McCain Draws A Blank When Asked About Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio
McCain Draws A Blank When Asked About Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Yesterday in an interview with Phoenix’s KTVK 3TV, the local news anchor asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to play a quick word association game. McCain was left tongue-tied and speechless when the reporter asked him to give a one-word response to what he thinks about the controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio:
HOST: Health care.
MCCAIN: Needs reform.
HOST: That’s two words. [weird laugh] Iraq.
MCCAIN: Success.
HOST: Arizona.
MCCAIN: The best.
HOST: US-Mexico Border.
McCain: Cartels.
HOST: GOP.
MCCAIN: Transition.
HOST: Sheriff Joe Arpaio:
MCCAIN: Umm…
Watch it:
Though McCain — who is up for re-election — failed to provide his own constituents with a clear answer last night, he offered CNN’s national news anchor John King a much more extensive reaction when asked about Arpaio back in February:
KING: You have had a roller-coaster relationship with this sheriff [Joe Arpaio]. He says he is just simply enforcing the law. He goes into businesses, he’s rounding up people. John Conyers, others in Congress say racial profiling. Is the sheriff in line or out of line in your view?
MCCAIN: Having been engaged in the presidential campaign, I haven’t paid as close attention. I’ve disagreed with the sheriff fundamentally about the fact that we need to have a comprehensive approach to illegal immigration.
Watch it:
Here’s some one-word responses McCain could offer next time when asked about Arpaio: dangerous, unconstitutional, racist, wasteful, stubborn, self-promoting, media-whore.
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Report ties increase in hate crimes to ‘anti-immigrant vitriol.’
Report ties increase in hate crimes to ‘anti-immigrant vitriol.’
A new report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund shows a close correlation between the increasingly volatile immigration debate and a growing number of hate crimes against Latinos and “perceived immigrants.” The report, “Confronting the New Faces of Hate,” calls out a number of restrictionist groups that consistently invoke anti-immigrant rhetoric as they try to make the case against immigration:
“In one of the most disturbing developments of recent years, some groups opposing immigration reform, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA, have inflamed the immigration debate by invoking the dehumanizing, racist stereotypes and bigotry of hate groups.”
According to the Washington Post, hate crimes against Latinos have been going up for four consecutive years, jumping from 426 to 595 incidents in the last year alone with a 40 percent overall increase between 2003 and 2007.
Buchanan Mocks Sotomayor For Learning English By Reading Children’s Books
Buchanan Mocks Sotomayor For Learning English By Reading Children’s Books
Yesterday, C-SPAN invited right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan onto its hour-long Washington Journal show. In recent days, Buchanan has made headlines for spewing hatred toward Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Yesterday, he continued, mocking the fact that she was still struggling with English while in college:
BUCHANAN: Well I, again in that Saturday piece, she went to Princeton. She graduated first in her class it said. But she herself said she read, basically classic children’s books to read and learn the language and she read basic English grammars and she got help from tutors. I think that, I mean if you’re, frankly if you’re in college and you’re working on Pinocchio or on the troll under the bridge, I don’t think that’s college work.
Watch it:
Buchanan is referencing a recent New York Times article, which talked about how hard Sotomayor had to work to graduate at the top of her class from Princeton:
Judge Sotomayor is not known to have identified herself as a beneficiary of affirmative action, but she has described her academic struggles as a new student at Princeton from a Roman Catholic school in the Bronx — one of about 20 Hispanics on a campus with more than 2,000 students.
She spent summers reading children’s classics she had missed in a Spanish-speaking home and “re-teaching” herself to write “proper English” by reading elementary grammar books. Only with the outside help of a professor who served as her mentor did she catch up academically, ultimately graduating at the top of her class.
Nowhere did the article say that all of this was Sotomayor’s “college work.” But Buchanan has been doing all he can in the past week to make it seem like Sotomayor is unqualified and simply an affirmative action nominee.
Buchanan has long claimed that Hispanic immigrants are resistant to learning English and has said that it would be easier for them to “assimilate” if they did so. When writing about Mexican immigrants in 2006, Buchanan said that in contrast to Italian immigrants, “millions of Mexicans are determined to retain their language and loyalty to Mexico.” Similarly, he has also said that “the road to culture is language” and “they want to keep their Spanish language.”
So basically, Buchanan yells when Hispanics are allegedly unwilling to learn English. However, when they make an attempt to do so, he mocks them as being dumb.
