Lock up anyone who "looks" like an immigrant....

Good Job, Kris... (4.00 / 2)

...and yes, please keep posting diaries about your work and Immigrants Day here.  It's a very important issue.  We are always just one election away from losing rights, and I could see New Hampshire adopting a law similar to Arizona, shameful as that is.  

The cause continues.  Keep doing good work.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 19:37:03 PM CDT

Thank you, Jim... (0.00 / 0)

and I hope you are wrong that we are just one vote away...

But we never thought this was going to be easy, did we?

Thank you!


Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 07:36:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'd be interested (4.00 / 2)

in hearing more, thanks Kris!  

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty

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by: susanthe @ Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 21:05:05 PM CDT

Thanks, Susan! (4.00 / 1)

You have always been a stalwart champion for those who have few advocating for them!  Much appreciated!  


Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 07:37:30 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Important rights issue (4.00 / 2)

Please keep us informed.

We believe in prosperity & opportunity, strong communities, healthy families, great schools, investing in our future and leading the world by example. We are Democrats; we are the change you're looking for.

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by: bloomingpol @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 04:29:44 AM CDT

Thanks, Bloomingpol! (0.00 / 0)

Will do my best! Thank you!


Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 07:37:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't agree with these people, but here's (0.00 / 0)

the information they collected on our Representative.

http://profiles.numbersusa.com...

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by: hannah @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 09:40:35 AM CDT

instead of the hopping the fence graphic (4.00 / 1)

they could have just gone with a burning cross surrounded by hooded men. That, at least,  would have at least been honest.

This group is more interested in blaming the result, rather than looking at the causes. That the "result" happens to be people with  brown skin coming to the US, is awfully darned handy.  

sanctimonious purist/professional lefty

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by: susanthe @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 11:00:50 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

There's really no difference (0.00 / 0)

between the anti-immigrant tea baggers and those with white hoods around a burning cross.

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by: Timmy J @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 15:48:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I will say this much: the leaders of the Americans for Property group (0.00 / 0)

both nationally and locally, are pro-immigration reform. I know that the leadership may not represent the tea party rank-and-file on this, and it's been a bit of a controversy. I think that's good. This isn't really a partisan issue, despite controversies.

Moreover, conservative Evangelical Christians have been organizing in support of immigration reform now, too.



Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:34:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hannah, did you know that Numbers USA is an anti-immigrant group? (0.00 / 0)

I think it's fine, Hanna, to share whatever link you wish here on Blue Hampshire and for you to disagree, as you said, with "these people."  By the way, did you mean you disagreed with me or with the Numbers USA Folks? Regardless, I do want to make sure that you know that the link to the group you are citing - Numbers USA - is known to be the Internet activism arm of the anti-immigrant lobby.  It was started as a project of the founder and board president John Tanton of FAIR, or the so called Federation for American Immigration Reform, has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center along with groups such as the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan.  FAIR has come under intense scrutiny by many civil and human rights organizations.

Please don't take my word for it, see for yourself here: http://www.splcenter.org/get-i...


Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 14:22:12 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What they're about is pretty obvious. (4.00 / 1)

However, I still think that "know thine enemy" is good advice.  

Personally, I consider real and imagined fences to keep people out just as onerous as fences and "curtains" to keep people in.  While the countries of Europe and Asia are moving towards open borders, the United States, having given up on officially segregating target populations (except for native Americans on reservations), are latching on to wholesale exclusion of the "disadvantaged" and self-segregation--the gated community writ large.

Fact is that the rate of crimes involving physical injury is dropping and there's an interest in finding new work for our law enforcers (who have been equipped with about as much hardware as they can handle) to do.  So, they're to be sent out looking for inoffensive people who arouse "suspicion."  Never mind that suspicion tends to be aroused by whatever the suspicious aren't used to.  There was a time, not so long ago, when husbands beating wives looked normal and there was no reason to make an arrest for assault.  Ditto for husbands (common law or officially married) who found it necessary to extract by force the sexual services to which they felt themselves entitled--no reason to be suspicious there, either.

