Seattle University Law school Study Documents Immigrant Detainee Abuse

As reported in yesterday’s post The Seattle University School of Law in collaboration with OneAmerica has released a study documenting detainee abuse at the privately run immigrant detainment facility in Tacoma, Washington. The study is entitled “Voices from Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington.” Eristic ragemail has previously posted on detainee abuse, which you can find here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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Nativism as a Gateway Drug to the Verboten

The gateway hypothesis holds that abusable drugs occupy distinct ranks in a hierarchy as well as definite positions in a temporal sequence. Accordingly, substance use is theorized to progress through a sequence of stages, beginning with legal, socially acceptable compounds that are low in the hierarchy, followed by use of illegal 'soft' and later 'hard' drugs ranked higher and illegal, socially unacceptable hard drugs. In the same manner that certain drugs are deemed acceptable, but viewed as gateways to other drugs, such as the use of prescription pain-killers, benzodiazepines, marijuana and alcohol, for example, lead the user to experiment with harder and less socially acceptable drugs such as heroin, methoamphetamines, crack cocaine etc. so certain socio-political positions, that are deemed socially acceptable, open up the user, and ultimately the political debate to positions previously deemed socially unacceptable and verboten. Examples of socially acceptable positions are: abolish welfare, treat criminals harshly, execute criminals who commit certain offenses and deport all aliens. Examples of verboten subjects include racially-based eugenics, genocide, racism, extermination of large groups of domestic citizens, deportation of masses of U.S. citizens or the institution of concentration camps for a particular race or ethnic group. The reader can easily add other socially unacceptable subjects to this list.

Nativists have used the socially acceptable anti-immigrant paradigm to push the envelope of extremism. Nativism has always been a part of American political discourse. The earl part of the Nineteenth Century brought a wave of bigoted attitudes enacted into laws which brought about the forced sterilization of tens of thousands and laws restricting the immigration of “inferior” groups. “The [Immigration and Restriction Act of] 1924 act, following a barrage of eugenicist propaganda, reset the quotas at 2 percent of people from each nation recorded in the 1890 census (Southern and eastern Europeans arrived in relatively small numbers before then)… Cynical, but effective. “America must be kept American,” proclaimed Calvin Coolidge as he signed the bill.” ( (“The Mismeasure of Man,”Stephen Jay Gould, p. 262). So today, nativists are using the social acceptability of anti-immigrant sentiment to push for more, previously unacceptable, extreme positions. The process utilized by nativists is similar to the stages leading to genocide.

What makes subjects such as genocide verboten is the morally repugnant nature of such extreme positions. As we have seen, genocide occurs in countries such as Nazi Germany, Kampuchea, Burundi, Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Genocide does not arrive full blown out of group differences. Rarely is genocide set forth explicitly as a political platform. Genocide is a process. According to the International Commission to End Genocide there is an eightfold process to genocide.

1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide.

2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply them to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.

3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group.

4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes informally (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or by terrorist groups. Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings

5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center.

6. IDENTIFICATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. They are often segregated into ghettoes, forced into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved.

7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi).

8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile.

Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide

1804 “S” St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 USA. Phone:703-448-0222 Fax:703-448-6665

One may see elements of this process in the current nativist wave. The classification that nativists need exists in the readily cognizable categories of immigrants. Most nativists confound the difference between immigrants who are here legally and those that are undocumented, thus broadening the spectrum of those labeled immigrants. The immigrant classification existed before the current organization of nativist elements such as FAIR, NumbersUSA, VDare and the Minutemen.

The nativists have carried the immigrant classification into further processes of dehumantization. Nativists vigorously insist that undocumented immigrants be called, “aliens,” “illegals” or “criminals,” thus adding the element of symbolization to classification. Nativist spokesmen, websites and literature constantly insist on this symbolization of immigrants. When others use the term “undocumented workers” or simply “immigrants,” nativists mock them and insist that “these people” are “illegal” and that “illegals have no rights.” At the extreme, undocumented immigrants are referred to as insects, disease infested hordes and cockroaches. In this process, they move the debate to the level of dehumanization.

As articulated by the Society Against Genocide, dehumanization “denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases.” This is clearly evidenced in the literature put out by nativist groups and by prominent nativists such as Lou Dobbs. In the case of the most prominent nativist groups, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, (“FAIR”) all these methods of dehumanization are being utilized as revealed by an investigation by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

ADL's new online report, Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream documents the rhetoric employed by groups that routinely position themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America.

A closer look at the public record reveals that many ostensibly mainstream anti-illegal immigration organizations – including those who testified before Congress or frequently appeared on news programs – promote virulent anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Some groups have fostered links with extremist groups.

The real victims in this are Hispanic-Americans and other immigrants who are being unfairly targeted, demeaned and stereotyped."

The report cites several key tactics used by anti-immigrant groups, including:

· Describing immigrants as "third world invaders," who come to America to destroy our heritage, "colonize" the country and attack our "way of life." This charge is used against Hispanics, Asians and other people of color.

· Using terminology that describes immigrants as part of "hordes" that "swarm" over the border. This dehumanizing language has become common.

· Portraying immigrants as carriers of diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, Chagas disease (a potentially fatal parasitic disease), dengue fever, polio, malaria.

· Depicting immigrants as criminals, murderers, rapists, terrorists, and a danger to children and families.

· Propagating conspiracy theories about an alleged secret "reconquista" plot by Mexican immigrants to create a "greater Mexico" by seizing seven states in the American Southwest that once belonged to Mexico.

These examples of dehumanizing language are derived from such “mainstream” sources such as FAIR, NumbersUSA and the cable news shows (Lou Dobbs,Bill O'Reilly).

