In Spanish: Ice Agents Accused of Racial Profiling

Acusan a agentes de ICE de caracterización racial

• AP |
• 2010-11-17
• | La Opinión

DENVER, Colorado (AP).— Dos residentes de Denver acusaron a agentes de inmigración de haberles impedido salir del estacionamiento de un McDonald’s en Nebraska basados en una caracterización racial, según la querella presentada ante una corte federal el lunes...mas

Racial Profiling by the LAPD?

Justice Department warns LAPD to take a stronger stance against racial profiling

Beck says the findings are out of date. The department remains under federal oversight on the bias issue.

By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times

The U.S. Department of Justice has warned the Los Angeles Police Department that its investigations into racial profiling by officers are inadequate and that some cops still tolerate the practice.

As evidence of the ongoing problem, Justice officials pointed to two LAPD officers who were unknowingly recorded during a conversation with a supervisor being dismissive of racial profiling complaints....link to complete article 

Fort Hood

Hassan Akbar was not thinking of what would happen to his fellow Muslims when he decided to shoot 43 people on November 5, 2009. True, he was despondent over being sent to the Middle East. He had also been listening to horrific stories of returning soldiers experiencing Post Traumatic Stress.

The ramifications of this are yet to be seen. Will this increase racial profiling at airports? Will it be more difficult for Muslims to enter our military?

Perhaps Akbar had lost his reasoning ability. I just wish he would have thought of a less violent way to protest.

link to image

-

Robert Salaam: One man’s actions will affect loyal US Muslims

Friday, 6 November 2009 - London Independent

There isn’t a word to describe the heartache, pain, and sheer disgust that I felt when I woke up yesterday morning. A Muslim serviceman can always expect to face questions about his loyalty. When I was in uniform, for instance - a converted black sergeant from New Jersey - a converted black sergeant from New York, Hassan Akbar, turned on his fellow soldiers and murdered two of them.

I served with professionals, and the most I got from my fellow Marines was a few off-colour jokes. But I count myself among the fortunate. I wouldn’t want to imagine what it’s like for Muslims serving now – especially those at Fort Hood. You pray there won’t be any issues. But you can’t be sure. link to LI article

Racial Profiling in New York City

CCR Reports_ Racial Disparity in NYPD Stop and Frisks | Center for Constitutional Rights

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work 2008 world

Racial Profiling in the Los Angeles Police Dept

LAPD has for years been reputed to practice racial profiling (as many other police departments).  Today the LA Times is saying a list of officers accused of racial profiling was "mistakenly" posted on the web. It was quickly taken down, but here is an official report from the ACLU.

Remember Rodney King? A video of how he was beaten by LAPD is post below the ACLU report.
LAPD Racial Profiling Report - ACLU

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

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Rodney King video - caution graphic images of violence on this video

A Short History on Racial Profiling - October 30, 2001

It will be interesting to see if the Bush administration uses racial profiling when it decides who to wiretap. See today's NYTimes article "Senate Approves Broadening of Wiretap Powers"

As far as racial profiling is concerned - as the Bin Laden family was being flown away after 9-11, hundreds of Muslims were being called to immigration offices in Los Angeles, having been told they needed to go in for some type of verification of documentation. When they would arrive they were detained by immigration authorities.

The following article was printed by the New York Daily News on October 30, 2001 - about 1,000 Muslims being detained in Los Angeles. It is very difficult to find articles in other major newspapers about this incident.


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INFO SOUGHT ON 1,000 HELD IN PROBE By BOB PORT DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 26
New York Daily News
October 20, 2001

WASHINGTON - Civil rights and Muslim organizations demanded yesterday that the government release the names of nearly 1,000 people detained in the federal terrorism investigation.

Twenty groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the identities of those arrested, charges against them, where they are held and names of their lawyers.

That information should not be kept secret, they said, and by keeping it confidential, the FBI, prosecutors and judges are abusing their power.

The groups also asked to be told where federal courts have issued secret orders declaring such information to be confidential.