The "limited immunity" from liability for their actions we accord to the agents of law enforcement rests on the false assumption that their personal non-involvement in an event renders them objective--i.e. not directed by personal interest.  The reason this assumption is false is because their continued employment and guaranteed income depends on the number of interactions with actual and potential criminals.  So, any increase in the number of potential criminals serves to validate the importance and continued employment of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, of course, the whole nation is being stolen blind by the gnomes of Wall Street and the gnomes of Main Street are close behind.

Rich foreigners staying at the Ritz aren't going to be hauled in by ICE, are they?

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 07:44:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

This is exactly why immigration reform is urgently needed! (0.00 / 0)

If we do comprehensive immigration reform, we'll be able to bring the whole immigration process into the sunshine and out of the shadows, so law enforcement can focus on criminal behaviors like physical or property criminals, not pick on undocumented immigrants who are helping our economy.

Since enforcement is a component of our stand,given the extent of Hanna's remarks, wanted you to see the talking points from our national group on border enforcement:

BORDER ENFORCEMENT

We believe in a strong, secure border where the rule of law is enforced to the benefit of our nation's economic and physical security. A sensible border enforcement strategy will keep America and its communities safe, protect due process and human rights, enhance cross-border commerce and trade, and be fiscally responsible.

We support border enforcement operations that focus on efforts that effectively and proportionately address genuine risks to safety and security of the United States and communities along the border, including arms and drug trafficking, terrorism, and other serious criminal activity.  We support additional resources and staff for our ports of entry in order to both welcome entrants to the United States and effectively protect against criminal and security risks.  In the interests of all citizens and residents along the border, DHS agents and personnel responsible for the border must receive improved training and oversight on their responsibilities to uphold the law and safeguard the border region.

The following legislative priorities emphasize oversight, training, community consultation, and public accountability.  

·Training and Consultation:  DHS, in consultation with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the DOJ Civil Rights Division, should review and improve training requirements for Border Patrol, ICE, and CBP agents. A Border Communities Liaison Office located within DHS should consult regularly with communities in each border sector.

·Staffing and Standards:  DHS should allocate additional resources and staffing to ports of entry to improve infrastructure and expedite legal entry and exits, before further expanding border enforcement personnel.  DHS must specify clear standards for protecting due process and individual rights at ports of entry, as well as safeguarding the rights of those it detains.  A uniform complaint process should clearly define how complaints are to be filed, tracked, and resolved for all Border Patrol stations and Ports of Entry.

·Review and Accountability:  Further expansion of border barriers, including fencing, should be linked to mandated impact studies that assess impacts of current and proposed border infrastructure and operations on migrant deaths, the civil, human, and property rights of border community residents, on commerce and the environment, along with efforts to mitigate or eliminate negative impacts.

Sensible legislation SHOULD NOT include:
·Provisions to expand the border fence.
·Broadening of border patrol powers or jurisdiction.
·Demands on local law enforcement to participate in immigration enforcement.
·Expansion of resources or requirements for installation of SBInet until it has demonstrated cost-effectiveness.
·Military or national guard deployment to the border.
·Additional resources or expansion of Operation Streamline.
·Increased criminal sentences for crossing the border without inspection.

Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:43:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Joan & Bob (4.00 / 1)

for transparency sake ~I represent Union print shops

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by: JonnyBBad @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 13:31:47 PM CDT

Governor Janice Brewer signed the bill. (4.00 / 3)

She is a Republican. We cannot ever let them get away with the "liberty" mantle.

This will wind up in the courts, for certain. And it should be struck down.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 16:33:35 PM CDT

and she should be impeached (4.00 / 1)

This country allowed racism to be illegal for far too long.  Now the GOP is trying to bring it back.  The Nazis persecuted the Jews and tried to remove them from their country, and now the GOP is trying to do pretty much the same thing to immigrants (and really all minorities) in this country short of putting them in gas chambers.

