United States and Mexico border wall a costly failure film says

Washington’s plan to build a fence on the border with Mexico has cost $3 billion and has not deterred illegal immigrants or drug traffickers from entering the country, according to a new U.S. documentary.”The Fence” hopes to show Americans, who were divided when construction of the wall was approved in 2006, that the venture is a failure as conceived and a blemish upon the United States internationally.It argues that illegals and smugglers can easily climb over, dig under and even drive over the wall, which is only a few feet (meters) high in parts, has no razor wire, and abruptly ends in the desert.

“One of the most confounding and little-known realities of the fence is that it only covers about one third of the 2,000-mile (3,218-km) border,” said Rory Kennedy, the director and narrator.Kennedy, who is a daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, spent weeks traveling along the border from California to Texas as the fence was being built in 2009. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Up to 500 people die every year crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, according to U.S. immigration experts and the Mexican government, a sharp jump from a decade ago. Tougher border security and the fence’s construction have forced migrants to take more dangerous, remote routes into the United States.Some 650 miles of the 670-mile wall called for under the Secure Fence Act and signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush in October 2006 have been built. It contains 120,000 tons of metal and materials, ranging from railroad ties to concrete and chain link fencing.

“COMPLETE THE DANGED FENCE”

Lined in parts with stadium-style lights, cameras and roads to allow U.S. agents to patrol, the fence was partly a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It also aims to stop terrorists from crossing over from Mexico.”This was put up to illustrate to Joe whoever up in Dubuque (Iowa) or someplace that they see a picture of this and … they think ‘oh yeah, that’ll stop them’,” Arizona ranch owner Bill Odle said in the film. “Well of course it doesn’t.”

But it remains a magnet for Republicans keen to show their get-tough credentials in the run-up to the November U.S. elections. Arizona Republican John McCain, facing his toughest re-election battle in years for the Senate, demanded that the government in May to “complete the danged fence.”Despite calls for a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, the terrain, which ranges from swamps to deserts, makes that idea almost impossible and financially prohibitive.

U.S. law enforcement uses helicopters, unmanned planes and agents in watchtowers and in vehicles to monitor the area stretching from the Tijuana-San Diego crossing in California to the Matamoros-Brownsville crossing in Texas around the clock.U.S. Border Patrol agents say the wall and virtual fencing cut the number of people caught trying to cross into the United States by a quarter in the fiscal year 2009.

Immigration experts counter that the deep U.S. recession in 2008-2009 and the resulting lack of jobs in the world’s biggest economy was a bigger factor behind the drop.Even with a sluggish economy, 300,000 illegal immigrants entered the United States every year between 2007 and 2009, according to the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.But critics, both in the United States and Mexico, where there was an outcry when the plan was approved, also are questioning the wisdom of spending billions on the fence during hard economic times.

Future U.S. administrations are likely to spend $6.5 billion on maintenance of the fence over the next 20 years, the United States Government Accountability Office says, although researchers at the U.S. Congress say it could be more.The documentary airs on Thursday on U.S. cable television channel HBO.(Reuters)

Senate approves $26.1 billion for state aid

The Senate on Thursday approved a jobs bill that would send states $26.1 billion to help them cope with historic budget shortfalls and give Democratic lawmakers a victory to tout on the campaign trail ahead of the November elections.By a 61-to-39 vote, the Senate passed a bill that would send the states $16.1 billion for Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor, and $10 billion to prevent teacher layoffs. States could face total budget gaps this year of $120 billion.

The U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare move by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been summoned back from its August recess to vote on the measure. That is expected to happen on Tuesday. The bill would then go to President Barack Obama for his signature. Similar measures previously have passed the House.Republicans say the legislation will add to the deficit and tie states’ hands on how to spend the funds. They have attacked it as a “job-killing tax increase.”

They also say the bill serves “special interest groups,” specifically teachers unions whose members tend to vote for Democrats.Pelosi said that labeling teachers and police officers, who will also benefit from the state aid, is demeaning.”This legislation is about creating and saving American jobs and preventing a double-dip recession,” she said. “It is fiscally responsible and fully paid for.”

