B&G Clubs hold college prep program for Latino students
By Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour, The Times-Herald
Christina Gomez, a 17-year-old junior at East Coweta High School, hopes to be the first in her family to graduate from college, an aspiration she didn't consider before participating in a college prep program offered to Latino students at the Newnan-Coweta Boys & Girls Club.
Gomez is one of about 20 teen-aged Latino students who are participating in the club's Latino Outreach Program. As part of the program, teens also recently completed a 10-week college prep program that taught them about college, how to get there and what obstacles they'd have to overcome to achieve success.
Their completion of the "My Future, My Choice, My Education" program -- held in partnership with the Goizueta Foundation-sponsored Hispanic Scholarship Fund -- culminated in an April 16 awards ceremony at First Baptist's youth center, The Warehouse.
The students who participated in the program -- led by the club's Latino outreach coordinator, Mariel Leyton -- received certificates and awards according to their level of attendance.
Besides the awards, students received a renewed confidence that they, too, have a stake in their future as long as they work hard and keep a positive outlook.
"I used to not care," Gomez said about her plans after school. "I said 'Oh, I am not going to college, but I don't want to be another statistic, someone who's out there doing drugs or dropping out of school."
While Latinos represent America's largest minority group, the Latino youth have some of the highest school dropout and teen pregnancy rates, according to the U.S. Census.
The path for many of them or the "Latino educational pipeline" -- as presented during the program -- shows that of 100 Latino kindergarten students, 56 will drop out of high school. Of the 44 who graduate, 24 continue will either continue on to a community or four-year college. Of those 24, only six will graduate from the four-year institution.
Gomez, who is originally from California and whose family members all hail from Mexico, feels she'll be either the first or second in her family to graduate from high school. Her plans now include going further and earning a college degree.
"I just want to prove that we can do it," she said.
Unlike Gomez, there are several others in the program -- some living in group homes -- who have the additional burden of being "undocumented," youngsters who aren't United States citizens yet.
Despite their ineligibility to qualify for federal Pell grants, Georgia Hope scholarships or even traditional loans in most cases, they said it doesn't diminish their desire to succeed like their American teen counterparts or pursue better careers and lives than their parents.
Recalling the joy of their accomplishments and the pain of missing loved ones back home, many of the students teared up as they approached the stage to collect their certificates.
Olga Mendez, a 17-year-old student at Northgate High School, recalled the sacrifices her mother made since sending her daughter to the U.S. 11 years ago. While Mendez often begged to return home to Honduras while talking with her mother on the phone, her mother repeatedly told her it was important for her to stay to get an education and succeed in life.
Choking back tears, Mendez said she often dreamed about visiting her family one day when she did succeed.
"I think in the future, I'd like to be a lawyer or a counselor to help people who are in trouble," she said.
Invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Mendez said instead of 'I have a dream,' "I would use "We all have a dream. I say this will my whole heart and with tears in my eyes."
Lizbeth Crisantos, a 17-year-old junior at Newnan High School, recalled the difficulties in learning English when her family arrived in the U.S. from Vera Cruz, Mexico.
"Kids used to make fun of me at school, and I didn't know what they were saying. It took me six months to learn the basics and three years to be able to communicate," she said.
Named that night as the Hispanic Youth of the Year, Crisantos, like others, thanked her ESL teachers, members of the club and her family. She talked of the importance of Hispanic youth continuing their progress to take advantage of the Hispanic Scholarship Program's opportunity.
"I would like to be able to experience university life," she said. "I feel without an education, I will not have a good future."
Heidy Lough, director of the metro Atlanta Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Latino Outreach Initiative encouraged the students "to act upon your dreams."
The cost for nonresidents to attend college is doubled and sometimes tripled, according to what the students learned, but Darryl Smith, executive director of the Newnan-Coweta Boys &Girls Club, asked them to not let worries about those financial hurdles consume them.
"You never know who's watching you," he said. "The way the stock market is going, people might want to invest in students, in the future instead."
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Latino kids need early education
Early education a must
Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2009
This is in response to "Advocates: Latinos lack access to pre-K; Kids enter kindergarten at a disadvantage" (Page 1, April 15), which detailed a crisis facing Chicago communities: Latino and other minority families have too little access to quality, affordable early-education opportunities. Quite often low-income families simply don't know where to turn for help. At Christopher House, a non-profit that has been serving Chicago for more than 100 years, we witness every day the strong need for pre-kindergarten programs that make a real difference in the lives of our kids.
When we educate children at an early age, we improve their readiness for kindergarten. Studies show that early learning is one of the key indicators of long-term success in school. Giving children the right academic start is an investment that helps to reduce crime, teen pregnancy and dependency on government programs.
Despite the obvious need -- and benefit -- Chicago falls short. In Logan Square, there are more than 4,700 Latino children under the age of 5, but only 25 percent were enrolled in early-education programs in 2006. Christopher House's new Logan Square Family Resource Center addresses some of these needs, but far more still needs to be done
We're encouraged that both Gov. Pat Quinn and President Barack Obama have recognized the enormous gaps between the demand and the availability of early-learning opportunities in low-income communities. We urge them and all of our leaders to view the need for more early-childhood education as a non-negotiable priority that will help to give all of our kids the futures they deserve.
-- Lori Baas, executive director, Christopher House, Chicago
Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2009
This is in response to "Advocates: Latinos lack access to pre-K; Kids enter kindergarten at a disadvantage" (Page 1, April 15), which detailed a crisis facing Chicago communities: Latino and other minority families have too little access to quality, affordable early-education opportunities. Quite often low-income families simply don't know where to turn for help. At Christopher House, a non-profit that has been serving Chicago for more than 100 years, we witness every day the strong need for pre-kindergarten programs that make a real difference in the lives of our kids.
When we educate children at an early age, we improve their readiness for kindergarten. Studies show that early learning is one of the key indicators of long-term success in school. Giving children the right academic start is an investment that helps to reduce crime, teen pregnancy and dependency on government programs.
Despite the obvious need -- and benefit -- Chicago falls short. In Logan Square, there are more than 4,700 Latino children under the age of 5, but only 25 percent were enrolled in early-education programs in 2006. Christopher House's new Logan Square Family Resource Center addresses some of these needs, but far more still needs to be done
We're encouraged that both Gov. Pat Quinn and President Barack Obama have recognized the enormous gaps between the demand and the availability of early-learning opportunities in low-income communities. We urge them and all of our leaders to view the need for more early-childhood education as a non-negotiable priority that will help to give all of our kids the futures they deserve.
-- Lori Baas, executive director, Christopher House, Chicago
Hispanics helped into college by woman
Woman helps hundreds of Hispanics go to college
By JOE CHAPMAN, Tri-City Herald
PASCO, Wash. It started with a copy machine.
Linda Armijo was working in the print shop at her job about 20 years ago when she decided to start a scholarship program for Hispanic students.
A co-worker stopped by to photocopy her son's certificate from Afro-Americans for an Academic Society, an organization that helps young black people go to college by awarding them scholarships and certificates for academic success.
Armijo thought: Why not a program like that for young Hispanics?
"I thought that was really cool. And I heard about the dropout rate, how bad it is for Hispanics," Armijo, 58, of Pasco, recalled last week.
She was a high-school graduate who had attended beauty school. She enlisted her younger brother, Frank Armijo, and two other relatives, Ruben and Gloria Lemos, and they started the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program.
Twenty years later, the organization has given out $2.8 million in scholarship money to help Hispanic students reach a goal Armijo never reached for herself - going to college.
HAAP will award another round of scholarships Friday at its annual banquet, 6 p.m. at TRAC in Pasco.
The organization hopes to give away $100,000 in scholarships to about 25 students, but the exact amount depends on how much was donated this year.
Key sponsors include Dan and Sue Frost, who once again will provide the top prize, a $30,000 scholarship. Fiesta Foods gave $20,000, Bill McCurley Chevrolet donated just over $16,000, and State Farm Insurance donated $10,000.
In HAAP's 20 years, an estimated 450 Hispanic students in the Tri-Cities, Benton City and Connell have gone to college on scholarships from the organization. Another chapter started by a cousin of Armijo is in Yakima, and a Prosser chapter is in the works.
"We can't always fully pay for their college, but we try to help them get their foot into the door so they can find other means of paying for their college," said Gabriel Suarez, HAAP president.
Suarez was an early recipient of a HAAP scholarship when he graduated from Pasco High School in 1992. The $1,000 scholarship he received, at the time the biggest HAAP had awarded, paid for him to attend two quarters at Columbia Basin College.
"That was the only scholarship I ever received," Suarez said. "My junior and sophomore year, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. ... When I got that scholarship, it really boosted my confidence and convinced me to pursue higher education."
Suarez eventually earned a degree in management information systems from Eastern Washington University and works as a network engineer for Lockheed Martin.
Over the years, countless more students received HAAP certificates during their primary and secondary educations. The certificates were tokens of recognition that encouraged them to achieve a 3.0 grade-point average each year.
"Seeing the faces of the kids getting certificates, they feel so good when they hear their name being read," Armijo said. "That's what it's all about, seeing their faces."
The recognition encourages parents, too, as they are as proud of their children's accomplishments as the students, she said.
The awards and certificates are presented at an annual banquet in the spring, which for the past several years has been held at TRAC in Pasco. Early on, a separate banquet was held in each of the Tri-Cities, then it was consolidated into one event at the Toyota Center and later moved to TRAC.
The event now draws an audience of 2,000 to 2,500 each spring.
Like a grandiose quinceaera, the banquet can bring out the pageantry in those who attend. Armijo recalled students and parents who arrived at the banquet in tuxedos and limousines - even children still in elementary school.
Keynote speakers have included actor Edward James Olmos; Jaime Escalante, the educator Olmos portrayed in the movie Stand and Deliver; former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joe Kapp; Gov. Chris Gregoire, attorney general at the time; former Gov. Gary Locke, now U.S. Commerce Secretary; and state Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney.
This year, like last year, the keynote message will be a video.
The program provides students incentives to work hard on their academic skills as well as their English language skills, said Liz Flynn, an educator who has been with Pasco School District since the early days of HAAP. Her own children received HAAP awards when they were students in the Kennewick School District.
"I'm thankful for our students that they have the community that comes together to recognize their hard work," Flynn said of HAAP's impact.
Sometimes as many as 35 students have received HAAP scholarships in a year, but this year the number will be about 25 so larger scholarships can be given, Suarez said. The scholarship committee still was considering applications late last week.
It's not uncommon for seniors to come in for their scholarship interviews with notebooks of all the certificates they received throughout their education. They come with stories of difficulties they have had to overcome on their way to graduation.
Most of the students come from low- to medium-income families, and many are the first to go on to college. Some come from broken homes and single-family homes and have had to support themselves while growing up.
"It's very important for us to key in on these students," Suarez said, "so they can be motivators to their brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and so on and motivate them to do well and pursue higher education as well."
HAAP also encourages them to come back to the community after they've completed their educations and give back to the organization that supported them. Or, if they don't support HAAP directly, "Just get involved in the community and help motivate others," Suarez said.
In that way, HAAP aims to replicate success, like a copy machine that once inspired Armijo with a good idea.
By JOE CHAPMAN, Tri-City Herald
PASCO, Wash. It started with a copy machine.
Linda Armijo was working in the print shop at her job about 20 years ago when she decided to start a scholarship program for Hispanic students.
A co-worker stopped by to photocopy her son's certificate from Afro-Americans for an Academic Society, an organization that helps young black people go to college by awarding them scholarships and certificates for academic success.
Armijo thought: Why not a program like that for young Hispanics?
"I thought that was really cool. And I heard about the dropout rate, how bad it is for Hispanics," Armijo, 58, of Pasco, recalled last week.
She was a high-school graduate who had attended beauty school. She enlisted her younger brother, Frank Armijo, and two other relatives, Ruben and Gloria Lemos, and they started the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program.
Twenty years later, the organization has given out $2.8 million in scholarship money to help Hispanic students reach a goal Armijo never reached for herself - going to college.
HAAP will award another round of scholarships Friday at its annual banquet, 6 p.m. at TRAC in Pasco.
The organization hopes to give away $100,000 in scholarships to about 25 students, but the exact amount depends on how much was donated this year.
Key sponsors include Dan and Sue Frost, who once again will provide the top prize, a $30,000 scholarship. Fiesta Foods gave $20,000, Bill McCurley Chevrolet donated just over $16,000, and State Farm Insurance donated $10,000.
In HAAP's 20 years, an estimated 450 Hispanic students in the Tri-Cities, Benton City and Connell have gone to college on scholarships from the organization. Another chapter started by a cousin of Armijo is in Yakima, and a Prosser chapter is in the works.
"We can't always fully pay for their college, but we try to help them get their foot into the door so they can find other means of paying for their college," said Gabriel Suarez, HAAP president.
Suarez was an early recipient of a HAAP scholarship when he graduated from Pasco High School in 1992. The $1,000 scholarship he received, at the time the biggest HAAP had awarded, paid for him to attend two quarters at Columbia Basin College.
"That was the only scholarship I ever received," Suarez said. "My junior and sophomore year, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. ... When I got that scholarship, it really boosted my confidence and convinced me to pursue higher education."
Suarez eventually earned a degree in management information systems from Eastern Washington University and works as a network engineer for Lockheed Martin.
Over the years, countless more students received HAAP certificates during their primary and secondary educations. The certificates were tokens of recognition that encouraged them to achieve a 3.0 grade-point average each year.
"Seeing the faces of the kids getting certificates, they feel so good when they hear their name being read," Armijo said. "That's what it's all about, seeing their faces."
The recognition encourages parents, too, as they are as proud of their children's accomplishments as the students, she said.
The awards and certificates are presented at an annual banquet in the spring, which for the past several years has been held at TRAC in Pasco. Early on, a separate banquet was held in each of the Tri-Cities, then it was consolidated into one event at the Toyota Center and later moved to TRAC.
The event now draws an audience of 2,000 to 2,500 each spring.
Like a grandiose quinceaera, the banquet can bring out the pageantry in those who attend. Armijo recalled students and parents who arrived at the banquet in tuxedos and limousines - even children still in elementary school.
Keynote speakers have included actor Edward James Olmos; Jaime Escalante, the educator Olmos portrayed in the movie Stand and Deliver; former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joe Kapp; Gov. Chris Gregoire, attorney general at the time; former Gov. Gary Locke, now U.S. Commerce Secretary; and state Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney.
This year, like last year, the keynote message will be a video.
The program provides students incentives to work hard on their academic skills as well as their English language skills, said Liz Flynn, an educator who has been with Pasco School District since the early days of HAAP. Her own children received HAAP awards when they were students in the Kennewick School District.
"I'm thankful for our students that they have the community that comes together to recognize their hard work," Flynn said of HAAP's impact.
Sometimes as many as 35 students have received HAAP scholarships in a year, but this year the number will be about 25 so larger scholarships can be given, Suarez said. The scholarship committee still was considering applications late last week.
It's not uncommon for seniors to come in for their scholarship interviews with notebooks of all the certificates they received throughout their education. They come with stories of difficulties they have had to overcome on their way to graduation.
Most of the students come from low- to medium-income families, and many are the first to go on to college. Some come from broken homes and single-family homes and have had to support themselves while growing up.
"It's very important for us to key in on these students," Suarez said, "so they can be motivators to their brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and so on and motivate them to do well and pursue higher education as well."
HAAP also encourages them to come back to the community after they've completed their educations and give back to the organization that supported them. Or, if they don't support HAAP directly, "Just get involved in the community and help motivate others," Suarez said.
In that way, HAAP aims to replicate success, like a copy machine that once inspired Armijo with a good idea.
Hispanic immigrants lose interest in North Carolina
North Carolina Loses Allure For Hispanic Immigrants Because of Tight Job Market and Tougher Enforcement
Carolina News Wire, 04-27-2009
CHARLOTTE — After two decades in which North Carolina's Hispanic population had the nation's largest growth rate, the state is losing its luster as one of the most accommodating places for immigrants, according to the May issue of Business North Carolina magazine. No one is certain why or to what extent, but Hispanics are abandoning the state or at least arriving at a markedly slower rate. Recession and a statewide unemployment rate that reached 10.7% in February are obvious suspects. The slowdown has been particularly hard on manufacturing and construction, industries that employ tens of thousands of Hispanics. Advocates say stricter enforcement of immigration law is another factor, pushing Latinos to Arkansas, Nebraska and other states. But some advocates contend most immigrants never intended to stay in the U.S. and are returning home, where they've been sending money to family members.
Post-recession, the loss of immigrants could have an impact on the state's pool of cheap labor. About 40% of the state's Latino work force is employed in construction, and roughly 30% is in agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail jobs. Many experts believe immigrants will return to North Carolina when the jobs do.
Business North Carolina is a Charlotte-based monthly magazine that focuses on the people, events and trends that shape business in North Carolina. Since it began publication in 1981, it has won more than 80 national awards for its writing, reporting, and design.
www.businessnc.com
Carolina News Wire, 04-27-2009
CHARLOTTE — After two decades in which North Carolina's Hispanic population had the nation's largest growth rate, the state is losing its luster as one of the most accommodating places for immigrants, according to the May issue of Business North Carolina magazine. No one is certain why or to what extent, but Hispanics are abandoning the state or at least arriving at a markedly slower rate. Recession and a statewide unemployment rate that reached 10.7% in February are obvious suspects. The slowdown has been particularly hard on manufacturing and construction, industries that employ tens of thousands of Hispanics. Advocates say stricter enforcement of immigration law is another factor, pushing Latinos to Arkansas, Nebraska and other states. But some advocates contend most immigrants never intended to stay in the U.S. and are returning home, where they've been sending money to family members.
Post-recession, the loss of immigrants could have an impact on the state's pool of cheap labor. About 40% of the state's Latino work force is employed in construction, and roughly 30% is in agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail jobs. Many experts believe immigrants will return to North Carolina when the jobs do.
Business North Carolina is a Charlotte-based monthly magazine that focuses on the people, events and trends that shape business in North Carolina. Since it began publication in 1981, it has won more than 80 national awards for its writing, reporting, and design.
www.businessnc.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Latino Caucus formed in NY Senate
NY Senate Forms Latino Caucus
by Elaine Rivera, WNYC
NEW YORK, NY April 23, 2009 —For the first time, the New York State Senate has created a formal Puerto Rican/Latino caucus to address the needs of the state's largest minority community.
With five Puerto Rican state senators, the largest ever in the legislative body's history, Majority Leader Malcolm Smith announced that he's created a formal caucus for his Latino conference. The senators include Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Senior, Hiram Monserrate of Queens and Martin Malave Dilan of Brooklyn. Diaz will chair the caucus and says Smith has empowered them.
DIAZ: So this new caucus, Hispanic Puerto Rican Latin caucus, of the New York Senate will be dealing with legislation affecting the Hispanic community with the support of our leader.
The caucus, along with Smith, will be traveling to Puerto Rico this weekend to meet the island's new governor. Smith dismissed criticism that they should not leave the state during the economic crisis, saying it'll be a working event.
by Elaine Rivera, WNYC
NEW YORK, NY April 23, 2009 —For the first time, the New York State Senate has created a formal Puerto Rican/Latino caucus to address the needs of the state's largest minority community.
With five Puerto Rican state senators, the largest ever in the legislative body's history, Majority Leader Malcolm Smith announced that he's created a formal caucus for his Latino conference. The senators include Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Senior, Hiram Monserrate of Queens and Martin Malave Dilan of Brooklyn. Diaz will chair the caucus and says Smith has empowered them.
DIAZ: So this new caucus, Hispanic Puerto Rican Latin caucus, of the New York Senate will be dealing with legislation affecting the Hispanic community with the support of our leader.
The caucus, along with Smith, will be traveling to Puerto Rico this weekend to meet the island's new governor. Smith dismissed criticism that they should not leave the state during the economic crisis, saying it'll be a working event.
Hispanic immigrant myths disspelled
Lawyer makes case against immigrant myths
Dallas Morning News, April 25, 2009
While politicians may debate the merits of immigration reform, many economists and researchers have already made up their minds: Immigrants contribute far more to the U.S. economy than they take.
It's a view expressed most recently in the book – Hispanic Heresy: What Is the Impact of America's Largest Population of Immigrants? – released in January and written by a Dallas lawyer and two Texas Tech University business professors.
The authors' research, filled with graphs and data from professional and scholastic journals, federal agencies and news reports, works to dispel many of the myths thrown about by cable TV talk shows and radio hosts.
Much of the public debate has been filled with heated rhetoric that does nothing to bring solutions to a complex issue, says Angel Reyes, who co-authored the book with Texas Tech's Rawls College of Business professors Bradley T. Ewing and James C. Wetherbe.
"Ultimately, all this worrying about undocumented immigrants is for nothing," Reyes said. "The country has been there before. We need to realize that the work force of tomorrow is Latino, and Hispanic immigration is an opportunity we shouldn't squander."
Reyes acknowledges that his own background – he was born in Hawaii of Puerto Rican parents – and his professional experience in helping more than 20,000 immigrant clients helped to shape his perspective as he studied for his master's degree in business administration at Texas Tech.
He completed his degree last year, and much of his course work and research is included in the book.
Among the myths he said are unfairly tarnishing Hispanic immigrants are:
• Hispanic immigrants pay no taxes. In fact, immigrants have contributed about $500 billion in taxes to the Social Security and Medicare systems.
• Mexican immigrants of today are different than earlier Jewish, Italian or German immigrants. Most studies actually show they come with the same dream of opportunity and a better life for their families as all immigrants before them. And they learn English – the language of commerce – at faster rates than previous immigrants.
For Reyes, wading into the immigration debate seems like a natural fit.
He remembers that his family struggled financially. "We scrambled every day to make it. I started working when I was 14 and never stopped."
He also remembers what food stamps used to look like and, while living in Kansas, walking to school through the snow with holes in his shoes.
He credits his mother's relentless emphasis on education and her search for Pell grants that helped him attend the University of Michigan law school.
After graduating, he wound up working on Wall Street as a securities and finance lawyer. At 27, the Lone Star State seemed more appealing than the Big Apple, and he settled in Dallas 16 years ago.
Today, his law firm employs 10 lawyers and generates $8.8 million in revenues annually, he said.
But he still remembers many of his former clients.
"To watch them hang on by their fingernails and to see how dangerous the work they do really is," he recalled, "well, it impacted me daily and has stayed with me."
Dallas Morning News, April 25, 2009
While politicians may debate the merits of immigration reform, many economists and researchers have already made up their minds: Immigrants contribute far more to the U.S. economy than they take.
It's a view expressed most recently in the book – Hispanic Heresy: What Is the Impact of America's Largest Population of Immigrants? – released in January and written by a Dallas lawyer and two Texas Tech University business professors.
The authors' research, filled with graphs and data from professional and scholastic journals, federal agencies and news reports, works to dispel many of the myths thrown about by cable TV talk shows and radio hosts.
Much of the public debate has been filled with heated rhetoric that does nothing to bring solutions to a complex issue, says Angel Reyes, who co-authored the book with Texas Tech's Rawls College of Business professors Bradley T. Ewing and James C. Wetherbe.
"Ultimately, all this worrying about undocumented immigrants is for nothing," Reyes said. "The country has been there before. We need to realize that the work force of tomorrow is Latino, and Hispanic immigration is an opportunity we shouldn't squander."
Reyes acknowledges that his own background – he was born in Hawaii of Puerto Rican parents – and his professional experience in helping more than 20,000 immigrant clients helped to shape his perspective as he studied for his master's degree in business administration at Texas Tech.
He completed his degree last year, and much of his course work and research is included in the book.
Among the myths he said are unfairly tarnishing Hispanic immigrants are:
• Hispanic immigrants pay no taxes. In fact, immigrants have contributed about $500 billion in taxes to the Social Security and Medicare systems.
• Mexican immigrants of today are different than earlier Jewish, Italian or German immigrants. Most studies actually show they come with the same dream of opportunity and a better life for their families as all immigrants before them. And they learn English – the language of commerce – at faster rates than previous immigrants.
For Reyes, wading into the immigration debate seems like a natural fit.
He remembers that his family struggled financially. "We scrambled every day to make it. I started working when I was 14 and never stopped."
He also remembers what food stamps used to look like and, while living in Kansas, walking to school through the snow with holes in his shoes.
He credits his mother's relentless emphasis on education and her search for Pell grants that helped him attend the University of Michigan law school.
After graduating, he wound up working on Wall Street as a securities and finance lawyer. At 27, the Lone Star State seemed more appealing than the Big Apple, and he settled in Dallas 16 years ago.
Today, his law firm employs 10 lawyers and generates $8.8 million in revenues annually, he said.
But he still remembers many of his former clients.
"To watch them hang on by their fingernails and to see how dangerous the work they do really is," he recalled, "well, it impacted me daily and has stayed with me."
Latino sheriff eyes Illinois capitol
Lake County sheriff eyes bid for governor
Associated Press, April 25, 2009
VALPARAISO, Ind. - Lake County Sheriff Rogelio Dominguez says he wants to run for governor in 2012, and plans to discuss the idea soon with Democratic Party leaders.
Dominguez told a gathering of Valparaiso University law students Friday that when his second and final term as sheriff is up he hopes to run for governor.
After his speech, Dominguez said he had discussed with his family a possible gubernatorial run and had been going around the state talking with people, but insisted that he wasn't making a formal announcement.
"I'm still exploring the idea," he said. "I'll be announcing here in the near future what my next step is."
However, Dominguez said he doesn't see anything that will stop him. "I would continue to pursue my hopes and dreams, and being governor is one of those," he said.
The next step before forming a formal exploratory committee is a "listening tour," Dominguez said. He wants to continue talking with people and seeing what's important and he wants to meet party leaders and see if they'd support him.
"If you're serious about running and winning, you have to start early," he said.
Before he became sheriff, Dominguez, a former state trooper, served as chairman of the Workers Compensation Board of Indiana under Gov. Evan Bayh.
Dominguez said that as the first Hispanic state trooper candidate, he'd been told he was in because standards were lowered, but he graduated at the top of his class.
The students who attended Dominguez's speech were optimistic about his possible bid for governor, nothing that if he runs and is elected, he would be Indiana's first Hispanic governor.
Hugo Gamez, the president of the Hispanic Law Student Association, said, "this country has seen a lot of changes, and we've seen it in the White House. It's time to bring it home."
Dominguez said that in the 2012 election, there will be a vacancy in the governor's office as Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels finishes out his second and final term.
He said there are also questions whether Republican U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar intends to run again and President Barack Obama will be up for a second term.
"Indiana will be a real key state in many respects," he said.
Associated Press, April 25, 2009
VALPARAISO, Ind. - Lake County Sheriff Rogelio Dominguez says he wants to run for governor in 2012, and plans to discuss the idea soon with Democratic Party leaders.
Dominguez told a gathering of Valparaiso University law students Friday that when his second and final term as sheriff is up he hopes to run for governor.
After his speech, Dominguez said he had discussed with his family a possible gubernatorial run and had been going around the state talking with people, but insisted that he wasn't making a formal announcement.
"I'm still exploring the idea," he said. "I'll be announcing here in the near future what my next step is."
However, Dominguez said he doesn't see anything that will stop him. "I would continue to pursue my hopes and dreams, and being governor is one of those," he said.
The next step before forming a formal exploratory committee is a "listening tour," Dominguez said. He wants to continue talking with people and seeing what's important and he wants to meet party leaders and see if they'd support him.
"If you're serious about running and winning, you have to start early," he said.
Before he became sheriff, Dominguez, a former state trooper, served as chairman of the Workers Compensation Board of Indiana under Gov. Evan Bayh.
Dominguez said that as the first Hispanic state trooper candidate, he'd been told he was in because standards were lowered, but he graduated at the top of his class.
The students who attended Dominguez's speech were optimistic about his possible bid for governor, nothing that if he runs and is elected, he would be Indiana's first Hispanic governor.
Hugo Gamez, the president of the Hispanic Law Student Association, said, "this country has seen a lot of changes, and we've seen it in the White House. It's time to bring it home."
Dominguez said that in the 2012 election, there will be a vacancy in the governor's office as Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels finishes out his second and final term.
He said there are also questions whether Republican U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar intends to run again and President Barack Obama will be up for a second term.
"Indiana will be a real key state in many respects," he said.
Latino enrollment growing at community college
Latino enrollment still climbing at Chabot College
By Kristofer Noceda, The Daily Review, 04/26/2009
HAYWARD — Chabot College is seeing a growing influx of Latino students, according to recent enrollment numbers.
Data show Latino students make up 32 percent of all new students on campus, and 26 percent of total enrollment.
"We are proud of all of our students," said Chabot President Celia Barberena. "We are especially proud that our Latino students and their families have made us their first choice for a college education."
The high Latino enrollment now designates Chabot as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, or HSI, a federal title that makes the college eligible for special funding. To become an HSI, a college must have a Latino enrollment of at least 25 percent, said Yvonne Wu-Craig, a grant developer and writer at Chabot.
Funding that the college receives can go toward improving education programs or culturally appropriate staff development, Wu-Craig said.
Latino enrollment — along with overall enrollment — has steadily increased over the past few years, according to data provided by Rajinder Samra, a research analyst at Chabot.
In fall 2007, Chabot had 3,385 Latino students, about 300 more than the previous year. That figure represented 24 percent of the 14,328 students on campus that fall — and was up about 10 percent from the 3,080 Latino enrollment of the previous year.
Enrollment data from fall 2008 show more than 500 new Latino students over the previous fall. The 3,889 Latino
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students made up 26 percent of the 15,055 Chabot student body.
Barberena credits outreach efforts and special programs that target Latinos for the increase in enrollment.
The Puente Project has also attracted more Latino students. The program, founded at Chabot in 1981, is now a national model for increasing university transfer rates among Latino students.
The Puente Project has also attracted more Latino students on campus. The program, founded at Chabot in 1981, is now a national model for increasing university transfer rates.
By Kristofer Noceda, The Daily Review, 04/26/2009
HAYWARD — Chabot College is seeing a growing influx of Latino students, according to recent enrollment numbers.
Data show Latino students make up 32 percent of all new students on campus, and 26 percent of total enrollment.
"We are proud of all of our students," said Chabot President Celia Barberena. "We are especially proud that our Latino students and their families have made us their first choice for a college education."
The high Latino enrollment now designates Chabot as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, or HSI, a federal title that makes the college eligible for special funding. To become an HSI, a college must have a Latino enrollment of at least 25 percent, said Yvonne Wu-Craig, a grant developer and writer at Chabot.
Funding that the college receives can go toward improving education programs or culturally appropriate staff development, Wu-Craig said.
Latino enrollment — along with overall enrollment — has steadily increased over the past few years, according to data provided by Rajinder Samra, a research analyst at Chabot.
In fall 2007, Chabot had 3,385 Latino students, about 300 more than the previous year. That figure represented 24 percent of the 14,328 students on campus that fall — and was up about 10 percent from the 3,080 Latino enrollment of the previous year.
Enrollment data from fall 2008 show more than 500 new Latino students over the previous fall. The 3,889 Latino
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students made up 26 percent of the 15,055 Chabot student body.
Barberena credits outreach efforts and special programs that target Latinos for the increase in enrollment.
The Puente Project has also attracted more Latino students. The program, founded at Chabot in 1981, is now a national model for increasing university transfer rates among Latino students.
The Puente Project has also attracted more Latino students on campus. The program, founded at Chabot in 1981, is now a national model for increasing university transfer rates.
Latino and Black boys more likely to be labeled
A national trend: Black and Latino boys predominate in emotional support classes
by Sylvia Morse, The NoteBook
African American boys make up 59 percent of students enrolled in “emotional support” programs in Philadelphia but less than a third of the general student population. They are six times more likely to be labeled emotionally disturbed than White girls.
White girls are four times more likely than Black boys to be identified as mentally gifted.
Highlighting similar statistics in her incoming convocation speech in August, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said, “The research clearly shows us that for young men of color, particularly African American and Latino … a special education label, especially ‘emotionally disturbed,’ becomes a life sentence, causing many … to drop out of school early and enter the criminal justice system.”
Overrepresentation of students of color in special education is a reality nationwide. Many say racial biases among those who refer and evaluate students for special education are a factor.
“When a child of color is bored and they act out, [school authorities] assume it’s a behavioral problem,” says Cecilia Thompson, chairperson of the Right to Education Task Force of Philadelphia. “I believe [the student] could be mentally gifted, but the mindset is on emotional support.”
The tendency to identify disruptive behavior as a sign of more severe disability may result from cultural gaps between teachers and students. White teachers in urban school districts unfamiliar with the language and survival strategies many students acquire outside of school are more likely to make inappropriate referrals, research suggests.
Studies indicate the risk of students being identified with a disability varies by race, even controlling for the effects of class.
Disproportions are most pronounced in the high-incidence or “judgmental” categories: emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, and mildly mentally retarded, which require less medical or psychological professional oversight.
But poverty also contributes to the likelihood of disability. “It’s a multifaceted thing,” says Len Rieser, co-director of the Education Law Center. “There can’t be a single ‘why.’”
The national Civil Rights Project concluded in a 2002 report that unconscious racial discrimination by school authorities, resource inequities, biased methods of evaluation, pressures of high-stakes testing on teachers, and the dynamic between parents of color and school administrators all contribute to ethnic and gender disparities in special education.
An example illustrates how the inequalities associated with poverty can contribute to faulty decisions by individuals and lead to disproportions. A teacher in a stressed, high-poverty school may have more students who need extra attention but fewer resources outside of special education. Special education is then seen as the only supportive environment, and teachers are more likely to make referrals. A District official observed that often it is the parents who want an evaluation. “We’re still in the mindset that there’s something special about special education,” says Linda Williams, administrator for the District’s Office of Specialized Services (OSS), “that it’s a place and not a service.”
To address overrepresentation, the District has introduced professional development for school psychologists that will “build their skills, especially around areas of culture,” Williams says.
The District is also promoting inclusion and a coteaching model, which integrates students with and without special needs in one classroom led by both a grade teacher and a special education teacher.
Decatur Elementary in the Northeast is “a model school for inclusion practices,” Williams says. The school’s principal, Charles Connor, believes the number of referrals went down when special education was no longer a separate, restricted environment. Because general education teachers remain responsible for the students they refer, Connor says, special education is no longer a way to unload difficult-to-teach students.
Local advocates believe most parents don’t understand that overrepresentation of children of color in special education is a systemwide problem. If they did, parents might be able to make better decisions for their own children.
“It’s the ‘Why me?’ syndrome,” Thompson says. “[Parents] think it’s just them.”
And they don’t always exercise their rights in the process. “They think the psychological evaluation is the beall end-all,” Thompson says. But she adds that parents’ role can be crucial in combating misguided placements if they have the right information.
by Sylvia Morse, The NoteBook
African American boys make up 59 percent of students enrolled in “emotional support” programs in Philadelphia but less than a third of the general student population. They are six times more likely to be labeled emotionally disturbed than White girls.
White girls are four times more likely than Black boys to be identified as mentally gifted.
Highlighting similar statistics in her incoming convocation speech in August, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said, “The research clearly shows us that for young men of color, particularly African American and Latino … a special education label, especially ‘emotionally disturbed,’ becomes a life sentence, causing many … to drop out of school early and enter the criminal justice system.”
Overrepresentation of students of color in special education is a reality nationwide. Many say racial biases among those who refer and evaluate students for special education are a factor.
“When a child of color is bored and they act out, [school authorities] assume it’s a behavioral problem,” says Cecilia Thompson, chairperson of the Right to Education Task Force of Philadelphia. “I believe [the student] could be mentally gifted, but the mindset is on emotional support.”
The tendency to identify disruptive behavior as a sign of more severe disability may result from cultural gaps between teachers and students. White teachers in urban school districts unfamiliar with the language and survival strategies many students acquire outside of school are more likely to make inappropriate referrals, research suggests.
Studies indicate the risk of students being identified with a disability varies by race, even controlling for the effects of class.
Disproportions are most pronounced in the high-incidence or “judgmental” categories: emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, and mildly mentally retarded, which require less medical or psychological professional oversight.
But poverty also contributes to the likelihood of disability. “It’s a multifaceted thing,” says Len Rieser, co-director of the Education Law Center. “There can’t be a single ‘why.’”
