MCSO accused of misusing $80 million meant solely for jails

by Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) -- Maricopa County officials say the Sheriff's Office used an estimated $60 million to $80 million from a tax dedicated solely to jails to fund other law enforcement operations over the last four or five years. County officials voted to send findings from their examination of the sheriff's office to federal prosecutors who are already investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio for abuse of power allegations. County Manager David Smith says some of the mon...

Defense bill fight spills to border

By SCOTT WONG Lost in the defense bill fight over immigration reform and gays in the military is another smoldering issue: Should the U.S. border with Mexico be heavily militarized? Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has inserted a provision in the defense authorization bill, requiring the deployment of at least 6,000 National Guard troops along the 2,000-mile Southwest border — five times the number now authorized by President Barac...

Colbert storms Capitol Hill for migrant workers

Washington (CNN) -- There's nothing funny about the issue of migrant farm labor -- unless Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert is discussing it. Colbert, accompanied by a media swarm, sarcastically testified on Capitol Hill Friday about the conditions facing America's undocumented farm workers. The popular host of "The Colbert Report" told members of a House Judiciary subcommittee that he hoped to bring attention to the workers' hardships. "I certainly hope that my star power can bum...

Is the DREAM Act a Military Recruiter’s Dream, too?

Yo Soy El Army - Clip from bignoisetactical on Vimeo. Activists across the country have rallied around the DREAM Act as a first step toward comprehensive immigration reform. The DREAM Act, which broadens undocumented youths’ access to higher education, basically granting conditional relief to enable students to finish their degrees, is framed as a “noncontroversial” concept that rational people, even conservative-leaning folks, would find hard to oppose on moral grounds. In fact, even the Pe...

DREAM Movement: Challenges With the Social Justice Elite’s Military Option Arguments and the Immigration Reform “Leaders”

by: Jonathan Perez, Jorge Guitierrez, Nancy Meza, and Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks...

Latino Youth Defines DREAM Act as a De Facto Military Draft

By VAMOS Unidos Youth We write this statement to raise our voices as Latino youth working and living in the Bronx, New York in opposition to the DREAM ACT as it stands. We demand that we return to our original DREAM ACT that had a community service option instead of a military one. The military has been losing their numbers due to the multiple wars the US has begun. The DREAM ACT would hand us over on a platter to fight these unjust wars. The DREAM ACT has been warped over the years to d...