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston’s WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. On his radio show, Severin blamed the swine flu on what he called “some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico”:
So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico — women with mustaches and VD — now we have swine flu. … We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]
[W]hen scoop up some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. … It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country. … Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.
Listen to a compilation of his remarks:
Despite his comments, Severin’s agent believes that Severin “will be back on the air doing great radio soon.”
Rep. Broun Baselessly Speculates That The Child Who Died From Swine Flu In The U.S. Was An ‘Illegal Alien’
Rep. Broun Baselessly Speculates That The Child Who Died From Swine Flu In The U.S. Was An ‘Illegal Alien’
Yesterday, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and talked about the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. When discussing the first death in the United States from the disease, Broun used the tragedy to rail against “illegal aliens”:
Q: What do you think happens next here? Or should happen?
BROUN: Of course, it’s sad to see a 23-month-old child die from this disease. We don’t have any specifics. I tried to find out this morning specifics about this child that has died — whether it was someone who is from Mexico, possibly an illegal alien who has been brought into this country.
One big problem we have in this country is an open border. The border is like a sieve, and so these illegal aliens are coming across, and I think a lot of the health care facilities throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are going to be overwhelmed by cases coming out of Mexico — Mexican citizens — putting a further strain on those facilities. So, I don’t know if this child was a Mexican, or if it was an American child — what the situation is — but it was sad that this child died.
Watch it:
In fact, the child was a Mexican citizen whose family was visiting relatives in the United States. “The family had traveled to South Texas. The child became ill and they transported the child to Houston for medical care,” said a Houston health department official. This case had absolutely nothing to do with undocumented immigration. Most of the U.S. cases are arising in people who legally traveled to Mexico for various reasons.
Media Matters and CAP’s Eric Alterman have also documented right-wing media figures blaming Mexican immigrants for the spread of the virus. On April 24, hate radio host Michael Savage said, “Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico,” and on April 27, Neal Boortz asked, “[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans?”
Transcript: More »
McCain To Hold Immigration Reform Fundraiser After Referring To Latinos As ‘You People’
McCain To Hold Immigration Reform Fundraiser After Referring To Latinos As ‘You People’
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration would begin working on comprehensive immigration reform this year, perhaps as early as May.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who championed immigration reform years ago, is trying to reap a financial windfall out of the news. The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday that McCain’s Senate re-election finance chairman, Jason LaVecke, is planning a fundraiser for McCain after hearing about Obama’s interest in the topic. “My first mission is to raise enough money early to keep challengers out of (McCain’s) race,” LeVecke said:
Thursday morning the New York Times ran a front-page story announcing that the Obama administration would begin working on comprehensive immigration reform this year. By Thursday afternoon hundreds of Houston business leaders received e-mails urging them to join the effort — by bringing their checkbooks to a May 4 fundraiser here for Sen. John McCain.
The pitch ought to work. The Houston business establishment, led by the Greater Houston Partnership, is firmly on record for comprehensive immigration reform. The Houston economy is heavily dependent on immigrant labor, legal and illegal.
But when McCain thought Obama wasn’t taking the lead on immigration, he lashed out at the Hispanic community for voting for Obama. National Journal reported earlier this month McCain derogatorily referred to a group of Latinos as “you people.” “My hands were shaking,” one source at the event said. “I was nervous as no-end”:
McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!”
McCain seems to be repositioning himself on immigration, or at least trying to. LeVecke said that he and McCain had “spoken about working with Senator (John) Cornyn to take leadership with regard to immigration reform.” In 2007, McCain told Cornyn, “F*ck you, John‘” when Cornyn criticized McCain for being absent from the immigration debate.
Of course, changing his tune on immigration is nothing new for McCain. During the Republican primary last year, McCain said he wouldn’t vote for his own immigration bill and repeatedly touted “securing the borders” before comprehensive reform. He then walked the fine line of criticizing undocumented immigration while supporting reform during the general election. (HT: Briefing Room)
Report: ‘Angry’ McCain Referred To Hispanics As ‘You People’ During Outreach Meeting
Report: ‘Angry’ McCain Referred To Hispanics As ‘You People’ During Outreach Meeting
On March 11, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), John Thune (R-SD) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) met with a group of Hispanic business leaders in the Capitol’s Strom Thurmond Room as part of an effort to reach out to Hispanic voters. National Journal is reporting that several participants in the meeting said McCain got “angry” while talking about immigration. At one point, McCain reportedly began referring to Hispanics as “you people“:
“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”
McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”
Thune, Martinez and McCain communications director Brooke Buchanan disputed the idea that McCain lost his temper. “It was a spirited discussion, but this sort of incendiary-type way that some people are characterizing it just doesn’t fit at all the tone of the meeting,” said Thune.
