Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Home Blog Page 567

Mission Credit Union moves to a new location

by the El Reportero”s staff

Salvador DuránSalvador 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.

spot_img

Rodríguez says administration’s plan ‘guts worker protection’

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)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 RodríguezArturo 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.­

spot_img

Indigenous people sue the Department of Homeland

by the El Reportero news services

U.S.- Mexico borderU.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 OrtegaDaniel 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 ChávezHugo 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 SacaAntonio 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 ReyesSigfirdo 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 McMonnelllMike 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)

spot_img

Latinos project major House gains in 1212

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.

spot_img

Boxing

Friday, February 8 2008 The Castle, Boston, Massachusetts

  • Mike Oliver vs Antonio Escalante (super bantamweight)
  • Rock Allen vs TBA (junior welterweight)

Telemundo Friday, February 8 2008 Miccosukee Resort and Gaming, Miami, Florida

  • Cosme Rivera vs Raul Pinzon (welterweight)
  • Santos Benavides vs TBA (junior lightweight)
  • Juan Camilo Novoa vs TBA (welterweight)
  • Orlando Gonzalez vs TBA (junior lightweight)

Friday, February 8 2008 Sheikh Rashid Hall, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  • Michael Moorer vs Shelby Gross (heavyweight)
  • JD Chapman vs Rich Boruff (heavyweight)
  • Kevin Montiy vs Onderji Pala (heavyweight)
  • Eisa Al Dah vs David Love (light welterweight)
spot_img

Bernal Heights branch closing for renovation

by Contessa Abono

Dibujo de Bernal Heights drawingDibujo de Bernal Heights drawing

The Bernal Heights Branch Library, located at 500 Cortland Ave., will close for renovation on Feb. 9. The branch will host a celebratory closing party at 1 pm on Feb. 9 with fun, food and entertainment will be provided.

Renovation, which will cost about $5.7 million, include a new expanded children’s room on the lower level and a designated teen area on the main floor. The renovations will also include an elevator and accessible restrooms, making the branch fully accessible to all.

There will be an increased book collection, wireless access, and the building’s original architecture and historic features will be restored. The library is scheduled for completion in early 2010.

The Bernal renovation is part of a major capital improvement project backed by voters who passed a $106 million bond measure in November 2000.

Call 415.557.4353 for information on temporary library services during the Bernal Branch’s closure or visit www.sfpl.org.

SF State homecoming basketball games

This year’s Annual Homecoming basketball game will be held Friday, Feb. 8th when the SF State Gators will host the Chico State Wildcats.

Come out and show your Gator spirit as the men’s and women’s basketball team fight for a chance at the NCAA post season tournament. Game times are set for 5:30pm for the women’s game and 7:30pm for the men’s game.

SF State Alumni Association will be hosting a pre-game reception in “The Pub” located in the Cesar Chavez Student Center on the SF State campus. The first 30 alumni who show up will receive a free homecoming t-shirt.

Admission to both reception and game is free for SF State Alumni Association members with RSVP. To RSVP for the non-association members price of $5.00, click here or pay $10 for the reception at the door.

For more information, please contact Alumni Relations at alumevnt@sfsu.edu or call 415-405-3648.

San Francisco Public Library Celebrates Black History Month

African American storytellers, musicians, authors, artists and others will participate in a number of programs at the San Francisco Public Library in celebration of Black History Month.

Kicking off Black History Month is the third annual Spoken Word Festival held from 2–5 p.m. on Feb. 9 in the Main Library’s Koret Auditorium.

The festival will celebrate African American history through the verbal words of black poets and spoken word griots and feature local spoken word artists.

All programs at the Library are free and open to the public. For more information, call (415) 557-4277, or go to www.sfpl.org.

We Found our Hearts in San Francisco

Make this Valentine’s celebration a night to remember with an elegant three-course dinner, fine wine and live jazz by the Andrew Speight Quartet. We Found our Hearts in San Francisco will be held on Saturday, Feb. 9. at Seven Hills Conference Center on San Francisco State University campus Cocktails 6:30 p.m. Dinner 7–9 p.m. Entertainment 9–11 p.m. $50 per person.

By advance reservation only. Call Ella Chichester 415.405.3648 or ella@sfsu.edu.

