Fear-Mongering and Falsehoods About Health Care Reform from Anti-immigrant Group

Immigration Impact: Anti-Immigrant Group Adds to Falsehoods About Health Care Reform

Washington D.C. - In a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies today, the anti-immigrant group jumps on the bandwagon of those attempting to derail substantive health care reform through fear-mongering and falsehoods. Their baseless claim that millions of unauthorized immigrants will receive government-subsidized health care on the government's dime has already been discredited by the President, the media, and the U.S. government's own researchers. These groups, however, persist in their efforts to hijack the debate in order to demonize immigrants.

In his Immigration Impact blog post today, IPC Senior Researcher Walter Ewing writes:

"These big, scary numbers {from CIS} are based on the false premise that there are simply no mechanisms in place to prevent unauthorized immigrants from receiving coverage under the bill. But, as a report released late last month by the Congressional Research Service points out, H.R. 3200 explicitly bars unauthorized immigrants from receiving federal subsidies for the purchase of health insurance. Moreover, as Saturday's New York Times reports, the health care bills currently circulating in Congress would increase insurance coverage among low-income workers primarily through the expansion of Medicaid-which already has proof-of-citizenship requirements in place."

Click here to read the rest of the post.

Read more »

Bishop Shouted Down by Anti-Reform Hecklers For Speaking Spanish

Last week, Stamford Bishop Emilio Alvarez was shouted down and insulted by anti-healthcare reform hecklers at Representative Jim Himes’ (D-CT) town hall meeting in Norwalk, Connecticut.



For the full story visit the Wonk Room at Think Progress.

Read more »

When the Tide of Anger on Immigration Turns to Threats of Violence

Opinion Editorial
June 21, 2009

Contact:
Francisco Lopez, Executive Director: (503) 269-5694
Erik Sorensen, Communications Director: (503) 488-0263

When the Tide of Anger on Immigration Turns to Threats of Violence

A response to The Oregonian article “A tide of anger on immigration”

The Sunday Oregonian's Opinion section featured a commentary on the topic of Immigration, which included statements from those opposed to reform. It didn't take long after the article was posted online for outrageous comments to start popping up. Among the scapegoating, hyperbole, bombast and fear-mongering, it wasn't hard to find a comment with a violent connotation directed at immigrants: "send them home on a bus or in a box." That offering has since been removed.

The despicable comments didn’t end at attacking immigrants; they were also levied at the editor of the article, The Oregonian staff, elected officials and churches, among others. The comments are all left by those using aliases to conceal their identity.

As Professor HoSang from the University of Oregon stated in the article, "There's not much interest in scapegoat politics. There isn't the audience, and the parties realize there's costs to this kind of strategy." This fact, of course, does not prevent members from groups opposed to immigration reform from engaging in it. And, is probably why Professor HoSang believes that immigration restrictionist organizations like OFIR or the Minutemen "are close to becoming fringe organizations", if they aren’t already.

With polls reflecting well over 70% of Americans supporting immigration reform, the claims by these immigration restrictionist groups that Oregonians support their position and message is a weak one, at best.

The views espoused by such groups and individuals are not new. According to Rita Simon, professor of public affairs at American University in Washington, D.C, the American public's attitude toward immigrants is part of an “old pattern”. She explains in the Oregonian article that there is a belief that immigrants who came earlier to the United States were better than those who are coming now.

"When the Irish immigrants first came, there were riots. When the Chinese came, they were banned," Simon said. "Now the Irish and the Chinese are looked upon as a positive experience. Because many recent immigrants come from Mexico and are illegal, they now tend to get the ire."

One has to question how productive these articles are when people can leave comments anonymously scapegoating, denigrating and inciting violence against immigrants. Just this month, members of a Washington State Minutemen group were charged with the brutal home invasion murder of a 9 year old Latina child and her father. In Ohio, a 17 year old Hispanic boy was assaulted by four teens who put a noose around the boy’s neck and dragged him through a parking lot while using racial epithets. And this last week, two others were sentenced for the brutal beating death of Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old Mexican immigrant. The teens involved in this case shouted ethnic slurs and told Ramirez to “go back to Mexico”.

There are no doubt countless of other incidents of violence directed at immigrants that either don’t make headlines or go unreported by the victims fearful of being re-victimized by a system that would separate them from their families. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) said that there has been a 40 percent rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2007. It is disturbing to think that such hateful speech and incitement might be causing the escalating violence against immigrants.

Although CAUSA supports the free exchange of views on immigration reform both for and against, we vehemently oppose the hateful rhetoric, scapegoating and the incitement of violence that has become such a common vehicle of those who can’t debate the merits of their anti-immigrant views effectively. Even without The Oregonian article, there is no shortage of hatred directed at immigrants on the internet and on radio talk shows.

The question is, at what point do these hateful comments on internet and radio turn into vicious and violent acts toward Latinos and immigrants? And, at what point do these incitements of violence affect our youth who turn to committing violence towards immigrants and ethnic minorities?

Our members, and surely many readers, look forward to The Oregonian holding listening sessions for those who have been affected by our nation’s broken immigration system and who believe that it is critical for Congress to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform this year.