The national Civil Rights Project concluded in a 2002 report that unconscious racial discrimination by school authorities, resource inequities, biased methods of evaluation, pressures of high-stakes testing on teachers, and the dynamic between parents of color and school administrators all contribute to ethnic and gender disparities in special education.
An example illustrates how the inequalities associated with poverty can contribute to faulty decisions by individuals and lead to disproportions. A teacher in a stressed, high-poverty school may have more students who need extra attention but fewer resources outside of special education. Special education is then seen as the only supportive environment, and teachers are more likely to make referrals. A District official observed that often it is the parents who want an evaluation. “We’re still in the mindset that there’s something special about special education,” says Linda Williams, administrator for the District’s Office of Specialized Services (OSS), “that it’s a place and not a service.”
To address overrepresentation, the District has introduced professional development for school psychologists that will “build their skills, especially around areas of culture,” Williams says.
The District is also promoting inclusion and a coteaching model, which integrates students with and without special needs in one classroom led by both a grade teacher and a special education teacher.
Decatur Elementary in the Northeast is “a model school for inclusion practices,” Williams says. The school’s principal, Charles Connor, believes the number of referrals went down when special education was no longer a separate, restricted environment. Because general education teachers remain responsible for the students they refer, Connor says, special education is no longer a way to unload difficult-to-teach students.
Local advocates believe most parents don’t understand that overrepresentation of children of color in special education is a systemwide problem. If they did, parents might be able to make better decisions for their own children.
“It’s the ‘Why me?’ syndrome,” Thompson says. “[Parents] think it’s just them.”
And they don’t always exercise their rights in the process. “They think the psychological evaluation is the beall end-all,” Thompson says. But she adds that parents’ role can be crucial in combating misguided placements if they have the right information.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Latino kids need preschool programs
Preschool programs for Latino children
Examiner.com, April 19
With nearly $5 billion going into funding child care programs, advocates are making sure that the needs of Latino preschoolers are being heard. When starting kindergarten, Latino children have more academic obstacles to overcome because they lag in many areas, especially reading and math.
This is mainly because Latino parents are less likely to enroll their children in preschool because of the barriers they face, including language and transportation. Furthermore, many Latino parents are unaware of the programs available to preschoolers and don't understand the importance of early childhood.
As an article in the Chicago Tribune reports, 'Latino families with young children constitute a significant portion of the nation's population and future workforce'. It's essential that we reach out to these families and encourage them to enroll their children in the preschools available to them.
Illinois has Head Start and Preschool for All, both publicly funded, which are great options for Latino families. In fact, some programs come directly to the home and work with these families to increase parent involvement and support. Although there are many viewpoints on how the stimulus money should be spent on early childhood programs, it's important to note that many of these preschool programs that reach out to Latino families are already in place. We can only hope that these programs stay in place and are better recognized by those who need them.
Examiner.com, April 19
With nearly $5 billion going into funding child care programs, advocates are making sure that the needs of Latino preschoolers are being heard. When starting kindergarten, Latino children have more academic obstacles to overcome because they lag in many areas, especially reading and math.
This is mainly because Latino parents are less likely to enroll their children in preschool because of the barriers they face, including language and transportation. Furthermore, many Latino parents are unaware of the programs available to preschoolers and don't understand the importance of early childhood.
As an article in the Chicago Tribune reports, 'Latino families with young children constitute a significant portion of the nation's population and future workforce'. It's essential that we reach out to these families and encourage them to enroll their children in the preschools available to them.
Illinois has Head Start and Preschool for All, both publicly funded, which are great options for Latino families. In fact, some programs come directly to the home and work with these families to increase parent involvement and support. Although there are many viewpoints on how the stimulus money should be spent on early childhood programs, it's important to note that many of these preschool programs that reach out to Latino families are already in place. We can only hope that these programs stay in place and are better recognized by those who need them.
Latino, Asian candidates on top to replace Solis
12 candidates vie to replace Hilda Solis
Experts see the contest for the new Labor chief's open 32nd Congressional District seat as a battle between two seasoned liberals, Gil Cedillo and Judy Chu.
By Jean Merl, LA Times, April 21, 2009
The appointment of Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis as Labor secretary has prompted 12 candidates to jump into a rare special election to replace her in the San Gabriel Valley-based 32nd Congressional District.
Most politics experts, however, see the May 19 primary race as essentially a two-way contest between two seasoned, liberal Democrats: state Sen. Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles and state Board of Equalization member and former Assemblywoman Judy Chu of Monterey Park.
Already, Cedillo and Chu have far outdistanced the others -- six Democrats, three Republicans and a Libertarian -- in fundraising and in backing from influential groups and prominent politicians.
The race, with a Latino and an Asian American as front-runners, is a harbinger of future Los Angeles-area politics, with diminishing numbers of older white voters and members of growing minority groups competing for offices, said Jaime A. Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.
"You are going to see Latinos and Asians and Pacific Islanders running against each other," said Regalado, who said it is not unusual to have so many candidates run for a rare open congressional seat.
"It's a glamour race that is going to bring people out of the woodwork to run," Regalado said.
And, because congressional offices are not subject to term limits, the seat is especially attractive to state elected officials tired of scrambling to find another post as they face being termed out of their jobs.
Both Cedillo and Chu are "seasoned veterans with no place else to go," Regalado added, "and that's what makes the stakes so very high."
Voters will find all 12 candidates on their ballot, regardless of party affiliation. Such a large field makes it unlikely that any single candidate can garner the majority needed to win the race outright. In that case, the top finishers in each party will meet in a July 14 runoff.
In the largely blue-collar district, Latinos account for more than 60% of the population and 48% of registered voters, while Asian Americans make up 19% of the district's population and 13% of its voter roll.
Democrats hold a 52% to 23% registration edge over Republicans, prompting the California Target Book, which tracks political races in the state, to label the seat "safe Democratic."
Even before the filing period closed earlier this month, the race showed signs of some sharp elbows.
Judy Chu supporters suspect that Republican Betty Tom Chu, a Monterey Park councilwoman and a political opponent of Judy Chu, entered the race to confuse voters and harm the chances of her distant relative by marriage. Tom Chu said last week she did not have time to discuss her candidacy, but earlier told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that she is running because she could not support any of the other candidates and wanted to offer voters an alternative.
Apparently motivated by concerns that the large number of Latino candidates in the race would split the vote in that group and give Judy Chu the edge, there also were signs of jockeying.
Democratic candidate Francisco Alonso, a former mayor of Monterey Park, and a campaign official for Democratic actor/filmmaker Stefan "Contreras" Lysenko each said Cedillo called them shortly before filing closed and urged them to drop out. A Cedillo spokesman said the state senator was merely inviting the others to "work together" with him and did not intend to discourage them from running.
A campaign consultant for Democrat Emanuel Pleitez, who was a member of the Treasury Department presidential transition team, said Latino leaders whom he did not name urged him not to make the run this time, saying the 26-year-old financial analyst had not yet "paid his dues."
Making his first run for elected office, Pleitez has gathered a group of young staff members and volunteers and reported last week to the Federal Election Commission that he had raised nearly $153,000 for the race by March 31.
That amount put him third behind Chu, who reported collecting just over $770,000, and Cedillo, who raised $568,000.
A Republican in the race, South El Monte restaurant owner Teresa Hernandez, who said she had been campaigning nearly full time for weeks, reported raising about $71,000. No other candidates had filed with the FEC by last week's reporting deadline.
Cedillo, who will be termed out of his Senate seat next year, was a labor leader before being elected to the state Assembly, where he served two terms. He gained perhaps his highest public visibility through his legislative efforts to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. His many endorsers include Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, county Sheriff Lee Baca, county Supervisor Gloria Molina, eight of the 15 Los Angeles City Council members, several members of Congress, several of his colleagues in the Legislature and the Los Angeles County Young Democrats.
Chu, who left her Assembly seat to win election to the Board of Equalization in 2006, also has strong ties to labor and scored the backing of the politically powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the California Teachers Assn. On Saturday, she won unanimous backing from the state Democratic Party.
Her other backers include United Farmworkers co-founder Dolores Huerta, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, several members of Congress and the Legislature, and a long list of local elected officials.
The other Democrats on the ballot are Benita Duran, a former district deputy to Solis; attorney Nick Juan Mostert, and Rafael F. Nadal, a kitchen designer and advocate for homeless veterans and senior citizens.
The third Republican candidate is David A. Truax, a business owner and police chaplain.
As the only Libertarian on the ballot, Christopher M. Agrella is assured of a spot in the July 14 runoff if nobody wins the seat in next month's primary.
jean.merl@latimes.com
Experts see the contest for the new Labor chief's open 32nd Congressional District seat as a battle between two seasoned liberals, Gil Cedillo and Judy Chu.
By Jean Merl, LA Times, April 21, 2009
The appointment of Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis as Labor secretary has prompted 12 candidates to jump into a rare special election to replace her in the San Gabriel Valley-based 32nd Congressional District.
Most politics experts, however, see the May 19 primary race as essentially a two-way contest between two seasoned, liberal Democrats: state Sen. Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles and state Board of Equalization member and former Assemblywoman Judy Chu of Monterey Park.
Already, Cedillo and Chu have far outdistanced the others -- six Democrats, three Republicans and a Libertarian -- in fundraising and in backing from influential groups and prominent politicians.
The race, with a Latino and an Asian American as front-runners, is a harbinger of future Los Angeles-area politics, with diminishing numbers of older white voters and members of growing minority groups competing for offices, said Jaime A. Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.
"You are going to see Latinos and Asians and Pacific Islanders running against each other," said Regalado, who said it is not unusual to have so many candidates run for a rare open congressional seat.
"It's a glamour race that is going to bring people out of the woodwork to run," Regalado said.
And, because congressional offices are not subject to term limits, the seat is especially attractive to state elected officials tired of scrambling to find another post as they face being termed out of their jobs.
Both Cedillo and Chu are "seasoned veterans with no place else to go," Regalado added, "and that's what makes the stakes so very high."
Voters will find all 12 candidates on their ballot, regardless of party affiliation. Such a large field makes it unlikely that any single candidate can garner the majority needed to win the race outright. In that case, the top finishers in each party will meet in a July 14 runoff.
In the largely blue-collar district, Latinos account for more than 60% of the population and 48% of registered voters, while Asian Americans make up 19% of the district's population and 13% of its voter roll.
Democrats hold a 52% to 23% registration edge over Republicans, prompting the California Target Book, which tracks political races in the state, to label the seat "safe Democratic."
Even before the filing period closed earlier this month, the race showed signs of some sharp elbows.
Judy Chu supporters suspect that Republican Betty Tom Chu, a Monterey Park councilwoman and a political opponent of Judy Chu, entered the race to confuse voters and harm the chances of her distant relative by marriage. Tom Chu said last week she did not have time to discuss her candidacy, but earlier told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that she is running because she could not support any of the other candidates and wanted to offer voters an alternative.
Apparently motivated by concerns that the large number of Latino candidates in the race would split the vote in that group and give Judy Chu the edge, there also were signs of jockeying.
Democratic candidate Francisco Alonso, a former mayor of Monterey Park, and a campaign official for Democratic actor/filmmaker Stefan "Contreras" Lysenko each said Cedillo called them shortly before filing closed and urged them to drop out. A Cedillo spokesman said the state senator was merely inviting the others to "work together" with him and did not intend to discourage them from running.
A campaign consultant for Democrat Emanuel Pleitez, who was a member of the Treasury Department presidential transition team, said Latino leaders whom he did not name urged him not to make the run this time, saying the 26-year-old financial analyst had not yet "paid his dues."
Making his first run for elected office, Pleitez has gathered a group of young staff members and volunteers and reported last week to the Federal Election Commission that he had raised nearly $153,000 for the race by March 31.
That amount put him third behind Chu, who reported collecting just over $770,000, and Cedillo, who raised $568,000.
A Republican in the race, South El Monte restaurant owner Teresa Hernandez, who said she had been campaigning nearly full time for weeks, reported raising about $71,000. No other candidates had filed with the FEC by last week's reporting deadline.
Cedillo, who will be termed out of his Senate seat next year, was a labor leader before being elected to the state Assembly, where he served two terms. He gained perhaps his highest public visibility through his legislative efforts to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. His many endorsers include Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, county Sheriff Lee Baca, county Supervisor Gloria Molina, eight of the 15 Los Angeles City Council members, several members of Congress, several of his colleagues in the Legislature and the Los Angeles County Young Democrats.
Chu, who left her Assembly seat to win election to the Board of Equalization in 2006, also has strong ties to labor and scored the backing of the politically powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the California Teachers Assn. On Saturday, she won unanimous backing from the state Democratic Party.
Her other backers include United Farmworkers co-founder Dolores Huerta, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, several members of Congress and the Legislature, and a long list of local elected officials.
The other Democrats on the ballot are Benita Duran, a former district deputy to Solis; attorney Nick Juan Mostert, and Rafael F. Nadal, a kitchen designer and advocate for homeless veterans and senior citizens.
The third Republican candidate is David A. Truax, a business owner and police chaplain.
As the only Libertarian on the ballot, Christopher M. Agrella is assured of a spot in the July 14 runoff if nobody wins the seat in next month's primary.
jean.merl@latimes.com
Chicago schools overcrowded, affecting Latinos
Latino students: Latinos in city schools suffer from crowding, group says
United Neighborhood Organization wants Gov. Pat Quinn to use stimulus funds to build 28 Chicago schools
Tribune, April 21, 2009
Bolstered by a report indicating that Latino neighborhoods and students are severely affected by crowded Chicago schools, the head of a Latino community group on Monday asked Gov. Pat Quinn to use federal stimulus money to build 28 schools.
Flanked by half a dozen aldermen and a state senator representing heavily Latino areas of the city, members of the United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, noted that of 64 crowded neighborhood elementary schools, 44 had a majority Latino student body.
The report, titled School Overcrowding: Limiting Hispanic Potential, was funded by the organization, which runs eight charter campuses for Chicago Public Schools. The report notes that of the 63,000 students who attend a crowded school, 78 percent are Latino, said Juan Rangel, UNO's chief executive officer.
Officials said the Blagojevich administration failed to fund school construction and ignored crowded schools in Latino areas.
School officials then put schools in those areas on multitracked schedules and used cafeterias, hallways and storage closets as classrooms, Rangel said.
"Our kids get shortchanged," Rangel said.
Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) also called on Quinn to earmark money in the state's next budget to ease crowding in the Latino neighborhoods.
"We have a one-time opportunity," Sandoval said. "The message to Gov. Quinn today is don't leave our children behind."
United Neighborhood Organization wants Gov. Pat Quinn to use stimulus funds to build 28 Chicago schools
Tribune, April 21, 2009
Bolstered by a report indicating that Latino neighborhoods and students are severely affected by crowded Chicago schools, the head of a Latino community group on Monday asked Gov. Pat Quinn to use federal stimulus money to build 28 schools.
Flanked by half a dozen aldermen and a state senator representing heavily Latino areas of the city, members of the United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, noted that of 64 crowded neighborhood elementary schools, 44 had a majority Latino student body.
The report, titled School Overcrowding: Limiting Hispanic Potential, was funded by the organization, which runs eight charter campuses for Chicago Public Schools. The report notes that of the 63,000 students who attend a crowded school, 78 percent are Latino, said Juan Rangel, UNO's chief executive officer.
Officials said the Blagojevich administration failed to fund school construction and ignored crowded schools in Latino areas.
School officials then put schools in those areas on multitracked schedules and used cafeterias, hallways and storage closets as classrooms, Rangel said.
"Our kids get shortchanged," Rangel said.
Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) also called on Quinn to earmark money in the state's next budget to ease crowding in the Latino neighborhoods.
"We have a one-time opportunity," Sandoval said. "The message to Gov. Quinn today is don't leave our children behind."
Latino abuse, discrimination highest in South
New report finds Latinos in South frequently victims of abuses, discrimination
by Erin Stock -- Birmingham News April 21, 2009
Poor Latinos in the South routinely experience wage theft, racial profiling, and other discrimination, a report released today from the Southern Poverty Law Center says.
The Montgomery, Alabama-based, civil rights nonprofit surveyed 500 Latinos in five communities, including more than 100 people in Alabama. Respondents included legal residents, illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Findings include:
• Nearly 50 percent of respondents knew someone who had been treated unfairly by police.
• 77 percent of the women who responded said sexual harassment was a major workplace problem.
• 41 percent surveyed had not been paid for work, a figure that climbed to 80 percent in New Orleans.
• Two-thirds of respondents said they had been made to feel unwelcome by others in the community, while 68 percent said they encountered on a regular basis what they perceived as racism -- from "looks" to physical abuse.
• 46 percent of those reporting a court experience said there was no interpreter.
The report, "Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South," called north Alabama an example of how local laws erode Latinos' trust in law enforcement.
In Alabama, 55 percent of respondents said there are police checkpoints where they live. Municipalities in the region have ordinances that allow law enforcement to impound vehicles when a driver cannot prove his or her legal status.
"Road blocks are set up in a way where particular communities are targeted so people feel like they can't even leave the house," said Mary Bauer, the director of SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project and the author of the report.
The report details cases that include police jailing a Tennessee mother when she asked to be paid for her work in a cheese factory, police in Alabama confiscating a migrant bean picker's life savings during a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia going unpunished when the 13-year-old victim's family was afraid to report the crime because she was in the country illegally.
"So long as we have this kind of large underclass living in the shadows, this kind of abuse will flourish," Bauer said.
SPLC researchers in the state interviewed people in Hoover, Birmingham, Huntsville, Florence, Russellville and Albertville. They also surveyed people in Nashville, Charlotte, New Orleans and rural southern Georgia.
by Erin Stock -- Birmingham News April 21, 2009
Poor Latinos in the South routinely experience wage theft, racial profiling, and other discrimination, a report released today from the Southern Poverty Law Center says.
The Montgomery, Alabama-based, civil rights nonprofit surveyed 500 Latinos in five communities, including more than 100 people in Alabama. Respondents included legal residents, illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Findings include:
• Nearly 50 percent of respondents knew someone who had been treated unfairly by police.
• 77 percent of the women who responded said sexual harassment was a major workplace problem.
• 41 percent surveyed had not been paid for work, a figure that climbed to 80 percent in New Orleans.
• Two-thirds of respondents said they had been made to feel unwelcome by others in the community, while 68 percent said they encountered on a regular basis what they perceived as racism -- from "looks" to physical abuse.
• 46 percent of those reporting a court experience said there was no interpreter.
The report, "Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South," called north Alabama an example of how local laws erode Latinos' trust in law enforcement.
In Alabama, 55 percent of respondents said there are police checkpoints where they live. Municipalities in the region have ordinances that allow law enforcement to impound vehicles when a driver cannot prove his or her legal status.
"Road blocks are set up in a way where particular communities are targeted so people feel like they can't even leave the house," said Mary Bauer, the director of SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project and the author of the report.
The report details cases that include police jailing a Tennessee mother when she asked to be paid for her work in a cheese factory, police in Alabama confiscating a migrant bean picker's life savings during a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia going unpunished when the 13-year-old victim's family was afraid to report the crime because she was in the country illegally.
"So long as we have this kind of large underclass living in the shadows, this kind of abuse will flourish," Bauer said.
SPLC researchers in the state interviewed people in Hoover, Birmingham, Huntsville, Florence, Russellville and Albertville. They also surveyed people in Nashville, Charlotte, New Orleans and rural southern Georgia.
Latino men helped into college
Helping more young Latino men into college
By Vicente Arenas / KHOU 11 News, April 22, 2009
At the Lone Star College in north Harris County, there is no shortage of help from peers or instructors, but there is a major shortage of Latino men. The shortage is evident at all colleges and universities across the country.
To fix the problem, Lone Star Collage invited 700 teenage high school boys to its campus for a Hispanic male Summit.
“The biggest need is of education of college. (Many don’t know) how to get into college (and they don’t know about) the differences between the colleges that are out there,” said Diana Pino with Lone Star College.
It is that quest for knowledge that inspired Ramces Luna to attend the Summit.
He said he has no problem making straight A’s as a 9th grader at Cy Lakes High, but he knows nothing about how to get into college.
“I don’t know. All these things you have to do, like all these scholarships, like financial aid. I really don’t know what that is,” said Luna.
The summit also teaches Latinos how to apply for scholarships.
Some organizations in the Houston area say they have trouble getting Latino students to apply for free money.
They say that many of those students walk away from thousands of dollars that could have been theirs.
One of the other major goals of the Hispanic Male Summit is to get these students on to a campus. Some of them have never been to a college before.
The importance of getting a higher education is important to Luna. He said he’ll attend as many college prep seminars as possible and do whatever it takes to someday sit in a college classroom.
By Vicente Arenas / KHOU 11 News, April 22, 2009
At the Lone Star College in north Harris County, there is no shortage of help from peers or instructors, but there is a major shortage of Latino men. The shortage is evident at all colleges and universities across the country.
To fix the problem, Lone Star Collage invited 700 teenage high school boys to its campus for a Hispanic male Summit.
“The biggest need is of education of college. (Many don’t know) how to get into college (and they don’t know about) the differences between the colleges that are out there,” said Diana Pino with Lone Star College.
It is that quest for knowledge that inspired Ramces Luna to attend the Summit.
He said he has no problem making straight A’s as a 9th grader at Cy Lakes High, but he knows nothing about how to get into college.
“I don’t know. All these things you have to do, like all these scholarships, like financial aid. I really don’t know what that is,” said Luna.
The summit also teaches Latinos how to apply for scholarships.
Some organizations in the Houston area say they have trouble getting Latino students to apply for free money.
They say that many of those students walk away from thousands of dollars that could have been theirs.
One of the other major goals of the Hispanic Male Summit is to get these students on to a campus. Some of them have never been to a college before.
The importance of getting a higher education is important to Luna. He said he’ll attend as many college prep seminars as possible and do whatever it takes to someday sit in a college classroom.
Latina says signs should be in Spanish
Molina wants Spanish translation for Gold Line. “La Linea de Oro”?
LA Times, April 22, 2009
When light rail returns to the Eastside neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles this summer, many Spanish-speaking residents will undoubtedly talk about taking el tren.
But will commuters say they are riding La Linea de Oro? L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina will propose during an MTA board meeting today that the Eastside extension of the Gold Line be officially named La Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal.
If the motion is approved, it will be the first time the name of an MTA facility, rail or bus line has been translated from English to Spanish, said MTA spokesman Jose Ubaldo. In her motion, Molina says that Spanish has been a “cornerstone of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles” and that several community members asked that the rail line be referred to in that language, as well as honor the late Latino congressman, who grew up in Boyle Heights.
Molina could not be reached for comment. Boyle Heights and East L.A. are more than 95% Latino, with a huge Spanish-speaking population.
Lupe Bojorquez, 59, a Neighborhood Watch captain, said she has talked in the past with Molina about naming the Eastside stretch of the lineLa Linea de Oro.“I think it would be a nice gesture if it was named in Spanish,” Bojorquez said.
Although a date has not been set, the Gold Line extension is expected to open as early as June.
--Hector Becerra
LA Times, April 22, 2009
When light rail returns to the Eastside neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles this summer, many Spanish-speaking residents will undoubtedly talk about taking el tren.
But will commuters say they are riding La Linea de Oro? L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina will propose during an MTA board meeting today that the Eastside extension of the Gold Line be officially named La Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal.
If the motion is approved, it will be the first time the name of an MTA facility, rail or bus line has been translated from English to Spanish, said MTA spokesman Jose Ubaldo. In her motion, Molina says that Spanish has been a “cornerstone of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles” and that several community members asked that the rail line be referred to in that language, as well as honor the late Latino congressman, who grew up in Boyle Heights.
Molina could not be reached for comment. Boyle Heights and East L.A. are more than 95% Latino, with a huge Spanish-speaking population.
Lupe Bojorquez, 59, a Neighborhood Watch captain, said she has talked in the past with Molina about naming the Eastside stretch of the lineLa Linea de Oro.“I think it would be a nice gesture if it was named in Spanish,” Bojorquez said.
Although a date has not been set, the Gold Line extension is expected to open as early as June.
--Hector Becerra
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Texas GOP Senator reaching out to Hispanic voters
Hutchison reaching out to Texas' Hispanic voters
Dallas Morning News, April 18, 2009
When U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison meets with Hispanic constituents next week in Dallas, she may be looking beyond just lining up votes for what looks like a run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010.
She may also looking at the shifting demographics of Texas and what that means for a Republican elected to statewide office, especially in a state that may be becoming more Democratic.
"Kay Bailey knows how important relationships are going to be with elected officials and constituents in a state that may be trending purple," said Alberto "Beto" Cardenas Jr., who is heading up the Hispanics for Kay campaign committee.
If Texas becomes more Democratic, there are going to be more Hispanic Democratic congressional members and state legislators, and whoever is elected Texas governor will need to work effectively with them.
In addition, the state's established black political leadership and growing Asian communities also ensure that governing will be an art of balancing diverse populations with divergent economic and educational needs.
For Cardenas, Hutchison has been adept at recognizing the demographic changes back home.
"I would not define [Hutchison's] policy positions as liberal, moderate or conservative, but rather, I would say that she is more in tune with Texas," Cardenas said. "Her support from a strong majority of voters through the years reflects that she is on the right track with issues and that she is consistent in representing all Texans."
That's a message she'll be sending to all sectors of the state, and her messenger could be an effective one. Cardenas is a 35-year-old Houston attorney who has begun wooing key Latino Republicans and independents in North Texas.
Mark Miner, spokesman for Perry's campaign, said the governor has enjoyed support from Hispanics throughout the state in the past and is sure he will do so again.
"But he's focused on the current legislative session and has not begun campaigning yet," Miner said. "He's implementing policies that benefit not just Hispanics, but all Texans."
Jason Villalba, head of the Dallas chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said he is personally endorsing Hutchison over Gov. Rick Perry.
"I'm speaking for myself when I say I like her positions on education and the economy – two critically important issues to me."
But Dallas school Trustee Edwin Flores said he's undecided and is waiting to hear from both Hutchison and Perry before making a commitment.
He said state officials should stay out of federal issues, such as immigration, and get more concerned with state business such as education. But the governor has a "mixed record" on education, Flores said, and the state's educational system needs a dramatic overhaul.
Cardenas is optimistic that voters like Flores and Villalba will like what they see in Hutchison's record and turn out at the polls in the GOP primary.
But others, like Andrew Hernández, a Latino political analyst, said he expects the majority of Latinos to continue voting primarily for Democrats in the primaries.
"So Hutchison's real strategy is for November."
Dallas Morning News, April 18, 2009
When U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison meets with Hispanic constituents next week in Dallas, she may be looking beyond just lining up votes for what looks like a run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010.
She may also looking at the shifting demographics of Texas and what that means for a Republican elected to statewide office, especially in a state that may be becoming more Democratic.
"Kay Bailey knows how important relationships are going to be with elected officials and constituents in a state that may be trending purple," said Alberto "Beto" Cardenas Jr., who is heading up the Hispanics for Kay campaign committee.
If Texas becomes more Democratic, there are going to be more Hispanic Democratic congressional members and state legislators, and whoever is elected Texas governor will need to work effectively with them.
In addition, the state's established black political leadership and growing Asian communities also ensure that governing will be an art of balancing diverse populations with divergent economic and educational needs.
For Cardenas, Hutchison has been adept at recognizing the demographic changes back home.
"I would not define [Hutchison's] policy positions as liberal, moderate or conservative, but rather, I would say that she is more in tune with Texas," Cardenas said. "Her support from a strong majority of voters through the years reflects that she is on the right track with issues and that she is consistent in representing all Texans."
That's a message she'll be sending to all sectors of the state, and her messenger could be an effective one. Cardenas is a 35-year-old Houston attorney who has begun wooing key Latino Republicans and independents in North Texas.
Mark Miner, spokesman for Perry's campaign, said the governor has enjoyed support from Hispanics throughout the state in the past and is sure he will do so again.
"But he's focused on the current legislative session and has not begun campaigning yet," Miner said. "He's implementing policies that benefit not just Hispanics, but all Texans."
Jason Villalba, head of the Dallas chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said he is personally endorsing Hutchison over Gov. Rick Perry.
"I'm speaking for myself when I say I like her positions on education and the economy – two critically important issues to me."
But Dallas school Trustee Edwin Flores said he's undecided and is waiting to hear from both Hutchison and Perry before making a commitment.
He said state officials should stay out of federal issues, such as immigration, and get more concerned with state business such as education. But the governor has a "mixed record" on education, Flores said, and the state's educational system needs a dramatic overhaul.
Cardenas is optimistic that voters like Flores and Villalba will like what they see in Hutchison's record and turn out at the polls in the GOP primary.
But others, like Andrew Hernández, a Latino political analyst, said he expects the majority of Latinos to continue voting primarily for Democrats in the primaries.
"So Hutchison's real strategy is for November."
Boston schools house more Latinos
Latinos now largest percentage of Boston students
Associated Press - April 19, 2009
BOSTON (AP) - The racial balance in Massachusetts' largest school district has shifted, with Latinos now accounting for Boston's largest percentage of students.
Black students previously comprised the largest population segment of the schools, which have about 55,800 children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
This year's annual student count shows Latinos accounted for 38.1% of all students while blacks comprised 37.9%. The change follows decades of steady growth among children of Hispanic backgrounds and declines in the percentage of black children in the district.
The changing face of the city's schools reflects a surging immigrant population across Massachusetts.
Boston school district figures show about 13% of students are Caucasian, about 9% are Asian and the rest are multi-racial or other ethnicities.
Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe
Associated Press - April 19, 2009
BOSTON (AP) - The racial balance in Massachusetts' largest school district has shifted, with Latinos now accounting for Boston's largest percentage of students.
Black students previously comprised the largest population segment of the schools, which have about 55,800 children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
This year's annual student count shows Latinos accounted for 38.1% of all students while blacks comprised 37.9%. The change follows decades of steady growth among children of Hispanic backgrounds and declines in the percentage of black children in the district.
The changing face of the city's schools reflects a surging immigrant population across Massachusetts.
Boston school district figures show about 13% of students are Caucasian, about 9% are Asian and the rest are multi-racial or other ethnicities.
Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe
Hispanic, Black kids will pay Obama's budget
JUAN WILLIAMS: Obama’s Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids
Fox News
As I watch Washington politics I am not easily given to rage.
Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable.
But over the last week I find myself in a fury.
The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students.
The reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not speak well of the promise by Obama to be the “Education President.”
This is critical to our nation’s future in terms of workforce preparation to compete in a global economy but also to fulfill the idea of racial equality by providing a real equal opportunity for all young people who are willing to work hard to succeed.
In a politically calculated dance step the Obama team first indicated that they wanted the Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue for students lucky enough to have won one of the vouchers. The five-year school voucher program is scheduled to expire after the school year ending in June 2010. Secretary Duncan said in early March that it didn’t make sense “to take kids out of a school where they’re happy and safe and satisfied and learning…those kids need to stay in their school.”
And all along the administration indicated that pending evidence that this voucher program or any other produces better test scores for students they were willing to fight for it. The president has said that when it comes to better schools he is open to supporting “what works for kids.” That looked like a level playing field on which to evaluate the program and even possibly expanding the program.
But last week Secretary Duncan announced that he will not allow any new students to enter the D.C. voucher program. In fact, he had to take back the government’s offer of scholarships to 200 students who had won a lottery to get into the program starting next year. His rationale is that if the program does not win new funding from Congress then those students might have to go back to public school in a year.
He does not want to give the students a chance for a year in a better school? That does not make sense if the students and their families want that life-line of hope. It does not make sense if there is a real chance that the program might win new funding as parents, educators and politicians rally to undo the “bigotry of low expectations” and open doors of opportunity — wherever they exist — for more low-income students.
And now Secretary Duncan has applied a sly, political check-mate for the D.C. voucher plan.
With no living, breathing students profiting from the program to give it a face and stand and defend it the Congress has little political pressure to put new money into the program. The political pressure will be coming exclusively from the teacher’s unions who oppose the vouchers, just as they oppose No Child Left Behind and charter schools and every other effort at reforming public schools that continue to fail the nation’s most vulnerable young people, low income blacks and Hispanics.
The National Education Association and other teachers’ unions have put millions into Democrats’ congressional campaigns because they oppose Republican efforts to challenge unions on their resistance to school reform and specifically their refusal to support ideas such as performance-based pay for teachers who raise students’ test scores.
By going along with Secretary Duncan’s plan to hollow out the D.C. voucher program this president, who has spoken so passionately about the importance of education, is playing rank politics with the education of poor children. It is an outrage.
This voucher programs is unique in that it takes no money away from the beleaguered District of Columbia Public Schools. Nationwide, the strongest argument from opponents of vouchers is that it drains hard-to-find dollars from public schools that educate the majority of children.
But Congress approved the D.C. plan as an experiment and funded it separately from the D.C. school budget. It is the most generous voucher program in the nation, offering $7,500 per child to help with tuition to a parochial or private school.
With that line of attack off the table, critics of vouchers pointed out that even $7,500 is not enough to pay for the full tuition to private schools where the price of a year’s education can easily go beyond $20,000. But nearly 8,000 students applied for the vouchers. And a quarter of them, 1,714 children, won the lottery and took the money as a ticket out of the D.C. public schools.
The students, almost all of them black and Hispanic, patched together the voucher money with scholarships, other grants and parents willing to make sacrifices to pay their tuition.
What happened, according to a Department of Education study, is that after three years the voucher students scored 3.7 months higher on reading than students who remained in the D.C. schools. In addition, students who came into the D.C. voucher program when it first started had a 19 month advantage in reading after three years in private schools.
It is really upsetting to see that the Heritage Foundation has discoverd that 38 percent of the members of Congress made the choice to put their children in private schools. Of course, Secretary Duncan has said he decided not to live in Washington, D.C. because he did not want his children to go to public schools there. And President Obama, who has no choice but to live in the White House, does not send his two daughters to D.C. public schools, either. They attend a private school, Sidwell Friends, along with two students who got there because of the voucher program.
This reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not bode well for arguments to come about standards in the effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. It does not speak well of the promise of President Obama to be the “Education President,’ who once seemed primed to stand up for all children who want to learn and especially minority children.
And its time for all of us to get outraged about this sin against our children.
Fox News
As I watch Washington politics I am not easily given to rage.
Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable.
But over the last week I find myself in a fury.
The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students.
The reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not speak well of the promise by Obama to be the “Education President.”
This is critical to our nation’s future in terms of workforce preparation to compete in a global economy but also to fulfill the idea of racial equality by providing a real equal opportunity for all young people who are willing to work hard to succeed.
In a politically calculated dance step the Obama team first indicated that they wanted the Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue for students lucky enough to have won one of the vouchers. The five-year school voucher program is scheduled to expire after the school year ending in June 2010. Secretary Duncan said in early March that it didn’t make sense “to take kids out of a school where they’re happy and safe and satisfied and learning…those kids need to stay in their school.”
And all along the administration indicated that pending evidence that this voucher program or any other produces better test scores for students they were willing to fight for it. The president has said that when it comes to better schools he is open to supporting “what works for kids.” That looked like a level playing field on which to evaluate the program and even possibly expanding the program.
But last week Secretary Duncan announced that he will not allow any new students to enter the D.C. voucher program. In fact, he had to take back the government’s offer of scholarships to 200 students who had won a lottery to get into the program starting next year. His rationale is that if the program does not win new funding from Congress then those students might have to go back to public school in a year.
He does not want to give the students a chance for a year in a better school? That does not make sense if the students and their families want that life-line of hope. It does not make sense if there is a real chance that the program might win new funding as parents, educators and politicians rally to undo the “bigotry of low expectations” and open doors of opportunity — wherever they exist — for more low-income students.
And now Secretary Duncan has applied a sly, political check-mate for the D.C. voucher plan.
With no living, breathing students profiting from the program to give it a face and stand and defend it the Congress has little political pressure to put new money into the program. The political pressure will be coming exclusively from the teacher’s unions who oppose the vouchers, just as they oppose No Child Left Behind and charter schools and every other effort at reforming public schools that continue to fail the nation’s most vulnerable young people, low income blacks and Hispanics.
The National Education Association and other teachers’ unions have put millions into Democrats’ congressional campaigns because they oppose Republican efforts to challenge unions on their resistance to school reform and specifically their refusal to support ideas such as performance-based pay for teachers who raise students’ test scores.
