As for immigration, the budget orders more than $1.6 billion for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, with an order to identify and remove undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, including support for key programs like Secure Communities.
On top of that, the budget mentions a requirement of $137 million for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services agency to finance programs like E-Verify and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. Department of Homeland Security officials specify that $103 million would be destined for E-Verify, while the remaining $34 million would be destined for SAVE.
Finally, $10 to $18 million was allocated to a program to identify and promote citizenship through educational and preparatory programs.
According to Grisella Martínez director of legislative affairs for the National Immigration Forum, she can see that “the focus is on the functions of DHS relating to national security,” although they are still analyizing the budget.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, indicated that after Congress’ spring recess, the first objective for lawmakers will be the mid-term elections scheduled for November.
“We have to insist” for a change to the US immigration system, said the Congressman, who attended a series of activities in Los Angeles this week to make immigration reform part of the national debate this year.
The political leader called for a “large demonstration” for March 21 in the US capital, in order to appeal the government for immigration reform.
The census bureau puts Webb County, where Laredo is located, among the most difficult to count in the country, along with rural areas in Alaska and South Dakota.
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Speaking to several residents of the colony, many of whom speak only Spanish, Groves tried to put an end to their fears. He stressed that census information is confidential and will not be released to other government agencies.
At least one high-profile conservative activist group wants to continue smashing "left-wing scum," and they're not afraid to admit it.
When Campus Progress first reported on Campus Reform, the right-leaning social networking Web site funded by the conservative Leadership Institute to confront “leftist abuse” in higher education, it was discovered that one of the organization’s staff members had written on the site that one of his goals was to “smash left-wing scum.”
Shortly after the report, the comment was removed, and when asked about the incident, Campus Reform’s national director, Bryan Bernys, chalked the incendiary rhetoric up to the nature of social networking. “I don’t know where that is on the site or anything,” Brenys said. “Obviously with all Web sites you can post anything. Nobody at CampusReform can go through every single post.”
But now a few months after the incident, smashing left-wing scum is apparently back in fashion for Campus Reform—in fact, it’s alive and well on the group’s own YouTube page.
A video, posted four days ago, shows a group of Campus Reformers holding a “Global Warming Beach Party” to protest a speech by New York Times contributor Thomas Friedman that was taking place at George Washington University. (Yeah, I still haven’t quite figured that one out either.) Anyway, along with a furrie dressed up as polar bear and the backing of the archconservative Young America's Foundation, there was also a sign that encouraged others to—that’s right—“Smash Left-Wing Scum.”
Look, obviously students shouldn’t be discriminated against because of their political beliefs. But really, if Campus Reform’s goal is to combat what it perceives as “leftist bias” in classrooms, and the organization’s mission is to bring more ideological diversity to educational institutions, then how, exactly, is that accomplished by such a confrontational and polarizing statement like “smash left-wing scum?” Is that kind of rhetoric really supposed to make anyone empathic to the plight of the young Reaganites?
Either way, there’s a chance that the video—like the last incendiary comment—may mysteriously disappear from the Web site. After all, it was just a few days ago that somebody at Campus Reform tried to remove praise of James O'Keefe from the Web site, shortly after the former Leadership Institute employee and some of his friends were arrested by the FBI for allegedly plotting to illegally enter the downtown New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) under the guise of repairing the building’s telephones.
Grassroots groups in Los Angeles are anticipating a forum with Rep. Luis Gutierrez to discuss immigration reform in 2010. Gutierrez is, so far, the only federal lawmaker to propose a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. There have also been reports that New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer is also in the middle of crafting a bill.
“We, along with a large group of organizations, are going to be there with the community to take up the issue of immigration reform and talk about the reasons why we believe that it is possible, and that it is desirable, and that it will be in 2010 when Gutierrez's bill that we support is approved,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Los Angeles Coalition for Immigrant Human rights.
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And although it's Monday, and many are working, many will make an effort to be present. “We are going to leave Van Nuys with a station wagon for those who would like to come,” commented Antonio Bernabé, an organizer for a group of laborers in the San Fernando Valley. “It's an effort for everyone, but if we don't do this for ourselves nobody else is going to.”
While some alleged news outlets have been quick to claim that reform is dead in the water after a certain election in Massachusetts, other journalists in the Spanish-language media are listening to voices on the ground rather than to those up above.