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by: Timmy J @ Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 19:26:29 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The gas chambers were a last resort when they (0.00 / 1)

ran out of food and room and still had some fuel.  
It might be useful to remember that the non-disadvantaged and privileged Jews were given the "opportunity" to go on extended vacations and send their children off to private schools in England, Argentina, Chile and America and take all their wealth with them.  It was only after the opportunists were all gone (and their privileged treatment had aroused a considerable amount of resentment in ordinary Germans), that it was considered prudent to round up the rest and send them off to "labor camps" to serve the fatherland.  Some, of course, were really privileged and sent off to vacation in spas and resorts. Auschwitzen refers to "sweating out" toxins--what happens at health spas where mineral waters heated in the ground are "taken."

Nazi Germany was an experiment in how to control large populations.  One stratagem which proved successful for a considerable period of time was to make a very obvious example of a disposable population that nobody would really miss.  The only problem was that they ran out of exemplars.  So, when all the Jews were gone, other disposables had to be found and the lame and halt, being easy to identify, were a natural sequel.
Now that importing Eurasians and holding them in pens on Guantanamo has lost its intimidating role (detainees now enjoy more rights than "free" persons), new populations have to be rounded up and "secured."  Whether they are in fact legal residents or not is irrelevant.  The purpose lies in the rounding up and the fear that behavior generates in the observers.

Most people assume that the objective of an action is the person or thing against which an action is directed.  If they take a lesson from what they observe happening to someone else, it's either that the other person deserved the action or not, and/or that they themselves are lucky or unlucky not to have been directly affected.  It doesn't occur to most people that the objective is to affect indirectly--to manipulate them by "tugging at their heart-strings," so to speak.

That's the strategy I refer to as "triangulation," whose meaning, perhaps not unintentionally, was perverted by applying the term to Bill Clinton's effort to "split the difference"--i.e. give each side a half a loaf.  Triangulation, as I see it, is the strategy of the terrorist who targets the un-involved with the objective of getting a reaction from a superior force coming to the aid of the innocents.  It's as if robbers waylaid travelers in order to identify who the good Samaritans are and get rid of them.

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 08:34:22 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

your statements are patently offensive (0.00 / 0)

I think you really believe this to be true from your own experience.I know many Jews, many with tattoos and no families to speak of. That there were 'opportunists' who were privileged??? that they got to go on vacation? they had to give up everything they owned to the crrupt murderers, to get their children to safety when they knew they would probably never see them again( with Sound of Music playing in the background)...I've never heard that level of self delusion before, that in effect there were good Nazis who took care of the rich Jews...citations or links to back up this would be appropriate.

To compare a trip in a box car to Auschwitz to going to a schvitz(like a steam bath or sweatlodge...schvitz=sweat)is wrong on so many levels.

I know a German woman for 30 years, a close friend of my mother's, who was a child in Berlin after the War, who suffered multiple privations, whose mother 'did what she had to' to keep her children fed...Inga never said anything of the likes which you purport to.

May a turnip grow upside down in your stomach!

for transparency sake ~I represent Union print shops

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by: JonnyBBad @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 11:27:36 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, you're right. My statements were meant to be offensive-- (0.00 / 0)

to offend the attitudes that permitted the kind of behavior Germany under the Nazi regime engaged in.

It was a regime that excelled at deception at every level.

I'm sorry.  Irony is difficult to communicate on the internets.  But, how did you think all those people were persuaded to disrobe and step into the showers?  Why is it that millions of people agree to disrobe in the middle of airports for the privilege of getting on a plane?

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by: hannah @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 16:28:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fear (4.00 / 1)

Bush was able to use fear to shove his radical agenda through Congress and take away our rights under a guise of "safety".  And now the state of Arizona has piled onto the fear tactics only Republicans can think of.  This is all too reminiscent of what you'd expect under the dictatorial regimes of Lenin or Stalin.  "Your papers, please."

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by: Timmy J @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 21:51:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I totally missed your irony n/t (0.00 / 0)

for transparency sake ~I represent Union print shops

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by: JonnyBBad @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 09:02:19 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

but.... (0.00 / 0)

this is not a partisan issue.  