Democrats facing a wave of anti-Washington anger hope the bill will convince voters going to the polls on November 2 of their commitment to bring down the U.S. unemployment rate, which is near 10 percent.The fragile economic recovery is foremost on the minds of voters and candidates for the 435 House seats and 37 Senate seats up for grabs.

Although states have been begging for the Medicaid money, they are wary of the teachers’ fund as it requires them to keep education spending at 2008 levels, which many cannot afford.Supporters say the bill will not add to the deficit because it is paid for by closing tax loopholes, eliminating advance refunds on the earned income tax credit and ending stimulus funds for food stamps earlier than expected.

One loophole that would be closed would raise more than $10 billion over a decade by preventing companies from claiming foreign tax credits for income not yet subject to U.S. tax.More than half of the 50 U.S. states counted on the additional funds for Medicaid for fiscal 2011, which started last month for many.

States use federal reimbursements to run the program. The $862 billion economic stimulus plan passed last year boosted the reimbursements, but the extra money runs out in December and states have been considering spending cuts and tax cuts to fill the void.The Medicaid money will also give older people access to healthcare, said AARP, the lobbying group for older Americans.

“States are better able to continue offering the often less costly home and community-based service that older Americans overwhelmingly prefer to more expensive nursing homes,” said the group representing retirees.The healthcare industry generally found reassurance in the Senate vote, saying the extra money will help hospitals and pharmacies continue to provide services.

One state, though, was not pleased. The bill would require Texas to agree to maintain or increase education funding during fiscal 2011, 2012 and 2013, in order to receive any of the teacher funds.The federal government was targeting the Lone Star state, said Governor Rick Perry, a Republican running for reelection in November.”Washington would be taking yet another step toward usurping the state’s authority by determining how to fund our schools, and what’s worse, no other state is subject to this provision,” Perry added.(Reuters) –

discovery of large natural gas could lead to new Lebanon-Israel war

BEIRUT The discovery of large natural gas reserves under the waters of the eastern Mediterranean could potentially mean a huge economic windfall for Israel and Lebanon, both resource-poor nations – if it doesn’t spark new war between them.The Hezbollah militant group has blared warnings that Israel plans to steal natural gas from Lebanese territory and vows to defend the resources with its arsenal of rockets. Israel says the fields it is developing do not extend into Lebanese waters, a claim experts say appears to be correct, but the maritime boundary between the two countries – still officially at war – has never been precisely set.

“Lebanon’s need for the resistance has doubled today in light of Israeli threats to steal Lebanon’s oil wealth,” Hezbollah’s Executive Council chief Hashem Safieddine said last month. The need to protect the offshore wealth “pushes us in the future to strengthen the resistance’s capabilities.”The threats cast a shadow over what could be a financial boon for both nations, with energy companies finding what appear to be substantial natural gas deposits in their waters.

Israel is far ahead in the race to develop the resources. Two fields, Tamar and Dalit, discovered last year, are due to start producing in 2012, and experts say their estimated combined reserves of 5.5 trillion cubic feet (160 billion cubic meters) of natural gas can cover Israel’s energy needs for the next two decades.In June, the U.S. energy company Noble Energy, part of a consortium developing the fields, predicted that Israel will also have enough gas to export to Europe and Asia from a third field – Leviathan, thought to hold up to 16 trillion cubic feet (450 billion cubic meters) of gas.

Israel relies entirely on imports to meet its energy needs, spending billions to bring natural gas from Egypt and coal from a variety of countries. So just freeing the country from that reliance would have a major impact.When Tamar begins producing it could lower Israel’s energy costs by a $1 billion a year and bring $400 million a year in royalties into government coffers. That suggests a total of about $40 billion in savings and $16 billion in government revenues over the total yield of the field. Those numbers would only rise as Leviathan comes on line.

“Israel’s always looked for oil,” said Paul Rivlin, a senior research fellow with Tel Aviv University’s Dayan center. “But I don’t think it ever thought of itself as becoming a producer. And now that you’ve got a high-tech economy that’s doing quite well, this comes as an added bonus.”