Reactions to Obama's televised bipartisan meeting (some on the left have called it a smack down) with House Republicans in Maryland last week.
For Andrew Rudalevige, a political scientist from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, “the next step is to see if this happens to be a photo op or a discovery of something in common.”
Although in reality, he added, it's a triumph for Obama “if this approach occasionally allows some of the other Republicans to feel like they can support his proposals...it's all Obama needs to support his agenda.”
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David Johnson, another Republican consultant, said that it will be difficult for Obama to achieve much cooperation. “The lawmakers are frightened with base movements (like the Tea Partiers) and are afraid that if they show some cooperation with Obama someone else who is still more conservative will take their place,” said Johnson.
The White House picks another Coloradan for federal office, the most well-known being current Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Today Rick Garcia was named regional director of the U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development (HUD) with responsibilities over Colorado and five other states.
“I feel honored to have been selected and named by President Obama to be the regional director of the HUD during this important historical moment in our nation of both economic challenges and opportunity,” said Garcia, who is a city council representative in Denver.
Dobbs, erstwhile immigration enemy numero dos next to Arizona Sherriff Joe Arpaio, may now become part of the coalition supporting an immigration reform bill.
Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate are looking for help from conservative commenter Lou Dobbs to achieve bipartisan support for immigration reform, The Hill reported today.
Dobbs, 64, resigned as the presenter of a controversial program on CNN last November, following a strong media campaign against him by pro-immigrant groups for his stances on tougher border controls and halting undocumented immigration.
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According to the daily, Democrats believe that support from Dobbs, whose populist rhetoric against undocumented immigration gained traction among conservatives, would help build broad bipartisan support for reform.
Not even marriage to a U.S. citizen is a sure path to citizenship in our broken immigration system.
HOMESTEAD, Florida – For more than an hour Juanita de Mendoza responded to an avalanche of questions that would demonstrate her marriage to a U.S. citizen was legitimate, but when asked a surprise question to identify which key her spouse used to home the door to their house, the Peruvian hesitated.
And that reaction was enough for immigration authorities to put the Peruvian through a deportation process….
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“What took two years for me, an immigration agent seeks to destroy in an hour because they think, without any evidence, that the marriage is false,” said [Mendoza’s spouse], outraged.
Apparently a coup-supported dictatorship isn’t only horrible for human rights. The money it takes to oppress the masses is also not good for the national budget.
The new Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo, began his term with empty coffers due to a “bankruptcy” that hit the country due to the crisis following the coup of [democratically-elected] President Manuel Zelaya, who left Honduras Wednesday after four months of being confined to the Brazilian embassy in the country.
The Spanish-language media mostly reported disappointment over the fact that Obama only mentioned immigration reform briefly in his speech last night, but there’s still hope .
Latino organizations were expecting Obama to use his speech before both chambers of Congress—where Presidents set their priorities for the legislative year—to give impetus to an immigration reform bill.
But while Obama did request action by Congress on health care reform and the economy, the immigration issue was expressed in vague terms.
Another take on the immigration angle in the speech.
The brief mention made by President Obama on immigration reform during his first State of the Union report left much to be desired among Hispanic activists. They had hoped for a better commitment rather than a scant mention for Congress to continue the debate, which is still dateless on the body’s 2010 calendar.
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“I think it was definitely a very weak proclamation on immigration,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, director of Project 2042 at the Center For American Progress in Washington, D.C. “We hoped for more from the President tonight.”
Even with Obama’s lackluster mention of immigration reform, many still see hope for bipartisan support of a bill.
"Reform has always worked under a bipartisan concept. There is no way of adopting only Republican or Democratic support. It takes the votes of both parties," said Rafael Prieto, a Spanish media consultant to America's Voice , an organization fighting for immigration reform.
"We must not lower our guard. The worst thing we can do is say that this is not going to be accomplished," he said.
Will he or won’t he? Will Obama give a nod to immigration during his State of the Union speech tonight? Thousands of Latinos are going to be waiting to find out. Think immigration reform won’t matter to the State of the Union audience? This article might make you think again.
President Barack Obama assures that he does not expect the White House to postpone the most pressing issues facing the United States, therefore, in his Wednesday message about the State of the Union he should make clear that his commitment to immigration reform in 2010 isn’t just simple, populist rhetoric.
The Latino community will be paying attention to Obama’s first message broadcast during a joint session of Congress…
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The presidency, as suggested by Obama, is not weak, and reform offers a great opportunity to show leadership on an issue that is as complex as it is volatile.
