Commerce Secretary wants Hispanic, Asian outreach

Locke urges census volunteers to boost outreach
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Monday exhorted census volunteers to boost outreach in hard-to-count communities as a top lawmaker urged the government to halt immigration raids to ensure an accurate count.

Speaking at a Census Bureau training conference, Locke and Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., tried to allay fears in Hispanic and Asian communities where immigrants often mistake census workers for tax collectors or law enforcement officials.

"It is your familiar, trusted voices that will help us succeed in educating residents about the census," Locke, who is Asian-American, said in his first public appearance since taking office.

Without specifically mentioning immigration, Locke stressed that personal information in the census form will remain confidential. Clay went a step further, urging the partnership groups, ranging from the AFL-CIO and Coca-Cola to the NAACP and Vote Latino, to expose any "sinister tricks" to dissuade immigrants from completing their census forms.

There are nearly 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., many of them clustered in states such as California, New York, Florida and Texas, which stand to either lose House seats or gain fewer seats depending on whether their Hispanic communities are fully counted.

Speaking to The Associated Press afterward, Clay said he planned to push the Obama administration to halt raids next year, noting that immigration officials did so during the 2000 census.

"It think it should be repeated to tamp down on any fears the immigrant population might have on certain raids, whether they are here legally or not," said Clay, who chairs the House subcommittee overseeing the census.

"They don't want that hanging over them," he said.

In 2000, immigration officials at the request of the Census Bureau informally agreed to not conduct large-scale immigration raids. The bureau two years ago asked the Homeland Security Department to hold off again in 2010, but was rejected by the Bush administration, which said it would continue to enforce federal laws.

Locke left before Clay made his comments about halting raids. A spokeswoman for Locke on Monday declined to comment, referring the inquiry to the census bureau.

"We do not have plans currently to renew the request," said Stephen Buckner, a spokesman for the bureau, explaining that the agency's focus was to improve the count with increased ad campaigns and stronger partnerships with trusted leaders in the Hispanic community.

"If sentiment changes, or there appears to be increasing challenges in the count based on what happens down the road, we might be open to reevaluating that," Buckner said.

More than a hundred representatives attended the three-hour conference, many of whom expressed concern about reaching minorities, particularly Hispanics, given rising anti-immigration sentiment after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Their comments came as the bureau on Monday launched its major address canvassing operation where 140,000 government workers are fanning neighborhoods to verify addresses and identify homes now abandoned due to mortgage foreclosures.

Panelists noted that Asian and Hispanic immigrants — both legal and illegal — typically view a census worker as someone who works also on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or IRS tax collectors. Blacks, too, are distrustful as to the census' possible ties with law enforcement, they said.

"It's going to be a challenge for officials," said Ivelisse Estrada, a senior vice president for Univision, the Spanish-language network, stressing that the census media campaign will have to focus on a message that personal information will remain confidential.

Hispanic labor leader to be taught in schools

Dallas schools to add lessons about César Chávez
By JULIAN RESENDIZ Al Día, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, March 31, 2009

Dallas fifth-grade students will soon learn about César Chávez, DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said Sunday during an arts tribute to the late labor leader at the Latino Cultural Center.

Chávez's struggle for farm worker rights will be incorporated into elementary school lessons beginning in April, Hinojosa said.

High school students will learn about Chávez next school year as part of their social studies classes, Hinojosa said.

"It actually came up from the community. They approached us, we had some staff members look at it and they said, 'Oh, yes, we can do this,' " Hinojosa said. "It was a great recommendation and certainly timely, given we're celebrating [his birthday]."

Chávez's birthday (March 31, 1927) is an optional state holiday.

Hector Flores, former national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, commended Hinojosa for making the decision.

"I think it's great for our children [in the district], the majority of whom are Latino, and for their parents to understand who César Chávez was and what he stood for. The work that he did in advocating for the poor and the downtrodden through nonviolence equates to the work done by Gandhi and MLK," Flores said.

Chávez led marches and boycotted grapes several times to protest poor working conditions and the use of pesticides in the fields.

jresendiz@aldiatx.com

Students to emerse themselves in Latino community

Monday, March 30, 2009
Goshen College to launch domestic Study-Service Term in local Latino community
PRESS RELEASE

GOSHEN, Ind. – Northern Indiana may not have the exotic allure of Cambodia or Peru, but after 40 years of sending students around the world for a semester of cross-culture learning, Goshen College is launching a new location for its Study-Service Term (SST) program right in its own backyard.

Starting in the spring of 2010, Goshen College students will have the opportunity to study about, serve in and be immersed in the local Latino culture for a semester in Northern Indiana, which has seen significant demographic changes in the last 20 years. Minority enrollment in Northern Indiana schools – particularly of Latino students – has grown dramatically. For example, in Goshen Public Schools it has grown from 8 percent to 41 percent since 1990.

Director of International Education Tom Meyers said, "Since the inception of the international education program, there have been conversations about a domestic alternative to our international programs. We believe that it is time to develop and implement a new model. We need an immersion experience and direct contact with another culture for students who can't go abroad."

Since 1968, when Goshen College was one of the first colleges in the country to require international education to graduate and began the unique semester-long SST, the college also has had the option for students unable to travel abroad – often due to life circumstances and commitments – to fulfill the requirement by taking related elective, on-campus courses. Approximately 20 percent of students take the alternative courses, which are taken when their schedule permits and are spread out over several academic years.

While planning this new program, Meyers conducted several focus groups with students who haven't been able to participate in the traditional SST program. "This will work better for them and they were very interested and excited about this possibility," he said. Students will continue to have the option to take alternative courses on campus though.

"For many years Goshen College has rightly placed emphasis on SST as an abroad experience. But when I heard that GC was planning for a domestic SST, I was excited," said local Latino community leader Gilberto Perez Jr., the Bienvenido Program Director for the Northeastern Center in Ligonier. "Domestic SST will create a space for GC students to listen and learn about what's happening in their backyard regarding cultural issues related to the Latino community." Perez and the Northeastern Center have assisted the college in connecting with Latino leaders in Elkhart and Noble County.

Similar to other SST locations in places that have "significantly different" cultures, the students will be required to have taken two semesters of Spanish language study beforehand and will take Spanish classes during the semester. They will also study Latino history, literature and culture; they will process their experiences as a group; they will take field trips to Latino communities in such places as Chicago and Indianapolis; and they will serve in local organizations, church programs or schools that are linked to the Latino community.

Though students will continue to live on campus or at home, the plan is that they will each connect with a local Latino family on a regular basis during the semester. In other SST locations, students live with host families during both the six weeks of study and the six weeks of service.

The impetus for the development of a domestic SST location was funding designated in the 2006 Lilly Endowment grant for the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL), which was created to serve the educational needs of a rapidly increasing Latino immigrant population.

The new program will be phased in with pilot units during the 2010 spring and summer semesters. A half-time coordinator/group leader will be hired to work in conjunction with the International Education Office and CITL on this.

Since the first SST units went to Costa Rica, Jamaica and Guadeloupe in 1968 and began one of the country's pioneer international education programs, more than 7,000 students and 230 faculty leaders have traveled to 22 countries. The college currently organizes SST units to study and serve in China, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Germany, Senegal, Peru, Jamaica and Cambodia. The program's uncommon semester-long combination of cultural education and service-learning remains a core part of the general education program, and has earned citations for excellence from U.S. News & World Report, Peterson's Study Abroad and Smart Parents Guide to College, the John Templeton Foundation and American Council on Education.

Besides providing service to local organizations through the new domestic SST program, Goshen College students continue to student teach in local schools, learn in local hospitals, do internships in local businesses and volunteer in a wide range of settings.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

NJ Latino Caucus Leader pushes immigration reform

NEW JERSEY LEGISLATIVE LATINO CAUCUS STATEMENT ON IMMIGRANT ADVISORY PANEL REPORT
By thester

(TRENTON) – New Jersey Legislative Latino Caucus Chairwoman Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Bergen/Passaic) today issued the following statement on the report from the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy:

“This report must be the basis for an honest, civil and long-overdue discussion on how to deliver essential services in a way that will improve life for all who call New Jersey home without demonizing or scapegoating our immigrant communities.

“We should seek to deliver services in a culturally competent manner and improve society for everyone.

“One thing is clear – there are directions in which the Latino Legislative Caucus would like to move but cannot without comprehensive federal policy leading the way.

“But New Jersey can and should do more to help immigrant children who had no role in choosing to come to this country but have nonetheless spent their lives here and attended our public schools.

“Undocumented students who want to continue their education in the state where they grew up and went to high school should no longer be told that they don’t count as full members of our Garden State community. New Jersey’s most-talented students should have a right to an affordable in-state college education, regardless of their immigration status.

“We’re wasting the futures of hundreds of eager students who live in New Jersey and desperately want to earn their college degrees here, get jobs here and give back to their communities.

“New Jersey should join the community of states – including California, Illinois, New York and Texas – who allow the children of undocumented immigrants to attend college at in-state tuition rates.

“The Latino Legislative Caucus looks forward to seeing the in-state tuition proposal advance so everyone who has grown up in New Jersey can have equal access to the tools that have given us the nation’s best-educated and most-qualified workforce.

“We look forward to seeing the in-state tuition proposal advance so everyone who has grown up in New Jersey can join a better qualified workforce that will help draw businesses to our state and boost economic development.

“New Jersey’s rich diversity has always been one of the reasons it is such a great place to call home. Finally, we have a blueprint to help us maximize the positive and vital economic contributions of New Jersey’s immigrant community and encourage greater self-sufficiency.”

THESTER can be reached via email at thester@njleg.org.

HIspanic leaders take immigration issue on road

Lawmakers bring immigration tour to Fla
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Parents living in the U.S. illegally should be punished, but separating them from their U.S.-born children is not the answer, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said Sunday during a gathering of more than 1,000 people at a pro-immigrant rally.

Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, was one of four U.S. representatives to speak in Homestead. The farm community is part of a 17-city tour advocating comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally.

"We have to recognize and deal with (their violation) but in a just way. Separating and leaving U.S. citizens without their parents is not the best solution. We need reasonable consequences," Diaz-Balart said.

Religious and social groups organized the gathering Sunday. A similar event took place Saturday in Orlando.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, has traveled across the country on the tour. He said he hopes the events will "hold the president's feet to the fire" and remind the administration that many who voted for Barack Obama want immigration reform.

Gutierrez said he had heard stories before of parents being deported while their children remained in the U.S. But since he began the tour, he has heard stories of U.S. citizens whose children were deported because they turned 18 before their parents could petition for them.

"I've learned that whatever damage I thought our broken system was causing families, it is a lot worse," he said.

About half a dozen protesters waved signs on the outskirts of the crowd. They said those who break U.S law by entering or remaining in the country illegally should not be rewarded with residency.

Latino, minority gains will be lost with teacher layoffs

Diversity Will Be a Casualty of Teacher Layoffs
Carolyn Ji Jong Goossen, New America Media, Mar 30, 2009

Editor’s Note: Public schools are in dire need of teachers who reflect the demographic diversity of the state. But the current budget slashing and layoffs will probably decrease diversity in the teacher workforce, writes NAM Education Editor Carolyn Ji Jong Goossen.

Corine Coaloca will graduate this May from San Diego State University with two teaching credentials—one in bilingual education, and one in special education. A Mexican American, Coaloca, 24, wants to teach in a border community where her language skills and cultural background will translate well with students.

But her job prospects are not good. This month, California school districts gave pink slips to nearly 27,000 teachers because of steep budget cuts to education. Although public schools are in dire need of teachers like Coaloca—those who mirror the student population of Asian, Latino and black students—budget slashing threatens to decrease diversity in the state teacher workforce.

“What motivates me is thinking of the population I want to serve,” she said. “But it’s really scary. There are no teacher jobs out there.”

The consequences of teacher layoffs are numerous and none of them good, say education leaders and advocates. The majority of teachers who got pink slips—notices that they could be laid off at the end of this school year--were junior teachers with a few years in the public school system. Layoffs are done by seniority. Most junior teachers are in schools that serve low-income and minority communities, where high teacher turnover is often a problem anyway. Teacher cuts could lead to larger class size, which makes teaching and learning more difficult.

Another possible impact is that layoffs will mean less diversity in California’s current teacher workforce—and among aspiring teachers, like Coaloca. Although the California Department of Education doesn’t calculate the race or ethnicity of teachers being laid off, data on the teacher workforce indicates that a higher percentage of junior teachers are ethnic minorities. And last hired will be first fired, according to the process for layoffs.

In the 2000-2001 school year, about 25 percent of teachers—or some 77,000—were of an ethnicity other than white. In the 2007-2008 school year, about 29 percent —or 91,000—were. The good news, then, is that over the past six years, some 14,000 teachers with diverse backgrounds were added to public school classrooms. The bad news is that they are among the junior teaching force most likely to receive pink slips.

School districts will feel the impact of teacher layoffs differently, and Los Angeles may be among those hardest hit. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, where teachers of color make up 56 percent of the total, some are concerned about maintaining that diversity, says John Rogers, director of the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA.

“When you have a diverse staff, it can mean that teachers bring in different cultural understandings that can be shared across the staff,” he says. “Having a diverse faculty can also mean that the school has richer relationships with different parts of the community.”

Rogers says that the future of the state’s education budget—and teacher layoffs—could be shaped in the next few months. “There will be a political choice over the next few weeks about whether to further cut California’s education budget, “ Rogers says. “And that choice will determine the extent to which, district by district, large numbers of teachers are fired.”

Rogers says that diversity among the teacher workforce should be one of many criteria that are considered in budget cuts.

“It’s important for teachers unions to grapple with this question [of diversity],” he says. “It’s important for teachers unions to think about who they want to become over the next 15 or 20 years, and the importance of unions forging deep connections and relationships to the communities they are serving.”

Alex Caputo-Pearl, the lead teacher at the Social Justice and the Law Academy at Crenshaw High in L.A., is fighting to save the jobs of four teachers who received pink slips. All are young, ethnic minority teachers.

“We’ve got African-American teachers, Latino teachers, a Vietnamese teacher, a Filipino teacher, a Chinese teacher, and white teachers. For the students, it really helps them reflect what Los Angeles and California and increasingly the U.S. looks like,” he says. “It does absolutely broaden the perspective that students have about social issues, about issues at school.”

Some are afraid that losing young ethnic minority teachers will also mean the loss of much needed linguistic skills in the classroom.

Mary Rose Ortega, a third-grade teacher at First Street Elementary in East L.A. for 26 years, is particularly concerned about the loss of Spanish-speaking Latino teachers.

“L.A. has the largest number of Latino teachers in California, and a lot of them are the new teachers. The majority of these Latino teachers teach English-learner kids, and the majority of these teachers speak Spanish,” she says. “It’s a big worry for me.”

David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association, fears that layoffs will make teaching a less attractive career option for young people. “We go out there and try to recruit young people from these communities to go into teaching,” he says, “but they may not want to do it now.”

Sanchez says he’s seen the discouraging effects on his nephew, a new teacher who he had mentored. “I worked very hard to get him into teaching,” says Sanchez, “but now he’s being told they might not require his services next year. He told me, ‘Uncle, I may not want to go through this every year.’ It’s frustrating for him.”

Latino students lose with AP testing

Colleges' reliance on AP brings inequity
By Tracy R. Rone, March 30, 2009

In a few weeks, students in Maryland and across the nation will be gearing up for a rite of spring: taking Advanced Placement exams. A lot rides on their success on these tests.

That's why it's disturbing that - although Maryland leads the nation in the percentage of its high school graduates who pass an AP test - there are such large disparities in AP pass rates and course offerings within and across school districts. Those disparities reflect the widespread patterns of education inequity and access that plague this nation.

African-American and Latino students and students from low-income families are less likely than other students to have access to AP courses, enroll in AP courses, take AP exams or pass AP exams. The issues of AP course offerings and even acceptance by competitive colleges and universities have emerged in debates about school equity and quality. Meanwhile, despite attempts to create greater equity in AP offerings within school districts and across school districts within states, students who attend schools in wealthier school districts still have greater options for enrolling in AP course offerings and are more likely to take and pass the AP exam.

At colleges and universities that accept passing scores on AP exams for college credit, it is not uncommon for students to enter their first year with enough college credit from having passing grades on AP exams to begin college with sophomore standing. This enables some students to complete college in three years, saving a year's tuition and associated college costs and potentially adding another year to lifetime earnings.

The College Board's Web site lists the cost per AP exam as $86, with a reduced fee for "extreme circumstances" of $56 per exam. But for many students, $86 or even $56 per exam is cost-prohibitive.

Colleges and universities have a choice in their admissions policies. They can focus on whether a student has completed a high school's more rigorous courses, and need not require AP courses and tests as evidence of high-level work. Such institutions should be commended for not supporting the College Board's money-making, inequity-fueling system.

Proponents of AP courses claim that they provide an opportunity for rigorous, intensive instruction in high school that better prepares students for success in college. Shouldn't all students have that opportunity - not just those for whom AP classes and tests are available and affordable?

Hispanic leader insulted by school board official

Slip of the tongue, or e-mail, requires more than a tired excuse
By Donald W. Blount, Record Managing Editor, March 30, 2009

Ted Bestolarides, a Lincoln School District Trustee, probably is fortunate that Cesar Chavez is not around.

If he were, Bestolarides might have been sued.

Record reporter Jennie Rodriguez followed the story.

She reported that two weeks ago Bestolarides in an e-mail response to an invitation from the Dolores Huerta Foundation said "I thought that Cesar Chavez was a communist organizer?"

Chavez was a civil rights leader and labor activist, and with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.

California celebrates Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, his birthday.

In Stockton, Cesar Chavez High School and Cesar Chavez Library are named after him.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, Chavez successfully sued two San Antonio radio personalities who called Chavez a communist.

According to the item, "being called a communist was not only a matter of principle that Chavez felt he had to fight but also became a great source of entertainment for him," said Jim Harrington, Chavez's lawyer.

Chavez won the case, settling for $12,000.

Bestolarides' comment angered some San Joaquin County Latino leaders, while puzzling others.

The Coalition of Mexican-American Organizations, which represents numerous Latino Organizations in San Joaquin County, met with Bestolarides to give him information on Chavez.

Pedro Ramirez, a San Joaquin Delta College teacher who ran for the Lincoln Unified School District board last year, presented the board with more information on Chavez at Wednesday's meeting.

Up to that point, Bestolarides handled this situation poorly.

He apologized to the Huerta foundation, but did not issue a public apology.

He insisted that no public apology was necessary because he had apologized to those affected.

Bestolarides said that he had a track record because he was a board member of Visionary Home Builders, Stockton developers of farm worker and low-income housing, and that he supported the district's multicultural programs.

He said the comment was being blown out of proportion.

Consider that of the 8,619 students in Lincoln Unified School District, 2,798 or 32.5 percent are classified as Latino or Hispanic, according to the California Department of Education.

As an education leader, that is something Bestolarides should have kept in mind before and after making his comment.

OK, you made a mistake. Think about those who you serve and say, "Hey, I made a mistake, and I'm sorry."

Bestolarides explained his comment this way: "I'm a tax accountant. I had been working almost 16-hour days when that happened. I just made a real quick e-mail response. I didn't even think about it. After I did it, I thought, 'God, I screwed it up.' "

Basically, he said he was tired. At least he got the last part of his comment correct: It was a screw up. And probably bigger than he realized.

When you hold a public office, you take on a much higher level of responsibility.

President Barack Obama went on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and insulted millions of people with disabilities by joking his bowling "was like Special Olympics or something."

Sure, different levels of responsibility, but lack of nuance and class in both comments.

Obama apologized.

And so did Bestolarides during Wednesday's Lincoln Unified trustees meetings. By that time, it had dragged on for far too long.

Bestolarides declined to comment when contacted at his office Friday.

When a similar e-mail gaffe occurred elsewhere in the community two years ago, Jose Rodriguez, executive director of El Concilio Council for the Spanish Speaking, said he hoped it would teach people to be aware of the consequences of their words.

"The lesson is that we need to be sensitive even when we think no one is watching," he said.

Contact Blount at (209) 546-8251 or dblount@recordnet.com.

Hispanic immigration may move, or not

Immigration is now on Obama's plate
By Ruben Navarrette, Signonsandiego.com, March 25, 2009

President Obama is either daring or foolhardy – or maybe a little of both.

Case in point: Although he has been criticized, even by supporters, for overloading his agenda, Obama recently signaled that, before the end of his first year in office, he'll take up no less challenging a cause than immigration reform.

That's what the president recently told the 24 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in an hour-long private meeting. It is significant that, according to statements issued by caucus members, immigration was the only item on the agenda. Participants said that Obama mentioned his planned trip to Mexico City next month, where he is due to meet with President Felipe Calderón to discuss how the neighboring countries can work together to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.

Obama echoed that theme before a crowd of about 1,300 people who recently gathered for a town hall session in Costa Mesa. When asked about immigration, the president said the United States has to beef up its border enforcement but also give undocumented immigrants a path to earned legalization. Obama even argued that legalizing such immigrants helps U.S. workers by eliminating a two-tiered system where employers can exploit those without papers and in the process lower wages for everyone.

I'm glad to hear that Obama is planning to address the immigration issue sooner rather than later. I'm just a little surprised. Immigration isn't an issue that Obama has talked much about since the election. Just a few months ago, it looked to many observers as if he would likely put off immigration reform until 2011, or maybe until a second term.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Obama has been trying to fix everything else – from the economy to education to health care. Why not also try to do something that some political observers say is next to impossible? Fix the immigration system.

Congress has struck out on that before. From 2005 to 2008, it took several swings at the immigration issue – with no luck. Not that we didn't learn a lot in the process about why Congress can't seem to solve this problem. We learned plenty.

We learned that business interests would use their clout to force lawmakers to import guest workers for jobs that Americans wouldn't do, but that organized labor would consider that concept a deal-killer. We learned that immigrant advocacy groups wanted an unconditional path to legalization for the undocumented, but that law-and-order conservatives would object to what they call amnesty. Although we need a new round of tougher and easier-to-enforce employer sanctions, it seems only right that they be accompanied by a tamper-proof identification card so employers know who is legally eligible to work. Conservatives fought the sanctions while liberals fought the ID card. In the end, we were back at square one.

It didn't help that congressional leaders on both sides of the issue asked for too much and poisoned the debate with hyperbolic rhetoric. Some conservatives flirted with nativism and wound up trying to keep out both legal and illegal immigrants. Some liberals couldn't seem to get behind necessary and legally permissible enforcement measures, which advanced the perception that they favored an open border.

As evidence of the latter, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, still won't condone the raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has been telling groups – most recently, the U.S.-Mexico Border Issues Conference – that these operations are “not the American way” because they sometimes separate families.

Correction. Enforcing the law is the American way. Pelosi struck a more inspiring note when she told attendees: “Every person who comes here, and certainly for the Hispanic community, when they come here, they make America more American.”

If Americans are really going to take another stab at immigration reform, we need more talk like that. We also need more concessions from both sides and leaders who will settle for half a loaf rather than go for it all and wind up fighting for crumbs.

President Obama deserves credit for raising the immigration issue. But he doesn't seem the type of leader to compromise on matters he considers important. That's too bad because the key to this debate is compromise.

Navarrette can be reached via ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.

Latino's attention could be gained by GOP

GOP must call Obama’s bluff on immigration
By JACOB MONTY, Houston Chronicle, March 29, 2009

For Republicans searching to find a way out of the political wilderness, the 2008 election provides some clear guideposts — and a flashing yellow sign about the road they’re on.

Even in a year when total voter turnout increased dramatically, Hispanics managed to boost their share of the vote from 8 percent to 9 percent, giving Barack Obama a lopsided margin of 68 percent to 31 percent, the most for a Democrat since 1996. The numbers represented a sharp dropoff in Hispanic support for Republicans since the Bush-Cheney high water mark of 40 percent just 4 years ago.

What’s received less attention is the impact Hispanics had on down-ticket races. Latinos supported Democrats in races for the Senate and House by even slightly higher margins than they gave Obama. The Pew Hispanic Center, using exit polls published by CNN, has estimated that Hispanics’ share of the vote increased most significantly in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, where they helped elect two new Democratic senators and four new Democrats to the House. All four states were carried by Bush in 2004.

If Republicans don’t reverse these trends, Hispanic voting patterns could change the political landscape well into the next decade and beyond. Increasing numbers of Hispanic voters could play a critical role in the 2010 Senate races in Colorado and Florida, where they comprised 13 percent and 14 percent of the vote in 2008 and gave Obama 61 percent and 57 percent of their votes, respectively. Arizona, Colorado and Nevada will also be likely battlegrounds for the 2010 governors’ races, which will be critical in setting district lines for congressional and legislative races for the next decade.

Hispanics — entrepreneurial, family-oriented, suspicious of labor unions, strongly anti-abortion and supportive of traditional marriage — are a natural constituency for the GOP. Nevertheless, the extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric of many in the so-called Republican “base” has created a huge obstacle to the party’s appeals. For Hispanics, the Republican brand is tarnished if not toxic.

National Review Online contributor Heather MacDonald writes of “the growing underclass culture among second- and third-generation Hispanic Americans.” Peter Brimelow, of the anti-immigration Web site vdare.com, recently told Michael Ruhl of the University of New Mexico’s Talk Radio News Service that “the issue in the immigration debate is not racism or xenophobia, it’s treason.”

While such talk may be red meat to elements within the party’s right wing, it’s impossible to overstate its impact on Hispanic voters — tax-paying, patriotic, law-abiding citizens, many of whose families have contributed to our country for generations and each belonging to the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the country.

If a public company like Procter & Gamble or Toyota were to deliberately offend such a huge market, it would find Hispanic dollars going to competitors — just like Republicans are now seeing Hispanics drift to the Democrats. What’s needed, though, is more than a tamping down of the GOP’s nativist language. If Republicans are to reverse course with Hispanic voters, it’s time for them to take a different path altogether. One way would be to hold President Obama to his campaign promises of comprehensive immigration reform by providing him the votes to pass it over the objections of many in his own party.

Two months into his term, Obama’s hyperactive agenda so far includes massive economic stimulus, overhauling the energy grid, health care reform, restructuring education and outlawing secret ballot union elections. Yet while nearly every Democratic constituency has skin in the president’s game, both the White House and congressional Democrats stand silent on solving the immigration problem, and with good reason: Union bosses can’t stand the thought of it, and neither can their rank and file. For too long, Democrats have been able to talk a good game to Hispanics about normalizing the status of 20 million undocumented workers, knowing that hard-right Republicans will screech out in opposition. Only one major union, the Service Employees International Union, dared support comprehensive reform in 2007; the rest could remain blissfully silent, knowing that Republicans would kill the bill and loudly take credit for it, alienating Hispanics in the process.