Hezbollah’s warnings, however, quickly followed the announcement by Houston, Texas-based Noble Energy.Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, warned that Israel is “turning into an oil emirate while ignoring the fact that the field extends, according to the maps, into Lebanon’s territorial waters.”

Israel’s Petroleum and Mining commissioner at the National Infrastructure Ministry Yaakov Mimran, called those claims “nonsense,” saying Leviathan and the other two fields are all within Israel’s economic zone.”Those noises occur when they smell gas. Until then, they sit quietly and let the other side spend the money,” Mimran told the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Maps from Noble Energy show Leviathan within Israel’s waters. An official with Norway’s Petroleum Geo-Services, which is surveying gas fields in Lebanese waters, told The Associated Press that from Noble’s reports there is no reason to think Leviathan extends into Lebanon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by his company to speak on the subject.

The rumblings are worrisome because Israel and Hezbollah each accuse the other of intending to spark a new conflict following their devastating 2006 war. That fighting, in which Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid sparked a massive Israeli bombardment, killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.

Since then, there has been a rare interval of peace. Hezbollah, a close ally of Syria and Iran, has not fired a rocket into Israel since. Israeli officials, however, say they believe Hezbollah has managed to triple its prewar arms stockpile to more than 40,000 rockets.The warnings from Hezbollah and Berri could be as much for domestic consumption as directed as Israel, aiming to press for the passage of a long-delayed draft oil law, needed before any Lebanese fields can be developed.

Oil and gas exploration has been a source of disagreement between Lebanese politicians over the past decade. The change of several governments and disputes over what company should do the surveying have caused delays.In October, Petroleum Geo-Services said fields in Cypriot and Lebanese waters “may prove to be an exciting new province for oil and gas in the next few years,” noting signs of deposits in Lebanon, though their size is still not known. “It is very encouraging for Lebanon,” the PGS official told AP.

Any finds could help Lebanon’s government pay off what is one of the highest debt rates in the world, at about $52 billion, or 147 percent of the gross domestic product.Israel and Lebanon are among the few countries in the Middle East without substantial, lucrative natural resources. Israel has built a place for itself with a powerful high-tech sector, while Lebanon has boomed in recent years with tourism and real estate investment. While the gas may not transform them into Gulf-style spigots of petro-cash, it would be a major boost.

Rivlin doubts Israel could become a significant exporter, saying nearby countries don’t need or aren’t willing to buy from it, and the costs of liquifying gas for transport to further markets like Europe may be prohibitive. But Eytan Gilboa, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, said that with the world “so hungry for energy,” Israel won’t have a problem finding buyers.But the development raises security worries, as the offshore gas infrastructure could become a target. During the 2006 fighting, Hezbollah succeeded in hitting Israeli warships off Lebanon with its rockets.”Once those rigs start producing gas, it’s going to be difficult to secure them,” Gilboa said. “So on the one hand, you reduce dependency on imports in times of crisis, but at the same time, you make yourself vulnerable because those sites are exposed.” (AP)

Hurricane Alex gained strength early Wednesday as the storm began to take aim on the western Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane Alex gained strength early Wednesday as the storm began to take aim on the western Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center reported.The Category 1 storm, which became the first June hurricane on the Atlantic side of the United States since 1995, is expected to make landfall in northeastern Mexico or southern Texas by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The hurricane center’s advisory issued at 2 a.m. ET said Alex was moving erratically, but generally westward, at 5 mph. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was about 255 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas.President Barack Obama issued a federal emergency declaration for Texas ahead of the expected arrival of Alex, the White House said Tuesday night.A hurricane warning was issued for the Gulf Coast from Baffin Bay, Texas, to La Cruz, Mexico. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions and tropical storm-force winds are expected in the forecast area within 36 hours.

