Hi everyone,
I'm asking you to email the News editor at the NYPost regarding a sentence in the article about my friend Julio, the artist killed by the drunken off-duty police officer a day ago. In the article: "Off-duty Cop in deadly DWI rap" http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/66154.htm, the third sentence says
"Colon then backed up and ran over the shutterbug again."
While my friend was an artist who was taking photos when the accident happened, the sentence trivializes Julio's death and is disrespectful to his friends and family. If you agree, please contact: Chris Shaw, Online Editorial and News, at: cshaw@nypost.com.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Immigration Debate Heats Up in Senate
by Norman Eng
March, 2006
The long-awaited immigration debate in the U.S. Senate is finally about to get underway. The next few weeks in the Senate will be crucial in determining how this country will treat the 11 million undocumented immigrants who have come in search of the American Dream but who lack legal status to live and work here. In the end, we’ll find out if we are capable of reforming the failing immigration system to manage migration flows better, and if we can do it in a way that treats immigrants fairly.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin working on sweeping immigration reform legislation in early March. Whatever bill emerges from that committee will then go to the full Senate for consideration and eventually a vote, most likely in April.
The stakes could not be higher for New York City, where an estimated half a million city residents live and work without legal immigration status, and many more are affected by family separation and immigration processing backlogs.
The Bush Plan
In order to understand the context of the Senate debate, it’s necessary to look at some of the major proposals on the table. In January 2004, President George W. Bush made the first of several speeches in which he called for stepped-up enforcement combined with a guestworker program that would offer temporary work visas to undocumented workers and workers from abroad.
The president’s plan pleased just about no one, however. Immigrant advocates criticized his guestworker plan because it would kick workers out of the country after six years and offer them no path to permanent residence and citizenship. Anti-immigrant restrictionists, meanwhile, labeled even this very limited guestworker program an “amnesty” that rewards lawbreakers.
The House Bill
In a few whirlwind days near the end of the session in December, House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, railroaded through to passage the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437).
The House bill (if approved by the Senate as well) would ratchet up border and interior enforcement and create severe new penalties for immigration violations. Unlawful presence –- when someone’s visa status expires, for example -– would no longer merely be a civil violation but would become a felony crime. Anyone who “assists” or “encourages” an undocumented immigrant to remain in the country could be sent to prison for five years –- a provision that has social workers, advocates, and others wondering if their work with undocumented populations is going to land them in jail if H.R. 4437 becomes law.
The enforcement-only approach taken by the House bill makes no attempt to deal realistically with the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, other than to criminalize, arrest and deport as many of them as possible. Immigrant advocates insist that a more comprehensive and solution-oriented approach to fixing the broken U.S. immigration system is needed, and they have been riding on the hope that more moderate voices in the Senate will prevail.
The Senate Debate
A number of different immigration bills, all claiming to be comprehensive, have been introduced in the Senate, including a bill by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, and one by Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyle. On February 23rd, however, Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his “Chairman’s Mark,” a draft bill that ends the speculation about which bill would serve as the starting point for consideration of immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Specter’s draft bill attempts to cobble together a compromise from various existing proposals. The bill, to immigrant advocates’ dismay, incorporates many of the severe enforcement provisions from the Sensenbrenner House bill. Like the Bush plan, it would create a guestworker program to allow needed workers from abroad to spend up to six years working in the United States before being forced to return to their country of origin.
The bill’s treatment of undocumented workers constitutes perhaps the most strained compromise of all. Specter’s bill would grant temporary visas of indefinite duration to undocumented immigrants; the visa status would not expire after a certain number of years. However, there would be no specific path to permanent residence and citizenship for these workers. This provision basically creates millions of workers stuck in a permanent second-class status.
What -- And Who's -- Missing
Immigrant communities are protesting the Chairman’s Mark as falling far short of the basic principles needed for effective and realistic immigration reform, which include:
legalization and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here
reunification of families separated by restrictive laws and bureaucratic delays
a temporary-worker program with full labor rights and a path to citizenship
smart, targeted enforcement
These compelling principles need more champions in Congress if we are to achieve a humane and workable immigration system. New York’s senators have been largely missing from the immigration debate so far. But Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton could make a crucial difference in the weeks ahead in avoiding a rush to a compromise position drawn from deeply flawed proposals.
Norman Eng, an immigration attorney, is communications and research coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition. For more immigrant news, see The Citizen.
The long-awaited immigration debate in the U.S. Senate is finally about to get underway. The next few weeks in the Senate will be crucial in determining how this country will treat the 11 million undocumented immigrants who have come in search of the American Dream but who lack legal status to live and work here. In the end, we’ll find out if we are capable of reforming the failing immigration system to manage migration flows better, and if we can do it in a way that treats immigrants fairly.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin working on sweeping immigration reform legislation in early March. Whatever bill emerges from that committee will then go to the full Senate for consideration and eventually a vote, most likely in April.