"The secrecy orders themselves appear to be secret," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, which spearheaded the effort. "The denial of this basic information violates the public's right to know."

Morton Halperin, chairman of the group, said no one is seeking to know investigative information or details - just who was arrested and why. "It's simply impossible to see how the release of that information could harm national security," he said.

Some detainees have been held for more than a week without their families knowing, or held without their families knowing where they are, said Gregory Nojeim, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union office in Washington.

Nojeim said he wrote Attorney General John Ashcroft this month and asked about arrestees but got no response.

The Justice Department had no comment yesterday. As of Friday, according to department officials, 977 people had been detained, including 172 on immigration offenses.

from Lexis Nexis

When being a citizen doesn't count

photo: "hand of Fatima" by M.T. Hernandez


A few weeks ago, while in France, a country with a substantial Arab population, I was walking through a neighborhood market and found a small "hand of Fatima" -I bought the charm and have been wearing it since then. When I flew back to the United States I wondered if the ICE people at the airport would question anything. I have a Spanish surname, but also could easily be identified as Arab.

The pendant I bought is called "the hand of Fatima" by Muslims-- which is an intriguing name, since as a Jewish symbol it is known as "the hand of Miriam" - Fatima is also a city in Portugal where the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared - she is called Our Lady of Fatima. Whether there is a Muslim, Jewish, or even Catholic connection, I still felt vulnerable at the airport - doesn't matter if I'm a 7th generation Texan -- the amulet would make people think I'm someone else.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but with new profiling rules, who knows what the ICE people will do when an Arab looking Mexican (American) wearing an Arab/Jewish symbol shows her U.S. Passport.

According to an article in Salon.com, later this summer U.S. Justice Dept. will probably implement rules that will allow the profiling of Muslims - even if they are U.S. born citizens. It is really not like this hasn't been happening already. Remember the 1,000+ Muslim men who were detained in California after 9-11?
Of course this is unconstitutional, as Dr. Juan Cole, historian from the University of Michigan explains in an article from Salon.com

The issue of legality has not concerned the Bush administration (and the Congress that plays with them*). If U.S. born citizens who are Muslim, some whose families have been U.S. citizens for generations - can be profiled - how long before other U.S. citizens are also followed around. Soon you could be detained if you look like you could be from an Arab country (if not already), or if you speak English with an accent, or if you travel often to countries with large Arab populations?

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The FBI's plan to "profile" Muslims

It's unconstitutional, un-American -- and it might hurt, rather than help, the FBI's effort to stop real acts of terror.

By Juan Cole
Salon.com

July 10, 2008 | The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.

The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.

The new guidelines would lead to many bogus prosecutions, but they would also prove counterproductive in the effort to disrupt real terror plots. And then there's Attorney General Michael Mukasey's rationale for revising the rules in the first place. "It's necessary," he explained in a June news conference, "to put in place regulations that will allow the FBI to transform itself as it is transforming itself into an intelligence-gathering organization." When did Congress, or we as a nation, have a debate about whether we want to authorize the establishment of a domestic intelligence agency? Indeed, late last month Congress signaled its discomfort with the concept by denying the FBI's $11 million funding request for its data-mining center....


for complete Salon.com article click here

No Racial Profiling?

NPR does a report on the death of a high school student involving an undocumented youngster. Shawl's family is now fighting to pass a law in order to question SUSPECTS on their legal status in the United States.

Listen HERE

In March, 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr. was gunned down outside his home in South Central Los Angeles. The man accused in the fatal shooting is alleged gang member Pedro Espinoza, who prosecutors say entered the United States illegally.

Now, Shaw's family is fighting to pass a measure called "Jamiel's Law." The proposed legislation would allow the Los Angeles police to ask crime suspects about their immigration status.

For more, Farai Chideya speaks with Jamiel's mother and father, Jamiel Shaw Sr. and Anita Shaw.