A tropical storm warning was in place along the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor.The storm continued to move away from the massive BP oil catastrophe near the Louisiana coast in the northern Gulf of Mexico, but it already was complicating cleanup efforts. The storm created 12-foot waves on Tuesday and oil skimming ships were sent back to shore, from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

The rough seas may force crews to replace and reorganize booms meant to deter the oil from reaching shore, reported CNN’s Ed Lavandera.Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said that even though Florida may dodge a bullet with this storm, the Atlantic hurricane season is just beginning.”In Florida, we’ve had a lot of hurricanes a number of years ago, but we handled them very well,” he told CNN’s Campbell Brown. “The difference and the distinction that we face now is that we have a Gulf of Mexico that’s full of oil. So our hope and our prayer is that we don’t have a mixture of hurricanes with oil that could potentially damage the beautiful beaches of Florida. But if we do, we’re prepared for it.”

Brownsville, Texas, Mayor Pat Ahumada said his city was expecting to distribute 60,000 sandbags and provide shelter for roughly 2,000 families. Utility crews were put on standby to handle outages. At the same time, 90 buses had been provided by the state government in case an evacuation is required.”I expect about 10 percent of residents to evacuate voluntarily, which already started yesterday,” Ahumada said. “I see a steady flow of people going out, but no bottlenecks — which is good.””We’re not taking it lightly,” he said. “We’re ready for a worst-case scenario.”

On Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster proclamation for 19 counties and ordered the pre-deployment of state resources. The governor’s declaration allows the state to initiate necessary preparedness efforts, such as pre-deploying resources to ensure local communities are ready to respond to disasters.The governor’s order puts up to 2,500 National Guard personnel, eight UH-60 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft on standby for rapid deployment as needed, Perry’s office said in a statement.(CNN)

to watch

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/hurricane.alex/?hpt=T1&fbid=d3drOUu-5r2

Gulf residents prepare for Alex

Mexican forensic experts examine the body of 14 year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico A spokeswoman for the FBI tells The Associated Press that Mexican soldiers pointed their rifles and chased away U.S. Border Patrol agents investigating the shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican.The boy was shot by a Border Patrol agent who says he was defending himself from rock throwers along the nearly dry Rio Grande that divides Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, from El Paso, Texas.

FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said Wednesday that Border Patrol investigators were forced to leave the scene Monday night after soldiers aimed guns at them from across the river.Mexicans are seething over the second death of a countryman at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in two weeks, a shooting near downtown El Paso that is threatening to escalate tensions over migrant issues.U.S. authorities said Tuesday a Border Patrol agent was defending himself and colleagues when he fatally shot the 15-year-old as officers came under a barrage of big stones while trying to detain illegal immigrants on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.

About 30 relatives and friends gathered late Tuesday to mourn Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, who died Monday on the Mexican side of the river border with Texas.”Damn them! Damn them!” sobbed Rosario Hernandez, sister of the dead teenager, at a wake in the family’s two-room adobe house on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.

Preliminary reports on the incident indicated that U.S. officers on bicycle patrol “were assaulted with rocks by an unknown number of people,” Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Ramiro Cordero said Tuesday.”During the assault at least one agent discharged his firearm,” he said. “The agent is currently on administrative leave. A thorough, multi-agency investigation is currently ongoing.”

The shooting happened beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, and late Tuesday night a banner appeared on the bridge that said in English: “U.S. Border Patrol we worry about the violence in Mex and murders and now you. Viva Mexico!”Less than two weeks ago, Mexican migrant Anastasio Hernandez, 32, died after a Customs and Border Protection officer shocked him with a stun gun at the San Ysidro border crossing that separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The San Diego medical examiner’s office ruled that death a homicide.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Tuesday that his government “will use all resources available to protect the rights of Mexican migrants.”The government “reiterates its rejection to the disproportionate use of force on the part on U.S. authorities on the border with Mexico,” the president added in a statement.

On an unpaved street, gathered around Hernandez’s gray metal casket, the teen’s family called for justice.”There is a God, so why would I want vengeance if no one will return him to me. They killed my little boy and the only thing I ask is for the law” to be applied, said the boy’s father, Jesus Hernandez.