[A] single -- but not seamless -- web connects ideological white supremacists, armed border vigilantes, nativist think tanks, political action committees, and Republican Party officeholders in an anti-immigrant movement of growing significance. Formal policy deliberations may include debates on the fiscal costs of providing social services to undocumented workers, the supposed downward pressure immigrant labor exerts on the marketplace, the net costs and benefits of immigration, and the national-security problems evinced by holes in our borders. But at gatherings like these, the raw issues are race and national identity.

Differences between legal and illegal immigrants fade into a generalized belief that a brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking tidal wave is about to swamp the white-skinned population of the United States. The attempt to stop undocumented workers at the borders morphs into a campaign to end immigration altogether, to save our supposedly white nation from demographic ruin. As Tancredo told interviewer John Hawkins, “[If] we don't control immigration, legal and illegal, we will eventually reach the point where it won't be what kind of a nation we are, balkanized or united; we will have to face the fact that we are no longer a nation at all … .

The New Nativism: The alarming overlap between white nationalists and mainstream anti-immigrant forces. Leonard Zeskind The American Prospect,| October 23, 2005.

The dehumanizing labels are not confined to extremist elements but spew out from mainstream nativist commentators.

The most media-visible figures in this camp, such as Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Tom Tancredo and Victor Davis Hanson may argue the case for restricting, deporting, rounding up and cutting off public services to those "illegals" stigmatized as culturally backward, unhealthy potential terrorists. But they protest that their motives for doing so are as pure as the driven snow.

In their writings and media appearances, the leaders of the anti-immigration movement claim their politics are based not on a hatred of the racial Other but on their commitment to the rule of law, the integrity of "our culture," the objective findings of social science, or better employment prospects for American workers.
On page after page of In Mortal Danger, Tom Tancredo's diatribe against non-European immigrants and multiculturalism, the presidential candidate and congressman repeatedly complains that he and his colleagues have been unfairly painted as racist or had their arguments misconstrued as racist.

"Tancredo's book drips with cultural condescension toward Mexican-Americans, Muslims and African-Americans."

But alongside these complaints Tancredo's book drips with cultural condescension toward Mexican-Americans, Muslims and African-Americans. While he claims that illegality is the problem, Tancredo soon moves past this and calls for revoking the legal citizenship of what he terms Mexican-American "anchor babies." Conjuring up racist and sexist imagery, he declares that "gravid wombs should not guarantee free medical care."

"The Racist Roots of the Anti-Immigration Movement," by Lee Cokorinos

As well, hate literature is disseminated that paints immigrants as invading hordes. The most prominent example of this is FAIR founder’s John Tanton, who had the Social Contract Press translate, publish and promote The Camp of the Saints, a starkly racist apocalyptic novel about a wave of Indian immigrants overrunning France. In 1996, Tanton coauthored The Immigration Invasion with Wayne Lutton, who sits on the advisory board of a publication put out by the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens. Editor of the Social Contract Press, Tanton also published the racist tracts of the avowedly racist VDare site.

More extreme language can be found on sites such as VDare.com, never mind the fringe groups such as the Minutemen. In any event, it is absolutely incontrovertible that all of these groups have used code language to dehumanize immigrants and set them apart from “normal” human beings. And, in so doing, they have advanced positions which advocate that Africans are less intelligent and morally degenerate, that Jews disproportionately control the economy and media and need to be reigned in, that darker races breed more prolifically and must be stopped and that third-world masses are undermining the country by race-mixing with the superior whites that have traditionally dominated this country.

The foregoing positions, once deemed verboten and confined to the most extreme elements of society, now find voice in nativist publications. The latest issue of The Social Contract, a publication closely affiliated with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), is devoted entirely to the writings from the racist website VDare which features such prominent racists and anti-Semites as Steve Sailer, Jared Taylor, Kevin MacDonald, Patrick Buchanan and, of course, its editor Peter Brimelow. These writers make no effort to hide their racist positions albeit using euphemisms such as referring to themselves as “white nationalists” instead of the more accurate, “white supremacists.”

What is most disturbing about these extremist publications is their interaction with front organizations that are viewed as legitimate by the mainstream media.

Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.

None of this -- or any other material evidencing the bigotry and racism that courses through the group -- seems to have affected FAIR's media standing. In just the first 10 months of 2007, the group was quoted in mainstream media outlets nearly 500 times with virtually no mention of its more unsavory aspects. Stein was featured on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" at least 12 times in the same period, along with countless appearances on other television news shows. And, perhaps most remarkably of all, FAIR has been taken seriously by Congress, which has called upon its officials to testify on immigration more than 30 times since 2000.

And in such manner civil discourse comes to accept and give legitimacy to extremist groups. The fact that the most extreme positions, advocated by such groups, are not ultimately quoted in the mainstream media does not diminish their power. To the contrary once such extremist groups are viewed as legitimate, so are the group’s extreme views. The fact that The Social Contract devotes an entire issue to racist and extremist authors goes unmentioned in the mainstream media. Anti-immigrant cant becomes a gateway to: eugenics based theories put into practice by Nazis, advocacy of positions that blacks and Latinos need to be controlled because they are degenerate and less intelligent and anti-miscegenation (race-mixing) arguments advocating the reinstitution of segregation and apartheid never mind the logical conclusion of forced sterilization and extermination.

There are those who argue that the current nativist climate has reached most of the elements of genocide. For now, I want to emphasize how, otherwise repugnant views, have entered into the mainstream lexicon and may soon find expression in government policies. As long as John Tanton's nework of hate feeds the likes of Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and the rest of the cable-news haters and AM radio screamers, so the process of radicalization of the political debate will continue to grow.