The stakes could not be higher for New York City, where an estimated half a million city residents live and work without legal immigration status, and many more are affected by family separation and immigration processing backlogs.
The Bush Plan
In order to understand the context of the Senate debate, it’s necessary to look at some of the major proposals on the table. In January 2004, President George W. Bush made the first of several speeches in which he called for stepped-up enforcement combined with a guestworker program that would offer temporary work visas to undocumented workers and workers from abroad.
The president’s plan pleased just about no one, however. Immigrant advocates criticized his guestworker plan because it would kick workers out of the country after six years and offer them no path to permanent residence and citizenship. Anti-immigrant restrictionists, meanwhile, labeled even this very limited guestworker program an “amnesty” that rewards lawbreakers.
The House Bill
In a few whirlwind days near the end of the session in December, House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, railroaded through to passage the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437).
The House bill (if approved by the Senate as well) would ratchet up border and interior enforcement and create severe new penalties for immigration violations. Unlawful presence –- when someone’s visa status expires, for example -– would no longer merely be a civil violation but would become a felony crime. Anyone who “assists” or “encourages” an undocumented immigrant to remain in the country could be sent to prison for five years –- a provision that has social workers, advocates, and others wondering if their work with undocumented populations is going to land them in jail if H.R. 4437 becomes law.
The enforcement-only approach taken by the House bill makes no attempt to deal realistically with the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, other than to criminalize, arrest and deport as many of them as possible. Immigrant advocates insist that a more comprehensive and solution-oriented approach to fixing the broken U.S. immigration system is needed, and they have been riding on the hope that more moderate voices in the Senate will prevail.
The Senate Debate
A number of different immigration bills, all claiming to be comprehensive, have been introduced in the Senate, including a bill by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, and one by Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyle. On February 23rd, however, Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his “Chairman’s Mark,” a draft bill that ends the speculation about which bill would serve as the starting point for consideration of immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Specter’s draft bill attempts to cobble together a compromise from various existing proposals. The bill, to immigrant advocates’ dismay, incorporates many of the severe enforcement provisions from the Sensenbrenner House bill. Like the Bush plan, it would create a guestworker program to allow needed workers from abroad to spend up to six years working in the United States before being forced to return to their country of origin.
The bill’s treatment of undocumented workers constitutes perhaps the most strained compromise of all. Specter’s bill would grant temporary visas of indefinite duration to undocumented immigrants; the visa status would not expire after a certain number of years. However, there would be no specific path to permanent residence and citizenship for these workers. This provision basically creates millions of workers stuck in a permanent second-class status.
What -- And Who's -- Missing
Immigrant communities are protesting the Chairman’s Mark as falling far short of the basic principles needed for effective and realistic immigration reform, which include:
legalization and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here
reunification of families separated by restrictive laws and bureaucratic delays
a temporary-worker program with full labor rights and a path to citizenship
smart, targeted enforcement
These compelling principles need more champions in Congress if we are to achieve a humane and workable immigration system. New York’s senators have been largely missing from the immigration debate so far. But Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton could make a crucial difference in the weeks ahead in avoiding a rush to a compromise position drawn from deeply flawed proposals.
Norman Eng, an immigration attorney, is communications and research coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition. For more immigrant news, see The Citizen.
Hispanics New Target of Hate Groups
By BILL POOVEY,
Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:32 PM ET
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.
Former Klansman Daniel Schertz, a 27-year-old from the southeast Tennessee town of South Pittsburg, was indicted in June on charges of building pipe bombs to kill Hispanic immigrants.
Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffery of the North Georgia White Knights denied any connection to the bomb plot and said he banished Schertz from the group, but he readily admits he isn't happy with the flow of immigrants to the region."
The blacks fought for their civil rights. These illegal immigrants are coming in here and having everything just handed to them," Jeffery said.
Advocates say there are no precise statistics on hate crimes against Hispanics. Victims don't always call the police because of their precarious immigration status."People feel they will not be protected, and they are risking deportation," said John Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. "That is more and more a problem with hate crimes."
Hate crimes against Hispanic immigrants have been common in other parts of the country, but Southern states saw their Hispanic populations boom in the 1990s. Arkansas' Hispanic population rose by 337 percent during the decade, Georgia's by 300 percent, Tennessee's by 278 percent and South Carolina's by 211 percent.
One of the first signs of organized anti-Hispanic activity in the South occurred in Gainesville, Ga., in 1998, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama group that tracks hate crimes.
The American Knights of the KKK held a rally on Hall County Courthouse steps, followed by a cross-burning in nearby Winder. A few years later, in 2001, the nation's largest neo-nazi organization, the National Alliance, staged a rally in Hall County.
Santos Aguilar of the Alianza Del Pueblo, an advocacy center for immigrants in Knoxville, said he believes the number of hate groups taking aim at immigrants continues to grow.
"The majority of the crimes are not reported to the law enforcement agencies," he said.
