Education is the Latino Issue, not Immigration (Fox News Latino):  In this election season, both Republicans and Democrats continue to reach out to Latinos by focusing on immigration, the supposed priority issue for Latino voters. Candidates translate their key messages into Spanish, thinking that we like to hear our native language when we communicate with politicians.

Democrat Gutierrez Would Back Rubio’s Version of DREAM Act (Fox News Latino): Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, the Illinois Democrat who has been a leading force in Congress in support of the DREAM Act, told Fox News Latino that he would support a pared-down GOP version –opposed by many in his party– if it will keep undocumented youth from being deported.

Facebook Goes Public, Updates Its Status Thanks to Its Latino Fans (Hispanically Speaking):  Well it’s official the ‘Libro de la Cara’ or Facebook is officially a publicly traded stock and all grown up due in part to the millions of Latinos living on it, Latin America loving it and Brazilians obsessing about it.

Hate Groups Grow as Racial Tipping Point Changes Demographics (ABC News):  The number of radical hate groups and militias has exploded in recent years in reaction to the changing makeup of America, and new census figures showing the majority of babies born in 2011 were non-white could fuel those simmering tensions, experts who track hate groups warned.

America’s Non-White Majority Won’t Remake the GOP Anytime Soon (Huffington Post):  The ethnic remake of America is already having a huge impact on land use, housing, social services, schools, and industries in countless small and medium sized towns, and rural areas that since the country’s birth have been exclusively or predominantly white. The GOP knows that. And the brutal reality for the party is that more minorities in America’s population will continue to translate into bigger numbers for the Democrats at the polls.

Appeals Court Upholds Key Voting-Rights Law (The Wall Street Journal): An appeals court upheld a federal voting-rights law that requires some local governments to seek Washington’s approval before changing election procedures, rejecting a challenge by an Alabama county.

Marriage policy used in appeals for Latinos (The Boston Globe):  President Obama’s shift to support gay marriage is energizing young Hispanic voters who have been working side-by-side with gay activists in their push for immigration reform. The alliance has been growing nationwide and helping dispel what many say is an outdated notion that Hispanics are less tolerant of gays than the general public.

Young illegal immigrants coming out of the shadows (The Salt Lake Tribune/Associated Press):  From California to New York, children of families who live here illegally are “coming out” — marching behind banners that say “undocumented and unafraid,” staging sit-ins in federal offices, and getting arrested outside federal immigration courts and detention centers, even in Maricopa County, Ariz., home of the sworn enemy of illegal immigrants, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Will Population Shifts Alter Immigration Debate? (NPR):  As the migration surge ebbed, the political debate over illegal immigration actually intensified. Several states have drafted or passed legislation modeled after Arizona’s, enacted in 2010, causing a political firestorm and a wave of legal challenges. Controversy over the laws has entered the presidential election. Do these trends mean America no longer needs to corral illegal immigration?

Obama campaign working to counter new voter ID laws (The Washington Post):  President Obama’s reelection campaign launched a national drive Friday to counter new restrictive voter-access laws, which advisers said threaten his electoral chances in November.

Pell Grants plug pulled for thousands of students (San Jose Mercury News):  Among those who will lose Pell Grants in the summer are at least 65,000 new college students without high school diplomas and 63,000 who have spent more than six years in college. Changes in income requirements will reduce or eliminate grants for nearly 300,000 others.

Hispanics, Broadband and the Digital Textbook Revolution (Huffington Post):  The Obama administration’s FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan recently announced the goal of having every US student using tablets and digital textbooks in school within five years. This coming transformation challenges the entire education system – from kindergarten to college – to identify policies and pedagogy to maximize this resource and align policy to increase education attainment.

Dominican Republic’s Presidential Election Comes Down to Fear vs Frustration (Fox News Latino):  After eight years under President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Liberation Party, or PLD, Dominicans will decide whether they are ready to give former President Hipólito Mejía, a gaffe-prone populist, another chance in office. Mejía’s four-year presidential term ended in disaster, with a banking crisis that sunk the economy and caused so much misery and scarcity that tens of thousands of people fled the country and voters cast him out of office.

WASHINGTON — An immigration system that is complicated and filled with outdated policies needs fixing, the general consensus says; but there is still no consensus on how.