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At stake is the fate of twelve million undocumented immigrants who, despite being treated like second class citizens, contribute to economic growth in the country, according to recent studies.
"I want to see that the president is committed to reform. It is something he promised as a candidate, and people voted for him for a change. He has said he is not afraid of tough decisions, and this will be one of them," said John Amaya, Associate Director of Immigration at the National Council of La Raza.
Are campus conservatives trying to cover up their past with an FBI arrestee?
Campus Reform, the fledgling right-wing organization known for fighting “political bias” in college classrooms and “smashing left wing scum,” appears to have hitched its wagon to a falling star. And now they may also be trying to cover that fact up.
It was announced yesterday that James O'Keefe, a conservative videographer, was arrested Monday by the FBI for allegedly participating in a plot to—get this—bug a federal lawmaker’s office building.
James O'Keefe, left, and Stan Dai leave the St. Bernard Parish jail in a taxi cab in Chalmette, La., Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Law enforcement officials believe that O'Keefe, along with 3 other accomplices, plotted to enter Sen. Mary Landrieu’s downtown New Orleans office under the guise of repairing the building’s telephones, in a possible attempt to plant listening devices on the Louisiana Democrat’s phone lines.
While there still aren’t many details about the federal government’s case against O’Keefe, national news organizations have swooped in on the story, since it was O’Keefe who won notoriety in 2009 for dressing up as a pimp with a hidden video camera, as part of a ruse that supposedly showed workers with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) giving advice on how to launder money.
Just a few months ago, Campus Reform, already known for its incendiary rhetoric, praised O'Keefe, and his ethically-dubious brand of “gotcha journalism.” The group’s head honcho, Morton Blackwell, a long-time archconservative operative with the right-wing Leadership Institute, essentially took credit for O'Keefe’s ACORN polemic in a blog post titled “Leadership Institute Connection to James O’Keefe,” noting that “James went to ten different training schools of the Leadership Institute.”
“Now James is a national conservative hero, and I believe he will write his own ticket to a future career doing just what he loves to do,” Blackwell wrote.
But now the excerpt about O’Keefe has disappeared from Kristian’s article, so it looks like even Campus Reform is trying to distance itself from its erstwhile hero.
UPDATE: Following investigative reporting by Campus Progress, the right-wing site Campus Reform has put the original words mentioning O'Keefe back on its site. But that's OK, because we have a screen shot of what the site said just a few hours ago:
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Nice try, though.
Behold, the magic of reporting.
On the Campus Reform post this morning:
These free services for conservative and libertarian students have helped many activists get their start on campus. You can to (sic), by contacting the CSC for your region to learn more about the resources available to you, like the Student Publications Workshop.
Now, back up, the old version:
These free services for conservative and libertarian students also helped anti-ACORN activist James O'Keefe get his start on campus. O'Keefe started an independent newspaper at his school, a project you can duplicate by contacting the CSC for your region to learn more about the resources available to you, like the Student Publications Workshop.
Facing a consistent array of budget shortfalls, the Governator wants to send California inmates to private prisons built in Mexico. This will end well.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that one of his proposals to reduce the state’s fiscal hole is to pay Mexico to build new prisons and fill them with undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"I think we can make it a better prison system only if we take prisoners, for example the 20 thousand prisoners who are undocumented immigrants here, and give them to Mexico," Schwarzenegger said during a question and answer session with the Sacramento Press Club.
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"I think there is no reason why he should have only state employees and public prisons. Why not have private prisons and private prisons compete with public prisons? I do not want to roll back the public prisons, for nothing," he said.
Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio shows his compassion for undocumented women who are having children in his jails.
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Miriam Mendiola-Martínez, an undocumented immigrant detained on identity theft charges while in search a job, gave birth to a child on Dec. 21, in the Maricopa Medical Center.
After having a C-section, she was chained to her hospital bed for two days. She was not allowed breast feed her baby. The Mexican immigrant was shackled and escorted on foot when leaving the medical center, without knowing what would become of her newborn baby.
According to the story, shackled pregnancies are standard for all women who give birth. Family values at work!
Human trafficking is apparently a big business in Mexico.
With the growing threat that human trafficking represents for human rights, the National Commission on Human Rights says those who commit such a crime should be prosecuted and punished, especially when there are authorities involved with the organized delinquency.