Then, we hear from Fermin Vasquez, a student at California State University, who entered the United States illegally and is now an immigrants' rights activist. Vasquez is president of Students United to Reach Goals in Education.

U.N. Human Rights chastises U.S. on record of racial discrimination

"GENEVA -- U.N. human rights experts told the United States on Thursday to step up efforts to combat racial discrimination in the detention of African-Americans and Hispanics and questioned the treatment of illegal immigrants."

----

UN to US: Do More Against Racism

By ELIANE ENGELER
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 21, 2008; 4:48 PM
Washington Post

GENEVA -- U.N. human rights experts told the United States on Thursday to step up efforts to combat racial discrimination in the detention of African-Americans and Hispanics and questioned the treatment of illegal immigrants.

U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said United States had made great strides toward equality but he conceded that "we still have significant work to do."

The United States was making its first appearance since 2001 before the experts of the U.N. panel on the elimination of racial discrimination. The 18 independent experts, who are unpaid, periodically review the performance of countries that have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, who led the questioning, said there was overwhelming evidence of police brutality against African-Americans, Arabs and Muslims, Hispanics and other minority groups.

"You need to intensify your efforts at all levels to combat this very alarming phenomenon," Sicilianos, a Greek lawyer on the panel, told the U.S. delegation.

Grace Chung Becker, a U.S. assistant attorney general, told the committee that U.S. law prohibits the use of excessive force by any law enforcement officer against any individual in the United States. The offenders can be punished under criminal law or the victims can bring a civil lawsuit, she said.

Sicilianos said he was pleased that the United States was committed to protect the rights of foreigners regardless of their immigration status, but he said there were numerous failures in living up to its commitments.

"Especially since 9/11, immigrants and refugee communities in the United States have been subjected ... to a range of systematic human rights violations directed by the federal government, local county and state governments, law enforcement agents, employers and private actors," he said.

Sicilianos said he based the accusation on evidence submitted by a large coalition of American human rights groups.

Several other experts on the panel said people of color suffer from racial profiling _ being stopped, searched and arrested by police much more than whites are.

"Especially Muslims are suffering from this, and measures are necessary to prevent this from continuing," said Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan, a human rights expert from Togo.

Becker noted that President Bush has said racial profiling "is wrong and we will end it in America."

"The current administration was the first to issue racial profiling guidelines for federal law enforcement officers," she added.

As one of the 173 countries which have ratified the treaty, the United States was taking its turn before the committee this week. A second session is planned for Friday. The United States has submitted a 119-page report to the panel.

for link to Washington Post article click the title of this post

Reaction to Racial Profiling at Loyola University in Chicago

"The week of action, called for by Loyola's Anti Racism Movement (ARM), is in response to an incident of racial
profiling at Loyola in 2007, where four minority students were
approached by a campus security officer, accused of not being
Loyola students and of having fake Loyola IDs, and were called
various names related to their racial backgrounds such as
"gangbangers." The students filed incident reports and
repeatedly followed up on the status of their investigation,
but were never given any results. After discussing the
incident with other students of color, the students found that
their experiences—both the racist incident and the
administration's lack of response—were fairly commonplace."

-----

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-

February 19, 2008
Contact: Erica Granados-De La Rosa
Phone: 301.828.5003
Email: egranadosdelarosa (at) luc.edu

LOYOLA STUDENTS PROTEST RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, DEMAND
UNIVERSITY ACCOUNTABILITY
Week of anti-racist action culminating in large student protest

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21st 1:45 PM— LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
LAKE SHORE CAMPUS IN ROGERS PARK. 1125 W. LOYOLA AVE. IN FRONT
OF STUDENT UNION, ACROSS FROM LOYOLA REDLINE EL STOP.

Loyola University Chicago students of color and white allies
will be protesting their university's administration THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY 21ST, claiming a lack of accountability and public
transparency in cases of racial discrimination and profiling
on campus and widespread racism at Loyola. APPROXIMATELY 100
STUDENTS will be marching from the student union to deliver
demand letters to the office of campus safety, the President
of Loyola University, and the head of the Department of
Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. The event will
culminate a week of actions demanding that the university take
greater pro-active measures in combating racism and
investigate racist discrimination and harassment in more
public and open ways.

