The President’s Deportation Quota is More Offensive than Rep. Steve King’s Idiocy

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When Barack Obama said he needed a “dance partner” in Congress to reform immigration law he might not have been thinking of Steve King but King has proven to be Obama’s best accomplice in what constitutes the perfect political crime.

With Republicans’ unmasked bigotry, the President can denounce them for their intolerance while implementing enforcement to cater to it.

Where Rep. King’s comments are a mouthpiece for prejudice, the President’s are a pretext for actual policy that has eviscerated our rights and devastated the lives of thousands of families. King’s Republican affiliation, however, makes him an appealing target while the Democratic President’s record and rhetoric make for an inconvenient truth.

Yet truth be told, the President has done more to criminalize migrants than what Rep. King could accomplish in his wildest dreams.

Sabrosa victoria – laopinion.com

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La victoria que Heriberto Zamora obtuvo la semana pasada, luego de un año de haber puesto una demanda en contra de su patrón ante la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral de California, le sabe al más exquisito rollo de sushi que preparan en el restaurante Urasawa de Beverly Hills. Ese restaurante es el segundo más caro del país y donde Zamora trabajó durante casi seis años sin recibir el pago correspondiente de horas extra. El famoso chef Hiroyuki Urasawa, dueño del restaurante, lo despidió el 21 de junio de 2012 luego de que Zamora le pidiera retirarse a casa porque estaba enfermo. El joven de 24 años, inmigrante de Oaxaca, México, acudió a la Alianza de Trabajadores Inmigrantes de Koreatown (KIWA) al considerar que se trataba de un despido injustificado y donde le recomendaron poner una demanda ante la Oficina del Comisionado Laboral, también conocida como Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

For CCA and Country (A visit to Eloy Detention Center)

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Visitors to Eloy Detention Center are greeted by a mural of three flags. They are, from left to right, there the stars & stripes of the United States, the rising sun of Arizona, and the maroon corporate logo of CCA. The three flags are painted as if they are being flown on the same level, with the Corrections Corporation of America’s flag flying to the right of the flag of the United States of America. This is, as any cub scout knows, a terrible violation of decorum, and highly disrespectful of the U.S. flag. 

It is also a violation of the Federal Flag Code, 4 U.S.C. §§ 4-10, for which CCA should be instantly deported.

The Dream 9 were in Eloy when I visited the for-profit prison in the middle of the Arizona desert. All of the nine young people had been brought to the United States as children and would have qualified for DACA relief, the legalization-lite the Obama administration had conceded after three years of escalating pressure from Dreamers. But seven of the Dream 9 had lost hope and left the country before DACA was announced, and so they no longer qualify. The other three – Marco Saavedra, Lulu Martinez and Lizbeth Mateo – did something almost beyond comprehension: they voluntarily left the U.S. a few weeks ago to go fetch the others back. In doing so, Martinez and Mateo made themselves ineligible for DACA. When the nine Dreamers presented themselves at the Nogales port of entry, they were arrested and ended up in Eloy.

Border Patrol Overkill

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SAN DIEGO — San Diego is a town surrounded by military might. To the north is Camp Pendleton and its 37,000 active duty Marines. To the west, Naval Base Coronado is the command center for the Navy SEALS. To the east, the military trains its elite special forces in the Mountain Warfare Training Facility.

And then to the south, there’s the border and Tijuana.

Given the geographic proximity to all these Marines and Special Forces machos, it’s no wonder Border Patrol agents stationed in San Diego in the early 1990’s felt a bit chagrined at their inability to stop national security threats like dog whisperer Cesar Milan from unauthorized entry into the United States.