His mother was less hopeful. “May God forgive them because I know nothing will happen” to them, Maria Guadalupe Huereka said.Above the casket was a photo of the youth wearing his soccer uniform and his junior high school grade cards, which showed A’s and B’s.

His mother said he was a good student who never got in trouble. He was the youngest of five children, played on two soccer teams and had just finished junior high school, she said.Amnesty International condemned the shooting and urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to conduct an urgent review of the use of force by Border Patrol agents.

“This shooting across the border appears to have been a grossly disproportionate response and flies in the face of international standards which compel police to use firearms only as a last resort,” said Susan Lee, Americas director of the London-based human rights organization.Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s office, said a spent .40-caliber shell casing was found near the body – raising the question of whether the fatal shot was fired inside Mexico, although he did not explicitly make that allegation.

That would violate the rules for Border Patrol agents, who are supposed to stay on the U.S. side of the border – and it also could open the agent to a Mexican homicide prosecution.A U.S. official said video shows the Border Patrol agent did not enter Mexico.

The official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name, said the video also shows what seem to be four Mexican law enforcement officers driving to the edge of the dry but muddy bed of the Rio Grande, walking across to the U.S. side, picking up an undetermined object and returning to Mexico near the area where the boy’s body was. Like their U.S. counterparts, Mexican law officers are not authorized to cross the border without permission.

According to the FBI, Border Patrol agents were responding to a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S. near the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juarez around 6:30 p.m. Monday.One suspected illegal immigrant was detained on the levee on the U.S. side, the FBI said in a statement. Another Border Patrol agent arrived on the concrete bank where the now-dry, 33-foot (10-meter) wide Rio Grande is, and detained a second person. Other suspects ran back into Mexico and began throwing rocks, the FBI said.

At least one rock came from behind the agent, who was kneeling beside a suspected illegal immigrant whom he had prone on the ground, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said.The agent told the rock throwers to stop and back off, but they continued. The agent fired his weapon several times, hitting one person who later died, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation because it involved an assault on a federal officer. The agent was not injured, Simmons said.

The boy was shot once near the eye, Sandoval said. Authorities were still investigating the bullet’s trajectory, he said.Sandoval said he couldn’t comment on the video reported by the U.S. official because he didn’t know anything about it. “I am unaware about those hypotheses,” he said.

Sandoval said Mexican investigators were questioning three teenagers who were with the victim at the time of the shooting.The boy’s sister, Rosario, told Associated Press Television News that her brother was playing with several friends and did not plan to cross the border.

“They say that they started firing from over there and suddenly hit him in the head,” she said.The boy’s mother said he had gone to eat with his brother, who handles luggage at a border customs office. While there, he met up with a group of friends and they decided to hang out by the river, she said.

“That was his mistake, to have gone to the river,” she said in an interview with Mexico’s Milenio TV. “That’s why they killed him.”Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said its records indicate the number of Mexicans killed or wounded by U.S. immigration authorities rose from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 to 17 so far this year, which is not half over.

T.J. Bonner, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents, said rock throwing aimed at Border Patrol agents is common and capable of causing serious injury.”It is a deadly force encounter, one that justifies the use of deadly force,” Bonner said. (AP)

Obama, you went back on your promise to promote family values,said Michael Chavez of Houston

Opponents of Arizona’s new immigration law had a message for President Barack Obama at a rally Saturday at the Capitol in Austin.”Obama, you went back on your promise to promote family values,” said Michael Chavez of Houston.
“Deporting and separating family members is not an American value,” he said. Arizona’s immigration law, known as SB 1070, makes being an illegal immigrant a state crime and requires legal immigrants to carry papers that confirm their legal status.

Chavez, a veteran, said that people should remember Mexican immigrants are fighting for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several generations of his family have fought for the United States, including his grandfather, who fought in World War II, and his son, who just returned from Iraq, he said.The rally  National Day of Action Against SB 1070  drew a few hundred people, in contrast to the thousands of people who attended a rally at the Capitol against SB 1070 on May 1.