Regarding the use of the phrase “you people,” Buchanan said it was “in response to a question about people in general who had voted for Obama and was not meant to refer to Hispanics.” To imply otherwise is “character assassination,” said Buchanan. But, as National Journal notes, “one person’s straight talk is another person’s vitriol”:
But one person’s straight talk is another person’s vitriol. “My hands were shaking,” one source said. “I was nervous as no-end.” The senator’s comments went on for several minutes at least. And by the end of the meeting, another participant, who had supported McCain in last year’s presidential election, was so shaken by the display of temper that he decided it is good that McCain isn’t in the White House.
McCain has lost his temper over the issue of immigration reform before. In 2007, during a private meeting on the issue, a heated McCain told Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “f*** you.” Echoing Thune’s current defense of McCain, McCain spokesman Danny Diaz dismissed the spat with Cornyn at the time as a “spirited exchange.”
After Opposing Immigration Reform During His Presidential Campaign, Romney Flip-Flops Again
After Opposing Immigration Reform During His Presidential Campaign, Romney Flip-Flops Again
Our guest blogger is Henry Fernandez, a Senior Fellow at the Center For American Progress Action Fund working on state and municipal issues.
During his 2007-8 run for President, Mitt Romney switched from historically supporting immigration reform to being against it, championing a mass expulsion plan that he acknowledged would not work. Romney was so right-wing on immigration, that he enthusiastically accepted the endorsements of anti-immigrant ideologue and former Congressman Tom Tancredo and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, now under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of Latinos.
As a successful businessman who recently joined the board of the heavily immigrant-reliant Marriott hotel company, Romney has apparently learned that appearing anti-immigrant or anti-Latino is politically foolish in a country where Latinos and Asians have grown to 11% of the vote. He has now flipped again and is calling for the Republican Party to support comprehensive immigration reform and to pass such a bill right away. The Hill interviewed Romney and reported yesterday:
Romney believes that one way to attract more minorities to the GOP is to pass immigration reform before the next election, saying the issue becomes demagogued by both parties on the campaign trail. “We have a natural affinity with Hispanic-American voters, Asian-American voters,” he said.
Romney should know about demagoguing on immigration. He did it himself.
During the campaign, Romney thought his anti-immigration postition would help him with Republican primary voters. Ironically, it cost him the nomination when he ran head long into the diversity of the Republican Party in Florida. While John McCain did not beat Romney among white voters in the Florida primary, McCain crushed him among Latino Republicans, effectively ending both Romney’s campaign and the primary.
As I noted at the time, Romney’s hard line position on immigration was beyond hypocritical. His own family’s immigration history was to put it modestly, “unique.” His great grandfather immigrated in apparent violation of both US and Mexican laws to Mexico when the US government cracked down on polygamists. Three generations of Mitt’s ancestors lived in Mexico, his father was born there, and he has family which still resides there. What brought his grandparents back to the US were impacts of the Mexican Civil War. To be clear — like many more recent immigrants, Mitt’s immediate family immigrated to the US from Mexico because of increasing violence and changing economic conditions.
The fact the Republican Party was hijacked by anti-immigrant extremists has been obvious for some time. Republicans torpedoed the Bush-McCain-Kennedy immigration compromise bill in 2007 for fear of an extremist backlash. Conservative commentators like Richard Nadler have described how this led to a major shift in Latino and immigrant voters away from the GOP. In turn, states like New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina flipped to Obama as Latinos, Asians and immigrants shifted their votes and came out in large numbers to vote.
Hopefully “Multiple Choice Mitt” has found his final answer.
George Allen pitches the GOP to minorities: In sports, ‘you don’t care about race.’
George Allen pitches the GOP to minorities: In sports, ‘you don’t care about race.’
