DO NOT READ THIS FROM MEXICO AND MEXIDATA…it might be racist if you do

See here for info on “non-traditional mortgages” at United Americas Bank – Sam Zamarripa founding partner..and MALDEF board member…and former Georgia state Seantor…and tireless foe of the Georgia security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529)

BONUS! Video: SB 529 (enforcement) works here.
Mortgages to Illegal Immigrants Come Under Fire

Immigrants have become key to fueling growth in the Chicago area housing market in recent years.

According to a report given to the governor last year, immigrants made up more than 80 percent of new homeowners in suburban Cook County from 2000 to 2005.

But the maelstrom over immigration policy has slowed down one part of that market.

Banks that had begun to make mortgages to undocumented immigrants in recent years have now gotten skittish, and would-be borrowers are also hesitant.

And at least one lawmaker in Washington wants to close the door on the practice completely.

As part of our ongoing series Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders, Chicago Public Radio’s Ashley Gross brings us the story of one undocumented immigrant who recently bought a home in Berwyn.

A note to listeners, the homebuyer agreed to be interviewed only on the condition that his and his family’s names be changed.

**

Nine-year-old Pablo Lopez tears down the stairs to his new basement.

Ambi: Sound of running down the stairs

The couch and floor are strewn with tiny plastic dinosaurs and a Mr. Potatohead toy.

PABLO: It’s kind of messy. We were playing right here.

The Lopez family moved into this two-story brick home in April. Up until now, Manuel Lopez has always rented an apartment for himself and his family. Pablo says this is a big improvement.

PABLO: Cause you can do whatever you want.

MANUEL: Otherwise sometimes too much noise, running till midnight, and people downstairs complaining that they want to sleep, so I was always telling them hey, quiet, don’t run at that time, so small things that makes the life easier.

Manuel Lopez came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 1999 after his bus-driving business in Ecuador failed due to runaway inflation. He stayed here illegally and eventually brought over his wife and son and had another daughter here. He makes about 40-thousand dollars a year working for a downtown Chicago parking garage. Two years ago, he started looking to buy a house but the interest rates his broker quoted him were 8 to 9 percent. Then he heard about a program with much better terms run by Citibank and the non-profit group Acorn Housing.

MANUEL: So I went there and it was possible, just I had to show papers that I’ve been good in my payments. If I had some line of credit. It wasn’t hard for me.

He bought the house for 230-thousand dollars with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage set at 6 percent. The program required that he pay three percent down. Lopez is just one of about 900 undocumented immigrants who have gotten mortgages from the Citibank Acorn program nationwide in the past few years. And they’re by no means the only ones in the business.

Ambi: Sound of calculator

At Second Federal Savings and Loan in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, tellers count out bills in Spanish to their predominantly Latino customer base.

Ambi: Sound of teller counting in Spanish

This savings and loan got its start serving Eastern Europeans but had to adapt – or die – once the neighborhood changed. Mark Doyle is president and CEO of Second Federal. His bank became one of the first to pioneer the practice of making mortgages to undocumented immigrants several years ago.

DOYLE: Loan applications were astounding. I mean, we had 40 million dollars in the pipeline in one four-week period of time. And we did those loans for a good period of 8, 10 months and then we cut it off. We curtailed that activity because we couldn’t handle the volume.

But the bank was soon able to get back into it. What made this whole market possible is that back in 1996 the IRS started offering illegal immigrants a way to pay taxes. The IRS created something called individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs. People without social security numbers who earn money in the U.S. are still obligated to get ITINs and pay tax – whether or not they’re here legally. More than 10 million people have gotten ITINs since the system was created. And now they’re able to show those tax returns to banks as proof of income in order to get mortgages. Still, Doyle says most ITIN holders lack a regular credit history. So Second Federal had to get creative in assessing credit worthiness.

DOYLE: We have to go to local churches to find out if they’re a member of that parish, are they paying weekly. If they’ve borrowed money from an uncle to buy a pickup truck, there’s a paper trail behind that, so we look for the check, we take a look at the title, we make sure they paid him back. If they’re a tenant, you know, we look for receipts, proof they’ve been rent to their landlords. The underwriting on an ITIN loan typically takes at least 6 hours.