Spain: Example of Enlightened Immigration Policy

Spain has a population of 40 million and is geographically 1/20th the size of the United States. Since 1985, Spain has welcomed and granted legal status to 600,000 immigrants. In 1987, after the United States enacted comprehensive immigration reform, 2.7 million immigrants were granted legal status. The United States has a population of 300,000,000 and is 20 times larger than Spain. Unlike the United States, Spain encounters no nativist or anti-immigrant outcries of any significance. To the contrary, the Spanish seem quite willing to accept the newly arrived immigrants, including those from Africa. A portion of these immigrants come from Latin America and share a common language and culture. Hence, it could be argued that such immigrants are more easily assimilated into Spanish society. Even taking account the cultural kinship, the Spanish seem extraordinarily tolerant in welcoming immigrants. This is in marked contrast to other European countries, and significantly to the United States, where nativists constantly harp that the country cannot absorb so “many” immigrants.

According to the New York Times,

No country has run more legalization programs than Spain, which has carried out six since 1985. As recently as a decade ago, immigrants made up less than 2 percent of the population. Now they are more than 10 percent. About 40 percent come from eastern and northern Europe; 38 percent come from Latin America; and 20 percent from Africa.

Despite the rapid change, until recently there was little political conflict, with legalizations occurring under both conservative and socialist governments. Spain even offers immigrants free health insurance, whether they are legal or not.

“The attitude toward unauthorized migrants is much more relaxed than in the United States,” said Joaquín Arango, a sociologist at Complutense University in Madrid.

The acceptance has been attributed to newfound prosperity, the need for workers, the progressive culture of post-Franco Spain and the shared language with Latin Americans, which spares Spain a major source of tension in the United States.

“Border Crossings: Spain, Like U.S., Grapples with Immigration,” by Jason DeParle, The New York Times, June 10, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/world/europe/10migrate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Did you catch that: immigrants make up 10 percent of the Spanish population. A similar percentage of immigrants in the United States would amount to 30 million people. Keep in mind that the density of the Spain is considerably higher than that of the United States.

Historically, nativism in the United States has had a strongly anti-Catholic element. In fact, the central part of Harvard nativist, Samuel Huntington’s argument against Latin American immigration is the fact that they come from Roman Catholic countries. (Huntington, like many nativists ignores the fact that, well over a third to as much as half of Latin Americans, are now Evangelical Protestants.) Huntington argues that Catholic immigrants will change our Protestant work ethic and culture. Needless to say, this argument is lacking rock-hard empirical evidence.

What Spain demonstrates is that a society can absorb very large numbers of immigrants without social disruption. I would argue that the repressive Federal policies currently being carried out against immigrants in the United States are much more socially disruptive than legalization of undocumented workers. We, who have prided ourselves as a tolerant society, might well take a chapter from the Spanish on how to treat immigrants in our midst.

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McCain: A Chip off of the Bush Republican Block

John McCain likes to tout his independence from the nutwings that make up the Republican Party base. However, neither his voting record nor his recent statements indicate that he will be anything other than a third term Bush administration. McCain has virtually always voted in lock-step with his Republican colleagues. As well, his advisors are almost all industry hacks and lobbyists. The one issue that could have put McCain in good stead with Hispanic voters was his support of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that he co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. He has now repudiated that position and is in lock-step with the Bush administration’s radical immigration enforcement tactics.

The conventional wisdom put forth by the mainstream media is that McCain is a “maverick” amongst Republicans. But McCain’s right wing position was recently highlighted in a report by the media watchdog, Media Matters. The Media Matters report notes that the media continues to push this maverick narrative against all facts to the contrary. Of special significance is his repudiation of comprehensive immigration reform.

In a March 31 article, the Los Angeles Times claimed that Sen. John McCain's "biography tour" may "soften conservative discomfort with the maverick senator, who has strayed from Republican orthodoxy on immigration and campaign reform." In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, McCain has abandoned his previous support for comprehensive immigration legislation to more closely align himself with the base of the Republican Party. McCain asserted on January 30 that he "would not" support his original comprehensive immigration proposal if it came to a vote on the Senate floor, now saying that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective.

Media Matters also notes another L.A. Times article which hues to the maverick narrative.

In a June 5 Los Angeles Times article, staff writer Michael Finnegan wrote that in the Southwest, where there is an "influx of Latinos," Sen. John McCain "hopes that his support for legalizing many undocumented immigrants, and the political price he paid for it within his party, will keep him competitive with Latinos." Yet Finnegan did not note that during the race for the Republican nomination, McCain reversed himself on the issue of border security, saying that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. Indeed, McCain said in January that he "would not" support the comprehensive immigration reform legislation he once sponsored with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

Latinos never had much reason to support the Senator from Arizona. Arizona has put in place some of the harshest anti-immigrant measures in the country. Neo-Nazi Sheriff, Joe Arpaio has used these measures to harass Latinos. McCain has not uttered a peep of protest against these highly punitive and discriminatory measures. Whatever hopes the Republicans had of splitting the Latino vote in key swing states are quickly dissipating.

Links:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804010006?f=s_search

http://mediamatters.org/items/200806040010?f=h_latest

http://mediamatters.org/items/200805220003?f=s_search

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The New York Times: “The Great Panic,” Excellent Editorial on the Current State of the Immigration Debate

(What follows is the New York Times editorial published on June 3, 2008.)

Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don’t mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.

A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.

The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges.