Many supporters in Austin went to Phoenix to participate in the protest there Saturday, said Amalia Martinez, a member of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition.Speakers at the rally said Obama should have already pushed the immigration reform he promised in his campaign through Congress.”If he wants to be re-elected, he needs to stop SB 1070,” Martinez said.

People from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and even Phoenix came to the rally in Austin.Justine Hecht said she and her boyfriend, Joe Sawinski, both from Phoenix, were just passing through Austin on a trip when they decided to come to the rally.They had already protested against the law in Arizona, but they said it was easier to express their views in Austin.”There’s just so much tension in Arizona right now,” Hecht said.

About 11 members from the Southwest Public Workers Union in San Antonio attended the rally, including Chavel Lopez, who said the Arizona law is racist.Jeff Gillum, who also attended the rally, said he supported Arizona’s law.”Immigrants have put a drain on health care and law enforcement,” Gillum said.The Austin City Council decided May 13 to end its business and travel ties with Arizona to protest the new law.Speakers at Austin’s rally Saturday said some Texas state legislators wanted to pass the same law as Arizona.”We will stop it in Texas, and we will stop it in Arizona,” said Gloria Rubac of Houston.”This is a civil rights issue for all of us.”

Austin boycott travel through Arizona

AUSTIN  In a unanimous decision, the Austin City Council passed a ban Thursday morning on travel to and business with Arizona in protest of a new immigration law in that state.”I’m concerned that if they go to Arizona, as far as we know, we can’t tell for sure that they’ll be subjected to harassment and even the potential for false arrest,” saidcouncilmember Bill Spelman . “I’d like to be able to maintain their security by sending them elsewhere.”

Austin became the latest in a growing list of cities that are boycotting Arizona in some capacity to protest the law, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires local law enforcement to ask for documentation from people they suspect are in the country illegally.Spelman said the city had 45 trips to Arizona last year, in which they spent about $50,000. And while he said that is not a lot of money, Spelman also said it’s $50,000 they could be spending someplace else.

Some Austinites like the idea, saying it will hurt some Arizona businesses that won’t benefit from the City of Austin’s business travels and the money spent while there.”I am in support of the ban, the resolution, because it is discriminatory what’s happening in Arizona,” said Gus Pena.The council convened at 10 a.m. Thursday, taking up a resolution Austin Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez first proposed two weeks ago.

The Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition showed up at the meeting in support of the city’s proposed resolution.”We believe it’s an assault on the civil liberties of Latinos in the state of Arizona,” said Caroline Keating, of the coalition. “We will do everything to make sure something similar does not happen in this state.”

The drafted proposal came as some Texas lawmakerspromise to propose similar leglsiation in Texas next year, and opposition is mounting in Austin, Dallas and other cities.On Wednesday, City Manager Marc Ott sent a memo to the council regarding Austin’s business in Arizona. In the past year, city officials made 45 trips to Arizona at a cost of $42,898. The trips were made by officials from departments including Austin Energy, police and water department.

“The City will be sending 5 employees to Arizona for 3 separate events during the month of May,” the memo says. “Commitments to the trips were made prior to the passage of the Arizona immigration law.”The memo also says that the city “has no contracts or investments” with the state of Arizona.San Francisco and Los Angeles have both passed resolutions banning official travel to and business with Arizona, and encouraging residents to show their displeasure with the law by boycotting it as well.

The new law allows police to ask for documentation of citizenship if they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally. The law does not define “reasonable suspicion.” Opponents of the law, signed last week, say that among other things, it gives police license to harass minorities who lawful citizens but who may not carry around proof of citizenship in their normal routine.While Spelman said the primary concern is City employees’ safety, he said the decision also comes with a message.”I’m sure it will also send a message that we think this is a mistake,” he said. “It’s bad for the Arizona economy and terrible for Arizona law enforcement, and it’s just the wrong direction for us to be going in as a country.”(KXAN)

Arizona law "misguided,"

Rumors circulate of an immigration raid at Cinco de Mayo festivities. Markets normally bustling with customers preparing for the celebration are quiet. Family picnics are scaled back.Many Hispanics in Arizona are increasingly anxious about being targeted under the state’s tough anti-illegal immigration law. Some are afraid to leave their homes, even on the day when the nation celebrates Hispanic heritage.