Today, former Republican senator George Allen spoke at the Capitol Hill Club on “The Future of Hispanics in the GOP,” hosted by the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. Allen — who was disgraced after calling a young man of Indian descent a racial slur in 2006 — was trying to make the case on why Republicans need to be more tolerant on immigration. Dave Weigel captured some of Allen’s remarks:
I grew up in a football family. In sports, what you have is a level playing field…you don’t care about race, all you care about is who can help you win. Team America has to have that same competitive spirit!
People at the event also joked that Allen was an “honorary” Hispanic.
Rep. King Fear-Mongers On Obama’s Plan To Close Gitmo: It Could Give 9/11 Mastermind A ‘Path To Citizenship’
Rep. King Fear-Mongers On Obama’s Plan To Close Gitmo: It Could Give 9/11 Mastermind A ‘Path To Citizenship’
Yesterday, President Obama signed an executive order requiring that Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year. Obama’s order has been criticized by some conservatives, such as Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), who issued a statement saying that it “places hope ahead of reality” and was “unnecessarily risking the safety of our nation.”
Discussing Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo on Mike Gallagher’s radio show yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) claimed that Obama’s actions could be “the beginning of shutting down…the activities of the CIA.” When Gallagher said that Obama wanted to “bestow American citizenship rights to somebody from another country” who wants “to murder civilian Americans,” King claimed that closing Gitmo could put 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed “on a path to citizenship”:
KING: Let’s just say that, that, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, is brought to the United States to be tried in a federal court in the United States, under a federal judge, and we know what some of those judges do, and on a technicality, such as, let’s just say he wasn’t read his Miranda rights. … He is released into the streets of America. Walks over and steps up into a US embassy and applies for asylum for fear that he can’t go back home cause he spilled the beans on al Qaeda. What happens then if another judge grants him asylum in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on a path to citizenship. I mean, I give you the extreme example of this.
King then took a shot at efforts to increase access to health care for children, saying that if Gitmo were closed, detainees “could actually live in the United States legally, and maybe, and after Nancy Pelosi gets done with S-CHIP, they can tap into welfare while they’re at it.” Listen here:
King isn’t alone in his fear-mongering about the closing of Guantanamo Bay. Announcing legislation yesterday to prohibit federal courts from ordering the release or transfer of detainees from the facility onto U.S. soil, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) declared that “closing Guantanamo Bay presents a clear and present danger to all Americans.”
As terrorism expert Peter Bergen noted on CNN last night, “the idea that somehow these terrorists are going to be released is just absolutely nonsensical.” “When terrorists have been tried in the United States, they go away forever,” said Bergen. “The embassy attackers in ‘98 who blew up two American embassies, they are in prison for life without parole.”
Transcript: More »
Savage Responds To Cao: It’s Still ‘True’ That ‘Most Refugees’ ‘Do Not Assimilate To This Nation’
Savage Responds To Cao: It’s Still ‘True’ That ‘Most Refugees’ ‘Do Not Assimilate To This Nation’
On Monday, ThinkProgress interviewed freshman Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), who fled Vietnam at the age of 8 after the fall of Saigon to become the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress.
We asked him to respond to comments from right-wing radio host Michael Savage, who said that political refugees “who have never used a telephone, a toothbrush, or toilet paper” come to the U.S. and “bring their destitute ways to this country, and they never assimilate.” “And then their children become gang-bangers,” Savage added. Cao condemned the statements as “racist” and “repulsive.” “I have assimilated, and assimilated well, I believe,” said Cao, who had never used a toilet before coming to America.
On Tuesday, Savage defended his remarks, restating that “most refugees” — “particularly from certain countries” — do not assimilate to the United States:
SAVAGE: We’re arguing over a junior Congressman from Louisiana, Republican at that, who is already attacking Michael Savage for saying what I believe to be true, which is that most refugees who come here, particularly from certain countries, do not assimilate to this nation. … All I have to do is have you go look around a mall, you’ll see many 14-year-olds pushing carriages with two babies because it’s a meal ticket for them.
Listen here:
Savage’s ire seems most directed at non-European immigrants — immigrants like Cao. He insisted that today’s immigrants are “not the same as European immigrants” in the early 20th century, and that the U.S. “must have a dialogue as to which immigrants and from which nation they want.”
Other extreme right-wingers have suggested that only Europeans should be allowed to immigrate to the United States. For example, Pat Buchanan — who warned against the dissolution of the “civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America” — said the U.S. “should favor folks from cultures and civilization that have been assimilated before,” i.e., Europeans.