And that’s three times as long as a regular loan. He says it’s worth it because the ITIN loans have performed well. But lately, volume has dropped to as few as six applications a month versus 40 a few years ago. Doyle says one reason is competition from other banks. Another is the political climate. The government plans to send so-called no-match letters to employers warning them that they face penalties if their workers are illegal. That could trip up people with ITINs who use fake social security numbers to work. A judge has temporarily blocked the letters, but Doyle says potential borrowers are intimidated.

DOYLE: They’re afraid. If an employer now has to go to their people and say he has five people who don’t have a valid social security number and tell them if you don’t give me a valid social security number in 90 days, I’m going to have to fire you, if enough of that happens. People have two choices – they can go back to Mexico or they’re going to go underground.

And Mari Gallagher, a Chicago-based consultant who’s researched the ITIN mortgage market, says banks are also thinking twice.

GALLAGHER: The big players have other issues right now in the mortgage industry, so they’re not going to be spending their time figuring out the ITIN mortgage. So I think it’s the small banks who will keep pushing the envelope, and then if it looks like it’s a safe area again, banks as other markets dry up might revisit it, but I think with the political current right now, banks are wary.

And they have good reason to be.

Ambi: Sound of newspaper rustling

CHEREE CALABRO: This is about the first home loan, and this is a picture from the coverage of us protesting at the bank in Hammond, this was our first protest.

That’s Cheree Calabro. She heads a group called Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement. She’s pulled out a folder of newspaper clippings documenting her group’s 7-month protest of Bank Calumet after the bank made its first mortgage to an undocumented immigrant. They handed out flyers to bank customers saying the practice is illegal. Calabro says the bank wasn’t happy.

CALABRO: They got pretty upset with us. They didn’t want us to step on their property, so what I did is I bought one of those extendo-rods, it’s for reaching objects on high shelves, and I would put the flyer in it so I could reach across their property and hand it to the people as they sat in the drive-thru.

In other words, pretty much a bank’s worst nightmare. Calabro says they persuaded some people to close their accounts – including one person she says withdrew 100-thousand dollars. When First Midwest Bancorp bought Bank Calumet in spring of 2006, they stopped making ITIN mortgages. Calabro says that’s what she’d like to see happen all across the country.

CALABRO: I mean you shouldn’t be rewarded for your illegal activity, neither the banks nor the illegal aliens should be rewarded for their crimes.

Calabro points to a section of the immigration code that says it’s a crime to aid or abet illegal immigrants for financial gain. But a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says ITIN mortgage lending is legal. Congressman John Doolittle – a Republican from California – introduced a bill earlier this year to make the practice illegal, but it didn’t get to the floor for a vote. Mark Doyle of Second Federal says homeownership should be encouraged – regardless of immigration status.

DOYLE: People are more responsible for their neighborhoods. They’re more attentive to their schools and churches and they take care of their homes.

Back in Berwyn, Manuel Lopez has been landscaping his backyard. He’s painted his front railings and put new windows in his basement. He says that when he applied for his mortgage, he worried someone might discover his illegal status and deport him. But he says he decided it was more important to pursue opportunities for his family.

LOPEZ: It cannot stop you in the way that you don’t give one step forward. If we start to live in that way, maybe we’re going to be afraid of everything.

And ultimately that fear would undermine the security he’s strived to build for himself and his family by buying this house in Berwyn in the first place. I’m Ashley Gross, Chicago Public Radio.

The executive producer of Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders is Sally Eisele and the series is produced by Alexandra Salomon. Alison Cuddy is the Project Coordinator.

Chicago Matters is an annual public information series made possible by The Chicago Community Trust, with programming by Chicago Public Radio, WTTW 11, the Chicago Public Library, and The Chicago Reporter.

Visit www.chicagomatters.org for more information.

http://chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Read.aspx?storyID=14015

It is now more than six years since 9/11…feel safer?

Most fake bombs missed by screeners
75% not detected at LAX; 60% at O’Hare
By Thomas Frank
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation’s busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco.

The report looks only at those three airports, using them as case studies to understand how well the rest of the U.S. screening system is working to stop terrorists from carrying bombs through checkpoints.

The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago stunned security experts.

“That’s a huge cause for concern,” said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department’s former inspector general. Screeners’ inability to find bombs could encourage terrorists to try to bring them on airplanes, Ervin said, and points to the need for more screener training and more powerful checkpoint scanning machines.