Congressional Democrats and the union bosses they answer to followed Sun Tsu’s advice that one should never interrupt an adversary who is destroying himself. Republicans have nothing to lose and much to gain by calling the Democrats’ bluff. Americans know that our immigration system is broken, wrenching families apart, hurting thousands of law-abiding businesses and leading to the exploitation of millions of workers. Few believe in mass deportations, and most realize that it isn’t about open borders or amnesty.

The scale and spread of violence caused by the Mexican drug cartels make it more important than ever that we not only secure the border but learn the identities and backgrounds of the 20 million undocumented workers living throughout our country. Nobody wants blanket amnesty.

Rather, it is about cracking down on border security combined with a total overhaul of America’s immigration laws. Providing a path to citizenship for those who can establish their identities, pass a background check and pay their back taxes is the best way to concentrate our efforts on those who are here for crime, not jobs — and reduce the pervasive atmosphere of prejudice and suspicion that now surrounds every job applicant with an accent (or, in some cases, just a Hispanic surname).

Republicans have a long-standing record of courageous support for realistic immigration reform that goes back more than 20 years. It was Republican icon President Reagan who successfully battled organized labor and the GOP’s own right wing to normalize 3 million undocumented immigrants. By building on that record, Republicans will begin the process of taking back the harsh words of some of the extremists on the right — and begin putting a critical wedge into the Democratic coalition in the process. By forcing the issue, Republicans will force Democrats to take sides, exposing serious fractures in the Democratic coalition. Equally important, for the first time since the November elections, they’ll show America they are still a party with positive, practical ideas to solve real and long-standing problems — and the courage to move them forward.

It will be a difficult and uphill road with lots of sharp curves, but for the GOP, there’s no alternative. The path they’re on leads right over a cliff.

Hispanics, Blacks encouraged to participate in summit

Summit for blacks, Hispanics planned in Charlotte
Associated Press - March 28, 2009

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg organizations will host a summit to address issues between blacks and Hispanics.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee and the Latin American Coalition are hosting the African-American Latino Alliance on Saturday at Friendship Missionary Baptist. The Charlotte Observer reported that more than 100 people are expected at the gathering.

In September, the Afro-American Cultural Center featured an exhibit documenting the lives of communities of African descent in Mexico. The purpose was to show the communities have more in common than they realize.

Information from: The Charlotte Observer, http://www.charlotte.com

Latinos should work with Minutemen

Minutemen, Latinos need to work together
By Jack Jamison, Paradise Post, 03/28/2009

MY REGULAR readers know that I am a liberal who supports minorities in their quest for equal justice and access to all things that America has to offer. Nevertheless, this is a two-way street.

Minorities, by usually being on the receiving end of discrimination, often have become oversensitive to what they perceive as slights. A case in point is the current dilemma in the Adopt-A-Highway program in which volunteers pick up litter on a certain section of California highways in return for a small sign recognizing their efforts. CalTrans gives permits to the groups and the program has worked well for more than 20 years. So what's the problem?

CalTrans temporarily stopped issuing new permits when some objected to an application by the Minutemen to adopt a section on I-5 north of San Diego. Apparently they believed since many illegal aliens supposedly travel on this section of I-5, the Minutemen would somehow use their picking up of litter as a way to harass people of Latin origins.

While we are not so naïve as to believe the Minute-men don't have members who are motivated by racism, we don't believe that racism is what motivates the organization. The Minutemen are an organization that is anti-illegal immigration and we believe the Latino Caucus is being oversensitive because the majority of illegal aliens are Latinos.

This is similar to saying a church group can't participate in the Adopt-A-Highway program because some member don't support equal rights for gays.

Picking up litter doesn't equate. CalTrans said this week that there is no legal way to ban the Minutemen from participating without shutting down the program entirely, which I doubt Latino lawmakers want.

I would hope the Minutemen would rethink the image they have apparently created within the Latino community and take steps to reach out to all legal residents. At the same time the Latino community has to realize its support of illegal immigration can be viewed by others as counterproductive. Both sides have to work together for the betterment of the country.

RI Immigration order impacts Hispanics

Uneasiness persists over RI immigration order
By HILARY RUSS, forbes.com, 03.26.09

Simon Hernandez says his convenience store business is down by almost half in the past year. He blames the state's high jobless rate and foreclosure crisis, which hit this heavily Hispanic city hard.

But he also says an executive order signed a year ago by Gov. Don Carcieri cracking down on illegal immigration drove away his largely immigrant base of customers, who told him they were moving to North Carolina and other states where they could live without fear of getting deported.

"They told me they left because of this order," Hernandez said. "It's not only me."

The governor's order was announced a year ago Friday and was aimed at helping state police and employers root out illegal immigrants. But some residents of recession-battered Rhode Island - suffering from one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, at 10.5 percent - wonder whether the order has done anything but stir up angry rhetoric and add to the state's misery.

Carcieri announced the order as the state was facing a $550 million budget deficit. He said illegal immigrants were on a burden on public schools, hospitals and law enforcement agencies and blamed the federal government for not taking action.

His order required state agencies, vendors and contractors to use a federal database known as E-Verify to check the legal work status of new hires. It also directed state police and prison and parole officials to identify illegal immigrants for possible deportation.

The order created an immediate stir. In the days afterward, Capitol police had to remove dozens of demonstrators from Carcieri's office policy office on Smith Hill.

Providence's Democratic mayor, David Cicilline, and police chief, Dean Esserman, said local officers shouldn't be enforcing immigration laws because it would erode community trust in police and chill immigrants' willingness to report crime.

Dream Act may lead to Hispanic immigration reform

The next step toward immigration reform
Jim Mitchell, Dallas Morning News, Mar 27, 2009

Unless I've missed some other bill -- and that is sure possible -- the introduction of the Dream Act in Congress yesterday is the first significant piece of immigration legislation put on the table since Barack Obama became president.

House and Senate versions would permit a limited number of undocumented students to become permanent residents if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years.

It's not the comprehensive reform that this editorial board has sought, but it does begin to revisit the immigration debate -- or at least the most sympathetic portion of it -- relatively early in this administration. I have no doubt that this is going to ignite another political brush fire, and i'm not sure how the immigration reform wil play out this year given the mega-battle that derailed reform the last time.

Obama is under pressure to lead on immigration reform, including a little prodding from his home town. -- the call from Chicago's Cardinal Francis George to end immigration raids across the country and pass "comprehensive immigration reform" that is "fair and compassionate."

The multi-media Obama also delivered this message on Univison. It's not a promise, but it's a pretty direct outreach to Hispanic communities. Add in Hillary Clinton's trip to Mexico, and talk of a comprehensive solution to border violence issues, and some pieces are in place for the immigration debate to heat up.

Salt Lake Latino teens help community

Latino teens brainstorm plans to help community
By Donald W. Meyers, The Salt Lake Tribune, 03/27/2009

Orem » They weren't your typical grant proposals.

One involved a skit about a teen being told he can't go to college. Another group did school chants to warm up the audience before pitching their idea.

But the grant proposals from participants at the Latino Leadership Symposium at Utah Valley University on Friday had a common element: Latino teens helping their community.

"Our motto is 'Plant the seed,'" said Cindy Munoz, a student at Mountain View High School in Orem.

And Munoz's classmates got $1,000 from Utah Community Credit Union to plant their seed: a program to help families become successful.

The conference, sponsored by UVU and the credit union, brought together 300 Latino students from Logan to Sanpete County to discuss leadership ideas.

While this was the conference's fifth year, Friday's marks the first time students were challenged to come up with a way to help their communities.

"The idea was that they can serve today," said Jose Enriquez, vice principal at Mountain View High and director of Latinos In Action, a program that trains Latino youth as mentors.

"The kids presenting the action plans are saying 'We're in this together.'"

Jorge Aguero, the credit union's director of Latin-American marketing and development, said picking a winning plan was tough; they all had great merits.

The students were divided into teams, some putting rivals such as Provo and Independence high schools together at the same table,. They were given an hour to come up with both ideas and a plan to put them into place.

"We were impressed with the plans," said Aguero, who was one of several judges reviewing the proposals. He said the important thing was not just the idea, but that there was a plan to implement it.

He said the students will have to show at next year's conference how the plan worked.

The Mountain View plan involved a program to teach families skills such as English proficiency to help them succeed. Lexie Parras explained that education was the only long-term solution to problems facing families.

"If you give someone food, once the food is gone they're hungry again," Parras said.

Aguero said the Mountain View team will have to share its prize money with Orem and Lakeshore junior highs as part of the plan.

The team representing Springville, Spanish Fork and Salem Hills high schools received $500 to implement their "Nebo United" plan to do community service and sponsor activities to promote tolerance.

Provo and Independence high schools received $250 for its "Raise the Bar" plan to encourage academic excellence.

Yvette Cruz, a Provo High student, said she and the students from Independence, an alternative high school, were committed to moving ahead -- even if they didn't win any cash.

dmeyers@sltrib.com

Latinos may lose with school admission policies

New UC admissions policy gives white students a better chance, angers Asian-American community
By Lisa M. Krieger, Mercury News, 03/27/2009

A new University of California admissions policy, adopted to increase campus diversity, could actually increase the number of white students on campuses while driving down the Asian population.

Now angry Asian-American community leaders and educators are attacking the policy as ill-conceived, poorly publicized and discriminatory.

"It's affirmative action for whites," said UC-Berkeley professor Ling-chi Wang. "I'm really outraged "... and profoundly disappointed with the institution."

At an Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education conference Friday in San Francisco, Asian activists also noted the policy will result in negligible increases in African-American students and only a modest climb in the number of Latinos. But it's the drop in the already significant Asian count that has many in that community so upset.

Although Asians account for only 12 percent of the state's population, they now represent 37 percent of UC admissions — the single largest ethnic group. At UC-Berkeley, 46 percent of the freshman class is Asian. There are dormitories with Asian themes and spicy bowls of pho are served up in the Bear's Lair cafeteria.

Under the new policy, according to UC's own estimate, the proportion of Asian admissions would drop as much as 7 percent, while admissions of whites could rise by up to 10 percent.

"The UCs are a means of upward mobility," said Anthony Lin, a San Jose resident who is a graduate student at
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University of California-Los Angeles. "The University of California, because it is a research institution, is very prestigious."

More diversity

Since its adoption by the UC Regents in February, the policy has triggered Asian suspicions of the UC entry system not felt since the mid-1980s, when a change in admissions policy caused a decline in Asian undergraduate enrollment. In 1989, then-UC-Berkeley Chancellor Ira Michael Heyman apologized for the policy.

"I fear a general sense that there are too many Asians in the UC system," said Patrick Hayashi, former UC associate president.

In this newest overhaul of eligibility requirements, UC has eliminated SAT subject tests — which Asians tend to do well on.

Those critical of the proposed plan vow to get it reversed by appealing to those who hold UC's purse strings: state legislators. On Tuesday, two panels of the California Legislature will jointly hold a hearing to review the policy.

Meanwhile, supporters of the change, which results from a faculty study and is backed by president Mark G. Yudof, see it as a way to ease the widening achievement gap on their campuses. The impact of the new policy, according to UC's preliminary analysis, would be to simplify the application process and cast a wider net among promising low-income students.

It's a consequential shift for the UC system, reflecting its effort to make UC more accessible. The new policy applies to students entering college in fall 2012; they are now high school freshmen.

More than a decade after California passed Proposition 209, voting to eliminate racial preferences, university administrators have struggled to create a better balance on campus. The use of a strict meritocracy has been blamed on the rise of "the Asian campus." Some say it has come at the expense of historically underrepresented blacks and Hispanics — as well as whites.

"The president would not have supported the policy had he not felt it was fair and created opportunity," said Nina Robinson, UC's director of policy and external affairs for student affairs.

Many students — especially low-income and/or minority students — become ineligible to apply because they do not take the subject matter tests, she said.

Flawed report

But an analysis of the change predicts that the number of Asians admitted to UC could decrease because Asians tend to excel on the "subject tests," which are no longer part of the application.

The number of admitted whites could increase, because more weight will be given to the "reasoning SAT," which favors American natives.

African-Americans and Latinos could benefit slightly from the expanded class-ranking criteria because top students from troubled schools such as San Jose's Lick High School could be UC-eligible.

Critics say they are frustrated because UC has not made public the statistical analysis on which their decision was based.

But the report that created the data for that analysis, called the 2007 CPEC Eligibility Study, is deeply flawed, according to New York University education professor Robert Teranishi.

"It shows a wide margin of error for Asians. It is not a good predictive model, perhaps because the Asian population is very diverse. 'Asian' represents a lot of different demographic backgrounds," he said. "It should not be used to guide major policy decisions." Wang, who compared it to "peddling snake oil," complained that Asians had not been invited to participate in the process.

"The changes over the last two years took place inside the ivory tower and closed the door, without the public's knowledge," he said.

Added Hayashi: "A public university should be more responsive. Private schools can do anything they want. But public schools have a different set of objectives. "It will have a devastating impact on our community. It is a fatal mistake to think it will blow over."

The university has the power to set admissions criteria, said Steve Boilard of the California Legislative Analyst's Office. But the Legislature approves its $3 billion in funding every year.

"This is a dynamic where we need to work together to ensure its mission," he said.

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565.

Hispanic immigrants targeted by bureau ad

Census Bureau Will Try an Ad Campaign To Reach Minorities
Economic Downturn Complicates Count
By Ed O'Keefe and Steve Vogel, Washington Post, March 24, 2009

Amid fears that millions of people may be overlooked during next year's census, the Census Bureau will launch a $250 million promotional campaign to encourage participation in the decennial head count, especially among hard-to-reach minority groups in urban areas.

More than half those funds will go for advertising across traditional and social media, and nearly a quarter will be devoted exclusively to Asian, black and Hispanic outlets.

"A year from now, the populace will have seen and heard more ads in national and local media than in any prior census," the Census Bureau's acting director, Thomas L. Mesenbourg, told a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

The agency will also hire 2,000 temporary employees by the end of June to coordinate efforts with more than 10,000 local organizations and corporations to help encourage greater participation. Companies including General Mills and Target and civil rights groups including the NAACP will encourage their customers and members to fill out census forms next year.

All of this is necessary to help boost participation levels among the nation's undercounted groups, mostly ethnic minorities in economically depressed areas. How the bureau decides to advertise could prove crucial to next year's count, said Stacey Cumberbach, New York City's census coordinator.

"While the census is a federal responsibility, there must be earlier and ongoing communication and accountability to local governments and communities," she said at yesterday's hearing, noting that 55 percent of New York residents responded to the 2000 census questionnaires, compared with 66 percent nationally.

But any attempt at coordination with local governments may be adversely affected by their tight budgets, according to Robert Goldenkoff of the Government Accountability Office. He also noted that the bureau could encounter many people who refuse to answer questions because of their general distrust of government or fear of revealing their immigration status.

At a forum last week sponsored by the Brookings Institution, census officials and other experts also warned that increases in foreclosure and joblessness would make it harder to accurately count the population during the 2010 census because more Americans are moving out of their homes and into shelters or other locations where they may be more difficult for census workers to find.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said minority populations are more likely to be affected because they are being hit harder by job losses and foreclosures. "Another undercount of the Latino community, of which there has been in every single census, simply represents a failed census," Vargas said.

Research done by the Census Bureau shows that many Hispanics "believe answers can be used against them," according to Frank A. Vitrano, a division chief at the bureau who oversees planning and coordination for the 2010 count. Hispanics also tend to be overrepresented among groups that know little or nothing about the census and its purposes, he said.

Hispanic hate group allowed to adopt highway in California

Minutemen freeway sign an insult to the Hispanic community
La Prensa San Diego March 27, 2009 Editorial

Few in San Diego County noticed this week’s Caltrans announcement that they couldn’t find a legal reason to ban the Minutemen from California’s Adopt-A-Highway program. The Adopt-A-Highway program provides free highway advertising in exchange for the clean-up of stretches of California’s highways. For the Hispanic community, knowing that the Minutemen will claim to control and support stretches of highways in California is an insult. How much news coverage would hate group sponsorship of California highways have gotten if Caltrans allowed the KKK to post a sign on Martin Luther King Highway? What if a Nazi group adopted a stretch of Highway near La Jolla?

In November 2007, Caltrans allowed the racist group, the Minutemen, to participate in its Adopt-A-Highway road-cleanup program. The portion of highway adopted by the Minutemen was along the I-5 near the San Clemente border check. Hispanic leaders were insulted by this tacit support and recognition of the Minutemen by Caltrans. They sought to have the group banned from participating in the State program.

Under pressure from the Hispanic Legislative Caucus, Caltrans removed the sign. When a judge ordered the sign back up, Caltrans offered an alternative site. The Minutemen refused the alternative site, sued the State for discrimination, and claim that they have freedom of speech to adopt stretches of highway throughout California with no restrictions.

The Minutemen are known as a racist, hate-mongering group that promotes violence. Minutemen show up at our borders with their guns. They confront motorists on the streets. They harass immigrants looking for jobs at shopping centers. They go into the fields and vandalize makeshift camps of the workers. They go to the churches that support immigrant rights and taunt the parishioners, including little children. They have even hung an effigy of a priest with horns at a local church. We have seen them scream at our immigrant advocates, once even threatening to run over one if he dared to step out into the street. Minutemen violence and intimidation has prompted private citizens in the eastern parts of the county to erect fences and security systems in order to prevent trespassing and intimidating Minutemen from “immigrant hunting” with guns and ATVs on private property. The Minutemen web site explains how to use force and intimidation. Even President Bush called the group vigilantes. The atrocities go on and on.

For the Hispanic community, the Minutemen have waged a full on assault that Hispanics have to face every day. Now we are forced to drive by their signage and their clean up crews as if these are upstanding good old Americans just picking up litter, next to the San Clemente check point. For Hispanics this is a slap in the face.

Yet according to Caltrans guidelines, “…entities that advocate violence, violation of the law, or discrimination based upon race, religion, color, national origin … may not participate in the Adopt-A-Highway Program.” Despite Caltrans’ own clear guidelines, Transportation Department chief Will Kempton states that there is no legal way to ban the controversial anti-immigration group from participating in the program. Kempton went on to say, “Just because a group represents a controversial viewpoint that under the First Amendment is not grounds to prevent their participation in our Adopt-A-Highway program.” Evidently, Kempton is oblivious to the physical attacks, confrontations, and hate crimes that have defined the Minutemen over the past several years.

While Kempton may have his hands tied and seems unable to ban the Minutemen from participating in the Adopt-A-Highway program, the Hispanic Caucus has not given up on this issue. The caucus, led by State Senator Gil Cedillo and Assemblypersons Lori Saldaña and Joe Coto, is in the process of drafting new rules that will give Caltrans the flexibility to deny Minutemen participation. They submit that sponsoring groups should be required to submit a list of officers, group by-laws and other information, before being considered for the Adopt-A-Highway program.

If Caltrans is unable to abide by their own guidelines, let us hope that the Legislature is able to resolve this affront to the Hispanic community.

Latino studies doctorate degree minor announced

IU's Latino Studies announces a new doctorate degree minor
PRESS RELEASE March 27, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Bloomington Latino Studies Program recently announced the approval of its new doctorate degree minor and an $18,000 Dissertation Year Award.

This graduate degree will allow students in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, business, law and education to develop expertise on the historical and contemporary experiences of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans and other Latin Americans who have immigrated to the United States or who have resided in the U.S. for multiple generations. The program's courses examine Latino communities and experiences within local, national, transnational and diasporic contexts.

With support from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Latino Studies Program will launch its new Doctor of Philosophy minor along with the new College of Arts and Sciences Latino Studies Dissertation Year Award. The $18,000 award includes a fellowship stipend and very modest hourly responsibilities as the editor of a newsletter for Latino Studies and assistant in some outreach events. Applications are due Monday, March 30 -- for more details visit the Latino Studies Web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~latino.

In the past 30 years, Latino and Chicano Studies scholars have transformed knowledge throughout academia, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. The most important contributions have been in the theoretical foundations of traditional disciplines focusing on racial formation, colonial theory, hybridity theory, border theory, identity politics, racism, immigration and migration theory, and Latina/o Critical Race Theory. The Latino Studies Ph.D minor will offer an interdisciplinary space for scholars in traditional academic units to address these areas within a coherent intellectual focus of study.

The need for this program -- located within the College of Arts and Sciences -- is evident in the demographic importance of Latinos and the rise in nationwide demand. Within the United States, the Midwest has experienced the largest growth in Latino population. Between 2000 and 2005 the Latino population increased 117 percent in Indiana alone; nationwide by 58 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050 close to one in three U.S. residents will be of Latino origin.

Those individuals possessing an enhanced understanding of the largest ethnic group in this country will be better qualified for the job market of the future. With the growing Latino population in Indiana and nationwide, the new doctorate minor will prepare students for working with Latinos after studying the diversity, history, culture and needs of the largest ethnic minority of the U.S. population.

Students in other departments can minor in Latino Studies by completing 12 credit hours of course work directly related to Latino Studies subject matter. Students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. minor in Latino Studies should visit http://www.indiana.edu/~latino/ for information and application materials.

Completed applications for the Dissertation Year Award are due by Monday, March 30. Application materials include a completed application form (available at http://www.indiana.edu/~latino and at Latino Studies), curriculum vitae, transcripts, dissertation prospectus and two letters of recommendation. Some preference will be given to students doing work related to Latino Studies, but any student with a relationship to this subject area is welcome and encouraged to apply. The award is for students who have advanced to candidacy at the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information please contact: Arlene J. Díaz, director, Latino Studies Program, Sycamore Hall 046, ardiaz@indiana.edu or 812-856-1795.

About Latino Studies at IU
The Latino Studies Program is the fruition of more than three decades of student activism and faculty engagement at Indiana University. The mission of Latino Studies is to empower individuals with skills and concepts to better understand Latino communities; to advance innovative research and scholarship on Latino cultures, histories and social conditions; and to engage students, scholars and the larger community in collaborative projects, civic programs and service learning. Latino Studies courses introduce students to the nation's diverse, growing Latino populations, including their histories, cultures, social conditions and aspirations.

Latina Legislator supports youth leadership program

Assemblymember Mary Salas Urges Students to Apply for the 2009 Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Summer Conference
La Prensa San Diego March 27, 2009

Assemblymember Mary Salas announced that applications are now being accepted for the 27th Annual Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project (CLYLP) Summer Conference and urged students to apply. The deadline for filing applications for the youth conference is Monday, April 13, 2009.

“The CLYLP summer conference is a unique program that prepares students to become California’s future leaders,” said Assemblymember Salas. “Several CLYLP alumni work in the State Capitol as staff members and serve on its Board of Directors. It is important that San Diego students take advantage of opportunities that enhance their educational experience and prepare them to serve our community.”

The CLYLP Summer Conference is a premier leadership conference open to current 10th and 11th grade California high school students. Selected students participate in a week long conference in Sacramento, CA where they attend powerful workshops and seminars that enhance their leadership skills, academic preparedness, and gain an understanding of state and local government.

This year’s conference will take place in Sacramento at the California State University, Sacramento campus from July 25th – August 1, 2009. One hundred twenty (120) applicants will be selected to participate in the conference. Students selected to participate attend at no cost to themselves or their families.

Founded in 1982, the CLYLP is a volunteer-run, non-profit, non-partisan organization, which receives major support from the California Latino Legislative Caucus, the University of California system, the California State University system, the California Community Colleges, the California Teachers Association and over 50 private foundations and organizations. More than 3,000 California high school students have participated in the summer conference with over 90% of CLYLP participants going on to attend college. Through the training and tools provided at the summer conference, CLYLP alumni become successful leaders in both the public and private sector.

For more information about CLYLP or to download the student application materials, please visit the CLYLP website at www.clylp.com. The deadline for filing applications for the youth conference is Friday, April 13, 2009.

Hispanic immigration legislation on the move

A risky new push for immigration legislation
Advocates of legalization have crafted a plan that could alienate businesses and key Republicans, including Sen. John McCain. But it is designed to lure a powerful new ally -- organized labor.
By Peter Wallsten, LA Times, March 27, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- With their prospects in Congress sinking along with the economy, liberal advocates of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship are launching a risky strategy to push lawmakers and the White House to take up their cause.

They are devising a proposal in which millions of undocumented workers would be legalized now, while the number of foreign workers allowed to enter the country would be examined by a new independent commission, and probably reduced.

It is a calculation designed to win a new and powerful ally, organized labor, which favors a limit on foreign worker visas. But it risks alienating businesses that rely on temporary workers and could turn off key Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who in the past has crafted his own compromise plan for legalization.

With unemployment on the rise, the immigration debate has moved to the back burner as lawmakers fear enacting a law that could be portrayed as beneficial for immigrants at the expense of struggling American workers.

Advocates believe that winning support from the AFL-CIO, which opposed previous legalization plans, will help get the issue back on track.

"Last time the coalition was not quite as solid as we would have hoped," said Ali Noorani, director of the National Immigration Forum, one of the advocacy groups negotiating with labor leaders over the new strategy.

Ana Avendaño, the AFL-CIO's point person on the issue, said the labor federation believes the Democrats' enhanced power in Washington represents a "sea change" in which liberal groups can forge ahead without working with Republican-leaning business lobbyists.

"The reality is that we no longer have corporations controlling public policy in the White House and on the Hill," she said.

President Obama reiterated his support for legalization last week during a stop in Southern California, and he told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he would deliver a public statement of support this spring. But advocates are growing anxious that he might prefer to delay what would no doubt be a politically charged fight. Immigration advocates have already raised concerns that the administration has not called off workplace raids that are splitting immigrant families.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he and other caucus members leaned on the president to act fast, pointing out that he had found time to satisfy other constituencies.

"We're saying, 'OK, you took time out for stem cell research, and you're taking time out for healthcare,' " Gutierrez said. "And our communities expect you to take time out for our issues."

To bolster their cause, advocates are planning an $18-million media and grass-roots campaign for the fall. The funding is coming primarily from liberal foundations, including one founded by billionaire activist George Soros.