What’s more, a recent study by the Manhattan Institute found that “immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations.”
Freshman Rep. Cao: ‘I Hope That The GOP Will Not Tolerate’ Extreme Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric
Freshman Rep. Cao: ‘I Hope That The GOP Will Not Tolerate’ Extreme Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric
Yesterday, ThinkProgress interviewed Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), who defeated incumbent William Jefferson to represent Louisiana’s second district, which includes New Orleans. Cao came to the United States from Vietnam when he was eight, after the fall of Saigon, and is the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress. ThinkProgress asked Cao to respond to a 2007 quote by shock jock Michael Savage about political refugees’ inability to assimilate:
SAVAGE: We’re getting refugees now who have never used a telephone, a toothbrush, or toilet paper. You’re telling me they’re going to assimilate? They will never assimilate. They come here and they bring their destitute ways to this country, and they never assimilate. And then their children become gang-bangers. It is a disaster.
Cao pointed out that when he arrived in the United States, he had never used a toilet or toilet paper either. “But I have assimilated, and assimilated well, I believe,” he said. He said that the Republican party must not tolerate rhetoric and ideas that mirror Savage’s, which he called “racist” and “repulsive”:
CAO: You know, the Republican party should not have those kinds of views that you just conveyed. A statement like that would be very anti-immigrant, almost to me borderlining to almost being racist, if you ask me. So I take that statement as being quite repulsive, if you ask my opinion. So I hope that the GOP will not tolerate those kinds of views and will not take those positions.
Watch it:
Unfortunately, extreme, anti-immigrant rhetoric is not confined to right-wing radio; Many of Cao’s fellow Washington Republicans have made similarly inflammatory statements:
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): Part of that is this whole idea of multicultural diversity, which on the face sounds wonderful. … But guess what? Not all cultures are equal.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA): There is quite a large number of people that are coming across the border that are of Middle Eastern origin as well as Asian origin. A lot of these are single, they have no families. I don’t think they are coming here to cut our grass or work in our chicken plants.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): If there are no jobs people will go home. They won’t continue to go here. Now a lot of ‘em wouldn’t go home; you’d have to round them up.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA): We could also electrify this wire [on the border fence] with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would simply be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL): The numbers [of immigrants] cannot be too great, or it takes jobs from Americans and can, in fact, create cultural problems that wouldn’t occur if it was a little slower.
As one of the few non-white representatives in the Republican party, some conservatives — including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) — are looking to Cao as the future of the party.
Transcript: More »
Bush: It ‘may be fair’ to say that ‘Republicans don’t like immigrants.’
Bush: It ‘may be fair’ to say that ‘Republicans don’t like immigrants.’
In an interview with Fox News’ Brit Hume last week, President Bush said that the Republican Party needed to be “compassionate” on issues like immigration reform so that the party isn’t “viewed as anti-immigrant.” Asked about that sentiment at a press conference today, Bush said that it might be “fair” to say that “Republicans don’t like immigrants”:
BUSH: Take, for example, the immigration debate. That’s obviously a highly contentious issue. And the problem with the initial outcome of the debate was some people said, “well, Republicans don’t like immigrants.” Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that’s the image that came out. And if, you know, the image is “we don’t like immigrants,” then there’s probably someone else out there saying, “well, if they don’t like immigrants, they probably don’t like me as well.”
Watch it:
Fox Touts Avid Immigrant Witch Hunter As ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’
Fox Touts Avid Immigrant Witch Hunter As ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’
Our guest blogger is Henry Fernandez, a Senior Fellow at the Center For American Progress Action Fund working on state and municipal issues.
Fox has done it again. Not content with Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, Fox TV network has found its most recent “perfect fit” – Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa County, Arizona. We have previously documented Arpaio’s desire for reality show fame as well as his inability to actually solve crime — some 48,000 felony fugitives remain on the loose in his jurisdiction.
Fox’s new “Smile! You’re Under Arrest” television program is intended to project Arpaio as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” Here’s his record.
Arpaio has diverted deputies from solving crimes to chasing immigrants — and done so with no real strategy other than to attract television cameras. Arpaio’s deputies carry out traffic stops and neighborhood sweeps that have reportedly stopped people for no greater “crime” than being brown. These sheriff deputies hope they find someone without identification who they can turn over to federal immigration officials. Arpaio even requires that victims and witnesses prove their immigration status – a sure way to get fewer whistleblowers to come forward, thus increasing crime.