In the past year, the TSA has adopted a more aggressive approach in its attempt to keep screeners attentive — the agency runs covert tests every day at every U.S. airport, TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said. Screeners who miss detonators, timers, batteries and blocks that resemble plastic explosives get remedial training

….more here

A lawn company in Nebraska has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants and manipulating their pay so that it didn’t have to report them. How criminal employers juggle the books…some insight and the entire news story here.

Part of the story below

AP
Owner Pleads Guilty in Immigration Bust
Wednesday October 17, 1:42 pm ET
By Oskar Garcia, Associated Press Writer
Lawn Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Harboring Illegal Immigrants

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island lawn care company owner has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants and manipulating financial transactions to avoid reporting them.
David Wortman turned himself in for arrest last month, one day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Cloudburst Lawn and Sprinkler and arrested 19 suspected illegal immigrants.

The criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Nebraska accused Wortman of knowingly hiring the illegal workers and paying them in cash to work for Cloudburst Lawn and Sprinkler.

Wortman admitted Monday to hiring 26 workers without checking their identification or getting any proof they were eligible to work in the United States.

Seven of the workers were arrested in May after a traffic stop of a Cloudburst van, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said Wednesday.

Warrior against illegals lives, breathes the issue-Cobb man quit job to become full-time activist
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, www.ajc.com
Written by Carlos Campos
Posted on 2006-03-27

Monday, March 27, 2006

Whether on the streets or in the halls of the Georgia Capitol, fighting illegal immigration is a way of life for D.A. King.

The 53-year-old Cobb County man quit his job selling medical insurance three years ago to become a self-educated activist against illegal immigration. Dismissed as a fringe figure by critics, King has forced his way into an influential role in this year’s debate over a legislative crackdown on illegals.

King’s style is straightforward, even confrontational. At a rally in 2004 at which illegal immigrants protested in favor of being issued driver’s licenses, King — a 6-foot-2, 220-pound Marine Corps veteran — waded through the crowd holding up his own license, taunting demonstrators.

“You are criminals!” King shouted. “You cannot have my country!”

Critics say King uses angry rhetoric to stir up passions. One legislator asked King in a public meeting if he considered himself a supremacist.

But King’s allies see him as a smart, articulate and tireless warrior for their cause.

“D.A. probably knows more about this issue than any person in the Southeast,” said Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), sponsor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which is nearing final passage in the Legislature. “He’s been a very helpful information source. And I’ve never had anything he’s given me turn out not to be true.”

King said he was drawn into the debate when a Mexican family moved across the street from his home in 1997. King said eventually, up to 20 people were living in the home and multiple cars and loud parties became commonplace. King called federal immigration authorities. He was shocked that federal officials ignored his complaints.

Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta), who has been criticized by King for supporting illegal immigrants, said he understands the frustration many Americans feel toward the issue.

“Ultimately, they’re discussing economics, costs, taxes, policy related to immigration,” Zamarripa said. “But that’s not what D.A. King discusses. D.A. King has a language system that bumps up against hostility, anger, and that’s a very dangerous way to approach a discussion that’s loaded with sensitivities.”

King has spent much of this year working in Capitol hallways and committee rooms advising Rogers on his proposal, Senate Bill 529. King also testified several times on the bill, which would deny many public benefits to illegal immigrants and require employers to verify that their workers are in the country legally if they want to claim them as a business tax deduction.

When King testified before the Senate Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Steen Miles (D-Decatur) asked if he considered himself a supremacist. King told Miles he simply wants the federal government to enforce its immigration laws.

“I don’t know the gentleman,” Miles said in an interview later. “But the information that I have read from his Web site … tends to point in that direction.”

King believes the federal government should secure its borders to make sure no one crosses into this country illegally. He believes federal authorities should conduct periodic raids of businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Those businesses should be punished, and the illegal immigrants should be deported in accordance with existing laws, he says.

Over time, King reasons, businesses will stop hiring illegal immigrants and the workers will realize there are no jobs in the United States.

King said he realizes there would be a dramatic impact on the economy if all illegal immigrants were deported immediately, so he advocates a slow deportation. He believes American companies would adjust and start paying competitive wages and hiring legal residents, even if it means increased costs.

Last year, King founded an anti-immigration group called the Dustin Inman Society, named for the 16-year-old son of a friend killed in a hit-and-run car crash involving an illegal immigrant.

“I commend him greatly,” said Billy Inman of Woodstock, Dustin’s father. “The problem overwhelmed him and really bothered him. He don’t want to see no other kids done this way. Or nobody. ‘Cause it’s not right.”

