Immigrant Activists In California Have Standoff With Homeland Security Officials During Protest Over Deportations

Undocumented immigrant activists in San Francisco came face to face with U.S. Homeland Security officials on Thursday night when, as part of a protest against deportations, they blocked a bus that was carrying foreign nationals who were in the custody of immigration officials.

The activists shouted “Undocumented, unafraid!” as they surrounded the bus, keeping it from moving forward, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

They taped a hot pink sign onto the bus that said: “Shut Down ICE,” the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the division that handles deportations.

Homeland Security officials confronted the activists and threatened to press felony charges against them if they did not move and let the bus could pass. The activists decided to continue their protest, the newspaper said. Several were detained by local police and later released.

We’ll get louder, stronger and more confrontational. That’s what movements have always done.  

- Frank Sharry, head of America's Voice

Dean Santos, a California immigrant who took part in the Thursday protest in San Francisco, defended surrounding the bus to push for an end to the record deportations.

“I’ve been in that bus before, and I remember how powerless I felt,” said Santos, who in the past faced deportation and was held in a detention center in Arizona, according to the website notonemoredeportation.com "Now, I’m coming back with the power of our communities in our effort to stop the separation of families.”

Via: Fox News Latino

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Obama Knew This: Latinos Like Obamacare

Watch what they do: Jonathan Alter’s recent book The Center Holds recounts President Obama’s attempt to mobilize Latino voters in 2012 after early focus groups were discouraging. They revealed that “Latinos liked the president personally but didn’t think he was effective. … They were largely unfamiliar with achievements like the auto bailout and the health care bill …” How to respond? Not, it turns out, by talking about immigration reform:

“The best way out of that hole was to educate Latino voters about Obamacare, which was immensely popular when Latinos learned the details.  The pitch was much more direct than in Obama’s English-language media. Certain families, the Spanish-language ads said, “will receive economic help from the government to pay for quality [health] insurance. If the election was partly about the role of government in America life, Chicago was betting that Latinos favored a big role.“

The bet was hugely successful, of course, which raises the question: Are Latino voters “natural Republicans,” as we’re often told … or natural Californians? The answer is pretty obvious (as almost any Democratic campaign strategist will admit, at least after a few drinks). …

Via: Daily Caller

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Los Angeles Police Dogs Only Bit Blacks And Latinos In The First Six Months Of 2013

A new report on the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Canine Special Detail finds that the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs has dramatically increased between 2004 to 2012. In a department already plagued by accusations of racial targeting, 100 percent of dog bite victims in the first six months of 2013 were blacks and Latinos.

In the past nine years, the minority-heavy, urban areas of Century, City of Industry, Compton, Lakewood, and South LA/Lennox, experienced more dog bites than 21 other agencies or stations combined.

One of the more troubling aspects of the report found that police canines cause injuries at far higher rates than other weapons, such as batons, tear gas, and guns. The pressure from a dog bite is equivalent to “a car tire running over a body part,” as one federal judge put it.

Dog bites are not the only police tactic blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles have to fear. The LASD has racked up a lengthy racial profiling record. TheDepartment of Justice found that the LASD systematically singles out blacks and Latinos for stops, seizures, and excessive force at higher rates than other races.

LASD officers regularly target immigrants without legal authority. A class-action lawsuit against the department charged the LASD was holding thousands of immigrants in jail cells for longer than the legal maximum of 48 hours. Detained immigrants were also not allowed to post bail even after a court allowed it. In 2011, the sheriff’s department illegally detained nearly 20,000 people on immigration holds for an average of three weeks longer than inmates without immigration holds.

Via: Think Progress

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Latino Group Wants to Expand Fraud-Ridden ‘Obamaphone’ Program -

(CNSNews.com) – The real problem with the Lifeline Program that provides free cell phones – commonly known as “Obamaphones” – to low-income individuals is not that it’s been abused, but that not enough low-income Latinos are using the subsidized phones, according to The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

“Probably about 30 to 35 percent of the people who qualify for Lifeline would be Latino, and yet only about 15 percent of the users of Lifeline are Latino,” Brent Wilkes, executive director of LULAC, said in a conference call Wednesday.

When CNSNews asked for a comment on documented reports of fraud and abuse in the “Obamaphone” system, he replied, “From our perspective, it’s not that there’s too much use, it’s actually too little.”

“Not every wireless carrier perhaps has been as vigilant as some,” Wilkes offered as an explanation for fraudulent activity, adding, “I don’t have a lot of evidence about drug dealers using the phone and things like that, I mean, if anything they should be able to pay for them.”

“I don’t have any particular comment on that except to say that . . . the criminal mind will use all kinds of tools for nefarious purposes,” Nicholas Sullivan, fellow at the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises at Tufts University's Fletcher School, added in response to CNSNews’ question.

Via: CNS News

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HUD Secretary: Without tax hikes, Latinos will go to the 'back of the line'

MORE HANDOUTS

Congress must raise taxes on the wealthy "because there just isn't enough to go around," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute today. 

"Latino growth has meant that often they're at the back of the line for housing assistance or other things," Donovan said during CHCI's annual Public Policy Conference this morning at the Ronald Reagan Building in D.C. "And the fundamental problem here (in part) is, are we going to continue to invest in those things? And if we continue to cut the budget for Section 8 housing and public housing and a whole range of other things -- if we don't fix this fiscal cliff in a fair way that actually asks higher-income Americans to pay their fair share -- Latinos are going to have to continue to wait in the back of the line, because there just isn't enough to go around. And that's a fundamental problem in our housing system, but it's a much bigger problem that is a huge issue when we make a decision about what our investments are going to be in Congress."

Donovan's remarks should play well among the Latino community if the polling data provided before he spoke holds true about how Latinos believe the deficit and economic crises should be addressed.

"We see an overwhelming percentage of Latinos want to see some amount of tax increases along with cuts," Dr. Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions told CHCI. "The most popular answer [46 percent] was just saying increasing taxes on the wealthy, that they need to pay a little bit more, rejecting the idea that we should only focus on cuts. And another large percentage -- 37 percent -- saying 'yes, tax increases should be part of the solution with cuts.'"

Barreto added that 56 percent of Latinos surveyed said "that government should invest in projects -- that's the way you stimulate the economy." He noted that only about 29 or 30 percent of Latinos believe that tax cuts can fix the economy.

Donovan emphasized his call for tax increases. "This is a fundamental choice," he said. "Is everyone going to pay their fair share? Or are we going to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable and our most recent Americans? And, it's simply unfair."

Via: The Examiner

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