“A patchwork of harsh laws in various states cannot result in anything resembling a coherent or effective immigration policy,” said Cecilia Muñoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, during a forum organized by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project.

Giovanni Peri, professor of economics at University of California, Davis, might have a solution.

At the forum, attended by academia, as well as the advocacy and business sectors, Peri presented a proposal with a market-based approach that would auction off work visas to employers.

IMMIGRATION AS AN ECONOMIC ISSUE

Currently, there’s a high demand for educated workers who contribute to innovation and entrepreneurship, but the current visa system has arbitrary quotas, inefficient allocation and no clear path to a permanent visa, critics say.

Former Treasury Secretary and Hamilton Project Advisory Council member Robert E. Rubin welcomes the crowd at The Hamilton Project event “U.S. Immigration Policy: The Border Between Reform and the Economy.” (Photo/ Paul Morigi/Hamilton Project)

“It’s an administrative nightmare,” said Marschall Smith, senior vice president of Legal Affairs and General Counsel for the 3M company, whose products include safety equipment, oral care devices, industrial adhesives and office supplies such as the well-known Post-it notes.

Smith says his company is being forced to send jobs overseas. “We simply can’t get the people we need to do the work,” he said.

There’s also a high demand for less-educated workers who fill high-demand jobs — such as the farming and service industries — and lower the price of services. But strict quotas and requirements have resulted in immigration outside the legal system.

Jorge Suarez, director of human resources at Ocean Mist Farms, a Castroville, Calif. vegetable grower, said his company employs about 1,200 to 1,300 employees year-round. He described the current system as cumbersome, frustrating and time consuming.

“We need a system that allows us to bring these workers,” he said. “We need workers who are highly skilled as well. Different skills, but skills nonetheless.”

OPPORTUNITIES

Peri said his proposal allocates the already-existing working visas through an electronic auction where employers can purchase work permits to hire foreign workers.

The initial phase would distribute temporary work visas only. If successful, the auction process would then extend to include all employment visas, including some that lead to permanent residency, during the second phase.

The last phase would re-balance labor-sponsored visas and family-based visas to emphasize immediate family and attract extended family with employment-based visas.

This plan would allow Congress to use price signals to adjust the number of available permits, and if this worked, enforcement would be mainly done though work-place technology, Perry said. It would also create an incentive to hire American workers, he says, because there would be a high cost attached to bringing in immigrants.

Edward Schumacher-Matos, journalism professor and ombudsman for National Public Radio, called the proposal an “intriguing idea” that he hoped could break the political logjam over immigration policy.

But there are obstacles to overcome before reform happens. Schumacher-Matos put it like this: “The problem with immigration policy is not economics, it’s politics.”

THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE: CHALLENGES

“The first obstacle lies in the Republican party, and this is not to be partisan,” said Schumacher-Matos. “The business community is not driving the Republican party when it comes to immigration, the tea party and the populists are controlling that.”

He said there’s a “deep fear” among the Republicans in Congress that immigrants vote Democrat, which interferes with bipartisanship on this issue.

The journalist told VOXXI that the Republican party needs to reach out to Latinos as opposed to marginalize them by being so fierce on this issue of illegal immigration.

But he doesn’t foresee any engagement by Republicans on comprehensive immigration reform for five to ten years: until after the recession, after the electoral power of the millennial generation and the Latinos is felt more, and when undocumented immigrants are accepted by “the communities that aren’t used to them.”

Then, “the Democrats, the humanitarian left and the unions that have been strongly committed to family unification” might frown upon an auction system, he said, which would also need to be overcome.

Peri’s said his vision is to extend some of the simplicity and fairness of his work visa proposal to the entire immigration system.

COLLABORATION IS KEY

What’s missing for Congress to move on this issue is leadership and bipartisanship, said Janet Murguía, president and CEO of National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization.

“Neither party should be proud of what they are doing right now,” she said. “It’s been discouraging that more people haven’t done more on both sides of the aisle.”

Murguía said that she appreciated Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) trying to reshape the immigration conversation within his party.

In her remarks, Cecilia Muñoz listed some of the efforts on the president’s part to move forward on this issue, including meetings at the White House with members of both parties and both chambers and with members of the business and faith community, law enforcement and immigrant advocates.

“I think there is a disconnect between Washington and the real world out there,” said Jorge Suarez from Ocean Mist Farms. “We all just need to sit down and talk about this.”