The week of action, called for by Loyola's Anti Racism
Movement (ARM), is in response to an incident of racial
profiling at Loyola in 2007, where four minority students were
approached by a campus security officer, accused of not being
Loyola students and of having fake Loyola IDs, and were called
various names related to their racial backgrounds such as
"gangbangers." The students filed incident reports and
repeatedly followed up on the status of their investigation,
but were never given any results. After discussing the
incident with other students of color, the students found that
their experiences—both the racist incident and the
administration's lack of response—were fairly commonplace.
"Our experience with racial profiling was not an isolated
event," said Erica Granados-De La Rosa, a freshman who was
involved in the initial event. "Students of color at Loyola
experience these incidents day in and day out. What happened
to me is a very common thing for students of color on this
campus, and is indicative of the racism of American society as
a whole."

The Thursday march comes on the heels of a student forum on
Monday February 18, attended by over 100 students, where
faculty, staff, and students of color shared experiences of
racism at Loyola. Over twenty students spoke about their
experiences of racial or religious profiling. During the
event, a white male walked past the front of the crowd, pulled
out what appeared to be a pistol and pointed it at the crowd,
and walked out of the front doors of the student union. Omar
Kamran, a junior and a minority male, called the CPD to report
the incident. While waiting for the CPD, a campus safety
officer arrived on the scene, grabbed Kamran's arm, and
immediately accused him of being the perpetrator, despite the
fact that Kamran gave a description of the suspect to the CPD
and had included the fact that the suspect was a white male
and had already left campus. "It was ironic that they would
accuse me, a minority male, of pointing the fake gun," Kamran
said, "since at that very moment someone was speaking on
racial profiling. I was racially profiled thirty feet from
someone talking about it. It really points to the necessity of
demanding that our university take racial profiling and racism
seriously, because we as minorities face these racist
incidents every day."

For information, contact Erica Granados-De La Rosa.
egranadosdelarosa (at) luc.edu
301.828.5003

The subtle nature of racial profiling

Reyna was a U.S. citizen


Amid the solemn obituary of the death of a Harris County Constable (Harry Thielepape) the writer (Kevin Moran) briefly mentions that the person shooting the Constable was an American citizen. The assailant had a Spanish surname.

Would Moran have clarified the immigration status of the shooter if the man's name would have been Smith? Probably not.

The comment that occurs in the article about Thielepape's death is a stark reminder that anyone that has a Spanish surname or appears Latino could easily be identified as undocumented. And nowadays since many law enforcement people are allowed to check residency status, this means that millions of Latino looking (or sounding) U.S. citizens are vulnerable to deportation. It's sort of like being guilty until proven innocent. If they are suspect and do not have documented proof, they are goners. After all, who carries around their passport all the time?

In the past, residency was sometimes mentioned if someone was a Mexican national - but not if they were an American citizen.

Perhaps American born Latinos should start wearing badges that state "I am an American."- and God Bless those who couldn't rightfully say the same thing.

P.S. Condolences to Constable Thielepape's family. All the officers from Houston's Precinct 6 are very dedicated to their community (disclosure - I live in Precinct 6).


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Feb. 20, 2008, 7:15AM
Precinct 6 deputy constable dies from shooting injuries

By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Harris County Precinct 6 Deputy Constable Harry Thielepape, who was shot Jan. 26 while working security at an apartment complex, died early this morning. He was 57.

Thielepape, who survived several surgeries to repair gunshot wounds, was with family members at Memorial Hermann Hospital when he died, Precinct 6 spokesman Danny Perez said this morning.

"His wounds were just so severe," Perez said. "He took a turn for the worse."

"He was a special guy," Precinct 6 Constable Victor Trevino said after learning of his longtime deputy's death. "He always wanted to be in law enforcement and he fulfilled his dream."