Seems like an odd guy for Fox to highlight as a law enforcement icon. America’s Voice has just produced a video attempting to give Arpaio “the attention he deserves” — a federal investigation into his record:
The conservative Goldwater Institute conducted an investigation and found using FBI crime statistics that violent crimes in Maricopa County have increased 69% since 2004 and murders have increased a whopping 166%; this while nearby jurisdictions have seen either declines or small increases. Arizona’s East Valley Tribune investigated as well and found: “slower response times on emergency calls, a dropping arrest rate, and for a time, excessive overtime costs.” Even better, on September 25th, Arpaio’s jails lost accreditation, and he is now operating the jails outside Arizona law.
But some people will prosper under Arpaio’s shenanigans – those who sue the county. Between 2004 and 2007, 2,700 lawsuits have been filed against Maricopa County. The Phoenix New Times reports that:
With a fraction of the inmate population, Arpaio has had 50 times as many lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined. … The $41.4 million taxpayers coughed up to insure for, defend, or settle lawsuits is just the edge of the cesspool — one result of inhumane conditions that have long made Arpaio’s jails the target of investigations from both the federal government and advocates like Amnesty International.
Tancredo announces retirement, regrets being known only for hating immigration.
Tancredo announces retirement, regrets being known only for hating immigration.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is retiring, “maybe to run for Colorado governor in two years, maybe to join a right-leaning think tank.” “I just didn’t feel that there was anything left I could do in the House,” he said. The AP notes that Tancredo seems worried that he’ll be remembered only for blasting illegal immigration. Citing his desire for increased domestic exploration for fossil fuels, Tancredo said, “There are a lot of issues beyond immigration that I want to deal with.”
Freshman Rep. Duncan Hunter: There Is More Violence In Tijuana Than In ‘Iraq And Afghanistan’
Freshman Rep. Duncan Hunter: There Is More Violence In Tijuana Than In ‘Iraq And Afghanistan’
Freshman Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA), son of former GOP presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, recently was elected to Congress after campaigning on a staunch anti-immigration platform.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Luke Russert today, Hunter defended his campaign pledge to end citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, arguing immigration increases domestic crime. As his evidence, Hunter made the outlandish and grossly inaccurate claim that Tijuana, Mexico has more crime than “Iraq and Afghanistan”:
HUNTER: In San Diego, we face a lot of crime. … There’s been more murders in Tijuana, Mexico than there have been in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s more dangerous to go to Mexico from San Diego than it is to fly over and stroll around a Baghdad market.
Continuing his tirade against immigration, Hunter claimed undocumented immigration “drives wages down, hurts hospitals, hurts education here in San Diego, and it’s doing this throughout the entire country.” Watch it:
Hunter is unfortunately correct that violence in Mexico has ballooned in recent years, in part due to the ongoing drug wars. At least 4,000 have died this year in drug-related violence, according to the AP. Tijuana has also seen a surge in violence.
But to claim that there are more murders in the city of Tijuana than there are in “Iraq and Afghanistan” is absurd. In Tijuana, “at least 200 people have been killed in drug violence this year,” the Washington Post reported in June. But in the month of July 2008 alone, there were approximately 500 civilian fatalities in Iraq. There have been roughly 700 deaths this year in Afghanistan.
Hunter also claimed that strolling around in Baghdad is less “dangerous” than in Tijuana — the same week that Baghdad witnessed a devastating suicide attack, a rocket fired into the Green Zone, and a bomb attack on an NPR journalist’s car.
Days After Leak About Obama’s Aunt, Immigration Chief Julie Myers Announces Resignation
Days After Leak About Obama’s Aunt, Immigration Chief Julie Myers Announces Resignation
Yesterday evening, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chief Julie Myers will be stepping down on Nov. 15, although he gave no reason for her departure. From the press release:
Assistant Secretary Julie Myers has announced that she will depart the department on Nov. 15. Julie has been an extraordinary Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and when she approached me in mid-September to discuss her departure, I knew this would be a loss for the department. Julie has been a major force in transforming ICE into a 21st century law enforcement agency. [...]
I am grateful for Julie’s many contributions to the safety and security of our homeland, and I look forward to our continued friendship.