Chuck Hagel, a former U.S. Republican senator from Nebraska, said he thinks America has been off balance since 9/11. Society doesn’t trust its institutions and its leaders because citizens feel they are not relevant to their concerns. It would help for legislators to “go back to the drawing room,” he said, and discuss what worked and what didn’t the last time comprehensive reform was seriously considered in 2006.

Union leader John Wilhelm believes immigration reform can be a reality in the next few years.

After the 2012 elections, the increasing importance of the immigrant community – including their families– from a political point of view will be more obvious, he said, and more legislators will recognize it and accept it.

“I think younger American recognizes that we live in a global society and it makes absolutely no sense to have unfettered movement of capital and restricted movement of people,” said Wilhelm, president of UNITE HERE, a union that represents workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, and airport industries.

“The business community is going to be forced to do what is in its economic interest, and… the political system is going to be forced to accept the demographic reality.”

Rosalba Ruíz is a bilingual multimedia journalist who’s worked for various local, national and international outlets, including The Orange County Register, Excélsior del Condado de Orange and Voice of America. Rosalba currently produces video for Reuters Latin America and writes for various publications, including AOL Latino, Ahora Utah and Hispanic Link News Service.

This article first appeared in Voxxi.

[Photos By Bob Jagendorf]

Could Immigration Decide The Election? (The New Yorker): Hispanic voters were key to Barack Obama’s win in 2008. But that was when he was telling them that he’d pass comprehensive immigration reform as President. Will it matter that he hasn’t?

Latino Voters Likely To Bear Brunt Of Florida’s Voter Rolls Purge (Huffington Post): Less than two months after a Florida effort to identify and purge ineligible voters from the state’s rolls began, opponents say it seems likely to disqualify a disproportionate share of eligible Latino voters.

Latino Support for Rangel’s Opponent (The New York Times): State Senator Adriano Espaillat moved Thursday to consolidate Latino support for his candidacy to win the House seat long held by Representative Charles B. Rangel, picking up the endorsement ofAdolfo Carrión Jr., the former Bronx borough president.

Police report: Trayvon Martin’s shooting was ‘avoidable’ (USA Today):  Trayvon Martin’s fatal encounter with George Zimmerman was “avoidable,” and the teen was not doing anything criminal at the time of their confrontation on Feb. 26, a report by Sanford, Fla., police says.

Bristol Palin Blogs About Gays and Hillary Clinton, Upsets Many (Hispanic Business): Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah Palin, former “Dancing With the Stars” contestant, single mom, aspiring actress and blogger, is making people scratch their heads with her opinions.

The Presidential Campaign And Latino Education (Huffington Post): At a time when U.S. students are being outperformed by their global peers and Latino K-12 enrollment will increase by 25 percent each year between now and 2020, trends in Latino education are also trends in education for all U.S. students. Producing an under-educated generation of students makes for a weak country. Perhaps that is what Obama and Romney should be addressing.

Alabama governor wants more discussion on immigration law (CNN): Alabama’s governor on Thursday called in lawmakers for a special session in part to further explore changes to the state’s anti-illegal immigration law, considered the country’s toughest.

Endangered: White Democrats in Alabama Legislature (NECN/Associated Press): White Democrats opposed to new legislative districts designed by Republicans said they will turn the Legislature into a body of white Republicans and black Democrats.

Bay Area immigration records, destined for dustbin, will be released Tuesday (San Jose Mercury News): Tens of thousands of old West Coast immigration records the government once sought to throw away will instead become publicly available on Tuesday at a Bay Area archive.

Immigration Doesn’t Hurt City Economies Or Ratings, S&P Says (Bloomberg): Most U.S. cities with “significant immigration” over the past decade saw their credit ratings improve, according to Standard & Poor’s.

Pope praises US efforts to welcome immigrants (NECN/Associated Press): Pope Benedict XVI has praised the “great generosity” of American Catholics in welcoming new immigrants and backed the commitment of bishops in the United States to immigration reform.

Could McCain have the winning strategy to win over Latino voters? (Fox News Latino): Four years after his failed presidential bid, the Arizona senator believes it’s time to shift the blame for years of federal failure to implement immigration reform to Democrats in Congress, and specifically President Obama.

