by the El Reportero”s staff

Salvador Durán

The only ever credit union in the Mission District that serves the district’s residents, will be at another location starting Feb. 19, in the District of Bermal Heights, when it moves from their third-floor office at the old brick, Redstone Building on 16th Street and Capp streets.

Formerly Mission Area Federal Credit Union, and now re-baptized SF Mission Credit Union, it was founded in 1971 out of a  founder’s suitcase, without any marketing and no visible storefront, was able to spread the word through word of mouth.

Since its inception, the SF Mission Credit Union has helped its current 2,500 members stabilize their financial conditions through loans and banking access, especially to those who haven’t been so lucky with other banks , and those who have never had or were able to open an account.

Among one of its most altruist endeavor has been the creation of leadership  and saving programs for children through the Youth Credit Union Program, which was the first of its kind credit union in California, to be run by youth.

The move of location will give a more visible and competitive position to the credit union, and will be able to realize its goal of recruiting more than 500 new youth and adult members by the end of 2008, according its director, Salvador Durán.

“This new office makes us more visible to the community so we can reach more people and help them with their financial situations. That is our mission—to help people,” says Durán, who is also serves as the CEO.

Over the years, one of its achievements has been to offer an alternative to those financial outlets such as payday lenders and the international money wiring in the neighborhood corridor, which according to Durán, have stripped residents of much of their money. They have “strip money away from our hard-working residents through high fees that are often predatory and not fully disclosed.”

Says Margaret Libby, Director of Mission SF Community Financial Center, with the SF Mission: “The average payday loan borrower pays back $793 for a $325 loan, which amounts to over $2 million paid annually in fees in the Mission District – for payday loans alone.”

Accroding to the statement, from their new location, located across the street from Bank of America at Mission and Valencia streets, Mission SF is launching the Tierra Firme initiative, an array of products and services—small loans and credit counseling to repair credit or build credit, small emergency loans to get people out of payday loan debt or to avoid it in the first place, affordable check cashing, international money wiring and specialized saving accounts—to move people onto solid ground, with dignity and respect. The initiative includes an awareness-raising campaign and youth employment and leadership opportunities to ensure they are financially equipped and college-ready.

The new storefront office will be located at 3269 Mission Street. For more information.

by Marc Heller

Mexico-California salute Arnold Schwarzenegger and President of Mexico Felipe Calderón shake hands at Sacramento International Airport during the arrival of the Mexican head of state, Feb. 13 while their respective wives observe. (photo courtesy by the Governor Office)

The Bush administration has announced plans to simplify the H2A guest worker program for farm laborers and boost fines for farmers who break the rules.

The administration said farmers will no longer go to state employment offices to show they had tried to find U.S. workers, Instead, statements from them that they have done so will suffice. Farmers will apply directly for the program at two federal centers.

Officials claim the changes will ease delays that discourage many growers from using the program, but critics, including the United Farm Workers union, have attacked the proposal for not including wage safeguards and other worker protections.

UFW chief Arturo Rodríguez called the plan “nothing more than the gutting of existing protections for both domestic and foreign workers.”

The H2A program provided about 75,000 workers last year out of more than one million farm workers in the country at the height of harvest. The Department of Labor estimates that 800,000 farm workers In  this country are undocumented immigrants.

Other changes include lengthening from 10 days to 30 days the time a temporary agricultural worker may remain in the United States after employment. Workers who move from one job to another will be allowed to do so before the change is approved by U.S. Customs and: Immigration Services.

Arturo Rodríguez

The administration also proposes a pilot program for a land-border exit system, whereby immigrant workers will present “designated biographical information,’’ including fingerprints, the Department of Homeland Security announced.

The administration proposed the changes after lengthy congressional efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform failed. The reforms would have made several changes to the H2A program, which lawmakers agree is too cumbersome and fails to provide an adequate supply of workers.

Federal law requires the Labor Department to process H2A applications within 15 days, but that requirement is almost never met, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said at a news conference. She said the program has not been updated in about 20 years.

The proposal is open for public comment for 45 days at www.dhs.gov or at www.regulations.gov under docket number “USCI5-2007-0055.”

Hispanic Link.­

by the El Reportero news services

U.S.- Mexico border

Border property owner, Dr. Eloisa Tamez, is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop irreparable harm to her community and the land on the Texas-Mexico border.

Tamez is a descendent of the Lipan Apache and Basque people who were brought into the region by the Spanish colonizers to work. She accusses DHS of threatening to confiscate her land that has been held by her family and community since the 1700s.

“DHS has not consulted with communities in the region, as proscribed by law, and has failed to provide venues to assess the environmental, cultural and economic damages that are being caused by the militarization of the border,” says a stament.

Daniel Ortega

DHS plans would forcibly displace, says Tamez and other community members, “fatally damaging the heritage of the region.” According to the complainants, the border wall will cause irreparable harm to the eco-systems, wildlife and the economy, including cutting off farmers from the irrigation water for their crops.

The Department of Homeland Security hasfailed to comply with the law and has not consulted key stakeholders on the impacts of its border wall-building and militarization plans. DHS continues to harass community members as it attempts to take over private land to build the controversial border wall along stretches of the Texas-Mexico border, says the statement.

