The Most Racist Campaign in Decades, and What It Demands of Us

If the election of 2008 was a referendum on race, the midterms are feeling like a recount. The dominant political discourse of 2008 centered on an improbable question: Could a black man overcome decades’ worth of conservative fear mongering about scary, criminal, lazy black people and win a majority of voters? Today, things have changed. Now, the question is whether invoking scary, criminal, lazy Latinos and Muslims can incite enough conservative voters to reverse the Democrats’ 2008 gain...

GOP Candidate Sharron Angle Cuts Another Anti-Immigrant Advertisement

Nevada GOP candidate Sharron Angle has released yet another anti-immigrant advertisement. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post has the full scoop here: Here's Sharron Angle's latest ad attacking Harry Reid over illegal immigration. It's a doozy -- it sounds the alarm about "waves of illegal aliens streaming across our border joining violent gangs." And it features the now-familiar imagery of young swarthy men looking generally menacing. But please note in particular the momentary glim...

Weekly Diaspora: Lawless judges, immigrant soldiers and deportee pardons

Here’s the harsh truth about our immigration system: When 392,000 immigrants are detained per year and 33,000 more are detained everyday with limited staff and minimal federal oversight, institutional misconduct is inevitable. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving record-breaking numbers of immigrants through its ancillary agencies and, in the process, immigrant women are being raped [1] by Border Patrol agents, LGBT detainees are being sexually assaulted [2] at Immig...

SPECIAL POST: Immigrant Detention and Prison Profit

In light of NPR's report on how prison economics is a driving factor behind Arizona's SB1070, we are posting a video and a list of links to past published articles that cover this issue. CCA No. 1 in Immigration Detention Contracts Who profits from our broken immigration system? Who benefits from a broken immigration system - Part II SEIU President Mary Kay Henry: "Immigrants Are Not For Profit" http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/16/sb1070-prison-lobby/ http://thinkprogress.o...

NPR: Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

Prison Economics Drive Arizona Law Download the Story Here Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal. Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch. "The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman." What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal i...

Lebanese Immigrant mayoral candidate campaigns against Undocumented Immigrants

Abed calls Daniels soft on illegal immigration By DAVID GARRICK - dgarrick@nctimes.com Mayoral candidate Sam Abed recently sent thousands of city voters a provocative mailer portraying rival Dick Daniels as soft on illegal immigration, but Daniels contends that the mailer is deceptive and shows that Abed has the wrong vision for Escondido's future. Abed's attack is based on Daniels voting against a January 2007 council resolution prohibiting the "aiding and abetting" of illegal...