“They don’t want to go to the park or clubs to celebrate because they’re scared,” said George Cortez, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen from Mesa, as he took a break from sweeping hair clippings at Eagle’s barbershop in the Phoenix suburb.The law’s passage unleashed a torrent of criticism against the state. Some fear the law, which requires police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, could lead to racial profiling.

The National Council of La Raza, United Food and Commercial Workers and others scheduled a news conference in Washington today to urge a boycott of Arizona.Immigrant rights activists say the law is racist. Supporters deny those claims, noting that the law says race can’t be a sole reason for questioning people. They say the law is forcing the nation to confront a longstanding problem.

But some comments have unnerved Hispanics. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., for example, said he’d support deporting U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. He added “it takes more than walking across the border to be an American citizen.The debate has also played out in professional sports. The Phoenix Suns basketball team wore “Los Suns” jerseys in their playoff game Wednesday night, a show of support for the Hispanic community on Cinco de Mayo.

Obama on immigration

A White House Cinco de Mayo celebration erupted in applause when President Barack Obama, who has called the Arizona law “misguided,” acknowledged the Phoenix Suns’ action.Obama said Wednesday he wants to begin work this year on legislation overhauling the nation’s immigration system, but he offered no timetable to push for the actual passage of such legislation.”The way to fix our broken immigration system is through common-sense comprehensive immigration reform,” the president said. “I want to begin work this year, and I want Democrats and Republicans to work with me.”

Border security concern.In Washington, federal and state law enforcement officials told a Senate panel Wednesday that more federal funding is needed to help combat crimes linked to Mexico-based drug cartels.Donald Reay of the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition said more federal funding is needed to help states”The answer for border sheriffs is not to send more money to Mexico but augment the needs of our local law enforcement to contain that violence at the border,” Reay told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has filed a $300 million bill that would provide grants to local law enforcement agencies to hire personnel, pay overtime or buy equipment necessary to fight crime at the border. It also would create more federal judgeships for Southwest border states to step up prosecution of crimes.”We’ve asked for National Guard,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. “We need manpower, we need help.”

SB1070: Joe Arpaio discuss about Racial Profiling Protection Act

Let’s cut through the clutter surrounding Arizona’s new law It is intended to end lawsuits by victims of racial profiling. While, Arizona is the current hole in the border fence (before that it was California, before that Texas) that fact has nothing to do with the passage of the law.The law is meant to shield the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office and its self-promoting Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This department has been sued over 2,700 times since 2004, according to the Phoenix New Times. Poor Joe gets sued almost every day.  And the judge in a current racial profiling lawsuit caught Arpaio’s department destroying relevant evidence. So the law seeks to redefine skin-targeting by the sheriff and his ordered-to-profile deputies as “reasonable suspicion” while still retaining the pretense that racial profiling is something else. What better solution to Arpaio’s problem than legally mandating his tactics?

(Another traditional Arpaio target is Native Americans. They are five percent of Arizonans   but thanks to casino money they now have money to hire those pesky, hotshot attorneys.)Here are two facts you ought to know about the arguments being made by Arizona’s governor: Like the rest of the country – and like the other border states  crime rates in Arizona have been declining for years. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Arizona’s violent crime rate is the lowest since 1983. Property crime rates are the lowest since 1968. And the number of illegal immigrants in the US has declined almost 14 percent since 2007.Arpaio’s unseemly relationship with the Mexican complexion is hardly new. When I lived in Tucson and Phoenix in the early 80s, he was already well known for abuses. But two things have changed. First, Mexican-Americans have come out of the shadows, and are now 30 percent of citizens. They won’t be abused by the likes of Arpaio and simply take it. And second, the sinking Arizona economy made kicking out the Mexicans popular, once again. During every boom, border state employers actively recruit cheap labor in Mexico. During every downturn, they send them packing once again.