King writes regular columns posted on Web sites and published in the Marietta Daily Journal. King often writes about the fear of “Georgiafornia,” a takeoff of the anti-illegal immigration name for California, “Mexifornia.” After attending a rally in support of illegal immigrants, he wrote in one column, “My first act on a safe return home was to take a shower.”

King is a regular contributor to VDARE.com. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, has dubbed VDARE.com a “hate Web site,” and noted King’s activities in a report on anti-immigrant activity in Georgia.

In response, King said the center “ran out of … nutball Klanners to go after” but needed to keep donations flowing, so its founder “turned his head towards people who insist that our immigration laws be enforced and that our borders be secured.” King noted the center has been criticized by other human rights advocates for questionable fund-raising tactics.

Zamarripa said he believes King is a shadowy “agent.” A September report, put together by several organizations including the Zamarripa-chaired Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, details associations between King and groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Center for Immigration Studies and American Patrol.

“These organizations are not white supremacists with the sort of old-fashioned Ku Klux Klan model,” Zamarripa said in an interview. “But these organizations walk a very fine line in getting close to organizations that, historically, I associate with intolerance and bigotry.”

King contends that charges of racism against him are a desperate act to silence people who are vocal about illegal immigration.

“I say that illegal immigration is wrong, it’s bad for my country and I try to stop it,” he said. “Here comes the only weapon that they can use. They cannot use the law, they cannot use any facts, they can’t back up their argument with anything other then their last line of defense, which is charges of some kind of un-Americanism.”

King regularly organizes rallies and has shown up at day labor sites where illegal immigrants wait for work; he takes pictures and asks the men if they are in the country legally. He has complained to companies that allow Spanish as a customer service option.

King acknowledges his aggressive style.

“That is by design. I try very hard to plainly say we have a problem, it will get worse, and here’s what it is,” King said. “I have watched people sit around the elephant in the living room and talk about the wallpaper.”

In 1977, King was convicted on federal gambling charges and sentenced to two years on probation and a fine, according to documents he provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. King said he had worked as a bookie in Alabama for more than two years and got caught in interstate betting on sports.

He said getting punished by the feds is not his motivation for urging the government to enforce immigration laws.

“I violated the law and I deserved to be punished and I was,” King said. “But my whole life I had been taught that I am no better or no worse than anyone else. And I cannot accept the fact that there are well-connected wealthy, campaign-donating people who are profiting from federal crime and are not being punished.”

King insists he’s “just a guy” who would rather be cooking, savoring his wine collection and enjoying the company of his wife of nearly 24 years, Sue.

The price of activism has been high, King said. He said he’s blown through his savings and his grandmother’s inheritance and maxed out eight credit cards. King said he’s not sure how he will make his mortgage payment in May.

Fighting illegal immigration was not part of his plan. He and his wife had planned to buy a home in Sarasota, Fla. Sue was supposed to stop working as a travel agent, and he was supposed to sell insurance part-time.

But the fight has, however, become what King believes is his duty.

“A lot of people are quite willing to sit and assume that somebody else is going to fix it. I never would’ve guessed that I was the somebody — in my wildest dreams.”

DONALD ARTHUR “D.A.” KING
> Age: 53
> Lives in: Cobb County, near Marietta
> Quit his job in 2003 to work full time as an activist against illegal immigration.
> Former independent insurance agent and U.S. Marine Corps corporal
> Founder, the Dustin Inman Society, the American Resistance (anti-illegal immigration groups)
> Birthplace: Rapid City, S.D.
> Reared in: Montgomery, northern Michigan and the suburbs of Detroit
> Family: Wife, Sue, married more than 23 years

For the few of you who have not signed up for the illegal alien/open borders lobby alerts from GALEO in Georgia…one of my favorites. Some of it is even true!

The past several weeks have been very difficult and challenging for the immigrant community in Cobb County. Unfortunately, many are losing faith and trust with law enforcement officials in Cobb. That should be of concern to all Cobb County residents because overall public safety will be compromised. By pushing the immigrant community further underground, crime against immigrants and unreproted crime will likely be a result.

The efforts we have had reported to us in Cobb County lead us to believe that Cobb County law enforcement has moved from “To Serve & Protect” to instead focus on “To Arrest & Deport.” These tactics against the Latino and immigrant community will make Cobb County less safe for all.