While a member of the North Georgia White Knights, Schertz was caught by an undercover federal agent and a confidential informant. Court records show he took them shopping for bomb materials at a home improvement store."
Once at Lowe's, Schertz picked out five end caps and some silicone for the pipe bombs he was making," the agent's affidavit says. He then explained how to wire the explosives.
After returning to a shed at his home, Schertz gave instructions "down to the proper order of laying gun powder and shrapnel material." He made five pipe bombs and sold them for $750, records show.
Schertz is charged with teaching and demonstrating how to make a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transport of explosive material with intent to kill or injure. He is being held without bond.
Schertz's attorney, Mike Caputo, declined to comment on the charges, but said he was working on a plea agreement. He said Schertz is a military veteran and has no previous criminal record.
His Klan leader, Jeffery, said Schertz was thrown out of the Klan for unrelated disobedience in mid-May — weeks after the alleged bomb making and selling in April.
"We kicked him out for breaking his oath that he swore before God," Jeffery, 43, said in a telephone interview. "We are not a violence-making group, and we don't believe in that. This isn't the '50s and '60s."
Federal agents say hate groups always deny involvement when one of their members is charged with a crime.
"There are always a percentage of these people who are ready, willing and able to go off," said James M. Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Nashville field division.
Cavanaugh said that "when the group burns the cross, worships under the swastika, you dehumanize the people ... that has been a plague on the world for centuries."
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report counted 762 active hate groups in the United States in 2004. South Carolina had the most, with 47, and Tennessee had the most Klan chapters, with 13.
David Lubell, director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the Schertz case shows how supremacist talk can prompt violence.
"It is what happened in the civil rights movement. All of a sudden it is acceptable to incite hatred of immigrants, whether Latino, or from Africa, or Asia or wherever," he said.
Lubell said "usually it is a lone wolf kind of person who listens to these messages and acts on them ... This is just a symptom of what has been anti-immigrant sentiment, much more freely used by radio talk show hosts, anti-immigrant groups and even politicians."___
Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:32 PM ET
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.
Former Klansman Daniel Schertz, a 27-year-old from the southeast Tennessee town of South Pittsburg, was indicted in June on charges of building pipe bombs to kill Hispanic immigrants.
Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffery of the North Georgia White Knights denied any connection to the bomb plot and said he banished Schertz from the group, but he readily admits he isn't happy with the flow of immigrants to the region."
The blacks fought for their civil rights. These illegal immigrants are coming in here and having everything just handed to them," Jeffery said.
Advocates say there are no precise statistics on hate crimes against Hispanics. Victims don't always call the police because of their precarious immigration status."People feel they will not be protected, and they are risking deportation," said John Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. "That is more and more a problem with hate crimes."
Hate crimes against Hispanic immigrants have been common in other parts of the country, but Southern states saw their Hispanic populations boom in the 1990s. Arkansas' Hispanic population rose by 337 percent during the decade, Georgia's by 300 percent, Tennessee's by 278 percent and South Carolina's by 211 percent.
One of the first signs of organized anti-Hispanic activity in the South occurred in Gainesville, Ga., in 1998, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama group that tracks hate crimes.
The American Knights of the KKK held a rally on Hall County Courthouse steps, followed by a cross-burning in nearby Winder. A few years later, in 2001, the nation's largest neo-nazi organization, the National Alliance, staged a rally in Hall County.
Santos Aguilar of the Alianza Del Pueblo, an advocacy center for immigrants in Knoxville, said he believes the number of hate groups taking aim at immigrants continues to grow.
"The majority of the crimes are not reported to the law enforcement agencies," he said.
While a member of the North Georgia White Knights, Schertz was caught by an undercover federal agent and a confidential informant. Court records show he took them shopping for bomb materials at a home improvement store."
Once at Lowe's, Schertz picked out five end caps and some silicone for the pipe bombs he was making," the agent's affidavit says. He then explained how to wire the explosives.
After returning to a shed at his home, Schertz gave instructions "down to the proper order of laying gun powder and shrapnel material." He made five pipe bombs and sold them for $750, records show.
Schertz is charged with teaching and demonstrating how to make a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transport of explosive material with intent to kill or injure. He is being held without bond.
Schertz's attorney, Mike Caputo, declined to comment on the charges, but said he was working on a plea agreement. He said Schertz is a military veteran and has no previous criminal record.
His Klan leader, Jeffery, said Schertz was thrown out of the Klan for unrelated disobedience in mid-May — weeks after the alleged bomb making and selling in April.
"We kicked him out for breaking his oath that he swore before God," Jeffery, 43, said in a telephone interview. "We are not a violence-making group, and we don't believe in that. This isn't the '50s and '60s."
Federal agents say hate groups always deny involvement when one of their members is charged with a crime.
"There are always a percentage of these people who are ready, willing and able to go off," said James M. Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Nashville field division.
Cavanaugh said that "when the group burns the cross, worships under the swastika, you dehumanize the people ... that has been a plague on the world for centuries."