Arizona's controversial immigration law will spark scores of people to protest in May 1 rallies nationwide and add urgency to pleas for federal immigration reform

CHICAGO Immigrant rights activists hope Arizona’s controversial immigration law will spark scores of people to protest in May 1 rallies nationwide and add urgency to pleas for federal immigration reform.Dozens of marches are planned for Saturday in cities across the country from Los Angeles to Dallas to New York.”What happened in Arizona proves that racism and anti-immigrant hysteria across the country still exists. We need to continue to fight,” said Lee Siu Hin, a coordinator with the Washington, D.C.-based National Immigrant Solidarity Network.

Activists believe opposition to Arizona’s new law  which requires authorities to question people about immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally could be the catalyst needed to draw record-breaking crowds similar to those four years ago.

That’s when more than a million across the country united to fight federal legislation considered anti-immigrant. Though the bill, which would have made being an illegal immigrant a felony, was unsuccessful, it triggered massive marches across the nation.Since then, the May 1 movement has fractured and attendance has dropped sharply as attempts to reform federal immigration policy fizzled. In 2006, nearly half a million people took to Chicago’s streets. Last year, fewer than 15,000 participated.But after the Arizona law was signed into law last week, immigration reform advocates have seen a flurry of activity.

Relying on online social networking, churches and ethnic media to mobilize, activists have called for a boycott of Arizona businesses and protested outside Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games. Earlier in the week, two dozen activists chanting “Illinois is not Arizona” were arrested for blocking traffic outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago.While supporters say the law is necessary because of the federal government’s failure to secure the border and growing anxiety over crime related to illegal immigration, critics say it’s unconstitutional and encourages racial profiling and discrimination against immigrants or anyone thought to be an immigrant.

Activists fear that without federal legislation in place to address the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., other states will follow Arizona’s lead and pass similar legislation.”If Republicans and Democrats do not take care of this albatross around our necks, this will in fact be the undoing of many, many years of civil rights struggle in this country,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, where a downtown march is planned on Saturday. “I’m hoping that there is enough fire in people’s hearts and minds to urge them to be mobilized.”

But chances the federal government will step in this year seemed slim.President Barack Obama, who had once promised to tackle immigration reform in his first 100 days but has pushed back that timetable several times, said this week that Congress may lack the “appetite” to take on immigration after going through a tough legislative year.

Meanwhile, activists say problems with a broken immigration system continue to affect millions  raids on workplaces create mistrust of authorities and separate families with mixed immigration status, employers take advantage of immigrant labor and thousands of college students are left in limbo.That includes 19-year-old Patricio Gonzalez who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina at age five with his family on a tourist visa. It expired and his family wasn’t able to gain legal status.The Memphis teen said he had to drop out of college last fall because he wasn’t eligible for most student aid and couldn’t afford tuition.

“Do you know how difficult it is to see all your friends getting their education, and you’ve grown up with these people for years, they’re part of your family?” he said. “We’re creating lost generations — kids who grow up hopeless with no sense of betterment.”Activists aren’t alone in their opposition, a fact May 1 organizers hope will draw out even more people to rallies on Saturday which also is International Workers Day.California legislators have mulled canceling contracts with Arizona in protest. Denver Public Schools has banned work-related travel to Arizona. And several legal challenges, preventing the bill from going into effect this summer, are in the works.

Immigrant rights activists also say they’re stepping up other forms of action including more civil disobedience tactics. In Chicago, several college students plan to publicly “come out” as illegal immigrants on a downtown stage on Saturday.
“It’s time to come together and show that undocumenteds have dignity. They’re human,” said Douglas Interiano, a spokesman of Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance, which is helping plan Saturday’s march in Dallas.

He projected up to 100,000 could march in Texas with similar events planned in El Paso, Houston, Austin and San Juan. Organizers in California predicted up to 100,000 marching in downtown Los Angeles, too.”Given what’s happening in Arizona now it’s crucial for us to speak out and denounce what’s happening,” said Veronica Mendez, an organizer with the Workers Interfaith Network in Minneapolis, Minn., where there’s a Saturday rally. “We all have the same hopes and goals.”(AP)