It’s about a crime that involves different people: in the first place, the victim, who should be protected and attended to; moreover there exist potential victims who we should alert in order to avoid being hooked,” Fernando Batista Jiménez, fifth visiting general of the commission, pointed out.
To put that in perspective, Sallie Mae spent a total of $4,097,500 million in 2009 to oppose bills like the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which would save $87 billion over 10 years and use the savings to help students pay for college, improve college completion rates, invest in community colleges and minority serving schools.
A report takes a brief look at how one Latina lesbian is perceived by her family:
When Edna Vazquez, from Colima, Mexico, was 16 years old she fell in love with a girl and her parents threw her out of the house.She was sent to live with relatives in Oregon, with the hope that with the separation from her girlfriend she would be drawn away from such a path and would saver her family’s honor. …Her family in Mexico continued to repudiate her, as did Hispanics in Oregon.
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“Hispanics here see us with fear and with shame, but never as equals,” says Vazquez. “I think there’s something not right with us.”
Bolivia begins implementing its new constitution, which includes equal gender representation in government:
For the first time, Bolivia’s ministerial cabinet reflects the gender equality that’s now mandated in country’s the new constitution.
President Evo Morales announced 10 men and 10 women as his ministers this Saturday, noting that a dream is coming true….
"The presence of 50 percent of female ministers in the cabinet, I would say, is a tribute to my mother, my sister and my daughter," Morales said amid applause from his supporters.
ProtectStudentChoice.org, a campaign bankrolled by private lenders opposing President Barack Obama’s college affordability legislation, is taking its message to billboards in Colorado, and probably in other places too.
As Campus Progress reported last month, the campaign has hired Washington D.C.-based public relations firm Qorvis Communications to stage a faux grassroots campaign against the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill in Congress that would move most federally-guaranteed student loans to the existing Direct Lending Program.
While Qorvis operatives admit that the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP)—an interest group of approximately 160 lenders and collection agencies—is funding the campaign, there’s no denying that lending giant Sallie Mae is also intimately connected to the effort.
SAFRA would end the taxpayer subsidized Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, which allows private lenders like Sallie Mae and Nelnet to make large profits on federally-guaranteed loans, even though it is taxpayers, and not banks, who bear the main risk on those loans. By saving money through the elimination of wasteful subsidies to the private middle man, the bill would save $87 billion over 10 years and use the savings to help students pay for college, improve college completion rates, invest in community colleges and minority serving schools, and support early learning programs for young children.
But that doesn't matter to ProtectStudentChoice, which continues to claim that SAFRA would somehow eliminate jobs. Sources in Colorado contacted Campus Progress to complain about the billboards, which feature what seems to be a mother and child, under the deceptive headline “My job is on the line.” But as colleague Pedro de la Torre points out in The Nation, such claims are dubious at best, if not complete bunk.
The billboards, located on bustling Colfax Ave. in Denver, encourage residents to contact their Senators. SAFRA has already been approved in the House of Representatives, and the bill is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
The status quo for student lending has led to a host of abuses, exposed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others, where lenders sometimes compete not through maximizing service but through providing Caribbean trips and other gifts to school financial aid staff. There was never a choice for students, or a fair process, to begin with.
In fact, NCHELP member CollegeInvest was found to have short-changed students with its scholarships, according results of a Colorado state audit last September:
The Early Achievers Scholarship Trust Fund should have been disbursing 5% of fund's value in scholarships or3.8 million in scholarships. The fund actually disbursed only91,000 to 76 students, or 0.1%.
CollegeInvest has spent almost10 in administrative costs for every1 that has been disbursed in scholarships.
The Trust fund investments averaged -4.8% annually which was below its peers at -1.3%.
The Service and Opportunity Scholarship failed to give out 330 out of 565 Service Scholarships and Opportunity Scholarships (58% of available scholarships not given out).
CollegeInvest failed to give out 860,000 of 1.8 million available in scholarship funds under the Service/Opportunity Scholarship.
The findings only demonstrate that the status quo ProtectStudentChoice is working so hard to maintain is, in reality, failing students.
Military officials are hoping to halt what could be an influx of Haitian immigrants trying to get to the Untied States by keeping them in tents in Cuba.
Cuba - The United States has begun erecting tents at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in order to house Haitian immigrant workers in the event of mass migration triggered by the earthquake in the country, said a base official.