Law Could Put Poultry Workers at Increased Risk (Fox News Latino): Documented and undocumented Latinos make up 34 percent of the employees, a higher percentage than in the overall workforce. Women and men are nearly equally employed in poultry plants, with women primarily involved in cutting and trimming carcasses.

Latino and Community Leaders Call on NBC’s Brian Williams to Join in Efforts Demanding GWU Revoke Carlos Slim’s Honorary Degree This Sunday (The Wall Street Journal): Amidst growing daily protests at George Washington University, coalition leaders call on NBC’s Brian Williams to condemn Carlos Slim’s predatory monopolistic practices and join the Latino and community activists who are demanding that George Washington University sever ties and not honor such a man who amassed his fortune on the backs of the Mexican poor.

I’m interested in Carlos Fuentes’ political side.

There is a fine line, somewhere, that signals the place where you’ve gone too far. I don’t want to cross that line talking about Carlos Fuentes.  The fact that he passed away this week was a great loss for the world of literature and letters in general – even more so for the Latin American world of letters and politics. I’ll say this: he was a great influence in my life, although I never met him, aside from a brief lecture at a local university. But I do know several people who knew him and they speak of him glowingly.

But, like I said, I’m interested in his political side.  Specifically I’m interested in what he had to say about Mexican migration to the U.S. It’s a topic that has good people looking suspiciously at each other, gnarling when they should be building a common good. The good thing is that he left us plenty of fodder t0 discuss. And for that I’ll lean on a recent post written by Leslie Bernstein Rojas, curator at SCPR’s Multi-American blog. She writes:

What he said then resonates now, as migration from Mexico has dwindled in recent years, while some states have passed strict anti-illegal immigration laws that have left farmers in short supply of immigrant workers.

“In Mexico, we have a duty as well, and it is to provide labor to these workers. I wish they had never left Mexico. In the future, I want them to stay in Mexico. Mexico is a deeply divided country — 50 percent of the population of 100 million is poor. There should be jobs waiting for them. There are not. They have to come to the United States. We should provide jobs for 50 million Mexicans and help us step out of poverty. We’re still mired in poverty in Mexico. So I wish we had the offer of these jobs.

If we had a Franklin Roosevelt, he would find a way to give jobs to the 50 million, who would not migrate. But then that would be your problem: Where are your workers coming from?”

It’s a very healthy attitude, to look at the immigration issue as more than an argument about a line on a map and who has permission to cross it. Fuentes framed immigration around the human problems of sustenance, work, corruption, folly and need. Always leading to more: questions, discussions, and considerations.

You can read Bernstein’s complete post HERE.

[Photo by MDCarchives]

At church this Sunday my wife remarked at the number of children that there were at the service. I guess it’s one of those things that you don’t notice until someone points it out. There were many, many kids there. At communion time is when I really noticed. The families came one at a time; the mother lead the way, followed by a small pack of kids in a well behaved line, the dad shepherding the end. Family after family, kids either holding their hands in prayerful expectation or crossed over their chests, the tell-tale sign of an uninitiated to-be communicant.

I leaned over to my wife: “There’s a whole bunch of them.” And there were, all of them Latino. After church our conversation turned to the link between so many kids and education; specifically the fact that as minority children (Latino kids in our part of the world) fill the public school classrooms the real amount of public funding for schools has diminished. In fact there’s an almost proportional decline: as more Latinos enter the public school system, less money goes toward education.

This morning the headlines reiterated the demographic fact:  Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.

All of the country’s major dailies carried the story: the U.S. Census has made it official.

This from The New York Times:

Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data made public on Thursday, while minorities — including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history.

Interestingly, both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post lead their stories with the same eight words, “For the first time in U.S. history…” It’s that momentous. Call it a tipping point, a watershed moment, a wake-up call. What you can’t call it is coming, or eventual. And the shift signals a bigger shift that’s yet to come.

While over all, whites will remain a majority for some time, the fact that a younger generation is being born in which minorities are the majority has broad implications for the country’s economy, its political life and its identity.

The shrill argument we’ve been having over immigration and the obtuse opposition to immigration reform from the right side of the political divide starts to find a place in this context – especially in the last two words of the quoted sentence: it’s identity. Immigration is just the field where a much larger game is being played. I saw it in church on Sunday and read it this morning in the headlines.