Free Green and Sustainable Business Class Offered at City College of San Francisco

Want to learn more about green business? Attend City College of San Francisco’s free three-night course on Green and Sustainable Small Business. It will be held at the College’s Downtown Campus (88 4th Street) on Thursdays, February 14 – 28, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in room 318.

spot_img

Texas’s rodeo excludes Tejano acts

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Grupo DueloGrupo Duelo

TEXAS OUT OF TEJANO: Controversy is brewing over this year’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the lack of homegrown music at its annual Latino music day.

There are no Tejano acts scheduled to perform at the rodeo’s “Go Tejano Day.’’ Instead, the lineup announced for the March 16 event include Mexican norteño band Duelo and the Chicago-based Los Horóscopos de Durango, a leading act in the growing duranguense genre.

According to reports last week, some local politicians and music stars are threatening to sit out or protest “Go Tejano Day, draws the rodeo’s biggest crowds.

Organizers say the programming reflects the dwindling popularity of Tejano music and point to the fact that there is no FM radio station in Texas that plays the music.

This would be the third time without Tejano acts since the event’s inception in 1990.

Los Horóscopos de DurangoLos Horóscopos de Durango

Mexican acts Intocable and Control played in 2001 and San Jose, California-based nonteño stars Los Tigres del Norte were the 2002 stars.

Throughout its history, “Go Tejano Day” has included performances by such Tejano stars as Roberto Pulido, Emilio and Selena, but also a wide variety of artists ranging from Colombian rocker Juanes to pop singer Vikki Carr.

AWARDSUPDATES: At least one Latino performer will participate – as a presenter—in this week’s 50th annual Grammy Awards.

JuanesJuanes

Juanes is among a list of presenters and performers announced last week by the Recording Academy, It is likely that Juanes will announce the winner in one of nine Latin music categories during the Feb. 10 ceremony in Los Angeles, to be broadcast by CBS.

In a related item, more than a dozen performers and presenters have been announced for this year’s Premio Lo Nuestro. Performing at the Feb. 21 Miami ceremony will be Pepe Aguilar, AB Quintanilla lll, Enrique Iglesias, Los Tigres Del Norte and Ivy Queen, among others. The awards show is produced and broadcast by Univision.

ONE LINERS: Cartoonist Gus Arriola, whose long-running Gordo was one of the first syndicated comic strips about Hispanics, died Feb. 2 in Carmel, Calif., following a lengthy illness; he was 90, former Univision weekend anchor Maria Antonieta Collins told People en español she is leaving her current job in Telemundo, as host of the morning magazine Al día, to return to journalism. Pewee is among vocalists leaving the Kumbia All Starz with the group founder’s blessings.
Hispanic Link.

spot_img

Sutter admits closing St. Luke’s likely to reduce charity care

by Contessa Abono

Gavin NewsomGavin Newsom

Sutter Health told the San Francisco Chronicle that the reason their North of Market CPMC campuses offer dramatically less charity care than St. Luke’s Hospital, the South of Market facility is that they are trying to close.

Kevin McCormack, [Sutter] spokesman, countered that the hospital’s three campuses are located in wealthy neighborhoods where poor and uninsured people aren’t likely to seek treatment.

“Those neighborhoods are not ones where you have a large low-income community,” McCormack said.

“Sutter basically admits the point that Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and the community are making: their attempt to close St. Luke’s is a clear example of “medical redlining,” or the dumping of a supposedly un-desirable patient population,” said Bonnie Castillo, RN, Director of the Sutter Division of the California Nurses Association.

“A new report by the San Francisco Department of Public Health details that the CPMC facilities North of Market earned $67 million in tax breaks in 2007 due to their non-profit status, but performed only $5.2 million in charity care. By contrast, St. Luke’s earned $630,000 in tax breaks because of its non-profit status, and gave $2.5 million in charity care.

No more smoking in the car with children

A new law passed to protect kids from harmful risks of secondhand smoke. California’s new “Smoke-Free Cars with Minors” law took effect on January 1, giving California the most comprehensive smoke-free car law in the nation.

The California legislature passed the law in response to compelling scientific evidence that smoking in cars exposes passengers, especially children, to high levels of toxic secondhand smoke.  The law prohibits smoking in a motor vehicle (stationary or moving) in which a youth under the age of 18 is present.  A violation is punishable by a fine of up to $100.