An escalating campaign of raids in homes and workplaces has spread indiscriminate terror among millions of people who pose no threat. After the largest raid ever last month — at a meatpacking plant in Iowa — hundreds were swiftly force-fed through the legal system and sent to prison. Civil-rights lawyers complained, futilely, that workers had been steamrolled into giving up their rights, treated more as a presumptive criminal gang than as potentially exploited workers who deserved a fair hearing. The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges.

Immigrants in detention languish without lawyers and decent medical care even when they are mortally ill. Lawmakers are struggling to impose standards and oversight on a system deficient in both. Counties and towns with spare jail cells are lining up for federal contracts as prosecutions fill the system to bursting. Unbothered by the sight of blameless children in prison scrubs, the government plans to build up to three new family detention centers. Police all over are checking papers, empowered by politicians itching to enlist in the federal crusade.

This is not about forcing people to go home and come back the right way. Ellis Island is closed. Legal paths are clogged or do not exist. Some backlogs are so long that they are measured in decades or generations. A bill to fix the system died a year ago this month. The current strategy, dreamed up by restrictionists and embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, is to force millions into fear and poverty.

The American public’s moderation on immigration reform, confirmed in poll after poll, begs the candidates to confront the issue with courage and a plan.

There are few national figures standing firm against restrictionism. Senator Edward Kennedy has bravely done so for four decades, but his Senate colleagues who are running for president seem by comparison to be in hiding. John McCain supported sensible reform, but whenever he mentions it, his party starts braying and he leaves the room. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her voice on this issue more than once. Barack Obama, gliding above the ugliness, might someday test his vision of a new politics against restrictionist hatred, but he has not yet done so. The American public’s moderation on immigration reform, confirmed in poll after poll, begs the candidates to confront the issue with courage and a plan. But they have been vague and discreet when they should be forceful and unflinching.

The restrictionist message is brutally simple — that illegal immigrants deserve no rights, mercy or hope. It refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life. Unless the nation contains its enforcement compulsion, illegal immigrants will remain forever Them and never Us, subject to whatever abusive regimes the powers of the moment may devise.

Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values.

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In North Carolina, Dole Uses Tired Anti-Immigrant Cant in Desperate Move to Rescue Sagging Poll Numbers

As you may recall, Barack Obama kicked A** in North Carolina and Democratic Senatorial Candidate, Kay Hagen, is closing in on incumbent GOP Senator Elizabeth Dole. The latest polling shows Hagen within 5 points of Dole, which for a red state like North Carolina is pretty damned good. In a move to shore up her support, Dole has resorted to a ploy from the tired old Republican playbook of the politics of hate. Dole has started catterwalling about "illegal immigration" with an expensive ad campaign. Unfortunately for Dole, the illegal immigrant canard does not have the traction as a wedge issue that gay marriage and abortion once did. Look for a major fizzle on this issue, but if Dole wants to spend big bucks on ineffective and tired wedge issues all the better for Hagen.

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New Study Undermines Nativist Canard that New Immigrants Refuse to Assimilate

A new study by the Manhattan Institute undermines the nativist canard that recent immigrants are resistant to assimilation. Nativists have long ranted that the current crop of immigrants, especially Latin Americans, are not assimilating as fast as previous generations of immigrants. The Report, by Jacob Vigdor, Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University, demonstrates that the latest wave of immigrants is actually assimilating at a faster rate than previous generations of immigrants. When you factor in legal status, Latin Americans assimilate at rate equal to or higher than Asian immigrants. Nativists have long held that Latin Americans held on to their language and culture and resisted efforts to assimilate. The Manhattan Institute report decisively puts an end to this nativist canard.

"This is something unprecedented in U.S. history," Vigdor said. "It shows that the nation's capacity to assimilate new immigrants is strong."

As reported in the Washington Post on May 13, 2008:

Immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, according to a study released today. …

The study, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, a New York think tank, used census and other data to devise an assimilation index to measure the degree of similarity between the United States' foreign-born and native-born populations. These included civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens. The higher the number on a 100-point index, the more an immigrant resembled a U.S. citizen.

In general, the longer an immigrant lives in the United States, the more characteristics of native citizens he or she tends to take on, said Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor at Duke University and author of the study. During periods of intense immigration, such as from 1870 to 1920, or during the immigration wave that began in the 1970s, new arrivals tend to drag down the average assimilation index of the foreign-born population as a whole.

The report found, however, that the speed with which new arrivals take on native-born traits has increased since the 1990s. As a result, even though the foreign population doubled during that period, the newcomers did not drive down the overall assimilation index of the foreign-born population. Instead, it held relatively steady from 1990 to 2006.

"This is something unprecedented in U.S. history," Vigdor said. "It shows that the nation's capacity to assimilate new immigrants is strong."

The study points out that even factoring in previous waves of immigration from English-speaking countries, today’s assimilation index is much higher than previous periods of high immigration. Of note, is the finding that the more opportunities an immigrant is given – jobs, legal rights, legalization – the faster he or she will assimilate. Contrary, to nativist cant, the solution to the immigration problem is not to create barriers but to open up avenues for integration into the larger society.

Manhattan Institue Civic Report 53, "Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States," Jacob L. Vigdor, http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm

"Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly," By N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post Staff Writer,Tuesday, May 13, 2008; Page A02, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202575.html?hpid=topnews

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North Carolina Bars the Entrance to Children of Undocumented Workers

North Carolina has determined that it is better to create an underclass of young Latinos than provide them with an opportunity to get a college education and make a meaningful contribution to society. I invite you to read Henry Fernandez excellent blog on this issue and post a positive comment. Although North Carolina many times elected segregationist Jesse Helms, it also gave Barack Obama an overwhelming majority of its votes. As well, the northern college towns are creative class centers and would support a more tolerant and humanitarian view. Visit Fernandez blog at: http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/05/08/north-carolina-immigration-decision/ and also check out the Dream Act Texas blog which is quite comprehensive on this issue at: http://dreamacttexas.blogspot.com/.