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About 100 tents have been built, each with a capacity to accommodate 10 people, and authorities have more than 1,000 additional tents in case of waves of Haitians leave their homeland and are intercepted at sea, said Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Copeman.
Latino residents in Los Angeles are getting desperate since they’ve seen drastic cuts to their state health insurance (Medi-Cal).
Low-income individuals who have no money to pay the thousands required for dental treatment because of Medi-Cal cuts or losses are taking advantage of free services offered to homeless people on Skid Row.
Patients like Guadalupe, a resident of East Los Angeles who wouldn’t reveal her last name, explained that she goes to the Royal County Health Center, which is part of a system of public clincs that control diabetes, to be refered to the University of Southern California Dental School....
The State Supreme Court in Brooklyn begins to hear allegations of abuse at the hands of police officer:
With opening arguments and two witnesses—one of whom is a 13-year-old boy—the trial of policeman Richard Kern, 26, began yesterday. Kern is accused of sodomizing 25-year-old Michael Mineo with a baton. Officers Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz are also being accused of concealing the crime.
Attorney Charles Guria said he could prove that on Oct. 15 in 2008, when the police officers tried to arrest Mineo for smoking marijuana, they chased him to a subway station in Prospect Park, where he was detained. “Kern sexually assaulted him and made sure that he wouldn’t go to a hospital or to a precinct, because if he had, he would have been asked how the injuries were made.”
The Pew Research Center finds that about 1/5 of the U.S. population may not participate in the 2010 census. At the same time, this year marks an unprecedented outreach campaign to the Latino community, which is one of the demographics that's usually under counted.
As the decennial census campaign approaches in only a few weeks, a survey finds that 1 out of 5 people interviewed said they would not participate in the count, owing largely to a lack of interest, along with a great distrust in the U.S. Government.
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The findings come at a time when some groups question if the effort to reach all places, at a cost of $300 million, is doing enough to reach communities that are difficult to access.
More bad news from Arizona if you're an immigrant:
An Arizona Senate committee today approved a bill that proposes to criminalize the mere presence of undocumented immigrants in the state, and prohibit "sanctuary" cities, along with other measures.
"This main purpose of the initiative is to remove barriers that prevent our local authorities from applying immigration laws at their discretion," said State Senator Russell Pearce, who is sponsoring that bill on the Committee of Public Safety and Human Resources in the Arizona senate.
It still remains unclear whether that proposal would actually accomplish anything new, since Arizona is known to have some of the most punitive policies towards immigrants.
Even Argentina newspapers are wary of Tuesday's election results:
The electoral result in Massachusetts on Tuesday couldn't have been more embarrassing or damaging for President Barack Obama. Just as he was planning to celebrate his first year in office, Scott Brown, a Republican senator more known for his prorayal as a model in magazines than for his political activity, won a special election to occupy a seat that was vacated by Edward “Ted” Kennedy, a giant for the Democracts, who was a member of the Senate for 46 years.
Census director Robert Groves is preparing for what he calls a “war.” And that war is coordinating the count of every person in the United States this year, a major event that happens once every decade.
At an event at the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. this morning, Groves likened the census to a war because of the elaborate and tactical planning that is used in the count. For instance, he said, there are troops on the ground who recruit community groups and leaders to assist with the count, there are warehouses across the nation holding an innumerable number of Census forms that are ready to be supplied, and there are virtual war rooms in Washington that will be monitoring the results while forms are being mailed to residents and returned. And all of this is supposed to happen in the span of a few months this year. The official census day is April 1, when forms are supposed to be sent back in the mail. Census takers will then begin going door-to-door until August.
On top of that, the Census Bureau, as part of an increased emphasis on minority communities that are traditionally under counted in the United States, is offering forms in six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Vietnamese. However, only Spanish and English versions will be sent to households. The others will have to be requested through bilingual websites due to printing limitations.
Along with the bureau's renewed efforts, a new survey released by the Pew Research Center Wednesday has revealed that Latinos, low-income residents, and young people, are less likely to participate in the count this year than their peers. For example, 18-29 year olds were the lowest percentage—at 36 percent—to say that they would definitely participate in the census. That's compared with 68 percent of those 65 years and older. For Latinos, the number was 47 percent, the lowest when compared to blacks (57 percent) and whites (61 percent). For those making less than $30,000 a year, only 50 percent said they definitely planned on being counted, compared with 75 percent making $75,000 or more.