Thielepape worked first as a reserve deputy, then became a deputy 10 years ago, Trevino said. Thielepape was a corporal and assigned to a special squad that sought out parole violators in the precinct, Trevino said.

"He had a great sense of humor," Trevino said. "When he first came to work, I had trouble pronouncing his name and I asked him if it would be okay if I just called him 'Tailpipe'. He just laughed and said that would be fine, so I called him Tailpipe."

Funeral arrangements will be announced, Trevino said.

Thielepape was working a part-time security job at the north Harris County apartment complex when he apparently became suspicious about Jesus Gilbert Reyna, 21, who was wanted on a pair of Class C misdemeanor warrants, officials said when the shooting occurred.

Thielepape was assigned to a unit at the Precinct 6 constable's office that is charged with apprehending felony suspects and parole violators. Fellow officers speculated that Thielepape was looking for Reyna at the time.

Thielepape was not in uniform but wore his badge on a chain around his neck and a protective vest, officials said after the incident.

Witnesses reported seeing him pull the unmarked police car he was driving in front of Reyna to block Reyna, detectives said.

Thielepape took Reyna into custody after finding marijuana and a handgun on him, authorities said. He was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of the unmarked police car.

A veteran with more than 10 years on the force, Thielepape likely would have secured the handcuffs behind Reyna's back, officials said.

After the gunfight that left him dead, Reyna was found lying in the parking lot with the handcuffs in front, officials said.

Thielepape may have spotted Reyna struggling with the handcuffs and opened the back door to check that he was still secured.

Reyna was able to grab Thielepape's service pistol and began shooting. The deputy constable moved back under fire, detectives said.

"He took cover by a car and used his backup weapon," an investigator said two days after the incident. "He really did a great job, considering he'd already been hit a couple of times."

Apartment residents reported hearing up to 20 gunshots fired in the exchange, but detectives said there were no witnesses to the confrontation.

Reyna was a U.S. citizen but apparently didn't live at the complex, officials said.

He had a Harris County criminal record, most recently receiving two 30-day jail sentences in January 2007 after pleading guilty to a pair of drug possession charges.

Trevino said the reasons behind the shootings will probably remain a mystery.

Just the day before Thielepape was shot, Trevino said the two discussed why he worked security at apartment complexes that had known criminal problems.

"There are a lot of good people there," Trevino quoted Thielepape as saying. "They need to feel safe."

Chronicle reporter Mike Glenn contributed to this report.

kevin.moran@chron.com

for link to Chronicle article, click the title of this post

Speaking of Racial Profiling

A suit filed in federal court is accusing the Maricopa Sheriff's dept. of "overstepping their authority" and "racial profiling."
This reminds me of a comment made by one of the administrators from Prince William County Virginia... Someone asked him how would an officer know the difference between someone undocumented and a U.S. citizen if they were both Latino. The official responded by saying that officers would get special training.

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NATIONAL BRIEFING | SOUTHWEST
Arizona: Sheriff Sued Over Possible Profiling
New York Times
By AP
Published: December 14, 2007

A Mexican citizen legally in the United States has sued the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, claiming its aggressive immigration enforcement has led to ethnic profiling. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, outlines several instances where Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies are accused of overstepping their authority. Sheriff Arpaio called the suit frivolous and said it was an effort to intimidate him before his office begins enforcing a new law on Jan. 1 that threatens employers with penalties if they hire illegal workers. The suit seeks a judgment that Sheriff Arpaio’s actions are unconstitutional and the disbanding of the Illegal Immigration Interdiction unit. The suit is based on the claims of Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a retired teacher, who was stopped by deputies on Sept. 26 in suburban Cave Creek.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/14brfs-arizona.html





http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/14brfs-arizona.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

When Being An American Citizen Doesn't Count

The Pew Hispanic Center has released more statistics on the immigration debate. They said that over half of 2000 Hispanic respondents "worried that they or a close friend or family member might be deported." The Pew Center must have missed a lot of people. There is a huge population of Latinos who hardly have contact with any undocumented people. Some of them are even people I know well.