Myers has been a controversial figure since the day that President Bush nominated her. She was widely criticized as being a crony hire, being the daughter of former Air Force Gen. Richard Myers and possessing almost no immigration or customs experience. During her tenure, ICE was heavily criticized for carrying out politically-motivated immigration raids.
Myers’s resignation comes just days after a “federal law enforcement official” told the AP that Barack Obama’s aunt was living in the United States illegally. ICE officials, however, are “prohibited from commenting on any individual’s status or the status of any case.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has called for an immediate investigation into the matter. On Saturday, Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone questioned whether Myers may have been the source of the unauthorized leak.
Recently, Myers also came under criticism for awarding “most original costume” to a government employee who dressed up in a racially-offensive costume at an agency Halloween party.
Bachmann: ‘Not all cultures are equal.’
Bachmann: ‘Not all cultures are equal.’
The Uptake has uncovered new video from Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) 2005 election bid in which she suggests that some cultures are inherently superior to others. During a debate, the moderator asked Bachmann about how America could better integrate immigrant communities into U.S. society in order to prevent riots similar to those that were then occurring in France. Bachmann responded by calling the French riots the “fruits of leftism” and proclaiming, “Not all cultures are equal.” Watch it:
Upset Over Immigration Demagoguery, Latinos Turn Red States Blue
Upset Over Immigration Demagoguery, Latinos Turn Red States Blue
Our guest blogger is Henry Fernandez, a Senior Fellow at the Center For American Progress Action Fund working on state and municipal issues.
As has happened at different points throughout United States history, New Americans — immigrants and the children of immigrants — are changing the face of the electorate. And apparently they aren’t too happy with the way their communities are being treated. This may in the end decide the outcome of the presidential election.
In a report released today, the Immigration Policy Center points out that New Americans are big voting blocs in key swing states, including: 14.8% of the electorate in Nevada and 14% in Florida. IPC also notes that Latinos and Asians together account for 31.5% of all registered voters in New Mexico, 16.2% in Nevada, 12.6% in Florida, and 11.1% in Colorado.
Most daunting for those politicians who have chosen to scapegoat immigrants — according to a Pew Hispanic Center poll this summer, 75% of Latino voters view the immigration issue as important or very important.
And they plan to vote — a recent NALEO Educational Fund poll found that an astonishing 90% of Latinos in battleground states (Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico) say they are certain to vote.
Why does this matter? The vote count gurus over at FiveThirtyEight.com rank Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico as top “tipping point states,” meaning a state that in a close national election would alter the outcome if decided differently. Both Pollster.com and FiveThirtyEight currently lists all of these swing states won in 2004 by Bush as leaning to Obama based on recent polling.
Why have these states and their 46 electoral votes moved? NALEO’s poll finds dramatically higher Latino support for Obama than the Latino vote for Kerry just four years ago.
Check out the full report here.
FLASHBACK: In 2007, McCain Parachuted In ‘On The Last Day’ For Immigration Debate
FLASHBACK: In 2007, McCain Parachuted In ‘On The Last Day’ For Immigration Debate
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) yesterday announced that he would be suspending his campaign to return to Washington for negotiations on a financial bailout package. McCain has not voted in the Senate since April 8, and as recently as Tuesday, McCain said he had “not had a chance” to “examine” the Bush administration’s proposal.
McCain is insisting that his involvement in this deal is pivotal. However, many of his fellow lawmakers disagree, noting that negotiations are now almost over. Even Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) refused to answer when a reporter asked him if “he wanted McCain sitting in blow-by-blow negotiations.”
This strategy of becoming engaged in Senate business at the last minute is not new for McCain. In May 2007, McCain had gone five straight weeks without casting a single vote on the Senate floor. On May 17, he returned to the Senate to participate in the immigration debate. At a bipartisan negotiating meeting, McCain began complaining that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was “raising petty objections” to a compromise immigration plan.
Cornyn responded by bristling that McCain was swooping in at the last minute and trying to take over:
Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said to McCain. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.” [...]
“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn.
It’s not clear that McCain and Obama’s presence would even make a difference in these last-minute negotiations. After Bush’s speech last night, Frank told reporters that there was now agreement between House and Senate Democrats on what should be in a rescue bill, and they would be meeting with Republicans today. A Democratic aide told The Hill last night that “not too many” issues remain unresolved between congressional Democrats and Republicans on key committees.
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