Sen. Gregg has voted in FAVOR of immigration reform before, and we've lined up a number of grasstop GOP'ers here in NH, too, one of whom will be participating in a media event on Wed. about immigration reform.

Just so you know.


Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:45:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Solidifying the Democratic future (0.00 / 0)

Every time Republicans show off their xenophobia, it reminds the people they're trying to use as examples not to vote Republican. I suspect we'll see a lot of ads in areas with Latino population this year reminding them which party opposed this racist bill and which one couldn't praise it enough.

Only the left protects anyone's rights.

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by: RealNRH @ Sat Apr 24, 2010 at 23:19:40 PM CDT

Problem-- (0.00 / 0)

The problem is that this has been a long time coming.  One is reminded of the frog in the pan of water on the stove.

One of the advantages of "failure by design" is that support for policies and programs that aim to go nowhere can be made to look like a positive effort.  George W. Bush, for example, could be almost certain that another mass grant of citizenship would be rejected.  So, he proposed "immigration reform" and was able to take credit for something he never wanted to begin with.  He tried and failed so his party could try and try again.
Who's going to get blamed for the fact that Republicans failed?  How do you get the message across that Republicans didn't even want to succeed?  

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by: hannah @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 03:53:16 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

But they didn't fail (0.00 / 0)

The Republicans this time explicitly succeeded in getting their bill passed and signed into law in Arizona. The bill inherently is aimed at empowering the police to hassle Latinos in Arizona. This is not a slowly building thing; this is a clear partisan event. Latinos in Arizona who tire of being forced to prove their citizenship will be well aware of the change and who championed it.

This is not a failed attempt at immigration reform that Republicans can later claim would have been helpful if it had passed. This is a successful passing of a bill to order every state organization in Arizona to give Latinos a hard time. I am not at all seeing how you come up with 'Republicans tried and failed' in the context of this bill.

Only the left protects anyone's rights.

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by: RealNRH @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 10:02:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well, actually, according to reports on KOS, (0.00 / 0)

this has been going on a long time.  ICE has been stopping people and requiring birth certificates.  What's new here is that the state wanted to get into the act because ICE wasn't doing enough.
Also, this is a law that is designed to fail because it is going to be thrown out by the courts.  Then Republicans can complain about that.

Every law that aims to enforce good behavior, in contrast to prohibiting bad behavior (not having a birth certificate on one's person at all times cannot be classified as bad), is eventually bound to fail.  Individual behavior is presumed to be good until proved to be bad and the criterion for the latter is whether someone else is injured.  The requirement for a driver's license is uniquely related to the fact that an automobile is a potentially lethal vehicle and the ability to operate one safely has to be shown.
Where a person is born has no negative effect on anyone else.  That some people exploit the labor of others whom they consider disadvantaged is not a reason to subject everyone to documentary control. If a commercial enterprise is paying unfair wages, take away their business license or confiscate the assets that are owed.  Targeting a side effect does not correct the core problem.  

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by: hannah @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 10:19:57 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Okay (0.00 / 0)

That explains the part about why you consider it designed to fail, at least. I disagree that even if it does get thrown out it could be used as a pro-Republican argument outside their existing xenophobic base; the Arizona law has absolutely no redeeming qualities for the Latino population, it was passed entirely by Republicans, and it does not remotely pretend to be any sort of immigration reform, just draconian enforcement.

Also, while I would be in favor of seeing the law thrown out, I'm not aware of the legal arguments that would make that happen, unless the implementation can be proven to be indicative of a racial bias making it susceptible to equal-treatment claims - but that would have to wait until after the law has been in place long enough to establish a statistical basis to prove that.

Only the left protects anyone's rights.

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by: RealNRH @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 15:36:32 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

No Problemo (0.00 / 0)

http://www.colbertnation.com/t...

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by: hannah @ Sun Apr 25, 2010 at 05:25:15 AM CDT

That's awesome n/t (0.00 / 0)

Be the Change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi)

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by: KrisSchultz @ Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:49:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]