Hugo Chávez

Liberals for amnesty “decree” in Nicaragua

On 7 February liberal deputies announced an initiative to approve a broad amnesty as a legislative decree rather than a law. As legislative decrees cannot be vetoed by President Daniel Ortega the move opens another front in the campaign by members of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista for an amnesty law to pardon all public officials and former public officials of the last three governments (1990 – 2006) who had been convicted of (or suspected of involvement in) acts of corruption.

Antonio Saca

El Salvador investigating whether Venezuela plans funds for leftist

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El Salvador’s president asked his diplomats Thursday to investigate allegations that Venezuela plans to funnel money to the country’s main leftist party.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said this week in Washington that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez was expected to “provide generous campaign funding” to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front to help the opposition party win the presidency next year.

Sigfirdo Reyes

FMLN spokesman Sigfrido Reyes denied that, saying the accusations were aimed at making Chávez an issue in the upcoming campaign. The Venezuelan government has not yet commented.

President Tony Saca warned Venezuela to stay out of the presidential race, telling CNN en Español in an interview broadcast Thursday from Washington that it would be “a clear intervention in the internal affairs of my country.”

Mike McMonnelll

Kirchner wins Lavagna’s support for united PJ in Argentina

A caricature in Argentina’s national daily, La Nación, this week depicted Roberto Lavagna trying an enormous Penguin costume on for size. Lavagna, a former economy minister under Néstor Kirchner who came third in October’s presidential elections with 17 percent on an anti-Kirchner ticket, had said he would either get into the presidential palace or go home.

He found a third option: he agreed to join Kirchner’s bid to unite the Partido Justicialista (PJ). This amounts to a reconciliation between Kirchner and Eduardo Duhalde, who supported Lavagna and had mooted reshaping the PJ himself. Duhalde said the alliance was “good news” for all members of the PJ.

(Associated Press contributed to this report)

by Marc Heller

The 2010 census is two years away, but analysts already are predicting sizable Hispanic gains in Congress when mapmakers redraw congressional district lines to keep pace with population trends.

Heavily Hispanic districts are likely to be created in Texas and Florida – two states that stand to gain additional seats in the House of Representatives – and in California, even though that state is not likely to gain seats in Congress, analysts say.

Population growth in Texas and the Southwest should create opportunities and depending on whether Democrats or Republicans in those states’ legislatures control the redistricting, said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan publication in Washington, D.C.

“There are just so many moving parts,” Gonzales said. “You’re increasingly going to see the Southwest be the battleground.”

The House has 25 Hispanic members. California leads with 10’ Texas has six and Florida four.

Analysts’ projections are based on Census Bureau estimates. Between 2000 and 2006 the Hispanic population grew from 35.3 million to 43 million.

If trends hold~ Texas would be the big winner, gaining between two and four House seats due not only to its fast growth’ but to stagnant or declining population in other states. Because the House must remain at 435 seats, the allocation of seats to various states changes with every 1 O-year population count.

Arizona and Florida could each gain two seats. The fastest growing state by percentages, Nevada’ could gain one more seat, analysts say.

In Texas, Dallas and Houston are likely to pick up Hispanic districts, said Andy Hernandez, a political analyst in Austin and author of The Almanac of Latino Politics 2000. If Texas picks up two seats, he said, “There’s no question in my mind that at least one will be a Latino district, if not both.

“You get to four, and it’s almost impossible,’ not to draw additional Hispanic districts, Hernandez said, because of Hispanic population growth and the federal Voting Rights Act’s requirement that districts be drawn to keep ethnic or racial groups together when there is sufficient concentrated population.

­Mapmakers may also have to make up for not creating Hispanic districts in Dallas and Houston after the 2000 census, said David Wasserman, House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C.

Key is who controls the state legislatures. They draw the congressional map in most states. Those elections are already in play. “Those who win in 2008 draw the lines in 2010,~ Hernandez said.

The process begins in summer 2010 when the census count begins. Latino organizations are already making plans to boost participation; Latinos are typically undercounted, and the U.S. Supreme Court has said districts must be drawn with an actual headcount, not the statistical adjustments the government uses for federal programs, for instance.

In January 2011, Congress will approve an apportionment plan – the number of seats per state. In March of that year through the summer, more detailed population counts will give mapmakers in the states the information they need to start drawing districts. The 2012 election will be the first with the new congressional districts.

In Florida, growing communities of Puerto Rican, Venezuelan and Colombian immigrants could lead to creation of a Hispanic district in the Miami area, said Guarione Diaz, president and chief executive officer of the Cuban-American National Council. In Orlando, more Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian immigrants could mean an additional Hispanic district, he said.

California could gain Hispanic districts in San Diego or the San Fernando Valley, said Steven Ochoa, director of voting rights and policy research at the William C. Velasquez Institute’s California office. Although some analysts have said California stands to lose one House seat because of slowing population growth, Ochoa said a worst-case scenario is to break even.

Analysts said they do not expect many Hispanic congressional gains in other states, including Nevada, despite population growth. In some states such as Georgia, the Hispanic population is too spread out to build a congressional district, they said.

And while Arizona will gain seats in Congress, its independent redistricting commission is not necessarily favorable to Hispanics, who have finally made strides in the more partisan state legislative redistricting process elsewhere, Ochoa said. Hispanic Link.