By going along with Secretary Duncan’s plan to hollow out the D.C. voucher program this president, who has spoken so passionately about the importance of education, is playing rank politics with the education of poor children. It is an outrage.
This voucher programs is unique in that it takes no money away from the beleaguered District of Columbia Public Schools. Nationwide, the strongest argument from opponents of vouchers is that it drains hard-to-find dollars from public schools that educate the majority of children.
But Congress approved the D.C. plan as an experiment and funded it separately from the D.C. school budget. It is the most generous voucher program in the nation, offering $7,500 per child to help with tuition to a parochial or private school.
With that line of attack off the table, critics of vouchers pointed out that even $7,500 is not enough to pay for the full tuition to private schools where the price of a year’s education can easily go beyond $20,000. But nearly 8,000 students applied for the vouchers. And a quarter of them, 1,714 children, won the lottery and took the money as a ticket out of the D.C. public schools.
The students, almost all of them black and Hispanic, patched together the voucher money with scholarships, other grants and parents willing to make sacrifices to pay their tuition.
What happened, according to a Department of Education study, is that after three years the voucher students scored 3.7 months higher on reading than students who remained in the D.C. schools. In addition, students who came into the D.C. voucher program when it first started had a 19 month advantage in reading after three years in private schools.
It is really upsetting to see that the Heritage Foundation has discoverd that 38 percent of the members of Congress made the choice to put their children in private schools. Of course, Secretary Duncan has said he decided not to live in Washington, D.C. because he did not want his children to go to public schools there. And President Obama, who has no choice but to live in the White House, does not send his two daughters to D.C. public schools, either. They attend a private school, Sidwell Friends, along with two students who got there because of the voucher program.
This reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not bode well for arguments to come about standards in the effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. It does not speak well of the promise of President Obama to be the “Education President,’ who once seemed primed to stand up for all children who want to learn and especially minority children.
And its time for all of us to get outraged about this sin against our children.
Latinos could benefit by College Board move
College Board steps into immigration fray
Best known for administering the SAT test, the board's trustees vote to support the Dream Act, which would offer some undocumented youths a path to citizenship through college or the military.
By Ben Meyerson LA Times April 21, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- The College Board is supporting legislation that would offer some undocumented youths a path to citizenship through college or the military.
The College Board, best known for the SAT and AP tests it administers, is stepping into the contentious issue for the first time, just as President Obama is signaling that he may encourage lawmakers to overhaul immigration laws later in the year. The board's trustees have voted unanimously to support the legislation, known as the Dream Act.
"These are students who have gone through our K-12 system and have achieved in a very high manner," said James Montoya, a vice president of the College Board.
But Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the Dream Act allows illegal immigrants to take scholarship opportunities away from native U.S. residents. It's unfair, he said, to reward those who violated the law to get to this country.
"If you ask any illegal alien why they came to America, the answer, invariably is 'Well, I wanted to do better for my family,' and this gives them precisely what they broke the law to achieve," Mehlman said.
The bill would allow students who illegally entered the U.S. when they were 15 or younger to apply for conditional legal resident status if they have lived in the country for five or more years and graduated from high school or received a GED. If they attended college or served in the military for two or more years, they could be granted citizenship.
Conditional legal status could make the immigrants eligible for in-state college tuition, depending on local laws, and would allow them to compete for some forms of federal financial assistance. A 2007 UCLA report estimated that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year.
The Senate voted on the Dream Act in 2007, winning a majority but lacking the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster. The measure was then folded into more comprehensive immigration legislation, which died. It was reintroduced in the House and Senate last month.
California is one of 10 states that currently provide in-state tuition to certain undocumented students and other non-residents who attended California high schools.
bmeyerson@tribune.com
Best known for administering the SAT test, the board's trustees vote to support the Dream Act, which would offer some undocumented youths a path to citizenship through college or the military.
By Ben Meyerson LA Times April 21, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- The College Board is supporting legislation that would offer some undocumented youths a path to citizenship through college or the military.
The College Board, best known for the SAT and AP tests it administers, is stepping into the contentious issue for the first time, just as President Obama is signaling that he may encourage lawmakers to overhaul immigration laws later in the year. The board's trustees have voted unanimously to support the legislation, known as the Dream Act.
"These are students who have gone through our K-12 system and have achieved in a very high manner," said James Montoya, a vice president of the College Board.
But Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the Dream Act allows illegal immigrants to take scholarship opportunities away from native U.S. residents. It's unfair, he said, to reward those who violated the law to get to this country.
"If you ask any illegal alien why they came to America, the answer, invariably is 'Well, I wanted to do better for my family,' and this gives them precisely what they broke the law to achieve," Mehlman said.
The bill would allow students who illegally entered the U.S. when they were 15 or younger to apply for conditional legal resident status if they have lived in the country for five or more years and graduated from high school or received a GED. If they attended college or served in the military for two or more years, they could be granted citizenship.
Conditional legal status could make the immigrants eligible for in-state college tuition, depending on local laws, and would allow them to compete for some forms of federal financial assistance. A 2007 UCLA report estimated that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year.
The Senate voted on the Dream Act in 2007, winning a majority but lacking the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster. The measure was then folded into more comprehensive immigration legislation, which died. It was reintroduced in the House and Senate last month.
California is one of 10 states that currently provide in-state tuition to certain undocumented students and other non-residents who attended California high schools.
bmeyerson@tribune.com
Hispanic, Asians are California's majority natives
More California natives are staying put
The state's transient population is losing ground to settled families, USC study says. The changes will affect public schools, taxes and real estate.
By Rich Connell, LA Times, April 21, 2009
A profound shift away from California's more transient and migrant-dependent past will soon produce the state's first generation of adults whose majority will be native-born, researchers at USC said in a study released Monday.
More than 70% of Californians ages 15 to 24 were born and raised in the state, according to the report, "The New Homegrown Majority in California." By contrast, nearly two-thirds of state residents 45 to 54 years old were born out of state.
The change has far-reaching implications for everything from investment in the public education system to who will buy retiring baby boomers' homes and shoulder the burden of future taxes, said Dowell Myers, one of the study's principal authors.
"It's a sea change in demography but also in political perceptions," Myers said. "We've transformed from being a state of migrants to a settled state of native Californians.
"We're basically becoming more self-reliant on who we have here. And we're going to be prospering or suffering on who we have here."
Significantly -- and in contrast to the past -- the emerging homegrown majority will have been shaped entirely by their life experience in California, notably their schooling, the report says.
"They are products of the school system, for better or for worse," Myers said.
The younger generation of native-born Californians is more likely to support higher taxes for public services and to stick around to return the state's investment in their education, the study said.
The recent trends, which cut across racial and ethnic groups, mark a reversal in losses of native-born Californians during the recession of the 1990s.
Among other things, the shift may reflect a more family-anchored culture among fast-growing Latino and Asian groups and a greater desire to remain rooted near relatives, the study suggests.
California natives now are more inclined to remain in their home state than residents of 45 other states, the report says.
Cultural ties may be one factor. But across the country today more people are staying put for a combination of reasons, said D'Vera Cohn, who has studied the trends for the Pew Research Center. An aging population, the complexity of moving families when both parents work and the recession all appear to play a role, she said.
Also, a recent Pew study found that after years of rapid growth, illegal immigration to California is slowing down. The state's share of the nation's estimated 11.9 million undocumented migrants has dropped to 22% from 42% in 1990, researchers found.
Most of California's emerging homegrown majority of teens and young adults are citizens, researchers note. A sizable minority -- 14% of the state's school age students, according to one Pew study -- are children of illegal immigrants.
Myers said the new findings suggest a social compact on public policy and investment between older and wealthier Californians and a more ethnically diverse younger generation. As those young adults move into the middle class, they will help support retirees and be customers for one of their largest assets: their homes.
"Older folks tend to think these [education services are] consumed by the young, for the benefit of the young," he said. "If you think about it, there's a lot in it for everyone."
For example, young Latinos with college degrees pay on average 60% more for homes than Latinos with high school degrees, he said.
Still, intense debate over the cost of providing services to children of illegal immigrants and the fight over immigration reform affect how different groups interpret such studies, said Roberto Suro, a professor in USC's Annenberg School of Communications.
"Simply as a practical political matter, it's harder to get to [Myers'] larger issue until that one [immigration] is settled."
But regardless of one's political views, the study identifies "a transformative moment" for California, said Suro, who specializes in demographics. Luring educated, skilled labor from elsewhere was "what created California. . . . It's sort of been the ace in the hole."
The new research, he said, "means that the state has to generate its own human resources."
rich.connell@latimes.com
The state's transient population is losing ground to settled families, USC study says. The changes will affect public schools, taxes and real estate.
By Rich Connell, LA Times, April 21, 2009
A profound shift away from California's more transient and migrant-dependent past will soon produce the state's first generation of adults whose majority will be native-born, researchers at USC said in a study released Monday.
More than 70% of Californians ages 15 to 24 were born and raised in the state, according to the report, "The New Homegrown Majority in California." By contrast, nearly two-thirds of state residents 45 to 54 years old were born out of state.
The change has far-reaching implications for everything from investment in the public education system to who will buy retiring baby boomers' homes and shoulder the burden of future taxes, said Dowell Myers, one of the study's principal authors.
"It's a sea change in demography but also in political perceptions," Myers said. "We've transformed from being a state of migrants to a settled state of native Californians.
"We're basically becoming more self-reliant on who we have here. And we're going to be prospering or suffering on who we have here."
Significantly -- and in contrast to the past -- the emerging homegrown majority will have been shaped entirely by their life experience in California, notably their schooling, the report says.
"They are products of the school system, for better or for worse," Myers said.
The younger generation of native-born Californians is more likely to support higher taxes for public services and to stick around to return the state's investment in their education, the study said.
The recent trends, which cut across racial and ethnic groups, mark a reversal in losses of native-born Californians during the recession of the 1990s.
Among other things, the shift may reflect a more family-anchored culture among fast-growing Latino and Asian groups and a greater desire to remain rooted near relatives, the study suggests.
California natives now are more inclined to remain in their home state than residents of 45 other states, the report says.
Cultural ties may be one factor. But across the country today more people are staying put for a combination of reasons, said D'Vera Cohn, who has studied the trends for the Pew Research Center. An aging population, the complexity of moving families when both parents work and the recession all appear to play a role, she said.
Also, a recent Pew study found that after years of rapid growth, illegal immigration to California is slowing down. The state's share of the nation's estimated 11.9 million undocumented migrants has dropped to 22% from 42% in 1990, researchers found.
Most of California's emerging homegrown majority of teens and young adults are citizens, researchers note. A sizable minority -- 14% of the state's school age students, according to one Pew study -- are children of illegal immigrants.
Myers said the new findings suggest a social compact on public policy and investment between older and wealthier Californians and a more ethnically diverse younger generation. As those young adults move into the middle class, they will help support retirees and be customers for one of their largest assets: their homes.
"Older folks tend to think these [education services are] consumed by the young, for the benefit of the young," he said. "If you think about it, there's a lot in it for everyone."
For example, young Latinos with college degrees pay on average 60% more for homes than Latinos with high school degrees, he said.
Still, intense debate over the cost of providing services to children of illegal immigrants and the fight over immigration reform affect how different groups interpret such studies, said Roberto Suro, a professor in USC's Annenberg School of Communications.
"Simply as a practical political matter, it's harder to get to [Myers'] larger issue until that one [immigration] is settled."
But regardless of one's political views, the study identifies "a transformative moment" for California, said Suro, who specializes in demographics. Luring educated, skilled labor from elsewhere was "what created California. . . . It's sort of been the ace in the hole."
The new research, he said, "means that the state has to generate its own human resources."
rich.connell@latimes.com
Monday, April 20, 2009
Latino education raises major concerns
OCEANSIDE: Alarming trend seen in Latino education
Ecuentros program encourages boys to stay in school
By ELENA CRISTIANO - North County Times | April 15, 2009
OCEANSIDE ---- Business and civic leaders from around North County gathered at MiraCosta College on Wednesday to hear news of what some call a disturbing trend.
"The education pipeline is leaking Latino males," said Mark Evilsizer a member of the Palomar College board of trustees and secretary of the Encuentros Leadership program. "There are an excessive amount dropping out ---- starting at middle school all the way through college."
Encuentros Leadership and MiraCosta College presented "Identifying the Future", the first installment in a series of speakers aimed at furthering Encuentros' mission to encourage and support Latino boys to achieve optimal performance in education.
Encuentros founder Robert Rivas introduced Ayrton Lopez, an eighth-grader at Calavera Hills Middle School and Padres Scholar recipient, who led the group of 150 in the pledge of allegiance and then shared his hope for the future.
"When I am older I want to be an architectural draftsman," said Lopez. "And make lots of money."
Artie Ojeda, NBC 7/39 news anchor and longtime supporter of Encuentros, said that 50 percent of Latino boys don't graduate from high school and that by the year 2014 the majority of high school seniors will be Latino males.
"That's alarming," said Ojeda, who served as master of ceremonies for the event and regularly participates in Encuentros' outreach events.
He said he believes that empowering the young men to pursue their educational dreams can make a real difference.
"Just touch one, two, 20 or 200," said Ojeda. "Some of these young men are like sponges and if they can be convinced that people care, they will work very hard."
Renowned guitarist David Maldonado, who surprised the crowd with two numbers, echoed Ojeda's sentiments.
He said today's leaders need to give hope and inspiration to these kids so they can do "anything they want to do."
"As long as you live your passion you can succeed," said Maldonado.
The event also featured music from the MiraCosta Latin Jazz Orchestra and addresses by two keynote speakers: Francisco Reveles, chairman of the college of education at Cal State Sacramento, and Victor Saenz, professor of education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Data presented included the statistic from the San Diego Association of Governments that the Latino population in Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, Encinitas, San Marcos and Escondido is expected to increase to 334,536 by 2030, compared to an expected leveling and even slight decline in non-Latino population. Also, according to the California Department of Education, comparative enrollment in those same community's school districts showed a sharp incline for Latino students versus a sharp decline for Anglo students.
Representatives from most of those school districts were on hand, as well as leaders from MiraCosta and Palomar colleges, the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and Tri-City Medical Center.
The group from the Vista Unified School District was more than 20 strong. Dr. Joyce Bales, superintendent, said she has been working with Encuentros since she started at the district in 2006, helping "to make sure that Latino boys have an opportunity to pursue an education and graduate from high school."
Ed Nelson, superintendent of the Escondido High Union School District, said he was there because educators must do "everything we can to help the population of students we serve."
"When we collectively bring these kinds of resources together nothing can happen but good," said Nelson.
Encuentros sponsors an annual career conference, summer academy and classes at several local schools, all aimed at improving education for Latino boys.
Bales said she was very impressed by the students she's seen taking part in the organization.
"Some come to class as early as 6:30 in the morning," said Bales. "Now that's dedication."
Encuentros plans to hold the next event in the series this fall. A date has not been set but they hope to feature David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, and David Lizarraga, chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
For more information on Encuentros visit www.encuentrosleadership.org
Ecuentros program encourages boys to stay in school
By ELENA CRISTIANO - North County Times | April 15, 2009
OCEANSIDE ---- Business and civic leaders from around North County gathered at MiraCosta College on Wednesday to hear news of what some call a disturbing trend.
"The education pipeline is leaking Latino males," said Mark Evilsizer a member of the Palomar College board of trustees and secretary of the Encuentros Leadership program. "There are an excessive amount dropping out ---- starting at middle school all the way through college."
Encuentros Leadership and MiraCosta College presented "Identifying the Future", the first installment in a series of speakers aimed at furthering Encuentros' mission to encourage and support Latino boys to achieve optimal performance in education.
Encuentros founder Robert Rivas introduced Ayrton Lopez, an eighth-grader at Calavera Hills Middle School and Padres Scholar recipient, who led the group of 150 in the pledge of allegiance and then shared his hope for the future.
"When I am older I want to be an architectural draftsman," said Lopez. "And make lots of money."
Artie Ojeda, NBC 7/39 news anchor and longtime supporter of Encuentros, said that 50 percent of Latino boys don't graduate from high school and that by the year 2014 the majority of high school seniors will be Latino males.
"That's alarming," said Ojeda, who served as master of ceremonies for the event and regularly participates in Encuentros' outreach events.
He said he believes that empowering the young men to pursue their educational dreams can make a real difference.
"Just touch one, two, 20 or 200," said Ojeda. "Some of these young men are like sponges and if they can be convinced that people care, they will work very hard."
Renowned guitarist David Maldonado, who surprised the crowd with two numbers, echoed Ojeda's sentiments.
He said today's leaders need to give hope and inspiration to these kids so they can do "anything they want to do."
"As long as you live your passion you can succeed," said Maldonado.
The event also featured music from the MiraCosta Latin Jazz Orchestra and addresses by two keynote speakers: Francisco Reveles, chairman of the college of education at Cal State Sacramento, and Victor Saenz, professor of education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Data presented included the statistic from the San Diego Association of Governments that the Latino population in Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, Encinitas, San Marcos and Escondido is expected to increase to 334,536 by 2030, compared to an expected leveling and even slight decline in non-Latino population. Also, according to the California Department of Education, comparative enrollment in those same community's school districts showed a sharp incline for Latino students versus a sharp decline for Anglo students.
Representatives from most of those school districts were on hand, as well as leaders from MiraCosta and Palomar colleges, the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and Tri-City Medical Center.
The group from the Vista Unified School District was more than 20 strong. Dr. Joyce Bales, superintendent, said she has been working with Encuentros since she started at the district in 2006, helping "to make sure that Latino boys have an opportunity to pursue an education and graduate from high school."
Ed Nelson, superintendent of the Escondido High Union School District, said he was there because educators must do "everything we can to help the population of students we serve."
"When we collectively bring these kinds of resources together nothing can happen but good," said Nelson.
Encuentros sponsors an annual career conference, summer academy and classes at several local schools, all aimed at improving education for Latino boys.
Bales said she was very impressed by the students she's seen taking part in the organization.
"Some come to class as early as 6:30 in the morning," said Bales. "Now that's dedication."
Encuentros plans to hold the next event in the series this fall. A date has not been set but they hope to feature David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, and David Lizarraga, chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
For more information on Encuentros visit www.encuentrosleadership.org
Hispanics, farmers march for water
Hundreds Protest Cuts in Water in California
By MALIA WOLLAN, Fresno Bee, April 16, 2009
FIREBAUGH, Calif. — Hundreds of farmers, farm workers and local elected officials walked along dusty roads in the Central Valley on Thursday, part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.
“No Water, No Jobs, No Food,” read one sign held above the crowd, expressing the frustration of many in a region battered by a three-year drought, the national recession and surging unemployment.
“This is ground zero,” said Mario Santoyo, an adviser to the California Latino Water Coalition, which organized the 30-mile hike. “There’s a human tragedy going on here, and we need water.”
The march, the largest of several held this year, will end Friday at the San Luis Reservoir, one of many in the area that are well below normal levels.
With below-normal precipitation, many in the Central Valley have let their fields go fallow this spring. In March, the state projected that because of the drought as many as 23,700 full-time workers would go without jobs, and farmers would lose up to $477 million in revenue.
The marchers started their trek on Tuesday in the hard-hit town of Mendota, which has an unemployment rate of 40 percent.
Organizers are calling for a new canal that would divert water from the Sacramento River to Central Valley farms as well as a relaxation of the environmental protections given to threatened species like the delta smelt, a pinky-sized fish native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a critical aquatic byway for water from the wetter north part of the state.
Court rulings have limited pumping from the delta, while the drought has eliminated all federal water allocations to farms south of the delta for this growing season.
Still, some labor organizers and advocates for rural areas contend that the marchers’ goals reflect only the desires of agribusiness and not the real needs of farm workers.
Many of the protesters were paid by their employers to march in lieu of harvesting crops.
“In reality, this is not a farm worker march,” said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, the 27,000-member union founded by César Chávez, which did not participate in the march. “This is a farmer march orchestrated and financed by growers.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who is expected to address the crowd Friday, said in a statement on Thursday, “This march is about so much more than politics and water policy. It’s about our jobs, our schools, our families, our environment.”
Patricia Lopez, a 38-year-old farm hand, carried a sign made by her 7-year-old son with a smiley face under the word “water” and a sad face under “no water.”
“My legs are tired,” Ms. Lopez said. “But this is my job, and more water will make more work.”
By MALIA WOLLAN, Fresno Bee, April 16, 2009
FIREBAUGH, Calif. — Hundreds of farmers, farm workers and local elected officials walked along dusty roads in the Central Valley on Thursday, part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.
“No Water, No Jobs, No Food,” read one sign held above the crowd, expressing the frustration of many in a region battered by a three-year drought, the national recession and surging unemployment.
“This is ground zero,” said Mario Santoyo, an adviser to the California Latino Water Coalition, which organized the 30-mile hike. “There’s a human tragedy going on here, and we need water.”
The march, the largest of several held this year, will end Friday at the San Luis Reservoir, one of many in the area that are well below normal levels.
With below-normal precipitation, many in the Central Valley have let their fields go fallow this spring. In March, the state projected that because of the drought as many as 23,700 full-time workers would go without jobs, and farmers would lose up to $477 million in revenue.
The marchers started their trek on Tuesday in the hard-hit town of Mendota, which has an unemployment rate of 40 percent.
Organizers are calling for a new canal that would divert water from the Sacramento River to Central Valley farms as well as a relaxation of the environmental protections given to threatened species like the delta smelt, a pinky-sized fish native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a critical aquatic byway for water from the wetter north part of the state.
Court rulings have limited pumping from the delta, while the drought has eliminated all federal water allocations to farms south of the delta for this growing season.
Still, some labor organizers and advocates for rural areas contend that the marchers’ goals reflect only the desires of agribusiness and not the real needs of farm workers.
Many of the protesters were paid by their employers to march in lieu of harvesting crops.
“In reality, this is not a farm worker march,” said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, the 27,000-member union founded by César Chávez, which did not participate in the march. “This is a farmer march orchestrated and financed by growers.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who is expected to address the crowd Friday, said in a statement on Thursday, “This march is about so much more than politics and water policy. It’s about our jobs, our schools, our families, our environment.”
Patricia Lopez, a 38-year-old farm hand, carried a sign made by her 7-year-old son with a smiley face under the word “water” and a sad face under “no water.”
“My legs are tired,” Ms. Lopez said. “But this is my job, and more water will make more work.”
Hispanic immigrant bashing on the rise again
Dan Walters: Immigrant bashing rises anew
By Dan Walters, dwalters@sacbee.com, Apr. 19, 2009
California's worsening economy, and the budget crisis that has been its most conspicuous byproduct, have predictably reignited the state's perpetual war of words over illegal immigrants.
Radio talk shows, anti-tax rallies and Internet blogs are full of invective alleging that illegal immigrants are responsible for the state's economic woes by taking jobs from citizens and for the budget crisis by consuming countless billions of dollars in public services.
It was, therefore, very timely for the Pew Hispanic Center to issue an authoritative study on illegal immigration in the United States, focusing particularly on California, which has the highest number of residents who entered the country illegally.
The Pew report essentially confirmed previous estimates about the size of the nation's – and the state's – illegal immigrant population, about 12 million in the nation as a whole and just under 3 million in California.
It also confirmed that with the nation's economic problems, those populations essentially have not been growing, although there has been some increase in citizen children born to illegal immigrant mothers.
And, perhaps most importantly, it confirmed that the vast majority of illegal adults are in the labor force and working. Of California's roughly 3 million illegal residents, for instance, about two-thirds are working and constitute nearly 10 percent of the state's work force.
Does that mean they're stealing jobs that otherwise would be filled by citizens? Overwhelmingly, they're doing low-skill, low-pay work that no one else is willing to do – stoop labor in the fields and unskilled labor in construction, restaurants and other businesses.
Coincidentally, the number of illegal workers is very close to the number of unemployed Californians. But how many of those jobless workers would give up their unemployment insurance checks to pick grapes or do other jobs that the immigrants are filling? We all know the answer to that question is almost none.
The second canard is that illegal immigrants are a huge drain on the public treasury. The best estimates are that public costs of illegals – education, health care and imprisonment, primarily – are about $5 billion a year, but that the taxes they pay pretty much wash out those costs, even without counting the revenue generated by their participation in the economy.
Even if the numbers didn't balance out and the entire $5 billion cost was borne by citizen-taxpayers, it still would represent a tiny piece of the roughly $150 billion a year that state and local governments spend on such services each year and a fractional piece of the state's chronic budget deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put it this way last week in response to a question at a Los Angeles budget forum: "Anyone who says you have a budget crisis because of undocumented immigrants, I would say this is a prejudiced comment rather than reality."
He's absolutely right.
By Dan Walters, dwalters@sacbee.com, Apr. 19, 2009
California's worsening economy, and the budget crisis that has been its most conspicuous byproduct, have predictably reignited the state's perpetual war of words over illegal immigrants.
Radio talk shows, anti-tax rallies and Internet blogs are full of invective alleging that illegal immigrants are responsible for the state's economic woes by taking jobs from citizens and for the budget crisis by consuming countless billions of dollars in public services.
It was, therefore, very timely for the Pew Hispanic Center to issue an authoritative study on illegal immigration in the United States, focusing particularly on California, which has the highest number of residents who entered the country illegally.
The Pew report essentially confirmed previous estimates about the size of the nation's – and the state's – illegal immigrant population, about 12 million in the nation as a whole and just under 3 million in California.
It also confirmed that with the nation's economic problems, those populations essentially have not been growing, although there has been some increase in citizen children born to illegal immigrant mothers.
And, perhaps most importantly, it confirmed that the vast majority of illegal adults are in the labor force and working. Of California's roughly 3 million illegal residents, for instance, about two-thirds are working and constitute nearly 10 percent of the state's work force.
Does that mean they're stealing jobs that otherwise would be filled by citizens? Overwhelmingly, they're doing low-skill, low-pay work that no one else is willing to do – stoop labor in the fields and unskilled labor in construction, restaurants and other businesses.
Coincidentally, the number of illegal workers is very close to the number of unemployed Californians. But how many of those jobless workers would give up their unemployment insurance checks to pick grapes or do other jobs that the immigrants are filling? We all know the answer to that question is almost none.
The second canard is that illegal immigrants are a huge drain on the public treasury. The best estimates are that public costs of illegals – education, health care and imprisonment, primarily – are about $5 billion a year, but that the taxes they pay pretty much wash out those costs, even without counting the revenue generated by their participation in the economy.
Even if the numbers didn't balance out and the entire $5 billion cost was borne by citizen-taxpayers, it still would represent a tiny piece of the roughly $150 billion a year that state and local governments spend on such services each year and a fractional piece of the state's chronic budget deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put it this way last week in response to a question at a Los Angeles budget forum: "Anyone who says you have a budget crisis because of undocumented immigrants, I would say this is a prejudiced comment rather than reality."
He's absolutely right.
Latinos students could gain with legislation
More students to find “Opportunity Pathway” to college thanks to bill approved by legislature
Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney says simplifying financial aid process will make it easier for families to figure out how to pay for college
Press Release
OLYMPIA – It’s an all too common problem. Many kids want to go to college, but where do they go to find the financial aid opportunities that are right for them and their families?
That question led Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney (D-Seattle) to introduce legislation that places all of the state’s financial aid and some federal programs under the “Opportunity Pathway” brand.
“So many young students know they want to go to college but they have no idea how to pay for it. While Washington State ranks fourth in the nation for total financial aid distributed to its students, the sheer number of financial aid programs can make the process of finding and applying for financial aid a real barrier,” said Kenney, the prime sponsor of House Bill 2021. “We eliminate that barrier by simplifying how we communicate about financial aid so anyone who wants to go to college knows to look for an Opportunity Pathway first and foremost.”
The House passed the bill last month and the Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill 38-9 this week, sending the bill to Governor Christine Gregoire’s desk for her signature.
“Through the Opportunity Pathway program, a prospective student would be able to determine which financial aid program would best fit their needs and to help them pay for their higher education,” Kenney said.
Opportunity Pathways will not only include existing state grant programs, but also a new state low-interest loan program that will expand educational opportunities for more students, especially those in middle-income families.
The bill will also allow colleges to include information on student’s financial statements about tax credits the student might be eligible for, encourages more work study placement with employers in high-demand fields, and strengthens the state’s support for high school students in dual enrollment programs by allowing higher education institutions to assist students with their tuition, fees, housing, books and lab equipment.
“Dual enrollment programs such as College in the High School give students a chance at a head start on their college education. But sometimes even the small costs of a lab fee or textbook keeps kids from participating,” Kenney said. “Opportunity Pathways will provide these students the financial tools they need. This is especially important for our students in our rural school districts and will help put them on the road to a higher education.”
Contacts: Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney – (360) 786-7818 or kenney.phyllis@leg.wa.gov
Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney says simplifying financial aid process will make it easier for families to figure out how to pay for college
Press Release
OLYMPIA – It’s an all too common problem. Many kids want to go to college, but where do they go to find the financial aid opportunities that are right for them and their families?
That question led Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney (D-Seattle) to introduce legislation that places all of the state’s financial aid and some federal programs under the “Opportunity Pathway” brand.
“So many young students know they want to go to college but they have no idea how to pay for it. While Washington State ranks fourth in the nation for total financial aid distributed to its students, the sheer number of financial aid programs can make the process of finding and applying for financial aid a real barrier,” said Kenney, the prime sponsor of House Bill 2021. “We eliminate that barrier by simplifying how we communicate about financial aid so anyone who wants to go to college knows to look for an Opportunity Pathway first and foremost.”
The House passed the bill last month and the Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill 38-9 this week, sending the bill to Governor Christine Gregoire’s desk for her signature.
“Through the Opportunity Pathway program, a prospective student would be able to determine which financial aid program would best fit their needs and to help them pay for their higher education,” Kenney said.
Opportunity Pathways will not only include existing state grant programs, but also a new state low-interest loan program that will expand educational opportunities for more students, especially those in middle-income families.
The bill will also allow colleges to include information on student’s financial statements about tax credits the student might be eligible for, encourages more work study placement with employers in high-demand fields, and strengthens the state’s support for high school students in dual enrollment programs by allowing higher education institutions to assist students with their tuition, fees, housing, books and lab equipment.
“Dual enrollment programs such as College in the High School give students a chance at a head start on their college education. But sometimes even the small costs of a lab fee or textbook keeps kids from participating,” Kenney said. “Opportunity Pathways will provide these students the financial tools they need. This is especially important for our students in our rural school districts and will help put them on the road to a higher education.”
Contacts: Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney – (360) 786-7818 or kenney.phyllis@leg.wa.gov
Hispanic clergy urge census boycott
Hispanic 2010 Census Boycott Called for by Advocacy Groups
By Gene Byrd, Apr 17, 2009
A Hispanic 2010 census boycott? That's exactly what some activists want. According to a report from the Arizona Republic, "Some immigrant advocates are threatening to tell undocumented immigrants to boycott the census in retaliation for immigration crackdowns, a move that would deny recession-starved cities and towns much-needed federal tax dollars, which are allocated based on population."
In New Mexico, Bobby Villegas, the founder of the Roswell Hispano Chamber of Commerce is calling for that as well, according to a report from KRQE. But each under counted person costs $300 for the city of Roswell, according to Roswell Mayor Sam Lagrone.
"The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, a group that says it represents 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, issued a statement this week urging undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes "genuine immigration reform."
By Gene Byrd, Apr 17, 2009
A Hispanic 2010 census boycott? That's exactly what some activists want. According to a report from the Arizona Republic, "Some immigrant advocates are threatening to tell undocumented immigrants to boycott the census in retaliation for immigration crackdowns, a move that would deny recession-starved cities and towns much-needed federal tax dollars, which are allocated based on population."
In New Mexico, Bobby Villegas, the founder of the Roswell Hispano Chamber of Commerce is calling for that as well, according to a report from KRQE. But each under counted person costs $300 for the city of Roswell, according to Roswell Mayor Sam Lagrone.
"The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, a group that says it represents 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, issued a statement this week urging undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes "genuine immigration reform."
Friday, April 17, 2009
Latino leader hints at running for California Governor
Villaraigosa strikes gubernatorial tone in State of the City speech
By Phil Willon and David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2009
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday laid out a second-term agenda weighted heavily toward the creation of environmentally friendly jobs to rescue Los Angeles from its economic malaise but warned of serious pain ahead as the city digs out of a half-billion-dollar budget shortfall.
Delivering his fourth State of the City speech since taking office, Villaraigosa's remarks struck the tone of a Democratic candidate for governor, with scorching critiques of both Sacramento lawmakers and Washington conservatives.
Villaraigosa denounced the "politics of no" as he called for a green technology hub along the west side of the Los Angeles River to attract new jobs and start-up companies.
"We need to build a future in which clean technology is as synonymous with Los Angeles as motion pictures or aerospace," said the mayor, appearing at the Harbor City factory of Balqon Corp., which manufactures electric big-rigs for use at the city's ports.
During his 33-minute address, Villaraigosa also promised to provide care for families decimated by job losses and foreclosures, to turn over failing L.A. schools to charter operators and to press ahead with his expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department. Portions of his ambitious agenda hinge on the city securing hundreds of millions of dollars from President Obama's stimulus package.
By focusing so heavily on environmental themes, Villaraigosa delivered an upbeat message to accompany the dire scenario City Hall now faces: an estimated $530-million hole in its upcoming budget, two pension systems severely battered by investment losses and a city workforce that is being asked to choose between wage reductions or layoffs of thousands of employees.
"He found a way to give a realistic speech while still finding opportunities to be optimistic," said Villaraigosa ally Richard Katz, who serves with the mayor on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Villaraigosa called on the city's powerful public-employee unions to embrace wage and benefit concessions, saying it was the only path to prevent layoffs and protect city services. The mayor, who will release his 2009-10 budget Monday, called for immediate action and warned residents that the budget shortfall could grow to nearly $1 billion next year.
At least one union leader was cool to the mayor's suggestion, saying that his members preferred early retirement packages and "no steps backwards" on existing contracts. "The mayor's proposals are off base," Bob Schoonover, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721, said in a statement.
As a centerpiece of his speech, Villaraigosa reintroduced his plan for a "green" industry corridor just east of downtown that would serve as a spawning ground for environmentally conscious businesses. The speech echoed Villaraigosa's message during his recent reelection campaign, when he promised to make Los Angeles "the greenest big city in America."
Over the last four years, Villaraigosa has pushed the Port of Los Angeles to replace up to 17,000 diesel trucks with cleaner-burning models. And at the Department of Water and Power, he has pressed officials to expand the utility's reliance on renewable sources of energy -- primarily wind, solar and geothermal power.
Villaraigosa's green agenda, combined with his emphasis on public safety and concessions from public employee unions, could broaden his appeal to moderates in California, some political experts said.
"If you're going to pick a statewide theme that will afford you safe ground, there's probably no better topic now than the green movement and the environment," said San Jose State political scientist Larry Gerston, who is keeping a close watch on the early political maneuvering of potential contenders in the 2010 governor's race.
Still, Villaraigosa's drive to create green jobs has hit some roadblocks in recent months. Measure B, the solar initiative that he backed in the March 3 election, narrowly went down to defeat despite the use of television commercials that featured the mayor.
Meanwhile, the union leader who largely conceived of the energy plan has been highly critical of Villaraigosa's other environmental initiatives at the DWP, including efforts to secure solar power sources in the Mojave Desert and geothermal power in Imperial County. Brian D'Arcy, who heads the union that represents DWP workers, has also criticized some of Villaraigosa's environmental allies, saying that they are more interested in their clean energy benefactors than they are in the needs of Los Angeles.
Either way, Villaraigosa's emphasis on job creation and the environment only fueled speculation that he would use similar themes next year in a run for statewide office. "It sounded gubernatorial," said City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who attended the speech.
phil.willon@latimes.com
david.zahniser@latimes.com
By Phil Willon and David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2009
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday laid out a second-term agenda weighted heavily toward the creation of environmentally friendly jobs to rescue Los Angeles from its economic malaise but warned of serious pain ahead as the city digs out of a half-billion-dollar budget shortfall.
Delivering his fourth State of the City speech since taking office, Villaraigosa's remarks struck the tone of a Democratic candidate for governor, with scorching critiques of both Sacramento lawmakers and Washington conservatives.
Villaraigosa denounced the "politics of no" as he called for a green technology hub along the west side of the Los Angeles River to attract new jobs and start-up companies.