Reports have indicated that Cobb County Sheriff’s officials keep changing the rules, procedures and processes in the jail. Instead of upholding the rule of law, they are making a mockery of it by not respecting due process that is afforded to all persons, regardless of immigration status. Serious questions have been raised, yet the Sheriff’s office insists they are only “enforcing the law.”

Here is a sampling of what we have heard:

Having been pulled over for faulty brake lights, a young man was arrested the other night for driving without a license. Though his hefty bond was refused repeatedly, it was finally accepted. His family and friends are still wondering why 48 hours later he has not been released.
Numerous individuals are terrified to go through with their scheduled court hearings and jail sentences in the fear of being detained and bused off with no warning to loved ones or family due to the rumors circulating in Cobb County.
It has become commonplace for Hispanic men in Cobb County to be detained after failing to show a driver’s license after being questioned for minor traffic violations.
Due to fear, a distressed husband and a child have had no communication with their mother, after she was arrested at a traffic checkpoint on her way to work.
A passenger in a car was arrested for not having proper identification. She spent four nights in jail with no information on a potential release date.
A Latina woman was the victim of an auto accident. After waiting to file a police report about the accident, the woman was arrested for driving without a license and was detained in the Cobb County jail.
It is time to ask serious questions about the tactics employed by local law enforcement officials, which lead to the incarceration of individuals in a Cobb County jail which has allegedly not followed appropriate due process for some of its prisoners. Cobb County is the Wild West where you have law enforcement officials targeting Latinos and immigrants and a Sheriff who may not be following due process of prisoners within the jail.

Cobb County residents that care about upholding public safety should demand answers to these claims and should also demand greater transparency within the jail and with the law enforcement tactics that are being implemented. Until these officials admit they have a problem and are working towards correcting the problems, then the immigrant community will continue not to trust them. If that continues, Cobb County’s public safety is in jeopardy.

Please call on the community in Cobb County to demand answers. Enough is enough in Cobb.

If you or anyone you know that has been a victim of discriminatory practices or profiling in Cobb County, please encourage them to come forward and report these issues to organizations that you trust.

We must watch closely these developments in Cobb County and work towards correcting these problems where public safety will be enhanced and not diminished.

Thank you,

Jerry Gonzalez

Resource Page for Immigrant Families

Please help us educate people to execise their rights! Critical information is posted on our website that would inform and educate people within the immigrant community of their rights.

This page is necessary for the community now, more than ever.

GALEO developed this as a need that was expressed by many immigrants across the state, with the implementation of SB529 and the stalling of broad immigration reform at the federal level.

If anyone experiences any discriminatory practices by any state or local agencies, or if anyone experiences discriminatory issues with any law enforcement agency, please contact MALDEF at 678.559.1071.

Please report any problems you may experience in order for these issues to be documented. Don’t let it happen to more people within our communities.

Step up and help us by filling out the INTAKE forms and then faxing these over to MALDEF. We need to stop some of the alleged discriminatory and possible unconstitutional treatment that people are currently facing. Help us document these cases and we need our community to come forward.

http://www.galeo.org/resource.php

Upcoming Events of Interest!

10/28/07: Labor of Love: Help us build a flower structure to demonstrate immigrants’ love for our nation.
12/05/07: GALEO Holiday Party
01/26/08: GA Latino Forum Annual Meeting

Nifonging John Monti?

By: RICHARD KIRK – For the North County Times
Was John Monti Nifonged? Or perhaps one should ask if John Monti is being Nifonged?

Mike Nifong was the district attorney who rabidly pursued bogus rape charges against three Duke lacrosse players in order to bolster his political fortunes among African-Americans in North Carolina’s Durham County. Nifong won the race for re-election but later lost his job and law license when evidence of prosecutorial misconduct became overwhelming.

It is unlikely that Monti, the bilingual East Los Angeles schoolteacher recently prosecuted for assaulting day laborers in Rancho Penasquitos on Nov. 18, 2006, will receive the same vindication as the lacrosse trio. Last month a jury found John Monti not guilty of charges brought against him by the office of San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre. But the nature of Monti’s case, though it smacks of political opportunism, makes it harder to prove that the camera-loving city attorney pursued Monti to punish anti-illegal alien groups.

The incident in question began when Monti and some day laborers got into a scuffle over pictures that Monti was taking of them. Obviously, taking snapshots of folks who might be here illegally isn’t a way to make friends. But Monti says his efforts were motivated by his belief that young girls were being sexually abused in nearby migrant camps.

