Last week, Massachusetts senator Scott Brown (R), who is facing a tough re-election bid against Elizabeth Warren (D), spent an hour talking with 96.9 Boston Talks' "Jim and Margery Show." The interview covered many topics, but we have to thank the show's hosts for asking Brown about his positions on immigration.

The following three-minute clip touches on all the same neo-nativist themes that have become the standard for the Republican Party. The fact is that Brown is just replicating the 2012 GOP immigration memo (championed by Kobach), and he might as well be running for senator in Arizona. Brown's answers do not surprise us. In the end, no matter how much Brown is trying to portray himself as an independent voice for Massachusetts, his views and comments about immigration put him in the same crowd as the Kris Kobachs and Joe Arpaios of the world. Like Brown says about the DREAMers: "I feel badly [for this kids who are here illegally], but I feel worse for those who have been trying to do it legally." Sorry, kids, you don't belong here.

Yes, Brown is against The DREAM Act and for Secure Communities. And when it comes to getting more work visas for the Irish (hey, it's an election year and it is Massachusetts), start handing them out as soon as possible. What is ironic about how Brown's ignorance is that "deferred action" is not just for DREAMers with Latino surnames. If Brown and his staff actually did their homework, there are Irish DREAMers in this country, too.

Filed Under: Immigration Nuttiness, Injustice, Politics Tagged With: Scott Brown, Scott Brown DREAM Act, Scott Brown DREAMers, Scott Brown Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown immigration

ICE Director John Morton Essentially Thanks Hate Group for “Sharing Concerns” About Secure Communities

September 23, 2012 by Rebeldes Leave a Comment

This story came to our attention after seeing the following meme shared by our friends at Cuéntame:

We did a little more digging and came cross this post: LETTER FROM ICE DIRECTOR JOHN MORTON TO HATE GROUP, FAIR, STIRS CONTROVERSY. Here is what the post from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) had to say:

As ICE faces questions about how it will react to patterns of discrimination and the likelihood of increasing racial profiling under SB1070, a letter from director John Morton to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization on the Anti-Defamation League's list of hate groups, which states that ICE "shares their concerns" about positive legislation in Cook County, Illinois and thanks them for their support is stirring further controversy in Washington and in states that are looking for ways to protect residents from discrimination and negative consequences of police/ICE collaboration.

Besides being called a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League, FAIR has also been called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This is what SPLC has to say about FAIR and founder John Tanton: "The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a group with one mission: to severely limit immigration into the United States. Although FAIR maintains a veneer of legitimacy that has allowed its principals to testify in Congress and lobby the federal government, this veneer hides much ugliness. FAIR leaders have ties to white supremacist groups and eugenicists and have made many racist statements. Its advertisements have been rejected because of racist content. FAIR’s founder, John Tanton, has expressed his wish that America remain a majority-white population: a goal to be achieved, presumably, by limiting the number of nonwhites who enter the country. One of the group’s main goals is upending the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended a decades-long, racist quota system that limited immigration mostly to northern Europeans. FAIR President Dan Stein has called the Act a 'mistake.'"

NDLON also published the full letter Morton sent to FAIR and annotated it:

John Morton's Sympathy Letter to Hate Group

Chris Newman, Legal Director of the NDLON, said the following about the Morton letter: "The outrageous, offensive, and inaccurate communication to a known hate group reveals the desperate lengths the ICE Director will now travel to defend his misguided Secure Communities and 'ICE hold' policy. The Department of Justice report on Alamance County is yet another example of the calamity caused by local Sheriffs' enforcement of immigration law. What is deemed unjust to the DOJ is apparently deemed desirable to ICE. We used to believe that ICE was simply blind to the civil rights violations it was causing, but now there is reason to believe the agency's director has been willfully ignorant. ICE is a rogue agency, and we call on the White House to take swift action to save the administration from further embarrassment."

Filed Under: Immigration Nuttiness, Injustice Tagged With: FAIR, FAIR letter, Iowa State Fair, John Morton ICE Letter to FAIR, John Tanton FAIR, Morton letter Secure Communities

From VOXXI: A Texas Town Wants to Ban Undocumented Immigrants From Renting Houses

September 23, 2012 by Rebeldes Leave a Comment

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED at Voxxi News

Written by Grisela Nevarez

A city in Texas has for years been attempting to ban undocumented immigrants from renting houses but constant legal battles have prevented the town from doing so. And attorneys representing the town tried to make their case in court again this week.

Farmers Branch, a city in Dallas County that holds an estimated population of 29,200, approved an ordinance in 2008 that would require renters to obtain a $5 city license and fill out an application that inquires about their immigration status.

Under the ordinance, building inspectors would also be required to check if applicants are authorized to be in the country and deny those who are not. Landlords that allow undocumented immigrants to rent their houses would also be fined or could lose their renters’ license.

The ordinance never went into effect because it was blocked by a lawsuit brought forward by a group of tenants and landlords. Representing the group were several attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

In 2010, a federal district judge ruled the ordinance was unconstitutional and that it was preempted by federal immigration law. That ruling was upheld in March by a three-judge panel of the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Wednesday, supporters and opponents of the ordinance were back in court after the full panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to rehear the case. The panel, which is made up of 15 federal judges, is considered to be the nation’s most conservative.

Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for MALDEF, said Wednesday before the judges that under the ordinance, Farmers Branch “assumed the authority to identify and evict undocumented immigrants from rental housing.”

She said the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on Arizona’s immigration law makes it clear that “states and cities cannot regulate in this area because it’s thoroughly occupied by the federal government.”

Moreover, Perales said the ordinance “goes far beyond what was invalidated in Arizona and in fact sets up regulation of immigration that is intended in a very direct way to expel them from the jurisdiction.”

But Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the attorney representing Farmers Branch, told the court Wednesday that the plaintiffs “cannot identify a single federal statute that the Farmers Branch ordinance conflicts with.”

When politicians and police across the county want to crack down on illegal immigration, they often reach out to Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and an attorney with an Ivy League education who is the architect behind many of the nation’s most controversial immigration laws. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

He went on to say that federal law not only allows such ordinances, it also “expressingly invites it.” He pointed to six federal statutes that he said support the ordinance. One of those statutes states that local governments should act to discourage illegal immigration and another one forbids the harboring of unauthorized immigrants, which includes renting them apartments.

Kobach also said building inspectors are prohibited from making an independent determination of anyone’s status. Ultimately, it would be immigration officials who determine the immigration status of a person, he said.

“It must always be done by the federal government,” Kobach told the court about determining whether a person is authorized to be in the country.

But Perales said the information federal officials provide the building inspectors to know if someone is authorized to be in the country is often “very complex and varied.”

“That’s something that the building inspector is going to have to figure out for himself,” Perales said about determining a person’s immigration status.

Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas, told VOXXI similar ordinances “have been cropping up in different places.”

In 2006, for example, the city of Escondido in California passed an ordinance banning undocumented immigrants from renting apartments. Months after the ordinance passed and after it received wide opposition from civil rights organizations, the city agreed not to enforce it.

Most recently, the city of Hazleton in Philadelphia also passed an ordinance prohibiting undocumented immigrants from renting houses but it was blocked by a lawsuit. The federal appeals court in Philadelphia heard arguments on the case in August but has not issued a ruling.

It is unknown when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will announce its decision on the Farmers Branch ordinance.

Source: VOXXI News