Any new legalization plan is likely to look similar in some respects to the bill crafted by McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), which stalled most recently in 2007. Opponents had decried the measure as "amnesty," but it would have required undocumented workers to pay a fine and back taxes and to wait longer than other applicants for permanent residency status.

The new proposal, as laid out by several participants in the behind-the-scenes negotiations, would also create an independent commission that would assess labor and industry data to decide how many foreign workers should be allowed into the country. The system, designed by Ray Marshall, a Labor secretary under President Carter, would replace a maze of special temporary worker visas that are granted each year to high-tech specialists, agriculture workers and other foreigners brought into the U.S. by foreign and domestic firms.

Advocates said they planned to remind House members and senators that Latino voters, who supported Democrats in big numbers in the 2006 and 2008 elections and proved crucial to Obama's victories in Florida and the Southwest, are expecting the party to use its enhanced power to pass a legalization plan.

Some close to the White House said in interviews that the administration might prefer to wait until 2011 to advance an immigration bill. But one Democrat who supports more immediate action is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is facing a tough reelection battle next year in Nevada, where Latinos make up a growing share of voters.

A spokesman for Reid said Thursday that the senator planned for the immigration debate to occur this fall but did not say whether he would back the efforts to court labor leaders.

Officials at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that a solidly Democratic coalition pushing for immigration changes would prove far less effective in the end. Passage in the Senate requires 60 votes to head off a filibuster, and several conservative Democrats are likely to oppose the measure. That means the bill needs GOP support.

"If they want to go on their own and get 60 votes, good luck," said Angelo Amador, director of immigration policy at the chamber. He added that business lobbyists recognized the heightened power of unions and Democrats, and "we'll be willing to accept some additional union protections. But that doesn't mean that the business community is going to roll over and play dead."

peter.wallsten@latimes.com

Latinos honored by community group

El Concilio honors service to Latino community
By Gareth Dodd, Ventura County Star, March 23, 2009

A sold-out crowd packed Oxnard’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday to celebrate El Concilio del Condado de Ventura’s 20th annual Latino Awards banquet where nine individuals and three organizations were honored for their contributions to Ventura County’s Latino community.

Oxnard Mayor Pro Tem Andres Herrera, the master of ceremonies, kicked off the event by reminding the audience that El Concilio’s mission is to provide direct services and programs in family literacy, youth development and citizenship to the underserved Latino community.

Armando Lopez, president of El Concilio’s board of directors, expressed appreciation for the city’s sponsorship, for corporate sponsorship and for individual donations to El Concilio.

“These are hard times in our country, but tonight we have a full house. Thank you,” Lopez said. “We had 20,000 people come through our doors last year looking for help. We want them to come again and come often.”

The first to receive an award was Manuel Covarrubias, the only Latino serving as a judge in Ventura County Superior Court. He presides over the Juvenile Justice Center in Oxnard and was named “Judge of the Year” in 2006 by the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Association.

“El Concilio has a vision, and it’s an honor to be part of that vision, as a former member of the board of directors,” Covarrubias said. “I’m truly humbled and honored to be considered a leader by the Latino Community.”

The second award went to Norma Perez-Sandford, a current and past chairwoman of the Ventura County Juvenile Justice/Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Commission. She recently coordinated the Ventura County January 2009 Homeless and Housing Coalition Survey effort for the Fillmore and Piru areas.

“Every day I see situations where children have to grow up very fast,” she said. “As adults, we can make a difference in young lives by reaching out. It is with great honor that I receive this recognition for my work.”

Carmela Lacayo accepted the award for the National Association for the Hispanic Elderly — Proyecto Ayuda, which provides subsidized employment and training for low-income seniors, ages 55 and over.

Moses Mora and MB Hanrahan received an award for their 16 years of devotion to the Tortilla Flats Project. Mora and Hanrahan used photographs, recordings and oral histories to document the lives of people who lived in the Tortilla Flats neighborhood during the early to mid-20th century. A mural depicting Tortilla Flats is in the Figueroa Street underpass beneath Highway 101 in Ventura.

Cynthia Lopez received the next award. Lopez, a Hueneme High School counselor who advises 453 seniors, was honored in January with the Statewide Professional Recognition award by the California Association of School Counselors.

“It is truly an honor to receive such a prestigious award from an organization that has done so much for our community,” Lopez said.

Lucy Castro is a Santa Paula Latino Town Hall member who was active in helping Spanish-speaking members of her church vote in the last election. She is coordinator of the Hispanic Mentoring Initiative for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County. Born in Mexico, she is the first of her family to attend college.

Vietnam veteran Esequiel Ruelas Sandez was next to receive recognition. Sandez, who has combat-related disabilities, has helped more than 75 combat veterans receive 100 percent certification for disability compensation benefits.

“Many Vietnam vets returned home alienated and needing help,” Sandez said. “The processing of claims remains complicated, cumbersome and confusing. Therefore, my work continues.”

El Concilio’s President’s Award for community service and volunteerism was presented to Eduardo Miranda, a sergeant with the Oxnard Police Department. The only officer on the force with a doctorate, Miranda works at establishing and strengthening existing partnerships between the Police Department and the community. He was Officer of the Year in 2006 and received the Knights of Columbus Community Service Award in 2008.

The President’s Building Bridges award was then presented to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme and the Rio School District. The awards were accepted by Steve Kinney, club president, and school district Superintendent Sherianne Cotterell.

The night of festivities was capped by a special volunteerism award given by Yvonne R. Gutierrez, El Concilio executive director, to Peter Hernandez.

“Our work is not possible without our volunteers,” Gutierrez said. “Peter always says yes, he never says no.”

Hispanic school drop out is just the beginning

Dropout rate shows it's not just students who are failing
By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star columnist

I heard a cold truth again this week: “Not everyone is college material.” It was reiterated by a former teacher. Not one of mine, but a woman who had worked with enough students in her decades of secondary school teaching to make the claim with some authority.

I’ll concede the point and up the ante. Not everyone is high school material, either — at least, as high schools are currently constituted.

Sounds demeaning, right? It’s a tad impolite to say in public that large swaths of the population just don’t have the chops to earn even a high school degree. But if graduation rates are used as the measure of high school success, the evidence is mounting.

Nearly one-third of all students fail to earn a high school diploma in the typical four-year period. And graduation rates are significantly lower among poorer black and Latino students. Less than half of all black students and less than 60 percent of Latinos earn a regular high school diploma.

To some, this might confirm the “Bell Curve” explanation — i.e., that the problem is a racial or class pathology. Before we head down that ugly path of blaming, consider this:

The dirty little secret is that we don’t know for sure how many students are dropping out of school, because the numbers can be massaged and fudged by educational authorities. New legislation is pending that would standardize how graduation rates are reported, which is necessary for establishing credible standards.

Coupled with changes ordered by the Department of Education last fall, states will be doing a far better job at calculating the data. But be prepared: The new standards may reveal the dropout situation to be worse than we thought.

An inordinate amount of political will is being exerted to grade a school system that is obviously failing too many students, with the grand hope that scrutiny will yield vastly different results.

Instead of concluding that the dropout rates are a result of socioeconomic disparities and that these kids are unable to acquire skills and a useful education, maybe it’s time to ask whether some of the problem is in how high schools are set up. Maybe the answer is different models for secondary instruction, including more options that move youth faster into either traditional four-year college, online courses or training programs — whatever fits for their abilities and goals.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The main purpose of providing free public education is to strengthen the nation, preparing today’s high school grad to become a productive citizen. Yes, it would be nice if every graduate were able to relish a good novel, but we all need to enjoy the economic value they add in taxes and productivity.

By one estimate, the dropouts of 2008 alone will cost the nation more than $319 billion in lost wages throughout their lives.
What’s at stake here is nothing less than the future prosperity of this nation. The graduation rate has remained fairly static at about 70 percent for decades, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In other words, the failure of our education model has been apparent for a long time, yet nothing we’ve tried has had any appreciable success at fixing the problem.

I’ve always been bothered when people casually remark that “not everyone is college material.” I just can’t shake the suspicion that some kids initially get plopped into that category not by their own lack of merit, but rather by the low expectations for how far they will climb up the educational ladder. Self-fulfilling prophecy usually handles the rest.

But to extend the philosophy of “not everyone is” to the high school level? I’m not willing to go that far. No one should. If our high schools are failing to reach one-third or more of the nation’s youth in a meaningful way, we owe it to our youth to ask how our schools are failing them.

Mary Sanchez, call 816-234-4752 or send e-mail to msanchez@kcstar.com

Scholarships available for Hispanic students in Poughkeepsie

Scholarships available to Hispanic students
POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL, March 25, 2009

Applications for the 2009 Latino High School scholarship are now available.

To be eligible, scholarship applicants must be of Hispanic/Latino heritage and be a high school senior in Dutchess, Orange or Ulster counties.

Applicants must complete the application, attach a copy of their most recent high school transcript, complete the personal statement form and sign it and have a teacher or guidance counselor complete the recommendation form.

For a copy of the application, e-mail elsolhv@aol.com or call Norma Ramirez at R&M Promotions at 845-463-0409.

The application is due April 3. Mail the completed packet to: R&M Promotions/LHSSA, P.O. Box 2227, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601.

Latina to lead NALEO

New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera Elected to Serve as NALEO's Sixth President
PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, March 25, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Today, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO: undefined, undefined, undefined%), the leadership organization of the nation's more than 6,000 Latino elected and appointed officials, elected New Mexico Secretary of State and NALEO Vice President Mary Herrera to serve as the organization's president.

Secretary Herrera has been elected to the post of president following the resignation of former President Adolfo Carrion, who left his posts as Bronx Borough and NALEO President to serve in the Obama Administration as White House Director of Urban Affairs last month.

Secretary Herrera is currently the second highest-ranking Latino elected official in the country, second only to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Additionally, she is one of only two statewide elected Latinas and is the highest-ranking state elected Latina in the United States.

A public servant for more than 35 years, Secretary Herrera rose through the ranks of Bernalillo County government, starting her career as a clerk typist and becoming Assistant Comptroller in 1989. From 1996 to 2000, she served the county as Director of Human Resources. Following her retirement as a county employee, she was elected in 2000 as Bernalillo County Clerk and was re-elected in 2004. In 2006, she successfully won an election for New Mexico Secretary of State, the office she currently serves.

"I am deeply honored and humbled in the confidence my colleagues have in my leadership for this very important organization," said Secretary Herrera. "During the difficult times our nation is facing, I am proud of the public service Latino elected officials are providing to lead our nation in the right direction. NALEO plays a critical role in supporting their leadership and I am proud to serve my colleagues in this capacity," she concluded.

Hispanic PD Officers promoted

Weis promotes 3 Hispanics in police department
BY ANNIE SWEENEY Sun Times, March 26, 2009

Supt. Jody Weis elevated three Hispanic members of the department Thursday, including promoting a Latino officer to head Internal Affairs, the office that investigates misconduct of police.

Juan Rivera was promoted to chief of Internal Affairs after most recently serving as deputy chief of the Grand Central Area.

The announcement comes about a month after Hispanic clergy met with Weis about the lack of Latinos in high-ranking positions — noting that three of 25 districts were headed by Hispanics and that there were no Hispanics among the four deputy superintendents and seven chiefs.

But with the moves announced today, Roberto Zavala was promoted from commander of the Ogden District to deputy chief of the Grand Central Area. Berscott Ruiz, a lieutenant in the Ogden District, was promoted to commander of the district.

“We’re very excited,’’ said the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus, pastor of New Life Covenant Church. “At least they are willing to hear and meet with us, and now we are seeing some changes. It’s well overdue. We hope there’s more [in] the future.’’

Sources said Weis had recognized the need to diversify the upper ranks of the department even before meeting with the clergy. He committed himself to work on it at the meeting, one source said.

Rivera, the new chief of IAD, has also worked patrol on the South Side and helped coordinate long-term drug investigations. He has served as commander of the Harrison Area detective division on the West Side. He also ran the Confidential Investigations Section of IAD during a previous assignment there.

Weis had previously appointed a Hispanic woman to one of the department’s two top positions.

Also under the changes, Chief Tina Skahill, who had run IAD, moves over to head the department’s community policing project.

Hispanic immigration reform and Obama

Obama and immigration reform
Gregory Rodriguez, L.A. Times, March 23, 2009

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. was a little over the top last month when he called us "a nation of cowards" for our collective failure to adequately discuss our troubled racial past.

Less than a month later, officials at his Justice Department are believed to have pulled the plug on the nomination of Thomas Saenz, chief counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to head the department's civil rights division. Why? Apparently because of Saenz's past advocacy on behalf of immigrant rights.

You read that correctly. Saenz's past professional civil rights activism has evidently disqualified him from being the nation's top civil rights enforcer. If it's true, it's a decision that may be a troubling sign for those hoping President Obama is committed to comprehensive immigration reform.

Don't go looking for public griping from Latino members of Congress on the Saenz incident. On Wednesday, in what from all accounts was a love-fest between Obama and the entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the president reaffirmed his commitment to ... comprehensive immigration reform. In a breathless news release, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) cooed that "the American people are fortunate to have a president ready and willing to tackle the big issues of the day." In a telephone media briefing, leaders from some of the nation's most prominent immigrant rights organizations practically held hands and sang "Our Guy."

But just below the buzz of news releases and sound bites, some officials and advocates who care most about immigration reform are worried. True to form, irascible Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina was the only high-profile elected official to speak out. She was quoted as saying Saenz had been offered the nomination and accepted it. That the administration canceled the deal, she told the blog of the Legal Times, "speaks volumes of the lack of courage of the administration." Ouch. Several other activists expressed their own concerns to me off the record.

Before you jump to any conclusions, this is not a racial matter. The fellow who did get the top civil rights job, Maryland Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, is also Latino. Like Saenz, Perez has been a proponent of immigrant rights and even served as president of the board of a Maryland-based immigrant rights advocacy group.

So what's the story? Word is that the White House was scared off by the vocal opposition to Saenz from anti-immigrant groups. Indeed, when the news of an impending Saenz appointment surfaced, the response was predictable. Notably, the fiercely anti-immigrant Investor's Business Daily accused Saenz of being an open-borders advocate. It unearthed an old canard about the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where Saenz once worked, calling it a "radical group that wants to cede California to Mexico."

The positive spin from Obama supporters is that the White House wanted to keep its powder dry for a future full-on fight over immigration reform. And perhaps that's true. But to think that anti-immigrant extremists could kill the nomination of a man most would describe as a mainstream liberal, not to mention someone who is on the record as being opposed to the idea of open borders, is bothersome.

It's a familiar game in American politics to label your enemies as extremists. But this was clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle black. What were Saenz's presumed radical credentials that became political liabilities? His high-profile fight against Proposition 187, California's deeply flawed 1994 anti-immigrant ballot initiative, and his spearheading, on 1st Amendment grounds, of the fight for day laborers' right to solicit work on the street. Whether you agree with these positions or not, it's hard to label either as dangerously radical.

On Wednesday, in response to a question at a town hall appearance in Costa Mesa, the president said he supports an overhaul of immigration policy. But the question is open: Will Obama's actions match his rhetoric?

Saenz's apparent torpedoing doesn't bode well for what we all know is a crucial policy issue. If the White House doesn't push immigration reform sometime in the next four years, I guess I'll have to lighten up on the attorney general. We very well may be a nation of cowards.

grodriguez@latimescolumnists.com

Hispanic immigrantion changing with economy

Recession changing flow of NE Ind. immigration
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 22, 2009

LIGONIER, Ind. (AP) — The recession might have reversed the flow of immigration in northeastern Indiana as immigrants, both legal and illegal, leave the area to look for jobs, a newspaper reported.
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Ligonier, about 35 miles northwest of Fort Wayne, has seen its population swell from 3,400 in 1990 to nearly 6,000 as Hispanic immigrants from Mexico and other countries have arrived. By 2000, about one in three Ligonier residents was Hispanic, census estimates show, though not all were immigrants.

But supermarket owner Armando Calvo noticed a change around October, when customers began disappearing. His sales are down 25 percent since then, he told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne.

They vanished from school, too.

Melanie Tijerina, English as a New Language coordinator for the West Noble County school district, said nearly 50 Hispanic students had left the district — whose enrollment is more than one-third Hispanic — by late February. That includes at least 20 from West Noble Elementary School, where she is assistant principal.

She recalls asking a young Hispanic boy why he wasn’t playing with his friends this winter and receiving the answer: “I don’t have any friends. They moved away.”

And when they moved, they left empty homes and apartments. John C. Pettit, who runs a mobile home park and rental properties that have been favored by immigrants, knows. A year ago, the occupancy in his apartments was 90 percent. Now it’s closer to 50 percent, he said.

Some who leave are heading to Mexico, some to Florida, some to Texas, he said, and they all have the same reason.

“There was work down there,” Pettit said. “There wasn’t up here.”

Stepped-up immigration enforcement also may play a part. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement increased enforcement efforts last year, deporting nearly 350,000 illegal immigrants, a 20 percent increase from 2007.

But the economy may have made the most difference.

Tijerina has heard of families moving to Colorado and Wisconsin for work, but more are moving to Mexico. And they take their children with them — children born and raised in the United States. Many speak Spanish, but they can’t read or write the language. Their education has been in English, Tijerina said.

“These kids don’t remember what it looks like back there,” she said. “I worry about the way our kids are going to suffer.”

Eight in 10 immigrants in Indiana are from Mexico or other Latin American countries, the center said. Many of them send money home every week. But a January survey by the Washington, D.C-based Pew Hispanic Center found among those who sent money home in the past two years, more than seven in 10 said they sent less last year than the year before.

It’s difficult to determine how many immigrants are leaving when no one knows for certain how many there are in Indiana.

Pew Hispanic Center has cited U.S. Census data and models in estimating there are about 100,000 undocumented people living in Indiana, but an official with the group told a legislative committee last year that the number could be anywhere from 75,000 to 125,000.

Latinos hurt by school budget cuts

S.J. school budget cuts especially rough on Latino, low-income families
By Jennifer Torres, Stockton Record, March 21, 2009

Babies fussed, and even parents shifted in their seats by the time - about two hours into the March 10 meeting of the Tracy Unified School Board - that trustees discussed the future of Delta Island School, which administrators had recommended be closed.

One at a time, board members noted how difficult a decision it had been, how they felt as if their hand was forced - by a bad economy and by a broken state funding system.

"The budget cuts that we're faced with right now are monumental," Trustee James Vaughn said. "We do appreciate you. Just know that. We do appreciate you."

Rural schools threatened

Rural schools across California and the nation are being threatened as the economy forces deep cuts to education. Districts across the country are preparing to shut down many campuses, and small, isolated schools are more vulnerable because they serve fewer students and cost more per pupil to operate.

"All over this country, the pressure is on to close rural schools," said Mary Strange, policy director of the nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust in Arlington, Va. "They are the target in these hard economic times."

California schools, which rank near the bottom nationally in per-pupil spending, are preparing to make drastic cuts after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature last month reached a budget agreement that reduced K-12 education spending by $8.6 billion "” more than 10 percent — through June 2010.

Soon after, the school - which serves mainly the children of farm workers who live in trailers and houses scattered across agricultural land west of Stockton - was voted closed, one of several campuses shuttered by San Joaquin County school systems in recent weeks.

Districts across the state are contemplating drastic cuts to educational programs and school staffs.

To close a school is among the most controversial and emotional of those spending decisions, and in San Joaquin County, the children whom school closures tend to affect the most are those who already are academically vulnerable.

The public schools that have been closed in recent weeks - Tracy's Delta Island, Stockton Unified's Grant and Lodi Unified's Turner - are small but serve higher-than-average percentages of children who are Latino, who are poor and who don't speak English fluently.

School administrators say those characteristics do not factor into their decisions, that the schools that have been closed are too costly to run and are in need of expensive repair.

"A decision not to close Delta Island would affect all students in the district," Tracy Unified Superintendent James Franco had said.

Still, the closure decisions have led parents and others to question whether their children are bearing an unfair share of the current budget burden.

"They aren't interested in us," said Leticia Acosta, whose children attend Delta Island. "They don't listen to us. They don't care whether our children are doing well."

More than 96 percent of Delta Island's students are Latino, a far higher figure than the districtwide total of 40 percent. About 92 percent are still learning English, compared with 24 percent across the district, and 97 percent are poor in a district where an overall 32 percent are.

Similar disparities exist at Turner Elementary School, which Lodi Unified trustees decided to close in February, and, to a lesser extent, at Grant Elementary, ordered shut by the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees earlier this month.

"South Stockton gets so many hits, and I know why it does," Trustee Sal Ramirez said at the meeting during which the Grant decision was made. "It's because it has the most needy people in the city, the ones that are most vulnerable. They are the easiest targets."

Village Oaks, a Lincoln Unified School District campus with 80 percent of its student body listed as low income, closed in 2007.

About a week ago, hundreds of educators from throughout the county participated in rallies to protest statewide cuts to education funding.

Many lamented decisions to trim or end programs and services, decisions they said they have no choice but to make.

"It is not right, the position that we as educators have been put in," Lodi Unified Trustee Ken Davis said. "To put us, as board members, in the position of having to make the decisions we are making is unconscionable."

The Education Trust-West, based in Oakland, is a policy organization focused on ensuring that low-income children and those from racial and ethnic minority groups have equal opportunities for educational achievement. Linda Murray is its acting director.

"What we do know is that schools that serve large percentages of poor kids and kids of color are less well-funded, and so any cuts would further exacerbate that problem," she said.

Closing a neighborhood school is traumatic, Murray said. It can disrupt a child's learning and a parent's participation.

But, she said, "If they're low-performing schools, this could be, on the flip side, an opportunity to get those kids into better learning situations and send the best teachers with them. ... If they do it right, they could improve the educational opportunities for those students."

That argument was raised at both Grant - whose students next year will have the option of attending the brand-new Spanos Elementary School - and at Delta Island, which despite steady progress had been on the state's list of schools in need of improvement.

But parents like Acosta aren't convinced their children's education is a priority for school decision-makers.

"They treat us differently," she said. "They are not giving my children the same rights as children who live in town. They're only interested in the money."

Record reporter Roger Phillips contributed to this story.

Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com.

Hispanic immigrants protest jailing program

Latino community speaks out against 287-G
News 14 Carolina Staff

CHARLOTTE – Several members of the Latino community held a press conference in Charlotte Friday against the immigration program 287-G, which they believe forces immigrants into jails.

They said an immigrant from Mexico, Robert Medina Martinez, was processed by 287-G after getting a speeding ticket. He died in jail, and some members of the immigrant community think his death was due to improper treatment.

“So something needs to be done today, now. We need to do something,” Maudia Melendez of the Jesus Ministry said. “We don’t want to see any more children crying. We don’t want to see any more families separated.”

In response to the press conference, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced they will now publicly post the deaths of any detainees in their custody in an effort to increase transparency.

Hispanic seniors want transportation options

Mountain View seniors want more transportation options
By Diana Samuels, MERCURY NEWS, 03/21/2009

It's hard for Mountain View seniors to get around town, according to a city report released this week that details the concerns and wants of the city's seniors.

Mountain View's Senior Advisory Task Force spent the past six months surveying seniors and talking to them about the services available in the city. Their report addresses topics ranging from activities at the senior center to affordable housing, and they'll present their findings at Mountain View's City Council meeting Tuesday.

Their report suggests a lack of transportation options is one of the biggest challenges facing the city's seniors. Public transportation options are "sadly lacking," said senior task force chairwoman Elna Tymes, and services offered by non-profit groups and other agencies are often limited.

"When you lose access to your car, you lose access to transportation on demand," Tymes said. "However, that doesn't stop your need to get around."

The VTA does offer seniors discounted bus fares, but public transportation means seniors have to rely on bus schedules. The Route 34 Community Bus, for example, comes once an hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and doesn't stop in front of the senior center. Most people drive or are driven to the senior center, Tymes said.

Other Peninsula cities, including East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Foster City, offer shuttles for seniors, according to the report. There are nonprofit groups that provide senior transportation, such
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as Santa Clara County's Outreach, but some of those programs are designed only for seniors with disabilities or only take seniors to medical appointments, Tymes said. That makes simply getting out of the house difficult, she said.

"Being stuck at home means that you can't socialize, you can't get out in the community and be a part of it," Tymes said. That isolation can lead to depression and other health problems, she said.

The task force's report suggests that the city put a bus stop near the senior center and consider publishing a guide that lists transportation options. The report gives several examples of programs in other cities to use as models.

Other sections of the report address activities at the senior center. Mountain View seniors seem to be fans of the senior center — according to the city's survey of 77 seniors at the center, they like it enough that their biggest request is that Mountain View residents get priority for activities. They also want to see it open on Saturdays. The center can be crowded, Tymes said, especially during their $2 lunch service, which she said serves more than 220 people each day.

"There's only so many people who can fit into that multipurpose room," she said. "If there isn't room for everyone, the last ones to come are bumped."

The parking lot can also be crowded, the report says, and there needs to be more outreach toward the Latino community. While the seniors who come to the center's nutrition programs are from a generally diverse array of backgrounds, few seem to be Latino, the report says. The report suggests reaching out to Latino churches in the area and setting up a Senior Center booth at the city's Cinco de Mayo Festival.

Overall, Tymes said that as a large generation of baby boomers are becoming seniors, word needs to spread about what's offered at the Senior Center. Only a small portion of Mountain View's 9,000 seniors take advantage of the services, she said.

"There are many, many more seniors than those who use the Senior Center," Tymes said.

E-mail Diana Samuels at dsamuels@dailynewsgroup.com.

Latino student education not part of Obama's speech

School Matters: Putting an Accent on Latino Students’ Needs
By Carolyn Goossen, New America Media, March 20, 2009

Editor’s Note: In his education speech last week, Obama urged a renewed focus on public education reform, and spoke of how Latino students are “dropping out faster than just about everyone else.” However, he and his administration so far have yet to tackle the issue of English learners in this country, says Patricia Gándara, a professor of education at UCLA, and co-author of “The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies.” Gándara spoke to NAM education editor Carolyn Ji Jong Goossen about the new administration’s education agenda, and the challenges of educating English Language Learners.

Question: Was there anything in Obama’s education speech this week that really stood out for you in the context of educating Latino kids?

Gándara: No, nothing stood out with respect to Latino students’ education. I have no doubt about Obama’s sincere intentions. But the speech was a speech that could have been given by the last administration. It was about more accountability, merit pay.