Besides the accuracy of these statistics, there is the issue of "feeling anxious" about ICE taking one of "us" (Latinos) away -regardless of our residency status.

There is reason for Latinos to be concerned. People like Romney, Guiliani, Sessions, Tancredo etc. lump everyone together, and seem to conveniently forget the the very large Latino population that are citizens, U.S. born.

It seems that ICE does too. There have been consistent reports of U.S. citizens being detained. There have been so many that no one at the Department of Homeland Security could convince me its not racial profiling.

_____

Hispanics Feeling Heat Of Immigration Debate
Survey Finds Majority Feel Vulnerable
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007; A22

Regardless of their immigration status, Hispanics across the United States are feeling anxious and discriminated against amid the intensifying debate over immigration and stepped-up enforcement by authorities, according to a study of the nation's largest minority group released yesterday.

More than half of the 2,003 Hispanic adults surveyed by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center said they worry that they or a close friend or family member might be deported, and nearly two-thirds believed that Congress's failure to pass a bill restructuring immigration law this year has made life more difficult for all Latinos.

"What we have here is a portrait of a population that is feeling vulnerable in the current political and policy climate," said Paul Taylor, acting director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "And what's interesting is that it's not just true of the foreign born but of the native born, including many people who have been here for generations."

Though the federal government has substantially increased enforcement actions such as workplace raids over the past five years, the numbers arrested through such actions remain infinitesimal compared to the almost 8 million undocumented immigrants in the workforce.

Nonetheless, noted Taylor, "as part of tried and true enforcement policy, a number of raids in the last year or so have been very high profile. . . . So in some ways, the actual numbers [arrested] may underestimate the changed reality as it is perceived by people in the Latino community."

The poll also found significant differences between Latinos' and non-Latinos' opinions on the recent crackdown, including efforts by state and local governments.

For instance, 20 percent of Hispanics approved of workplace raids, compared with 51 percent of non-Hispanics; 14 percent of Hispanics approved of local police taking an active role in immigration enforcement, while non-Hispanics were evenly divided on the issue; and 40 percent of Hispanics approved of states checking immigration status before issuing driver's licenses, compared with 85 percent of non-Hispanics.

Latinos, who number 44 million and account for 15 percent of the U.S. population, are a diverse group: Almost half of adults are U.S.-born, less than a third are foreign-born but in the country legally, and about a quarter are illegal immigrants.

Though less substantial than the difference in views between Latinos and non-Latinos, the study revealed significant gaps within the Hispanic community on a range of topics.

For example, 82 percent of foreign-born Hispanics believed that illegal immigrants help the economy, compared with 64 percent of native-born Hispanics. Still, that is up from five years ago, when 54 percent of native-born Hispanics said the impact of illegal immigrants was positive. It is also substantially higher than the 40 percent of non-Hispanics with a favorable view of illegal immigrants' effect on the economy.

Similarly, noncitizen Latinos -- who account for 39 percent of the adult Hispanic population -- were twice as likely as Latinos who are U.S. citizens to worry about deportation and to feel a negative personal impact from the heightened attention.

Among the Latinos who reported experiencing discrimination, which is about half overall, 12 percent said they have had more trouble getting or keeping a job; 15 percent said they have had increased difficulty finding or keeping housing; 19 percent said they have been asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status more often than in the past; 22 percent said they are less likely to use government services; and 24 percent said they are less likely to travel abroad.

More than half of Latinos surveyed said that discrimination is a major problem keeping them from succeeding in the United States -- up from 44 percent in 2002, though slightly down from 58 percent in 2006. But there was no clear consensus on whether their overall situation in the United States has gotten better or worse over the past year.

Despite their anxieties over immigration, Latinos surveyed said they are generally content with their lives and upbeat about the future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121301733.html

He Says There is No One to Hire

Nobel Prize winner is ' recruiting minorities at the lab and, he tells me, has just accepted a black girl “but,” he comments, “there’s no one to recruit.”'