"We need to build a future in which clean technology is as synonymous with Los Angeles as motion pictures or aerospace," said the mayor, appearing at the Harbor City factory of Balqon Corp., which manufactures electric big-rigs for use at the city's ports.
During his 33-minute address, Villaraigosa also promised to provide care for families decimated by job losses and foreclosures, to turn over failing L.A. schools to charter operators and to press ahead with his expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department. Portions of his ambitious agenda hinge on the city securing hundreds of millions of dollars from President Obama's stimulus package.
By focusing so heavily on environmental themes, Villaraigosa delivered an upbeat message to accompany the dire scenario City Hall now faces: an estimated $530-million hole in its upcoming budget, two pension systems severely battered by investment losses and a city workforce that is being asked to choose between wage reductions or layoffs of thousands of employees.
"He found a way to give a realistic speech while still finding opportunities to be optimistic," said Villaraigosa ally Richard Katz, who serves with the mayor on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Villaraigosa called on the city's powerful public-employee unions to embrace wage and benefit concessions, saying it was the only path to prevent layoffs and protect city services. The mayor, who will release his 2009-10 budget Monday, called for immediate action and warned residents that the budget shortfall could grow to nearly $1 billion next year.
At least one union leader was cool to the mayor's suggestion, saying that his members preferred early retirement packages and "no steps backwards" on existing contracts. "The mayor's proposals are off base," Bob Schoonover, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721, said in a statement.
As a centerpiece of his speech, Villaraigosa reintroduced his plan for a "green" industry corridor just east of downtown that would serve as a spawning ground for environmentally conscious businesses. The speech echoed Villaraigosa's message during his recent reelection campaign, when he promised to make Los Angeles "the greenest big city in America."
Over the last four years, Villaraigosa has pushed the Port of Los Angeles to replace up to 17,000 diesel trucks with cleaner-burning models. And at the Department of Water and Power, he has pressed officials to expand the utility's reliance on renewable sources of energy -- primarily wind, solar and geothermal power.
Villaraigosa's green agenda, combined with his emphasis on public safety and concessions from public employee unions, could broaden his appeal to moderates in California, some political experts said.
"If you're going to pick a statewide theme that will afford you safe ground, there's probably no better topic now than the green movement and the environment," said San Jose State political scientist Larry Gerston, who is keeping a close watch on the early political maneuvering of potential contenders in the 2010 governor's race.
Still, Villaraigosa's drive to create green jobs has hit some roadblocks in recent months. Measure B, the solar initiative that he backed in the March 3 election, narrowly went down to defeat despite the use of television commercials that featured the mayor.
Meanwhile, the union leader who largely conceived of the energy plan has been highly critical of Villaraigosa's other environmental initiatives at the DWP, including efforts to secure solar power sources in the Mojave Desert and geothermal power in Imperial County. Brian D'Arcy, who heads the union that represents DWP workers, has also criticized some of Villaraigosa's environmental allies, saying that they are more interested in their clean energy benefactors than they are in the needs of Los Angeles.
Either way, Villaraigosa's emphasis on job creation and the environment only fueled speculation that he would use similar themes next year in a run for statewide office. "It sounded gubernatorial," said City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who attended the speech.
phil.willon@latimes.com
david.zahniser@latimes.com
Hispanic immigrants bypass California
Illegal immigration slowdown in California
After years of rapid growth, the state's illegal immigrant population is increasing more gradually, a study finds. Many migrants are bypassing California for other states.
By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times, April 15, 2009
In five years of social outreach at Our Lady Queen of Angels church in Los Angeles, Guillermo Armenta has always seen more parishioners stream into this historic haven for illegal immigrants than leave. Until now.
In the last few months, he said, nearly a dozen parishioners have told them they plan to return to their homelands because jobs in construction, restaurants and the janitorial trade have dried up here. Others say they are discouraging their relatives from coming here because of the economic slowdown and workplace immigration raids that have snared scores of unauthorized workers.
"This is the first time I've seen people returning instead of coming," Armenta said.
A study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center has documented a change in trend: After years of rapid growth, illegal immigration is slowing down in California, with the state's share of the nation's estimated 11.9 million undocumented migrants dropping to 22% from 42% in 1990, the study showed.
The state still has the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the nation, with 2.7 million -- a figure that has nearly doubled since 1990.
But, in a trend that began with California's recession in the 1990s, more migrants are bypassing the state for other areas of the country. The number of illegal immigrants outside the nation's six traditional "first stop" states of California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York has increased sevenfold, to nearly 5 million in 2008 from 700,000 in 1990, according to Jeffrey S. Passel, the study's coauthor and a Pew Center senior demographer.
The study, based on March 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, comes amid renewed momentum for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would include a legalization program for undocumented migrants. President Obama is expected to make a speech on immigration reform next month and launch public forums about the issue during the summer. Meanwhile, the nation's leading labor groups have reached a compromise about a guest worker program.
Passel said one of the study's most striking findings was the number of young families among the illegal immigrant population. Nearly half of the households headed by undocumented immigrants have young children, twice the rate of native-born households. And nearly three-fourths of their children were U.S.-born citizens.
The children of undocumented immigrants make up about 10% of California students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
"This is a different picture than we usually see of undocumented immigrants," Passel said in a teleconference. "We usually see the young men, day laborers on the corners."
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the slowdown in illegal immigration was welcome news -- but not for the right reasons.
"It's slowing down because the economy has tanked, not because the state is doing much to stop it," he said. "What you'd like to see is illegal immigration decline because we have rational policies in place that make it clear to people that you're not going to benefit by coming to the U.S. or California illegally."
But people such as Jorge-Mario Cabrera, an El Salvador native and immigration activist, said he was sending both messages to relatives to dissuade them from coming here.
"The message to family members is think twice before coming here," said Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "Not only will you find a dearth of job opportunities, you will also find an environment that is very anti-immigrant, with raids and deportations."
The study, co-written by D'Vera Cohn, a Pew Research Center senior writer, found that three-quarters of illegal immigrants are Latino, mostly from Mexico. On average, they tend to work in low-skilled jobs such as farming and construction, earn markedly less than the median national income and have lower educational levels than U.S.-born residents.
For instance, 47% of illegal immigrant adults ages 25-64 have less than a high school education compared with 8% for U.S.-born residents. The immigrants' 2007 median household income was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for the U.S.-born, and they did not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they lived in the United States, unlike legal immigrants, the study found.
teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
After years of rapid growth, the state's illegal immigrant population is increasing more gradually, a study finds. Many migrants are bypassing California for other states.
By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times, April 15, 2009
In five years of social outreach at Our Lady Queen of Angels church in Los Angeles, Guillermo Armenta has always seen more parishioners stream into this historic haven for illegal immigrants than leave. Until now.
In the last few months, he said, nearly a dozen parishioners have told them they plan to return to their homelands because jobs in construction, restaurants and the janitorial trade have dried up here. Others say they are discouraging their relatives from coming here because of the economic slowdown and workplace immigration raids that have snared scores of unauthorized workers.
"This is the first time I've seen people returning instead of coming," Armenta said.
A study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center has documented a change in trend: After years of rapid growth, illegal immigration is slowing down in California, with the state's share of the nation's estimated 11.9 million undocumented migrants dropping to 22% from 42% in 1990, the study showed.
The state still has the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the nation, with 2.7 million -- a figure that has nearly doubled since 1990.
But, in a trend that began with California's recession in the 1990s, more migrants are bypassing the state for other areas of the country. The number of illegal immigrants outside the nation's six traditional "first stop" states of California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York has increased sevenfold, to nearly 5 million in 2008 from 700,000 in 1990, according to Jeffrey S. Passel, the study's coauthor and a Pew Center senior demographer.
The study, based on March 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, comes amid renewed momentum for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would include a legalization program for undocumented migrants. President Obama is expected to make a speech on immigration reform next month and launch public forums about the issue during the summer. Meanwhile, the nation's leading labor groups have reached a compromise about a guest worker program.
Passel said one of the study's most striking findings was the number of young families among the illegal immigrant population. Nearly half of the households headed by undocumented immigrants have young children, twice the rate of native-born households. And nearly three-fourths of their children were U.S.-born citizens.
The children of undocumented immigrants make up about 10% of California students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
"This is a different picture than we usually see of undocumented immigrants," Passel said in a teleconference. "We usually see the young men, day laborers on the corners."
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the slowdown in illegal immigration was welcome news -- but not for the right reasons.
"It's slowing down because the economy has tanked, not because the state is doing much to stop it," he said. "What you'd like to see is illegal immigration decline because we have rational policies in place that make it clear to people that you're not going to benefit by coming to the U.S. or California illegally."
But people such as Jorge-Mario Cabrera, an El Salvador native and immigration activist, said he was sending both messages to relatives to dissuade them from coming here.
"The message to family members is think twice before coming here," said Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "Not only will you find a dearth of job opportunities, you will also find an environment that is very anti-immigrant, with raids and deportations."
The study, co-written by D'Vera Cohn, a Pew Research Center senior writer, found that three-quarters of illegal immigrants are Latino, mostly from Mexico. On average, they tend to work in low-skilled jobs such as farming and construction, earn markedly less than the median national income and have lower educational levels than U.S.-born residents.
For instance, 47% of illegal immigrant adults ages 25-64 have less than a high school education compared with 8% for U.S.-born residents. The immigrants' 2007 median household income was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for the U.S.-born, and they did not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they lived in the United States, unlike legal immigrants, the study found.
teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
Hispanic immigrants mostly from Mexico
Mexican Immigrants in the United States
PRESS RELEASE
The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, released a statistical profile of Mexican immigrants living in the United States. On the eve of President Obama's visit to Mexico, this profile reveals that a record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970. Mexicans now account for 32% of all U.S. immigrants and more than one-in-ten of all persons born in Mexico now reside in the U.S.
No other country in the world has as many total immigrants from all countries as the United States has immigrants from Mexico alone.
More than half (55%) of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are unauthorized. Immigrants from Mexico are younger than other immigrants and less likely to be U.S. citizens. Compared with the U.S. born population, Mexican immigrants are more likely to be male, married, and live in larger households. They are less educated, more likely to be unemployed, have lower incomes and higher poverty rates.
The statistical profile is based on data from the March 2008 Current Population Survey.
The profile, Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 2008, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
PRESS RELEASE
The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, released a statistical profile of Mexican immigrants living in the United States. On the eve of President Obama's visit to Mexico, this profile reveals that a record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970. Mexicans now account for 32% of all U.S. immigrants and more than one-in-ten of all persons born in Mexico now reside in the U.S.
No other country in the world has as many total immigrants from all countries as the United States has immigrants from Mexico alone.
More than half (55%) of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are unauthorized. Immigrants from Mexico are younger than other immigrants and less likely to be U.S. citizens. Compared with the U.S. born population, Mexican immigrants are more likely to be male, married, and live in larger households. They are less educated, more likely to be unemployed, have lower incomes and higher poverty rates.
The statistical profile is based on data from the March 2008 Current Population Survey.
The profile, Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 2008, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
Hispanic immigration reform encouraged and African immigration pushed
USACC Encourages Obama Administration to Tackle Immigration Reform and Increase Legal Immigration from Africa
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC. The United States African Chamber of Commerce (USACC) supports the Obama Administration and its plans to begin tackling the long overdue subject of immigration reform, as early as May of this year. The President has pressed for reforms that will reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the country by cracking down on border security, providing a means for the undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to regularize their status, and removing incentives for illegal immigration. Many wonder, however, if now is the time to take on this troubling task that has divided the country for years.
The economic debate has taken on greater precedence and relegated the issue of immigration in the White House and across the nation. However, there are many immigration reformists that suggest that the two issues are inseparable and that now more than ever, we are in need of a new immigration policy, a fact, which in and of itself, will help fuel the dying economy.
As the millions of Americans that make up the Baby Boomer generation work there way into retirement, the U.S. is in need of a labor force to replenish the outgoing workforce and support retirement systems and the social security administration. Immigrant individuals, families, and businesses have shown great potential in being able to fill the gap left by the retiring segment of Americans. However, immigration law can be crippling to families and the economy. With undocumented immigration, families are forced to live underground and are disadvantaged by not having the multitude of options and resources available to mainstream American families. As one expert stated, “[W]hat drives economic growth is economic development,” and undocumented immigration deprives whole communities of opportunities for economic growth.
Immigrant communities that have flourished in terms of economic development have proven themselves to be a vital component to economic growth. The buying and selling power of many ethnic groups within the U.S. is astronomical. A recent study on the Emerging African Market, commissioned by the ACC, reveals the 50 billion dollar purchasing power of the 1.3 million African immigrants in the U.S. In addition, revenue generated by African-owned businesses in 2002 was in excess of 88 billion dollars. While these figures seem large, they grow exponentially, taking into consideration that African immigrants only make up 5% of the total documented immigrant population in the U.S.
Immigrant groups also promise to have a positive impact on international trade and the competitiveness of the U.S. in global markets. Immigrants are often bilingual or multilingual and have knowledge of other cultures, being raised in multicultural settings. As globalization becomes more of a reality, it is apparent that in order for the U.S. to compete in a globalized market, the U.S. needs to foster the development of skills and abilities, like fluency in foreign languages and multiculturalism.
There are also risks associated with continuing to operate with a faulty immigration system in place. The turn of the century saw a new phenomenon, never before seen on such a scale. In every corner of the planet, the doors for immigration and emigration were flung open wide, and people began traveling and relocating to a myriad of new and different places. As people have grown more and more knowledgeable about immigration and new possibilities for relocation, it is evident that immigrants will begin to look to places other than the U.S. We run the risk of losing brilliant minds and the necessary labor force to compete on an international level with countries like India and China.
The USACC urges Congress and President Obama to increase legal immigration from Africa and to take into consideration the important contributions of all immigrant groups, including immigrants from the 54 countries on the African continent. The USACC is the leading advocacy organization for U.S. African relations and emerging African markets. The USACC is the umbrella organization for African chambers of commerce and professional trade and business associations throughout the United States and abroad.
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC. The United States African Chamber of Commerce (USACC) supports the Obama Administration and its plans to begin tackling the long overdue subject of immigration reform, as early as May of this year. The President has pressed for reforms that will reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the country by cracking down on border security, providing a means for the undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to regularize their status, and removing incentives for illegal immigration. Many wonder, however, if now is the time to take on this troubling task that has divided the country for years.
The economic debate has taken on greater precedence and relegated the issue of immigration in the White House and across the nation. However, there are many immigration reformists that suggest that the two issues are inseparable and that now more than ever, we are in need of a new immigration policy, a fact, which in and of itself, will help fuel the dying economy.
As the millions of Americans that make up the Baby Boomer generation work there way into retirement, the U.S. is in need of a labor force to replenish the outgoing workforce and support retirement systems and the social security administration. Immigrant individuals, families, and businesses have shown great potential in being able to fill the gap left by the retiring segment of Americans. However, immigration law can be crippling to families and the economy. With undocumented immigration, families are forced to live underground and are disadvantaged by not having the multitude of options and resources available to mainstream American families. As one expert stated, “[W]hat drives economic growth is economic development,” and undocumented immigration deprives whole communities of opportunities for economic growth.
Immigrant communities that have flourished in terms of economic development have proven themselves to be a vital component to economic growth. The buying and selling power of many ethnic groups within the U.S. is astronomical. A recent study on the Emerging African Market, commissioned by the ACC, reveals the 50 billion dollar purchasing power of the 1.3 million African immigrants in the U.S. In addition, revenue generated by African-owned businesses in 2002 was in excess of 88 billion dollars. While these figures seem large, they grow exponentially, taking into consideration that African immigrants only make up 5% of the total documented immigrant population in the U.S.
Immigrant groups also promise to have a positive impact on international trade and the competitiveness of the U.S. in global markets. Immigrants are often bilingual or multilingual and have knowledge of other cultures, being raised in multicultural settings. As globalization becomes more of a reality, it is apparent that in order for the U.S. to compete in a globalized market, the U.S. needs to foster the development of skills and abilities, like fluency in foreign languages and multiculturalism.
There are also risks associated with continuing to operate with a faulty immigration system in place. The turn of the century saw a new phenomenon, never before seen on such a scale. In every corner of the planet, the doors for immigration and emigration were flung open wide, and people began traveling and relocating to a myriad of new and different places. As people have grown more and more knowledgeable about immigration and new possibilities for relocation, it is evident that immigrants will begin to look to places other than the U.S. We run the risk of losing brilliant minds and the necessary labor force to compete on an international level with countries like India and China.
The USACC urges Congress and President Obama to increase legal immigration from Africa and to take into consideration the important contributions of all immigrant groups, including immigrants from the 54 countries on the African continent. The USACC is the leading advocacy organization for U.S. African relations and emerging African markets. The USACC is the umbrella organization for African chambers of commerce and professional trade and business associations throughout the United States and abroad.
Latino kids miss on pre-K programs
Little pre-K access for Latinos
Kids behind at start of school, advocates say
By Margaret Ramirez | Tribune, April 15, 2009
Inside Casa Infantil Head Start in Logan Square, teacher Janeth Medellin called on her students to form a circle and then started singing a bilingual version of the "Good Morning" song.
"What day is today?" she asked 4-year-old Gustavo. "¿Qué día es hoy?"
When he hesitated, she touched his shoulder and said, "It's OK to answer in Spanish." With that, he shouted in English, "Monday!"
By using bilingual preschool curriculum and providing financial assistance, the Casa Infantil Head Start program is confronting one of the most debated issues in early childhood education: how to raise academic levels of low-income, Latino children.
Latino families with young children constitute a significant portion of the nation's population and future workforce, but several studies show those children are less likely to enroll in early education programs because of various barriers including language, cost, transportation and a shortage of pre-kindergarten spots in poor neighborhoods. For those and other reasons, Latino children lag well behind white children in reading and math skills when they start kindergarten.
Last month, President Barack Obama noted the stubborn gap between white students compared with Latinos and African-Americans, and said the key to raising academic achievement is investing in early childhood education programs—what he called "the first pillar" of education reform. Obama said $5 billion in stimulus funding would be used to grow Head Start programs, expand child care and do more for children with special needs. The president also called for Early Learning Challenge Grants to reward initiatives that raise the quality of pre-K programs.
"Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education despite compelling evidence of its importance," Obama said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "This isn't just about keeping an eye on our children, it's about educating them."
But debates cut different ways on the best way to improve the underfunded, fragmented early childhood education system. In Illinois, a hodgepodge of early childhood education options exist, including federally funded Head Start, state-funded Preschool for All, private schools and center-based programs operated by non-profit organizations.
Although the reasons for low attendance among Hispanics in preschool programs have not been firmly established, a major factor is a lack of programs in poor neighborhoods. A recent study by the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics surveyed programs in Los Angeles and Chicago and found an overall shortage of pre-kindergarten slots in Hispanic neighborhoods.
Sylvia Puente, executive director for the Latino Policy Forum, said the shortage of preschool programs in Chicago stems from demographic shifts where neighborhoods dominated by older whites became populated by immigrants and a baby boom of younger Latino families. To discuss the issue, the Latino Policy Forum gathered leading educators, school administrators and child-care providers at National-Louis University last month.
"What has happened in the city is that you saw the older white ethnic enclaves become Latino. So, there was limited infrastructure of facilities because it was an older, aging demographic. As the Latino population has moved into those communities, there hasn't been the accompanied capital infusion to build space," Puente said.
Some Chicago child-care providers who primarily serve Latinos said many families are unaware that programs exist or don't understand the value of early childhood education. Others said enrollment requirements often become a barrier for low-income families. Celena Roldán, director of child care for Erie Neighborhood House, which serves about 400 children at four centers, said income verification for some child-care programs disqualifies immigrants who often live together in one home but don't share income.
"Sometimes you have multiple incomes going to one household because there are so many people living there and it appears the family is getting a large income. That's usually not the case," Roldán said.
Even when programs exist in impoverished neighborhoods, early childhood experts said other obstacles remain that delay learning for Latino children. Language is perhaps the most significant issue for recent immigrants, increasing the demand for bilingual teachers that surpasses the low supply.
Parental interaction also is critical, said Eugene Garcia, vice president at Arizona State University and a member of Obama's education transition team. Yet research shows that parental interaction is less likely to happen in Latino homes where both parents work full time and have not completed high school.
"We need interaction in the home," said Garcia, chair of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. "Latino children are behind in communicating in the complex way that schools demand."
In response, some social service agencies in Chicago have developed strategies specifically designed to encourage more parental interaction in early childhood education. Casa Central, the social service agency that runs Casa Infantil, also offers a home-based Head Start program for recent immigrants. During weekly visits, a preschool teacher comes to the home to review lessons with the child while guiding the parent on how to participate.
"The home-based program is really about showing the parent how to be their child's first educator," said Ellen Chavez, director of early childhood development programs for Casa Central, which also helps African-American, Chinese and Polish children. "Even if you don't speak English, there are things you can teach your child to prepare them for school."
Ana Solano, who immigrated from Mexico five years ago, was unaware of the importance of early childhood education until the home-based visits began for her 4-year-old daughter, Ana. She said she immediately noticed a remarkable difference between Ana and her older son, Juan Carlos, who had struggled in kindergarten. "I just thought he would pick everything up in school. With Ana, I see how much it helps and how much better off she will be," she said.
As the Obama administration prepares to release more details of its education plan, providers are hopeful it will recognize the different models needed to bolster academic achievement among Latino children. "We have limited dollars, so the focus is on quality and prioritizing," said Reyna Hernandez, research associate with the Latino Policy Forum. "We want to make sure that whatever the baseline is, that it takes into consideration these needs of Latino children."
maramirez@tribune.com
Kids behind at start of school, advocates say
By Margaret Ramirez | Tribune, April 15, 2009
Inside Casa Infantil Head Start in Logan Square, teacher Janeth Medellin called on her students to form a circle and then started singing a bilingual version of the "Good Morning" song.
"What day is today?" she asked 4-year-old Gustavo. "¿Qué día es hoy?"
When he hesitated, she touched his shoulder and said, "It's OK to answer in Spanish." With that, he shouted in English, "Monday!"
By using bilingual preschool curriculum and providing financial assistance, the Casa Infantil Head Start program is confronting one of the most debated issues in early childhood education: how to raise academic levels of low-income, Latino children.
Latino families with young children constitute a significant portion of the nation's population and future workforce, but several studies show those children are less likely to enroll in early education programs because of various barriers including language, cost, transportation and a shortage of pre-kindergarten spots in poor neighborhoods. For those and other reasons, Latino children lag well behind white children in reading and math skills when they start kindergarten.
Last month, President Barack Obama noted the stubborn gap between white students compared with Latinos and African-Americans, and said the key to raising academic achievement is investing in early childhood education programs—what he called "the first pillar" of education reform. Obama said $5 billion in stimulus funding would be used to grow Head Start programs, expand child care and do more for children with special needs. The president also called for Early Learning Challenge Grants to reward initiatives that raise the quality of pre-K programs.
"Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education despite compelling evidence of its importance," Obama said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "This isn't just about keeping an eye on our children, it's about educating them."
But debates cut different ways on the best way to improve the underfunded, fragmented early childhood education system. In Illinois, a hodgepodge of early childhood education options exist, including federally funded Head Start, state-funded Preschool for All, private schools and center-based programs operated by non-profit organizations.
Although the reasons for low attendance among Hispanics in preschool programs have not been firmly established, a major factor is a lack of programs in poor neighborhoods. A recent study by the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics surveyed programs in Los Angeles and Chicago and found an overall shortage of pre-kindergarten slots in Hispanic neighborhoods.
Sylvia Puente, executive director for the Latino Policy Forum, said the shortage of preschool programs in Chicago stems from demographic shifts where neighborhoods dominated by older whites became populated by immigrants and a baby boom of younger Latino families. To discuss the issue, the Latino Policy Forum gathered leading educators, school administrators and child-care providers at National-Louis University last month.
"What has happened in the city is that you saw the older white ethnic enclaves become Latino. So, there was limited infrastructure of facilities because it was an older, aging demographic. As the Latino population has moved into those communities, there hasn't been the accompanied capital infusion to build space," Puente said.
Some Chicago child-care providers who primarily serve Latinos said many families are unaware that programs exist or don't understand the value of early childhood education. Others said enrollment requirements often become a barrier for low-income families. Celena Roldán, director of child care for Erie Neighborhood House, which serves about 400 children at four centers, said income verification for some child-care programs disqualifies immigrants who often live together in one home but don't share income.
"Sometimes you have multiple incomes going to one household because there are so many people living there and it appears the family is getting a large income. That's usually not the case," Roldán said.
Even when programs exist in impoverished neighborhoods, early childhood experts said other obstacles remain that delay learning for Latino children. Language is perhaps the most significant issue for recent immigrants, increasing the demand for bilingual teachers that surpasses the low supply.
Parental interaction also is critical, said Eugene Garcia, vice president at Arizona State University and a member of Obama's education transition team. Yet research shows that parental interaction is less likely to happen in Latino homes where both parents work full time and have not completed high school.
"We need interaction in the home," said Garcia, chair of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. "Latino children are behind in communicating in the complex way that schools demand."
In response, some social service agencies in Chicago have developed strategies specifically designed to encourage more parental interaction in early childhood education. Casa Central, the social service agency that runs Casa Infantil, also offers a home-based Head Start program for recent immigrants. During weekly visits, a preschool teacher comes to the home to review lessons with the child while guiding the parent on how to participate.
"The home-based program is really about showing the parent how to be their child's first educator," said Ellen Chavez, director of early childhood development programs for Casa Central, which also helps African-American, Chinese and Polish children. "Even if you don't speak English, there are things you can teach your child to prepare them for school."
Ana Solano, who immigrated from Mexico five years ago, was unaware of the importance of early childhood education until the home-based visits began for her 4-year-old daughter, Ana. She said she immediately noticed a remarkable difference between Ana and her older son, Juan Carlos, who had struggled in kindergarten. "I just thought he would pick everything up in school. With Ana, I see how much it helps and how much better off she will be," she said.
As the Obama administration prepares to release more details of its education plan, providers are hopeful it will recognize the different models needed to bolster academic achievement among Latino children. "We have limited dollars, so the focus is on quality and prioritizing," said Reyna Hernandez, research associate with the Latino Policy Forum. "We want to make sure that whatever the baseline is, that it takes into consideration these needs of Latino children."
maramirez@tribune.com
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Latina to lead liaison office for Virginia Governor
Virginia Governor Appoints Latino Liaison
Associated Press, April 13, 2009
Gov. Tim Kaine named Luisa Soaterna to the post Monday.
Kaine said in a statement that Soaterna brings a wealth of experience to the job. Besides working for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Kaine says she brings an understanding of the administration's pre-kindergarten initiative.
As Latino liaison, Soaterna will work closely with Latino leaders, organizations and the community. She'll also represent Kaine on the Virginia Latino Advisory Board.
Associated Press, April 13, 2009
Gov. Tim Kaine named Luisa Soaterna to the post Monday.
Kaine said in a statement that Soaterna brings a wealth of experience to the job. Besides working for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Kaine says she brings an understanding of the administration's pre-kindergarten initiative.
As Latino liaison, Soaterna will work closely with Latino leaders, organizations and the community. She'll also represent Kaine on the Virginia Latino Advisory Board.
Latino immigrant growth around country
Unauthorized Immigrants More Dispersed Around the Country; Labor Force Growth Halts, But Number of U.S. Born Children Grows
PRESS RELEASE
The Pew Hispanic Center has released "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," which includes population and labor force estimates for each state, as well as national-level findings about families, education, income and other key indicators.
The report finds that unauthorized immigrants are more geographically dispersed than in the past. A group of 28 high-growth states in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain and Southeast regions are now home to 32% of the unauthorized population, more than double their 14% share in 1990. California's share declined to 22% from 42% during this same period.
Unauthorized immigrants are more likely than either U.S.-born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children, according to the report. A growing share of the children of unauthorized immigrants (73%) are U.S. citizens by birth. The U.S.-born and foreign-born children of unauthorized immigrants make up an estimated 6.8% of the nation's students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12.
Looking at undocumented workers, the report finds that the rapid growth of the unauthorized immigrant labor force from 1990 to 2006 has halted. The new report estimates there were 8.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. labor force in March 2008, accounting for 5.4% of the work force. The 2008 labor force estimate appears slightly lower than the 2007 estimate, but the change is within the margin of error.
The unauthorized immigrant share of the labor force varies widely by state. Undocumented immigrant workers constitute roughly 10% or more of the labor force in Arizona, California and Nevada, but less than 2.5% in most Midwest and Plains states.
About three-quarters (76%) of the nation's unauthorized immigrants are Hispanic. As the Pew Hispanic Center has previously reported, 59% are from Mexico.
The new report builds on a Pew Hispanic Center analysis released last year, which estimated there were 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2008. That report said the size of the unauthorized population appears to have declined since 2007, but the difference is not statistically significant. Both reports are based on an analysis of data from the March Current Population Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau, and on the 1990 and 2000 Censuses.
Other major findings:
* Adult unauthorized immigrants are disproportionately likely to be poorly educated. Among unauthorized immigrants ages 25-64, 47% have less than a high school education. By contrast, only 8% of U.S.-born residents ages 25-64 have not graduated from high school.
* An analysis of college attendance finds that among unauthorized immigrants ages 18 to 24 who have graduated from high school, half (49%)are in college or have attended college. The comparable figure for U.S.-born residents is 71%.
* The 2007 median household income of unauthorized immigrants was $36,000, well below the $50,000 median household income for U.S.-born residents. In contrast to other immigrants, undocumented immigrants do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.
* A third of the children of unauthorized immigrants and a fifth of adult unauthorized immigrants lives in poverty. This is nearly double the poverty rate for children of U.S.-born parents (18%) or for U.S.-born adults (10%).
* More than half of adult unauthorized immigrants (59%) had no health insurance during all of 2007. Among their children, nearly half of those who are unauthorized immigrants (45%) were uninsured and 25% of those who were born in the U.S. were uninsured.
The report, "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," authored by Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, and D'Vera Cohn, senior writer at the Pew Research Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
PRESS RELEASE
The Pew Hispanic Center has released "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," which includes population and labor force estimates for each state, as well as national-level findings about families, education, income and other key indicators.
The report finds that unauthorized immigrants are more geographically dispersed than in the past. A group of 28 high-growth states in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain and Southeast regions are now home to 32% of the unauthorized population, more than double their 14% share in 1990. California's share declined to 22% from 42% during this same period.
Unauthorized immigrants are more likely than either U.S.-born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children, according to the report. A growing share of the children of unauthorized immigrants (73%) are U.S. citizens by birth. The U.S.-born and foreign-born children of unauthorized immigrants make up an estimated 6.8% of the nation's students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12.
Looking at undocumented workers, the report finds that the rapid growth of the unauthorized immigrant labor force from 1990 to 2006 has halted. The new report estimates there were 8.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. labor force in March 2008, accounting for 5.4% of the work force. The 2008 labor force estimate appears slightly lower than the 2007 estimate, but the change is within the margin of error.
The unauthorized immigrant share of the labor force varies widely by state. Undocumented immigrant workers constitute roughly 10% or more of the labor force in Arizona, California and Nevada, but less than 2.5% in most Midwest and Plains states.
About three-quarters (76%) of the nation's unauthorized immigrants are Hispanic. As the Pew Hispanic Center has previously reported, 59% are from Mexico.
The new report builds on a Pew Hispanic Center analysis released last year, which estimated there were 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2008. That report said the size of the unauthorized population appears to have declined since 2007, but the difference is not statistically significant. Both reports are based on an analysis of data from the March Current Population Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau, and on the 1990 and 2000 Censuses.
Other major findings:
* Adult unauthorized immigrants are disproportionately likely to be poorly educated. Among unauthorized immigrants ages 25-64, 47% have less than a high school education. By contrast, only 8% of U.S.-born residents ages 25-64 have not graduated from high school.
* An analysis of college attendance finds that among unauthorized immigrants ages 18 to 24 who have graduated from high school, half (49%)are in college or have attended college. The comparable figure for U.S.-born residents is 71%.
* The 2007 median household income of unauthorized immigrants was $36,000, well below the $50,000 median household income for U.S.-born residents. In contrast to other immigrants, undocumented immigrants do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.
* A third of the children of unauthorized immigrants and a fifth of adult unauthorized immigrants lives in poverty. This is nearly double the poverty rate for children of U.S.-born parents (18%) or for U.S.-born adults (10%).
* More than half of adult unauthorized immigrants (59%) had no health insurance during all of 2007. Among their children, nearly half of those who are unauthorized immigrants (45%) were uninsured and 25% of those who were born in the U.S. were uninsured.
The report, "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," authored by Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, and D'Vera Cohn, senior writer at the Pew Research Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
Philly Commish says there is a problem with Latinos
Ramsey acknowledges rift with Latinos
By Robert Moran, Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey acknowledged after a meeting yesterday with Latino leaders that the trust between police and that community "has been shaken" by allegations of misconduct by officers raiding the stores of immigrant merchants.
"We obviously have a lot of work to do to mend a lot of fences with the community," he said after the hour-long meeting at City Hall.
He also encouraged merchants with previously undisclosed allegations to come forward. He vowed that there would be no retaliation against anyone with a complaint against police.
Members of the Latino delegation called the meeting a good first step in rebuilding trust, but said they would continue to closely follow the investigations of officers who allegedly took money and merchandise from stores while conducting raids.
"We support the Philadelphia Police Department, but we do not support corruption," Danilo Burgos, president of the Dominican Business Association, told reporters after the meeting.
"He listened first, and then he responded point by point to our concerns," said Pedro Rodriguez of United Neighbors Against Drugs, calling the closed-door meeting "fruitful."
Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez arranged the meeting after the Latino delegation wrote to Ramsey on Monday asking to meet him face to face.
"I think he's under a cloud right now with all the different incidents," she said, referring also to an incident involving State Rep. Jewell Williams in which an officer allegedly made racially inflammatory comments.
Ramsey on Monday apologized to Williams, who allegedly was roughed up during a March incident. Two officers were conducting a car stop when Williams arrived and allegedly offered to assist the officers. One of the officers ordered Williams back into his own car, and later handcuffed him and made him lie sideways in the back seat of a police cruiser. Williams was not arrested.
Quiñones-Sánchez said the attendees agreed to have a public meeting in 60 days to address police-community relations.
A growing number of Latino merchants have alleged that they were the subject of police raids for drug paraphernalia in which officers disabled store security cameras, then stole money and merchandise.
The narcotics officers' alleged misconduct came to light after federal and local investigators began examining dozens of cases brought by Jeffrey Cujdik, whose longtime informant accused the officer of falsifying evidence to obtain search warrants.
Last week, the Defender Association of Philadelphia moved to throw out 24 convictions of drug defendants linked to Cujdik and his informant.
Contact staff writer Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com.
By Robert Moran, Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey acknowledged after a meeting yesterday with Latino leaders that the trust between police and that community "has been shaken" by allegations of misconduct by officers raiding the stores of immigrant merchants.
"We obviously have a lot of work to do to mend a lot of fences with the community," he said after the hour-long meeting at City Hall.
He also encouraged merchants with previously undisclosed allegations to come forward. He vowed that there would be no retaliation against anyone with a complaint against police.
Members of the Latino delegation called the meeting a good first step in rebuilding trust, but said they would continue to closely follow the investigations of officers who allegedly took money and merchandise from stores while conducting raids.
"We support the Philadelphia Police Department, but we do not support corruption," Danilo Burgos, president of the Dominican Business Association, told reporters after the meeting.
"He listened first, and then he responded point by point to our concerns," said Pedro Rodriguez of United Neighbors Against Drugs, calling the closed-door meeting "fruitful."
Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez arranged the meeting after the Latino delegation wrote to Ramsey on Monday asking to meet him face to face.
"I think he's under a cloud right now with all the different incidents," she said, referring also to an incident involving State Rep. Jewell Williams in which an officer allegedly made racially inflammatory comments.
Ramsey on Monday apologized to Williams, who allegedly was roughed up during a March incident. Two officers were conducting a car stop when Williams arrived and allegedly offered to assist the officers. One of the officers ordered Williams back into his own car, and later handcuffed him and made him lie sideways in the back seat of a police cruiser. Williams was not arrested.
Quiñones-Sánchez said the attendees agreed to have a public meeting in 60 days to address police-community relations.