This isn't the best news, considering that the 2010 census results will determine the number of seats in the House of Representatives, not to mention federal health care and education funding that states receive.
Despite the reorganization of the Senate with the election of a Republican in Massachusetts on Tuesday, there is still hope for immigration reform:
A year later, things appear to be the same. Despite President Barak Obama’s promises, when he assured that his administration would approve an immigration reform plan, the deadline was met and the promise is still in the air.
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“The president remembers his promise well and I think that he has an understanding of the present political and social circumstances while he struggles with the matter,” noted Congressman Xavier Becerra during a telephone conference.
In what is statistically one of the most important issues for Latino voters, there is another call for immigration reform.
Most Latinos in the street confess they are impatient, but they are still hoping that 2010 will be the year that President Barak Obama will work for the community and immigration reform especially.
Salvadorian Sonia Henríquez knows the United States as “Obama country.” She arrived just a year ago when the Obama was sworn in as the first African American in the White House.
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“He has been good at governing, a realistic person. He’s not going to make miracles, but I do hope that he will follow through with most of his promises,” [Henríquez said.]
The United States may have granted Haitians “temporary protected status,” but law enforcement is still planning on detaining the undocumented immigrants who do arrive from the Caribbean nation.
U.S. authorities are preparing for a possible massive influx of Haitians, who are looking to escape their devastated nation after the earthquake. But immigration policy continues to be the same and it’s expected that almost all will be detained and repatriated upon their arrival to the United States.
As conditions worsened in Haiti, U.S. authorities took provisions. Between 250 and 400 immigrants will be transferred from a main detention center in South Florida in order to free up space for the Haitians that arrive to the U.S. coasts, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Adoption to the United States is being handled differently after the earthquake in Haiti.
The U.S. government announced Monday that there will be a special permit to couples wishing to adopt Haitian children who became orphans after the earthquake, to give them the attention and care required.
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Haitian Ambassador in Washington, Raymond Joseph, told CNN that 33 orphans had already met with her adoptive parents in the United States.
[Homeland Security Secretary] Napolitano noted that decisions will be made on a case by cases basis over whether children will be admitted into the United States.
Mexican rescue crews claim the U.S. military is blocking them from doing their job. The story is developing.
This Tuesday Mexican rescue teams denounced the fact that their work in Haiti is being blocked by military forces from the United States, which have controlled the rescue process and the dispersion of international humanitarian aid….
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"There are people under the rubble alive and we need to rescue them, but they don't let us work," said the [Mexican group commander Carlos Morales Cienfuegos.]
White House press secretary Dana Perino says goodbye to reporters during her final appearance in the press briefing room at the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A familiar face has joined the battle over student financial aid reform: former George W. Bush press secretary and Fox News contributor Dana Perino has fired her first shots, opposing President Obama’s plan to make college more affordable for students. Unfortunately, her contribution to this debate suffers from the same kind of distortions she was known to offer from the White House podium.
At issue is the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill in Congress that would move most federally-guaranteed student loans to the existing Direct Lending Program. This would end the taxpayer subsidized Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, which allows private lenders like Sallie Mae and Nelnet to make large profits on federally-guaranteed loans, even though it is taxpayers, and not banks, who bear the main risk on those loans. By saving money through the elimination of wasteful subsidies to the private middle man, the bill would save $87 billion over 10 years and use the savings to help students pay for college, improve college completion rates, invest in community colleges and minority serving schools, and support early learning programs for young children.
While writing words that clearly mimic Sallie Mae talking points against the bill, Fox News columnist Perino spreads fear of a supposed “public option for student loans” that would “eliminate all choice” in the market. But such claims are contrary to facts. For one thing, the federal government already is in this business: The loan money involved is subsidized and backed by Uncle Sam.
On top of that, under the FFEL program championed by Perino, it’s the colleges, not the students, that choose lenders, a fact that SAFRA opponents openly admitted when they said that students “are sort of stuck with what the schools decide.” And this competition for business has led to a host of abuses, exposed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others, where lenders sometimes compete not through maximizing service but through providing Caribbean trips and other gifts to school financial aid staff. There was never a choice, or a fair process, to begin with.
SAFRA would simply allow the government to have ownership and oversight over federal student loans, rather than wasting billions on the FFEL program and tolerating the ensuing corruption and inefficiency. If the legislation becomes law, private lenders can still earn revenues servicing loans, even if they don’t own them, and lenders will have to compete for these contracts by providing quality service.