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report counted 762 active hate groups in the United States in 2004. South Carolina had the most, with 47, and Tennessee had the most Klan chapters, with 13.
David Lubell, director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the Schertz case shows how supremacist talk can prompt violence.
"It is what happened in the civil rights movement. All of a sudden it is acceptable to incite hatred of immigrants, whether Latino, or from Africa, or Asia or wherever," he said.
Lubell said "usually it is a lone wolf kind of person who listens to these messages and acts on them ... This is just a symptom of what has been anti-immigrant sentiment, much more freely used by radio talk show hosts, anti-immigrant groups and even politicians."___
On the Minutemen
In the Shadow of the Minutemen
Sunday, February 26 2006 @ 06:00 PM PST
by Zach Morris, ARA
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
THE NEW THREAT
Founded by right-wing extremists Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox in April of 2005, the Minuteman Project ostensibly began as “a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the 'rule of law,' not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL [sic] aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders.” Vigilantes, many of them armed, pledged to keep watch on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexican border, to detain anyone crossing the border illegally from Mexico and to promptly notify the U.S. Border Patrol of their location. Instead, their patrols have either been covert vigilante actions of questionable legality (there has been talk of setting up “sniper posts” along the border on Minutemen web forums, coincidental to a series of at least nineteen “unexplained” murders of Latino immigrants, by gunshot wounds, in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts) or have been orchestrated media stunts aimed at whipping up racist, anti-Latino sentiment.Supporters say that they are simply helping over-taxed, under-powered law enforcement perform their duties under the Constitution, but critics contend this is nothing more than a veil to legitimize the actions of violent racist organizations.The Minuteman Project has since moved from the U.S.-Mexican border to recruitment throughout the United States, usually in areas with a large or growing Latino immigrant population far away from any international borders.
COMMON THREADS
Looking at the background and political affiliations of the Minuteman Project's leadership, as well as the activities of its membership, critics' claims are not surprising.56-year old Gilchrist, the Minuteman Project's director who once envisioned a future where America would be host to “neighborhood armies of 20 to 40 going out and killing and invading one another” if immigration continued, is also a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Both organizations are considered hate groups: the Council of Conservative Citizens opposes “race-mixing” and has close links to the neo-fascist British National Party, while Barbara Coe, president of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, refers to Mexicans as “savages” and claims to have knowledge of a “secret plan” by the Mexican government to invade and annex the American Southwest.Simcox joined forces with Gilchrist only after suffering a mental breakdown in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on NYC. Initially restricting himself to bizarre answering machine messages that demanded the caller recite the preamble to the Constitution before leaving a message, he left his home and family in Los Angeles to embark on an anti-immigrant crusade. His ex-wife, Kate Dunbar, filed for sole custody of their child in late 2001, citing “sudden, violent fits of rage,” paranoid outbursts and instances of child abuse at the hands of Simcox. Organizationally, the idea of holding vigilante patrols of the southern border is not new: the Ku Klux Klan did it in the 1960's and called it the Ku Klux Klan Border patrol. Then in the 1980's, the KKK did it again and called themselves the Minutemen. The 1960's also saw the rise of right-wing terrorist group who called for the assassination of left-wing student and civil rights activists. Their founder was arrested after an armed bank robbery attempt in 1968. The name of this right-wing terrorist organization? The Minutemen. Go figure.
DISSENT WITHIN THE RANKS
Interestingly enough, the most jarring criticism of the current Minutemen does not just come from anti-racist activists, it also comes from within the Minutemen's own ranks.Self-described anti-immigration activist Jim Chase, founder of the California Border Watch group, publicly severed all ties with the Minuteman Project and other groups in November of 2005. Chase stated in his open letter to them: “You have murderers in your ranks. You have Nazis, other anti-Jews, and anti-Hispanic racists side by side with you. You are whom you run around with. Proud to be a Minuteman now? You may not be so proud in the future.”What Chase is referring to is the deep association of the Minutemen to racist groups. In April of 2005, during the Minutemen's border watch, a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance flooded the border towns of Bisbee, Douglas and Nogales with racist literature calling for the extermination of all non-whites in support of the Minuteman Project's efforts. Members of White Revolution, the National Vanguard and other Nazi groups have been featured prominently at Minutemen recruitment events. Most blatantly, many Minuteman affiliated groups, such as California's Save Our State, now openly embrace white power fascist politics.The Minutemen also claim to be peaceful, yet encourage their members to engage in armed patrols. They have also engaged in violence. On May 25, 2005, Minuteman supporter Hal Netkin drove his van into a crowd of anti-racist protesters outside of a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove California, sending two people to the hospital. Yet, in public, Minutemen spokesmen continue to deny such accusations.