A growing number of Latino merchants have alleged that they were the subject of police raids for drug paraphernalia in which officers disabled store security cameras, then stole money and merchandise.
The narcotics officers' alleged misconduct came to light after federal and local investigators began examining dozens of cases brought by Jeffrey Cujdik, whose longtime informant accused the officer of falsifying evidence to obtain search warrants.
Last week, the Defender Association of Philadelphia moved to throw out 24 convictions of drug defendants linked to Cujdik and his informant.
Contact staff writer Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com.
American Latinos caught in immigration sweeps
U.S. citizens caught up in immigration sweeps
By Andrew Becker and Patrick J. McDonnell, LA Times, April 8, 2009
Reporting from Tacoma, Wash., and Los Angeles -- Rennison Vern Castillo thought his legal troubles were nearly over at the end of a jail stay for harassing his ex-girlfriend. But then a U.S. immigration hold order blocked his release.
"They think you're here illegally," a jailhouse guard said to him.
Castillo, mystified, insisted it was all a mistake. Though born in Belize, he had come of age in South-Central Los Angeles, spoke fluent English, served a stint in the Army and had become an American citizen about seven years earlier.
He had some legal problems, but being in the country unlawfully was not one of them. Castillo said he wasn't worried -- not until he was shackled and transferred to a federal detention center. He spent months in custody before an appeals panel blocked his deportation and an immigration judge finally ordered Castillo set free.
Although his case is an extreme example, mistaken detentions are drawing increased attention as immigration officials mount workplace roundups and jailhouse sweeps in search of undocumented immigrants.
Immigration raids of factories and other work sites often result in at least a short-term detention of lawful residents and even citizens, as agents seal targeted businesses and grill workers about their status.
Officials in Washington said last month that the Obama administration was expected to rein in the controversial workplace raids -- shifting enforcement emphasis to target employers rather than workers. Immigrant advocates have long pushed for such a change, while others say easing workplace enforcement will encourage illegal immigration.
Castillo is one of many citizens and legal residents held for suspected immigration violations -- some for a few hours, some for much longer. No agency tracks such incidents so statistical totals are not available.
Officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement downplay the problem.
"ICE does not detain United States citizens," said spokesman Richard Rocha, adding that agents thoroughly investigated people's claims of citizenship. "ICE only processes an individual for removal when all available facts indicate that the person is an alien."
He declined to comment on Castillo's case or others, citing privacy concerns or pending lawsuits.
The surge in ICE workplace actions during the Bush administration spawned fierce complaints from employees caught up in dragnets at factories, slaughterhouses and poultry farms.
Mike Graves, a two-decade veteran of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, said he was handcuffed and held for eight hours in December 2006 when ICE agents raided Swift plants throughout the heartland.
"My government treated me like a criminal, and I didn't do anything wrong," said Graves, a native of Iowa.
An ICE raid last year at a Van Nuys printer cartridge manufacturer, Micro Solutions Enterprises, generated wrongful-arrest claims from more than 100 citizens, said Peter Schey, chief lawyer at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. All were held for two to three hours before being released, Schey said.
Americans seldom carry proof of their legal status, which can be a factor in the confusion about detainees' citizenship. There is no comprehensive database or list of all citizens for agents to check.
Official investigations may miss crucial documents such as birth certificates and naturalization papers. In some cases, names have been jumbled or misfiled and records lost. Confused detainees have signed their own removal orders. Some in custody may even be unaware of their citizenship or unable to prove it without a lawyer's help.
Unlike suspects in criminal matters, however, immigration detainees have no right to government-appointed counsel -- and, in some cases, have no access to paid lawyers. Fast-track deportation procedures enacted by Congress in recent years also limit court review once the expulsion process is underway.
In border regions like Southern California, residents on both sides of the international boundary have for generations moved back and forth without regard for passports, status or birth certificates. Many U.S. citizens by birth or parentage have no proof of their status.
Frank Ponce de Leon, a native of Mexico who lives in La Puente, got out of ICE custody Dec. 31 after spending almost three months locked up -- all the while insisting he was a citizen. The longtime California resident had never sought citizenship because he was the son of an American-born parent. His father was a New Mexico native and U.S. serviceman during World War II.
"I knew they couldn't hold me forever, and sooner or later they would see it my way because I had every right," said Ponce de Leon, 47, whose five California-born children include a daughter, Deanne, 22, who served in Iraq as an Army nurse.
On occasion, the uncertainty can lead to mistaken deportation, as was the case with Pedro Guzman, a mentally disabled U.S. citizen living in Lancaster.
U.S. immigration officials shipped Guzman to Tijuana in May 2007 from the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, where he was being held on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. The Los Angeles native, then 29, spent three months rummaging for food in dumps and sleeping in the Mexican borderlands as his desperate mother, a fast-food cook, searched for him in hospitals, shelters, jails and morgues, his family said.
Eventually Guzman, a cement finisher with limited Spanish and a second-grade reading ability, was reunited with his family in the border town of Calexico.
The Guzman case sparked Washington hearings at which immigration authorities were chastised by Congress members and accused of "stunning incompetence." ICE officials called the case an aberration and vowed to review all citizenship claims before anyone was detained or deported.
Out of more than 1 million detentions, ICE officials say, Guzman was the only citizen known to have been shipped out of the country. But others dispute that claim.
Rachel E. Rosenbloom, supervising attorney at Boston College's Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, cited at least eight cases of wrongly deported citizens and said she expected the number was substantially higher.
One such case, detailed in an upcoming report by Rosenbloom's group, is the curious saga of Duarnis Perez. He is a native of the Dominican Republic who became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalized. But he didn't know citizenship had been conferred on him as well. He assumed he was illegal, and so did everyone else.
Perez was deported and subsequently arrested trying to sneak back into the United States from Canada. He spent almost five years in prison for unlawful reentry. It was only upon his release in 2004 that an ICE official reviewed his file and informed Perez that he had been a citizen all along.
In Castillo's case, he was an infant when his mother left Belize and sought work in Los Angeles. She later became a nurse and sent for her son. Castillo attended elementary school in South-Central and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1996. He became a naturalized citizen in 1998. He joined the Army and served in Korea, then was posted to Ft. Lewis, Wash. He was honorably discharged in 2003.
After domestic disputes with a girlfriend, he was convicted in 2005 of felony harassment and violating a no-contact order, and was sent to Pierce County Jail in Washington state for eight months. He was in a holding area with inmates about to be released when a corrections officer held him back.
Castillo was handcuffed and whisked off in a van to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. A federal officer said records showed he was an illegal immigrant.
"Your records are wrong," Castillo said he replied. He said he told the officer that he was a citizen but that his naturalization certificate had never arrived. It was sent to the wrong address, he later learned.
Castillo went before an immigration judge, who appeared via video conference, a common procedure in the crowded immigration court system. Again, he claimed citizenship. The judge didn't believe him. He was ordered deported on Jan. 24, 2006.
The nonprofit Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal advocacy center based in Seattle, provided a lawyer to handle Castillo's appeal. The lawyer searched for Castillo's naturalization documents and records of his military service.
The Board of Immigration Appeals blocked Castillo's deportation, noting proof of his military service. A month later, he was released without further explanation. It turned out Castillo was the victim of a paperwork mix-up: His name was spelled wrong in immigration records. And he had been assigned more than one "alien number," causing further confusion.
Castillo, now 31, is still incredulous.
"If it had taken 30 days to figure it out, I wouldn't be upset. But seven months?" he said in an interview.
He, like Guzman and others with similar experiences, has filed suit against the ICE.
"I want them to recognize they made a mistake," Castillo said. "Something needs to change. If it can happen to me, it's going to happen to someone else."
patrick.mcdonnell@ latimes.com
abecker@cironline.org
This story was reported and written in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, a nonprofit news organization. Andrew Becker is a CIR staff reporter. Patrick J. McDonnell is a Times staff writer.
By Andrew Becker and Patrick J. McDonnell, LA Times, April 8, 2009
Reporting from Tacoma, Wash., and Los Angeles -- Rennison Vern Castillo thought his legal troubles were nearly over at the end of a jail stay for harassing his ex-girlfriend. But then a U.S. immigration hold order blocked his release.
"They think you're here illegally," a jailhouse guard said to him.
Castillo, mystified, insisted it was all a mistake. Though born in Belize, he had come of age in South-Central Los Angeles, spoke fluent English, served a stint in the Army and had become an American citizen about seven years earlier.
He had some legal problems, but being in the country unlawfully was not one of them. Castillo said he wasn't worried -- not until he was shackled and transferred to a federal detention center. He spent months in custody before an appeals panel blocked his deportation and an immigration judge finally ordered Castillo set free.
Although his case is an extreme example, mistaken detentions are drawing increased attention as immigration officials mount workplace roundups and jailhouse sweeps in search of undocumented immigrants.
Immigration raids of factories and other work sites often result in at least a short-term detention of lawful residents and even citizens, as agents seal targeted businesses and grill workers about their status.
Officials in Washington said last month that the Obama administration was expected to rein in the controversial workplace raids -- shifting enforcement emphasis to target employers rather than workers. Immigrant advocates have long pushed for such a change, while others say easing workplace enforcement will encourage illegal immigration.
Castillo is one of many citizens and legal residents held for suspected immigration violations -- some for a few hours, some for much longer. No agency tracks such incidents so statistical totals are not available.
Officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement downplay the problem.
"ICE does not detain United States citizens," said spokesman Richard Rocha, adding that agents thoroughly investigated people's claims of citizenship. "ICE only processes an individual for removal when all available facts indicate that the person is an alien."
He declined to comment on Castillo's case or others, citing privacy concerns or pending lawsuits.
The surge in ICE workplace actions during the Bush administration spawned fierce complaints from employees caught up in dragnets at factories, slaughterhouses and poultry farms.
Mike Graves, a two-decade veteran of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, said he was handcuffed and held for eight hours in December 2006 when ICE agents raided Swift plants throughout the heartland.
"My government treated me like a criminal, and I didn't do anything wrong," said Graves, a native of Iowa.
An ICE raid last year at a Van Nuys printer cartridge manufacturer, Micro Solutions Enterprises, generated wrongful-arrest claims from more than 100 citizens, said Peter Schey, chief lawyer at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. All were held for two to three hours before being released, Schey said.
Americans seldom carry proof of their legal status, which can be a factor in the confusion about detainees' citizenship. There is no comprehensive database or list of all citizens for agents to check.
Official investigations may miss crucial documents such as birth certificates and naturalization papers. In some cases, names have been jumbled or misfiled and records lost. Confused detainees have signed their own removal orders. Some in custody may even be unaware of their citizenship or unable to prove it without a lawyer's help.
Unlike suspects in criminal matters, however, immigration detainees have no right to government-appointed counsel -- and, in some cases, have no access to paid lawyers. Fast-track deportation procedures enacted by Congress in recent years also limit court review once the expulsion process is underway.
In border regions like Southern California, residents on both sides of the international boundary have for generations moved back and forth without regard for passports, status or birth certificates. Many U.S. citizens by birth or parentage have no proof of their status.
Frank Ponce de Leon, a native of Mexico who lives in La Puente, got out of ICE custody Dec. 31 after spending almost three months locked up -- all the while insisting he was a citizen. The longtime California resident had never sought citizenship because he was the son of an American-born parent. His father was a New Mexico native and U.S. serviceman during World War II.
"I knew they couldn't hold me forever, and sooner or later they would see it my way because I had every right," said Ponce de Leon, 47, whose five California-born children include a daughter, Deanne, 22, who served in Iraq as an Army nurse.
On occasion, the uncertainty can lead to mistaken deportation, as was the case with Pedro Guzman, a mentally disabled U.S. citizen living in Lancaster.
U.S. immigration officials shipped Guzman to Tijuana in May 2007 from the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, where he was being held on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. The Los Angeles native, then 29, spent three months rummaging for food in dumps and sleeping in the Mexican borderlands as his desperate mother, a fast-food cook, searched for him in hospitals, shelters, jails and morgues, his family said.
Eventually Guzman, a cement finisher with limited Spanish and a second-grade reading ability, was reunited with his family in the border town of Calexico.
The Guzman case sparked Washington hearings at which immigration authorities were chastised by Congress members and accused of "stunning incompetence." ICE officials called the case an aberration and vowed to review all citizenship claims before anyone was detained or deported.
Out of more than 1 million detentions, ICE officials say, Guzman was the only citizen known to have been shipped out of the country. But others dispute that claim.
Rachel E. Rosenbloom, supervising attorney at Boston College's Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, cited at least eight cases of wrongly deported citizens and said she expected the number was substantially higher.
One such case, detailed in an upcoming report by Rosenbloom's group, is the curious saga of Duarnis Perez. He is a native of the Dominican Republic who became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalized. But he didn't know citizenship had been conferred on him as well. He assumed he was illegal, and so did everyone else.
Perez was deported and subsequently arrested trying to sneak back into the United States from Canada. He spent almost five years in prison for unlawful reentry. It was only upon his release in 2004 that an ICE official reviewed his file and informed Perez that he had been a citizen all along.
In Castillo's case, he was an infant when his mother left Belize and sought work in Los Angeles. She later became a nurse and sent for her son. Castillo attended elementary school in South-Central and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1996. He became a naturalized citizen in 1998. He joined the Army and served in Korea, then was posted to Ft. Lewis, Wash. He was honorably discharged in 2003.
After domestic disputes with a girlfriend, he was convicted in 2005 of felony harassment and violating a no-contact order, and was sent to Pierce County Jail in Washington state for eight months. He was in a holding area with inmates about to be released when a corrections officer held him back.
Castillo was handcuffed and whisked off in a van to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. A federal officer said records showed he was an illegal immigrant.
"Your records are wrong," Castillo said he replied. He said he told the officer that he was a citizen but that his naturalization certificate had never arrived. It was sent to the wrong address, he later learned.
Castillo went before an immigration judge, who appeared via video conference, a common procedure in the crowded immigration court system. Again, he claimed citizenship. The judge didn't believe him. He was ordered deported on Jan. 24, 2006.
The nonprofit Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal advocacy center based in Seattle, provided a lawyer to handle Castillo's appeal. The lawyer searched for Castillo's naturalization documents and records of his military service.
The Board of Immigration Appeals blocked Castillo's deportation, noting proof of his military service. A month later, he was released without further explanation. It turned out Castillo was the victim of a paperwork mix-up: His name was spelled wrong in immigration records. And he had been assigned more than one "alien number," causing further confusion.
Castillo, now 31, is still incredulous.
"If it had taken 30 days to figure it out, I wouldn't be upset. But seven months?" he said in an interview.
He, like Guzman and others with similar experiences, has filed suit against the ICE.
"I want them to recognize they made a mistake," Castillo said. "Something needs to change. If it can happen to me, it's going to happen to someone else."
patrick.mcdonnell@ latimes.com
abecker@cironline.org
This story was reported and written in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, a nonprofit news organization. Andrew Becker is a CIR staff reporter. Patrick J. McDonnell is a Times staff writer.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Latino mistrust study triggers discussion by law enforcement
Top law enforcement officers react to Latinos' mistrust in system
O.C. officials say they're concerned with study finding, but some say they're not surprised.
BY CINDY CARCAMO, The Orange County Register, April 7, 2009
Latinos' interaction with the criminal justice system has increased, yet they don't have as much trust in law enforcement as whites, according to a study released today by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Hispanics' confidence in law enforcement is closer to the low levels expressed by blacks than to the high levels expressed by whites, according to the "Hispanics and the Criminal Justice System: Low Confidence and Growing Exposure" study. The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C.
A little more than 60 percent of Hispanics say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence that police in their local communities will do a good job enforcing the law, compared to 79 percent of whites and 55 percent of blacks, according to the Pew study.
Statistics are even grimmer when researchers asked Hispanics whether they were confident that they would be treated fairly.
Only 46 percent of Hispanics thought police would treat them fairly compared to nearly three quarters of whites and 37 percent of blacks, according to the study. Pew based its findings on a bilingual telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanics who were 18 and older.
The county's top law-enforcement officers say they are concerned with the study's findings, but some say they're not surprised.
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she believes the immigration debate has added to the distrust.
"I can tell you that there is a fear that local law enforcement is going to go in and assist in immigration raids," she said. "They are afraid or reluctant to come forward to report crime because they think we'll check their immigration status. They're not getting the message."
In addition, Hutchens said some ethnic communities, such as Hispanics, come from countries where there are lower levels of trust in the law enforcement and are likely to bring that feeling with them to the United States.
The study seems to support Hutchens' belief, finding that one-fourth of all Hispanics state they would not report an incident to the police if they were a victim of a violent crime. Nearly 29 percent of those in the same group said they would not call police out of fear of repercussions, such as immigration enforcement or discrimination.
Immigrant Latinos were even more likely not to report crime; 42 percent said they would fear repercussions if they reported the incident.
Yet, rates of violent crime victimization among Hispanics was about 28 per 1,000 individuals, higher than 24 out of 1,000 whites and lower than about 33 per 1,000 blacks, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2006
Hutchens said the department plans to reach out to the Latino community and is already in the process of creating advisory groups made up of Hispanics. She also plans the same for the Vietnamese community, she added.
'I think it's important because each of the community groups has a different issue," she said. "They'll serve as an advisory to me in how to reach out in the community and better serve them and get rid of the mistrust."
Sheriff's deputies patrol a population of about 700,000, as far south as San Clemente and as far north as unincorporated areas of La Habra and Rossmoor. Some of these areas include heavily Hispanic communities such as Stanton, San Juan Capistrano, and unincorporated areas of Anaheim and Orange.
Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said his department has traditionally made strides to reach out to Latinos in their coverage area.
Department officials regularly attend association meetings that are predominantly Spanish speaking, he said in a written statement.
"Most recently we appeared at the request of the Mexican Consulate to speak with community members regarding law enforcement procedures, and have agreed to make this a regular speaking engagement," Walters wrote. "…We also have a designated bilingual spokesman assigned specifically to interact with the Spanish media and maintain positive relations."
Walters also pointed out that the department has one of the highest percentages of minority employees of any police department in the state.
Hutchens said her deputies in predominantly Latino areas, such as San Juan Capistrano, meet with various groups in the community and do community-based policing. However, she said, she believes some Latinos may not be getting the message that they are not targets.
In recent decades, Hispanic exposure to all parts of the criminal justice system rose faster than their rising share of the U.S. adult population, the study said. Interaction with the criminal justice system ranges from reporting crime to police, being arrested on probation or parole or serving as a sworn witness or on a court jury, according to the report.
Contact the writer: 714-445-6688 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com
O.C. officials say they're concerned with study finding, but some say they're not surprised.
BY CINDY CARCAMO, The Orange County Register, April 7, 2009
Latinos' interaction with the criminal justice system has increased, yet they don't have as much trust in law enforcement as whites, according to a study released today by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Hispanics' confidence in law enforcement is closer to the low levels expressed by blacks than to the high levels expressed by whites, according to the "Hispanics and the Criminal Justice System: Low Confidence and Growing Exposure" study. The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C.
A little more than 60 percent of Hispanics say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence that police in their local communities will do a good job enforcing the law, compared to 79 percent of whites and 55 percent of blacks, according to the Pew study.
Statistics are even grimmer when researchers asked Hispanics whether they were confident that they would be treated fairly.
Only 46 percent of Hispanics thought police would treat them fairly compared to nearly three quarters of whites and 37 percent of blacks, according to the study. Pew based its findings on a bilingual telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,015 Hispanics who were 18 and older.
The county's top law-enforcement officers say they are concerned with the study's findings, but some say they're not surprised.
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she believes the immigration debate has added to the distrust.
"I can tell you that there is a fear that local law enforcement is going to go in and assist in immigration raids," she said. "They are afraid or reluctant to come forward to report crime because they think we'll check their immigration status. They're not getting the message."
In addition, Hutchens said some ethnic communities, such as Hispanics, come from countries where there are lower levels of trust in the law enforcement and are likely to bring that feeling with them to the United States.
The study seems to support Hutchens' belief, finding that one-fourth of all Hispanics state they would not report an incident to the police if they were a victim of a violent crime. Nearly 29 percent of those in the same group said they would not call police out of fear of repercussions, such as immigration enforcement or discrimination.
Immigrant Latinos were even more likely not to report crime; 42 percent said they would fear repercussions if they reported the incident.
Yet, rates of violent crime victimization among Hispanics was about 28 per 1,000 individuals, higher than 24 out of 1,000 whites and lower than about 33 per 1,000 blacks, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2006
Hutchens said the department plans to reach out to the Latino community and is already in the process of creating advisory groups made up of Hispanics. She also plans the same for the Vietnamese community, she added.
'I think it's important because each of the community groups has a different issue," she said. "They'll serve as an advisory to me in how to reach out in the community and better serve them and get rid of the mistrust."
Sheriff's deputies patrol a population of about 700,000, as far south as San Clemente and as far north as unincorporated areas of La Habra and Rossmoor. Some of these areas include heavily Hispanic communities such as Stanton, San Juan Capistrano, and unincorporated areas of Anaheim and Orange.
Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said his department has traditionally made strides to reach out to Latinos in their coverage area.
Department officials regularly attend association meetings that are predominantly Spanish speaking, he said in a written statement.
"Most recently we appeared at the request of the Mexican Consulate to speak with community members regarding law enforcement procedures, and have agreed to make this a regular speaking engagement," Walters wrote. "…We also have a designated bilingual spokesman assigned specifically to interact with the Spanish media and maintain positive relations."
Walters also pointed out that the department has one of the highest percentages of minority employees of any police department in the state.
Hutchens said her deputies in predominantly Latino areas, such as San Juan Capistrano, meet with various groups in the community and do community-based policing. However, she said, she believes some Latinos may not be getting the message that they are not targets.
In recent decades, Hispanic exposure to all parts of the criminal justice system rose faster than their rising share of the U.S. adult population, the study said. Interaction with the criminal justice system ranges from reporting crime to police, being arrested on probation or parole or serving as a sworn witness or on a court jury, according to the report.
Contact the writer: 714-445-6688 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com
Latinas on the move in the U.S.
Hispanic Women Soar to Leadership Positions
Rob Kuznia, Hispanic Business, Apr 07, 2009
With the economy in a tailspin, news of financial calamity is everywhere.
Major banks are failing, car manufacturers are floundering and real-estate values are tumbling. Lost in the blizzard of doom-and-gloom tales are the stories of a group of people who, through hard work, ingenuity and perseverance, continue a quiet and steady march towards progress.
Such is the story of Hispanic women in America.
Every April, in celebration of the sometimes gravity-defying strides made by Hispanic women, HispanicBusiness.com recognizes the significant achievements and advancements made by Hispanic women in America.
Hispanic Business magazine surveyed a group of elite women. This year's winner is Frances Garcia, the Inspector General of the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office.
A recreational bungee jumper and rock climber, the 67-year-old certified public accountant is part of a generation that helped blaze a trail for today's upwardly mobile Hispanic women.
As the economic storm rages, the number of Hispanic women entering the American workforce, graduating high school and attending college continues its incremental, upward climb.
Also, with each passing year -- though the progress is slow -- more and more Hispanic women are assuming positions of power and leadership.
Between 2000 and 2007, the rate of working Hispanic women who hold management or professional jobs rose steadily from 20 percent to 23 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Perhaps nowhere is this trend illustrated so vividly as the recent Senate confirmation of the nation's first-ever Hispanic Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis.
As for Ms. Garcia, she began working at age 14, taking jobs as a waitress and picking sugar beets in the fields. After becoming the first in her family to graduate high school, she attended Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she earned a degree in business administration. Now, as inspector general, she oversees the audits and investigations of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which keeps tabs on how Congress is spending taxpayer dollars. Put another way, she is the watchdog of a watchdog.
Her advice: value others.
"You cannot do it alone," she said. "It sounds so much better to say 'we' instead of 'I.' People get tired of hearing 'I, I.'"
Ms. Garcia's competition for this year's award was fierce. Other finalists included the vice president of the National Education Association, the founder and CEO of a top-performing car dealership in Texas, the head legal counsel of the corporate giant Dupont and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Of the 25 women surveyed by HispanTelligence, about half are Mexican; the rest are Puerto Rican, Cuban, Spanish, or another ethnicity.
About half of the women surveyed said they encountered discrimination based on gender; a third said they faced discrimination based on ethnicity.
The discrimination tended to occur primarily in the area of hiring and promotion, followed by pay inequities, according to the survey.
Vanessa Cardenas, director for ethnic media at the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said these days, the biggest barriers to the success for Hispanic women tend to exist near the top levels of the workplace: middle management and higher.
"In this country, white males are still at the top tier," she said. "I think there is a culture there that is really hard to break into."
To be sure, Hispanic women are making inroads to a greater presence in positions of leadership.
Between 2001 and 2009, the number of Hispanic women sitting on the boards of Fortune 500 companies inched upward from 16 to 24, according to HispanTelligence.
But their presence of on the boards is still miniscule, especially in light of how Hispanic women make up about 7.5 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.
Cardenas said Hispanic women are often viewed as non-aggressive, hardworking and humble. While these aren't bad traits, in America they can hinder a person's quest for promotion, she said. Also, Cardenas cited a recent study concluding that employees who attend after-work gatherings – "the happy hour crowd" -- tend to fare better in the promotion game. Often, she said, professional Hispanic women must opt out of such events, owing to the pressures they face to also raise a family.
But Cardenas has noticed a common thread in those who succeed.
"They all have a 'we'll figure it out' attitude," she said. "There's a saying, 'If you can't go through the door, go through the window.' Be persistent."
It also doesn't hurt to pursue a higher education.
About 90 percent of this year's Elite Women are holders of a college degree. However, nationwide, while Hispanic women are making strides, they continue to lag behind other groups.
From 1997 to 2007, the proportion of Hispanic women with four or more years of college behind them has increased from 10 percent to nearly 14 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, the 2007 rate for black women was 19 percent. Among all the nation's women, it was 28 percent.
In a way, though, the gap is misleading, as it reflects a positive trend in American education that is rarely touted: universal improvement.
"Everybody is basically improving, so the gap between whites and Hispanics has not narrowed," said Rick Fry, PhD., a senior research associate with the Pew Hispanic Center.
Interestingly, Hispanic women are making gains even as the men in their demographic lose ground.
Thirty years ago, the rate of Hispanic men with four or more years of college experience nearly doubled that of women. But beginning in 2001, Hispanic women sneaked past the men on this metric, and the gap has grown wider ever since.
In 2008, a third of all college-age Hispanic women were enrolled in college, compared to just 21 percent of college-age Hispanic men, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. This conforms to a wider educational trend, in which women in every ethnicity with the exception of Asians are outperforming their male counterparts.
Among the elite women, 60 percent hold an advanced degree. Unfortunately, today they remain the exceptions. Across the United States, just 3.9 percent of Hispanic women have earned an advanced degree, compared with 9.6 percent of the entire U.S. female population, according to the U.S. Census.
Forty percent benefited from affirmative action programs, mostly in the form of educational financial aid, according to the survey. Interestingly, last year the rate was almost twice as high.
Cardenas said many women of color have mixed feelings about affirmative action.
"I think women and minorities are always trying to prove ourselves. You don't want to be an affirmative-action hire, right?" she said. But "without it, it would be really hard for women and minorities to make the progress that we have seen."
Another helpful resource for Hispanic women is assertiveness training, said Annette Prieto, executive vice president of the Center for Hispanic Leadership.
Prieto says she was surprised by the results of a recent survey by her organization of Hispanic women, showing that more assertiveness training was at the top of their wish list.
In her assertiveness training, Prieto advises Hispanic women to view themselves as the commodities that they are. For instance, many are bilingual.
"My big thing is what I call 'leveraging your Latina,' " she said. "For me, it was my biggest asset."
Rob Kuznia, Hispanic Business, Apr 07, 2009
With the economy in a tailspin, news of financial calamity is everywhere.
Major banks are failing, car manufacturers are floundering and real-estate values are tumbling. Lost in the blizzard of doom-and-gloom tales are the stories of a group of people who, through hard work, ingenuity and perseverance, continue a quiet and steady march towards progress.
Such is the story of Hispanic women in America.
Every April, in celebration of the sometimes gravity-defying strides made by Hispanic women, HispanicBusiness.com recognizes the significant achievements and advancements made by Hispanic women in America.
Hispanic Business magazine surveyed a group of elite women. This year's winner is Frances Garcia, the Inspector General of the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office.
A recreational bungee jumper and rock climber, the 67-year-old certified public accountant is part of a generation that helped blaze a trail for today's upwardly mobile Hispanic women.
As the economic storm rages, the number of Hispanic women entering the American workforce, graduating high school and attending college continues its incremental, upward climb.
Also, with each passing year -- though the progress is slow -- more and more Hispanic women are assuming positions of power and leadership.
Between 2000 and 2007, the rate of working Hispanic women who hold management or professional jobs rose steadily from 20 percent to 23 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Perhaps nowhere is this trend illustrated so vividly as the recent Senate confirmation of the nation's first-ever Hispanic Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis.
As for Ms. Garcia, she began working at age 14, taking jobs as a waitress and picking sugar beets in the fields. After becoming the first in her family to graduate high school, she attended Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she earned a degree in business administration. Now, as inspector general, she oversees the audits and investigations of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which keeps tabs on how Congress is spending taxpayer dollars. Put another way, she is the watchdog of a watchdog.
Her advice: value others.
"You cannot do it alone," she said. "It sounds so much better to say 'we' instead of 'I.' People get tired of hearing 'I, I.'"
Ms. Garcia's competition for this year's award was fierce. Other finalists included the vice president of the National Education Association, the founder and CEO of a top-performing car dealership in Texas, the head legal counsel of the corporate giant Dupont and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Of the 25 women surveyed by HispanTelligence, about half are Mexican; the rest are Puerto Rican, Cuban, Spanish, or another ethnicity.
About half of the women surveyed said they encountered discrimination based on gender; a third said they faced discrimination based on ethnicity.
The discrimination tended to occur primarily in the area of hiring and promotion, followed by pay inequities, according to the survey.
Vanessa Cardenas, director for ethnic media at the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said these days, the biggest barriers to the success for Hispanic women tend to exist near the top levels of the workplace: middle management and higher.
"In this country, white males are still at the top tier," she said. "I think there is a culture there that is really hard to break into."
To be sure, Hispanic women are making inroads to a greater presence in positions of leadership.
Between 2001 and 2009, the number of Hispanic women sitting on the boards of Fortune 500 companies inched upward from 16 to 24, according to HispanTelligence.
But their presence of on the boards is still miniscule, especially in light of how Hispanic women make up about 7.5 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.
Cardenas said Hispanic women are often viewed as non-aggressive, hardworking and humble. While these aren't bad traits, in America they can hinder a person's quest for promotion, she said. Also, Cardenas cited a recent study concluding that employees who attend after-work gatherings – "the happy hour crowd" -- tend to fare better in the promotion game. Often, she said, professional Hispanic women must opt out of such events, owing to the pressures they face to also raise a family.
But Cardenas has noticed a common thread in those who succeed.
"They all have a 'we'll figure it out' attitude," she said. "There's a saying, 'If you can't go through the door, go through the window.' Be persistent."
It also doesn't hurt to pursue a higher education.
About 90 percent of this year's Elite Women are holders of a college degree. However, nationwide, while Hispanic women are making strides, they continue to lag behind other groups.
From 1997 to 2007, the proportion of Hispanic women with four or more years of college behind them has increased from 10 percent to nearly 14 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, the 2007 rate for black women was 19 percent. Among all the nation's women, it was 28 percent.
In a way, though, the gap is misleading, as it reflects a positive trend in American education that is rarely touted: universal improvement.
"Everybody is basically improving, so the gap between whites and Hispanics has not narrowed," said Rick Fry, PhD., a senior research associate with the Pew Hispanic Center.
Interestingly, Hispanic women are making gains even as the men in their demographic lose ground.
Thirty years ago, the rate of Hispanic men with four or more years of college experience nearly doubled that of women. But beginning in 2001, Hispanic women sneaked past the men on this metric, and the gap has grown wider ever since.
In 2008, a third of all college-age Hispanic women were enrolled in college, compared to just 21 percent of college-age Hispanic men, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. This conforms to a wider educational trend, in which women in every ethnicity with the exception of Asians are outperforming their male counterparts.
Among the elite women, 60 percent hold an advanced degree. Unfortunately, today they remain the exceptions. Across the United States, just 3.9 percent of Hispanic women have earned an advanced degree, compared with 9.6 percent of the entire U.S. female population, according to the U.S. Census.
Forty percent benefited from affirmative action programs, mostly in the form of educational financial aid, according to the survey. Interestingly, last year the rate was almost twice as high.
Cardenas said many women of color have mixed feelings about affirmative action.
"I think women and minorities are always trying to prove ourselves. You don't want to be an affirmative-action hire, right?" she said. But "without it, it would be really hard for women and minorities to make the progress that we have seen."
Another helpful resource for Hispanic women is assertiveness training, said Annette Prieto, executive vice president of the Center for Hispanic Leadership.
Prieto says she was surprised by the results of a recent survey by her organization of Hispanic women, showing that more assertiveness training was at the top of their wish list.
In her assertiveness training, Prieto advises Hispanic women to view themselves as the commodities that they are. For instance, many are bilingual.
"My big thing is what I call 'leveraging your Latina,' " she said. "For me, it was my biggest asset."
Latinos in Philly want to talk to police commish
Latino groups want talks with police commissioner
By Robert Moran, Inquirer
A delegation of Latino leaders is requesting a meeting with Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey over the targeting of bodegas by narcotics officers accused of taking money and destroying inventory while conducting raids for drug paraphernalia.
In a letter to Ramsey, the groups wrote that the situation "has reached a boiling point."
"This is not an isolated incident," said Pedro Rodriguez of United Neighbors Against Drugs. "It looks like a criminal enterprise within the Police Department to target immigrants."
Rodriguez said it was important for Ramsey "to hear firsthand from members of the community," especially to reassure the Latino and immigrant communities that they need not fear the police.
"This could be devastating for community-police relations" if the situation is left to fester and the allegations are not fully investigated, Rodriguez said.
A spokeswoman for Ramsey said that his office had received the faxed letter but that he had no immediate comment.
Rodriguez said later in the afternoon that Ramsey's office had contacted the groups and that a meeting would be set up as soon as possible.
A growing number of merchants have alleged that they were the subject of police raids in which officers disabled store security cameras and stole money and merchandise. The Inquirer on Sunday detailed a disturbing trend involving 21 raids in which the store owners were mostly immigrants with no criminal records.
The narcotics officers' alleged misconduct came to light after federal and local investigators began examining dozens of cases brought by Jeffrey Cujdik after his longtime informant accused the officer of falsifying evidence to obtain search warrants.
On Friday, the Defender Association of Philadelphia moved to throw out 24 convictions of drug defendants linked to Cujdik and his informant.
Regarding the bodega raids, as The Inquirer reported Sunday, there are at least 21 cases of merchants who were charged in the last two years on the basis of search warrants sworn out by Cujdik or his brother, Richard Cujdik, both members of the Narcotics Field Unit.
Several cases were dismissed or thrown out of court. Of those defendants who were convicted, most got less than a year of probation. None received a prison sentence. Only three of the 21 were charged with drug possession.
The letter to Ramsey was signed by Rodriguez, Antonio Knight of the Dominican Cultural Center, Danilo Burgos of the Dominican Grocers Association, Joe Garcia of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, Antonio Valdes of Concilio, and Jose Joaquin Mota, a merchant.
Copies of the letter were addressed to District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, Seventh District Council member Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison, and Israel Colon of the Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs.
Quiñones-Sánchez said she saw the letter and spoke with Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn, who assured her that Ramsey would meet with the delegation who wrote the letter.
Quiñones-Sánchez said she had received even more phone calls from concerned constituents since the stories were published.
"We need to create a process and assure these folks that if they come forward . . . there won't be retaliation," she said. The president of the Dominican Grocers Association on Saturday took to the radio to urge grocers to come forward. Some had filed complaints with the department's Internal Affairs unit, which investigates complaints against officers.
Abraham spokeswoman Cathie Abookire said the district attorney had not received the letter yet and could not comment on it.
Cujdik remains on the job, but he has surrendered his badge and gun and has been assigned to desk duty.
Last week, the department reorganized several narcotics squads, but Pedro Rodriguez said more needed to be done.