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Heads Up! Immigration is Unexpectedly Percolating in Congress

Greg Heineman, president of the National Council of Social Security predicted that making E-Verify mandatory for all U.S. employees would result in an "onslaught" of more than 10 million more visits to SSA field offices.

With the Republicans pushing for enforcement-related immigration legislation to the House floor, immigration has re-surfaced as a hot issue in the current Congressional session. On Tuesday, May 6th, the House of Representatives held hearings on immigration. According to Congressional Quarterly, "The hearings that began Tuesday reflect a careful attempt by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., to maintain some semblance of control and keep the peace with two crucial constituencies — “Blue Dog” Democrats interested in get-tough immigration legislation and Hispanic Caucus members who want no immigration enforcement legislation to move unless it also advances a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already living and working in the United States. But it was apparent from testimony and remarks by various members that her goal would be difficult to achieve." North Carolina DINO ("Democrat in Name Only"), Heath Schuler has paired up with Tom Tancredo to push the SAVE legislation which would require all employers to verify every new employee's documentation via the Social Security Administration's E-Verify system. Currently, less than 1% of employers use the system although various states have made it mandatory. The legislation is opposed by employers and civil rights groups because of its burdensome and anti-civil liberties provisions. An article, in the, May 7^th business section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, succinctly sets out the flaws in the legislation's provisions.

Forcing companies to use a government system to verify the legal status of workers would cause thousands of citizens and legal residents to be initially rejected for work and cripple the Social Security Administration, critics told Congress on Tuesday. The system, known as E-Verify, is currently voluntary, but several proposals in Congress — including an immigration enforcement measure known as the SAVE Act — would make it mandatory.

John Trasvina, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said that the E-Verify system relies on faulty Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security databases and would therefore create an official "no-work" list requiring millions of U.S. citizens and legal workers to bear the burden of proving their legal status. Forcing a deeply flawed system upon an unstable economy is not the answer," he told a Ways and Means subcommittee.

Greg Heineman, president of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations Inc., which represents 3,400 SSA managers and supervisors, predicted that making E-Verify mandatory for all U.S. employees would result in an "onslaught" of more than 10 million more visits to SSA field offices.

Rep. Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and other proponents of a comprehensive immigration bill have lambasted the Democratic leadership over their failure to act more aggressively on immigration reform. Baca proposed an alternative to SAVE called, Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act, also known as STRIVE. The STRIVE bill calls for increased enforcement of laws against employing illegal immigrants, but would also create a guest-worker program to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the United States and eventually become citizens. With the national election looming, and the Latino vote coalescing as an important part of the Democratic strategy to retake the executive branch and augment their numbers in Congress, it appears that the Democratic leadership is listening as witnessed by Tuesday's impromptu hearing. Although the chances of passing any kind of comprehensive immigration reform remain slim it appears that the winds may have shifted in favor of some form of legislation that provides a path to citizenship to the the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States. The danger is that a combination of DINOs and Repubs could advance anti-immigrant legislation in its stead. Stay tuned as things will continue to get interesting as the focus shifts to the general election with the Democrats trying to exact the loyalties of Latinos and blue collar voters. Expect piece-meal legislation intended to mollify both sides of the immigration debate.

We have previously published the list of DINOs who signed on to the Tancredo-Schuler bill. I am again reposting the information.

Help Defeat Save and Promote Comprehensive Immigration Reform

MigraMatters has an excellent comprehensive view of the Act, as well as legislative updates. (http://migramatters.blogspot.com/2008/03/best-have-your-papers-in-order-new.html). It is imperative that the progressive community mobilize against this odious and underhanded breach of civil liberties. To get updates and information, check out the following websites:

· Church World Service http://www.congress.org/churchworld/issues/alert/?alertid=10899656

· The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/action.html

· National Immigrant Justice Center http://www.immigrantjustice.org/blog/uspolicyblog/save-act-update---more-calls-are-needed.html

· GENERATION 1.5 http://generationonepointfive.blogspot.com/2008/03/hr-4408-must-be-stopped-call-to-action.html

· Dream Act – Texas http://dreamacttexas.blogspot.com/2008/03/urgent-please-help-stop-hr-4088.html

· Find out if your representative has signed the Bill http://clerk.house.gov/110/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis5.htm

Here are some numbers to call and help defeat this rapacious legislation:

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SAY:

PLEASE DECLINE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO DISCHARGE

H.R. 4088 THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

(ALSO KNOWN AS THE "SAVE" ACT)

AND, IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS A CO-SPONSOR OF H.R. 4088

PLEASE WITHDRAW YOUR NAME AS A CO-SPONSOR OF

H.R. 4088, THE SHULER-TANCREDO BILL

See if your Rep. is a Sponsor Here:

http://clerk.house.gov/110/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis5.htm

Your Representatives' phone number is online here:

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/mcapdir.html

OR

CALL THE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD AT:

