Gov. Gary Herbert signed four immigration bills collectively known as the UTAH COMPACT at a semi-private ceremony in the Capitol Tuesday morning, officially putting Utah on a pioneering path of leadership on the hot button issue of immigration reform. Herbert, with House Speaker Becky Lockhart, Senate President Michael Waddoups and LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton at his side,, said the signing of a guest worker bill and an enforcement-only bill was putting the federal government on notice. Utah is issuing challenge to the federal government on its sovereignty by issuing guest worker visas. However, because it has a two-year lag before it takes effect, state officials are already talking with White House and congressional officials about using Utah’s approach as MORE
One can only hope the state of Arizona quickly spirals into bankruptcy and unemployment soars to 50% or more after last nights legislative session gave nativist and racist Senate President Russell Pearce all the anti-Mexican legislation that he has had wet dreams about for years, yet hasn’t been able to get passed. What are we referring to? A slew of anti Mexican legislation designed to penalize anyone in Arizona illegally and in some cases, legally, for breathing while brown.
Arizona doesn’t have all the nutcase legislators. Texas has a few of our own, including state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) who recently introduced a bill that would force law enforcement officials to take undocumented migrants to a Congressional or Senate office and dump them on the doorstep. The bill reads: A law enforcement agency that has custody of an illegal immigrant to whom this article applies may: (1) release or discharge the illegal immigrant at the office of a United States senator or United States representative during that office ’s normal business hours; and (2) request an agent or employee of the United States senator or United States representative to sign a document acknowledging the release or discharge of the illegal MORE
Two weeks ago,the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2009 ruling against Arizona rancher Roger Barnett, forcing him to pay about $87,000 in damages related to his assault of illegal immigrants on his ranch in 2004. The court ruled that Barnett was not entitled to claim self-defense because he admitted that none of the illegal immigrants had threatened or attacked him. In February 2009, a federal jury issued a split verdict in a case against Barnett stemming from the 2004 incident. The jury found that he didn’t violate the group’s civil rights and that he wasn’t liable on claims of battery and false imprisonment. But the jury found him liable on four claims of assault and four claims of MORE
The guilty verdicts in the case of Minuteman child killer Shawna Forde is not the only news breaking out of Arizona today. From KGUN9 News Agent Terry’s murder: 3 suspects arrested will not be charged Three of the four suspects in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry will not be charged with his murder and will instead plead guilty to lesser charges of illegal entry and be deported sometime this week, KGUN9 is reporting.
Fifteen Texas cities, including Fort Worth, are listed as “sanctuary cities” on www.sanctuarycities.info. The criteria for inclusion apparently can be as simple as a photo that shows “illegals standing in front of a city EMS station” with a police department building in the background. Amazing how adept some folks are at identifying others’ immigration status by looking at them.
By now, most of the country, if not the world have heard Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik made in the wake of the mass shootings in Tucson on Saturday. “When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” – Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik Sheriff Dupnik had the cojones to publicly say what many of us have not been able to enunciate properly. For that, and for standing firm MORE
It’s not often that Jim Gilchrist and I agree because of our philosophical differences, but this time we are both thinking along the same lines. The refusal of authorities to release any information concerning the suspects allegedly in custody for the murder (not assassination Jim) of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry have many of us believing it was possibly American citizens responsible, despite the fact that the nativists prefer to blame everything on undocumented immigrants. You see folks, when an arrest is made in a high profile case such as this, authorities are quick to trot out the suspects for the “perp walk”. This hasn’t happened in this case, leading most of us to believe that the murderers of Agent MORE
Arizona Numbnuts
Arizona and their sandbilly wannabe kluckers are always good for a laugh, and Stephen Lemmons of Phoenix New Times is always there to point it out for us. Russell Pearce, Bigot, Claims President Will Need “Papers” to Visit Arizona In D.C. to attend the oral arguments on Arizona’s employer sanctions law before the U.S. Supreme Court, he stopped by to visit his far-right wingnut pals at Judicial Watch, the think tank that regularly sues folks who just happen to oppose Judicial Watch’s nativist agenda.
El Paso Texas ranked safest US city
More proof of the absurdity of Texas idiot in chief Rick Perry’s claims of border violence spilling over into the US, El Paso Texas has been named the “Safest Large City” in the US. Though the city has been ranked in the top three each year since 1997, this is the first time El Paso has taken the top spot for having the lowest crime rate among cities of more than 500,000 population in the annual rankings by CQ Press, a publishing firm based in Washington, D.C. The ranking was compiled with data from 2009 in the crime categories of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Detroit was ranked as having the highest crime rate. El Paso MORE