"Reshuffling the deck is not sufficient," he said.
Rodriguez said the groups also want an assurance from Ramsey that police officers will not retaliate against merchants or look the other way if they need police help.
According to the letter, "The Dominican community, along with the City's other Latino residents, has over the years cooperated fully with the Philadelphia Police Department and the City of Philadelphia to make our neighborhoods safer and to reduce the incidence of crime.
"Dominicans, as newcomers, are not always fully empowered about their rights in this City.
"The fact that many reluctant business people have felt compelled to come forward with their complaints, risking their livelihoods and that of their families, indicates that the problem of police abuse has reached a boiling point."
Contact staff writer Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com.
By Robert Moran, Inquirer
A delegation of Latino leaders is requesting a meeting with Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey over the targeting of bodegas by narcotics officers accused of taking money and destroying inventory while conducting raids for drug paraphernalia.
In a letter to Ramsey, the groups wrote that the situation "has reached a boiling point."
"This is not an isolated incident," said Pedro Rodriguez of United Neighbors Against Drugs. "It looks like a criminal enterprise within the Police Department to target immigrants."
Rodriguez said it was important for Ramsey "to hear firsthand from members of the community," especially to reassure the Latino and immigrant communities that they need not fear the police.
"This could be devastating for community-police relations" if the situation is left to fester and the allegations are not fully investigated, Rodriguez said.
A spokeswoman for Ramsey said that his office had received the faxed letter but that he had no immediate comment.
Rodriguez said later in the afternoon that Ramsey's office had contacted the groups and that a meeting would be set up as soon as possible.
A growing number of merchants have alleged that they were the subject of police raids in which officers disabled store security cameras and stole money and merchandise. The Inquirer on Sunday detailed a disturbing trend involving 21 raids in which the store owners were mostly immigrants with no criminal records.
The narcotics officers' alleged misconduct came to light after federal and local investigators began examining dozens of cases brought by Jeffrey Cujdik after his longtime informant accused the officer of falsifying evidence to obtain search warrants.
On Friday, the Defender Association of Philadelphia moved to throw out 24 convictions of drug defendants linked to Cujdik and his informant.
Regarding the bodega raids, as The Inquirer reported Sunday, there are at least 21 cases of merchants who were charged in the last two years on the basis of search warrants sworn out by Cujdik or his brother, Richard Cujdik, both members of the Narcotics Field Unit.
Several cases were dismissed or thrown out of court. Of those defendants who were convicted, most got less than a year of probation. None received a prison sentence. Only three of the 21 were charged with drug possession.
The letter to Ramsey was signed by Rodriguez, Antonio Knight of the Dominican Cultural Center, Danilo Burgos of the Dominican Grocers Association, Joe Garcia of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, Antonio Valdes of Concilio, and Jose Joaquin Mota, a merchant.
Copies of the letter were addressed to District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, Seventh District Council member Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison, and Israel Colon of the Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs.
Quiñones-Sánchez said she saw the letter and spoke with Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn, who assured her that Ramsey would meet with the delegation who wrote the letter.
Quiñones-Sánchez said she had received even more phone calls from concerned constituents since the stories were published.
"We need to create a process and assure these folks that if they come forward . . . there won't be retaliation," she said. The president of the Dominican Grocers Association on Saturday took to the radio to urge grocers to come forward. Some had filed complaints with the department's Internal Affairs unit, which investigates complaints against officers.
Abraham spokeswoman Cathie Abookire said the district attorney had not received the letter yet and could not comment on it.
Cujdik remains on the job, but he has surrendered his badge and gun and has been assigned to desk duty.
Last week, the department reorganized several narcotics squads, but Pedro Rodriguez said more needed to be done.
"Reshuffling the deck is not sufficient," he said.
Rodriguez said the groups also want an assurance from Ramsey that police officers will not retaliate against merchants or look the other way if they need police help.
According to the letter, "The Dominican community, along with the City's other Latino residents, has over the years cooperated fully with the Philadelphia Police Department and the City of Philadelphia to make our neighborhoods safer and to reduce the incidence of crime.
"Dominicans, as newcomers, are not always fully empowered about their rights in this City.
"The fact that many reluctant business people have felt compelled to come forward with their complaints, risking their livelihoods and that of their families, indicates that the problem of police abuse has reached a boiling point."
Contact staff writer Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com.
Latinos make up 1 in 2 new U.S. citizens
Almost 1 of 2 new Americans in 2008 was Latino
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer, Apr. 7, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.
"Latinos who naturalize are eager to demonstrate their commitment to America by becoming full participants in our nation's civic life," said NALEO president Arturo Vargas, whose nonpartisan group works to improve the citizenship process and increase Latino participation in civic activities.
NALEO based its findings on Homeland Security Department data on the number of new citizens last year who immigrated from predominantly Spanish-speaking countries.
In a report released in March, the agency attributed the record number of new citizens to the nearly 1.4 million citizenship applications it received in 2007. Most were from people who wanted to beat a $265 increase in the citizenship application fee, from $330 to $595.
But the department also credited "special efforts" by Hispanic media, community groups and a union with high immigrant membership, all of which urged eligible permanent residents to pursue citizenship.
In fiscal year 2008, 231,815 people originally from Mexico became citizens, up almost 90 percent from 2007. Increases in citizenship among Latino immigrants from other countries were: 39,871 from Cuba, up 160 percent from the previous year; 35,796 from El Salvador, up 109 percent; 17,954 from Nicaragua, up 120 percent; and 17,087 from Guatemala, a 109 percent rise.
Most of last year's new Hispanic citizens lived in California, followed by Florida.
Vargas cited the data to encourage the Obama administration and Congress to ease the cost of applying for immigration benefits.
"Despite the record number of naturalizations, there are still millions of eligible legal permanent residents who have not yet applied for U.S. citizenship or who encounter barriers in the naturalization process," Vargas said.
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer, Apr. 7, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.
"Latinos who naturalize are eager to demonstrate their commitment to America by becoming full participants in our nation's civic life," said NALEO president Arturo Vargas, whose nonpartisan group works to improve the citizenship process and increase Latino participation in civic activities.
NALEO based its findings on Homeland Security Department data on the number of new citizens last year who immigrated from predominantly Spanish-speaking countries.
In a report released in March, the agency attributed the record number of new citizens to the nearly 1.4 million citizenship applications it received in 2007. Most were from people who wanted to beat a $265 increase in the citizenship application fee, from $330 to $595.
But the department also credited "special efforts" by Hispanic media, community groups and a union with high immigrant membership, all of which urged eligible permanent residents to pursue citizenship.
In fiscal year 2008, 231,815 people originally from Mexico became citizens, up almost 90 percent from 2007. Increases in citizenship among Latino immigrants from other countries were: 39,871 from Cuba, up 160 percent from the previous year; 35,796 from El Salvador, up 109 percent; 17,954 from Nicaragua, up 120 percent; and 17,087 from Guatemala, a 109 percent rise.
Most of last year's new Hispanic citizens lived in California, followed by Florida.
Vargas cited the data to encourage the Obama administration and Congress to ease the cost of applying for immigration benefits.
"Despite the record number of naturalizations, there are still millions of eligible legal permanent residents who have not yet applied for U.S. citizenship or who encounter barriers in the naturalization process," Vargas said.
Hispanic students in Texas falling behind
Texas Hispanics Falling Behind In College Admission
Daniel Novick-KFOX, April 5, 2009
EL PASO, Texas -- State leaders in Texas said Hispanic students are falling behind educationally. The issue is both in high school graduation rates and college enrollment.
Only 68 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school within four years. That's 10 points below the state rate.
And 42.5 percent of those who graduated in 2007 enrolled in college or training in the fall of 2007.
Both figures are below numbers for black and white students.
Hispanic enrollment in colleges has grown faster than any other racial or ethnic group in the past five years. However, the Hispanic population in Texas has grown almost as quickly.
Daniel Novick-KFOX, April 5, 2009
EL PASO, Texas -- State leaders in Texas said Hispanic students are falling behind educationally. The issue is both in high school graduation rates and college enrollment.
Only 68 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school within four years. That's 10 points below the state rate.
And 42.5 percent of those who graduated in 2007 enrolled in college or training in the fall of 2007.
Both figures are below numbers for black and white students.
Hispanic enrollment in colleges has grown faster than any other racial or ethnic group in the past five years. However, the Hispanic population in Texas has grown almost as quickly.
Yale Latino Alumni to address challenges
Alumni explore Latino issues at conference
Charlotte Wang, YALE DAILY NEWS, April 6, 2009
More than 200 Latino alumni from around the country gathered at Yale this weekend for the University’s first-ever Latino Alumni reunion, where participants celebrated the growth of the University’s Latino community and discussed the challenges it still faces.
Through roundtable discussions, panels and workshops on the history of Latinos at Yale, alumni addressed reaching out to Latino prospective students, increasing Latino representation on campus and building stronger regional networks of Latino alumni nationwide.
“The Latino community on campus has grown significantly over the past 30 years,” said Rosalinda Garcia, assistant dean of Yale College and director of La Casa Cultural. “I am thrilled to see so many alumni crying out of happiness to see the fruit of their work.”
Garcia said the reunion allowed students on campus to show gratitude for the legacy of Latino alumni at Yale — a legacy that includes the pre-orientation program Cultural Connections and the ethnic counselor program, which the University is phasing out this year. For alumni, the event, which took more than a year to plan, was also a chance to see how Yale has changed since they last walked its halls.
“This is a special event that brings back memories of how difficult it was for Latinos to feel comfortable at Yale,” said Eduard Padro ’75, who founded Despierta Boricua, an organization for Puerto Rican students. “The very first issue was the lack of representation back in the ’70s.”
At the reunion’s closing ceremony, La Casa’s undergraduate coordinators outlined work that remains to be done on Yale’s campus. Nicole de Paz ’11, Diandra Fermin ’12 and Jennifer Ramos ’10 said efforts need to be made to expand alumni mentoring and to attract both Latino students and tenured faculty. And Latino activities on campus could be much more vibrant with more financial backing, Garcia said, adding that the $2,000 La Casa was given to plan Latino Heritage Month events left students “forced to spend so much time on fundraising.”
Latino alumni have never held a reunion on a national level, said Daniel Acosta, co-chairman of the interim board of directors of the Yale Latino Alumni Association, despite strong Latino involvement in local alumni associations.
“We expect to get people here to feel the excitement and opportunities for an organization like this,” Acosta said, “we hope to push for organizational awareness and get 500 people for the next reunion.”
Students the University characterizes as “Hispanic” make up 8.1 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Charlotte Wang, YALE DAILY NEWS, April 6, 2009
More than 200 Latino alumni from around the country gathered at Yale this weekend for the University’s first-ever Latino Alumni reunion, where participants celebrated the growth of the University’s Latino community and discussed the challenges it still faces.
Through roundtable discussions, panels and workshops on the history of Latinos at Yale, alumni addressed reaching out to Latino prospective students, increasing Latino representation on campus and building stronger regional networks of Latino alumni nationwide.
“The Latino community on campus has grown significantly over the past 30 years,” said Rosalinda Garcia, assistant dean of Yale College and director of La Casa Cultural. “I am thrilled to see so many alumni crying out of happiness to see the fruit of their work.”
Garcia said the reunion allowed students on campus to show gratitude for the legacy of Latino alumni at Yale — a legacy that includes the pre-orientation program Cultural Connections and the ethnic counselor program, which the University is phasing out this year. For alumni, the event, which took more than a year to plan, was also a chance to see how Yale has changed since they last walked its halls.
“This is a special event that brings back memories of how difficult it was for Latinos to feel comfortable at Yale,” said Eduard Padro ’75, who founded Despierta Boricua, an organization for Puerto Rican students. “The very first issue was the lack of representation back in the ’70s.”
At the reunion’s closing ceremony, La Casa’s undergraduate coordinators outlined work that remains to be done on Yale’s campus. Nicole de Paz ’11, Diandra Fermin ’12 and Jennifer Ramos ’10 said efforts need to be made to expand alumni mentoring and to attract both Latino students and tenured faculty. And Latino activities on campus could be much more vibrant with more financial backing, Garcia said, adding that the $2,000 La Casa was given to plan Latino Heritage Month events left students “forced to spend so much time on fundraising.”
Latino alumni have never held a reunion on a national level, said Daniel Acosta, co-chairman of the interim board of directors of the Yale Latino Alumni Association, despite strong Latino involvement in local alumni associations.
“We expect to get people here to feel the excitement and opportunities for an organization like this,” Acosta said, “we hope to push for organizational awareness and get 500 people for the next reunion.”
Students the University characterizes as “Hispanic” make up 8.1 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Hispanic undercount is a concern
An accurate count of Latinos
El Diario NY, 2009-04-06
Census day will take place in a year. But if the Obama administration doesn’t take steps to protect this enumeration, Latinos and other groups will be at risk of an undercount.
The U.S. Census Bureau is charged with ensuring an accurate count. Last week, President Obama nominated Robert Groves, who, if confirmed, has to hit the ground running to deal with a slew of issues – some old, others new.
Among the persistent problems is the undercount of certain groups. In 2000, the Census count missed 4.5 million people, most of who were black or Hispanic. The count will be further complicated by the displacement triggered by the foreclosure crisis.
The Constitution mandates that every 10 years, each person living in the country, regardless of immigration status, must be counted. The Census determines the distribution of federal funds and the number of congressional districts within states. But an environment in which immigrant families are in fear of raids and deportation threatens to undermine an accurate representation of communities throughout the country.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whose department oversees the bureau, has spoken to protecting the confidentiality of census forms. But the Obama administration has to take a step further.
During the 2000 census, large-scaled immigration raids were paused so that people would not be fearful of responding to the census. Congressman William Macy Clay has said he will push for the same policy.
The Census Bureau requested a halt a couple of years ago but the Bush administration rejected that request. Obama can, and should, depart from that shortsighted decision.
Census day will take place in a year. But if the Obama administration doesn’t take steps to protect this enumeration, Latinos and other groups will be at risk of an undercount.
The U.S. Census Bureau is charged with ensuring an accurate count. Last week, President Obama nominated Robert Groves, who, if confirmed, has to hit the ground running to deal with a slew of issues – some old, others new.
Among the persistent problems is the undercount of certain groups. In 2000, the Census count missed 4.5 million people, most of who were black or Hispanic. The count will be further complicated by the displacement triggered by the foreclosure crisis.
The Constitution mandates that every 10 years, each person living in the country, regardless of immigration status, must be counted. The Census determines the distribution of federal funds and the number of congressional districts within states. But an environment in which immigrant families are in fear of raids and deportation threatens to undermine an accurate representation of communities throughout the country.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whose department oversees the bureau, has spoken to protecting the confidentiality of census forms. But the Obama administration has to take a step further.
During the 2000 census, large-scaled immigration raids were paused so that people would not be fearful of responding to the census. Congressman William Macy Clay has said he will push for the same policy.
The Census Bureau requested a halt a couple of years ago but the Bush administration rejected that request. Obama can, and should, depart from that shortsighted decision.
El Diario NY, 2009-04-06
Census day will take place in a year. But if the Obama administration doesn’t take steps to protect this enumeration, Latinos and other groups will be at risk of an undercount.
The U.S. Census Bureau is charged with ensuring an accurate count. Last week, President Obama nominated Robert Groves, who, if confirmed, has to hit the ground running to deal with a slew of issues – some old, others new.
Among the persistent problems is the undercount of certain groups. In 2000, the Census count missed 4.5 million people, most of who were black or Hispanic. The count will be further complicated by the displacement triggered by the foreclosure crisis.
The Constitution mandates that every 10 years, each person living in the country, regardless of immigration status, must be counted. The Census determines the distribution of federal funds and the number of congressional districts within states. But an environment in which immigrant families are in fear of raids and deportation threatens to undermine an accurate representation of communities throughout the country.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whose department oversees the bureau, has spoken to protecting the confidentiality of census forms. But the Obama administration has to take a step further.
During the 2000 census, large-scaled immigration raids were paused so that people would not be fearful of responding to the census. Congressman William Macy Clay has said he will push for the same policy.
The Census Bureau requested a halt a couple of years ago but the Bush administration rejected that request. Obama can, and should, depart from that shortsighted decision.
Census day will take place in a year. But if the Obama administration doesn’t take steps to protect this enumeration, Latinos and other groups will be at risk of an undercount.
The U.S. Census Bureau is charged with ensuring an accurate count. Last week, President Obama nominated Robert Groves, who, if confirmed, has to hit the ground running to deal with a slew of issues – some old, others new.
Among the persistent problems is the undercount of certain groups. In 2000, the Census count missed 4.5 million people, most of who were black or Hispanic. The count will be further complicated by the displacement triggered by the foreclosure crisis.
The Constitution mandates that every 10 years, each person living in the country, regardless of immigration status, must be counted. The Census determines the distribution of federal funds and the number of congressional districts within states. But an environment in which immigrant families are in fear of raids and deportation threatens to undermine an accurate representation of communities throughout the country.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whose department oversees the bureau, has spoken to protecting the confidentiality of census forms. But the Obama administration has to take a step further.
During the 2000 census, large-scaled immigration raids were paused so that people would not be fearful of responding to the census. Congressman William Macy Clay has said he will push for the same policy.
The Census Bureau requested a halt a couple of years ago but the Bush administration rejected that request. Obama can, and should, depart from that shortsighted decision.
Firefighter case could alter Civil Rights policies
Firefighters' civil rights case could reshape hiring policies
The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in the case, in which 20 white firefighters allege racial discrimination in New Haven, Conn.
By David G. Savage, LA TIMES, April 6, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Frank Ricci -- a firefighter in New Haven, Conn. -- spent months listening to study tapes as he drove to work and in the evenings, preparing for a promotional test. It was a once-a-decade chance to move up to a command rank in the fire department.
Ricci earned a top score but no promotion.
The city had coded the test takers by race, and of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white and one was Latino. Since there were only 15 vacancies, it looked as though no blacks would be promoted.
After a racially charged debate that stretched over four hearings, the city's civil service board rejected the test scores five years ago and promoted no one.
"To have the city throw it out because you're white or because you're not African American is insulting," Ricci said when he and 19 other firefighters sued the city for racial discrimination.
Their case, scheduled to be argued this month, is the first to come before the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. that broadly raises the issue of race in the workplace. The outcome could reshape hiring and promotion policies for millions of the nation's public employees -- and possibly for private employers as well.
Roberts, leading a five-justice majority, has made clear that he believes it is time to forbid the use of race as a factor in the government's decisions.
The Obama administration, taking its first stand on race and civil rights, sided with the city officials and said they were justified in dropping the test if it had "gross exclusionary effects on minorities." While blacks make up about 31% of New Haven's 221 firefighters, 15% are officers -- eight of the department's 42 lieutenants and one of its 18 captains.
At issue in the New Haven case is whether an employer can weigh the racial effect of a hiring or promotional standard.
Lawyers for the firefighters say the city violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it threw out the test scores. They say the law forbids employers from "discriminating against one group of individuals to benefit another group on account of race." The white firefighters "ask nothing more than the basic right to be judged by who they are and what they have accomplished, not by the color of their skin," the lawyers say.
But the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said the claim ignored the history of discrimination that excluded blacks from fire and police departments. In many cities, including New Haven, the "fire department was the preserve of white males," said John Payton, who is also counsel for the defense fund. "African Americans were virtually excluded." That's why cities across the country have fought discrimination lawsuits involving their fire departments, he said.
Many of the cases have stretched over decades. In the 1970s, civil rights lawyers sued many cities because minorities were excluded for city jobs. In response, cities often signed consent decrees promising to hire and promote more blacks. However, in the decades since, cities have fought long-running lawsuits from whites who say they were victims of reverse discrimination.
Last month, Chicago paid a $6-million settlement to 75 white firefighters who said they lost promotions when test scores were scrapped in 1986.
"This was very similar to what is before the court in the Connecticut case," said Linda Friedman, a Chicago lawyer for the firefighters there. "The city of Chicago saw itself in a predicament. They thought they could be sued by blacks if they used the exam. And they were sued [by whites] when they decided against using the exam scores."
These cases highlight a conflict in federal civil rights law.
The Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 say employers may not discriminate against people because of their race. However, employers also have been told they may not use hiring or promotional standards -- including tests -- that have a "disparate impact" on minorities.
The court adopted this rule in a 1971 case. Congress added it to federal law in 1991. The new provision said employers may not use a job standard that has a "disparate impact on the basis of race" unless it is "required by business necessity." For example, it is not certain that the knowledge tested by the firefighter's exam was required to be a lieutenant in the fire department.
In New Haven, the city's lawyers cited this "disparate impact" rule as their reason for scrapping the test scores in 2004.
"I understand their disappointment," Victor Bolden, the city's corporation counsel, said in an interview, referring to the white firefighters. "But this test had an adverse impact [on minorities]. The city did the right thing. It made a measured response in a difficult circumstance. Someone was going to be disappointed, and we could be sued either way."
Payton emphasized that New Haven had not rejected the white firefighters because of their race, but rather rejected the use of the written exam as the sole determinant of who would be promoted.
"New Haven ought to be able to go back to the drawing board," he said, to devise a fairer promotion system.
New Haven is a racially mixed city of 124,000. About 44% of its residents are white, 37% black and 21% Latino.
The Obama administration told the court that New Haven officials were justified in scrapping the test results if they had "a reasonable belief" they could be sued by blacks for discrimination.
Lawyers for the white firefighters insist that "racial politics" and "cronyism" were behind the city's decision. They said Boise Kimber, an outspoken black minister, was a key political ally of Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and that he pressured the city civil service board into rejecting the test results.
"You have a responsibility of making this fire department look like New Haven," Kimber told the board in one heated session. "And it ain't looking like New Haven."
Citing the "voluminous record in this case," the Obama administration said the court should send the case back to a judge in Connecticut to consider whether the white firefighters were victims of racial politics.
Yale law professor Drew Days, a former chief of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said he was surprised the justices agreed to hear the case of Ricci vs. DeStefano. Now that they have, he added, a ruling for Ricci "could have very far-reaching consequences because it may well apply to all employers."
david.savage@latimes.com
The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in the case, in which 20 white firefighters allege racial discrimination in New Haven, Conn.
By David G. Savage, LA TIMES, April 6, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Frank Ricci -- a firefighter in New Haven, Conn. -- spent months listening to study tapes as he drove to work and in the evenings, preparing for a promotional test. It was a once-a-decade chance to move up to a command rank in the fire department.
Ricci earned a top score but no promotion.
The city had coded the test takers by race, and of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white and one was Latino. Since there were only 15 vacancies, it looked as though no blacks would be promoted.
After a racially charged debate that stretched over four hearings, the city's civil service board rejected the test scores five years ago and promoted no one.
"To have the city throw it out because you're white or because you're not African American is insulting," Ricci said when he and 19 other firefighters sued the city for racial discrimination.
Their case, scheduled to be argued this month, is the first to come before the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. that broadly raises the issue of race in the workplace. The outcome could reshape hiring and promotion policies for millions of the nation's public employees -- and possibly for private employers as well.
Roberts, leading a five-justice majority, has made clear that he believes it is time to forbid the use of race as a factor in the government's decisions.
The Obama administration, taking its first stand on race and civil rights, sided with the city officials and said they were justified in dropping the test if it had "gross exclusionary effects on minorities." While blacks make up about 31% of New Haven's 221 firefighters, 15% are officers -- eight of the department's 42 lieutenants and one of its 18 captains.
At issue in the New Haven case is whether an employer can weigh the racial effect of a hiring or promotional standard.
Lawyers for the firefighters say the city violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it threw out the test scores. They say the law forbids employers from "discriminating against one group of individuals to benefit another group on account of race." The white firefighters "ask nothing more than the basic right to be judged by who they are and what they have accomplished, not by the color of their skin," the lawyers say.
But the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said the claim ignored the history of discrimination that excluded blacks from fire and police departments. In many cities, including New Haven, the "fire department was the preserve of white males," said John Payton, who is also counsel for the defense fund. "African Americans were virtually excluded." That's why cities across the country have fought discrimination lawsuits involving their fire departments, he said.
Many of the cases have stretched over decades. In the 1970s, civil rights lawyers sued many cities because minorities were excluded for city jobs. In response, cities often signed consent decrees promising to hire and promote more blacks. However, in the decades since, cities have fought long-running lawsuits from whites who say they were victims of reverse discrimination.
Last month, Chicago paid a $6-million settlement to 75 white firefighters who said they lost promotions when test scores were scrapped in 1986.
"This was very similar to what is before the court in the Connecticut case," said Linda Friedman, a Chicago lawyer for the firefighters there. "The city of Chicago saw itself in a predicament. They thought they could be sued by blacks if they used the exam. And they were sued [by whites] when they decided against using the exam scores."
These cases highlight a conflict in federal civil rights law.
The Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 say employers may not discriminate against people because of their race. However, employers also have been told they may not use hiring or promotional standards -- including tests -- that have a "disparate impact" on minorities.
The court adopted this rule in a 1971 case. Congress added it to federal law in 1991. The new provision said employers may not use a job standard that has a "disparate impact on the basis of race" unless it is "required by business necessity." For example, it is not certain that the knowledge tested by the firefighter's exam was required to be a lieutenant in the fire department.
In New Haven, the city's lawyers cited this "disparate impact" rule as their reason for scrapping the test scores in 2004.
"I understand their disappointment," Victor Bolden, the city's corporation counsel, said in an interview, referring to the white firefighters. "But this test had an adverse impact [on minorities]. The city did the right thing. It made a measured response in a difficult circumstance. Someone was going to be disappointed, and we could be sued either way."
Payton emphasized that New Haven had not rejected the white firefighters because of their race, but rather rejected the use of the written exam as the sole determinant of who would be promoted.
"New Haven ought to be able to go back to the drawing board," he said, to devise a fairer promotion system.
New Haven is a racially mixed city of 124,000. About 44% of its residents are white, 37% black and 21% Latino.
The Obama administration told the court that New Haven officials were justified in scrapping the test results if they had "a reasonable belief" they could be sued by blacks for discrimination.
Lawyers for the white firefighters insist that "racial politics" and "cronyism" were behind the city's decision. They said Boise Kimber, an outspoken black minister, was a key political ally of Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and that he pressured the city civil service board into rejecting the test results.
"You have a responsibility of making this fire department look like New Haven," Kimber told the board in one heated session. "And it ain't looking like New Haven."
Citing the "voluminous record in this case," the Obama administration said the court should send the case back to a judge in Connecticut to consider whether the white firefighters were victims of racial politics.
Yale law professor Drew Days, a former chief of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said he was surprised the justices agreed to hear the case of Ricci vs. DeStefano. Now that they have, he added, a ruling for Ricci "could have very far-reaching consequences because it may well apply to all employers."
david.savage@latimes.com
Scholarships given by AZ Latino caucus
Latino caucus scholarship goes to San Luis graduate
BY WILLIAM ROLLER, YUMA SUN, April 5, 2009
Gov. Jan Brewer presented a San Luis High School alumnus a scholarship award sponsored by the Latino Legislative Caucus to honor his commitment to higher education on Cesar Chavez Day.
Jesus Nunez, 20, a 2006 graduate of San Luis High School and now an Arizona State University nursing major, was given a certificate plaque and a $500 check by the governor in her office March 31. Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers co-founder and Yuma native, is commemorated for his activism on behalf of migrant workers' rights with a day honoring his birth.
District 24 Sen. Amanda Aguirre of Yuma, a member of the caucus, said she was pleased to nominate Nunez. Aguirre noted the caucus established in 2001 was an attempt to bring legislators to address issues facing the Hispanic community.
Two years ago, the caucus launched the Latino Foundation to create a scholarship fund to help Hispanic students pursuing a higher education.
Aguirre pointed out that the caucus wanted to honor Chavez by dedicating a scholarship in honor of his memory. She added that she is extremely proud of Nunez for all his accomplishments.
"His parents parents raised him to understand the value of an education," Aguirre said. "Jesus is truly a role model for his family and community."
Nunez said he was grateful for the scholarship and even though it was not enough to pay tuition, he can use it to buy books and it will take a burden away from his parents' budget.
Nunez recently transferred to ASU but previously attended Arizona Western College. While enrolled there, he volunteered at Yuma Regional Medical Center. where he only did filing and ushered patients into the lab for testing, yet it was there he decided that was what he wanted for a career, he said.
Next, he volunteered at the San Luis Walk-in Clinic where he helped giving immunizations and assisted an internal medicine doctor as well as a pediatrician. He also volunteered for Camp Not Achoo, a weekend retreat for asthma patients where he helped teach them about asthma triggers such as flowers, dust on bookshelves or carpets, bus exhaust, school laboratory animals or other common irritants.
But it was at the Regional Center for Border Health where he met Sen. Aguirre, who has been the CEO of the nonprofit since 1991 and whose mission is to improve accessibility of primary medical care on the Arizona-Mexican border.
While at the regional center, Nunez did pediatric immunizations, performed electrocardiograms and assisted with breathing treatments for respiratory patients.
"I love children, " Nunez said. "I always like to be around my little cousins (2 and 8 years old) helping them with their homework and teaching them to play baseball and soccer."
While training at the regional center, Nunez said, he was thankful for the nurturing he received from Tuly Medina who, along with Aguirre and his parents, offered him valuable support.
After he graduates ASU in 2011, Nunez said, he would like to return to Yuma to work at YRMC and focus on pediatrics - and will always remember the day he received his scholarship at the governor's office.
"It was pretty exciting because not everybody gets to meet the governor and we talked face to face. What stuck in my mind was she said, 'Stay in school and graduate.' Though it is not easy, it can be done."
William Roller, wroller@yumasun.com, 539-6858.
BY WILLIAM ROLLER, YUMA SUN, April 5, 2009
Gov. Jan Brewer presented a San Luis High School alumnus a scholarship award sponsored by the Latino Legislative Caucus to honor his commitment to higher education on Cesar Chavez Day.
Jesus Nunez, 20, a 2006 graduate of San Luis High School and now an Arizona State University nursing major, was given a certificate plaque and a $500 check by the governor in her office March 31. Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers co-founder and Yuma native, is commemorated for his activism on behalf of migrant workers' rights with a day honoring his birth.
District 24 Sen. Amanda Aguirre of Yuma, a member of the caucus, said she was pleased to nominate Nunez. Aguirre noted the caucus established in 2001 was an attempt to bring legislators to address issues facing the Hispanic community.
Two years ago, the caucus launched the Latino Foundation to create a scholarship fund to help Hispanic students pursuing a higher education.
Aguirre pointed out that the caucus wanted to honor Chavez by dedicating a scholarship in honor of his memory. She added that she is extremely proud of Nunez for all his accomplishments.
"His parents parents raised him to understand the value of an education," Aguirre said. "Jesus is truly a role model for his family and community."
Nunez said he was grateful for the scholarship and even though it was not enough to pay tuition, he can use it to buy books and it will take a burden away from his parents' budget.
Nunez recently transferred to ASU but previously attended Arizona Western College. While enrolled there, he volunteered at Yuma Regional Medical Center. where he only did filing and ushered patients into the lab for testing, yet it was there he decided that was what he wanted for a career, he said.
Next, he volunteered at the San Luis Walk-in Clinic where he helped giving immunizations and assisted an internal medicine doctor as well as a pediatrician. He also volunteered for Camp Not Achoo, a weekend retreat for asthma patients where he helped teach them about asthma triggers such as flowers, dust on bookshelves or carpets, bus exhaust, school laboratory animals or other common irritants.
But it was at the Regional Center for Border Health where he met Sen. Aguirre, who has been the CEO of the nonprofit since 1991 and whose mission is to improve accessibility of primary medical care on the Arizona-Mexican border.
While at the regional center, Nunez did pediatric immunizations, performed electrocardiograms and assisted with breathing treatments for respiratory patients.
"I love children, " Nunez said. "I always like to be around my little cousins (2 and 8 years old) helping them with their homework and teaching them to play baseball and soccer."
While training at the regional center, Nunez said, he was thankful for the nurturing he received from Tuly Medina who, along with Aguirre and his parents, offered him valuable support.
After he graduates ASU in 2011, Nunez said, he would like to return to Yuma to work at YRMC and focus on pediatrics - and will always remember the day he received his scholarship at the governor's office.
"It was pretty exciting because not everybody gets to meet the governor and we talked face to face. What stuck in my mind was she said, 'Stay in school and graduate.' Though it is not easy, it can be done."
William Roller, wroller@yumasun.com, 539-6858.
Hispanic Immigrant workers get court victories
State's immigrant workers score court victories on wages
By Susan Ferriss, sferriss@sacbee.com, Apr. 6, 2009
In a major legal win for immigrant workers, thousands of California construction workers will start receiving checks April 15 to compensate for unpaid wages and other alleged labor violations committed during California's housing boom.
The $8.5 million legal settlement benefits nearly 3,100 former and current workers for several companies that built houses in Southern California, the Central Valley, Central Coast and San Francisco East Bay.
A few workers initiated the complaint in 2006 after approaching a Spanish-speaking attorney, but lawyers say the case grew into one of the biggest class-action lawsuits in California involving mostly Latino construction laborers, including some who are undocumented.
"We hope that this sends a strong message that all workers have rights," said one of the attorneys, Gladys Limon of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Los Angeles office.
The construction settlement isn't the only indication that courts and government agencies are dealing with long-standing allegations of underpaid immigrant workers.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown's office has a new Underground Economy Unit that investigates businesses for suspected wage and workers' compensation abuse and tax fraud.
And in Tulare County – a week after the construction workers' settlement – a Superior Court judge signed off on a nearly $1.28 million settlement for immigrant dairy workers in the Central Valley.
Suits like these help counter fear among undocumented workers – and legal immigrants – who assume they are not covered by the same labor rights as citizens or are intimidated and afraid to assert themselves, Limon said.
Worker's status 'irrelevant'
MALDEF received a rare endorsement for its victory from Minuteman Project leader Jim Gilchrist, who supports strong measures to deport illegal immigrants. "The lawyers are doing the right thing in going after these slave-trading employers," he said.
But federal officials, he suggested, should now look into prosecuting the businesses for hiring illegal immigrants and deport the workers – with the money they're entitled to get.
California civil code specifically states that "for purposes of enforcing state labor and employment laws, a person's immigration status is irrelevant to the issue of liability."
The dairy settlement benefits about 650 workers, and is believed to be the largest class-action back-wage agreement involving California's dairy industry, according to Mark Talamantes of San Francisco, one of the employees' attorneys.
He has handled five cases over the past decade on behalf of immigrant dairy workers. His partner on some of these cases, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, reports that dairy workers often report to their offices with complaints of unpaid overtime.
Oakland attorney Bill Lann Lee, who was President Bill Clinton's chief of civil rights in the Justice Department, was part of the team representing the construction workers.
If illegal immigrants are not included under labor rights, he said, employers could have unbridled license to hire and exploit them.
"As a matter of policy, you do not want to create two classes of workers," Lee said.
If you strip a group of rights, he said, "you create an underclass, and then jobs tend to migrate to that underclass and it affects everyone."
Lee said that during legal proceedings, rival attorneys broached the issue of immigration status, perhaps to try to get workers to back down.
"In the context in which it was raised," Lee said, "I think there was an effort to get plaintiffs to think twice about participating and testifying."
Brown: Employers tempted
Brown, the Democratic attorney general, said there is "a great opportunity for exploitation" among immigrant workers.
"Lower-paid workers are often forgotten," he said.
During the housing boom, he said, competition tempted businesses to gain an edge by cheating vulnerable workers and putting "downward pressure" on wages.
Immigration enforcement, Brown also noted, is a federal duty, not the state's.
Census data suggests that immigrants are nearly 37 percent of California's labor force, and that one in every 11 workers in the state is undocumented.
As part of the March settlements to compensate workers, the construction and dairy companies do not admit to committing labor violations.
The construction workers who will share in the $8.5 million settlement – a quarter goes to attorneys' fees – installed insulation, rain gutters, fireplaces, cabinets and other material in new housing subdivisions in California suburbs.
Those entitled to get compensation worked for the Western Insulation Co. or Schmid Insulation Contractors Inc. at any time between Oct. 13, 2002, and Sept. 30, 2008, or for Masco Contractor Services of California Inc. at any time between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008.
The companies are subsidiaries of Michigan-based Masco Corp., one of the world's biggest producers of home building products.