CALLING THE BLUFF ON A POKER FACE
Local activists from Anti-Racist Action and the One People's Project recently exposed the band Poker Face for its anti-Semitism, leading to a flurry of follow up articles in local New Jersey papers. Poker Face was scheduled to play the NJ Libertarian Party's annual convention at the University Inn at Rutgers University, but after residents, students and alumnae sent letters and phone calls of protest to the administration, Rutgers pulled the plug. Rutgers' officials denied the cancellation had anything to do with the allegations of anti-Semitism. Lead singer Paul Topete repeatedly denied being anti-Semitic in interviews to various newspapers while at the same time effectively denying that the Holocaust ever happened. Topete also denied being racist by stating that he was half-Mexican.Well, it just so happens that after Poker Face's Rutgers appearance was canceled, they managed to book another show at a conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The conference just happened to be a recruitment meeting for a Pennsylvania chapter of the Minuteman Project, headed by John Ryan of Quakertown, PA. The conference was moved to that hotel after the management of the Valley Forge Convention Center canceled the Minutemen's event due to protests regarding the group's racist ties. Outside the conference, one attendee said to a protester holding a sign that read, The Minutemen are a Nazi Front: “Yes, we are, and proud of it!”
GROWING CONCERN, GROWING OPPOSITION
Despite being lauded by public figures such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox's Sean Hannity and California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar, there is growing opposition to the Minuteman Project, ranging from small community groups to national civil rights organizations and direct action oriented anti-racist activists. Yet all recognize the Minutemen for what they are, only a symptom of a much larger problem. While membership in racist organizations has declined over the past five years, the number of racist and anti-Semitic bias incidents has increased. Hysteria created by politicians and conservatives over national security issues, the so-called “Culture Wars” and the large influx of Latino immigrants is proving to be a volatile mix. Neo-Nazis have seized on this to incite violence against people of color, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals.
On February 25, the same day as the Minutemen conference in Pennsylvania, members of the swastika-armband clad National Socialist Movement attempted to march through a predominantly black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. Others held rallies outside of Chicago. Additionally, the Minutemen held recruitment meetings in 43 cities nationwide that Saturday. Anti-racist and civil rights groups are gearing up for a long campaign to counter the shadow cast by organized racists. They vow to keep working until Americans realize that the only border the Minutemen are really interested in patrolling is the Mason-Dixon line. Until then, anti-racists will continue to be ready at a minute's notice to stand up against this new face of hate.
Sunday, February 26 2006 @ 06:00 PM PST
by Zach Morris, ARA
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
THE NEW THREAT
Founded by right-wing extremists Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox in April of 2005, the Minuteman Project ostensibly began as “a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the 'rule of law,' not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL [sic] aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders.” Vigilantes, many of them armed, pledged to keep watch on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexican border, to detain anyone crossing the border illegally from Mexico and to promptly notify the U.S. Border Patrol of their location. Instead, their patrols have either been covert vigilante actions of questionable legality (there has been talk of setting up “sniper posts” along the border on Minutemen web forums, coincidental to a series of at least nineteen “unexplained” murders of Latino immigrants, by gunshot wounds, in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts) or have been orchestrated media stunts aimed at whipping up racist, anti-Latino sentiment.Supporters say that they are simply helping over-taxed, under-powered law enforcement perform their duties under the Constitution, but critics contend this is nothing more than a veil to legitimize the actions of violent racist organizations.The Minuteman Project has since moved from the U.S.-Mexican border to recruitment throughout the United States, usually in areas with a large or growing Latino immigrant population far away from any international borders.
COMMON THREADS
Looking at the background and political affiliations of the Minuteman Project's leadership, as well as the activities of its membership, critics' claims are not surprising.56-year old Gilchrist, the Minuteman Project's director who once envisioned a future where America would be host to “neighborhood armies of 20 to 40 going out and killing and invading one another” if immigration continued, is also a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Both organizations are considered hate groups: the Council of Conservative Citizens opposes “race-mixing” and has close links to the neo-fascist British National Party, while Barbara Coe, president of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, refers to Mexicans as “savages” and claims to have knowledge of a “secret plan” by the Mexican government to invade and annex the American Southwest.Simcox joined forces with Gilchrist only after suffering a mental breakdown in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on NYC. Initially restricting himself to bizarre answering machine messages that demanded the caller recite the preamble to the Constitution before leaving a message, he left his home and family in Los Angeles to embark on an anti-immigrant crusade. His ex-wife, Kate Dunbar, filed for sole custody of their child in late 2001, citing “sudden, violent fits of rage,” paranoid outbursts and instances of child abuse at the hands of Simcox. Organizationally, the idea of holding vigilante patrols of the southern border is not new: the Ku Klux Klan did it in the 1960's and called it the Ku Klux Klan Border patrol. Then in the 1980's, the KKK did it again and called themselves the Minutemen. The 1960's also saw the rise of right-wing terrorist group who called for the assassination of left-wing student and civil rights activists. Their founder was arrested after an armed bank robbery attempt in 1968. The name of this right-wing terrorist organization? The Minutemen. Go figure.
