Who’s Illegal? The Politics of Immigration – For every Minuteman who beats his chest at the border, there are many more immigration rights supporters.

“Unfortunately, the history of the United States as popularized on TV or classrooms seems like it was made by Disney,” explains journalist Roberto Lovato, who’s written on the subject for diverse publications like The Nation, Los Angeles Times and more, and also served as executive director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), one of America’s largest immigrant rights organizations. “It’s not real. We talk a lot about the Holocaust, but we don’t talk about Native Americans. There’s no Holocaust museum for them. We don’t have an Ellis Island for the black slaves. Most of the slaves came through Sullivan’s Island, and it should be a monument, but it’s not. A sense of history is profoundly and institutionally lacking, and so you’re going to have a population that looks at this treatment of immigrants as natural.”

Such a permissive attitude toward criminalization has led to everything from the boom in the immigrant security complex, which has turned into a billion-dollar bonanza, to the tacit endorsement of militias like The Minuteman Project, whose border patrols and presence at immigrant rights protests and rallies has caused no shortage of damage and controversy.

But for every so-called Minuteman who has showed up to inflate patriotism or disrupt undocumented day laborers at work, it seems there have been many more immigration rights supporters, including groups such as The Center for Community Change, The Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, International ANSWER, Brown Berets, and many more. That imbalance mirrors the national battle over immigration criminalization; indeed, most election-year polls have shown that the public doesn’t rate immigration as a higher priority for candidates than other topics, such as the economy or the Iraq war.”*

• Immigration Reform: The Phone Call Heard Around the Country – On the call were Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.; Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y.; and Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz. Immigrant rights advocates from various parts of the country also spoke.
• More Than 60,000 Americans in 45 States Organize for Immigration Reform
• The University of Panama indefinitely suspended classes on Wednesday after confrontations between students and police during a protest against alleged U.S. involvement in plans to build new military installations.
• The purchasing power of Hispanics is growing at a rate nearly 3 times as fast as that of the general population in Arizona and nationwide, said an Arizona State University business expert who has studied the market for 14 years.
• Latino population growth adds to House seats – 6 states expected to gain congressional slots due to surge in Hispanic numbers
• The Utah Forensics Team is hosting a debate Thursday centered around the issue of immigration reform in Utah. – The event, titled “Broken Borders: Debating the State of Immigration,” will feature Tony Yapias, the former director of the Utah State Office of Hispanic Affairs; Utah Reps. Mike Noel and Chris Herrod; and Dee Rowland, a government liaison for the Utah Catholic Diocese
• After two days of deliberations, on Oct. 14 the Mexican Supreme Court made public its decision that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (governor of the state of Oaxaca) is culpable for the human rights violations that occurred in Oaxaca as a result of teacher protests and political and social unrest in May 2006-January 2007 and July of 2008.
• Organizations alarmed by the increased violence against women and others in Mexico are traveling by caravan to demand justice for the victims. – The national caravan, which began in Mexico City, is part of the international Mujeres de Negro (Women in Black) campaign to protest violence against women, children and other vulnerable groups.
• From a group calling themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience comes the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a simple mobile application intended to aid and abet border-crossers from Mexico to the United States by mapping the safest routes to take. – This GPS app is built to work on the cheapest cell phones available.
• Latinos make up a combined 77% of the population growth in the eleven states projected to lose a House seat – would have fared worse had Latinos not moved there in record numbers
• After the 2010 Census, new Members of Congress in states like Georgia and South Carolina as well as Arizona and Texas will owe their positions, in part, to the expanding Latino population.
• Protesters picket at Taos hotel where owner told employees to Anglicize Hispanic names
• CAUSA: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Needed To Keep Country Secure, Administration Committed to Reform says Napolitano
• The Center for American Progress applauds Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s push to move forward with the congressional debate.
• Statement on Sec. Napolitano’s First Speech on Immigration Reform
• ASU, ALRE release major study on Arizona’s Latino population – (direct link to report & powerpoint)
• The ‘flea’ CNN’s Lou Dobbs couldn’t shake off – Interview with Roberto Lovato
• CAUSA: Lou Dobbs Departure Brings us Closer to Rational Debate on Immigration Reform
• Business groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said Wednesday they are calling for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
• Protesting Electrical Workers Paralyze Mexican Capital