It would be good to have an honest conversation, one that calls things as they are instead of circumventing ideas and definitions. The immigration debate isn’t about the border or about jobs or the letter of the law. It’s about the American identity and how it’s changing; it’s about what it means to be American, what it looks like, sounds like and feels like.

Let’s have that conversation. It’ll be good for America. And while we’re at it, let’s put education first in a real sense an not just in a political rhetoric sense.  Minority kids need an education just as much as non-minority kids did when they were the ones filling the classrooms. Kids are kids, can we start the conversation there?

[Photo by Eastop]

Here’s some good news: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to re-hear the Child Status Protection Act class action litigation, Cuellar de Osorio v. Holder. If they rule in favor of the petitioners, thousands of undocumented youth, immigrant youth with legal resident parents and young adults separated from their parents will become eligible for green cards.

Our task is simple. As undocumented youth, we have a vested interest in this case. We’re undocumented youth who are only undocumented because we were aged-out of family visa, employment or asylum petitions contrary to the rule of law. As such, we’re looking for actual cases where children have aged-out of a petition filed by their grandparents (F-3) or uncles/aunts (F-4), an employer sponsor case, an asylum case, and the parents immigrated or adjusted their status to that of legal permanent residents. The adult unmarried son/daughter either got left behind in their country of origin or could not adjust status with their parents and has to wait in a long line again or was denied asylum as a result. In some cases, the adult son/daughter becomes what is popularly known as “a Dreamer.” In other cases, they have ended up in deportation proceedings or detention.

The best kind of cases are be ones where the legal immigrant parents subsequently filed a new petition on behalf of the aged-out unmarried adult son/daughter, attempting to retain the original priority date and USCIS refused, placing the adult unmarried son/daughter in deportation proceedings.

But your story doesn’t have to be limited to that fact-pattern. In short, if you have a case where the parents got their green cards but their own children got left out of the process because they were over 21, please shoot us an email at admin@dreamactivist.org.

This request is for an amicus curiae brief to be filed with the Ninth Circuit. Your name can be redacted, or an alias is acceptable. You can choose to remain confidential and still partake in this historic case.

If you need more information about the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) or need clarification of the request, feel free to shoot us an email as well so we can clarify.

Prerna Lal is a J.D. Candidate at The George Washington University Law School. She is a co-founder of DreamActivist.org and serves as a Board Director for Immigration Equality. You can find out more about her at http://prernalal.com

This article first appeared in DREAM ACTIVIST.

Education Trumps Immigration among Top-Tier Issues for Latino Voters, New Poll Finds (PR Newswire/The Wall Street Journal): Education ranks behind only the economy and jobs as the most important consideration among likely Latino voters in five battleground states, according to a survey released today by the American Federation for Children (AFC) and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO).

Mexican Author Carlos Fuentes Dies at 83 (Fox News Latino):  Renowned Mexican author and diplomat Carlos Fuentes died at the age of 83 in a Mexico City hospital, according to local news reports. The news of the novelist’s passing on Tuesday was confirmed by President Felipe Calderón via Twitter.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on Romney: ‘Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign’ (ABC News):  In an interview with Newsweek’s Andrew Romano, Martinez criticized Romney’s approach to wooing Hispanic voters during the campaign, in part because of statements during the primary contests in which he said illegal immigrants would ”self deport” if incentives were removed to remain in the country illegally.

Why Black And Hispanic People Pay 3% More For Their Homes (Business Insider): Researchers led by Patrick Bayer at Duke University studied two million housing transactions in four metropolitan areas. They found that Black and Hispanic homebuyers paid a considerable premium: about $6,000 on a $200,000 house.

Latino Voter Apathy In A Border Town (Fronteras):  In the 2010 midterm elections, the downtown precinct, basically, Nogales itself, reported a 29 percent voter turnout. That’s compared to the national turnout rate, 38 percent. Both bad, but Nogales, significantly worse.

Republicans on Immigration: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black (Huffington Post): The newest “talking point” we’re hearing from Hispanic Republicans about immigration is that Barack Obama hasn’t fulfilled his promise to push for immigration reform during his first year in office, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. For good measure, they point out that the Obama administration has deported more undocumented immigrants each year than that of Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

G.O.P. Rhetoric Feeds Latinos’ Affinity for Obama (The New York Times):  Barack Obama’s story resonates with Latinos because the struggle to overcome obstacles, whether poverty, oppression or bigotry, along with an abiding belief in the transformative power of education, is central to our story. And, for the first time, a person of color sits in the Oval Office.