If you push this idea a little further, you arrive at the idea that in general, people of color "are just not there to recruit."
He also says that people of African descent are less intelligent than whites. His comments have caused a furor in the U.K. and one of his major talks has been cancelled.

You may be asking, why does she bring this up ? - he is talking about blacks? Because he is talking about dark skinned people from Third World countries. The U.S. is currently in contortions over immigration of "dark skinned people from Third World countries."

What would he think of those DREAM ACT students who have 4.0's? Just a genetic fluke?




_____

The Sunday Times
October 14, 2007
The elementary DNA of Dr Watson
by Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe

History will remember James Watson for the discovery of the double helix. But his pronouncements are often highly controversial. His former protegee examines the complex legacy of a Nobel laureat

"...Back in 1990, the journal Science commented: “To many in the scientific community, Watson has long been something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend to hold their collective breath whenever he veers from the script.” When, in 2000, he left an audience reeling by suggesting a link between skin colour and sex drive – hypothesising that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos – some journalists suggested he had “opened a transatlantic rift”. American scientists accused him of “trading on past successes to promote opinions that have little scientific basis”. British academics countered that subjects should not be off limits because they are politically incorrect. Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, said that “nothing should stop you ascertaining the scientific truth; science must be free of concerns about gender and race”.

He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”, and I know that this “hot potato” is going to be difficult to address. His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.

When asked how long it might take for the key genes in affecting differences in human intelligence to be found, his “back-of-the-envelope answer” is 15 years. However, he wonders if even 10 years will pass. In his mission to make children more DNA-literate, the geneticist explains that he has opened a DNA learning centre on the borders of Harlem in New York. He is also recruiting minorities at the lab and, he tells me, has just accepted a black girl “but,” he comments, “there’s no one to recruit...”


for link to original article click title to this post
thanks to Dr. Frank Hall for passing on this information

4 People Illegally Arrested and Detained by ICE

Ana Patino writes about these four individuals who were not only arrested, but also detained several weeks... Seems like it didn't matter that they had proof of residency... \

Santa Fe

"A man from Santa Fe originally from El Salvador was illegally detained by ICE for 5 weeks and mistaken for another person. (See article here) According to the article Jose Cesar Guzman has legal status to live and work in the United States. He “was employed as the executive chef at the Inn of the Governors when he was arrested at his home June 19 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking for another man with a similar name”. Mr. Guzman’s attorney was able to establish his true identity in 10 minutes but ICE continued to hold the man for 5 weeks and even had started deportation proceedings against him. This is at least the 4th person who we have heard about who has been illegally arrested and incarcerated and in some cases deported by ICE.

San Diego

If you will recall ICE deported another American citizen, Pedro Guzman, recently even after Pedro wrote down when he was booked on a trespass charge that he had been born in the United States. Pedro, who is developmentally disabled, was lost in Mexico for months as his family desperately tried to find him. He was turned away from the border twice by government border officials when he tried to re-enter the U.S. The border officials would not believe that Pedro was an American citizen.

Los Angeles

Lenin Freud Perez-Torres was arrrested in Los Angeles and held in Los Angeles County jail for 25 days because he was mistaken for a deported felon. In August 2007 the California Supreme Court decided the State of California could be sued for negligence because they knew or should have known they had the wrong person. Perez Torres is 4 inches shorter and weighs 40 pounds less than the man who was deported. Perez-Torres has also filed a federal lawsuit against Chertoff and ICE.

Arlington, TX

Then there is American-citizen, Alicia Rodriguez, who happens to be of Mexican ancestry, was taken into custody and placed in the Arlington city jail in Texas because the authorities mistook her for an undocumented immigrant who had been deported three years earlier. Alicia, an accountant and mother of three children, missed her children’s first day of school and feared being deported.

was posted previously on Immigration Prof Blog http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/is-there-racial.html