202-225-3121

Blue Dog Dems


(Ala.) - Rep. Cramer
(Ala.) - Rep. Davis
(Ark.) - Rep. Berry
(Ark.) - Rep. Ross
(Calif.) - Rep. McNerny
(Colo.) - Rep. Perlmutter
(Colo.) - Rep. Udall
(Fla.) - Rep. Boyd
(Fla.) - Rep. Klein
(Ga.) - Rep. Barrow
(Ga.) - Rep. Bishop
(Ga.) - Rep. Marshall
(Ill.) - Rep. Bean
(Ind.) - Rep. Donnelly
(Ind.) - Rep. Ellsworth
(Ind.) - Rep. Hill
(Ind.) - Rep. Visclosky
(Iowa) - Rep. Boswell
(Kan.) - Rep. Boyda
(La.) - Rep. Melancon
(Mich.) - Rep. Stupak
(Miss.) - Rep. Taylor
(N.H.) - Rep. Hodes
(N.Y.) - Rep. Arcuri
(N.Y.) - Rep. Gillibrand
(N.Y.) - Rep. Higgins
(N.C.) - Rep. McIntyre
(N.C.) - Rep. Shuler *
(Ohio) - Rep. Ryan
(Ohio) - Rep. Space
(Okla.) - Rep. Boren
(Pa.) - Rep. Altmire
(Pa.) - Rep. Carney
(Pa.) - Rep. Holden
(Pa.) - Rep. Kanjorski
(Pa.) - Rep. Murphy
(Pa.) - Rep. Murtha
(Pa.) - Rep. Sestak
(Tenn.) - Rep. Cohen
(Tenn.) - Rep. Cooper
(Tenn.) - Rep. Davis
(Tenn.) - Rep. Gordon
(Tenn.) - Rep. Tanner
(Texas) - Rep. Lampson
(Texas) - Rep. Rodriguez
(Utah) - Rep. Matheson
(Va.) - Rep. Boucher
(Wash.) - Rep. Baird
(Wis.) - Rep. Kagen


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Deaths of Immigrants in Federal Custody Shrouded in Secrecy

A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement.

The New York Times has received a list of detainee deaths of immigrants under custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the three year period from 2004 to 2007. During that period there were 66 confirmed deaths, according to ICE’s data, which the Times notes is considerably sketchy. The title of the article, penned by Nina Bernstein, aptly describes the circumstances surrounding those deaths: “Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody.” Left unanswered is how many more detainees were harmed by inadequate or non-existent medical care, never mind those harmed by physical abuse at the hands of guards.

Let this point be absolutely crystal clear: these people are not in detention because they are criminals or because they committed a criminal offense. Many of these detainees, merely over-stayed their visas, were denied entry or are seeking political asylum. As such, this is not a “dangerous” population. Quite the contrary, many of the inmates were leading productive lives with families and communities to support them. Given the current climate, however, the government sees fit to waste taxpayer money incarcerating people who have no business behind bars. As if the insult of incarcerating low-risk people were not enough, these detainees get shoddier treatment than hardened criminals and have less legal rights. Herein are some excerpts from The Times, excellent article:

Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive.

But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.

Boubacar Bah, had overstayed a tourist visa… shackled and pinned …as he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours

Mr. Bah’s name is one of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007, when nearly a million people passed through.

The list, compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Congress demanded the information, and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, is the fullest accounting to date of deaths in immigration detention, a patchwork of federal centers, county jails and privately run prisons that has become the nation’s fastest-growing form of incarceration.

The list has few details, and they are often unreliable, but it serves as a rough road map to previously unreported cases like Mr. Bah’s. And it reflects a reality that haunts grieving families like his: the difficulty of getting information about the fate of people taken into immigration custody, even when they die.

Mr. Bah’s relatives never saw the internal records labeled “proprietary information — not for distribution” by the Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the New Jersey detention center for the federal government. The documents detail how he was treated by guards and government employees: shackled and pinned to the floor of the medical unit as he moaned and vomited, then left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours, despite repeated notations that he was unresponsive and intermittently foaming at the mouth.

Mr. Bah had lived in New York for a decade, surrounded by a large circle of friends and relatives. The extravagant gowns he sewed to support his wife and children in West Africa were on display in a Manhattan boutique.

Mr. Bah collapse near a toilet, hitting the back of his head on the floor… Physicians consulted later by The Times called this a textbook symptom of intracranial bleeding… He was handcuffed and placed in leg restraints on the floor with medical approval.

But he died in a sequestered system where questions about what had happened to him, or even his whereabouts, were met with silence.

….Some have no valid visa; some are legal residents, but have past criminal convictions; others are seeking asylum from persecution.

Death is a reality in any jail, and the medical neglect of inmates is a perennial issue. But far more than in the criminal justice system, immigration detainees and their families lack basic ways to get answers when things go wrong.

No government body is required to keep track of deaths and publicly report them. No independent inquiry is mandated. And often relatives who try to investigate the treatment of those who died say they are stymied by fear of immigration authorities, lack of access to lawyers, or sheer distance….

Lingering Questions

The Times, through an immigration lawyer who had received separate calls from two detainees; they were upset about a badly injured man — named “something like Aboubakar” — left in an isolation cell and later found near death.

But advocacy groups said they were unaware of the case. And Michael Gilhooly, the spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that without the man’s full name and eight-digit alien registration number, he could not check the information.

“Everybody liked Boubacar,” said Sadio Diallo, 48, who has a tailor shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he and Mr. Bah had shared an apartment with fellow immigrants since arriving in 1998. “He’s a very, very, very good man.”

For six years, Mr. Bah had worked for L’Impasse, a clothing store in the West Village,

Mr. Bah died on May 30, 2007, after four months in a coma….

There are 57 pages of documents, some neatly typed by medics, some scrawled by guards. Some quote detainees who said Mr. Bah was ailing for two days before his fall on Feb. 1, and asked in vain to see a doctor.

The records ... leave no doubt that guards, supervisors, government medical employees and federal immigration officers played a role in leaving him untreated, hour after hour, as he lapsed into a stupor.