Shift on marriage energizes immigration activists (Associated Press): President Barack Obama’s shift to support gay marriage is energizing young Hispanic voters who have been working side-by-side with gay activists in their push for immigration reform. The alliance has been growing nationwide and helping dispel what many say is an outdated notion that Hispanics are less tolerant of gays than the general public.

4 arrested as marchers protest immigration policies (Chicago Tribune):  At least four people were arrested during a rally west of the Loop today to protest the country’s policies on illegal immigration.

Grandma or the economy? (The Washington Post):  Hispanic people of faith ask ourselves, if Romney was willing to eviscerate Perry and Gingrich for trying to find a solution to immigration that is not starvation, what will he do to us if elected? After the election we will see if Rubio was right. Will Hispanic evangelicals choose economics or their grandmothers?

How Jerry Brown’s Budget Hurts Black and Latino Kids (Politics 365):  On Monday, California Governor Jerry Brown issued his May revised budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Facing a nearly $15.7 billion deficit, the Governor called for massive budget cuts.

‘Stop And Frisk’ Works, But It’s Problematic (NPR):  The New York City Police Department credits its controversial “Stop, Question, Frisk” program with significantly reducing violent crimes. Many civil liberties groups, though, warn that the police stops disproportionately target black and Hispanic men, and believe the searches are unconstitutional.

Blacks, Hispanics Have Higher Colon Polyp Risk Than Previously Thought (U.S. News & World Report): Black and Hispanic Americans are far more likely than whites to develop precancerous colorectal polyps, a new study finds.

More information has dribbled out about J.T. Ready, a ”border vigilante” Neo-Nazi in Arizona who recently killed multiple people and himself. Ready’s sudden massacre in May left many people stunned, but it seems to be a portion of the violence in Arizona, where peace of mind is far away and where the “interception” of illegal immigrants leaves people dead.

An informant apparently tipped the FBI about a plan by Ready to pose as a member of the Department of Homeland Security and “lead attacks” on Latino house parties to kill the people in attendance. Due to a breach of the informant’s cover, he and the FBI had a “falling out.”

It is unclear if the informant helped or compromised any investigation that the FBI was undertaking involving Ready or if he was the only informant. Ready was a known Neo-Nazi and part of the “National Socialist Movement,” one of the largest Neo-Nazi groups in the country, so it is plausible that the FBI had other ears. James Turgal of the FBI’s Phoenix branch even stated that Ready was being looked at as part of a domestic terrorism probe at the time of the killings.

However, one can’t help but wonder how long Ready and possibly others were being observed as part of a domestic terrorism probe. How long has the FBI been monitoring this man? Why was no action taken against a man intending to impersonate a member of the United States government to murder people?

Then again, the FBI probably gets plenty of people who talk wildly and never do anything serious. A thorough investigation is smarter than bringing a gavel own on people with little to no evidence to prosecute. That said, Ready also advocated placing mines (yes, the kind of mines that blow up people and tanks) on the border and was in possession of 40MM grenade launcher rounds. These are the same kind of rounds the military uses around the world, and are launched via a tube that projects the round, either underneath a rifle, or hand-held. The origin of these is not yet known, and multiple countries produce and use these kinds of weapons so it is possible that these are American rounds, Soviet surplus, or something else.

Regardless of where they came from, there should have been action on Ready before, and the fact that the FBI did not act soon enough against this domestic terrorist is appalling. A man advocating using landmines to deter immigrants with known ties to one of the nation’s largest Neo-Nazi groups? Had Ready been a Muslim with ties to Al-Qaeda or Islamic Jihad, the odds that we would be talking about him today are slim to none. The this guy had possession of military-grade munitions makes one wonder why he was not detained before the shooting, and whether or not the FBI takes domestic terrorism seriously. J.T. Ready should’ve been arrested.

[Photo by US Border Guard]

Obama’s Broken 2008 Immigration Promises Create Dilemma For Democrats (Huffington Post): Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of President Barack Obama’s most vocal critics on immigration, was sitting at dinner with his family a couple of weeks ago when his youngest daughter began talking about the president’s “terrible” deportation record.