Merit pay for teachers—nobody has figured out how to do this without more division. There was no specific proposal for what to do about the massive dropout problem. The solution sounded like it was going to be more charter schools, and I understand that (Secretary of Education) Arne Duncan has already said this is not a solution. I would have liked it if there had been some mention of how accountability has shortchanged so many kids, including English Language Learners and their teachers.

Q: The economic stimulus bill signed into law $100 billion for education. Will that find its way to Latino students?

Gándara: One big hole is that nowhere in the stimulus package is there anything focused on English Language Learners. These students make up 10 percent of all the kids in the country, and they perform at lower levels than just about anyone else.

I’ve been working with a group of academics across the country that has been doing research (on English Language Learners). We are trying to outline to the Obama Administration how they may want to target some of this money for English learners —everything from good high quality preschool that respects students’ home language and culture, to much better training for teachers.

Q: What is the best way of getting more Latino teachers?

Gándara: I think that there are two avenues. One is focusing on people who’ve demonstrated an interest in teaching and who have been aides in classrooms, which has proven to be effective.

Then there are also a lot of undergraduates who have never been counseled into teaching. This is especially true in the most selective colleges, like in the UC system.

Q: Do you think Sec. Duncan will prioritize the issues facing Latino students?

Gándara: It’s really early to make judgments. I’ve been hearing that he’s a great guy, sensitive, and thoughtful. But I’ve also been hearing language coming from him that sounds like (former education secretary Margaret) Spellings: more accountability, higher standards, increasing the number of charter schools.

He’s been in Chicago, so he has seen the issues facing Latino and black students, but so far we haven’t heard anything that sounds different.

Q: The stimulus bill requires all states to take steps to tackle inequities in access to top teaching talent for poor and minority children. Will this lead to better teachers for Latino students?

Gándara: I don’t know how they are going to do it, but I think that the redistribution of teachers is an absolutely critical issue. The Gates Foundation has made this their new strategy. They’ve put aside their small-school strategy because it’s insufficient, and they are going to focus on redistribution of teachers, merit pay, and greater professional development of teachers. There are reasons we that we don’t send our best teachers to the kids who need them the most. It’s hard to do.

Q: What kind of federal strategies do you hope to see under Duncan?

Gándara: I hope they stop saying “everyone proficient by 2014.” I hope they look at how the accountability system has really punished people and find more ways to support people instead. They are pushing money out the door right now and that’s nice, but after a-year-and-a-half, when that money disappears, what happens? I’d like to see a long-term plan for how we will invest in schools.

In terms of English language learners, we have to take the yoke of tests off these kids and stop punishing teachers just because they teach these kids. Their schools are disproportionately being threatened with closure because the students cannot perform on tests they don’t understand.

Q: California is 47th out of 50 in per-student funding. Is it critical or how the money is spent?

Gándara: My sense is that, yes, it’s important to look at how you spend your money, because if you aren’t thoughtful you can waste the funds, so I’m not a proponent of just more money.

But I feel so strongly that in this country we have put the entire job of addressing inequalities of our societies on our schools. We provide very little social support for low-income families. We say schools are somehow supposed to equalize society, take kids with no Medicare, no social services, and help them onto college. And it’s just not possible. People have got to face up to this.

Q: Do you think the Dream Act, which helps immigrant students pursuing higher education, will be passed under this new administration?

Gándara: I am banking on it. I’m not hopeful that in the next year we will have any discussion about immigration reform, which we badly need. But I’m hopeful that the Dream Act will get tacked on to another bill. We are talking about a pittance, not much money. It’s not that many kids! It’s the cream of the crop, kids who have gone through so many hurdles.

Q: Pres. Barack Obama vowed that by 2020, the United States would lead the world in college graduation rates. What kind of college-specific reforms would help Latino students?

Gándara: We need more college access programs. They don’t solve it all. But one of the reasons why they are limited in their impact is that they are small. I think that they should systematically occur in all schools.

We need more counselors in those schools to guide and monitor those kids and work with them, and provide support for them to get remedial education while they move forward, not wait until they are behind. We need to figure out how to make it real for these kids that a college education, or a really good career education, is there for you if you are wiling to invest your own efforts.

Latino teens exposed to higher learning

Colleges give Latino teens a look at opportunities
Fair at Otterbein explains application process, financial aid, value of higher education
By Sherri Williams, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, March 20, 2009

Esperanza Martinez is serious about sending her children to college. She gave up a day's wages by taking off work today to take her oldest daughter to the Hispanic College Fair at Otterbein College.

"Today is a very, very important day for her," Martinez said.

The 31-year-old housekeeper sat with daughter Gabriela Santiago, 15, a freshman at Westland High School. "She sees me. I work hard. I want a brighter future for her."

About 45 Latino students learned about their options after high school at the college fair held on the Westerville campus.

The event, sponsored by Educators and Community Helping Hispanics Onward, was intended to shatter myths that prevent students from pursuing college, said DeLane Crutcher, an admissions counselor at Otterbein.

In fall 2007, Latinos were 2 percent of the students enrolled in Ohio's public and private institutions, while African-Americans were 12 percent and whites 75 percent, said Melissa Cardenas, director of academic-quality assurance at the Ohio Board of Regents.

"We want students to know that you don't have to just graduate and get a job at Wendy's or McDonald's," said Crutcher, who organized the fair for the Latino group. "There is nothing wrong with that. But we want them to know there are other opportunities."

Recruiters from 17 Ohio schools shared information about academic programs and navigating the maze of applying for college and financial aid.

The event's sponsor also works with the families of first-generation college students to help them realize the long-term benefits of higher education, said Maggie McClendon, president of the group. "With more education, the students have higher earning power after college than a minimum-wage job," said McClendon, who is also the assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Youngstown State University.

Yesenia Osorio, 18, a senior at West High School, thought that applying for college admission and financial aid was overwhelming until she learned more about the process at the fair.

"I thought it was really, really expensive," said Osorio, who will be the first in her family to attend college, where she wants to study nursing or culinary arts.

Sometimes, the immigration status of Latino students and their parents is another hurdle, and they fear that applying for school or aid will jeopardize the family's ability to stay in the United States, said Morgan Johnston, a counselor at West High.

Congress has considered legislation known as the DREAM Act -- Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors -- to provide citizenship and financial aid to undocumented students. It has not been enacted.

Martinez is learning about the college-application process early, while Gabriela, the oldest of her five daughters, is a freshman.

"There is a lot of help out there if you look for it," said Gabriela, who wants to be a pediatrician. "Everything is possible if you look for it."

Educators and Community Helping Hispanics Onward awards a $600 book scholarship. The deadline is June 1. To learn more about the group, visit www.echho.org.

Speaker Pelosi speaks at U.S.-Mexico conference

Pelosi Remarks at 13th Annual U.S.-Mexico Border Issues Conference
PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at the 13th Annual U.S.-Mexico Border Issues Conference this afternoon. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

"Thank you very much, Chairman Reyes, for your invitation to be here today, for your kind introduction, and for your great leadership. Our representative from El Paso has consistently worked to draw attention to challenges and opportunities facing United States of America and Mexico, especially at our borders.

"I also like to acknowledge Al Zapanta, who has been a wonderful friend. Al, thank you so much for your hospitality once again and for your leadership as President and CEO of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce -- for your leadership in creating opportunities for legislatures, advocates, and businesses -- to discuss how we can strengthen the relationship between our two countries.

"I'd also like to acknowledge the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. They have been the lead in so many issues, including this relationship between U.S. and Mexico. We're such close neighbors, our fates are tied in many ways, our challenges are significant, and the relationship between our two countries is the issues of the highest priority to this Congress.

"In the omnibus appropriations bill that was signed by the President last week, we included $300 million for the Merida initiative in Mexico. We are committed to its success and that is just one of the installments that we will be making to support this initiative.

"In that regard, I have asked the chairmen of three important committees -- Chairman Reyes, chair of the Intelligence Committee as you all know, Chairman Skelton, chair of the Armed Services Committee, and Chairman Berman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- to take an official delegation to Mexico to discuss how our nations can work together to address the fundamental challenges posed by narcotics and gun trafficking issues. We're very concerned with the fact that so many guns in the United States are going in to Mexico.

"We salute the courage of President Calderon and we're thrilled with the announcement that President Obama and Secretary Clinton will soon be traveling to Mexico to show American support for our ally in the fight against drug-related violence.

"As House Democratic Leader, and as Speaker, I have had the opportunity to visit many of our border communities in Texas, including El Paso, Laredo and McAllen. I can see the sense of community that does not stop at the border. What happens on one side of the border effects the other side -- we share a common goal of helping our people.

"It is with the shared values in mind that I was proud to meet with President Calderon in January. It was a very important visit for us in the Congress. We discuss the challenges our nation faced, we acknowledged the shared past, present and future of the United States of America and Mexico.

"The partnership between our countries is so essential to strengthen the security on both sides of the border. We know that the violence in Mexico is tearing apart communities and threatens to do the same in the United States. President Calderon has taken significant steps to curb violence. The U.S. and their allies must work with the Calderon government to strategically target resources to help control the violence associated with the narcotics and gun trafficking.

"Also of great importance to the border communities is of course the issue of immigration. And by that I mean we need comprehension immigration reform. For the first time in a long time, the opportunity exists to enact comprehensive legislation. President Obama has made this a priority for his Administration. I know that yesterday he met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to reiterate his commitment to immigration reform.

"The CHC, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has long taught the House Democratic Caucus and indeed the entire Congress what comprehensive immigration reform would look like. It would of course, secure our border, it would protect our workers, it would prohibit the exploitation of workers coming into our country and it would unite our families. Family unification is an important principle of our immigration and always has been.

"About a week and a half ago, Congressman Gutierrez was in San Francisco on a Saturday night. We were packed and jammed in St. Anthony's Church, hundreds and hundreds of people came. We heard from families who have had raids into their homes and into their families where families were separated. And at the time, I said it there and I'll say it here, that raids that break up families in that way, just kick in the door in the middle of the night, taking father, a parent away, that's just not the American way. It must stop. It's just not the American way. So we need this comprehensive reform, and we need it soon. And we need to stop those kinds of ICE raids in the meantime.

"I was told when I went to Laredo that every year on George Washington's birthday, the mayors of Laredo and Nuevo on the other side of the border. They bring two children from each country to meet on the international bridge to embrace. This is known as the 'abrazo' or 'the hug' in Spanish, as you all know. The annual event symbolizes goodwill and the appreciation for United States and Mexico have for each other.

"This 13th annual U.S.-Mexico Border Issues Conference is another such event. Every person who comes here and certainly for the Hispanic community, when they come here they make America more American. So thank you for all that you do to secure our border and to improve our relationship and the security of our two countries, U.S. and Mexico.

"Thank you all very much."

Hispanic organization gets new President

Danbury's Hispanic Center updates mission, gets new board president
By Marietta Homayonpour, News Times, 03/21/2009

DANBURY -- The mission of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury to serve the Latino community hasn't changed since the nonprofit group was founded 42 years ago.

But other things have, including the necessity once again to find a new executive director.

"We'll miss Eva but she has decided to go in another direction," new board of directors president Jeffrey Forzani said about Eva Colon who left as executive director in mid March after heading the center for 18 months.

Colon began running the center in September 2007 after a troubled time. It had been without an executive director for nearly seven months, after 17-year leader Maria-Cinta Lowe parted ways with the board of directors amid controversy over her outspoken advocacy on immigrant issues.

On hearing that Colon had left, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said he was sad to see her go. "I think she did a good job."

Boughton said members of the center's board of directors face the challenge of finding someone who will bring "consistency and continuity" to the position of executive director. But he said "I'm sure they can meet" the challenge.

"As far as we know it's personal," Forzani said about why Colon left but he said the center was not taken by surprise and board members are already working with a consultant who is helping them find a permanent director. The board, he said, hopes to announce the naming of a new executive director for the center in early April.

Meanwhile, Forzani said staff member and grant developer Ingrid Alvarez-DiMarzo is in charge of operations.

"The center is fine," Forzani said and has active board members who are working "diligently" and keeping the many programs and events going

Among other center changes is an expanded mission statement that clearly outlines the center's purpose.

One of the mission statement's goals is "facilitating the acculturation to the United States" through programs that help people with job interviews, doctor visits, and such "do's and don'ts" as understanding parking rules and how to get a building permit.

The center, according to the statement, also will advocate for the Hispanic community in such matters as "universal health care insurance, affordable housing, comprehensive federal immigration reform, and basic human rights that benefit everyone living in the Danbury area."

Besides the expanded mission statement, the board also revised the by-laws and elected Forzani as president last month.

"The center is entering a new period now," Forzani said in an e-mail to The News-Times. "We spent 2008 with the goal of changing our direction in an effort to work together with all of the different community organizations."

Forzani, who has been on the center's board for 18 months, has taught at Rogers Park Middle School in Danbury since 2004. He said the 10-member board is made up of many professionals, including attorneys, business owners and a physician.

Among new programs at the center is a health fair, which was held for the first time last year. The center plans to make the fair part of its regular preventive health care services.

The center also offers computer classes and classes in citizenship and English.

According to its Web site, the Center is now seeking three employees -- a case worker, an education coordinator, and a preventive health coordinator.

Forzani said the Center has a Latino Youth Group, which was started by two teens last year.

Major funding comes from the state Department of Social Services, the United Way of Western Connecticut and the city of Danbury.

Last year there was delay and disagreement surrounding the Hispanic Center's annual appeal for funding from the Danbury Common Council. In the end, it did not receive the $25,000 it requested.

This year, the city approved a new procedure in which non-profits will compete for city funds. An all-volunteer citizens' review board, organized by United Way of Western Connecticut, will distribute the city money.

Forzani in his e-mail wrote that the center's board "is extremely grateful to the residents of Danbury for their financial support" and hopes its appeal will be approved this year.

"We realize that all municipalities are experiencing very difficult economic times, but we are hopeful that we will receive a favorable reply to our grant request."

Marietta Homayonpour, mhomayonpour@newstimes.com or at (203) 731-3336.

Hispanics targeted by New Orleans Police

Hispanics Say Crime Against Them On Rise
NOPD Officer Arrested, Charged With Targeting Hispanics
WDSU TV, March 20, 2009

NEW ORLEANS -- The arrest of a New Orleans police officer raised new concerns about crimes targeting the Hispanic community.

On Friday, a New Orleans Police Department officer was arrested. Police said he was targeting Hispanics and invading their homes. There have been several claims of day laborers being robbed.

Some in the community said they believe there has been an increase in crime against Hispanics.

"It would just seem they were an easy mark," said Darlene Kattan, of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "They did not speak the language. They may have been a little afraid maybe, and if they think someone is a police officer, they are going to open the door."

Officer Darrius Clipps was taken into custody on charges ranging from burglary to sexual battery. Police said Clipps admitted to two incidents of entering homes in Mid-City.

"We received information from several of the witnesses about this officer entering the residence, demanding money, drugs and also instructing male and female victims to disrobe," said Superintendent Warren Riley.

Police were called to an apartment in Terrytown on Thursday just after 12:30 a.m. When they arrived, they said they found three men ranging in age from 19 to 27 with gunshot wounds. That shooting is still under investigation.

The head of the Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce said that many workers have reported to being held up on payday by people looking for fast money.

"They are walking around with cash money," Kattan said. "They don't have a bank account because a lot of banks don't have bilingual personnel to help them open an account."

There has been an influx of Hispanic workers in the city after Hurricane Katrina. Some say the best way to be safe is for them to be aware.

"If (police) speak with anyone, stop them," Kattan said. "Try to get a badge number and a name."

It was a badge number that helped the NOPD arrest Clipps. Riley said a witness remembered a badge number and they were able to link that to Clipps' badge.

Riley said that if someone claiming to be a New Orleans police officer arrives at home they were not called to, residents can call 504-821-2222 to verify whether or not the person is a police officer.

Hispanic kids tutored by Veteran's group

American G.I. Forum helps Hispanic kids with Saturday tutoring
by Gus Burns | The Saginaw News, March 21, 2009

Members of the American G.I. Forum live their motto: "Education is our freedom, and freedom should be everybody's business."

The Hispanic Veterans group is hosting a Saturday education initiative at its building, 604 Oak.

"I was quite surprised when they said it was free," said Lisa L. Curtis, 36, of Saginaw, the mother of Kempton Elementary second-grader Maria L. Curtis, a student struggling with reading, writing and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. "She's getting that one-on-one and that's what she really feeds into and likes.

"I've actually already seen improvement with her writing when she sits down and does her work."

Ollie A. Zuniga of Saginaw Township is one of the volunteer tutors. She said the sessions focus heavily on reading, writing and math and a lot of kids who could take advantage of the program aren't.

She said attendance dropped after a "good start," and the group is hoping to "pick it up now."

The group's initial focus is to assist the Hispanic community, but the tutoring programs is open to everyone.

"No other group in the U.S.A. has a higher dropout rate than Hispanic kids," said Concepcion S. Olvera, Saginaw resident and a coordinator for the organization. "The dropout rate for Hispanic students is 50 percent nationwide. We're trying to increase the rate of graduation for Hispanic students."

From 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays parents of Saginaw Intermediate School District children in first through fifth grades may drop their kids off for educational lessons, tutoring and homework assistance.

The national group has approximately 90 area members and operates on donations and grants.
"We're also looking for volunteers to come in and participate," said Olvera. "They can help kids with on-on-one reading, math problems and homework."

Dr. Hector Garcia founded the organization in 1948. For information, call 753-9810 or 213-4585

Latino Author miffed by reception for Bishop

Why is The OC Hispanic Bar Association Hosting a Reception for a Pedo-Apologist Bishop?
By Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra, OC Weekly, Mar. 19 2009

For the past two years, I've donated a signed copy of my book and a dinner date* with me to the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County's annual fundraising dinner for auctioning purposes; in 2007, I was co-emcee of the event. But I'm afraid I will have to boycott this fine organization from now on; they're holding an April 2 reception for the newest Diocese of Orange Bishop, Cirilo Flores, next week at the Monticello-like First American Title Insurance offices in downtown SanTana alongside the pedo-priest-protector apologist St. Thomas More Society.

I winced when I received my invitation to this shindig. The HBA prides itself on helping the downtrodden, more so than other law groups considering so many members are Aztlanistas. Yet the invitation of Flores sullies that legacy. Is the HBA leadership so blinded by Flores' Latino ethnicity and law degree that they're willing to overlook his role in protecting the rapists of so many innocents (a large percentage in the Orange diocese, by the way, of which were Latinos)? There are only two answers to this: hell yes, or no because the organization's leaders still gladly swallow the Communion that is Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown's lies on his sex-abuse scandal. Yeah, I understand too many Latinos still believe in good relations with the Catholic church, but to host a reception for a man that should be jailed is simply insulting to the concept of justice.

*It must be noted that both times, I brought in next-to-nothing for their organization, a testament more to my utter lack of star power than the OC HBA membership's philanthropy.

Hispanic vendors sought by schools

Hillsborough Schools reaches out to Hispanic vendors
Tampa Bay Business Journal

The Hillsborough Public School System’s Office of Supplier Diversity has launched a Spanish-language component of its customer service.

Through its Small Business Encouragement Program, the office now offers a dedicated phone line for Spanish-speaking callers at (813) 635-1246.

In addition, the Tampa office, located at 4901 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd., now has a Spanish-speaking consultant available on Wednesdays.

The changes resulted from increased interest by registered Hispanic vendors as well as those interested in qualifying for the Small Business Encouragement Program, said a release.

Consulting firm Morrison and Associates and the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund helped to develop the new service. The service aims to attract new businesses to vendor opportunities relating to Hillsborough County public schools and their support facilities, the release said.

Hispanic leaders reach Obama

Obama puts immigration reform on docket
Boston Globe March 19, 2009

At a town hall meeting in southern California yesterday, Obama renewed his support for comprehensive reform, including a possible path to citizenship for law-abiding people who entered the country illegally, along the lines of the bill that stalled in Congress in 2007.

According to the White House account of yesterday's one-hour closed session, it was "a robust and strategic meeting" in which Obama announced he will go to Mexico next month to meet President Calderón and discuss, among other issues, effective, comprehensive immigration reform.

After the meeting, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois, chairman of the Hispanic caucus's immigration task force, and advocacy groups said they were hopeful that Obama would address immigration reform this year.

"Although it is very early in his administration, he understands that for the immigrant community it's the 11th hour, and there is no time to waste," Gutierrez said in a statement.

Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, added, "While we agree that our priority should be fixing the nation's economy, we also believe that we can initiate an immigration reform that will help us achieve long-term economic growth."

Latino plans to replace Latina legislator

Hueso launches Assembly campaign 'to let people know where I stand'
By Craig Gustafson, Union-Tribune Staff Writer, March 18, 2009

San Diego City Council President Ben Hueso is running for state Assembly next year to seek a “better opportunity to deliver” for the communities he represents in southern San Diego.

Hueso said he knows he opens himself up to criticism by launching a campaign with two years left on his term and the city is still mired in financial problems.

“There will always be things to be done,” Hueso said Wednesday. “And the greater role I have in government, the greater opportunity I have to make a positive impact ... to solve a wider range of problems.”

In his first interview about his Assembly candidacy, Hueso said he felt he was the right person to fill the void left by 79th District Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-Chula Vista, who is running for state Senate next year.

Hueso, 39, said he wanted to end speculation about his intentions by saying he is indeed going to run to “let people know where I stand.”

Several news organizations reported that he filed a “statement of intention” for the Assembly seat earlier this month, but he declined to address the issue in a press conference and a community meeting. He said he didn't want to seek a new post on city time.

Salas is running for the 40th District Senate seat held by Denise Ducheny, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits. Hueso's council district stretches from Golden Hill to the U.S.-Mexico border and includes many of the same neighborhoods as Salas' Assembly district.

Salas and Hueso met Jan. 24 and Feb. 4 to discuss the opening after she had made her decision.

Salas said she had been approached by several people seeking her support to replace her, but she wanted to gauge Hueso's interest before backing anyone. Once Hueso said yes, Salas said the decision to support him was easy.

“He's the best prepared to take my place,” she said. Salas cited Hueso's service and leadership on the California Coastal Commission and the San Diego Association of Governments as evidence of his ability to grasp statewide issues.

Democratic political consultant Chris Crotty said no one should be surprised by Hueso's move for higher office because he emulates childhood friend Fabian Nuñez, who rose to be speaker of the state Assembly.

Crotty also doesn't expect much backlash from constituents since Hueso plans to finish his four-year council term.

“The pieces fell into place for him,” Crotty said. “There may be token opposition (in the primary), but the Democrats have pretty much cleared the field. . . . He's got a pretty clear shot now and he's got to take it.”

Hueso said he'll run on his reputation as a consensus builder and being able to deliver projects – such as streetlights, free clinics and improved parks – to his council district.

He said he's proud of the “hundreds of decisions” the council has made in his three years in office to put the city on better financial footing, especially grappling with budget deficits without closing libraries.

At the state level, he said, he would fight to keep Sacramento from imposing unfunded mandates on local governments on issues like air pollution and water quality.

Hueso lives in Logan Heights, where he grew up, with his wife and four children. He said he won't forget his roots no matter how far he goes in politics.

“I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “I'm going to continue to fight for the things that are important to me, in my neighborhoods, to my city, to my communities, for the environment.”

Craig Gustafson: (619) 293-1399; (Contact)

GOP continues to allienate Hispanics

GOP lawmakers criticize probe of Arizona sheriff
By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press Writer, Mar. 19, 2009

PHOENIX -- Ten Republican congressmen argue that a civil rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office could have a chilling effect on other state and local police agencies that seek to crack down on illegal immigration.

The congressmen, responding to a Department of Justice probe into allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures by the sheriff's office, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to voice support for vigorous immigration enforcement and assure police agencies that they won't face similar investigations.

"It is important that state and local law enforcement officers and the public are reassured that the investigation is proceeding in a judicious and fair manner, and not for the purpose of politicizing or chilling immigration efforts," the 10 congressmen said in a letter to Holder on Wednesday.

The Department of Justice didn't provide specifics of the allegations, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the probe was prompted by his immigration efforts, including his crime and immigration sweeps of some heavily Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix. Arpaio denied allegations that his deputies racially profiled people during the sweeps and called the investigation politically motivated.

"I look at this as a political situation. I am not worried," Arpaio said.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee also plans to hold a hearing next month on the allegations against Arpaio.

Four Democratic members of the committee, including its chairman, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, had requested the Justice Department investigation. The 10 Republican congressmen who wrote the letter to Holder are members of the committee.

Hector Yturralde, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America and a critic of Arpaio, said he believes the letter by the 10 Republicans was a political move aimed at helping a fellow member of the GOP and that Arpaio has targeted people simply because of the color of their skin. "If other agencies in the country are doing this, they should be stopped," Yturralde said.

Arpaio has taken some of the most aggressive approach to immigration enforcement, including arresting more than 1,200 illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law and setting up a hot line to report immigration violations.

Alejandro Miyar, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, issued the following statement in response to questions about whether Holder would follow the requests of the 10 Republican congressmen: "Career professionals in the Civil Rights Division began looking into this matter last year, and the Department made the decision to open this investigation in the same manner we make every such decision, based on the facts and the law."

Hispanic lawmakers in Conneticut protest cuts

Latino groups protest budget cuts
by: Jodi Latina 18 Mar 2009

Hartford (WTNH) - Hispanic lawmakers and several Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs groups say they are angry about the lack of funding for Latino-based agencies around the state.

News Channel 8 recently profiled a New Haven-based agency called Junta that may have to close down because they rely so heavily on state assistance. Junta serves about 5,000 people in the greater New Haven area and helps with everything from learning English as a second language to helping families with financial guidance so they don’t lose their homes.

But Gov. Rell’s budget cuts Junta’s funding along with other Latino programs.

“We can not be cutting our state budget at the expense of people at the bottom. It is the worst thing we could do in a recession. People are already at the margins and living on the edge,” said state Rep. Denise Merill (D-House Minority Leader).

A spokesperson for Gov. Rell says these tough cuts must be made so that businesses and residents will not see a tax increase.

Governor Rell would have loved to have provided budget increases to Junta and a host of other worthy groups and organizations. The governor feels that these programs provide valuable services, but the bottom line is we just don’t have the money this year to fully fund everything.

Hispanic student scholarships support by Goizueta foundation

Goizueta Foundation provides grant for Hispanic/Latino scholarship
MYWEBPAL.COM, 03/18/09

The Goizueta Foundation has given a $750,000 grant to Berry College to support scholarships for Hispanic and Latinos students. The need-based scholarship is for students who currently reside in the United States.

