Monday, May 27, 2013

Who knew? Oh, by the way, if McCain was seriously acting in the interests of national security I would ask the same question?

The current, but not new, anti-immigrant rhetoric in our news and in our legislation process has made Maria Cristina’s teachings more relevant for U.S Latinos and Latinas. It is hard to create a sense of belonging or to call a place “home” in the midst of antagonism. Your parents are labeled as “criminal” and you an “anchor-baby” which is the epithet used by some news companies to talk about U.S.-born children from parents without legal status. What is more, these infamous labels are confirmed as your neighborhood is raided and Immigration Services (ICE) preys on your parents....

What is the expression touted by the legal profession? "Justice is blind." It must be frustrating for Sheriff Joe to see the problem right in front of him and not be able to haul in every Mexican within a hundred miles of the border.

Judge Finds Violation of Rights by Sheriff (click here)

By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: May 24, 2013

...At 142 pages, the decision is peppered with stinging criticism of the policies and practices espoused by Sheriff Arpaio, who Judge Snow said had turned much of his focus to arresting immigrants who were in the country illegally, in most cases civil violations, at the expense of fighting crimes.

He said the sheriff relied on racial profiling and illegal detentions to target Latinos, using their ethnicity as the main basis for suspecting they were in the country illegally. Many of the people targeted were American citizens or legal residents.

“In an immigration enforcement context,” Judge Snow ruled, the sheriff’s office “did not believe that it constituted racial profiling to consider race as one factor among others in making law enforcement decisions.” In fact, he said its plans and policies confirmed that, “in the context of immigration enforcement,” deputies “could consider race as one factor among others.”

The ruling prohibits the sheriff’s office from using “race or Latino ancestry” as a factor in deciding to stop any vehicle with Latino occupants, or as a factor in deciding whether they may be in the country without authorization....