Kansas immigration measure rejected in budget talks (Kansas City Star): A proposal to require government contractors in Kansas to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees aren’t illegal immigrants won’t survive legislative negotiations over the state budget.

Immigration permit auction touted as reform that would aid economy (San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times): America’s decades-old immigration system should be replaced with an auction of work permits, says a UC Davis economist who is attracting attention on Capitol Hill. His market-based reform, which is being unveiled Tuesday, would have American companies compete in a quarterly electronic auction to buy permits to hire foreign workers.

Deportation of Hispanic mom from Colorado suspended (Fox News Latino):  The mother of a brilliant student in Colorado was set free after authorities suspended her scheduled deportation for a year, apparently in response to a mobilization by pro-immigrant groups.

Will Arpaio’s popularity continue amid lawsuit? (Times Union/AP): The careers of most politicians would crumble under the heavy scrutiny that the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America now faces. But despite a mountain of legal troubles, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio remains popular with voters and has more than $3.4 million in the bank for his November re-election campaign.

Obama to Meet Latino Donors, Speak on Gay Marriage (Fox News Latino): Days after President Barack Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage, a decision that could have an impact on how Latinos vote in the 2012 Presidential election, he will spend Monday in New York City, speaking at a commencement, and holding a major fundraiser with gay and Latino donors, headlined by Ricky Martin.

Obama’s Gay Marriage Stand May Not Sway Latinos (NPR):  President Obama is attending a campaign fundraiser Monday night co-hosted by gay- and lesbian-rights leaders and a Latino nonprofit. The event is being headlined by singer Ricky Martin. Obama maintains a commanding lead over likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney when it comes to support among Latino voters. But those same voters are generally regarded as socially conservative, leading some to wonder how the president’s support for same-sex marriage might affect the Latino electorate.

African American And Latino Clergy On Obama’s Gay Marriage Support (Huffington Post):  Barack Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage triggered a storm of reactions from LGBT, religious and political leaders. Many Jewish groups including the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism came out in support of Obama, as did a number of Christian groups.

Blacks, Hispanics warming up to gay marriage (The Columbus Dispatch):  As a political issue, same-sex marriage is like playing 3-D chess: Opponents of the idea need to move quickly because the game board is tilting slowly but steadily in favor of the other side.

Barack Obama: Our First Gay-Female-Hispanic-Asian-Jewish President (The Atlantic):  Newsweek’s cover this week declares that Barack Obama is the “First Gay President,” playing on the reader’s knowledge that Obama isn’t himself gay, but his support for same-sex marriage earns him an honorary rainbow halo.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, rumored VP possibility, criticizes Romney’s immigration strategy (Boston Globe): New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, discussed as a potential Republican vice presidential pick, chided presumptive nominee Mitt Romney when she knocked his immigration strategy in an interview published Monday.

The Rise of Legal Immigration From Mexico (The Atlantic):  Another migratory change has also occurred: of the Mexicans that still come to the United States, many more do so legally. At the start of the twenty-first century, less than 10 percent came with papers. A decade later, it is 50 percent.

Latino Births Deliver New Political Power And Battles In Texas (Huffington Post):  For the first time in the state’s history, a quarter of all Texas congressional races will be held in specially designed districts where Latino voters make up the majority. That’s a figure that is in direct proportion to its share of eligible Texas voters who are Latino.

New York City Becoming Less Dominican, More Mexican, Census Finds (Colorlines):  More Dominicans left New York City than arrived since 2000 while the growth of Mexican immigrants nearly bumped them ahead of South Americans into third place among Latinos in NYC, according to Census data analysed by the population division of the NYC Department of City Planning.

Don’t Sell to Me! Hispanics Buy Brands that Empower Their Cultural Relevancy (Forbes):  There is a growing necessity for brand marketers to provide culturally relevant content and messaging that specifically targets US Hispanics.

Television Fragmentation Continues, Hispanics Are To Blame (Huiffington Post): If you want proof that the growing Hispanic population and its impact will change the way people experience popular culture in a colossal and immediate way – look no further than the big changes happening at the nation’s biggest media players.