It began about 8 a.m., according to the earliest report. Guards called a medical emergency after a detainee saw Mr. Bah collapse near a toilet, hitting the back of his head on the floor.

He kept crying out, then “began to regurgitate on the floor of medical,” the report said. So Mr. Bah was written up for disobeying orders.

When he regained consciousness, Mr. Bah was taken to the medical unit, which is run by the federal Public Health Service. He became incoherent and agitated, reports said, pulling away from the doctor and grabbing at the unit staff. Physicians consulted later by The Times called this a textbook symptom of intracranial bleeding, but apparently no one recognized that at the time.

He was handcuffed and placed in leg restraints on the floor with medical approval, “to prevent injury,” a guard reported. “While on the floor the detainee began to yell in a foreign language and turn from side to side,” the guard wrote, and the medical staff deemed that “the screaming and resisting is behavior problems.”

With the approval of a physician assistant, Michael Chuley,.. was taken in shackles to a solitary confinement cell.

Mr. Bah was ordered to calm down. Instead, he kept crying out, then “began to regurgitate on the floor of medical,” the report said. So Mr. Bah was written up for disobeying orders. And with the approval of a physician assistant, Michael Chuley, who wrote that Mr. Bah’s fall was unwitnessed and “questionable,” the tailor was taken in shackles to a solitary confinement cell with instructions that he be monitored.

Under detention protocols, an officer videotaped Mr. Bah as he lay vomiting in the medical unit, but the camera’s battery failed, guards wrote, when they tried to tape his trip to cell No. 7.

A supervisor removed Mr. Bah’s restraints. He was unresponsive ...a report said, adding: “The detainee set up in his bed and moan and he fell to his left side and hit his head on the bed rail.”

Inside the cell, a supervisor removed Mr. Bah’s restraints. He was unresponsive to questions asked by the Public Health Service officer on duty, a report said, adding: “The detainee set up in his bed and moan and he fell to his left side and hit his head on the bed rail.”

About 9 a.m., with the approval of the health officer and a federal immigration agent, the cell was locked.

About 10:30 p.m., more than 14 hours after Mr. Bah’s fall, the same nurse, on rounds, recognized the gravity of his condition: “unresponsive on the floor incontinent with foamy brown vomitus noted around mouth.”

The watching began. As guards checked hourly, Mr. Bah appeared to be asleep on the concrete floor, snoring. But he could not be roused to eat lunch or dinner, and at 7:10 p.m., “he began to breathe heavily and started foaming slightly at the mouth,” a guard wrote. “I notified medical at this time.”

However, the nurse on duty rejected the guard’s request to come check, according to reports. And at 8 p.m., when the warden went to the medical unit to describe Mr. Bah’s condition, the nurse, Raymund Dela Pena, was not alarmed. “Detainee is likely exhibiting the same behavior as earlier in the day,” he wrote, adding that Mr. Bah would get a mental health exam in the morning.

About 10:30 p.m., more than 14 hours after Mr. Bah’s fall, the same nurse, on rounds, recognized the gravity of his condition: “unresponsive on the floor incontinent with foamy brown vomitus noted around mouth.” Smelling salts were tried. Mr. Bah was carried back to the medical unit on a stretcher.

Just before 11, someone at the jail called 911.

When an ambulance left Mr. Bah at the hospital, brain scans showed he had a fractured skull and hemorrhages at all sides of his swelling brain.

When an ambulance left Mr. Bah at the hospital, brain scans showed he had a fractured skull and hemorrhages at all sides of his swelling brain. He was rushed to surgery, and the detention center was informed of the findings.

But in a report to their supervisors the next day, immigration officials at the center described Mr. Bah’s ailment as “brain aneurysms” — a diagnosis they corrected a week later to “hemorrhages,” without mentioning the skull fracture. After Mr. Bah’s death, they wrote that his hospitalization was “subsequent to a fall in the shower.”

Had this happened to an inmate doing time for a violent crime an inquest could be called for and guards and staff could be disciplined, even charged criminally. But because these people are mere detainees they merit little attention and enjoy few rights. How many more have suffered at the hands of incompetent or sadistic guards? You can be assured that the Federal Government will not give us an answer to that question.

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Conservative Republicans Outraged by Radical Nativist Element Taking over Party

Eristic Ragemail has written extensively on the racist roots of nativist and anti-immigrant groups such as VDARE and FAIR. We make no bones about the fact that our agenda is pro-immigrant and in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. There is, however, an interesting web site that is hosted by concerned conservative Republicans. (http://subwaycanaries.blogharbor.com/blog) Their concern stems from the fact that the party is being hijacked by radical right interests. Their mission statement pretty straightforwardly set out their concerns.

MISSION STATEMENT OF THE SUBWAY CANARIES

by SJ Reidhead on Wed 21 Jun 2006 10:24 PM MDT

The purpose of The Subway Canaries is to expose intellectually dishonest conservative ideological hypocrisy.

The Subway Canaries are stalwart Republicans who are dismayed at the direction subversively extreme conservative ideologues are taking the GOP.

The Subway Canaries feel if the true agenda of these individuals and organizations are not exposed to the light of day, the Republican Party will either become the party of Extreme Right Wing Hate and Racism or be forever relegated to a minority party.

This is our only agenda. It is an agenda of truth and intellectual honesty - Truth, Justice and the American Way!

The Subway Canaries are Republican First and conservative second. Any other way is a betrayal of the Republican Party.

Their posts very forthrightly set out some out the roots of many supposedly “mainstream” nativist groups and their loathsome tactics. Herein are some excerpts.