Children are more susceptible to the hazards of secondhand smoke because their lungs are still developing, and they breathe more rapidly than adults. “I’ve treated thousands of children and observed firsthand the ill-effects of secondhand smoke on young children.,” said Dr. Pamela Simms-Mackey, Chair of the First 5 Alameda County Commission, Pediatrician and Associate Director of Medical Education at Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland.

For people who want to quit smoking, the American Lung Association offers free online support at www.ffsonline.org or by calling 800.LUNG.USA.

Mayor Newsom and environmental groups hold hearings for solar bond

Mayor Gavin Newsom and several prominent environmental groups meet on Jan. 31st with the Board President Aaron Peskin, to calendar the General Obligation Solar Bond for a committee hearing to keep the bond on track for submission to the June 3rd ballot. The bond would utilize $50 million dollars from the city’s Seismic Safety Loan Program to create a loan program that would allow San Francisco residents and businesses to install solar panels and repay the loans incrementally at below-market rates. “This bond measure presents an important climate protection opportunity for San Francisco and we request the voters be given an opportunity to contemplate this measure in June,” said Mayor Newsom.

The bond must be heard by a committee and the full Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks in order to be submitted to the Department of Elections by February 25th, which is the final date that ballot initiatives can be placed on the June 3rd ballot.

spot_img

Another reason why Obama isn’t winning thte Latino vote

por Edward Barrios Acevedo

Inspiring an audience with his message of hope and a brighter future, presidential candidate Barack Obama can dazzle the crowd with a fresh appeal for unity and optimism.

With Republicans whispering in the ear of the freshman U.S. senator from Illinois, telling him of their support, Obama’s campaign is quick to point out he can end Washington gridlock and partisan politics while transcending race, gender, and class. Senator Obama’s inspiring message certainly appeals to the very best in us. Measuring the crowds and interest in this year’s campaign, it seems we can’t get enough of it.

Obama is the 46-year-old son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansas-born mother.

In Nevada and South Carolina, the African-American community has rallied steadfastly for him as one of the two candidates on the verge of making history. It delivered more than 80 percent of its vote to Obama. In contrast, New York Senator Hillary Clinton captured the Hispanic vote 3-to-1 in Nevada. It was key to her victory there.

This bipolar support for two different Democratic candidates will certainly would be discussed much more on and after Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, as the campaigns move North and West, where Hispanics compose a significant portion of the electorate. Talking heads point out why Latinos support Senator Clinton, starting with the obvious: her good name recognition and a deep admiration for her husband, Bill, who appointed more Hispanics to high level positions than any other president, before or after.

­Perhaps influenced by their own bias, more than a few writers and commentators have raised the issue of racism. The white media seems to enjoy exploring “tensions” between the black and brown communities when they are pitted against one another for society’s scraps. From that premise, political analysts leap to infer that Hispanics won’t support a presidential candidate who is black.

Subtly and powerfully, the theory suggests that Latinos would somehow like to sabotage Obama’s campaign. So much so that those macho Latinos would even choose a female over a black.

In staging this fantasy political theater, political analysts and even Obama’s own advisors may be missing something important. His failure to capture the Latino vote has little to do with race or name recognition. Rather, it may have everything to do with the senator’s promises.

Obama’s message of hope and non-partisanship, which resonates with so many others, falls limply in the lap of Latinos.

Why?  Because this powerful demographic, particularly immigrant Latinos, are already believers in the American Dream, more optimistic about the future than their white and black counterparts.

The last comprehensive studies specifically on public optimism, conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 44 percent of all Hispanic adults believe their families’ next generation will be much better off than now, about a dozen points greater than blacks or whites believe. These numbers are much higher despite Hispanics reporting less overall satisfaction with their current condition, in lower household earnings and education than other ethnic groups.

Despite those playing up the brown and black divisions, Latinos have a history of supporting African-American candidates who deliver not so much messages of hope, but records of results.

So when along comes a candidate, charismatically rallying us to trust and believe in the future, Latinos say, “Great, glad you can join us. Where have the rest of you been all these years?”

Latinos are choosing Senator Clinton, not because she is white, not black, but rather that in addition to being smart and competent, she has a strong track record working with grassroots activists like United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta for more than two decades.