The Department of Justice filed Thursday a formal legal complaint against Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) alleging widespread constitutional violations and lawless mistreatment of Latinos. According to the complaint, Arpaio and his staff engaged in widespread, violent and demeaning mistreatment of Latino residents of Maricopa County, often targeting individuals solely because of their race:

Read related: Civil rights lawsuit filed against Ariz. sheriff Arpaio

1. Forcing women to sleep in their own menstrual blood: In Arpaio’s jails, “female Latina LEP prisoners have been denied basic sanitary items. In some instances, female Latina LEP prisoners have been forced to remain with sheets or pants soiled from menstruation because of MCSO’s failure to ensure that detention officers provide language assistance in such circumstances.”

2. Assaulting pregnant women: “[A]n MCSO officer stopped a Latina woman – a citizen of the United States and five months pregnant at the time – as she pulled into her driveway. After she exited her car, the officer then insisted that she sit on the hood of the car. When she refused, the officer grabbed her arms, pulled them behind her back and slammed her, stomach first, into the vehicle three times. He then dragged her to the patrol car and shoved her into the backseat. He left her in the patrol car for approximately 30 minutes without air conditioning. The MCSO officer ultimately issued a citation for failure to provide identification.”

3. Stalking Latina women: “In another instance, during a crime suppression operation, two MCSO officers followed a Latina woman, a citizen of the United States, for a quarter of a mile to her home. The officers did not turn on their emergency lights, but insisted that the woman remain in her car when she attempted to exit the car and enter her home. The officers’ stated reasons for approaching the woman was a non-functioning license plate light. When the woman attempted to enter her home, the officers used force to take her to the ground, kneed her in the back and handcuffed her. The woman was then taken to an MCSO substation, cited for ‘disorderly conduct,’ and returned home. The disorderly conduct citation was subsequently dismissed.”

4. Criminalizing being a Latino: “During raids, [Arpaio's Criminal Enforcement Squad] typically seizes all Latinos present, whether they are listed on the warrant or not. For example, in one raid CES had a search warrant for 67 people, yet 109 people were detained. Fifty-nine people were arrested and 50 held for several hours before they were released. Those detained, but not on the warrant, were seized because they were Latino and present at the time of the raid. No legal justification existed for their detention.”

5. Criminalizing living next to the wrong people: “[D]uring a raid of a house suspected of containing human smugglers and their victims… officers went to an adjacent house, which was occupied by a Latino family. The officers entered the adjacent house and searched it, without a warrant and without the residents’ knowing consent. Although they found no evidence of criminal activity, after the search was over, the officers zip-tied the residents, a Latino man, a legal permanent resident of the United States, and his 12-year-old Latino son, a citizen of the United States, and required them to sit on the sidewalk for more than one hour, along with approximately 10 persons who had been seized from the target house, before being released.”

6. Ignoring rape: Because of Arpaio’s obsessive focus on “low-level immigration offenses” his officers failed “to adequately respond to reports of sexual violence, including allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse of girls.”

7. Widespread Use Of Racial Slurs: “MCSO personnel responsible for prisoners held in MCSO jails routinely direct racial slurs toward Latino prisoners, including calling Latino prisoners ‘paisas,’ ‘wetbacks,’ ‘Mexican bitches,’ ‘fucking Mexicans,’ and ‘stupid Mexicans.’”

8. Widespread racial profiling: “[I]n the southwest portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are almost four times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct… In the northwest portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are over seven times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct… Most strikingly, in the northeast portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are nearly nine times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct.”

9. Random, unlawful detention of Latinos: “MCSO officers stopped a car carrying four Latino men, although the car was not violating any traffic laws. The MCSO officers ordered the men out of the car, zip-tied them, and made them sit on the curb for an hour before releasing all of them. The only reason given for the stop was that the men’s car ‘was a little low,’ which is not a criminal or traffic violation.”

10. Group punishments for Latinos: “In some instances, when a Latino [Low English Proficiency] prisoner has been unable to understand commands given in English, MCSO detention officers have put an entire area of the jail in lockdown—effectively preventing all the prisoners in that area from accessing a number of privileges because of the Latino LEP prisoner’s inability to understand English, inciting hostility toward the LEP prisoner, and potentially placing MCSO officers and other prisoners in harm’s way.”

Ian Millhiser is a Senior Constitutional Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Editor of ThinkProgress Justice.

This article first appeared in Voxxi.

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