Masco spokesperson Kathleen Vokes said Masco has no comment about the lawsuit other than the contents of a press release explaining that workers' payments will depend on length of time on the job and position held.
Ivan Gonzalez, who lives in Thousand Oaks, said he was supposed to earn at least $16 an hour at Schmid, but his pay rarely matched that promise.
Employees didn't get paid, he said, for time loading and unloading material from warehouses, traveling, or working overtime, at night, sometimes illuminated by car headlights.
Workers also alleged they had to pay for their own tools, and if they didn't meet production quotas, their pay was docked in a practice called "negative bonuses."
Gonzalez said supervisors wanted to pay workers a lower wage for time in meetings to plan jobs. Because he objected to this and other unlawful practices, he said, he was fired.
"They thought I didn't know my rights at all," Gonzalez said in Spanish, his first language. "But they found out I did know what I was talking about."
Joel Villaseñor, the Los Angeles County attorney workers first approached, said some were very nervous because they were undocumented, or because they or a relative had an application pending to obtain legal residency. They were worried the lawsuit might jeopardize that, Villaseñor said.
"We told them, 'We don't need to know (status) and it doesn't matter. You're protected,' " he said.
Overtime denied, suit says
In January, Brown's office filed suit against a California drywall business, seeking $3.13 million in restitution for employees and $1 million in civil penalties.
The Bakersfield business is accused of paying workers flat daily rates while denying workers breaks and overtime; withholding workers' wages to use as incentive pay for supervisors; and paying workers in cash to avoid taxes and workers' compensation payments.
Barry Goldner, attorney for Charles Evleth Construction Inc., said his clients deny the allegations and have not yet seen hard evidence backing the claims.
"It's always their intent to comply with the law," Goldner said.
Clarence Bosman, the Tulare County dairyman who was sued by workers, could not be reached for comment.
Martin Bravo, a former Bosman employee, said he earned about $950 every two weeks for what were supposed to be 10-hour shifts. The shifts routinely lasted longer, he said, because he was told to stay and help the next shift of workers.
"They didn't give us lunch breaks. We were milking cows with tacos in our hands. We had to run to attend to all the animals. There were just too many cows," he said. "One felt like a little piece of trash."
Talamantes, the dairy workers attorney, described Bosman and other dairymen he has sued as "hard-working people" who have failed to "reach out" to immigrant workers but who are taking the law more seriously now because they have faced consequences.
"This is impact litigation," Talamantes said. "At one time, the dairy industry was the Wild West of wage law in California."
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Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
By Susan Ferriss, sferriss@sacbee.com, Apr. 6, 2009
In a major legal win for immigrant workers, thousands of California construction workers will start receiving checks April 15 to compensate for unpaid wages and other alleged labor violations committed during California's housing boom.
The $8.5 million legal settlement benefits nearly 3,100 former and current workers for several companies that built houses in Southern California, the Central Valley, Central Coast and San Francisco East Bay.
A few workers initiated the complaint in 2006 after approaching a Spanish-speaking attorney, but lawyers say the case grew into one of the biggest class-action lawsuits in California involving mostly Latino construction laborers, including some who are undocumented.
"We hope that this sends a strong message that all workers have rights," said one of the attorneys, Gladys Limon of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Los Angeles office.
The construction settlement isn't the only indication that courts and government agencies are dealing with long-standing allegations of underpaid immigrant workers.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown's office has a new Underground Economy Unit that investigates businesses for suspected wage and workers' compensation abuse and tax fraud.
And in Tulare County – a week after the construction workers' settlement – a Superior Court judge signed off on a nearly $1.28 million settlement for immigrant dairy workers in the Central Valley.
Suits like these help counter fear among undocumented workers – and legal immigrants – who assume they are not covered by the same labor rights as citizens or are intimidated and afraid to assert themselves, Limon said.
Worker's status 'irrelevant'
MALDEF received a rare endorsement for its victory from Minuteman Project leader Jim Gilchrist, who supports strong measures to deport illegal immigrants. "The lawyers are doing the right thing in going after these slave-trading employers," he said.
But federal officials, he suggested, should now look into prosecuting the businesses for hiring illegal immigrants and deport the workers – with the money they're entitled to get.
California civil code specifically states that "for purposes of enforcing state labor and employment laws, a person's immigration status is irrelevant to the issue of liability."
The dairy settlement benefits about 650 workers, and is believed to be the largest class-action back-wage agreement involving California's dairy industry, according to Mark Talamantes of San Francisco, one of the employees' attorneys.
He has handled five cases over the past decade on behalf of immigrant dairy workers. His partner on some of these cases, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, reports that dairy workers often report to their offices with complaints of unpaid overtime.
Oakland attorney Bill Lann Lee, who was President Bill Clinton's chief of civil rights in the Justice Department, was part of the team representing the construction workers.
If illegal immigrants are not included under labor rights, he said, employers could have unbridled license to hire and exploit them.
"As a matter of policy, you do not want to create two classes of workers," Lee said.
If you strip a group of rights, he said, "you create an underclass, and then jobs tend to migrate to that underclass and it affects everyone."
Lee said that during legal proceedings, rival attorneys broached the issue of immigration status, perhaps to try to get workers to back down.
"In the context in which it was raised," Lee said, "I think there was an effort to get plaintiffs to think twice about participating and testifying."
Brown: Employers tempted
Brown, the Democratic attorney general, said there is "a great opportunity for exploitation" among immigrant workers.
"Lower-paid workers are often forgotten," he said.
During the housing boom, he said, competition tempted businesses to gain an edge by cheating vulnerable workers and putting "downward pressure" on wages.
Immigration enforcement, Brown also noted, is a federal duty, not the state's.
Census data suggests that immigrants are nearly 37 percent of California's labor force, and that one in every 11 workers in the state is undocumented.
As part of the March settlements to compensate workers, the construction and dairy companies do not admit to committing labor violations.
The construction workers who will share in the $8.5 million settlement – a quarter goes to attorneys' fees – installed insulation, rain gutters, fireplaces, cabinets and other material in new housing subdivisions in California suburbs.
Those entitled to get compensation worked for the Western Insulation Co. or Schmid Insulation Contractors Inc. at any time between Oct. 13, 2002, and Sept. 30, 2008, or for Masco Contractor Services of California Inc. at any time between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008.
The companies are subsidiaries of Michigan-based Masco Corp., one of the world's biggest producers of home building products.
Masco spokesperson Kathleen Vokes said Masco has no comment about the lawsuit other than the contents of a press release explaining that workers' payments will depend on length of time on the job and position held.
Ivan Gonzalez, who lives in Thousand Oaks, said he was supposed to earn at least $16 an hour at Schmid, but his pay rarely matched that promise.
Employees didn't get paid, he said, for time loading and unloading material from warehouses, traveling, or working overtime, at night, sometimes illuminated by car headlights.
Workers also alleged they had to pay for their own tools, and if they didn't meet production quotas, their pay was docked in a practice called "negative bonuses."
Gonzalez said supervisors wanted to pay workers a lower wage for time in meetings to plan jobs. Because he objected to this and other unlawful practices, he said, he was fired.
"They thought I didn't know my rights at all," Gonzalez said in Spanish, his first language. "But they found out I did know what I was talking about."
Joel Villaseñor, the Los Angeles County attorney workers first approached, said some were very nervous because they were undocumented, or because they or a relative had an application pending to obtain legal residency. They were worried the lawsuit might jeopardize that, Villaseñor said.
"We told them, 'We don't need to know (status) and it doesn't matter. You're protected,' " he said.
Overtime denied, suit says
In January, Brown's office filed suit against a California drywall business, seeking $3.13 million in restitution for employees and $1 million in civil penalties.
The Bakersfield business is accused of paying workers flat daily rates while denying workers breaks and overtime; withholding workers' wages to use as incentive pay for supervisors; and paying workers in cash to avoid taxes and workers' compensation payments.
Barry Goldner, attorney for Charles Evleth Construction Inc., said his clients deny the allegations and have not yet seen hard evidence backing the claims.
"It's always their intent to comply with the law," Goldner said.
Clarence Bosman, the Tulare County dairyman who was sued by workers, could not be reached for comment.
Martin Bravo, a former Bosman employee, said he earned about $950 every two weeks for what were supposed to be 10-hour shifts. The shifts routinely lasted longer, he said, because he was told to stay and help the next shift of workers.
"They didn't give us lunch breaks. We were milking cows with tacos in our hands. We had to run to attend to all the animals. There were just too many cows," he said. "One felt like a little piece of trash."
Talamantes, the dairy workers attorney, described Bosman and other dairymen he has sued as "hard-working people" who have failed to "reach out" to immigrant workers but who are taking the law more seriously now because they have faced consequences.
"This is impact litigation," Talamantes said. "At one time, the dairy industry was the Wild West of wage law in California."
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Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
Voter ID not having an impact on Hispanic voters
Indiana can identify with Texas in debate over voter photo IDs
By BILL RUTHHART / The Dallas Morning News, April 5, 2009
As the battle for requiring a photo ID to vote moves to the Texas House this week, supporters say the proposed law is necessary to fight widespread fraud. Opponents say it could block the votes of thousands of poor and minority citizens.
Neither claim is likely to be proved, judging by the experience of Indiana, which passed an even more stringent law in 2005.
Indiana Democrats who have spent more than three years fighting the state's law say their experience should serve as a cautionary tale with an unhappy ending: thousands upon thousands of disenfranchised voters.
But proponents of Indiana's law, mostly Republicans, urge Texas to follow their trailblazing path, promising a stronger election system that protects against voter fraud while ensuring that all citizens retain their right to vote.
A Texas House committee is scheduled to begin hearing testimony on the bill today. The Senate approved the legislation last month, but passage is expected to be more difficult in the House.
First of its kind
Indiana's voter ID law "has worked very well in instilling confidence in the election process, and that was the goal," said Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican who has been invited to testify before Texas lawmakers. "These are measures of integrity that aren't onerous, overly burdensome and don't turn voters away, but instead show people we take elections seriously."
When the Indiana General Assembly adopted the voter ID law in 2005, it was the first of its kind and has since become the model for states seeking to toughen their election laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the measure, and Indiana remains one of just two states – Georgia is the other – that refuses to count a vote without proof of a photo ID.
The proposed legislation that passed the Texas Senate last Wednesday is not as strict as Indiana's, because it allows a voter without a photo ID to present two forms of a non-photo ID, such as a utility bill or library card.
Former state Sen. Vic Heinold introduced the legislation after an Indianapolis postal worker told him that precinct workers approached him about voting more than once in the 2004 election.
"They told him how he could go about voting three times if he wanted to," said Heinold, a Republican. "So while it was hard to produce hard proof voter fraud was going on, we knew it was. And now we've put an end to it."
Critics say cries of voter fraud only served as a cover for the law's real intent – to block the votes of lower-income minority voters who are more likely to vote for Democrats.
"This is all about trying to prevent people from voting," said Dan Parker, chairman of the Indiana State Democratic Party. "There's still never been one case of voter impersonation prosecuted in Indiana. Not one."
Marjorie Hershey, a political science professor at Indiana University who has studied the law, equated it to "trying to swat a fly with a Sherman tank. There was no proven voter fraud at the polls in Indiana, so this law really was a solution to a nonexistent problem."
She said the added hurdle of a photo ID has prevented some Hoosiers from voting. She predicted a similar law in Texas could be more oppressive, because of the state's large Latino population.
"There's no question this kind of law has more of an impact in Texas," Hershey said. "The large [legal] immigrant population there would be less likely to get an ID, because they have a tougher time getting the necessary documents, speaking English and are more likely to fear the government and decide not to bother with the process."
Who's been denied?
While Indiana Democrats insist the voter ID law has resulted in widespread voter suppression, documenting those lost votes has been difficult.
Michael Pitts, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, has tried.
Indiana's law requires voters to present an ID either produced by the federal government or the state of Indiana. The ID also must have an expiration date. Voters who are registered but fail to produce an ID can cast a provisional ballot and have 10 days to produce the proper ID at the county courthouse.
Pitts conducted a study that concluded 399 voters – out of 1.8 million statewide – cast a provisional ballot in last year's primary election, and of those, only 20 percent were counted. But Pitts said there's countless more who were denied at the polls.
Last May, Sister Julie McGuire turned away about a dozen of her fellow sisters at St. Mary's Convent, because they didn't have the proper ID.
"They were really upset, and a lot of them use wheelchairs, scooters, don't drive and can't get out to get an ID," she said. "There were a few sisters who really raised a lot of ruckus about it, but that was the law."
Last November, Jan Kreuscher, 63, an attorney, worked a polling site at Butler University, where two dozen students were unable to produce the proper identification to vote.
"Most of them were really, really upset," Kreuscher said. "These students had looked forward to voting for months, and they couldn't. It was heartbreaking. ... These kids were registered, their names were in the book, they had IDs, utility bills, everything, but still couldn't vote."
Ashley Pascavis, 22, of Waukesha, Wis., was one of those students.
"I had my Wisconsin driver's license, my Butler ID, all my utility bills from the last six months and my lease for the current year, but they said that wasn't enough," she said.
Rokita, Indiana's secretary of state, said that out-of-state students unwilling to get an Indiana driver's license could have voted absentee in their home state. He said that the state informed voters of what steps they needed to take to vote, including a $1 million public awareness campaign and mass e-mails to college students.
State officials also took steps to provide free IDs. They allowed voters to cast ballots if they signed affidavits that said they were too poor to get transportation to obtain a free ID, or if their religion did not allow them to have their picture taken.
And for those who would have trouble producing the proper documentation to get an ID, Rokita said they could have voted absentee by mail without producing a photo ID.
"We have not found that 'Eureka' person who could not possible comply with the law and therefore was disenfranchised," he said. "No one can produce that person."
Overcoming the law
State Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, equates the ID law to a "poll tax that goes back to the ways of Jim Crow days." But he said President Barack Obama's November victory in Indiana – the first by a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 – is proof that the ID law can be overcome.
"When people are included, the power elite wants to change the rules," Porter said. "Our attitude is, we'll work even harder and beat you at your own game, and we did that."
State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, fought the law in 2005, but admits now it hasn't hurt people's ability to vote. In fact, it has helped areas such as her region, located close enough to Chicago to carry its "vote early and vote often" stigma.
"For a county such as mine that is always accused of voter fraud, no one can make those charges anymore," Rogers said. "It helps our image."
Bill Ruthhart is statehouse reporter at The Indianapolis Star. He can be reached at bill.ruthhart@indystar.com.
By BILL RUTHHART / The Dallas Morning News, April 5, 2009
As the battle for requiring a photo ID to vote moves to the Texas House this week, supporters say the proposed law is necessary to fight widespread fraud. Opponents say it could block the votes of thousands of poor and minority citizens.
Neither claim is likely to be proved, judging by the experience of Indiana, which passed an even more stringent law in 2005.
Indiana Democrats who have spent more than three years fighting the state's law say their experience should serve as a cautionary tale with an unhappy ending: thousands upon thousands of disenfranchised voters.
But proponents of Indiana's law, mostly Republicans, urge Texas to follow their trailblazing path, promising a stronger election system that protects against voter fraud while ensuring that all citizens retain their right to vote.
A Texas House committee is scheduled to begin hearing testimony on the bill today. The Senate approved the legislation last month, but passage is expected to be more difficult in the House.
First of its kind
Indiana's voter ID law "has worked very well in instilling confidence in the election process, and that was the goal," said Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican who has been invited to testify before Texas lawmakers. "These are measures of integrity that aren't onerous, overly burdensome and don't turn voters away, but instead show people we take elections seriously."
When the Indiana General Assembly adopted the voter ID law in 2005, it was the first of its kind and has since become the model for states seeking to toughen their election laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the measure, and Indiana remains one of just two states – Georgia is the other – that refuses to count a vote without proof of a photo ID.
The proposed legislation that passed the Texas Senate last Wednesday is not as strict as Indiana's, because it allows a voter without a photo ID to present two forms of a non-photo ID, such as a utility bill or library card.
Former state Sen. Vic Heinold introduced the legislation after an Indianapolis postal worker told him that precinct workers approached him about voting more than once in the 2004 election.
"They told him how he could go about voting three times if he wanted to," said Heinold, a Republican. "So while it was hard to produce hard proof voter fraud was going on, we knew it was. And now we've put an end to it."
Critics say cries of voter fraud only served as a cover for the law's real intent – to block the votes of lower-income minority voters who are more likely to vote for Democrats.
"This is all about trying to prevent people from voting," said Dan Parker, chairman of the Indiana State Democratic Party. "There's still never been one case of voter impersonation prosecuted in Indiana. Not one."
Marjorie Hershey, a political science professor at Indiana University who has studied the law, equated it to "trying to swat a fly with a Sherman tank. There was no proven voter fraud at the polls in Indiana, so this law really was a solution to a nonexistent problem."
She said the added hurdle of a photo ID has prevented some Hoosiers from voting. She predicted a similar law in Texas could be more oppressive, because of the state's large Latino population.
"There's no question this kind of law has more of an impact in Texas," Hershey said. "The large [legal] immigrant population there would be less likely to get an ID, because they have a tougher time getting the necessary documents, speaking English and are more likely to fear the government and decide not to bother with the process."
Who's been denied?
While Indiana Democrats insist the voter ID law has resulted in widespread voter suppression, documenting those lost votes has been difficult.
Michael Pitts, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, has tried.
Indiana's law requires voters to present an ID either produced by the federal government or the state of Indiana. The ID also must have an expiration date. Voters who are registered but fail to produce an ID can cast a provisional ballot and have 10 days to produce the proper ID at the county courthouse.
Pitts conducted a study that concluded 399 voters – out of 1.8 million statewide – cast a provisional ballot in last year's primary election, and of those, only 20 percent were counted. But Pitts said there's countless more who were denied at the polls.
Last May, Sister Julie McGuire turned away about a dozen of her fellow sisters at St. Mary's Convent, because they didn't have the proper ID.
"They were really upset, and a lot of them use wheelchairs, scooters, don't drive and can't get out to get an ID," she said. "There were a few sisters who really raised a lot of ruckus about it, but that was the law."
Last November, Jan Kreuscher, 63, an attorney, worked a polling site at Butler University, where two dozen students were unable to produce the proper identification to vote.
"Most of them were really, really upset," Kreuscher said. "These students had looked forward to voting for months, and they couldn't. It was heartbreaking. ... These kids were registered, their names were in the book, they had IDs, utility bills, everything, but still couldn't vote."
Ashley Pascavis, 22, of Waukesha, Wis., was one of those students.
"I had my Wisconsin driver's license, my Butler ID, all my utility bills from the last six months and my lease for the current year, but they said that wasn't enough," she said.
Rokita, Indiana's secretary of state, said that out-of-state students unwilling to get an Indiana driver's license could have voted absentee in their home state. He said that the state informed voters of what steps they needed to take to vote, including a $1 million public awareness campaign and mass e-mails to college students.
State officials also took steps to provide free IDs. They allowed voters to cast ballots if they signed affidavits that said they were too poor to get transportation to obtain a free ID, or if their religion did not allow them to have their picture taken.
And for those who would have trouble producing the proper documentation to get an ID, Rokita said they could have voted absentee by mail without producing a photo ID.
"We have not found that 'Eureka' person who could not possible comply with the law and therefore was disenfranchised," he said. "No one can produce that person."
Overcoming the law
State Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, equates the ID law to a "poll tax that goes back to the ways of Jim Crow days." But he said President Barack Obama's November victory in Indiana – the first by a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 – is proof that the ID law can be overcome.
"When people are included, the power elite wants to change the rules," Porter said. "Our attitude is, we'll work even harder and beat you at your own game, and we did that."
State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, fought the law in 2005, but admits now it hasn't hurt people's ability to vote. In fact, it has helped areas such as her region, located close enough to Chicago to carry its "vote early and vote often" stigma.
"For a county such as mine that is always accused of voter fraud, no one can make those charges anymore," Rogers said. "It helps our image."
Bill Ruthhart is statehouse reporter at The Indianapolis Star. He can be reached at bill.ruthhart@indystar.com.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Hispanic immigrants targeted by Texas Mayor
Texas Mayor Caught in Deportation Furor
By RANDY KENNEDY, NY Times, April 4, 2009
IRVING, Tex. — Just after sunrise one morning last summer, as his two sons hurried out the door to school, Oscar Urbina might have presented a portrait of domestic stability in this Dallas suburb, a 35-year-old man with a nice home, a thriving family and a steady contracting job.
But a few weeks earlier, after buying a Dodge Ram truck at a local dealership, he had been summoned back to deal with some paperwork problems. And shortly after he arrived, so did the police, who arrested him on charges of using a false Social Security number.
Mr. Urbina does not deny it; he has been living illegally in the Dallas area since coming to the country from Mexico in 1993. But the turn of events stunned him in a once-welcoming place where people had never paid much attention to Social Security numbers.
If the arrest had come earlier, it might have had little effect on his life. But two years ago, Irving made a decision, championed by its first-term mayor, Herbert A. Gears, to conduct immigration checks on everyone booked into the local jail. So Mr. Urbina was automatically referred to the federal authorities and now faces possible deportation, becoming one of more than 4,000 illegal immigrants here who have ended up in similar circumstances.
As battles over illegal immigration rage around the country, Irving’s crackdown is not unusual in itself. What makes it striking is that it happened with the blessing of a mayor like Mr. Gears, an immigrant-friendly Democrat with deep political ties to the city’s Hispanic leaders, a man who likes to preach that adapting to immigration — especially in a city like his, now almost half-Hispanic — is not a burden but an opportunity, or as he says, it’s “not a have-to, it’s a get-to.”
But as a wave of sentiment against illegal immigration built around Dallas and the nation, Mr. Gears came to realize that his city would be unable to remain on the sidelines — and that his own political future would depend on how he navigated newly treacherous terrain.
Irving is one of a growing number of cities across America where immigration control, a federal prerogative, is reshaping politics at the other end of the spectrum, the local level, in the absence of a national policy overhaul. To watch its experiment play out over the better part of the past year in City Hall and in its residents’ lives is to see how difficult political moderation has become in the debate over what to do with the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Irving’s jail program was started by the city’s police chief as an experiment with federal immigration officials. But Mr. Gears saw in it a kind of release valve for the political pressure building around him, which had been energized by much more aggressive measures to force out illegal immigrants in Farmers Branch, a smaller suburb next door.
“I let my instincts rule the moment in that instance,” he said. “What weighed heavily in my thoughts is that if we didn’t do something, a lot more immigrants were going to be hurt.”
“And now,” Mr. Gears added ruefully, “I’m the hero of every redneck in America.”
Nationally, most of the attention in the immigration fight has centered on smaller cities that have taken a hard line on illegal immigration, like Farmers Branch and Hazleton, Pa., or on cities that have moved to protect illegal immigrants, like San Francisco and New Haven.
Irving is one of the places with a growing percentage of illegal immigrants that has tried to take — Mr. Gears’s critics say has stumbled upon — a much less explored middle road.
As a first-ring suburb whose non-Hispanic white population has slipped from the majority in the last few years, Irving describes itself as a multicultural community. Under Mr. Gears, it recently opened a hospital clinic that caters to low-income patients, many of them Hispanic, and gave $100,000 to support its fledgling Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
But even as it was doing so, its policy on immigration checks prompted the Mexican consul in Dallas to issue an unusual warning to Mexican immigrants to stay clear of Irving. And businesses both Hispanic-owned and not, including Wal-Mart, began howling to the mayor that fear was driving away Hispanic customers.
Mr. Gears, 46, is a big, gregarious, politically agile Texan who won re-election last May against an opponent whose campaign promised much tougher immigration measures. The mayor describes the rise of such sentiment around him as disturbing, a manifestation of “domestic extremism,” and he derides its adherents as “the crankies.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
By RANDY KENNEDY, NY Times, April 4, 2009
IRVING, Tex. — Just after sunrise one morning last summer, as his two sons hurried out the door to school, Oscar Urbina might have presented a portrait of domestic stability in this Dallas suburb, a 35-year-old man with a nice home, a thriving family and a steady contracting job.
But a few weeks earlier, after buying a Dodge Ram truck at a local dealership, he had been summoned back to deal with some paperwork problems. And shortly after he arrived, so did the police, who arrested him on charges of using a false Social Security number.
Mr. Urbina does not deny it; he has been living illegally in the Dallas area since coming to the country from Mexico in 1993. But the turn of events stunned him in a once-welcoming place where people had never paid much attention to Social Security numbers.
If the arrest had come earlier, it might have had little effect on his life. But two years ago, Irving made a decision, championed by its first-term mayor, Herbert A. Gears, to conduct immigration checks on everyone booked into the local jail. So Mr. Urbina was automatically referred to the federal authorities and now faces possible deportation, becoming one of more than 4,000 illegal immigrants here who have ended up in similar circumstances.
As battles over illegal immigration rage around the country, Irving’s crackdown is not unusual in itself. What makes it striking is that it happened with the blessing of a mayor like Mr. Gears, an immigrant-friendly Democrat with deep political ties to the city’s Hispanic leaders, a man who likes to preach that adapting to immigration — especially in a city like his, now almost half-Hispanic — is not a burden but an opportunity, or as he says, it’s “not a have-to, it’s a get-to.”
But as a wave of sentiment against illegal immigration built around Dallas and the nation, Mr. Gears came to realize that his city would be unable to remain on the sidelines — and that his own political future would depend on how he navigated newly treacherous terrain.
Irving is one of a growing number of cities across America where immigration control, a federal prerogative, is reshaping politics at the other end of the spectrum, the local level, in the absence of a national policy overhaul. To watch its experiment play out over the better part of the past year in City Hall and in its residents’ lives is to see how difficult political moderation has become in the debate over what to do with the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Irving’s jail program was started by the city’s police chief as an experiment with federal immigration officials. But Mr. Gears saw in it a kind of release valve for the political pressure building around him, which had been energized by much more aggressive measures to force out illegal immigrants in Farmers Branch, a smaller suburb next door.
“I let my instincts rule the moment in that instance,” he said. “What weighed heavily in my thoughts is that if we didn’t do something, a lot more immigrants were going to be hurt.”
“And now,” Mr. Gears added ruefully, “I’m the hero of every redneck in America.”
Nationally, most of the attention in the immigration fight has centered on smaller cities that have taken a hard line on illegal immigration, like Farmers Branch and Hazleton, Pa., or on cities that have moved to protect illegal immigrants, like San Francisco and New Haven.
Irving is one of the places with a growing percentage of illegal immigrants that has tried to take — Mr. Gears’s critics say has stumbled upon — a much less explored middle road.
As a first-ring suburb whose non-Hispanic white population has slipped from the majority in the last few years, Irving describes itself as a multicultural community. Under Mr. Gears, it recently opened a hospital clinic that caters to low-income patients, many of them Hispanic, and gave $100,000 to support its fledgling Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
But even as it was doing so, its policy on immigration checks prompted the Mexican consul in Dallas to issue an unusual warning to Mexican immigrants to stay clear of Irving. And businesses both Hispanic-owned and not, including Wal-Mart, began howling to the mayor that fear was driving away Hispanic customers.
Mr. Gears, 46, is a big, gregarious, politically agile Texan who won re-election last May against an opponent whose campaign promised much tougher immigration measures. The mayor describes the rise of such sentiment around him as disturbing, a manifestation of “domestic extremism,” and he derides its adherents as “the crankies.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
Hispanics targeted by NASA
NASA reaches out to Hispanics -- en espanol
By Alsy Acevedo | Sentinel Staff Writer, April 4, 2009
Before heading to space last month, Joseph Acaba — the first astronaut of Puerto Rican descent — appeared in a NASA video talking about how pursuing a good education is the best way to reach your dreams. He spoke in Spanish.
And while Acaba and the rest of shuttle Discovery's seven-person crew were aboard the international space station last month, NASA issued daily updates of their construction and spacewalking exploits — also in Spanish.
It's all part of the space agency's 4-year-old effort to reach out to Hispanics, in America and abroad.
"We have seen an increase in interest from Spanish-language media in the past few years," said Katherine Trinidad, a NASA spokeswoman in Washington. "Understandably, the interest increases when there is a Latino astronaut aboard the international space station, as when Michael Lopez-Alegria [from Spain] was commander of the station, or when there is a Latino astronaut aboard the shuttle."
NASA's first Spanish-language reports were in 2005, when Discovery was the first shuttle to launch after the loss of Columbia in 2003. The mission, and some initial indications of possible damage to Discovery's heat shield during launch, brought calls from Spanish-language news outlets.
Translated into easy Spanish
The agency asked Jose Granda, a NASA Faculty Fellow, to translate the mission's updates. The Ecuadorean engineer has been the official mission translator ever since.
"I translate so that a sixth- or seventh-grade student can understand," Granda said.
It wasn't till Discovery's most recent mission — it launched March 15 and returned March 28 — that NASA posted a link to the translations on the mission's Web site.
Granda, a mechanical-engineering professor at California State University in Sacramento, said NASA's decision to make the Spanish updates more accessible is a "gigantic step" and reflects growing interest in the space programs among Hispanics.
"In the presidential elections, we saw the important role that Hispanics play in this country," Granda said. "It's a reminder that the community does exist, and NASA wants to reach them."
Boosting interest in space
NASA's Trinidad says residents of other Spanish-speaking countries have also shown a greater interest in the space program.
Spaniards kept track of Lopez-Alegria's seven-month stay in the international space station in 2006-07, she said.
And Mexicans are expected to follow Discovery's next scheduled launch in August. It will mark the first time two Hispanic astronauts — Danny Olivas and Jose Hernandez, both of Mexican origin — will fly on the same mission.
On the other hand, some Latin American countries are relying on the Russian and Chinese space programs to advance their quest to space.
Ronnie Nader became the first Ecuadorean to complete cosmonaut training in Russia. Though he has not flown in space, he did establish Ecuador's first civilian space-research agency, known as EXA. And last year, Venezuela launched its first telecommunications satellite from China.
Granda foresees that America's rapidly growing Hispanic population will play an important role in NASA's future.
"The future astronauts and NASA scientists are among 8- and 10-year-old Hispanic kids," he said.
Alsy Acevedo can be reached at aacevedo@orlandosentinel.com or 407-540-4004.
By Alsy Acevedo | Sentinel Staff Writer, April 4, 2009
Before heading to space last month, Joseph Acaba — the first astronaut of Puerto Rican descent — appeared in a NASA video talking about how pursuing a good education is the best way to reach your dreams. He spoke in Spanish.
And while Acaba and the rest of shuttle Discovery's seven-person crew were aboard the international space station last month, NASA issued daily updates of their construction and spacewalking exploits — also in Spanish.
It's all part of the space agency's 4-year-old effort to reach out to Hispanics, in America and abroad.
"We have seen an increase in interest from Spanish-language media in the past few years," said Katherine Trinidad, a NASA spokeswoman in Washington. "Understandably, the interest increases when there is a Latino astronaut aboard the international space station, as when Michael Lopez-Alegria [from Spain] was commander of the station, or when there is a Latino astronaut aboard the shuttle."
NASA's first Spanish-language reports were in 2005, when Discovery was the first shuttle to launch after the loss of Columbia in 2003. The mission, and some initial indications of possible damage to Discovery's heat shield during launch, brought calls from Spanish-language news outlets.
Translated into easy Spanish
The agency asked Jose Granda, a NASA Faculty Fellow, to translate the mission's updates. The Ecuadorean engineer has been the official mission translator ever since.
"I translate so that a sixth- or seventh-grade student can understand," Granda said.
It wasn't till Discovery's most recent mission — it launched March 15 and returned March 28 — that NASA posted a link to the translations on the mission's Web site.
Granda, a mechanical-engineering professor at California State University in Sacramento, said NASA's decision to make the Spanish updates more accessible is a "gigantic step" and reflects growing interest in the space programs among Hispanics.
"In the presidential elections, we saw the important role that Hispanics play in this country," Granda said. "It's a reminder that the community does exist, and NASA wants to reach them."
Boosting interest in space
NASA's Trinidad says residents of other Spanish-speaking countries have also shown a greater interest in the space program.
Spaniards kept track of Lopez-Alegria's seven-month stay in the international space station in 2006-07, she said.
And Mexicans are expected to follow Discovery's next scheduled launch in August. It will mark the first time two Hispanic astronauts — Danny Olivas and Jose Hernandez, both of Mexican origin — will fly on the same mission.
On the other hand, some Latin American countries are relying on the Russian and Chinese space programs to advance their quest to space.
Ronnie Nader became the first Ecuadorean to complete cosmonaut training in Russia. Though he has not flown in space, he did establish Ecuador's first civilian space-research agency, known as EXA. And last year, Venezuela launched its first telecommunications satellite from China.
Granda foresees that America's rapidly growing Hispanic population will play an important role in NASA's future.
"The future astronauts and NASA scientists are among 8- and 10-year-old Hispanic kids," he said.
Alsy Acevedo can be reached at aacevedo@orlandosentinel.com or 407-540-4004.
Latino students inspired by club in Lake Elsinore
LAKE ELSINORE: Culture Club inspires Latino students
Lakeside High School teacher rallies teens to get involved
By JENNIFER KABBANY - The Californian | April 4, 2009
LAKE ELSINORE---- As a high school student in Fallbrook in the mid-1990s, Selene Solano said she was inspired by a teacher who always pushed her to believe in herself, give back to her community and chase her dreams.
He was so effective that Solano said she pursued a career as an educator. Now, as a Spanish teacher at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore, she is offering the same kind of encouragement to her students.
Solano, faculty adviser for the Lakeside High School Culture Club, led the students in her club on a trash pickup along the shores of Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning.
The cleanup, which netted about 100 bags of trash, filled with everything from food wrappers to dirty diapers, was part of a larger effort to instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in the students, Solano said.
"When I went to high school, I had a really great mentor," she said. "He always pushed me, and I'd like to do that for my kids ---- inspire them, and let them know anything is possible."
Students in the 3-year-old campus club engage in a variety of activities.
This year, in addition to Saturday's event, club members have entered a float in the city's "Unity in the Community" parade, organized a winter clothing drive that culled about 450 jackets and sweaters, taken part in a Relay for Life cancer walk in Canyon Lake, worked on a graffiti-removal effort, and gone out for sushi together.
Future plans for club members include hosting their third annual campus Cinco de Mayo celebration, attending a professional cultural arts event, and enrolling in a team-building camp in Anza.
"I like to expose them to that kind of stuff," Solano said.
The club consists of about 100 students, most of whom are Latino, Solano said.
Solano said she works to create accountability for the students at school. Club members must maintain a 2.0 grade-point average, and Solano said she checks on each one to make sure that they do.
Underscoring that, club members work hard on fundraising efforts to earn all of the money needed to support their projects, she said.
Making a strong connection with a teacher who serves as a role model, in conjunction with the activities the club provides, pays off by galvanizing the students to stay serious about school and building up their confidence and pride, she said.
"They can look around and say, 'I did something for myself, and I did something for my community,'" Solano said of her students.
Many of the club members often flock to Solano's classroom during lunchtime at the campus, as her efforts have made her a favorite among students, who said Saturday that she is a big inspiration.
"She encourages us to do good in school, and to give back," said sophomore Denise Diaz, 16.
David Perez, a 17-year-old sophomore, said he joined the club after all of his friends raved about Solano and the club's activities. He's glad he did, he said.
"It makes you feel good, helping out," he said.
Freshman Elizabeth Perez, 14, no relation to David, said Solano and the club have taught her that she would rather be out picking up garbage on a Saturday morning than sleeping in or watching television.
About 60 students walked three miles collecting trash and debris along the lake's shore. It was the second such effort in two years for the club, Solano said.
Elizabeth's friend, freshman Jessica Zavala, 15, said the cleanup is just one of many things the club does to better the school and city.
"It helps us; it helps the entire community," she said.
Lakeside High School teacher rallies teens to get involved
By JENNIFER KABBANY - The Californian | April 4, 2009
LAKE ELSINORE---- As a high school student in Fallbrook in the mid-1990s, Selene Solano said she was inspired by a teacher who always pushed her to believe in herself, give back to her community and chase her dreams.
He was so effective that Solano said she pursued a career as an educator. Now, as a Spanish teacher at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore, she is offering the same kind of encouragement to her students.
Solano, faculty adviser for the Lakeside High School Culture Club, led the students in her club on a trash pickup along the shores of Lake Elsinore on Saturday morning.