It is the third scholarship fund created by the Goizueta Foundation at Berry.

“We believe strongly that a quality private education should be available to all students,” said Berry President Stephen R. Briggs. “In these tough economic times, we commend the Goizueta Foundation for affirming the power of this dream by establishing a scholarship fund that will provide additional aid for students in the Hispanic/Latino community whose financial need is especially acute.”

Latino's appointment unsettles groups

Obama's civil rights nomination upsets some Latinos
Thomas Perez's selection for a Justice Department post concerns some civil rights advocates, who believe Villaraigosa aide Thomas Saenz was passed over to avoid sparking an immigration battle.
By Paul West and Richard Simon March 19, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Thomas Perez is Maryland's highest-ranking Latino, but his selection as the nation's leading civil rights enforcer has provoked sharp criticism from some Latino civil rights advocates.

The criticism isn't directed at Perez, the state's secretary of labor and a first-generation Dominican American, or his qualifications.

Instead, it revolves around a belief that the administration passed over another Latino attorney for the position as head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, possibly out of a desire to avoid a fight over immigration.

A statement by the National Council of La Raza, which calls itself the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, expressed "profound disappointment" that Thomas Saenz, an advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, wasn't chosen for job.

"This action may lead some to question whether the White House is ready to fulfill its promise on immigration reform," said Janet Murguia, the group's president. Through a spokeswoman, she refused a request for further comment.

Saenz was reported last month to be the leading contender for the position. A close associate, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, was quoted late last week as saying that he had been offered the appointment and accepted it.

Saenz refused to comment, as did Villaraigosa's office.

Administration officials won't discuss the selection and vetting processes. But a White House spokeswoman, speaking on the condition that she not be identified, said Saenz remained under consideration for another, unspecified post.

Saenz's defenders link his failure to secure the civil rights job to his advocacy for immigration rights. That, in turn, has fed nervousness among some Latinos that Obama wanted to duck a Senate confirmation fight that would highlight the divisive issue.

Obama, during the first two months of his presidency, has left immigration in the background as he has dealt with the economic crisis and promoted energy, healthcare and education initiatives. But immigration was a central topic Wednesday, when the president met with members of the all-Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Caucus members had met the day before to discuss whether to bring up the civil rights appointment with Obama and decided against it because, according to a member, they didn't want to take time away from their top priority -- immigration legislation.

"Why wouldn't you want to have someone who has a committed, dedicated, unblemished commitment to civil rights and to immigrants," Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) asked in an interview outside the House chamber.

He said Obama would convene a White House meeting in the coming weeks to further discuss immigration legislation. "Patience is waning," Gutierrez said. But he added: "We have to give him an opportunity. . . . This is going to be hard."

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) said Obama made a commitment to "work with us to get a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed this year. . . . That would be the goal."

Saenz, a former vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), has pushed for anti-discrimination protection from Border Patrol sweeps.

Reports that he would be chosen for the job prompted opposition from anti-illegal-immigration forces. An editorial in Investor's Business Daily called him "a man who has dedicated his life to promoting illegal immigrant 'rights.' "

MALDEF said that "the same rhetoric from the same extremists that kept the Congress from enacting responsible immigration reform has been unleashed unfairly and inaccurately" against Saenz.

Perez, by contrast, appears to have little if any public record on hot-button immigration issues, despite his involvement with CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, whose board he once headed. He also served briefly on the board of the National Immigration Forum.

He is a former staff attorney in the Justice Department's civil rights division and was a Clinton administration appointee as head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. He was a special counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the 1990s and has ties to John Podesta, who headed Obama's transition operation.

Perez, 47, was a leading member of the transition team for the Justice Department.

Cruz Reynoso, the first Latino to serve on the California Supreme Court, said he was "a little bit disappointed, frankly, that if what I hear is true, it may mean that the president is not willing to enter into the fight that I think we have to enter into to do any good on immigration."

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates tougher immigration enforcement, called Perez another Obama appointee who is "far outside the mainstream of general public thinking on immigration enforcement."

The civil rights division deals with a wide range of anti-discrimination enforcement, including voting rights violations and police misconduct.

Historically, immigration is "not a major issue" for its lawyers, said Joseph D. Rich, former chief of the voting rights section. He said Perez was "a great choice," in part because of his previous experience in the office.

paul.west@baltsun.com, richard.simon@latimes.com

Congressional Latinos meet with Obama

Obama confabs with Congressional Latinos on immigration, Mexico
Sfgate.com, March 18, 2009

All 24 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus turned up this morning for a sit-down at the White House with President Barack Obama. The caucus went in aiming to hold the president to his promise to overhaul the country's immigration system, with an emphasis on providing a path to legal status for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

The issue has proven a powerful motivator for many Latinos to become engaged in politics. And it's a good bet that the caucus reminded the president of the big role Latino voters played in electing him -- two-thirds of the record 9.7 million Hispanic voters who turned out in November chose Obama.

After the hour-long meeting, the Latino leaders pronounced themselves pleased, saying they had gotten the president's pledge that he would move forward with a plan for "comprehensive immigration reform" this year. Caucus chair Nydia Velazquez of New York had this to say: "The President made clear to us that he is a man of his word. He clearly understands the consequences of a broken immigration system. We believe that under his leadership we can finally provide some dignity to the thousands of families that are living in the shadows and in fear."

Pro-immigrant Democratic strategists were also calling the confab a success. "It's an exciting day," said Simon Rosenberg of NDN. And given the magnitude of Obama's other legislative challenges, he predicted: "The White House is going to realize that passing comprehensive immigration reform is one of the easier things he can do this year."

Obama called the meeting a "robust and strategic" conversation on immigration. But (perhaps mindful of the sparks immigrant legalization tends to ignite) he also shifted the focus to another front burner concern Congress has raised in the past week: the drug cartel violence on Mexico's northern border.

Here's part of the White House statement: "During the meeting, the President announced that he will travel to Mexico next month to meet with President Calderon to discuss the deep and comprehensive US-Mexico relationship, including how the United States and Mexico can work together to support Mexico's fight against drug-related violence and work toward effective, comprehensive immigration reform."

Hispanics and the Obama Stimulus Plan

Hispanics lose with the American president’s current stimulus plan
By Raoul Lowery Contreras March 17, 2009

Billions, trillions of dollars are being tossed around by President Barack Obama to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately for Hispanics, they are being screwed by the deal.

Far more Hispanics work and pay taxes than the non-workers in the country. So, money will be taken from them in the form of higher taxes and given to those who do not work and produce.

Hispanics will be shortchanged because money will go to the wrong places.

Big-city Hispanic kids drop out in large numbers from high school, albeit in smaller percentages than blacks. So where is the program to keep these kids in school?

Why doesn’t the president create "Opportunity Grants" that will award every kid that does graduate with enough money to get a start in life; money for a car, money for a year’s tuition at a community college or money for student fees and books at a state university?

The money could be in the form of a direct expenditure to the school or retail outlet so it wouldn’t be wasted on chips or beer.

Where is such a program?

What we find are plans to build new schools in Milwaukee while student numbers there dwindle. There are empty schools in Milwaukee.

To supplement teachers why doesn’t the president send soldiers, sailors and Marines into the classrooms to teach kids skills they can use in their futures? Oops, we wouldn’t want to anger the teachers’ unions, would we?

Where are the Junior ROTC programs? Kids love these programs particularly in urban areas. Take San Francisco, for example. There, the peacenik "Better Dead Than Red" school board announced the elimination of a Junior ROTC unit in the only school that had the program.

Keep in mind that this is one example of direct federal dollars spent in a locality without being drained off by district administrators.

The mostly minority kids objected; their parents objected. I object.

School boards and the federal government should encourage this type of program throughout all urban communities. Junior ROTC programs promote discipline, achievement and self-esteem among these minority kids. More importantly, these are voluntary programs that cost the individuals nothing but their time. They have plenty of time.

So, why isn’t Obama promoting such programs? He doesn’t really care about promoting discipline, achievement and self-esteem. He knows that such kids are dangerous to his long-term prospects. If all black and Hispanic kids graduated from high school they would leave the plantation.

Obama and his Democratic Party do not want kids who know who and what they are and want. We will see very few federal dollars spent on anything other than programs that make people more dependent on the government. Is that good or bad?

Robert Reich made a controversial statement that he hoped programs weren’t passed that benefited only "white construction workers." He’s right, Obama should create and support programs that benefit urban core kids. That’s where the problem lies, not among unemployed union construction workers.

For every unemployed white construction worker, there must be dozens of unemployed and unemployable Hispanic and black "yuutes."

In case no one has noticed, more than half of the 2.3 million state/federal prison inmates are black and illiterate. In case no one has noticed upwards of 70 percent of all black births and upwards of 30 percent of Hispanic children are born out of wedlock with no father in the house. Almost 100 percent of these children are supported by state, federal and local welfare.

Why doesn’t President Obama create a program and fund it that tracks down each father of an illegitimate child. Then it could force them to pay some child support. Every dollar they do pay is one dollar less that the taxpayers will have to pay. If they don’t pay, to jail they go. There will be a net gain, it seems to me, for jail is not a fun place.

I take that back, every conceivable illicit drug is available in jail, every form of sex is available and informal same-sex marriages abound in prison.

I ask the president to really stimulate the economy and work to change bad behavior among many that drag us down. That is, it seems to me, to be a worthwhile expenditure of stimulus dollars.

First Latina legislator stepping down

N.J.’s first Hispanic female lawmaker is stepping down
By Matt Katz INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Assemblywoman Nilsa-Cruz Perez, New Jersey's first Hispanic female legislator, made it officials today, announcing she will not seek reelection in November after representing part of South Jersey for 14 years.

The news that her annoucement was coming has triggered speculation about how the Democratic Party will fill her seat, and accusations that she had been forced out.

Cruz-Perez, 48, a former Camden mayoral candidate who now lives in Barrington, saidin her statement today that was leaving the Legislature to "give an opportunity for someone else to serve."

"It is 100 percent my choice," she said yesterday. "There's a lot of speculation: 'They're taking you out, putting in this.' But this is my choice."

Cruz-Perez has served since 1995, when she was picked to replace Assemblyman Wayne Bryant when he moved to the state Senate.

The Fifth District covers 15 towns in Camden County and four in Gloucester County.

Hispanic Caucus to meet with Obama

Congressional Hispanic Caucus poised to meet with Obama
By Lynn Sweet SUN TIMES, March 17, 2009

WASHINGTON--The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has a much anticipated meeting coming up with President Obama, probably on Wednesday.

The CHC chairman is Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY). Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is also a member of the caucus. The CHC has a wide ranging agenda. Immigration is always a key issue for the group.

Meeting with a small group of reporters on March 12, Obama, asked about immigration, said he expected to have a comprehensive policy in place in a few months.

Q Thank you, Mr. President, for having us today. Since we're only going to get maybe one shot, I want to ask you a question that's of great concern to the people of my state of New Mexico. And as you're fully aware, Mexico is besieged by drug-related violence. In my state there's a very real concern that this violence will spill over to the border; in a few cases, it already has. What specifically does the administration plan to do to help contain this violence? And on a related note, if there's anything you could say about immigration reform and when we might see some sort of action on that front.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as you know, the first meeting with a foreign leader that I had after my election was with President Calderón in Mexico, who I believe is really working hard and taking some extraordinary risks under extraordinary pressure to deal with the drug cartels and the corresponding violence that's erupted along the borders.

So this past week Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited with his counterparts in Mexico. Janet Napolitano, our director of Homeland Security, a border state governor, has been convening meetings with all the relevant agencies and consulted with the governors down there.

We expect to have a full -- a fully -- or a comprehensive approach to dealing with these issues of border security that will involve supporting Calderón and his efforts in a partnership; also making sure that we are dealing with the flow of drug money and the guns south, because it's really a two-way situation there. The drugs are coming north; we're sending funds and guns south -- and as a consequence, these cartels have gained extraordinary power.

And so, our expectation is to have a comprehensive policy in place in the next few months.

With respect to immigration reform, to some degree the collapse of housing construction in the country has slowed the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country, but it remains a serious concern. And our approach is to do some things administratively to strengthen border security; to fix the legal immigration system, because a lot of the pressure -- or a lot of the impetus towards illegal immigration involves a broken legal system -- people want to reunify families and they don't want to wait 10 years.

I think we can make some progress on that front, and we've started to talk to all the parties involved and both parties here in Washington about the prospects of taking legislative steps. But obviously we've got a lot on our plate right now. And so what we can do administratively, that's where we're going to start.

Hispanic professor shares education data

Chapa talks on "pipette" of Latinos, education
Andrew Steckling, Daily Vidette Staff Writer 3/18/09

University of Illinois Professor Jorge Chapa, director of the Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society at UIUC, spoke yesterday on behalf of Latinos and the importance of higher education.

His speech, entitled "Latinos and the Higher Education Pipeline," utilized statistics gathered from the past 20 years, comparing the percentages of Latino and non-Latino citizens in correlation to education.

Chapa, who grew up in Illinois, moved to California after graduating high school. He moved back to Illinois several years ago.

"I have been studying this issue for decades, specifically the demographics of it, and I probably know more about the higher education system in California than I do the education system in Illinois, but I'm learning," he said.

"There's really no good connection between the Latino population and the higher education system, and that's what I want to focus on talking today."

In 2000, the higher education system included 1.5 million Latinos, while only 1,100 obtained a doctorate degree, or about one in every 1,400 Latinos.

"The number of Ph.D.s in chemical engineering were 30. That's 30 Latino Ph.D.s out of a population of 35 million," he said. "That needs a lot of room for improvement."

Chapa suggested that instead of a pipeline, a pipette is a more fitting term for Latinos and higher education.

"So here's the image. A pipeline, which essentially means you start off in kindergarten, 12 years later getting your high school diploma and another four years getting your B.A. or B.S., but instead a pipette is more of a random selection," he said.

"For a pipette, you insert the instrument into an ocean of Latinos, withdraw a few drops, and those are the chosen ones who will go on to do big things." CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Immigration detention helps law enforcement budgets

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department and other agencies cover budget shortfalls and save positions using the federal payments.
By Anna Gorman L.A. TIMES March 17, 2009

At a time when local law enforcement agencies are being forced to cut budgets and freeze hiring, cities across Southern California have found a growing source of income -- immigration detention.

Roughly two-thirds of the nation's immigrant detainees are held in local jails, and the payments to cities and counties for housing them have increased as the federal government has cracked down on illegal immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders.

Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up from $52.6 million the previous year. The U.S. is on track to spend $57 million this year.

The largest federal contract in the state is with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, whose 1,400-bed detention center in Lancaster is dedicated to housing immigrants either awaiting deportation or fighting their cases in court. The department received $34.7 million in 2008, up from $32.3 million the previous year.

Some smaller cities have seen their income rise much faster. Glendale received nearly $260,000 in 2008, triple what it got the previous year. In Alhambra, last year's $247,000 was more than double the previous year's payments.

For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and saving positions.

Santa Ana's Police Department, for example, expects as much as a 15% budget cut and has had a hiring freeze since October that has resulted in more than 60 sworn and civilian positions remaining vacant, Police Chief Paul Walters said. To offset reductions, Walters plans to convert two multipurpose rooms at the 480-bed jail into dormitory rooms this spring. That will accommodate an additional 32 immigrant detainees, which he expects will bring in $1 million more in revenue each year. He also hopes to get approval to raise the nightly price per detainee from $82 to $87.

"We treat [the jail] as a business," Walters said. "The cuts could have been much deeper if it weren't for the ability to raise money there."

When Santa Ana received bond money to build a police headquarters and jail, it did so with the future in mind. Rather than constructing a facility to house its own inmates, it built a much larger facility and soon started contracting with Orange County and state and federal governments.

The federal contracts cover nearly the entire cost of the jail, said Russell Davis, the jail administrator. On a recent day, the jail housed 20 Santa Ana arrestees, 283 U.S. Marshals prisoners and 165 immigration detainees. Some of the detainees, from Mexico, Vietnam, El Salvador and elsewhere, had landed in immigration custody after serving state prison sentences. Others were arrested after ignoring deportation orders or because of criminal records that made them eligible for deportation.

The contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency brought in more than $3.7 million in 2007 and $4.8 million last year.

If he had to do it all over again, Davis said, he would have built another floor on the jail.

The immigration agency "is inundated with detainees," he said. "If I had 100 more beds, they'd fill them."

Immigrant detainees stay in the local jails anywhere from a few hours to many months. At most jails, they are not separated from the rest of the population.

Not everyone is as pleased as Davis over those arrangements. Immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns about local jails not following federal detention standards and not segregating detainees from people suspected of committing crimes.

"Immigration detention is civil, not criminal," said Ahilan Arulanantham, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "If you are holding them in the same place, that distinction is meaningless."

Even though the cities may benefit financially, the savings do not get passed along to taxpayers, he said. "We're still paying for it," he said. "It's still a waste of resources to detain people who do not need to be detained."

Several of the foreign nationals housed in Santa Ana said they believed they should be let out on bond rather than incarcerated while fighting their immigration cases, especially if they had no criminal records or had already served their time.

Victor Hidalgo, 36, finished a five-year sentence in state prison on a drug charge before being transferred into immigration custody. Hidalgo, who is from Nicaragua, said he and others have jobs, families and homes here and are not a danger to society.

"We're not national security risks," he said. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Hispanic immigrants discriminated against

Concern with immigration brings a new N-word to American culture
Star-Telegram

Twelve million or so illegal immigrants live in the United States. The economic and purchasing power of Latinos (both legal and not) in the U.S. is massive.

According to a report produced by HispanTelligence, the research division of Hispanic Business Inc., "U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion (in 2005) and is projected to reach over $1 trillion by 2010."

Hence the "press 2 for Spanish" instruction when calling banks, credit cards, telephone companies, etc. This seems to infuriate the "English-only" crowd. Apparently they don’t understand that, in a free-market system, businesses might want to target these folks.

Why, in our democratic-capitalist system, do some feel that a legitimate business should not be able to tap this large group of consumers?

But that is exactly what some communities (locally, for example, Farmers Branch) hope to do.

Farmers Branch has tried several times to restrict the rental of apartments to people who cannot present valid proof of citizenship. As if the members of the Farmers Branch City Council routinely carry proof themselves. Most citizens of the U.S. do not even possess a federally accepted photo ID that verifies citizenship (like a passport). A driver’s license is not sufficient — try using one to get back into the U.S. from Canada or Mexico. Social Security cards aren’t acceptable either.

The proper response would be to sue the heck out of the city for preventing the free expression of a private business. After 40 years of civil rights housing law telling apartment landlords who they MUST rent to (can’t discriminate because of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability — all good inclusive rules), now the Farmers Branch council wants to take away the right to rent to someone who may be gainfully employed and able to pay the bills. From inclusion the pendulum swings toward exclusion.

And this in a town with a 47 percent Hispanic population, yet with no representation on the council or school board. Yes, the majority of the general population voted for this rental restriction. But, had civil rights law been put to a general vote in the 1960s, it might possibly have lost.

We expect the government to take the high road and raise us to a good moral standing. That’s what happened in the ’60s with race relations, and it would be the appropriate stance for the Farmers Branch council to take now.

What next? Barring stores from selling to people without proof of citizenship? In what way would that be different from preventing a landlord from conducting his private business? Should grocery stores not be able to sell food to undocumented people?

For a nation built by people who came here without advanced application and reception of work permits (few processed through Ellis Island had the green-card equivalent of the day), how have we gone so wrong?

Some overstayed their tourist visas so they could work and support their families, or to escape a politically dangerous homeland (i.e., Cuba, Venezuela) to seek the American dream, and Farmers Branch won’t let them rent apartments?

This in a state where the first European visitors exclusively spoke Spanish, where the original constitution of the Republic of Texas was written in Spanish by the "Anglos" living here then.

Being bilingual (English/Spanish) is a distinct advantage in this current tough job market. Companies that haven’t been restricted (by any Farmers Branch-type laws) from doing business need people who can communicate in the two languages used by the vast majority of their customers.

We need this new generation of workers, to pay taxes and Social Security.

We must find a better way to integrate into our nation those who sacrifice their previous lives to come here. We should see this as the compliment it is, to our heritage and our future.

Let’s not tell them "No." That’s the N-word I was referring to. We can and should be able to do better.

Candidate loses Hispanic support with comment

Wauconda trustee candidate: Hispanics should learn English
By Russell Lissau | Daily Herald Staff, 3/16/2009

Wauconda's village board candidates are divided over comments one hopeful made about the village's Hispanic community.

During a group interview at the Daily Herald's Lake County office on March 10, trustee candidate Mark Kwasigroch said Spanish-speaking residents "need to learn how to read English if they're going to live in Wauconda."

Kwasigroch was responding to rival candidate Lincoln Knight's suggestion the village publish its quarterly newsletter in Spanish to reach the town's Hispanic population.

Kwasigroch expanded on the comment during a telephone interview Monday.

"Whether you're Polish, Hispanic, German or whatever, I believe that heritage should be embraced," Kwasigroch said. "But I think citizens of the United States need to read English. Communities that spend money in excess to communicate in other languages, I think, is unnecessary."

That stance has been criticized by other candidates.

"I was a bit startled by the comment," candidate John Barbini said. "You have to reach out to all your residents. It's just the reality of modern-day America, and to ignore that reality is not a realistic approach."

But some sided with Kwasigroch.

"Where do we cut it?" incumbent Cathy Scott said of Knights' call for bilingual newsletters. "Do we then start doing it in (an Indian language)? Do we do it in Polish? I mean, this is the United States."

Six trustee candidates are seeking three seats on the board. Kwasigroch, Barbini, Knight and Scott will be joined on the April 7 ballot by Danielle Zimmermann and Pamela Wahl.

The candidates are split into two slates.

Kwasigroch, Scott and Zimmermann are part of incumbent Mayor Salvatore Saccomanno's Wauconda First group. Linda Lochmayer is the slate's clerk candidate.

Barbini, Knight and Wahl are part of the Wauconda United slate, which is headed by mayoral candidate and current trustee Mark Knigge. Ginger Irwin is the slate's candidate for clerk.

Two independent mayoral candidates also are running: Thomas F. Larkin and Roger Wojcicki.

About 16 percent of Wauconda's roughly 9,400 residents are Hispanic, according to estimates from the Lake County Partners economic development group. That figure is up from about 11 percent in 2000.

Kwasigroch's comments received support from the members of his slate.

"I believe if you live in America, you need to know English," Zimmermann said. "If I chose to live in Germany, I would learn German. It's a matter of embracing where you're choosing (to live)."

Because the village is struggling financially, printing versions of the newsletter in Spanish or any other language isn't a priority, Zimmermann said.

Scott called the newsletters a "huge expense" and said it'd be too expensive to print copies in another language.

Wahl, a member of the opposition slate, disagreed - and according to village staffers, she's right. The reports cost about $2,700 per issue now, Assistant Administrator Linda Krajniak said, and that figure likely wouldn't increase if some newsletters were printed in Spanish and sent to Hispanic households.

Wahl said offering newsletters and other village-related documents in Spanish would be helpful while people are learning English.

"I believe (immigrant) residents are trying to speak English," she said. "But while they're learning, we need to offer them materials in a language they completely understand. That will make them better citizens, because they'll be informed."

Knight, the candidate who raised the issue in the March 10 meeting, said a Spanish-language newsletter would be a good way to connect with residents and business owners who have invested in Wauconda.

"We need to reach out to them and let them know we're glad to see that they're here... (and) that the local government is here to help them as needed," said Knight, an incumbent trustee.

In-state tuition key for Hispanic immigrants

Latino groups lobby for in-state tuition
By COLLEEN SLEVIN, AP Mar 16, 2009

DENVER (Map, News) - Latino groups supporting a proposal to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition took their campaign to the state Capitol on Monday, lobbying lawmakers on both sides of the issue.

About 150 people rallied on the West steps before heading inside the Capitol to find their assigned lawmakers and talk to them about bill, which is awaiting a vote in the Senate. The group of citizen lobbyists included mothers, high school students and activists.

Among them was Yamili, an 18-year-old high school student from Denver who said she doesn't qualify for in-state tuition because she came to the United States illegally with her parents about 10 years ago from Mexico. Yamili, who didn't give her last name because of her immigration status, said she has been accepted to private Regis University with a $12,000 scholarship but is applying for other scholarships to help her pay the tuition, which will be about $30,000 next year.

She said her family first lived in a house with 15 other people in Colorado before moving to their own apartment and then a house. She sees college as the next step to the better life her parents came here for.

"That is what has motivated me," said Yamili, who would like study the humanities or international affairs and maybe work for the United Nations.

She led about a dozen people, many of them mothers, to meet with Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver, outside the House chamber, where members were locked in a long debate over the Electoral College. They talked to Frangas, who supports the bill, in both English and Spanish.

One of the women in the group, Maria Medellin, later explained through an interpreter that while her two sons were born in the United States, her older stepson was not and returned to Mexico to enroll in a university there. She said she is worried that children who can't afford college will get discouraged and might get into trouble.

"This is a right. Education is a right," she said.

Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, was also lobbied by bill supporters and said he still opposes it.

King said it gives false hope to illegal immigrants because they still will have trouble finding jobs once graduating from college because they're not citizens.

Backers of the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Chris Romer and Rep. Joe Miklosi, have been urging members to call lawmakers to show their support and have also visited churches asking members to send letters of support. But lawmakers say supporters have been outnumbered by opponents, who have bombarded them with e-mails and calls.

The Senate bounced the bill back to the appropriations committee last week because opponents wanted to make sure that it wouldn't cost the state any money.

Fiscal analysts don't expect it to because students who are here illegally wouldn't get the normal state subsidy like other Colorado students and would have to pay about $2,700 extra a year. That would still be much less than paying out-of-state tuition rates.

Hispanic families recieve early learning program

District 197 builds bridges for Latino families
Heather Edwards, Southwest Review News

A bridge in School District 197 just got a little longer, thanks to a grant from the United Way.

The West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan district is expanding its popular "Building Bridges for Las Familias Latinas" Early Learning program, thanks to a $75,000 grant from the Greater Twin Cities United Way. The grant was given as part of United Way's "Success by 6" parent-education initiative, a program that focuses on parent education and preparing children for kindergarten and beyond.

Prior to receiving the grant, District 197's "Building Bridges" program was only offered in the evening. The United Way grant allows the district to add two daytime classes.

