The prospects for serious immigration reform are better than ever

 Posted by on 2009/11/14  Comments Off
Nov 142009
 
The prospects for serious immigration reform are better than ever

It’s been a good week for those of us who have been working hard for immigration reform. Lou Dobb’s, the poster boy for mexenophobia in America, got the boot from CNN, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made a welcome speech at the Center for American Progress yesterday, in which she declared in no uncertain terms that the administration was intent on pursuing comprehensive immigration reform in early 2010. And today, supporters of ALIPAC and Willy Gheen take to the streets in small numbers to protest our efforts. We’ve seen the hateful rhetoric they will be using. Rhetoric which has garnered the attention and approval of such groups as the Neo-Nazi based STORMFRONT, and David Duke, former Grand Dragon of MORE

Los Angeles to pay $13 million for assaults on peaceful Pro-Migrant demonstrators

 Posted by on 2009/02/05  Comments Off
Feb 052009
 
Los Angeles to pay $13 million for assaults on peaceful Pro-Migrant demonstrators

, bringing to more than $30 million the money spent over the last two weeks to settle lawsuits alleging LAPD misconduct. The action served as a reminder of the Los Angeles Police Department’s troubled past and its continuing path toward regaining the trust of some city residents and elected officials. For the LAPD, Wednesday’s $12.85-million payout — covering most of the claims by pro-immigration demonstrators and bystanders injured May 1, 2007, in MacArthur Park — has a few strings attached. Under the settlement, the department must submit to court oversight of its crowd control procedures — another layer of federal involvement that comes as LAPD leaders are impatient to be free of a long-standing and more onerous monitoring program imposed MORE