DISSENT WITHIN THE RANKS
Interestingly enough, the most jarring criticism of the current Minutemen does not just come from anti-racist activists, it also comes from within the Minutemen's own ranks.Self-described anti-immigration activist Jim Chase, founder of the California Border Watch group, publicly severed all ties with the Minuteman Project and other groups in November of 2005. Chase stated in his open letter to them: “You have murderers in your ranks. You have Nazis, other anti-Jews, and anti-Hispanic racists side by side with you. You are whom you run around with. Proud to be a Minuteman now? You may not be so proud in the future.”What Chase is referring to is the deep association of the Minutemen to racist groups. In April of 2005, during the Minutemen's border watch, a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance flooded the border towns of Bisbee, Douglas and Nogales with racist literature calling for the extermination of all non-whites in support of the Minuteman Project's efforts. Members of White Revolution, the National Vanguard and other Nazi groups have been featured prominently at Minutemen recruitment events. Most blatantly, many Minuteman affiliated groups, such as California's Save Our State, now openly embrace white power fascist politics.The Minutemen also claim to be peaceful, yet encourage their members to engage in armed patrols. They have also engaged in violence. On May 25, 2005, Minuteman supporter Hal Netkin drove his van into a crowd of anti-racist protesters outside of a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove California, sending two people to the hospital. Yet, in public, Minutemen spokesmen continue to deny such accusations.
CALLING THE BLUFF ON A POKER FACE
Local activists from Anti-Racist Action and the One People's Project recently exposed the band Poker Face for its anti-Semitism, leading to a flurry of follow up articles in local New Jersey papers. Poker Face was scheduled to play the NJ Libertarian Party's annual convention at the University Inn at Rutgers University, but after residents, students and alumnae sent letters and phone calls of protest to the administration, Rutgers pulled the plug. Rutgers' officials denied the cancellation had anything to do with the allegations of anti-Semitism. Lead singer Paul Topete repeatedly denied being anti-Semitic in interviews to various newspapers while at the same time effectively denying that the Holocaust ever happened. Topete also denied being racist by stating that he was half-Mexican.Well, it just so happens that after Poker Face's Rutgers appearance was canceled, they managed to book another show at a conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The conference just happened to be a recruitment meeting for a Pennsylvania chapter of the Minuteman Project, headed by John Ryan of Quakertown, PA. The conference was moved to that hotel after the management of the Valley Forge Convention Center canceled the Minutemen's event due to protests regarding the group's racist ties. Outside the conference, one attendee said to a protester holding a sign that read, The Minutemen are a Nazi Front: “Yes, we are, and proud of it!”
GROWING CONCERN, GROWING OPPOSITION
Despite being lauded by public figures such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox's Sean Hannity and California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar, there is growing opposition to the Minuteman Project, ranging from small community groups to national civil rights organizations and direct action oriented anti-racist activists. Yet all recognize the Minutemen for what they are, only a symptom of a much larger problem. While membership in racist organizations has declined over the past five years, the number of racist and anti-Semitic bias incidents has increased. Hysteria created by politicians and conservatives over national security issues, the so-called “Culture Wars” and the large influx of Latino immigrants is proving to be a volatile mix. Neo-Nazis have seized on this to incite violence against people of color, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals.
On February 25, the same day as the Minutemen conference in Pennsylvania, members of the swastika-armband clad National Socialist Movement attempted to march through a predominantly black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. Others held rallies outside of Chicago. Additionally, the Minutemen held recruitment meetings in 43 cities nationwide that Saturday. Anti-racist and civil rights groups are gearing up for a long campaign to counter the shadow cast by organized racists. They vow to keep working until Americans realize that the only border the Minutemen are really interested in patrolling is the Mason-Dixon line. Until then, anti-racists will continue to be ready at a minute's notice to stand up against this new face of hate.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
A few highlights from my week
Amy Goodman and Howard Zinn listening and looking on at Saturday's Quaker Arts Committee talk Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal.
Jupiter and Dannyboy's interpretation of Ying-Yang. Do you think they're dreaming about Taoism?
Leaving Sunnyside.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Manhattan had an ominous tinge to it today. The sky was full of gray cotton clouds. The overcast daylight made colors pop out of the multigrade shades of the sidewalks, asphalt and buildings. Then the gray cotton became a big public school blackboard. Yet no rain fell. I cut through Bryant Park to Fifth Avenue. The park looked like a school cafeteria after lunch. For every six chairs around a table there was one person seated. The green metal tables and chairs were positioned in a fashion that indicated many lunch encounters must've taken place earlier in the day. Some were paired off distanced from the rest. Others looked like co-worker chairs in a circle. Now they looked like those abandoned nests in the trees. I wonder about the birds who construct those nests. How long does it take to build one of them? Do both bird parents build it together? And how do they know how to make? Or that they even should build nests? I guess not all of them do because there are A LOT of pigeons here in the city. Each tree would be like pigeon apartment/birthing structure.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Arggghhh I live in Juliard!