However, since there is no space to hold the classes during the school day at Garlough, the afternoon classes are being offered at Somerset Elementary, where the district's Early Childhood Family Education office is housed.

The grant money allows the program to expand to the families in the Moreland Elementary area, where in just one year the Hispanic student population jumped from 32 percent to 40 percent.

The "Building Bridges" program encourages kids and parents to work together on an activity. Then, the youngsters work on their pre-kindergarten skills, such as writing their names, knowing their colors, etc., while the moms and dads take separate classes on parenting subjects, such as strategies for preparing their children for school.

School readiness can often be problematic for Latinos who are new to this country. "They are just not familiar with the American education system," said Sharon Gagner, 197's coordinator of early-learning programs. "It's a tough situation for both parents and children. There's so much we take for granted about the education system that these parents don't necessarily know."

Gagner added that many families in the District 197 program come from rural areas of Mexico, where education is treated differently. "They are interested in educating their children, just don't honestly know what they should do," Gagner said.

The district's "Building Bridges for Las Familias Latinas" program serves close to 90 families at present. "It's really been a successful program," Gagner said.

She hopes to continue District 197's partnership with United Way. If, after nine months of the program, teachers and administrators can prove they have been successful, the United Way grant will be renewed.

"This grant is the reason we can serve as many families as we have," Gagner said.

Heather Edwards can be reached at southwest@lillienews.com.

Latino and Black summit planned

Summit aims for common ground between blacks, Latinos
by Herbert L. White, The Charlotte Post, March 16, 2009

An initiative to bring African Americans and Latinos closer together is taking place later this month.

The African-American Latino Alliance, a communitywide summit for African Americans and Latinos is March 28 from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3400 Beatties Ford Road. The alliance is made up of members from the Latin American Coalition and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee.

The half-day event, Communities Sharing the Dream, aims to develop better ethnic and cultural understanding and through candid dialogue. The summit includes facilitated workshops, community theater presentation and free lunch.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to develop stronger lines of communication between two groups with so much shared history," said Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition.

Willie Ratchford, executive director of the Community Relations Committee, said: “By building relationships across race and ethnicity, we can examine what unites and divides African Americans and Latinos in our community and then build foundations for collaboration and partnerships."

Registration is available on-line at www.unitysummit.org or by phone at (704) 941-6730. The eadline for registration is March 24 at 5 p.m.

Michigan Latina heads Obama's Intergovernmental Affairs Office

Michigan Latina is Obama link to states, communities
Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Michigan native Cecilia Munoz wasn't used to busy senators calling her personally to ask about Latino concerns, so Barack Obama -- then a new senator from Illinois -- quickly stood out.

"It is rare for someone in the U.S. Senate to call you up on the spur of the moment for help in something he was thinking through," recalls Munoz, who was then a top Capitol Hill lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza.

"When (Obama) had questions about policy, he would call. He really developed those kinds of relationships with people. I learned his openness to counsel and advice and guidance."

When Senator Obama became President Obama, he tapped the mother of two teen-aged daughters to become director of White House intergovernmental affairs, the "doorway," as she puts it, between all state and local officials and the president.

"We need a strong partnership with state and local government in order to deliver ... change. My job is to make sure those partnerships are as strong as possible," said Munoz, who grew up in Livonia, the daughter of Bolivian immigrants.

It wasn't something she sought.

"He twisted my arm pretty hard," she said.

"He told me he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. And that he and the First Lady were determined to make this a family-friendly White House."

The role, says presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, started in the Eisenhower White House.

To do the job well, you need the skills of a hotel concierge, a juggler, and a scout.

"You've got to deal with a lot of people," Hess said. "It's useful to be a good reporter, so you can tell the president what's on people's mind."

Munoz's early weeks have been dominated by answering questions from state and local officials about the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

She's also helped areas hit by natural disasters. And, she took some heat from watchdog groups as one of the former lobbyists who got exceptions from lobbyist-wary Obama to serve in his administration.

"Every day has surprises and mysteries that have to be solved and every day is really truly an adventure here, but in a wonderful way," says Munoz, who wears her University of Michigan class ring and displays a Wolverine bumper sticker in her West Wing office.

At 46, Munoz brings two decades of experience as an advocate for Latino issues on Capitol Hill. She is credited as being a key player in the Immigration Act of 1990, part of her Latino advocacy that netted her a $500,000 "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation in 2000.

Before La Raza, Munoz worked at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, helping Latinos become U.S. citizens.

While studying at U-M, she tutored Latino inmates at the state prison in Jackson.

"I always sensed she was bound for greatness," says Jane Gietzen, who was a U-M dorm adviser with Munoz. "Social justice was in her heart and soul. She was a 'wise beyond her years' kind of person."

Munoz traces her interest in fighting for underdogs to her immigrant parents and to watching the civil rights efforts in Detroit. Her father, who also attended U-M, worked 40 years at Ford as an engineer.

She draws praise from Raymond Scheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association.

"She takes care of things, and has broad policy understanding," said Scheppach, who observed her set up meetings involving governors, the president, and senior administration officials.

"That's a very intense job. You have to be good at keeping a lot of balls in the air," added Scheppach.

As one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the Obama administration, Munoz will also be a sounding board for the president on the growing community's issues, including the hot button issue of overhauling immigration policy.

"She's not daunted by things that other people are," says longtime friend and La Raza colleague Lisa Navarrette. "She definitely is the iron fist in the velvet glove."

You can reach Deb Price at dprice@detnews.com or (202) 662-8736.

Latino Forum offers opportunity to address issues

Advocates tackle issues at Latino Forum
By: Jonathan Lowe

CHARLOTTE – Latino advocates from around the state gathered in Charlotte for the 14th annual Latino Forum this weekend, and said it’s time the public understood the Latino community’s importance in the state.

Illegal immigration, education and health care dominated the agenda. Group leaders said positive contributions from the Latino community, the fastest growing ethnic group in the state, are being overshadowed.

“The Latinos in North Carolina are making tremendous positive contributions to the state,” Tony Asion, executive director of El Pueblo, said.

Asion’s group sponsored El Foro Latino, or the Latin Forum, this weekend. And for the first time, officials said they’re not just discussing roadblocks; they’re forming an action plan to overcome them.

“We want to develop a network, if you will, of communications for Latinos statewide,” Asion said.

So Latino group leaders from all across the state threw out ideas in an energized roundtable. And to resolve them, Asion said it will take creating a new means of communication quickly.

“Dividing the state into regions and having coordinators in every county,” he said.

The overall idea is a seven-point plan for a direct line of communication from the community to the advocates and from the advocates to the lawmakers.

“We could become a model for the other states, and of course it would make us stronger,” Lucy Vasquez of Amigos International said.

Asion said the group is planning upcoming marches and walkouts across the state.

School board could see two Hispanics elected

First Bethlehem School Board election since voting lawsuit settlement attracts Hispanic candidates
By SARA K. SATULLO The Express-Times March 16, 2009

BETHLEHEM | Two Hispanic South Side residents have submitted petitions to run for the Bethlehem Area School Board.

Aurea Ortiz and the Rev. Gilberto Garcia-Rodriguez are participating in the first election where voters will pick candidates to fill both a geographic and four at-large seats.

The change in how directors are elected resulted from the settlement last summer of a federal voting rights lawsuit. The agreement created six at-large and three regional seats.

"The lawsuit was necessary because historically the minority candidate has found it very hard to get elected," said Sis-Obed Torres Cordero, executive director of the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of the Lehigh Valley.

The first of the geographic seats up for grabs this year comprises Fountain Hill, Freemansburg and the South Side.

Ortiz, a youth counselor, is running unopposed for the new seat while Garcia-Rodriguez, 43, is taking his second stab at the board running against five others for three at-large four-year terms. School Director Judith Dexter is running unopposed for a two-year at-large seat.

The geographic seat was a major factor in his decision to run, Garcia-Rodriguez said. If Ortiz had not stepped forward he would have run for the seat himself but opted not to compete against her.

"I think that we need more representation," the Puerto Rico native said. "So, if we have one candidate that can run for that region and I run at-large there is a possibility to have two Hispanics on the board. So, we are going to try to get a second seat."

After the settlement, there was an outpouring of support with many people saying it had been a long time coming, Torres Cordero said. The election of President Barack Obama has also opened up many avenues, he said.

The new seat wasn't as much of a factor for Ortiz, she said. Ortiz works with at-risk youths in Allentown.

GOP loses Hispanic Vote with ID bill

Victory on voter ID may cost GOP Latino support
By CHRISTY HOPPE and TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News March 16, 2009

AUSTIN – Republicans may win their fierce battle to require voters to present photo IDs, a vibrant issue to grassroots conservatives. But doing so could help them lose the larger, future war for political dominance.

Many Latinos, who are the fastest-growing bloc of voters in Texas, feel the bill is aimed at them, with Republicans raising the specter of illegal immigrants casting ballots and swinging elections. This bill, coupled with Republican efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, has led experts to see the Texas GOP quickly losing inroads in the Hispanic community that took years to build.

Republican leaders dismiss the notion that promoting a requirement for voters to present a picture or other forms of identification before they vote will damage the party among minorities.

Eric Opiela, executive director of the state party, pointed to a University of Texas poll last year that found 70 percent of Texans favor requiring a photo ID to vote – including 68 percent of blacks and 65 percent of Hispanics.

But it has become a noxious partisan issue, forcing the 19 Republicans in the Senate to change rules to muscle the measure past the 12 Democrats after a marathon all-night hearing. A final vote this week will send the bill to a less certain future in the House where Republicans hold a mere 76-74 advantage.

Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and others believe the GOP talking points on the issue, commonly referred to as "voter ID," have been decidedly anti-Hispanic.

"They would have you believe that busloads of illegal immigrants are coming to a district near you and engaging in voter impersonation in order to vote for Democrats," he said.

Six years of sitting on legislative panels studying voter fraud has taught him that people will tamper with mailed-in ballots. But he said there is virtually no evidence of anyone – illegal immigrants or others – showing up at polling places to vote with someone else's voter registration card.

"The Latino community is not stupid," Anchia said. "You can't call us fat, ugly and stupid for a year and then ask us to go to the prom with you. It's just not going to happen."

Election numbers

The attitude seems to be reflected in election numbers: Latino support in Texas was 49 percent for President George W. Bush in 2004; 44 percent for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006, when she was the top official on the ballot; and 35 percent last year for John McCain.

Democrats say that requiring a photo ID will be particularly hard on the disabled, the elderly and low-income workers without driver's licenses, many of whom are more likely to be racial minorities. Republican supporters of the measure say the issue of securing the integrity of the ballot is important enough to tighten the ID requirements, even if it inconveniences some.

Longtime GOP consultant Royal Masset said it is a "serious mistake" for the party to put so much emphasis on the issue in Texas.

"There's no doubt voter ID does great" among the Republican base, he said. "But it is also the kind of issue that could lose the Latino vote for the Republican Party for the next 30 years."

Masset, the former political director for the state party, called voter ID "another last straw" for Latinos, who would be forced by Republicans to spend time and money obtaining additional IDs because of an alleged threat of fraudulent voting.

"One way to get Latinos upset is to start criminalizing them, to imply they are criminals," he said. "And Hispanics should take this personally, because it is aimed at them."

Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, predicted that if Republicans are able to push through voter ID, it will be just like the immigration issue: "another gift for the Democratic Party."

Polinard, an expert on voting patterns across the state and particularly in South Texas, said that while there is nothing "intrinsically discriminatory" about requiring a photo ID to vote, "it will be about as popular down here as the border fence."

"In the short run, voter ID helps the Republican Party in Texas because it is red meat for the base," he said. "But the clock is ticking.

"With every election, the Latino vote becomes more important, and in the long run this will come back to haunt the party, because it is seen as having a disproportionate effect on minority voters."

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, used the example of her 94-year-old aunt, who has lived with her family and other relatives over the years. Her aunt does not drive or have utility bills or bank accounts in her own name.

When advocates of voter ID suggest it's easy to show papers or a driver's license to prove who you are at the voting booth, they are ignoring how a lot of close-knit families operate, she said.

"When somebody disses your grandmother, they dis you. And when someone disses what you believe in ... is when Latinos act," she said.

Other states

Michael Bustamante, a spokesman for the William C. Velasquez Institute, which studies Latino voting trends, said what he's seeing in Texas with the voter ID bill is happening in other states as well.

The states pushing the measure have GOP leadership that wants to protect the ballot from illegal voters, which is understandable, he said.

"But it's the tone and the tenor of the argument," which seems to be aimed at the growing numbers of Hispanic voters and wondering if they're legal, Bustamante said.

"It's amazing how hard Republicans are working to create a divide between their party and the Latino voter," he said. "Pretty soon we're going to be blamed for athlete's foot."

But Texas GOP leader Opiela said the only ones hurt by the voter ID bill are the Democrats, who are bucking a popular and commonsense proposal.

The Democratic stance "will come back to haunt them," he said, adding: "We certainly plan to make it an issue in the next election."

So, say the Democrats, do they.

Nevada Hispanics want Cesar Chavez Day

Reno council asked to declare Cesar Chavez Day
The Associated Press 03/14/2009

RENO, Nev.—A Hispanic activist is asking the Reno City Council to declare March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day.

Gilbert Cortez, a Reno businessman who has organized immigration awareness marches in Reno, says he wants the day to be recognized each year as an unofficial holiday.

He says he wants to give Chavez recognition in Reno and a mayoral proclamation isn't enough.

Under the proposal, city workers wouldn't have the day off but Chavez's March 31 birthday would remain on the city calendar.

Chavez, a civil rights advocate and labor organizer, founded the United Farm Workers of America.

Cesar Chavez Day is already celebrated as a holiday in 10 states, including California.

Hispanic immigrants lose rights

AP IMPACT: Immigrants face detentions, few rights
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer Mar. 15, 2009

America's detention system for immigrants has mushroomed in the last decade, a costly building boom that was supposed to sweep up criminals and ensure that undocumented immigrants were quickly shown the door.

Instead, an Associated Press computer analysis of every person being held on a recent Sunday night shows that most did not have a criminal record and many were not about to leave the country - voluntarily or via deportation.

An official Immigration and Customs Enforcement database, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a U.S. detainee population of exactly 32,000 on the evening of Jan. 25.

The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years.

Nearly 10,000 had been in custody longer than 31 days - the average detention stay that ICE cites as evidence of its effective detention management.

Especially tough bail conditions are exacerbated by disregard or bending of the rules regarding how long immigrants can be detained.

Based on a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, ICE has about six months to deport or release immigrants after their case is decided. But immigration lawyers say that deadline is routinely missed. In the system snapshot provided to the AP, 950 people were in that category.

The detainee buildup began in the mid 1990s, long before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Since 2003, though, Congress has doubled to $1.7 billion the amount dedicated to imprisoning immigrants, as furor over "criminal aliens" intertwined with post-9/11 fears and anti-immigrant political rhetoric.

But the dragnet has come to include not only terrorism suspects and cop killers, but an honors student who was raised in Orlando, Fla.; a convenience store clerk who begged to go back to Canada; and a Pentecostal minister who was forcibly drugged by ICE agents after he asked to contact his wife, according to court records.

Immigration lawyers note that substantial numbers of detainees, from 177 countries in the data provided, are not illegal immigrants at all. Many of the longest-term non-criminal detainees are asylum seekers fighting to stay here because they fear being killed in their home country. Others are longtime residents who may be eligible to stay under other criteria, or whose applications for permanent residency were lost or mishandled, the lawyers say.

Still other long-term detainees include people who can't be deported because their home country won't accept them or people who seemingly have been forgotten in the behemoth system, where 58 percent have no lawyers or anyone else advocating on their behalf. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Hispanic voters turned off by Rush Limbaugh

Is Rush Limbaugh Helping or Hurting Republicans' Chances With Hispanic Voters?
Rob Kuznia--HispanicBusiness.com March 13, 2009

With Rush Limbaugh being painted by Democrats as the de facto leader of the Republican Party, and the Hispanic vote swinging back to the Democratic side in the last election, it's worth asking: What do prominent Hispanic Republicans think of Rush Limbaugh?

Is he helping or hurting the cause to bring them back under the conservative tent?

HispanicBusiness.com asked several Hispanic Republican leaders to weigh in on Limbaugh, who last week publicly lashed out at Michael Steele, the new leader of the Republican National Committee, for referring to Limbaugh as an "entertainer" whose commentary could be "ugly." To the delight of Democrats, Steele later apologized to Limbaugh. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Hispanic voters' soul at steak

Fighting for the Soul of the Hispanic Community
by Aaron Rodriguez | Intellectual Conservative | March 13th, 2009

The Republican Party needs to build a relationship with the Hispanic Community in the United States. The Democrats have exploited class warfare to obtain Hispanic voter support but it needn't be that way.

The GOP has failed the Hispanic community in a number of politically important ways. They have refused to reach out to Hispanics at a grassroots level - a failure that began to surface in the south western states during the 2008 election. They have not punctuated the premise that Hispanics and conservatives share many of the same moral precepts – a component vital for a genuine and lasting alliance. And they have failed to address the fabricated image of being the party of and for the rich. If Republicans expect to capture more of the Hispanic vote in future elections, they need to take these problems seriously and resolve them quickly.

According to the 2003 U.S. Census Bureau, the national median income level for Hispanic households was $34,241, about $15,000 less than non-Hispanic households; 21% of Hispanic households fell below poverty level, which was twice the level of non-Hispanic whites; and the uninsured rate for Hispanics was at 32%, about three times the level of non-Hispanic whites. The statistics suggest that the Hispanic community continues to be an underprivileged demographic, a fact that has been exploited by the Democrat Party for decades.

The most recent example of class exploitation was fueled by Politico's interview with John McCain when they asked how many homes he had owned, an answer he deferred to his staff. Notwithstanding, Obama exploited the gaffe defining McCain as out of touch with working families. Taking a similar cue, the AFL-CIO hurried out bulk mailers that highlighted McCain’s wealth and a presumed inability to identify with the working class.

This example is no exception to the rule of liberal politics. By dividing the nation into a neat, rich-poor dichotomy, Democrats have taken a play from the Marxist handbook. During hard times, they use their media accomplice to overstate crises in order to mobilize the proletariat masses for radical change. In particular, business owners take the brunt of the onslaught. They are not viewed as those who provide jobs and financial stability to working families; they are the “other” that routinely manipulate, harass, and greedily exploit their employees for unadulterated profit.

In November of 2008, Barack Obama secured 67% of the Hispanic vote, besting John Kerry's 59% four years earlier. The disparity has caused many to reconsider the Democrat Party's continuing success with Hispanic voters; a notable achievement despite fundamental differences in their traditional values like faith, family, and freedom. In particular, foreign born Hispanics stand to be the more serious problem for the GOP. This demographic represents 33% of all Hispanic voters, and they are 50% more likely to register as democrats.

The statistics above suggest that conservatives need to formulate a good plan of attack to address the Hispanic community. The first step ought to include a widespread grassroots effort to make a meaningful connection. Distant or lazy marketing will not work, but rather reinforce the stereotype of GOP elitism. Just as discussion is easier among those who share interests, a grassroots effort can only work by expressing and reinforcing common values.

As it stands, conservatives and Hispanics share a culture of Christian faith, the right to life, a traditional family structure, and a solid work ethic. If the Christian faith is the common connector, then it's logical that a grassroots effort is best served at church-sponsored gatherings. This means that conservative politicians need to reach out to Hispanic pastors who are willing to serve as a liaison to congregants - not to promote a particular candidate, but to provide greater clarity to a politician's moral and civic positions. Importantly, politicians ought not to wait for election season to get familiar with Hispanic groups. They should be treated like part of the family. This means that when Hispanic non-profits or other community organizations invite politicians to events that are mutually beneficial, Democrats shouldn't be the only ones showing up. This is one of the more disturbing problems in GOP leadership today.

The second stage of attack should include a focus on exposing democrats for their role in class exploitation; in particular, their assault on those who provide jobs. It is often said that the GOP is the party for the rich. This is not true. The GOP is the party for entrepreneurs and businesses; this distinction is important and should be reinforced. Entrepreneurs and small businesses turn the economic wheel, not unions and not government.

Each minority group has developed their own unique hang up with the GOP. For African-Americans it is racism, and for Jews, Christianity. These obstacles are deeply ingrained into their collective conscience through family and culture, and they are not likely to go away soon. For Hispanics, however, their loyalty to the Democrat Party is not deeply ingrained through family or culture, but is rather a response to the behavioral tendencies of the GOP and an unchallenged stereotype grounded in class divisiveness.

Far too long, the democrat party has divided our country for political power. A populist message designed for the unlearned ear can only be defused by proper education and wise marketing. But this must occur at a local grassroots level. Hispanics need to know that there is someone in their corner, providing them with the right tools to fight against today's adversity. With liberals at the helm of Congress and the White House, there isn't a better time than the present to fight for the soul of the Hispanic community.

Hispanics learn about charter school options

Rockford's Hispanic community learns about charter school options
WREX March 12, 2009

ROCKFORD (WREX) - While the Rockford School District tries to fill charter schools, the Hispanic community learns more about what they are.

La Voz Latina sponsored a public forum about the topic. Rockford school board members have approved 2 charter school applications. They're considering a third. A representative from one of them, Chicago International Charter School, was at the forum.

La Voz Latina's Executive Director, Patricia Gomez, says,"It's a great opportunity for Rockford and we want to make sure that Spanish-speaking parents are aware and informed about charter schools, and also that they have an opportunity to ask any questions that they might have."

Some of those questions include whether the schools have bi-lingual programs, and whether they help students learn English.

For more information about the charter schools coming to Rockford, try these websites:

www.rps205.com

www.rockfordcharterschools.com

Latino chosen to run Civil Rights Division

Md. labor secretary chosen for federal post
By Laura Smitherman | laura.smitherman@baltsun.com March 14, 2009

Maryland's Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez has been tapped to run the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, President Barack Obama announced yesterday. Perez's move, which had been widely rumored for weeks, means he will rejoin an agency where he worked as a federal prosecutor in the 1990s. As head of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Perez helped to craft the state's response to the foreclosure crisis. His political career in Maryland also included a stint as the first Latino elected to the Montgomery County Council and a campaign for state attorney general that he abandoned after being disqualified for lacking the required legal experience in the state.

Cuban Hispanics able to travel to Cuba

For Cuban Americans, travel to visit relatives just got easier
By Frances Robles | Miami Herald

Cuban Americans are now free to visit relatives on the island once a year and stay as long as they like, using a new license issued by the Obama administration.

The general license for travel by Cuban Americans removes a tricky loophole Congress created in its 2009 budget bill, which removed funding for enforcing travel restrictions but did not lift the restrictions.

That meant traveling to Cuba would have been illegal, but a passenger was not likely to get caught.

With the new license, created late Wednesday, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control officially lifted the tightened restrictions enacted by President Bush in 2004, which had limited trips to every three years and only to see immediate relatives.

"This is going to do wonders for my father," said Arlene García, a Chicago saleswoman who joined the campaign to lift travel restrictions so she could visit her dad, who lives in Camaguey and has lung cancer. "The fact that I am able to see him is the best medicine. Every time I go, I'm adding time to his life."

Read more at MiamiHerald.com

Latino students help mentor younger kids

Lakeridge class a positive force for Latino peers
Michael Rigert - DAILY HERALD 12 March 2009

Orem -- There's not too many classes at Lakeridge Junior High School in Orem that you have to be fluent in two languages to even qualify for enrollment consideration.
But then again, not every class at the school is Jr. Latinos in Action, a service-oriented class for a hand-picked group of ninth-grade Latino students at Lakeridge who want to be mentors to younger children and share what they've learned.

Twice a week decked out in their smart-looking burgundy hoodies embroidered with name of Lakeridge and "Jr. Latinos in Action," the 19 students in Sonia Molina Openshaw's class trek by foot to nearby Westmore Elementary School. During the 40-minutes sessions, the Lakeridge students mentor younger Latino students, who have varying levels of English language skills, one-on-one, in grades 1-6.

Molina, the class's advisor and an English as Second Language teacher at Lakeridge, said many of her own students were once in the same shoes of their grade school friends -- perhaps newly emigrated to America with their families, and with limited English speaking abilities that make basic communication -- let alone reading, writing and arithmetic -- tricky.

"In many states in the country with the huge growth (of Hispanic families), educators have a hard time meeting those needs," she said. "Latinos in Action was developed to meet those needs."

The high school Latinos in Action program that the Lakeridge class is an off-shoot of, was created by Mountain View High School assistant principal Jose Enriquez, who had a vision of assisting students in area schools perhaps struggling to learn in a culture and language that is foreign to them. Older students, who had mastered both Spanish and English and thrived academically, befriend and mentor the junior high- and elementary school-aged children.

Molina, a graduate from Brigham Young University, said her students acquire distinct linguistic, social and cognitive skills as they serve as peers and tutors to their counterparts at Westmore Elementary.

"It's so cute to see one of my students ... working with a younger child," she said. "(The Westmore Elementary students) are literally hanging on to the kids."

On Wednesday, Victor De Lara, a 14-year-old student in Molina's class who aspires to become a lawyer, was working with a boy named Christopher in Cherise Burk's second-grade class.

De Lara said he remembers moving with his family from Mexico to the U.S. and trying to pick up the language and his studies at school. Though a Spanish-speaking teacher took him under her wing, he said it would have eased his transition to have a friend and mentor in the classroom.

"I was once a Latino without any knowledge. It's good to see them, to be a role model," he said. "If I had had a Latino to teach me, I would have liked this."

Elizabeth Leal, 15, a tutor in Molina's class, came to America from Veracruz, Mexico, and also wants to become an attorney. She said the mentoring opportunity not only gives all the children at Westmore Elementary a chance to learn more about other cultures, it also helps to diminish the racism Latinos sometimes experience in society.

"I don't get why there is racism," Leal said. "We're all the same people."

Jessica Perez, 14, also a Jr. Latinos in Action class member, said she feels great assisting the younger children and their teachers in class, whether or not they're Latino.

"It's very exciting to help them learn new things," said Perez, who wants to some day become a registered nurse.

Though Burk speaks Spanish, she said having De Lara in her classroom to tutor Christopher and assist him understand concepts from the context of a culture she's largely unfamiliar with, is a godsend.

"Victor is amazing. He's always willing to do anything for me or for Christopher," she said.