Posted at The Oregonian on June 23, 2009

Read more »

Anti-immigrant Activist Charged with ’97 Slaying of Homeless Latino Man

The Seattle Times is reporting that Jason Eugene Bush, who is facing charges in the brutal slaying Raul Junior Flores and his 9 year old daughter, has been charged in the stabbing death of Hector Lopez Partida, 29, a homeless man.

Bush was charged in the Flores murders along with Shawna Forde, the Director of the Washington State based Minutemen American Defense group, and Albert Gaxiola, a member of the same group.

According to the news report, an informant said that “Bush had bragged about killing "a Mexican" behind a store and that Bush had ties to white supremacist groups”.

Wenatchee police said in documents that they "learned Bush has had long-standing ties to Aryan Nations groups that commonly believe in white superiority over other races and have been known to be violent towards nonwhite races.”.

For more on the story, visit the Seattle Times by linking here.

Related:
Minutemen Charged in Brutal Slaying of Nine Year Old Child and her Father

Resources:

Anti-immigration advocate held in '97 slaying

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009342954_forde16m.html

Read more »

Minutemen Charged in Brutal Slaying of Nine Year Old Child and her Father

On Saturday, it was reported that members of a Washington State anti-immigrant vigilante organization were charged in the brutal slayings of a nine-year old child and her father.

Jason Bush, Shawna Forde, and Albert Gaxiola of the Minutemen American Defense group have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges. The three are said to have murdered Raul Junior Flores, his 9 year old daughter, Brisenia, and injured her mother during a home invasion attack on May 30th in the Arizona border town of Arivaca.

According to detectives, Forde, the Director of Washington State Minutemen group, wanted to use the home invasion to steal money and possibly drugs to finance the group she led. The trio reportedly shot the family because they "did not want to leave witnesses". The second daughter, whom the three attempted to find during the deadly invasion, was not in the home at the time.

The Center for New Community reported on Sunday that Jason Bush, Shawna Forde , and Albert Gaxiola “have a history of using anti-immigrant sentiments as an excuse to act violently against Latinos”. And that Forde has “a history of criminal activity and has continuously lied about being attacked by Latino gang members.”

At their newsblog, Imagine2050, they said in regard to the slaying of Raul Junior Flores, and his 9 year old daughter, Brisenia:

"This is part of a larger increase in violence by individuals associated with racist groups; a direct result of the acceptance of racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric used in mainstream media."

"The group that they belong to, Minutemen American Defense, and other groups like it, such as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, Minutemen Project, and ALIPAC are dangerous vigilante groups who believe they have the right to take the law into their own hands."

As for media coverage of the hate crimes and anti-immigrant activity, they report that

“There continues to be a rise in hate crimes and anti-immigrant activity…Yet only a few mainstream media outlets are willing to report extensively on the rise of racially-motivated violence. Networks such as FOX and CNN continue to air programs that encourage bigoted viewpoints and refuse to report on hate crimes.”

Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels and a leader in the immigrant rights movement, told East County Magazine in San Diego that “These Minutemen are violent vigilante groups as I’ve always said. Their motivation is hate.” He told the magazine that hate speech and vigilantism can lead to violence and in this case, the tragic death of an innocent child.

Over the weekend, Immigrant and Civil Rights advocates around the nation are called for violence against Latinos to be stopped and that it is time for the Minutemen Vigilante Border Patrols to be ended.

We will continue to report on this tragic story as there are developments. To read the full article from Imagine 2050, a newsblog maintained by Center for New Community, please link here.

Resources:

Minutemen Members Murder Nine Year Old and Father http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2009/06/14/minutemen-members-murder-nine-year-old-and-father/#more-2324

MINUTEMEN LEADER ARRESTED IN MURDER OF 9-YEAR-OLD TRAINED AT EAST COUNTY MINUTEMEN CAMP
http://eastcountymagazine.org/?q=node/1419

Murder suspect Shawna Forde feared for border security
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090614/NEWS01/706149860&news01ad=1

Read more »

Holocaust Museum Shooting: The Rising Tide of Racism and Anti-Semitism

This article appeared on Imagine 2050, a blog operated by our allies at Center for New Community. Imagine 2050 includes articles from activists, immigrants, artists and students who are invested in a future nation that embraces multiculturalism and tolerance.

Holocaust Museum Shooting: The Rising Tide of Racism and Anti-Semitism

June 10, 2009
by Rev. David L. Ostendorf
www.imagine2050.org

James W. Von Brunn is a cold-blooded anti-Semite and white supremacist, and nothing less than a domestic terrorist. His assault on people in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. today is yet another incident in the rising tide of deadly attacks across the nation by those who hate peoples of color, Jews, immigrants, and “others.”

For years Von Brunn has had deep roots in the nation’s white supremacist movement. His relationship to Willis Carto, the vile anti-Semite founder of the Liberty Lobby and The Spotlight newspaper is long-standing, as revealed in his rambling 2004 diatribe against Jews, the Federal Reserve, and African Americans (“Federal Reserve Caper and Precedents”). He is not—as some are attempting to describe him—simply an old man, mentally unstable, or suicidal. He is a hardcore racist and anti-Semite. Read more

Read more »

Video: Los Conservadores Atacan a Sotomayor

Read more »