There's an opera singer next door or wall practicing. Nothing but scales, ghastly scales... I feel like Salieri from Amadeus. WTF!!
Remember the children of the Tenth Department...
Last night, I dreamt that I was in the Haitian governmental palace, or rather what my mind imagines it to be like, walking down a long and narrow marble & exposed brick corridor. A plaque (in English, I guess) to the left of the large imposing door at the end of the corridor reminded legislators to remember to think about the children of the Tenth Department. The Tenth Department, from what I understand, is a designation/sector created by the Haitian government signifying the Haitian nationals residing abroad in NYC, Miami, and elsewhere. When I pulled the large door open, the room, which up to then was lit with dreary, depressing rectangular florescent lights, was overwhelmed with sunlight, green slopes and valleys and little kids jumping rope, playing hopscotch and jacks.
J., an ex, was also in my dream. We had a baby together and he was really good with it. At first the baby was a loaner (we were babysitters) but by the end of the dream he was ours. He was a white baby, one of those fat, blonde, blue-eyed ones from commercials. He also kinda looked like the Gerber baby and Sweet Pea from the Popeye movie. Sweet Pea. That kid must be my age. But in the dream, the boy--who never had a name the whole time--, J., and I were being schlepped around through the Catskill Mountains, Niagara Falls and a wooden arcade, which must've been on the Canadian side of the Falls because once I saw a PBS special (or was it the History Channel?) that said that their's was much more welcoming to visitors and tourists than our side (surprise, surprise), which was more business and industry-oriented, on a madcap adventure by an upstate Native American lesbian couple. But anyway, the boy was always smiling and giggling; he was a pretty good kid.
J., an ex, was also in my dream. We had a baby together and he was really good with it. At first the baby was a loaner (we were babysitters) but by the end of the dream he was ours. He was a white baby, one of those fat, blonde, blue-eyed ones from commercials. He also kinda looked like the Gerber baby and Sweet Pea from the Popeye movie. Sweet Pea. That kid must be my age. But in the dream, the boy--who never had a name the whole time--, J., and I were being schlepped around through the Catskill Mountains, Niagara Falls and a wooden arcade, which must've been on the Canadian side of the Falls because once I saw a PBS special (or was it the History Channel?) that said that their's was much more welcoming to visitors and tourists than our side (surprise, surprise), which was more business and industry-oriented, on a madcap adventure by an upstate Native American lesbian couple. But anyway, the boy was always smiling and giggling; he was a pretty good kid.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
TLC a la Moi (a work in progress)
A recipe for self-honor & love:
Joyful sounds (Grupo Niche or Lila Downs, Juan Luis Guerra is a mandatory)
Disc One of "Faith in the Valley" by Iyanla Vanzant
1 hour of silence (in a Meeting House, if possible)
Delicious, nourishing food (e.g. My house special: whole grain pasta with olive oil, fresh basil & garlic, salt)
One long conversation in the shower with the divine spirit, your self, and anyone who deserves to hear some of your good sense
Plenty of water
Some yoga stretches
Herbal tea (Yogi Detox tea or Chamomile tea or Green tea are especially good)
Think about where you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago and all that you've accomplished and grown
Joyful sounds (Grupo Niche or Lila Downs, Juan Luis Guerra is a mandatory)
Disc One of "Faith in the Valley" by Iyanla Vanzant
1 hour of silence (in a Meeting House, if possible)
Delicious, nourishing food (e.g. My house special: whole grain pasta with olive oil, fresh basil & garlic, salt)
One long conversation in the shower with the divine spirit, your self, and anyone who deserves to hear some of your good sense
Plenty of water
Some yoga stretches
Herbal tea (Yogi Detox tea or Chamomile tea or Green tea are especially good)
Think about where you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago and all that you've accomplished and grown
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Today I had my first doctor appointments since I went to Urgent Care last Tuesday. Of note was my first physical therapy appointment; an evaluation, really. Apparently I hurt a disc in my lower back region. The physical therapist was so sweet. It felt good to have someone be attentive to my pained areas. To be with someone whose job requires her to be cognizant that each person's body is full of unique intricacies and as such tailors the therapy accordingly. The regular physicians read the folder more than they look at you. Sadly, these days C.Y.A. trumps T.L.C.
Even after this first visit, I feel the healing beginning. I feel like I'm starting to get back to normal, healthy 24-year-old Monika. One reason I believe this to be true, is that I'm starting to reflect on and learn lessons from this experience.
Beyond the physical ailment, the symbolism behind it isn't lost on me. Losing my ability to carry my own weight and support myself is both scary and eye-opening.
I think about how far empathy and caring goes. My mom and Frank have picked up so much of my slack (mostly in the form of library books and groceries) in the past week even though both of them lead full lives. It just feels good to directly witness people act and help you out of love for you and nothing else.