De Lara has helped her entire class learn about Latino culture and its nuances, such as, "you don't dance to Mariachi band music," Burk said.

It's easy to see that De Lara delights in his visits with kids at Westmore. He told of one visit, when the students in Burk's class learned he had been honored as a Student of the Month at Lakeridge Junior High. The children became star-struck, ran up to him, and clamored for his autograph, he said.

Brian Jolley, an assistant principal who oversees Lakeridge's ESL program, said the school's administration fully supports the Jr. Latinos in Action class. Even more than the tutoring, Molina's students represent positive role models to their peers and to the younger students they work with, he said.

"It's almost an example of what they can become," he said.

Jolley said nearly 70 Latino eighth-graders at Lakeridge met the minimum academic and behavioral requirements to enroll in Jr. Latinos in Action next year, and of those, nearly 40 applied. Many of them say it's something they look forward to doing when they get to ninth grade.

School faculty and staff work to encourage Latino students who may be doing well academically, but who may have other struggles, here or there, he said.

"We say 'Hey, you have the potential to be Jr. Latinos in Action, you have the potential to be a leader, and role model to these kids,'" Jolley said.

Molina said the class is making a real difference in the lives of Latinos at Lakeridge, Westmore and beyond. It's helping young Latinos around Orem and Utah Valley understand that they have true potential to excel in every facet of life despite the daily challenges they may face.

"I'm highly honored. It's a privilege to be with my people," she said of her role as the class's advisor. "To be able to help Jose (Enriquez) achieve this vision. ... I'm dedicated to them and their success."

Book outlines how Latino atheletes are treated

'Odd Man Out' author Matt McCarthy's accuracy is questioned
He defends the veracity of his book, which details his brief time in the minors. His ex-manager says 'it's just flat-out wrong.'
By David Davis March 13, 2009

Matt McCarthy's professional baseball career flamed out after one season, 2002, with the Provo Angels in the lowly Pioneer League. He was quietly released the following spring. Now, McCarthy has published "Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit," and the notoriety the memoir has generated ensures that he will be enshrined in baseball and publishing lore.

In this raucous and occasionally profane book, McCarthy chronicles the chilling racial division that Latino athletes face in the clubhouse, details conversations with teammates about sexual high jinks and taking steroids, and describes an object he calls the "Rally Penis" that his manager used to inspire his charges.

The backlash has been furious. Manager Tom Kotchman and many former teammates dispute the accuracy of McCarthy's account. "I've gone through it multiple times," Kotchman says. "In so many places it's just flat-out wrong or fabricated."

The book has also been put under the microscope by the New York Times, among other media outlets. Reporters Benjamin Hill and Alan Schwarz scoured old box scores and transaction listings and confirmed dozens of errors. "[M]any portions of the book are incorrect, embellished or impossible," they concluded.

McCarthy concedes that he made factual errors, but he stands by the book's veracity. "If you're somebody who needs your sports stories sugarcoated, don't read the book," he says. "But if you want to feel closer to the game, then that's what this is about."

Still to be determined is McCarthy's legacy. Will he be remembered as this generation's Jim Bouton and Pat Jordan, authors, respectively, of the baseball classics "Ball Four" and "A False Spring"? Or, is he the latest iteration of James Frey, author of the faux memoir "A Million Little Pieces"?

Now 28, McCarthy is a trim 6-footer with close-cropped brown hair. He wears a blue-and-white striped Oxford shirt and a harried expression as he perches on a couch in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton hotel.

The previous day, the bombshell article in the New York Times had appeared. The newspaper wasn't the first media outlet to weigh in; articles disputing elements of "Odd Man Out" have run in the Orange County Register, the Chicago Tribune and Stephen C. Smith's blog FutureAngels.com.But the Times' thoroughness and harsh tone shook McCarthy, who says he offered the reporters a "point-by-point" rebuttal.

"This is a book that has tens of thousands of details in it," he says. "The article doesn't mention that, of the 200 details from one game, there's 199 that were accurate."

McCarthy was a standout high school player in Florida and earned a spot in the rotation at Yale. He developed into a solid left-handed starter, with a decent slider and a fastball just north of 90 miles an hour. The Angels drafted him in the 21st round, gave him the minimum $1,000 signing bonus and sent him to the lowest level of the minors.

What he discovered was a culture far removed from the Ivy League. Many teammates were high school grads away from home for the first time; young Latino ballplayers, who typically speak little English, were segregated and mocked. McCarthy discussed steroids with teammates and, in the book,intimates that several players used them. He depicted Kotchman as, alternately, a father figure who doled out money to needy players and a maniac. All this in a conservative community dominated by the Mormon church.

McCarthy doesn't shy from relating personal humiliations. He admits to avoiding interactions with Latino players as well as an embarrassing stomach ailment. He performs poorly, with a 6.92 ERA in 15 appearances. "I loved my time playing professional baseball," he says. "I realized -- and the Angels realized -- that I wasn't good enough to be one of their big leaguers. I don't have an ax to grind."

McCarthy's post-baseball career has been more successful. A molecular biophysics major, McCarthy attended Harvard Medical School. He traveled to Cameroon, Malaysia and South Africa to study tuberculosis and AIDS. Now, he's an intern at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital, specializing in infectious diseases.

He says he was inspired to write "Odd Man Out" after former colleagues began making contributions on the field. Guys like pitcher Joe Saunders and second baseman Howie Kendrick, who now play key roles for the big-league team in Anaheim.

The book, McCarthy says, came from two Mead notebooks of material he kept during the 2002 season, writing at night and during mind-numbing 17-hour bus trips. Four years later, he began to shape the narrative. He showed a draft to a college friend, Sports Illustrated staff writer Ben Reiter, who gave it to Chris Stone, the magazine's baseball editor. Stone steered McCarthy to Scott Waxman's literary agency, which sold it to Viking.

In February, or around the time that Sports Illustrated published a 6,000-word excerpt, Kotchman read a pre-publication copy. A successful minor league manager who has worked in the organization for 26 years (his son, Casey, played first base for the Angels until last year, when he was traded), he was disturbed by the contents.

Kotchman and his lawyer, Tampa, Fla.-based Jonathan Koch, compiled alleged errors and sent the publisher a 13-page, single-spaced letter outlining what they claimed were mistakes and demanded the publisher make appropriate changes.

Some are relatively minor. McCarthy mistakenly describes strength and conditioning coach Clayton Wilson as a trainer. Pitcher Blake Allen underwent surgery on his knee, not his arm as McCarthy wrote.

But much of the disputed material is salacious. In one scene, McCarthy describes Kotchman quoting an obscene routine by comedian Andrew Dice Clay. The manager admits showing a tape of "The Diceman" but denies acting it out. "If it was said that I did an impersonation of The Rock, then that's true," Kotchman says. "But that would be rated PG. That wouldn't be good copy."

As for the obscene object Kotchman reportedly employed, it was "one of those stupid, weird, funny, get-everyone-going baseball things," Saunders says. "It wasn't really degrading, just one of those things we'd use to get fired up." CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Hispanic students invited to tour TCU campus

Admissions launches program targeting Hispanics
Jordan Smith TCU DAILY SKIFF 3/13/09

The Office of Admissions invited prospective Hispanic students to campus this week as it began a new program called the Hispanic Senior Experience.

The two-day program was open to all high school students who identified themselves as Hispanic on their applications.

The program is similar to the Black Senior Weekend program the university has offered to prospective black students for the past year, said admissions counselor Aaron Marez. Both programs focus on providing minority students with a more intimate look at the university than the traditional Mondays at TCU.

The visitor's schedule included listening to speeches from Provost Nowell Donovan and Hispanic alumni, spending a night in the dorms with current Hispanic students, and watching the baseball team top Wichita State University 12-3 on Sunday.

On Monday they met with financial aid advisers and had question and answer sessions for parents and students.

Ray Brown, dean of admissions, said he understands that offering special programs only to specific ethnicities on campus may be seen to some students as racism. He also said that's the reason his office hasn't offered racially specific programs until now.

"It's offensive to some and it's absolutely appealing to others," Brown said. "That's a fine line we walked for many years. This is the first year we've had the Hispanic group, we started last year with the black student program, and I've wrestled with this for so long."

Brown said he isn't worried by those who are offended by the program.

"There are certain groups of people, particularly blacks and Hispanics, who don't want to be identified by their race or ethnicity, and so they wouldn't be attracted to a program like this," Brown said. "But doggone it amazes me, I've had 14 messages already in the past two days from parents and kids saying what a wonderful experience this was for them."

Proportionally, the university enrolls far fewer black and Hispanic students than make up the population of Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36 percent of the Texas population was of Hispanic or Latin descent in 2007. That year, 12 percent were black. Currently about 9.5 percent of undergraduates at the university are Hispanic, while about 5.5 percent are black, Marez said.

Freshman mechanical engineering major Rodolfo Ramirez, one of the students who put his room up for lodging, said he thinks the program is a good way for many high school students, not just Hispanic ones, to evaluate the university and see if it's a place they would be comfortable.

"The main difference is when you're on a regular tour they just tell you the scholastic side of the school," Ramirez said. "They tell you about some of the events but they really don't show you where you're going to hang out, where everybody else hangs out, what actually is going on around campus."

About 15 prospective students and their families attended the first Hispanic Senior Experience, which is a significantly smaller number than typically attend Black Senior Weekend, Marez said. Because this was the first year such a program was offered, communication to admitted students wasn't as thorough as it could have been, he said. Some family's travel plans were also limited because of the current economic climate, he said.

Brown said he thought the program's first weekend was a success.

"It's one of those things that I think probably will grow in subsequent years," Brown said. "Some cultures are more oral than others, and the Hispanic culture is one that is. So I think they will be more oral in their discussion and in their encouragement."

Marez said the program will be offered at least once next year as well.

Obama to investigate treatment of Hispanics in Az

Obama administration targets Arpaio
Phoenix Business Journal

The Obama administration is looking at whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration sweeps violate federal civil rights laws.

The U.S. Justice Department notified Arpaio of the investigation in a letter saying his enforcement methods may unfairly target Hispanics and Spanish-speaking people.

Arpaio previously said he welcomed an investigation by new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The sheriff says he enforces the law fairly.

NY Latino leader is popular during elections

Ferrer Aids Weprin’s Bid for Comptroller
By David W. Chen NY Times

Four years after being crushed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in the race for mayor, the former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, is trying to make his electoral presence felt again. Not as a candidate (unlike the vanquished 2001 candidate for mayor, Mark Green, who recently announced that he would try to regain his old job as public advocate), but rather as co-chairman of Councilman David I. Weprin’s campaign to be the next city comptroller.

Mr. Ferrer’s endorsement comes early in the campaign season. But it promises to elevate Mr. Weprin’s status in a wide-open race being waged by four relatively unknown council members: Melinda R. Katz and John C. Liu, who, like Mr. Weprin, hail from Queens; and David Yassky, who is from Brooklyn.

Until now, the comptroller’s race had arguably had the lowest profile of the three citywide races coming up this fall.

Mr. Bloomberg is running for a third term, after succeeding in rewriting the city’s term limits law, and is expected to face either City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. or Representative Anthony D. Weiner, both Democrats.

And Mr. Green’s recent entry into the public advocate’s race had caused a bit of a political aftershock to the other major candidates: Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn; Councilman Eric N. Gioia of Queens; and Norman Siegel, the civil liberties lawyer. Indeed, Mr. Liu — who had originally pledged to run for public advocate — on Sunday switched to the comptroller’s race, prompting Ms. Katz to criticize him for regarding the office as a “second choice.”

Some political insiders had given Ms. Katz, chair of the council’s powerful land use committee, a slight edge, given her support from developers, and the fact that she is the only female candidate.

But in a statement praising Mr. Weprin, chair of the council’s finance committee, Mr. Ferrer said: “I have known David for over thirty years and admire his dedication to the people of New York City. I am happy to see that he is taking the steps to even greater public service. I am delighted to endorse his candidacy for New York City Comptroller.”

Mr. Weprin wasted no time trying to woo Mr. Ferrer’s base of Hispanic voters by noting that his mother is Cuban. He also claimed that he had supported laws favorable to minority-owned businesses and aiding immigrant organizations.

Mr. Weprin said in a statement:

I am honored to be honored by Freddy Ferrer, a great public servant who has dedicated his life to improving the lives of New Yorkers and the neighborhoods in which they live. My mother cherishes her Hispanic background and has instilled in me a staunch appreciation for the contributions of Hispanics in America, and so it is particularly meaningful for me to gain the support of one who has been such an influential leader in the Hispanic community. I have always stood up for the many Hispanic residents in our great city, and as comptroller I will continue to work hard on their behalf.

Hispanics in Washington State to lobby legislature

Latinos and the Washington Economy
Kuow.org

Friday is Hispanic/Latino Lobbying Day in Olympia. How has the economic downturn affected the Latino community? What are the legislative priorities of the Hispanics and Latinos in Washington State? There are over 500,000 Hispanics and Latinos in Washington. How do they help to form the economy and culture of this state?

Plus, a conversation on the week's news in Canada from our Canadian correspondent, Vaughn Palmer.

Event
Washington State Hispanic/Latino Lobbying day is this Friday, March 13, in Olympia.

Guests
Vaughn Palmer is a political correspondent for the Vancouver Sun.

Gilberto Mireles is an assistant professor of sociology at Whitman College. His research focuses on the socio–political integration of immigrant communities into U.S. society. He is also a commissioner on the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

Martha Cerna is a business assistance officer at the South Sound Women's Business Center. She's also a member of the newly formed Pierce County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Martha grew up in Eastern Washington and will also be presenting in Olympia this Friday.

Rosalinda Mendoza is a program assistant for the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust. She wrote a report for the first "State of the State for Latinos" report in 2005 and will be presenting in Olympia this Friday. Rosalinda grew up in Yakima and graduated from Whitman.

Estela Vasquez is a junior sociology major at Whitman College. She will present on her research about the Latino education gap tonight in Seattle and this Friday in Olympia. She grew up in Oregon.

Obama considered moving troops to Mexican border

Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration
By Maria Recio | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," Obama said during an interview with journalists for regional papers, including a McClatchy reporter.

"I don't have a particular tipping point in mind," he said. "I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens."

Already this year there have been 1,000 people killed in Mexico along the border, following 2008's death toll of 5,800, according to federal officials who credit Mexican President Felipe Calderon for a crackdown on drug cartels.

But the spillover on the border -- for example, to El Paso from neighboring Ciudad Juarez -- has created a political reaction.

In a recent visit to El Paso, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for 1,000 troops to protect the border.

Obama was cautious, however. "We've got a very big border with Mexico," he said. "I'm not interested in militarizing the border."

The president praised Calderon, "who I believe is really working hard and taking some extraordinary risks under extraordinary pressure to deal with the drug cartels and the corresponding violence that's erupted along the borders."

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., chair of a key subcommittee on border security, will hold a hearing Thursday on Mexican border violence.

"Last week Mexico sent an additional 3,200 soldiers to the border," Sanchez said in a prepared opening statement for the hearing, "increasing the total number of Mexican soldiers combating drug cartels to more than 45,000."

Sanchez chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security's subcommittee on border, maritime and global counterterrorism.

"It should be noted that over 200 U.S. citizens have been killed in this drug war, either because they were involved in the cartels or were innocent bystanders," she said. "With those concerns in mind, it is essential that the Department of Homeland Security, along with other relevant departments, continue to pursue a contingency plan to address 'spillover' violence along our border."

At a hearing this week, Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who visited Mexico last month as part of a congressional delegation tour, praised the so-called Merida Initiative -- a drug cartel fighting agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that provides Mexico with $1.4 billion to control drug trafficking.

"From helicopters and surveillance planes to non-intrusive inspection equipment, the U.S. investment is intended to provide the hardware necessary for the Mexican government to extend its authority to those remote and hard-to-access parts of the country ravaged by the drug trade," said Granger.

That agreement between Calderon and President George W. Bush will be updated, Obama said.

"We expect to have a comprehensive approach to dealing with these issues of border security that will involve supporting Calderon and his efforts in a partnership, also making sure we are dealing with the flow of drug money and guns south, because it's really a two-way situation there," said Obama.

"The drugs are coming north, we're sending funds and guns south," he said. "As a consequence, these cartels have gained extraordinary power. Our expectation is to have a comprehensive policy in place in the next few months."

(David Goldstein of the Kansas City Star contributed.)

Are Latinos White? or Non-White?

NAVARRETTE: Latinos are stuck in racial limbo
By Ruben Navarrette SignOn.com March 11, 2009

Laura Gomez has a funny, and yet terribly perceptive, term to describe the sort of racial holding pattern in which America's largest minority finds itself.

“Latinos have been in this limbo between white and nonwhite – or what I call 'off-white' – for more than 165 years,” Gomez told me.

Off-white works for me.

Gomez, a professor of law and American studies at the University of New Mexico, might be onto something here. Latinos are neither black nor white, and yet there are black Latinos and white Latinos. There is no Latino race, yet what many Latinos were subjected to in the 20th century – including being barred from hotels, restaurants and public swimming pools – and continue to be subjected to today in subtler forms would have to be called racism. Still, in America's great racial debate, Latinos have been consigned to the sidelines.

There is a lot that Gomez, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford, could teach U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The AG isn't a sociologist, but he played one during Black History Month. Spelling out how far we still have to go to achieve racial nirvana, Holder called the United States “a nation of cowards” who are reluctant to talk about race.

President Barack Obama recently critiqued the nation's top law enforcement officer for his choice of words.

“I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Obama told a reporter. “I think the point that he was making is that we're oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there's some sort of racial flare-up or conflict.”

As an Obama supporter, Gomez didn't have any problem with the main thrust of Holder's comments. What bothered her was that his narrative was so incomplete as to be irrelevant.

“Holder's speech is very much in black-and-white terms,” she said. “Almost everywhere he mentions specifics, he's talking about blacks and whites.” Like when Holder said: “The study of black history is important to everyone – black or white,” or when he rattled off a list of African-American civil rights figures as “people to whom all of us, black and white, owe such a debt of gratitude.”

It wasn't exactly the inclusive and multiracial tone that Obama struck in his poetic speech on race in Philadelphia during the presidential campaign.

Gomez understands the context of Holder's remarks. “Granted, this (was) Black History Month,” she said, “and there's an important reason to talk in those terms . . . but I think it does raise a question: Where are Latinos in this?”

For Gomez, it's a familiar story.

“We're presumed invisible from the racial past of the United States,” she said.

Gomez mined that past in her book, “Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race,” which traces the origins of Mexican-Americans as a racial group in this country.

Today, stuck somewhere in between whites and nonwhites, Latinos are often ignored – in entertainment, politics, media, business, etc. Television networks will do a series on race or ethnicity in America, and still sketch out the storyboard in black and white. When Latinos are noticed, they're usually a footnote, an afterthought, or an accessory – as when a well-meaning politician is talking about race relations, equal opportunity or civil rights, and mentions “blacks and whites . . . and browns.”

Another concern for Gomez is that, even when other Americans do see Latinos, a lot of people aren't always sure what they're seeing. Consider the immigration debate.

“There's this almost hyper-visibility of Latinos,” she said. “But it's a narrow and often wrong kind of hyper-visibility because it is the 'illegal alien.' Every Latino is presumed to be an immigrant and secondly to be an undocumented Mexican.”

Ah yes. There is nothing like people whose ancestors have been here for six generations being told to “go back to Mexico” by those whose ancestors are relative newcomers.

Granted, it's not easy to turn a blind eye to an ethnic group that, according to census estimates, could represent one in four Americans by 2030. But some people – like our attorney general – manage to pull it off.

And in doing so, they describe America as it used to be, not what it is, let alone what it is becoming.

Navarrette can be reached via ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com .

Hispanic immigration information false

Unreliable CIS Data Is Out-of-Date and Context
Restrictionist Group Analysis Long on Fear, Short on Solutions
PRESS RELEASE

Washington D.C. - Newspaper and television are running a narrow story quoting out-of-date and out-of-context data prepared by the immigration restrictionist group, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who are alleging that 300,000 "illegal immigrants" will benefit from jobs created by the recently-approved economic stimulus plan. Unfortunately, these stories provide no counter-analysis from other research groups or experts who study these issues.

In order to provide a more balanced analysis, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) has produced a fact check which clarifies CIS' fuzzy claims:

If you torture the numbers long enough, they will tell you anything.
CIS's estimates of the number of undocumented workers who will take stimulus jobs are manufactured, relying upon mischaracterizations of government projections and outdated estimates of the undocumented workforce.

- CIS asserts that the stimulus bill will create two million new construction jobs based on a 2007 estimate by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on how many "construction-oriented" jobs are directly created by each $1 billion of "federal highway expenditures." Yet "construction-oriented" jobs include technical and management positions for which undocumented immigrants, who tend to be less-skilled, are unlikely to qualify.

- CIS then claims that 15% of these two million new construction jobs (roughly 300,000) will go to undocumented workers because an estimated 15% of construction workers were undocumented in 2005-before the economic collapse and before the huge job losses in construction. Ironically, CIS itself also claims that undocumented workers are leaving the country.
- In using this estimate, CIS is applying the highway jobs-creation formula to all infrastructure projects in the stimulus bill when, in fact, we know that the reach of the stimulus bill goes well beyond highways. There is no way to know how many less-skilled jobs will be created much less how many might be filled by undocumented workers.

E-Verify is not a silver bullet and is not ready for primetime.

- The costs of E-Verify, which CIS promotes relentlessly, would decrease federal revenues by $17.3 billion over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
- E-Verify relies on an error-ridden database that includes 17.8 million discrepancies, over 12 million of which pertain to native-born U.S. citizens. Expanding the program means that U.S. citizens would have to ask the government for permission to work and rely on a government database for speed and accuracy. Up to 3 million workers a year would have to navigate a bureaucratic maze to fix their records.

Real solutions come from real reform.

- E-Verify won't keep undocumented immigrants out of the workforce, nor will any of the other "enforcement only" policies that have been tried and failed over the past two decades.
- Comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants already in the United States would eliminate the pool of exploitable, underground workers whom unscrupulous employers use to undercut wages and working conditions for all workers.

The truth is that no one knows the percentage of jobs that will go to undocumented workers. However, restrictionist groups like CIS are not pursuing solutions, but rather scare tactics and mass deportation strategies. To ensure that U.S. citizens and immigrants legally authorized to work in the U.S. get the jobs they deserve, we must comprehensively address the broken immigration system, legalize our workforce, and enforce labor laws against bad-apple employers who take advantage of the broken system. Scaring us with big numbers is not a solution.

Hispanic leaders should work and national education agenda

Hispanic leaders should work on national education agenda
by Adrian Perez, Publisher, Latino Journal

The U.S. Census data released last week shows Hispanic children make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. As the number of Hispanics continues to climb, so does the need for Hispanic leaders to become part of the debate on economic development, immigration, health, and especially education. It is essential to create and leave a path of success that our posterity can follow.

We continue to see data that shows our population growth in areas of the United States we only new through our grade school history and geography books. Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, all these states have experienced a growth of Hispanics and each is trying to address the challenges this growth is bringing, like bilingual education or English as a second language classes. But will these challenges bring success or frustration to Hispanic youth trying to cope with a new environment, culture, society and discrimination?

In a report provided by the Parent Institute for Quality Education of San Diego, California, it showed a direct correlation between the number of Hispanic youths who dropped out of school and the number of Hispanic youth incarcerated. And, in reports provided by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Immigration Policy Center clearly state America's economic hopes lay on the economic growth of Hispanics. But, to achieve this, Hispanic youth need to get an education.

The Latino Journal has conducted education summits in the past, which resulted in some public policy that had a positive impact on the dropout issue. However, it is apparent that we need more similar events and our leaders need to establish a clear national educational agenda for the future of Hispanics and the nation.

NCLR testifies before Congress on Latino preditory lending

NCLR TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS ON LATINOS AND
PREDATORY LENDING
PRESS RELEASE

Washington, DC—The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services on Wednesday, March 11 on Latino wealth-building priorities and reforming the nation’s broken mortgage system. Since the hearing will look at consumer protection in the financial services sector as it relates to predatory lending, NCLR’s testimony will also include recommendations for strengthening President Obama’s “Make Home Affordable” plan, addressing predatory lending and promoting the role of community-based nonprofits in helping to restore financial security in the Latino community. The hearing will be presided over by Committee Chair Luis Gutierrez (D–IL) and will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

NCLR will speak to the predatory tactics targeting Latino mortgage borrowers. NCLR has long warned that flaws in the mortgage system open the door to unethical lending practices, leaving Latino borrowers vulnerable. They are twice as likely as White families to end up with a subprime loan, which results in higher fees and greater susceptibility to foreclosure, threatening the significant gains in homeownership that the Latino community has made over the last decade.

Hispanics learn of Obama's education goals

Obama Calls for Overhaul of Education System
By Jeff Zeleny The New York Times 2009/03/10

President Obama said Tuesday that the nation must overhaul its education system and dramatically decrease the drop-out rate among students to remain competitive in the global economy.

In an address to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama issued a challenge to states to increase the quality of reading and math instruction to keep American students at pace with other countries. It was the first major education speech Mr. Obama delivered since taking office seven weeks ago.

“It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career,” Mr. Obama said. “We have accepted failure for too long – enough. America’s entire education system must once more be the envy of the world.” [Video]

The president challenged teachers unions, renewing his support for a merit-based system of payment. He also said adult Americans needed to take responsibility for improving their own education, in addition to improve the education of their children.
Doug Mills/The New York Times

“The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here,” Mr. Obama said. “What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students.”

The address on Tuesday was the first step in laying out the president’s agenda to improve American schools, officials said, with more specifics to be outlined in the coming weeks to Congress. Mr. Obama set a goal of the United States having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

“Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said, “the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens – and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”

Mr. Obama called for continued funding of charter schools, which his administration refers to as “laboratories of innovation.” Teachers’ unions oppose the schools, saying they take away funding for public schools. The president also challenged unions, a reliable Democratic constituency, by promoting a merit-based system of payment for teachers, an idea he pledged to support during the campaign.

“It means treating teachers like the professionals they are while also holding them more accountable,” Mr. Obama said. “New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones. Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools.”

Obama tells Hispanics bad teachers should be fired

Obama takes on teachers' unions
By JONATHAN MARTIN | POLITICO 3/10/09

After weeks of pleasing Democrats by overturning policies set by the previous administration, President Barack Obama Tuesday for the first time confronted a powerful constituency in his own party: teachers’ unions.