THESE ARE THE MINUTEMEN

NOTE: I was planning to a piece on the FLDS (I have some new information) but was side-tracked by this story. I think this is something that needs to be told. I know I am telling it one-sided, against the Minutemen in California. But what I have found is so repulsive and so vile it needs to be exposed to the light of day. It is obvious someone is going to cross the line one of these days and shots are going to be fired. I have a feeling it will be a Minuteman or one of their supporter who will do the shooting. When this happens and a defense is made, naturally the Hispanic is going to be the evil one.

I think these videos are terribly important. They show how abjectly evil these people are.

Do you have the courage to watch these videos? There are a number of them at Minutemen Unvarnished – and take nearly an hour to watch. Watch the video “Do You Believe in Jesus” as the San Diego Minutemen harass parishioners at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Fallbrook. This is in Fallbrook, CA. . . .

If this is what Sheriff Joe is allowing in Maricopa County, then he is as vile as are these individuals. I don’t care what side of the immigration argument you are on. If you think this is good, decent, and patriotic, then you are seriously disturbed and as evil as are these individuals. When you start harassing people attending church, and mace people as they are going into church as this video shows you are as bad as they are.

ANTI CATHOLIC A TREND?
After watching these videos, it appears to me that there is an anti-Catholic. I’ve been covering the anti-immigration crowd’s anti-Catholic bigotry for several days. Yesterday mentioned that Harold Hutchinson at Called As Seen had picked up on the anti-Catholic bigotry of Tom Tancredo and Lou Dobbs. Harold references a WSJ piece about how they “insulted the Pope”. l The Opinionated Catholic has more. JJ mentions an editorial at Modern Commentaries about Michelle Malkin and her anti-Catholic rants. It is obvious there is a strong anti-Catholic bias in the whole anti-immigration movement, promoted by John Tanton and his dislike of anyone who is not lily white. Why?
LA Times

“…t's not too surprising that one of the pontiff's most vocal critics was the poor man's Howard Beale, CNN personality Lou Dobbs. He's made something of a specialty of bashing the Catholic hierarchy in recent years, as part of his pseudo-populist campaign for ratings. Dobbs charged Benedict with "mixing religion and politics ... in many ways insulting our country, talking about the need to be welcoming. ... I really don't appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do." Well, there you go, though the pope got off easy compared with L.A. civic leaders, whom Dobbs blasted after an earlier -- and totally misleading -- report on Special Order 40 and the case of Jamiel Shaw II, a young man allegedly shot to death by an illegal immigrant who is a gang member. Dobbs called city officials "liars" and singled out Police Chief Bill Bratton, whose defense of Special Order 40 -- which puts certain restrictions on when police can inquire about a suspect's immigration status -- the broadcaster called "irresponsible" and "disgusting politics." "And I think every one of you in the city of Los Angeles, running that city, supporting a sanctuary city and trying to excuse what happened to that family, I think it is contemptible," said Dobbs….”

THE VIDEOS
(WARNING: These videos feature profanity and obscene gestures)

(MigraMatters) If this is an example of those who are anti-illegal and are “Minutemen” in San Diego, then I’d rather be castigated for being against them. These people are filthy, vile, nasty trash. This is a link to a video. I am not doing an inbed, because of the filthy language. From Minutemen Unvarnished comes a ‘best of’ collection of videos about the Minutemen. Maybe you might want to ask for your money back (if they can account for it). You might want to watch “I’m Allowed to Threaten People”. The jerk is wearing a minuteman cap. Look at the people who are with the Minutemen. I wouldn’t let them in my driveway, let alone associate with them. The one “Keep Your Hands to Yourselves” features San Diego Minuteman Founder Jeff Schwilk. Try watching the one “Are You Legal?”

How about this Minuteman waving his flag? He’s nothing but a thug. Watch “Remember after the Alamo” to see what these people look like. They are scary. Watch “No Talking Chickens”. “Hello Witches” features the leader of the San Diego Minutemen harassing two activists. Watch as the Minutemen follow the women, attempting to terrorize them. Do you really think these are nice people? If I were those women, I would have been terrified. The San Diego Minutemen were founded by Jim Gilchrist.

In “If You Love Mexicans” Jeff Schwilk accosts a Home Depot customer. A minuteman then spits at the camera person. “Get out of here” Jeff Schwilk goes after a Home Depot customer. “Morning Wetbacks” shows how gentile the Minutemen are.

In “Vermin of Vista” Jeff Schwilk harasses and intimidates another activist. This man is seriously disturbed. I can’t believe people actually believe the you know what these people spout. In “Bring It On” he tries to mace someone who disagrees with him. In “He’s Trying to Scare Her” our boy Jeff finally gets picked up by a cop for harassing women.

Can you watch these videos and not call them evil? Do you really want to have sympathy for them and for their cause? These people think nothing of interrupting a church service because the people inside are Hispanic. “Can I Get Your Name” is the video. Then in “The Church is Nothing but Pimps” just shows how vile they are, using a loud speaker to blast a church service. Obviously Sheriff Joe isn’t the only one who doesn’t give a rip about disrupting church services. They call the Catholic Church nothing but pimps. Too bad these people can’t be arrested for disturbing a worship service.

Why don’t decent people realize how nasty these individuals are? “I gotta be Freakin’ Rank” shows this same bunch disrupting a funeral so they can harass people near-by. Obviously they have no morality or decency. In this one, a Minuteman did not wear deodorant, and then fans his nasty body in front of Hispanics. A woman is speaking Spanish. They keep yelling at her to shut up. (http://subwaycanaries.blogharbor.com/blog)

The site is comprehensive and includes research on the whole community of nativists with links to their own material exposing the hatred and racism espoused by the groups that find their way on Fox News and to Lou Dobbs mouth. Read it and weep.

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