You are not quite as impressed with someone delivering something you already have. Hispanic Link.

(Edward Barrios Acevedo is a teacher and columnist in Los Angeles. He can be reached at edwardfactor@yahoo.com.) ©2008

spot_img

Memo to media: stop using hate groups as, ‘experts in immigration

by Janet Murguía

José de la IslaJosé de la Isla

“Janet is a lying, fact-misrepresenting Mexican jerk. There will come a day when the average American has had enough of her and her lies and runs her back to Mexico with the rest of the diseased, ignorant, budget ruining, crime causing scum they are.”

Since I became head of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) three years ago, I have received hate mail. My predecessor got it as well. Typically, we shrug it off as coming with the territory. When people tell me to “go back to where you came from,” I joke that they would be surprised to find they are sending me back home to Kansas.

It is no longer a joke. I received that email above at the height of the immigration debate and have received many more, including death threats. So have many members of my staff. The immigration debate has opened the floodgates to hate speech in this country of ours. Hate and extremists are defining the debate on immigration.

Hate is part of our national legacy. Throughout U.S. history, Native Americans, African Americans, Irish immigrants and other groups have suffered from injustice stemming from hate. The immigration debate has made the Hispanic community hate’s latest target, and too often, the news media serve as the anti-immigrants’ bullhorn.

The Internet, television, and the political stage have become platforms for hate. Turning the term “illegal” into a noun, nativists, extremists and politicians have broadcast their messages across the county. They demonize the undocumented and, in turn, all Latinos. They depict us as disease-ridden invaders and criminals.

The media have been instrumental in moving this language from the fringes of society right into our living rooms and everyday lives.

Dan Stein, president of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has warned that immigrant groups are engaged in “competitive breeding” aimed at eliminating white power. He has appeared eight times on MSNBC and 18 times on CNN. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled FAIR a hate group.

Television talk show hosts like CNN’s Lou Dobbs have echoed the anti-immigrant hate speech, calling undocumented immigrants “criminals” and an “army of invaders.” Glenn Beck, a CNN commentator, jokingly read an ad that said the one-step solution to the immigration and energy crises is a “giant refinery” that produces “Mexinol,” a fuel made from the bodies of illegal immigrants coming here from Mexico.

The news media are not the only ones willing to work with anti-immigrant extremists; some politicians do, too. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee accepted the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, a man who proclaimed he is “proud to be a vigilante.”

The distorted images projected by the media and some politicians have had dangerous consequences. All Latinos become targets for anti-immigrant hate crimes and speech because it is impossible to look at us and determine who is a citizen and who is not. According to the FBI, anti-Latino hate crimes have increased by 23% over the past two years.

The reality is that most immigrants, undocumented and documented, are hardworking and family-oriented – they are a part of our national fabric. Many hold down multiple jobs to provide for their families. The undocumented would choose to be here legally if they could, but the immigration system is broken. For people wanting to come here, there is a 20-year backlog to legal entry.

The only way to combat hate is to confront it with something just as strong, just as pervasive in society – hope. The hope for a better future for all U.S. residents is the driving force behind NCLR’s efforts to unite with others to silence hate speech and stop hate crimes.

Last month, I experienced the power of hope firsthand. I was honored to be the first Hispanic keynote speaker at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. unity breakfast in Birmingham, Alabama. I urged African Americans and Latinos to renew both communities’ historic commitment to promoting equal opportunity for all of us. Unity among all communities will strengthen our resolve to remove hate from the mainstream.

Anti-immigrant groups are using every medium to spread their message of hate. We must be just as persistent with our message of hope. NCLR has launched a website, www.wecanstopthehate.org, as part of our Wave of Hope campaign. We have also written letters to politicians and network executives insisting that they eliminate hate from the immigration debate on their news programs.

Hope is more than just wishing for improvement. It is an expectation backed by action. The media have a responsibility not to amplify the voice of hate. The rest of us have a responsibility to challenge those seeking office to renounce the politics of hate and to distance themselves from those known to be affiliated with hate groups or vigilantes. Together, we can ensure that hope triumphs.

(Janet Murguí, president & CEO of the National Council of La Raz, the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy and civil rights organization, writes a monthly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. Reach her at opi@nclr.org.)

spot_img