Obama proposed spending additional money on effective teachers in up to 150 additional school districts, fulfilling a campaign promise that once earned him boos from members of the National Education Association.

“Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools,” he said in a wide-ranging education speech before a meeting of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

Obama’s embrace of merit pay won’t go over well among a group that often provides key funding and foot soldiers for Democratic campaigns.

Teachers’ unions say merit pay causes teachers to compete against each other, rather than collaborate, and is unfair to those who work in disadvantaged areas where it can be harder to boost student performance.

But polls show the policy is overwhelmingly supported by the public, and it offers Obama a chance both to burnish his reformer credentials and point to a split from party orthodoxy.

In addition to rewarding good teachers, Obama also said he’ll seek to push out those who aren’t getting results, another proposal that may rankle a profession that prizes tenure.

“Let me be clear: if a teacher is given a chance, or two chances, or three chances, and still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching,” he told the business group. “I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high. We can afford nothing but the best when it comes to our children’s teachers and to the schools where they teach.”

The White House didn’t specify how the president would like to see poor-performing teachers removed from the classroom.

Obama did lavish praise on the profession – going off script at one point to note that his sister is a teacher – but his remarks offered as much tough love. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Hispanic coalition to receive FBI award

Hispanic Coalition to Receive FBI Award
Ceremony in Washington March 20
Myfoxal.com 09 Mar 2009

Birmingham, Ala. - The executive director of the Hispanic Coalition of Alabama will travel to Washington, D.C., to receive a leadership award from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. The awards ceremony is scheduled for March 20.

HICA is receiving the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award, an honor that was first announced in November. The award is given to organizations that help with crime and violence prevention. Each FBI field office makes a selection, and this year's honoree for the Birmingham area was HICA.

"We truly appreciate the relationship that we have developed with the FBI and other law enforcement organizations throughout Birmingham over the past few years," said HICA Executive Director Isabel Rubio in an FBI news release last year. "I am honored to be recognized by the Director of the FBI for our work."

Latina immigrant champion runs for office

Champion of immigrants seeks office
By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press March 9, 2009

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas — An outspoken critic of Farmers Branch officials' attempts to oust illegal immigrants announced Monday she is running for a spot on the city council of the Dallas suburb.

If elected, business owner and activist Elizabeth Villafranca, 45, would become the first Hispanic council member of a city where about 47 percent of residents are Latino. She also would be the only woman in several years to serve on the council.

Villafranca, who has opposed city efforts to prohibit immigrants from renting homes and the costly legal fight to enforce such rules, is seeking the spot being vacated this year by Jim Smith.

The California-born daughter of Mexican immigrants, said she got involved in the issue partly because it was a lesson to her daughter, Natalie, whom she homeschools.

"All of this started off as a civics lesson, but I never thought this would be the civics lesson of my entire life," said Villafranca, who with her husband Enrique owns Cuquita's, a Mexican food restaurant in Farmers Branch.

But Villafranca also pointed out that if elected, current city policies targeting illegal immigrants would remain in the courts.

"This is not about immigration. That is not the business of Farmers Branch," she said. "That is out of our hands."

Farmers Branch has faced several state and federal lawsuits in its more than two-year fight to enforce measures aimed at keeping illegal immigrants from living in the city. The city has legal fees surpassing a million dollars and must pay for the attorney fees of their opponents after a federal judge ruled one of their previous immigration-related rules unconstitutional.

The latest ordinance version would require prospective tenants of houses or apartments to get rental licenses. The city building inspector would verify with the federal government whether those who are not U.S. citizens have a legal presence in the country. Anyone deemed an illegal immigrant would be banned from leasing in the city. The ordinance remains tied up in a legal challenge and cannot be enforced.

Around the country, some 100 cities or counties have considered, passed or rejected similar laws, but Farmers Branch was the first in Texas, according to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which tracks the data.

Latinos left in mayoral race

Exit leaves only Latinos in Lawrence mayor race
By Associated Press March 9, 2009

LAWRENCE — Lawrence city council president Patrick Blanchette has decided not to run for mayor, leaving only Latino candidates in a race that could elect the state’s first Latino mayor.

Blanchette said in an e-mail today that he was exiting because of family and health reasons.

His departure comes two months after The Eagle-Tribune reported the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien again Blanchette for $8,888 in unpaid taxes and penalties from 2005 to 2007. Blanchette said then he was paying the tax debt.

The election for Lawrence mayor, to be held later this year, has attracted at least five high profile Latino candidates to replace outgoing Mayor Michael Sullivan, who cannot run again due to term limits.

The city of 71,000 is about 70 percent Latino.

The Eagle-Tribune, http://www.eagletribune.com/

Sheriff will jail Hispanic immigrants

N.C. sheriff keeps immigration stance
Associated Press March 9, 2009

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina sheriff says he'll continue to use a controversial program that allows deputies to report suspected illegal immigrants after they're arrested on other charges.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chip Bailey said Monday that deputies don't actively look for illegal immigrants. He said all individuals are asked about their citizenship while being booked into jail. If they say they're not a U.S. citizen, they are reported to immigration officials.

The sheriff's office is among more than 60 state or local law enforcement agencies that participates in the federal program, which was criticized last week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The agency said the program is being used to round up minor offenders instead of serious criminals, a criticism echoed by Latino advocacy groups in North Carolina.

Hispanic families key to immigration reform

Immigration rights advocates focus on families
Immigration crackdown
By Dahleen Glanton LA TIMES March 10, 2009

Norcross, Ga. -- On a recent afternoon, 15-year-old Marlon Parras stood on stage in front of 3,000 people and talked about the hardships he and his 13-year-old sister have faced since their parents were deported to Guatemala.

He wept as he spoke of his parents' decision to leave them, both American citizens, with relatives and church members so they could continue their education in suburban Atlanta.

"This is not a family," Marlon told the crowd. "This is not fair."

Two years after an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws failed in Congress, Latino leaders have revitalized the effort -- positioning children who were left behind when their parents were deported as the new face of the movement. The campaign is designed to pressure President Obama to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority.

Borrowing a page from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, supporters of immigration rights have taken their cause to churches, drawing upon the growing population of evangelical Latinos, who are strong advocates of family values. Nearly 1 in 6 Latinos in the U.S. identify themselves as evangelicals, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Only Roman Catholics make up a larger group.

"We want to make sure President Barack Obama understands that while [the economy] . . . needs his attention, we want him to keep his promise to address comprehensive immigration reform during the first year of his first term," said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has organized rallies in 17 cities. "Our families are the cornerstone of our society, and we want to protect those families."

The mostly Latino audience that packed the large evangelical church in Norcross prayed, sang spirituals and heard from families -- including the Parrases -- that have been torn apart.

Their stories are designed to focus attention on what community leaders said was the most tragic consequence of the crackdown on illegal immigration: the breakup of families. It is a problem that Latino leaders have said affects up to 5 million children, most of whom were born in the U.S. and therefore are citizens.

During tough economic times, it may be difficult to gain public support for legislation that could provide legal citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants.

Still, Gutierrez -- who shared the church stage with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon -- brought the effort deep into conservative territory, where many support plans to secure the borders rather than grant widespread citizenship. Georgia has one of the fastest-growing illegal immigrant populations in the nation, rising to about 490,000 in 2008 from 228,000 in 2000, according to state estimates.

But Latino leaders are hoping that concern and empathy for broken families will galvanize their community and draw the support of others. Organizers are gathering thousands of petitions and plan a rally in Washington in July.

"When you have a 15-year-old American citizen speak very emotionally and eloquently about his pain, most Americans will say, 'We didn't know the system was that broken,' " said Gutierrez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' immigration task force. "Americans do support the basic premise that children should not be held accountable for the actions of adults."

Latinos turned out 2 to 1 for Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential election, and helped him capture key battleground states such as New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Now they want him to honor his campaign promise.

"We understand that Mr. Obama is in a difficult position," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, which represents 20,000 churches in 34 states. "Latinos supported him because they were extremely disappointed with Republicans and the ultra-conservative right wing evangelical movement. So it is important that he make immigration reform a priority."

Michael Franc, vice president for government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said overhauling immigration laws was a divisive subject among Democrats as well as Republicans.

"They hate it. It's radioactive on both sides of the aisle," Franc said. "There was a schism on the Democratic side during the last immigration debate, but because the Republicans were so vocal in their opposition, no one noticed the Democrats' reluctance."

When people are out of work and struggling to keep their families together, there is less sympathy for illegal immigrants, he said. A tight job market and the competition for jobs provided in the federal stimulus package also could influence public perceptions about immigration.

"If you are trying to reach out to newer audiences and expand the pro-immigration reform level of support, it is easier to feel sympathy for the horror stories coming into your living room on your TV screen when things are going well for everybody," Franc said. "If you have a job, the story of those kids pulls on your heartstrings, but it is perceived differently when you are wondering how you are going to pay your bills because the economy is tanking."

Still, Latino leaders are highlighting the stories of people like Tanyia Lopez, 12, whose mother was deported to Honduras last year, leaving her and her four younger siblings, including a chronically ill 2-year-old. Their 16-year-old aunt dropped out of high school to care for them full time. They recently faced eviction because their grandmother lost her job. They have depended on their church for survival.

"The little ones don't understand what happened to our mom," Tanyia said, adding that they have no money to join her in Honduras. "We all miss her and we want to be together."

dglanton@tribune.com

Hispanic center provides clothing, food

Center would create anchor for Latinos
Pennlive.com March 10, 2009

The Hispanic community of Harrisburg once had a place to call home.

Named the Mount Pleasant Hispanic American Center, people from the community would go to the old, vast building on 13th Street to get help. There was a clothing bank and a food pantry on the first floor. Upstairs, classes were held, including English as a Second Language courses for adults. But the center closed three years ago. The most notable reason was that the United Way of the Capital Region withheld $91,519 because they said the center did not provide measurable results or provide an audit or documentation of services.

Some of the programs were moved elsewhere, including those for people trying to learn English. The closing left the Hispanic community without the prospect of an anchor in the Harrisburg area.

But there are efforts anew to create an Hispanic center again in Harrisburg. A small group of organizers has built a board and is looking for financial assistance.

Just this week, a donation of $100,000 was presented to the Pennsylvania Association of Latino Organizations to help fund a new center.

Donations have come from the United Way of the Capital Region, Dauphin County Human Resources, PNC Bank and the Foundation of Enhancing Communities.

In a community with a growing Hispanic population, having a functional center could be an important way of providing a hub for the community. It could be a safe place where children might spend their afterschool hours, where adults could again get English lessons and even where Latino festivals could be held.

Because there is a large number of Latinos in Harrisburg living in poverty, a center also would provide much-needed social services.

There are role models all over the country, including in York and Philadelphia where Hispanic centers have grown into important places for the Latino community. In Philadelphia, in particular, a small center has turned into a multi-faceted base where people of all backgrounds go for help.

We hope that the financing and organizing steps continue in Harrisburg, and Pennsylvania's capital city can have a center that Latinos can call "mi casa."

Latina moves from chamber to politics

Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce losing its president to Kansas GOP
By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News sjean@dallasnews.com March 9, 2009

After bringing new leadership and diplomacy to the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, its president, CiCi Rojas, is being tapped to do the same for the Republican Party in Kansas.

Rojas has said she will leave her position as leader of the nation's largest Hispanic chamber at the end of April to become executive director of the Kansas Republican Party. It's a homecoming for Rojas, a native of Kansas City, Kan.

"I was really excited by the role," Rojas said. "Secondly, it would be a nice opportunity to get back to my roots."

Rojas united and refocused a chamber fraught with leadership conflict. Months before she joined the chamber in July 2006, it lost at least three board members.

"She has grown the depth of talent in the staff to a level that we have not seen before while also defusing the turmoil," said chamber Chairman Frank J. Rosello. "We will really miss her leadership."

Rojas helped the chamber increase its membership (now 2,100), staff and operating budget; launch a young professionals' group last summer; and diversify its revenue through grants. Federal grants allowed it to become the Department of Transportation's small-business procurement hub for the gulf states and to undertake a feasibility study to build a new office.

Florencia Velasco Fortner, president of the nonprofit Dallas Concilio of Hispanic Service Organizations, who wrote a January editorial in The Dallas Morning News about a Latino leadership void here, said Rojas "stretched out her hand" to nonprofits.

"We've been able to move the needle together," said Rojas, 42, who credits her achievements to teamwork.

As it seeks Rojas' replacement, the chamber hopes to name an interim president by April 1, Rosello said.

The role has become more high profile as the Latino population has grown. Latinos made up 38 percent of Dallas County residents in 2007.

Rojas joins politics in Kansas, a red state, as the national Republican Party faces leadership questions. She plans to continue representing small-business owners by helping to broaden the party's outreach and inclusiveness.

"It's truly a way to make sure the policies adopted are good for small businesses," Rojas said.

She has been vice president of strategic alliances and special projects at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, Mo.; and a Kansas City, Mo., parks and recreation commissioner.

Kansas Republican Party chairwoman Amanda Adkins called Rojas an innovator.

Adkins, who took office in January, plans to focus on "big ideas using new technologies and doing new coalition work to build out our network in the state," she said. "I can think of no one better to build out our plan and attack those goals than CiCi."

Hispanic immigrants could benefit from Pelosi

Pelosi: End raids splitting immigrant families
Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer March 8, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined hundreds of families Saturday evening at a church in San Francisco's Mission District demanding an end to the immigration raids and deportations that separate parents from children across the United States.

Pelosi, who has said securing U.S. borders is a top priority, used the forum to call for a comprehensive immigration program that recognizes the broad contributions immigrants have made to the fabric of the country.

"Our future is about our children," Pelosi told a crowd of mostly Latino families at St. Anthony's Church.

No matter if those families arrived two days ago or centuries ago, Pelosi said "that opportunity, that determination, that hope has made American more American."

She said, "Taking parents from their children ... that's un-American."

Pelosi's comments came during the San Francisco stop of a 17-city national "Family Unity" tour led by leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Members of the caucus expect to meet with President Obama in two weeks to discuss the nation's immigration policies.

"No city in American has been spared the devastating effects of our broken system," said Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat who is leading the five-week tour. "We cannot wait any longer for fair and just immigration reform."

Under the Bush administration's Operation Return to Sender, tens of thousands of people have been arrested nationwide, including at least 1,800 in Northern and Central California.

While the raids have drawn protests across the region, anti-immigrant groups such as the Northern California chapter of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps have defended the actions.

In a state whose population is expected to rocket to 54 million by 2040 - including a Latino population of 27 million compared with 16 million whites and 7 million of Asian descent - immigration will be a critical issue for decades.

Organizers of Saturday evening's event said raids and family separations - often parents are taken away from their U.S.-born children - run counter to a country where early Irish, Italian, Asian and African American families founded some of the country's most important institutions. In addition, they say, such measures have devastating impacts on the young children who are left behind, or forced to move with their parents.

Ivan Torres, a 9-year-old boy from San Jose, said he lives in fear that his father, who earns a living cleaning offices, will be taken away: "If (my father) is deported, who will pay the bills? Who will take care of me and my two sisters? We need to keep families together."

E-mail Kelly Zito at kzito@sfchronicle.com

NY Latinos woed in Spanish by Mayor

NY mayor hones Spanish skills to woo Latino voters
By SARA KUGLER | Associated Press Writer March 8, 2009

NEW YORK - For a long time, it was hard to get Mayor Michael Bloomberg to say more than a few words in Spanish. But as his third bid for mayor gets off the ground, he can't seem to stop speaking it.

Bloomberg has been studying Spanish since his first run for mayor, and he has mostly limited his public displays to a few phrases and greetings here and there. But now, with more and more Latino voters in New York City, along with higher-rated Spanish-language news broadcasts, Bloomberg is looking for more ways to be heard, despite his inelegant accent and clumsy verb conjugations.

He now concludes every news conference by summing up the main points and taking some questions in Spanish, and at two recent events _ a snow briefing and women's luncheon _ he answered reporters' questions in Spanish without any help. The responses are sometimes filled with awkward phrases like "the streets have cleaned" and "it was a lot of windy," but the fact that he's willing to try could be important in wooing a growing Latino electorate.

At the beginning of 2007, there were about 676,000 Latino registered voters out of 3.8 million citywide. Now, that number has grown to more than 860,000 out of more than 4.2 million, according to Voter Contact Services, which processes voter files.

"It's a group that all the campaigns will be going for," said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant and expert on voter data.

Campaign strategists say there is no such thing as one Latino voting bloc in New York City, which is home to large numbers of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Ecuadorans, Colombians and Mexicans, along with many other smaller communities.

The demographics of the past no longer apply. While Puerto Ricans have long been the largest Latino group in the city, and considered the most important group to court politically, analysts say that is also changing. During the last mayoral election, they represented about 60 percent of the Latino population, and that percentage is estimated at about 50 percent this year.

The two leading Democratic mayoral challengers, Comptroller William Thompson Jr. and Rep. Anthony Weiner, both speak conversational Spanish occasionally at public events and with Spanish-language media, and have taken lessons to keep up their skills.

Bloomberg aides say the decision for him to summarize his public events in Spanish, and to speak it more regularly, grew out of discussions last fall, with an eye on the rapidly growing Spanish media in New York City.

Last year, the 6 p.m. newscast on WXTV, the Spanish-speaking Univision affiliate, eclipsed its English competitors on ABC, CBS and NBC stations in popularity among viewers younger than 49, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Bloomberg's advisers surmised that their boss would get more exposure on those stations if he were to speak Spanish at his daily events, rather than a reporter translating his words in a voiceover.

When it comes to courting the city's Latino voters, Bloomberg always has to outdo himself.

The first time he ran for City Hall as an unknown billionaire businessman, his campaign let it slip out that he had started learning Spanish, and his tutor sometimes accompanied him to campaign events. Bloomberg could manage only greetings and pleasantries, but it was enough to show he was making an effort.

That year he won roughly one-third of the Latino vote.

For his re-election bid in 2005, Bloomberg's campaign made a big show of releasing its first television ad in Spanish. By then, he was also comfortable enough to occasionally speak a few words in public, despite his mispronunciations and awkward accent.

He won less of the Latino vote that year _ about one-fourth _ but he was facing an opponent of Puerto Rican descent who had an established base of Latino support.

After winning re-election, Bloomberg kept up his lessons and occasional bilingual public displays, surprising many with his skills during a trip to Mexico in 2007, when he conducted a news conference in both languages, without help from a translator.

And for the first time ever, he began a news conference in Spanish last week as he stood with the city's police commissioner to announce an arrest in an alleged hate crime killing of an Ecuadoran immigrant.

Yet with all his practice, including regular tutoring and iPod lessons, Bloomberg still demonstrates only a basic grasp of the language at best, as evidenced by his clumsy phrases during Monday's snow briefing. His accent is widely known to be awful.

But some say that the sign of progress in learning a foreign language is that you sound like you would in your native tongue. Bloomberg's English _ especially when speaking publicly _ is also often awkward, with pronunciations on the wrong syllables, unnecessary pluralizations and misused vocabulary.

"Before I die, I am going to accomplish this," the 67-year-old mayor said last week. "Although it's a race, I will say that."

Latinos, Blacks helped by Fraternity group

Fraternity focuses on helping Latinos, African-Americans
By Elena Ferrarin | Daily Herald Staff 3/9/2009

Throughout his four years of high school, Genaro Saenz pretty much spent every other Sunday evening developing his understanding of what it means to be a "phenomenal young man."

By all accounts, the soft-spoken and neatly dressed 19-year-old, a sophomore in chemical engineering at the University of Chicago, is well on his way to becoming one.

He gives much of the credit to the Aurora-based Boys II Men fraternity, which he joined the summer before his freshman year at East Aurora High School. Fraternity members taught him things like how to dress properly, how to speak appropriately and how to treat women respectfully, he said.

"You learn that it's all about respecting yourself," he said. "When you enter a room, you represent yourself, your family, your race and where you come from."

Boys II Men meets every first and third Sunday of the month, is free and is open to Latino and African-American boys in eighth through 12th grades, although it has a couple of Caucasian members. Once they enroll in college, members are considered "scholars."

The fraternity numbers about 100 members, mostly in the Chicago area, said founder and director Clayton Muhammad. The only requirement to join is a desire to succeed, Muhammad said.

"Our goal is shattering stereotypes, especially the stereotype that education to Latinos and blacks is not important," he said. "... Stereotypes like we are thugs who can think only of putting new rims on their car or buying new Timberland boots."

Instead, the focus of Boys II Men is to instill in its members the desire to get a college degree that will launch them in a professional career, he said.

"You are supposed to graduate from high school. You get no props from me for that," said Muhammad, who attends every meeting of the fraternity. "When you graduate from college - that's when you get the props."

At a recent Boys II Men meeting, each young man stood up to tell about his biggest accomplishment of 2008. "Being the student representative on the school board and going to Princeton (University) this summer," said 17-year-old Roberto Saenz, a senior at East Aurora High School.

"Being accepted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and having an interview with Harvard (University)," said Gilberto Chaidez, a senior at West Aurora High School and co-president of the fraternity.

"Having a 3.78 GPA (grade-point average)," said Esteban Roman, a junior at East Aurora High.

Older members who are now in college answered questions from their younger "brothers" about what it's like to transition from high school to college and what challenges - and rewards - lay ahead.

"I wake up at 5:30 a.m., I got to be in class from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and I don't get out of work until 11 p.m." said Pedro Gonzalez, a sophomore at the DuPage campus of Westwood College, where he is studying visual communication. "A big thing is who you hang around with. It really makes a difference."

Study habits are crucial, said Joshua Jones, a Boys II Men scholar who is enrolled at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.

"You have to find a system, and sometimes it's about trial and error, like maybe trying to work with somebody else," he said.

Saenz said that becoming good friends with African-American fraternity brothers opened his eyes to how there are more similarities than differences between people of different races. "What I learned is that you have to be open all the time and don't choose a book by its cover because anybody could be a very smart person or end up becoming your best friend," he said.

His brother Genaro agreed. "It's an organization that is trying to unite African-Americans and Hispanics, and defeat the conflicts that are between them," he said. "It's teaching us to be men for the future."

Catalina Saenz credits Muhammad with being a positive influence on her sons. "He always makes sure that the students have respect for him, but he is also a friend they can go to," said Saenz, a single mother. "They can speak to him about their problems, their needs, and the good things that happen to them."

Boys II Men was started in November 2002 by Muhammad, who was then vice president of the Quad County Urban League. He now works as director of community relations for East Aurora School District 131, but stresses the fraternity is not affiliated with the school district and that fraternity members can come from anywhere.

The idea to form a fraternity came to Muhammad after a community meeting in the fall of 2002, when the chief of the Aurora Police Department pointed out that the city was being "held captive" by about 12 gang leaders, he said. "That's when I thought, 'What if you had 12 young men in the same demographic who have more in common than what they have different?" he said.

So Muhammad decided to find out and brought together an initial group of African-American and Latino high-schoolers from the Aurora area. The organization has since expanded both in size and scope, and now includes annual events like a "Mom Prom" for Mother's Day and the "Phenomenal Men Awards," which recognize young minority males.

That's how current co-president Gilberto Chaidez, 17, found about Boys II Men in December 2007. The organization has two co-presidents, one African-American and one Latino.

"I really liked what Boys II Men stood for," he said. "They have a strong value of working hard and going to college, and that in order to have success, you have to have successful people guide you."

His 14-year-old brother, Raul, also joined the fraternity, and their youngest sibling, 10-year-old, Meliton, will likely follow suit, Gilberto said.

"Boys II Men has really opened my mind toward not only becoming a better person yourself, but when you achieve, also to give back to your community," he said.

To find out more about Boys II Men, e-mail claytonmuhammad@aol.com or call (630) 340-5378.

GOP needs Hispanic Marketing 101

Hispanic Marketing 101 for my GOP
Angelette Aviles | March 4, 2009 | State of Sunshine

Soon after the November election I was interviewed by a journalist in regards to the outcome of the Hispanic vote. The Hispanics shifted greatly in favor of Obama and more Hispanics registered Democrat than Republican in the state of Florida for the 1st time in History. The reporter asked, “Do you think this shift is because the Republican Party is not inclusive and should work better at it?” My response was that if the party was not inclusive I guess I would have never been a Republican.

Now, I realize why this reporter was probing specifically about the party’s outreach…..it is because the Republican Party leaders are not effectively communicating their message. They are not choosing “words that work.” During both statewide and local meetings and fundraisers I continue to hear that the party “is” inclusive and that “is” working on a great outreach program. When it is described as such, others hear and understand it as the Republican Party has never been inclusive and is developing an outreach program for the first time.

By utilizing the word “is” projects to the audience that the speaker is on defensive mode rather than sounding proactive. The words inclusive and outreach only add fuel to the fire. When working on marketing and PR campaigns with clients it is not only the look and feel of a piece that is significant, but even more important is the content and how it is used and strategically placed. In the arena of politics, ‘words speak louder than action,’ and perception of those words has to set precedence when developing a message.

So now you ask, “Angelette, what would you say to your fellow Latinos why the Republican Party is the party for Hispanics?” My answer is that the Republican Party strives to do business based on our principles of less government, less taxes for individuals and businesses[1] that will allow us[2] to grow and succeed in achieving the American dream.[3] The party encourages accountability in the school system while understanding that parents are more capable of deciding what is best for their children[4]. The Republican Party will continue[5] to share these messages and principles in which many Latinos have already[6] connected and come to agree with.

And last but not least the other discouraging words I hear among these same party leaders is stating that Hispanics care about the same values as the GOP when it comes to families, faith and abortion. The answer is families are important in the sense that we work hard to provide better opportunities for our family and that we know how to better handle our money or school choice than government. However, Hispanics are like any other American and moral positions like abortion is on the bottom of the totem pole as a concern or deciding factor when it comes to elections. Why do you think many of those who voted for Obama also voted in favor of the Marriage Amendment in states like Florida and California? It only becomes an issue for us when it is brought about as a separate campaign.

In conclusion….Hispanic Marketing Tip 101: Don’t forget there is a difference when reaching out to 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation Hispanic Americans. Don’t forget there is a difference of political and economic opinions when reaching out to a Puerto Rican versus a Cuban or a Venezuelan versus a Mexican, or a Colombian versus a Dominican. Don’t forget there is a difference between Translating versus Transcreation. When in doubt, call me or email me at Aaviles@AmericasMarketing.com!!