Perino’s sudden interest in opposing college affordability is of note because Burson-Marsteller, the public relations firm she joined in April, reported being the only PR agency to work on a “5 billion sale of Sallie Mae to a coalition of private investors” in 2007. There are also recent reports that Perino will be starting her own firm soon. Are Burson-Marsteller or Perino currently paid to advise Sallie Mae? Could the article be an attempt to lure new business? Nothing’s certain yet, but when opponents talk of “eliminating choice and competition in the student loan industry” and Perino writes almost the exact same thing verbatim, that SAFRA would “eliminate all choice and competition in the student lending market,” it’s a convenient coincidence to say the least.
A day after the President Barak Obama’s government had announced that it would suspend deportations to Haiti after the earthquake that hit the Caribbean country, protesters gathered in Manhattan to demonstrate solidarity with detained Haitians and demand liberation for activist Jean Montrevil.
His wife, Janay Montrevil, said: “My feelings are bittersweet. Because of the tragedy that happened in Haiti, I could be a widow today. Although my husband isn’t free, I feel sorry that people would have to die in order for him to be able to have a chance to leave [detention].”
A campaign to encourage Latinos and other immigrants to be part of the U.S. census begins this year:
A massive 4-month publicity campaign in 28 languages and with a budget of 133 million dollars will encourage all of the U.S. population and minority groups to fill out the 2010 census.
Yesterday the U.S. Census Bureau announced the initiative, which aims to raise awareness and educate the public about the importance of counting every person that lives in the country, a process required by a constitutional mandate.
How the upcoming 2010 census will affect politics:
Because census results determine the number of representatives in Congress that each state would have, along with the number of federal funds each would receive, it is being predicted that communities with a greater number of Latinos will benefit most, because the Hispanic population has grown substantially over the past ten years.
The census is only used to determine the number of individuals living in the United States. Immigration status is not asked by the federal government.
An on-line videogame coming out of Australia called El Emigrante allows users to play as an undocumented immigrant while running from police. In the game—which depicts the immigrant as a dark-skinned, sombrero-wearing, criminal—players control their character as he rides a bicycle through the desert and earn points the longer they avoid police. Before the action starts, the undocumented immigrant is seen hopping over what is presumed to be a border fence on the bike.
On a lighter note today after our continuing news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, Campus Progress has learned that the “Yes Men”—an artist collective known for pulling elaborate pranks on big business conglomerates—has asked a federal court in Washington D.C. to dismiss a lawsuit that was filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against the group in October.
The Chamber, the world’s largest business organization, sued the group, shortly after Yes Men operatives impersonated Chamber officials at a faux press conference, announcing to media outlets that they would not only stop opposing legislation to regulate climate change, but that they would also support it. The collective, like it’s done many times before for other pranks, also created a website nearly identical to the Chambers’, where they posted their announcement.
Of course, the Chamber, a long and strong opponent against tackling global warming through regulation, was not turning over a new leaf. While media outlets like CNBC and Reutersreported the story and the fake news conference as fact, other reporters caught wind of the hoax at a rapid pace. Then the real Chamber sued the Yes Men, alleging “trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising.”
But now the Yes Men (and their 4 lawyers) are fighting back, and asking the court to dismiss the charges on the basis that the perpetrators were participating in a non-commercial “parody designed to poke fun at the Chamber and spark debate over its position on climate change.” Such parody is protected under the 1st amendment, according to the court motion, which was officially filed on Jan. 5.
Here are few gems from the motion:
The issue of climate change presents perhaps the most pressing scientific – and political issue – that the world has ever faced. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s (“Chamber’s”) skepticism of climate change has led many large members, including Apple, Inc. and Pacific Gas & Electric to withdraw from the nation’s largest business trade organization. The Yes Men, famous for impersonating government officials and business executives, created and carried out an elaborate parody designed to poke fun at the Chamber and spark debate over its position on climate change.
…
Court after court has rejected similar efforts [by the Chamber], finding that neither trademark nor any other law can be a conduit to silencing core political speech about matters of political concern so clearly protected by the First Amendment. Moreover, even accepting the Chamber’s allegations as true for the purpose of this motion, the defendants’ use of the Chamber’s trademarks was nominative and unquestionably designed to mock and ridicule the Chamber’s stance on climate change.
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