News reports of the fight that day suggested that Monti came out on the short end of the stick – a not surprising result if the he-them ratio was around eight to one. Cuts and bruises, however, were the only injuries Monti sustained.

The police report taken that day might have been the end of the matter had not Monti filed a grand jury complaint against the San Diego Police Department for failing to investigate human trafficking and child prostitution in McGonigle Canyon. That complaint was filed March 1. Four weeks later (and four months after the original incident) Aguirre’s office put out a press bulletin announcing in bold letters that charges were being filed “Against a member of the Minutemen Project.”

Monti was not, in fact, a member of the Minutemen, though he was affiliated with the anti-illegal group, Save Our State. Still, by erroneously highlighting the Minutemen, Aguirre’s office bolstered the suspicion that impartial legal judgment wasn’t what informed its prosecutorial decision. What later become clear was that the case against Monti was actively promoted by Claudia Smith, an open border activist and executive director of California Rural Legal Assistance in Oceanside.

At trial some laborers testified that it was Monti who was attacked – a point of view echoed by four 911 calls that were played in court and later aired on Roger Hedgecock’s radio program. Monti’s photos also helped convince jurors that testimony against him sometimes failed to pass the smell test.

Having been declared “not guilty” by a jury, Monti now faces a civil suit brought by the same CRLA lawyer who appeared with Claudia Smith when she announced on Fox News what Aguirre was going to do, prosecution-wise – two weeks later.

VIDEO here.

The National Council of The Race ( La Raza) press release from yesterday regarding the DREAM ACT AMNESTY defeat.

Happy dance here!

Contact:
Marie Watteau
Cecilia Muñoz
(202) 785-1670FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct 24, 2007

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED IN SENATE’S FAILURE TO PASS THE “DREAM ACT”

Washington, DC – The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., today expressed profound disappointment over the U.S. Senate’s failure to move ahead with debate on the “DREAM Act.”

“Senators who voted against the ‘DREAM Act’ today are in effect telling thousands of young people that they should give up their hopes and dreams,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “These are our nation’s best and brightest and without action from Congress they will have no future. NCLR refuses to watch from the sidelines as the educational opportunities for these students waste away.”

The “DREAM Act” was derailed today by a 52-44 procedural vote. The Senate required 60 votes to move forward to full debate on this legislation.

“It is unconscionable that senators who are steadfastly opposed to any immigration reform used a procedural maneuver to kill this legislation,” continued Murguía. “I am particularly disappointed that the White House opposed this legislation. But the American people should take heart in the fact that the majority of the Senate continues to support the ‘DREAM Act’.”

Polls consistently show that the American people want Congress to fix our broken immigration system. The “DREAM Act” represents a commonsense policy response for a small group of children who have grown up in the U.S. and have known no other country. It has received bipartisan support from the majority of senators since it was introduced six years ago. Yet, thousands of young people continue to live in a legal limbo due to Congress’s inaction.

“Congress has had enough time to debate this legislation on the merits. The time to pass the ‘DREAM Act’ is now,” concluded Murguía. “NCLR applauds Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) for being such a champion on behalf of these children and it is our hope that through his leadership the ‘DREAM Act’ will be approved by this Congress soon.”

###

These Republican senators voted to support the DREAM ACT AMNESTY
Remember their names.

Bennett (R-UT)
Hatch (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Coleman (R-MN)
Lott (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Lugar (R-IN)
Craig (R-ID)
Martinez (R-FL)
Hagel (R-NE)
Snowe (R-ME)

Click here, to see (right side) list of all YES TO AMNESTY AGAIN votes…interesting who did NOT vote…

si?

Please circulate across the USA.

DA,

I hope that you are well. This particular column, brought some new information to my attention that I was unaware of.

I have been using State Farm to insure three vehicles, 2 homes and a number of other policies for thirty years. When I read the letter below that states State Farm donates to GALEO, and a man I cannot stand, Jerry Gonzalez and MALDEF. I cannot continue to do business with State Farm if this is true and I will contact their Corporate Office to let them know how their current customers feel. I know many State Farm customers and I know that they feel as strongly as I do on this issue.

Please supply me with any information you can on State Farms sponsoring the illegal immigration Group. I have contacted my local State Farm office and expained my concern and am awaiting a call from my local agent located in Alpharretta.

Sincerely,

E. H.
Cumming, Ga.

Dear E.H. It is true…you are one of many who have written about this.