The cleanup, which netted about 100 bags of trash, filled with everything from food wrappers to dirty diapers, was part of a larger effort to instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in the students, Solano said.
"When I went to high school, I had a really great mentor," she said. "He always pushed me, and I'd like to do that for my kids ---- inspire them, and let them know anything is possible."
Students in the 3-year-old campus club engage in a variety of activities.
This year, in addition to Saturday's event, club members have entered a float in the city's "Unity in the Community" parade, organized a winter clothing drive that culled about 450 jackets and sweaters, taken part in a Relay for Life cancer walk in Canyon Lake, worked on a graffiti-removal effort, and gone out for sushi together.
Future plans for club members include hosting their third annual campus Cinco de Mayo celebration, attending a professional cultural arts event, and enrolling in a team-building camp in Anza.
"I like to expose them to that kind of stuff," Solano said.
The club consists of about 100 students, most of whom are Latino, Solano said.
Solano said she works to create accountability for the students at school. Club members must maintain a 2.0 grade-point average, and Solano said she checks on each one to make sure that they do.
Underscoring that, club members work hard on fundraising efforts to earn all of the money needed to support their projects, she said.
Making a strong connection with a teacher who serves as a role model, in conjunction with the activities the club provides, pays off by galvanizing the students to stay serious about school and building up their confidence and pride, she said.
"They can look around and say, 'I did something for myself, and I did something for my community,'" Solano said of her students.
Many of the club members often flock to Solano's classroom during lunchtime at the campus, as her efforts have made her a favorite among students, who said Saturday that she is a big inspiration.
"She encourages us to do good in school, and to give back," said sophomore Denise Diaz, 16.
David Perez, a 17-year-old sophomore, said he joined the club after all of his friends raved about Solano and the club's activities. He's glad he did, he said.
"It makes you feel good, helping out," he said.
Freshman Elizabeth Perez, 14, no relation to David, said Solano and the club have taught her that she would rather be out picking up garbage on a Saturday morning than sleeping in or watching television.
About 60 students walked three miles collecting trash and debris along the lake's shore. It was the second such effort in two years for the club, Solano said.
Elizabeth's friend, freshman Jessica Zavala, 15, said the cleanup is just one of many things the club does to better the school and city.
"It helps us; it helps the entire community," she said.
Latino students honored in Oakland
Hard work pays off for Latino students
By Angela Wooodall, Oakland Tribune, 04/05/2009
Some students have a habit of trying to commit their waking hours to nonacademic pursuits, such as TV and video games.
But the hundreds of top Latino students from Oakland who gathered Saturday to be honored for their academic excellence would not be among them.
The occasion for the gathering was the Latino Student Honor Roll Celebration. Each year, the Educational Coalition for Hispanics in Oakland advocacy group acknowledges Latino children and teens in the city's schools who have maintained a 3.0 grade-point average or higher — 1,545 in the 2008-09 school year.
Only those who have a 3.7 GPA or higher were on hand Saturday because, as ECHO President Jorge Lerma said, there aren't many facilities that can accommodate such a large group and their families, let alone all the other students in Oakland whose outstanding achievements deserve to be recognized.
"We're honoring the survivors," Lerma said Saturday as honorees filed into the Cathedral of Christ the Light Church near Lake Merritt.
"But we're also showing the need to transform the system," he said.
Lerma said only about 500 to 600 of the thousands who make the 3.0 GPA cut will graduate from high school. Fewer, about 125, go on to a state college or university. Nationally, Latinos have a 59 percent chance of finishing high school, based on 2003 figures from a Council on Education report. And Latino high school graduates are less likely to go to college than whites or African-Americans, according to a 2002 UC San Francisco report.
When the figures in the report are broken down into countries of origin, 18 percent of Central and South Americans, 11 percent of Puerto Ricans and 7 percent of Mexicans have a college degree, compared with 25 percent of Cuban-Americans.
Part of the problem, according to Lerma, is that "factory schools" produce badly prepared students. "The achievement gap is an instructional gap," he said.
Many Latinos, such as Jessica Andrade, a junior at Oakland's Life Academy who aspires to become a veterinarian, also face additional barriers. Like many of her peers, Andrade is of her family's first generation to finish high school or prepare for college. "It is important to do well so I can go to a college of my choice," Andrade said. But, similar to other families at Saturday's event, Andrade's parents did not finish elementary school in their native Mexico.
One of the great challenges is to be successful when they lack academic support at home, said Silvia Torres, a former Oakland Unified School District teacher.
Even without those challenges, the road is a long one. "It's something to have a teenage daughter in Oakland doing so well," said Betsy Varela, whose daughter Maya Polaris, a sixth-grade pupil at Westlake Middle School, was among the ECHO awardees.
Saturday marked the ninth year of the event that honors the best and brightest among the city's 94,200 Latinos — 25 percent of Oakland's 400,000 or so residents.
"The children are very smart. All they need is to have their intelligence nurtured," said Emma Chavez Roost, a former Oakland teacher who founded ECHO in 1986. "We do what we can," she said.
Reach Angela Woodall at 510-208-6413 or awoodall@bayareanewsgroup.com.
By Angela Wooodall, Oakland Tribune, 04/05/2009
Some students have a habit of trying to commit their waking hours to nonacademic pursuits, such as TV and video games.
But the hundreds of top Latino students from Oakland who gathered Saturday to be honored for their academic excellence would not be among them.
The occasion for the gathering was the Latino Student Honor Roll Celebration. Each year, the Educational Coalition for Hispanics in Oakland advocacy group acknowledges Latino children and teens in the city's schools who have maintained a 3.0 grade-point average or higher — 1,545 in the 2008-09 school year.
Only those who have a 3.7 GPA or higher were on hand Saturday because, as ECHO President Jorge Lerma said, there aren't many facilities that can accommodate such a large group and their families, let alone all the other students in Oakland whose outstanding achievements deserve to be recognized.
"We're honoring the survivors," Lerma said Saturday as honorees filed into the Cathedral of Christ the Light Church near Lake Merritt.
"But we're also showing the need to transform the system," he said.
Lerma said only about 500 to 600 of the thousands who make the 3.0 GPA cut will graduate from high school. Fewer, about 125, go on to a state college or university. Nationally, Latinos have a 59 percent chance of finishing high school, based on 2003 figures from a Council on Education report. And Latino high school graduates are less likely to go to college than whites or African-Americans, according to a 2002 UC San Francisco report.
When the figures in the report are broken down into countries of origin, 18 percent of Central and South Americans, 11 percent of Puerto Ricans and 7 percent of Mexicans have a college degree, compared with 25 percent of Cuban-Americans.
Part of the problem, according to Lerma, is that "factory schools" produce badly prepared students. "The achievement gap is an instructional gap," he said.
Many Latinos, such as Jessica Andrade, a junior at Oakland's Life Academy who aspires to become a veterinarian, also face additional barriers. Like many of her peers, Andrade is of her family's first generation to finish high school or prepare for college. "It is important to do well so I can go to a college of my choice," Andrade said. But, similar to other families at Saturday's event, Andrade's parents did not finish elementary school in their native Mexico.
One of the great challenges is to be successful when they lack academic support at home, said Silvia Torres, a former Oakland Unified School District teacher.
Even without those challenges, the road is a long one. "It's something to have a teenage daughter in Oakland doing so well," said Betsy Varela, whose daughter Maya Polaris, a sixth-grade pupil at Westlake Middle School, was among the ECHO awardees.
Saturday marked the ninth year of the event that honors the best and brightest among the city's 94,200 Latinos — 25 percent of Oakland's 400,000 or so residents.
"The children are very smart. All they need is to have their intelligence nurtured," said Emma Chavez Roost, a former Oakland teacher who founded ECHO in 1986. "We do what we can," she said.
Reach Angela Woodall at 510-208-6413 or awoodall@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Commission claims Latinos are undercounted in Nebraska
Are Nebraska Latinos Being Undercounted?
NEBRASKA STATE PAPER April 03, 2009
The acting director of the state Mexican-American Commission fears that Latinos in Nebraska might be undercounted because too few Spanish-speaking workers have been hired to conduct the ongoing census.
Agnel Freytez said undercounting the Latino population could cost Nebraska billions of federal dollars in the years to come.
Census figures are used to draw congressional district boundaries and in formulas that determine the allocation of billions of federal aid dollars. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
NEBRASKA STATE PAPER April 03, 2009
The acting director of the state Mexican-American Commission fears that Latinos in Nebraska might be undercounted because too few Spanish-speaking workers have been hired to conduct the ongoing census.
Agnel Freytez said undercounting the Latino population could cost Nebraska billions of federal dollars in the years to come.
Census figures are used to draw congressional district boundaries and in formulas that determine the allocation of billions of federal aid dollars. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
Latino group says immigration reform crucial for census
Immigration Reform Is Crucial to Census, Latino Groups Say
By the DiversityInc staff, April 03, 2009
Latino groups are urging the Obama administration to either pass immigration reform now or risk a failed census report in 2010, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Approximately 1 million Latinos, about 3 percent of the Latino population in the United States, were missed in the last census, taken in 2000.
Advocates are particularly concerned that recent high-profile immigration raids conducted over the last few years are driving the Latino population further underground. And while groups such as the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Univision and the League of United Latin American Citizens are mounting grassroots campaigns to educate Latinos about the importance of participating in the census, they are concerned their efforts will fail without a new approach to immigration.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee came out in opposition of any suspension of immigration enforcement for the 2010 census. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
By the DiversityInc staff, April 03, 2009
Latino groups are urging the Obama administration to either pass immigration reform now or risk a failed census report in 2010, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Approximately 1 million Latinos, about 3 percent of the Latino population in the United States, were missed in the last census, taken in 2000.
Advocates are particularly concerned that recent high-profile immigration raids conducted over the last few years are driving the Latino population further underground. And while groups such as the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Univision and the League of United Latin American Citizens are mounting grassroots campaigns to educate Latinos about the importance of participating in the census, they are concerned their efforts will fail without a new approach to immigration.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee came out in opposition of any suspension of immigration enforcement for the 2010 census. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
Diversity in eduation weak at best
The Racial Mis-education of America's Youth
John Ridley, Huffington Post
A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that enrollment in suburban schools by minority students has seen explosive growth.
The study authored by Richard Fry reports that "the student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade." Ninety-nine percent of that increase was driven solely by Latino, black and Asian students. In 1993-94 the student population of suburban schools was 28% non-white. In 2006-2007 it stood at 41.4%.
But... And there's a BIG but -- at the same time the study found that while the overall number of minority students in suburban schools rose, diversity WITHIN individual schools was stagnant.
From the survey:
In 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75% white; in 1993-94, this same figure had been 83%. So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points (from 72% in 1993-94 to 59% in 2006-07), the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much, or 8 percentage points.
Which means, although more minorities are now enjoying suburban life, part of that life still includes segregation.
This is the world in which our children are being raised. Forty-one years on from the Kerner Commission's "two societies" declaration we are traveling from "separate and unequal" to equal but separated. In a time when so many willingly accept a black man as president, it is still unlikely that they would have a black or Hispanic or Asian as a neighbor.
And we wonder why the likes of Miley Cyrus or Joe Jonas don't understand the wrongness of going around making "Chinese eyes."
That fact is while many were offended when Attorney General Eric Holder chastised us for being "a nation of cowards" when it comes to having discussions on race, when we head home at night there's rarely anyone except people like us to have these discussions with.
More than just a fact of life, diversity is an attribute of our nation. For children diversity needs to be real, and not merely relegated to learning the names of the usual suspects during Black History Month or enjoying south-of-the-border cuisine on Cinco de Mayo. It means talking to and spending time with kids not like them so that they may discover those kids are in fact just like them.
But our kids aren't the ones who pick neighborhoods or buy houses. The life is theirs, but the choice is ours.
For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com
John Ridley, Huffington Post
A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that enrollment in suburban schools by minority students has seen explosive growth.
The study authored by Richard Fry reports that "the student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade." Ninety-nine percent of that increase was driven solely by Latino, black and Asian students. In 1993-94 the student population of suburban schools was 28% non-white. In 2006-2007 it stood at 41.4%.
But... And there's a BIG but -- at the same time the study found that while the overall number of minority students in suburban schools rose, diversity WITHIN individual schools was stagnant.
From the survey:
In 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75% white; in 1993-94, this same figure had been 83%. So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points (from 72% in 1993-94 to 59% in 2006-07), the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much, or 8 percentage points.
Which means, although more minorities are now enjoying suburban life, part of that life still includes segregation.
This is the world in which our children are being raised. Forty-one years on from the Kerner Commission's "two societies" declaration we are traveling from "separate and unequal" to equal but separated. In a time when so many willingly accept a black man as president, it is still unlikely that they would have a black or Hispanic or Asian as a neighbor.
And we wonder why the likes of Miley Cyrus or Joe Jonas don't understand the wrongness of going around making "Chinese eyes."
That fact is while many were offended when Attorney General Eric Holder chastised us for being "a nation of cowards" when it comes to having discussions on race, when we head home at night there's rarely anyone except people like us to have these discussions with.
More than just a fact of life, diversity is an attribute of our nation. For children diversity needs to be real, and not merely relegated to learning the names of the usual suspects during Black History Month or enjoying south-of-the-border cuisine on Cinco de Mayo. It means talking to and spending time with kids not like them so that they may discover those kids are in fact just like them.
But our kids aren't the ones who pick neighborhoods or buy houses. The life is theirs, but the choice is ours.
For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Washington State budget could hurt Latinos and the poor
House budget proposal balanced, but cuts deep
“Short-term strategy to preserve the long-term values of our state”
PRESS RELEASE
OLYMPIA – As she released her 2009-2011 Operating Budget proposal today, House Ways and Means Chair Kelli Linville (D-Bellingham) said her committee members “rose to the challenge presented by this global recession.”
“This is not the budget we’d all hoped to offer today,” said Linville. “However it reflects the reality of the economic situation we’re in today.”
“We worked to cushion the blow to our families and businesses,” she said. “We fully-fund Apple Health for kids, protect the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens, and prioritize basic education.”
“We have a great partner in the White House,” said Rep. Mark Ericks (D- Bothell), vice-chair of Ways and Means. “The federal recovery dollars sent by President Obama allowed us to protect investments in education and health care we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Yes, they are one-time dollars, but they allowed us to buy some time for the kids in our state while our economy recovers.”
However, the House proposal makes reductions in every area of the budget.
“Nothing was totally spared,” said Linville. “We tried to be surgical about the cuts, but the sheer size of the hole forced us to make very tough decisions.”
Total hard cuts to the budget amount to about $4.0 billion, and among them are:
· Health and human services $1.5 billion
· K-12 education $1 billion
· Higher education $683 million
· Natural resources $107 million
· Other government $135 million
· Pensions $432 million
“I want to stress that these cuts, as painful as they are, would have been much, much deeper if not for the federal economic recovery package,” Linville said. “This is a short-term strategy to protect the long-term values of our state.”
Joining Linville and Ericks at the budget rollout were the chairs of the three House Appropriations Committees, who were key in developing large sections of the proposal.
Key education priorities in the budget include protecting ECEAP slots for young children, keeping as many teachers in the classrooms as we can, and providing flexibility to colleges and universities so they can continue serving as many students as possible.
“We’ve invested so much in our education system – training our teachers, building an incredible college system, putting more children into quality early learning programs, and more,” said Rep. Kathy Haigh (D-Shelton), chair of the House Education Appropriations Committee. “For me, the most critical investments are those that affect our students directly. Those are the investments we tried to protect.”
By distributing cuts equally, the Health & Human Services budget includes protection for our most vulnerable populations. This includes reducing, but not eliminating, the General Assistance – Unemployable (GA-U) program and the Basic Health Plan.
“We’ve undergone an extremely difficult task, and none of us are completely satisfied with the results,” said Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle), chair of the House Health & Human Services Appropriations Committee. “We’ve done the best we can with what we have, without neglecting our low-income, youth, elderly, People with disabilities, and additional at-risk populations.”
The House General Government Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-Tacoma), scrubbed the budgets of more than 80 state agencies to find budget cuts that are proposed in the House Budget.
“We put in countless hours to locate budget savings that preserve as many front-line services as possible, protect struggling families, and that continue key investments to promote good jobs and economic development,” Darneille said. “We’ve made a good start, but we need to keep working to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of every dollar spent.”
Linville plans to spend the next two years assessing the systems that deliver our most important services and look for more ways to modernize and streamline.
“Nobody knows for sure when the economy will turn around,” she said, “but we are looking ahead two years, four years, even six years down the road. My goal is to develop a long-term plan for delivery of quality, sustainable services.”
“Short-term strategy to preserve the long-term values of our state”
PRESS RELEASE
OLYMPIA – As she released her 2009-2011 Operating Budget proposal today, House Ways and Means Chair Kelli Linville (D-Bellingham) said her committee members “rose to the challenge presented by this global recession.”
“This is not the budget we’d all hoped to offer today,” said Linville. “However it reflects the reality of the economic situation we’re in today.”
“We worked to cushion the blow to our families and businesses,” she said. “We fully-fund Apple Health for kids, protect the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens, and prioritize basic education.”
“We have a great partner in the White House,” said Rep. Mark Ericks (D- Bothell), vice-chair of Ways and Means. “The federal recovery dollars sent by President Obama allowed us to protect investments in education and health care we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Yes, they are one-time dollars, but they allowed us to buy some time for the kids in our state while our economy recovers.”
However, the House proposal makes reductions in every area of the budget.
“Nothing was totally spared,” said Linville. “We tried to be surgical about the cuts, but the sheer size of the hole forced us to make very tough decisions.”
Total hard cuts to the budget amount to about $4.0 billion, and among them are:
· Health and human services $1.5 billion
· K-12 education $1 billion
· Higher education $683 million
· Natural resources $107 million
· Other government $135 million
· Pensions $432 million
“I want to stress that these cuts, as painful as they are, would have been much, much deeper if not for the federal economic recovery package,” Linville said. “This is a short-term strategy to protect the long-term values of our state.”
Joining Linville and Ericks at the budget rollout were the chairs of the three House Appropriations Committees, who were key in developing large sections of the proposal.
Key education priorities in the budget include protecting ECEAP slots for young children, keeping as many teachers in the classrooms as we can, and providing flexibility to colleges and universities so they can continue serving as many students as possible.
“We’ve invested so much in our education system – training our teachers, building an incredible college system, putting more children into quality early learning programs, and more,” said Rep. Kathy Haigh (D-Shelton), chair of the House Education Appropriations Committee. “For me, the most critical investments are those that affect our students directly. Those are the investments we tried to protect.”
By distributing cuts equally, the Health & Human Services budget includes protection for our most vulnerable populations. This includes reducing, but not eliminating, the General Assistance – Unemployable (GA-U) program and the Basic Health Plan.
“We’ve undergone an extremely difficult task, and none of us are completely satisfied with the results,” said Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle), chair of the House Health & Human Services Appropriations Committee. “We’ve done the best we can with what we have, without neglecting our low-income, youth, elderly, People with disabilities, and additional at-risk populations.”
The House General Government Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-Tacoma), scrubbed the budgets of more than 80 state agencies to find budget cuts that are proposed in the House Budget.
“We put in countless hours to locate budget savings that preserve as many front-line services as possible, protect struggling families, and that continue key investments to promote good jobs and economic development,” Darneille said. “We’ve made a good start, but we need to keep working to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of every dollar spent.”
Linville plans to spend the next two years assessing the systems that deliver our most important services and look for more ways to modernize and streamline.
“Nobody knows for sure when the economy will turn around,” she said, “but we are looking ahead two years, four years, even six years down the road. My goal is to develop a long-term plan for delivery of quality, sustainable services.”
Local Hispanic immigration triggers hearing
Alarming Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement Trigger Congressional Hearing
PRESS RELEASE April 1, 2009
Washington, DC - Tomorrow, two House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittees will be holding a joint hearing on the 287(g) program at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Building, Room 2141. The following is a statement by Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) in Washington, DC.
"The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) applauds Chairman Conyers, Chairwoman Lofgren, and Chairman Nadler for bringing desperately needed attention to the problematic and controversial 287(g) program.
The 287(g) program - in which local law enforcement establishes a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows them to enforce immigration laws locally - has grown over the last several years. Yet, as recent reports by Justice Strategies and the University of North Carolina and the ACLU point out, a growing array of alleged civil rights infractions and incidences of racial profiling have come with the program's expansion.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) took a look at the program and found that ICE provides little guidance and oversight of the program, and inconsistently articulates the objectives of the 287(g) program and the authority it grants to local law enforcement. While the 287(g) program is intended to target violent criminals and threats to the community, police have allegedly engaged in racial profiling and used their authority to arrest immigrants with no criminal records - clogging local jails and taking resources away from finding dangerous criminals. Meanwhile, trust between the police and communities is eroding, and in several cases, U.S. citizens have been detained - and even deported.
Americans need police to protect communities not check papers. Rather than loading local police with federal responsibilities, Washington needs to enact immigration reform that secures our borders, legalizes undocumented workers, and re-establishes a coordinated intergovernmental immigration strategy so that local law enforcement can focus its attention on real criminals rather than economic migrants. State governments have spent the past few years jerry-rigging the immigration system locally - the time has come for leaders in Washington to address the problems with our immigration system fairly and comprehensively."
PRESS RELEASE April 1, 2009
Washington, DC - Tomorrow, two House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittees will be holding a joint hearing on the 287(g) program at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Building, Room 2141. The following is a statement by Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) in Washington, DC.
"The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) applauds Chairman Conyers, Chairwoman Lofgren, and Chairman Nadler for bringing desperately needed attention to the problematic and controversial 287(g) program.
The 287(g) program - in which local law enforcement establishes a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows them to enforce immigration laws locally - has grown over the last several years. Yet, as recent reports by Justice Strategies and the University of North Carolina and the ACLU point out, a growing array of alleged civil rights infractions and incidences of racial profiling have come with the program's expansion.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) took a look at the program and found that ICE provides little guidance and oversight of the program, and inconsistently articulates the objectives of the 287(g) program and the authority it grants to local law enforcement. While the 287(g) program is intended to target violent criminals and threats to the community, police have allegedly engaged in racial profiling and used their authority to arrest immigrants with no criminal records - clogging local jails and taking resources away from finding dangerous criminals. Meanwhile, trust between the police and communities is eroding, and in several cases, U.S. citizens have been detained - and even deported.
Americans need police to protect communities not check papers. Rather than loading local police with federal responsibilities, Washington needs to enact immigration reform that secures our borders, legalizes undocumented workers, and re-establishes a coordinated intergovernmental immigration strategy so that local law enforcement can focus its attention on real criminals rather than economic migrants. State governments have spent the past few years jerry-rigging the immigration system locally - the time has come for leaders in Washington to address the problems with our immigration system fairly and comprehensively."
National Hispanic organization goes through change
NCLR ANNOUNCES KEY EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC—The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today announced the hiring of Dr. Maria E. Rosa as the new Vice President of NCLR’s Institute for Hispanic Health. NCLR also announced the promotion of Eric Rodriguez to Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation (ORAL).
Dr. Rosa joins NCLR from the Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico, where she was dean and professor at the School of Health Sciences. She developed the first doctoral program for Naturopathic Medicine in Latin America and she is an expert in nutrition, mental health, and substance abuse. Dr. Rosa completed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program in 2003, and she earned her Dr.P.H. from Loma Linda University and her Ph.D. in nursing from UCLA. She also completed post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.
“Maria Rosa’s experience in public health will ensure that NCLR strengthens its capacity to design, test, and demonstrate community-based health interventions that improve Hispanics’ access to quality health services,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “Given her unique combination of academic training, substantive expertise, and career-long commitment to reducing health disparities experienced by Latinos, Dr. Rosa is the right person to raise our health program work to the next level.”
Eric Rodriguez began his career at NCLR 15 years ago as a Research Assistant in the Poverty Project. Since then, he has served in positions of increasing responsibility, including Director of NCLR’s Policy Analysis Center and Deputy Vice President of ORAL. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Siena College in New York and an M.P.A. from American University.
“Eric’s knowledge of the issues facing the Latino community is unmatched, and for more than a decade he has been at the forefront of all the major policies that NCLR has advanced,” said Murguía. “I am confident that, under his leadership, NCLR will continue its long history as a significant force in shaping public policy, especially at a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities.”
“We are fortunate to have these individuals as part of our leadership team who, in addition to their qualifications and capabilities, demonstrate a strong commitment to NCLR’s mission,” concluded Murguía.
For more information about NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org.
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC—The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today announced the hiring of Dr. Maria E. Rosa as the new Vice President of NCLR’s Institute for Hispanic Health. NCLR also announced the promotion of Eric Rodriguez to Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation (ORAL).
Dr. Rosa joins NCLR from the Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico, where she was dean and professor at the School of Health Sciences. She developed the first doctoral program for Naturopathic Medicine in Latin America and she is an expert in nutrition, mental health, and substance abuse. Dr. Rosa completed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program in 2003, and she earned her Dr.P.H. from Loma Linda University and her Ph.D. in nursing from UCLA. She also completed post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.
“Maria Rosa’s experience in public health will ensure that NCLR strengthens its capacity to design, test, and demonstrate community-based health interventions that improve Hispanics’ access to quality health services,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “Given her unique combination of academic training, substantive expertise, and career-long commitment to reducing health disparities experienced by Latinos, Dr. Rosa is the right person to raise our health program work to the next level.”
Eric Rodriguez began his career at NCLR 15 years ago as a Research Assistant in the Poverty Project. Since then, he has served in positions of increasing responsibility, including Director of NCLR’s Policy Analysis Center and Deputy Vice President of ORAL. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Siena College in New York and an M.P.A. from American University.
“Eric’s knowledge of the issues facing the Latino community is unmatched, and for more than a decade he has been at the forefront of all the major policies that NCLR has advanced,” said Murguía. “I am confident that, under his leadership, NCLR will continue its long history as a significant force in shaping public policy, especially at a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities.”
“We are fortunate to have these individuals as part of our leadership team who, in addition to their qualifications and capabilities, demonstrate a strong commitment to NCLR’s mission,” concluded Murguía.
For more information about NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org.
Homeland Security Director lays out plan to curb Hispanic immigration
Napolitano outlines plan for border infrastructure
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Apr. 1, 2009
SAN DIEGO -- Federal authorities plan to spend more than $400 million to upgrade ports of entry and surveillance technologies along the U.S-Mexico border.
Homeland Security Janet Napolitano outlined the spending plan Wednesday in San Diego as part of the federal economic stimulus package.
The government will spend $269 million to upgrade ports, including San Diego's Otay Mesa - a busy crossing for trucks - Antelope Wells, N.M., and Nogales, Ariz.
The plan calls for $42 million for high-tech inspection equipment and $50 million for a high-tech surveillance systems along Arizona's border with Mexico.
Napolitano heads to Mexico City Thursday and Laredo, Texas, on Friday.
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Apr. 1, 2009
SAN DIEGO -- Federal authorities plan to spend more than $400 million to upgrade ports of entry and surveillance technologies along the U.S-Mexico border.
Homeland Security Janet Napolitano outlined the spending plan Wednesday in San Diego as part of the federal economic stimulus package.
The government will spend $269 million to upgrade ports, including San Diego's Otay Mesa - a busy crossing for trucks - Antelope Wells, N.M., and Nogales, Ariz.
The plan calls for $42 million for high-tech inspection equipment and $50 million for a high-tech surveillance systems along Arizona's border with Mexico.
Napolitano heads to Mexico City Thursday and Laredo, Texas, on Friday.
Hispanic student drop out rate too high in Virginia
Nearly 9% of Class of '08 Dropped Out in Virginia
Armed With Precise Data, Educators Vow Action
WASHINGTON POST
Nearly 9 percent of Virginia public school students in the Class of 2008 dropped out during their high school years, most showing warning signs such as missing class frequently and repeating grades before giving up on school, state education officials said yesterday.
In Northern Virginia, Alexandria had the highest dropout rate, with 11.1 percent. Loudoun County had one of the lowest, 3.3 percent. The rate was 5.6 percent in Fairfax County. Statewide, Hispanic students were among the most likely to fail to graduate, with nearly 20 percent dropping out.
The Virginia Department of Education data, which offer the most detailed picture of the state's dropout problem to date, will allow schools to help those students who are most at risk. Previously, state officials had estimated the dropout rate.
Virginia is among a few states that have begun counting dropouts by assigning all students an identifying number and tracking their progress from the start of freshman year to graduation day.
States have only recently begun to develop the capacity to track each student over the course of a school career, a task that is especially difficult in areas where many students move between schools or to schools in different states. Others shift between private and public school.
Although Virginia officials said they are unhappy with the number of dropouts and will work to fix the problem, the state stacks up well against others that use similar calculations. In Massachusetts, where schools are highly regarded, the dropout rate for the Class of 2008 was 9.9 percent. It was 16 percent in Mississippi for the same class, and 15 percent in Michigan for the Class of 2007.
Maryland does not calculate an equivalent four-year dropout rate, but education officials estimate that 3.4 percent of high school students dropped out in the 2007-08 school year. D.C. school officials did not immediately respond to requests for information about dropouts.
Growing concern about thousands of students nationwide who fail to earn a high school diploma has prompted educators and policymakers to seek -- and even mandate -- a more precise accounting of how many students graduate in four years. States calculate graduation rates in different ways, prompting criticism that the dropout problem is understated.
Education advocates said Virginia's new accounting reveals important warning signs about students who are not on a path to graduation. Nearly 60 percent of Virginia dropouts repeated at least one grade in high school. More than 40 percent were freshmen or 10th-graders who were at least age 17. Dropouts were more likely to miss days of school, and many were students learning English as a second language.
"With data, you can make good decisions. It will help everyone, from the teacher and the principal in the classroom to the Virginia state legislators," said former West Virginia governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a group seeking to improve high schools. "This is the difference between doing voodoo prayer and doing brain surgery."
Former education secretary Margaret Spellings used her regulation authority to require that by 2011, all states use the same formula to calculate graduation rates. The Obama administration included $250 million in the stimulus package to help states develop better data systems that will support such tracking.
For the Virginia report, the state Education Department tracked 96,152 students who entered as freshmen in fall 2004. About 82 percent earned diplomas in the traditional four years. Students who graduated with a GED, those still in school and those on long-term medical leave were counted neither as dropouts nor as on-time graduates.
In Alexandria, where more than 11 percent dropped out, Superintendent Morton Sherman said he will use the data to focus prevention programs. "While we know that certain factors such as poverty or limited English proficiency are considered risk factors for dropping out, we are not making excuses," he said.
Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright called for school leaders to place a "laserlike focus" on students who are at risk of dropping out. But she steered clear of prescribing solutions, saying that individual school systems would know what is the best way to help struggling students.
Armed With Precise Data, Educators Vow Action
WASHINGTON POST
Nearly 9 percent of Virginia public school students in the Class of 2008 dropped out during their high school years, most showing warning signs such as missing class frequently and repeating grades before giving up on school, state education officials said yesterday.
In Northern Virginia, Alexandria had the highest dropout rate, with 11.1 percent. Loudoun County had one of the lowest, 3.3 percent. The rate was 5.6 percent in Fairfax County. Statewide, Hispanic students were among the most likely to fail to graduate, with nearly 20 percent dropping out.
The Virginia Department of Education data, which offer the most detailed picture of the state's dropout problem to date, will allow schools to help those students who are most at risk. Previously, state officials had estimated the dropout rate.
Virginia is among a few states that have begun counting dropouts by assigning all students an identifying number and tracking their progress from the start of freshman year to graduation day.
States have only recently begun to develop the capacity to track each student over the course of a school career, a task that is especially difficult in areas where many students move between schools or to schools in different states. Others shift between private and public school.
Although Virginia officials said they are unhappy with the number of dropouts and will work to fix the problem, the state stacks up well against others that use similar calculations. In Massachusetts, where schools are highly regarded, the dropout rate for the Class of 2008 was 9.9 percent. It was 16 percent in Mississippi for the same class, and 15 percent in Michigan for the Class of 2007.
Maryland does not calculate an equivalent four-year dropout rate, but education officials estimate that 3.4 percent of high school students dropped out in the 2007-08 school year. D.C. school officials did not immediately respond to requests for information about dropouts.
Growing concern about thousands of students nationwide who fail to earn a high school diploma has prompted educators and policymakers to seek -- and even mandate -- a more precise accounting of how many students graduate in four years. States calculate graduation rates in different ways, prompting criticism that the dropout problem is understated.
Education advocates said Virginia's new accounting reveals important warning signs about students who are not on a path to graduation. Nearly 60 percent of Virginia dropouts repeated at least one grade in high school. More than 40 percent were freshmen or 10th-graders who were at least age 17. Dropouts were more likely to miss days of school, and many were students learning English as a second language.
"With data, you can make good decisions. It will help everyone, from the teacher and the principal in the classroom to the Virginia state legislators," said former West Virginia governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a group seeking to improve high schools. "This is the difference between doing voodoo prayer and doing brain surgery."
Former education secretary Margaret Spellings used her regulation authority to require that by 2011, all states use the same formula to calculate graduation rates. The Obama administration included $250 million in the stimulus package to help states develop better data systems that will support such tracking.
For the Virginia report, the state Education Department tracked 96,152 students who entered as freshmen in fall 2004. About 82 percent earned diplomas in the traditional four years. Students who graduated with a GED, those still in school and those on long-term medical leave were counted neither as dropouts nor as on-time graduates.
In Alexandria, where more than 11 percent dropped out, Superintendent Morton Sherman said he will use the data to focus prevention programs. "While we know that certain factors such as poverty or limited English proficiency are considered risk factors for dropping out, we are not making excuses," he said.
Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright called for school leaders to place a "laserlike focus" on students who are at risk of dropping out. But she steered clear of prescribing solutions, saying that individual school systems would know what is the best way to help struggling students.
Suburban public schools see Hispanic, minority increase
Sharp Growth in Suburban Minority Enrollment Yields Modest Gains in School Diversity
PRESS RELEASE
The student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade and a half, and virtually all of this increase (99%) has been due to the enrollment of new Latino, black, and Asian students, according to an analysis of the most recent public school data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Once a largely white enclave, suburban school districts in 2007 educated a student population that was 41.4% non-white, up from 28% in 1993.
Despite the sharp rise in the racial and ethnic diversity of suburban district enrollments overall, there has been only a modest increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of student populations at the level of the individual suburban school. For example, in 2007, the typical white suburban student attended a school which had a 75% white student body; in 1993, this same figure had been 83%.
When it comes to changes in the geographic locus of minority education, the suburbs are where most of the action has been over the past decade and a half. In 1993 city school districts educated a majority of the nation's minority students. That is no longer the case. The movement of minority students into suburban schools has had the overall effect of slightly reducing levels of ethnic and racial segregation throughout the nation's 93,430 public schools.
The report also examines the changes since 1993 in individual suburban school districts. It lists the suburban school districts that have had the fastest growth in minority enrollment, as well as those with the highest levels of racial/ethnic segregation.
The report, "The Rapid Growth and Changing Complexion of Suburban Public Schools," authored by Richard Fry, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
PRESS RELEASE
The student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade and a half, and virtually all of this increase (99%) has been due to the enrollment of new Latino, black, and Asian students, according to an analysis of the most recent public school data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Once a largely white enclave, suburban school districts in 2007 educated a student population that was 41.4% non-white, up from 28% in 1993.
Despite the sharp rise in the racial and ethnic diversity of suburban district enrollments overall, there has been only a modest increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of student populations at the level of the individual suburban school. For example, in 2007, the typical white suburban student attended a school which had a 75% white student body; in 1993, this same figure had been 83%.
When it comes to changes in the geographic locus of minority education, the suburbs are where most of the action has been over the past decade and a half. In 1993 city school districts educated a majority of the nation's minority students. That is no longer the case. The movement of minority students into suburban schools has had the overall effect of slightly reducing levels of ethnic and racial segregation throughout the nation's 93,430 public schools.
The report also examines the changes since 1993 in individual suburban school districts. It lists the suburban school districts that have had the fastest growth in minority enrollment, as well as those with the highest levels of racial/ethnic segregation.
The report, "The Rapid Growth and Changing Complexion of Suburban Public Schools," authored by Richard Fry, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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