But getting back to my reflections and lessons, I'm glad that I've gotten this opportunity to literally and symbolically strengthen my spine. And realign it, too. I could be better about balancing myself; to use all of my muscles (strength) rather than relying on some more than others.
Having lower back pain usually means that one's core is weak. This truly resonates for me. In the pursuit of spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth, I let my physical needs turn into an outgrown and unruly garden. I think that this injury attests to it and is a reminder to get working on that part of my self.
I'm so funny. Even though 90 percent of my work week schedule is the same during this Spring Recess week, I'm behaving so differently. "Academic" Monika would never be up at 1:20p.m. on a Wednesday-Thursday night. Funny.
Even after this first visit, I feel the healing beginning. I feel like I'm starting to get back to normal, healthy 24-year-old Monika. One reason I believe this to be true, is that I'm starting to reflect on and learn lessons from this experience.
Beyond the physical ailment, the symbolism behind it isn't lost on me. Losing my ability to carry my own weight and support myself is both scary and eye-opening.
I think about how far empathy and caring goes. My mom and Frank have picked up so much of my slack (mostly in the form of library books and groceries) in the past week even though both of them lead full lives. It just feels good to directly witness people act and help you out of love for you and nothing else.
But getting back to my reflections and lessons, I'm glad that I've gotten this opportunity to literally and symbolically strengthen my spine. And realign it, too. I could be better about balancing myself; to use all of my muscles (strength) rather than relying on some more than others.
Having lower back pain usually means that one's core is weak. This truly resonates for me. In the pursuit of spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth, I let my physical needs turn into an outgrown and unruly garden. I think that this injury attests to it and is a reminder to get working on that part of my self.
I'm so funny. Even though 90 percent of my work week schedule is the same during this Spring Recess week, I'm behaving so differently. "Academic" Monika would never be up at 1:20p.m. on a Wednesday-Thursday night. Funny.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
What a great horoscope:
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The ancient Greeks had words for love that transcend our usual notions, writes Lindsay Swope in her review of Richard Idemon’s book Through the Looking Glass. Epithemia is the basic need to touch and be touched. Our closest approximation is “horniness,” though epithemia is not so much a sexual feeling as a sensual one. Philia is friendship. It includes the need to admire and respect your friends as a reflection of yourself—like in high school, where you want to hang out with the cool kids because that means you’re cool too. Eros isn’t sexual in the way we usually think, but is more about the emotional gratification that comes from merging souls. Agape is a mature, utterly free expression of love that has no possessiveness. It means wanting the best for another person even if it doesn’t advance one’s self-interest. The phase you’re currently in, Virgo, is providing you with opportunities to explore the frontiers of at least three of these kinds of love.
from: http://artvoice.com/issues/v5n10/free_will_astrology
from: http://artvoice.com/issues/v5n10/free_will_astrology
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
No donating for YOU! & Oscars talk
Got rejected AGAIN! Last Saturday, I went to another donation place to give platelets (not the whole blood just the platelets) and my iron was even lower! Who woulda thought a little double expresso would do such a number on the iron count. Boy I tell ya, if getting into college or grad school depended on your iron count I'd probably still be an eighth grader.
Oscars were good. Gustavo Santaoallla (the Argentine who won Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain and dedicated the award to all Latinos in is acceptance speech) is quite special in my heart because he's Cafe Tacuba's producer extraordinaire. He's also produced Juanes and sold his Bajofondo Tango Club song to a car company but hey, the guy's a got a mortgage like everyone else.
For the record, Brokeback was robbed.* The Times hit it on the head; Crash was the hometown fave, very FUBU (For Us By Us), if you will. As a film, Crash is an afterschool special for idiots and as realistic as Rupaul competing in a Miss America pageant. I couldn't sit through the entire movie, I walked out of the theater. I also thought Heath Ledger's cowboy was better than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Capote; but overall, the burly blonde is gifted. Jon Stewart was a riot though. I loved the faux-political ads.
*I could write volumes or talk hours about how Brokeback is a great movie. Suffice it to say, the movie was the true winner this year.
Oscars were good. Gustavo Santaoallla (the Argentine who won Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain and dedicated the award to all Latinos in is acceptance speech) is quite special in my heart because he's Cafe Tacuba's producer extraordinaire. He's also produced Juanes and sold his Bajofondo Tango Club song to a car company but hey, the guy's a got a mortgage like everyone else.
For the record, Brokeback was robbed.* The Times hit it on the head; Crash was the hometown fave, very FUBU (For Us By Us), if you will. As a film, Crash is an afterschool special for idiots and as realistic as Rupaul competing in a Miss America pageant. I couldn't sit through the entire movie, I walked out of the theater. I also thought Heath Ledger's cowboy was better than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Capote; but overall, the burly blonde is gifted. Jon Stewart was a riot though. I loved the faux-political ads.
*I could write volumes or talk hours about how Brokeback is a great movie. Suffice it to say, the movie was the true winner this year.
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