iMMIGRATION (43)

How Latinos have changed the American landscape

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An examination of Latinos' lives over a 20-year span found increasing diversity and major educational and economic gains, though some inequalities remain, according to a new report by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. The big picture: The report, which compared U.S. Census data from 2000 and 2o20, paints a picture of just how much Latinos have changed the American landscape — and how it's changed them, too.

By the numbers: Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants still account for the largest share of U.S. Latinos (59%), but the share of people from South and Central America is quickly growing, owing largely to political and economic instability in those nations. READ MORE AT AXIOS

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A year away from another election cycle, a nationwide poll of Hispanic Americans shows their opinions, interests and preferences don’t align perfectly with either of the country’s two major political parties.

When asked what topics matter most to them, 29% said COVID-19 is the most pressing issue facing the nation. After the pandemic, 19% think the most important issue is jobs and the economy, followed by health care. Only 6% said immigration, race relations and education are the most pressing issue. READ MORE AT THE CENTER SQUARE

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Paula Carde’s family business almost didn’t get off the ground, because no traditional bank was willing to extend an initial line of credit to the fledgling construction company. “I went to SunTrust, I went to BB&T, I went to Four Oaks,” says Carde, “and because our business was so new, they weren’t willing to give us enough.”

The only North Carolina financial institution willing to take a chance on Carde, her brother, and her father—all immigrants from Chile—was the Latino Community Credit Union, headquartered in Durham. The 26-year-old Carde had been depositing her paychecks there for years, and in retrospect she should have approached LCCU first. Taking chances on immigrants is what the credit union does.

LCCU, which has 10 branches throughout North Carolina, serves a population that most other financial institutions overlook. Many of its members live paycheck to paycheck, have never opened a deposit account, and don’t speak fluent English. Yet LCCU is one of the fastest-growing and most financially stable credit unions in the country, with a delinquency rate lower than those of its peers. READ MORE

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Hispanic women in the Un8602386254?profile=originalited States, who have generally had the highest fertility rates in the country, are choosing to have fewer children. Both immigrant and native-born Latinas had steeper birthrate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups, including non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians, a drop some demographers and sociologists attribute to changes in the views of many Hispanic women about motherhood.

As a result, in 2011, the American birthrate hit a record low, with 63 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, led by the decline in births to immigrant women. The national birthrate is now about half what it was during the baby boom years, when it peaked in 1957 at 122.7 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. READ MORE

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At the end of May 2007, Jorge Sanchez loaded his cousin's pickup truck and moved his young family from an apartment into a house in Fitchburg. The house was just three years old. Its light brown siding was accented by a bright red front door. A park sat invitingly down the street.

That was six years after Sanchez and his wife, Minerva Abrajan, natives of Puebla, Mexico, arrived in Madison. They're not citizens, but, as permanent residents who pay U.S. taxes, the UW-Madison janitors obtained a mortgage under a new loan program aimed at extending home ownership to people who previously couldn't qualify.

"We wanted a house because we had two kids already," Sanchez said. "We wanted something better for them."

The new program opened a door to home loans to non-citizens, helping usher in a sharp increase in homeownership among local Latinos in the second half of the last decade — shortly before a corresponding increase in foreclosure filings against the same group a few years later.

The loans, first offered through a Wisconsin Housing and Economic Authority (WHEDA) pilot program and later by an array of private lenders, allowed people with individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs, to apply for home loans. But ITIN loans suffered from bad timing and, in some cases, left the intended beneficiaries more downtrodden financially than before they got the loans.

In 2004, when ITIN loans started being issued by a local lender, foreclosures were filed against eight Latinos in Dane County, based on a review of court documents identifying Latinos by what the federal Census Bureau defines as commonly occuring last names. In 2009, that number ballooned to 125 — Jorge Sanchez among them —an increase of 1,462 percent. Total foreclosure filings skyrocketed as well but at an increase of 302 percent. READ MORE

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The state superintendent of public instruction is in hot water with the Latino community over a comment he made.

Tom Horne implied Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who were close allies when the late labor rights leader founded the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) were romantically involved.

Horne made the comment last week when he testified before a House committee on a bill that would outlaw ethnic studies in public schools.

He said, “The real outrage is that Dolores Huerta told a mandatory high school assembly that republicans hate Latinos.” READ FULL STORY
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A group of young Hispanics protested the visit of Republican president hopeful Mitt Romney to Arizona because of his stance on immigration reform and the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students.

“We’re here because we’re not going to let Romney attack the immigrant youth. We’re very bothered and disappointed by his promise to veto the DREAM Act if it gets to the White House,” Dulce Matuz, president of the Arizona Coalition for the DREAM Act, told Efe.

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/latino-students-protesting-romney-in-arizona-for-anti-dream-act-stance/13963/

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8602372292?profile=originalThe self-described American patriot leaps into the ring amid blaring music and loud boos from an overwhelmingly Latino audience, who hold aloft signs in Spanish supporting his masked Mexican opponents.

"My name is RJ Brewer and I'm from Phoenix, Arizona," the wrestler proclaims, in a video of a recent match provided by the promoter. Taunts inside the arena get louder.

The wrestler proceeds to rail against Mexican beer and to demand that people speak English. Then he points to the message painted on the backside of his red trunks: "SB1070" — a reference to Arizona's controversial immigration law. The crowd, some wearing masks of their favorite Mexican wrestlers, shrieks even louder.

When his masked opponent in a red cape appears, the crowd erupts into cheers.

Lucha libre — or "free wrestling" in Spanish — is a brand of Mexican wrestling that dates to the 1930s. The sport came north to the United States along with Mexican immigrants, and over the years it has spawned clubs in U.S. cities with large Latino communities.

As promoters target growing Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American markets, they and their wrestlers' fictional personas have begun to adopt a more overtly political storyline revolving around immigration. It's akin to what U.S. wrestling promoters did in the 1980s and 1990s, when they took on race and the Cold War, but with one key twist — now the American is the bad guy.

"It's something that we've been building in our TV shows and we've gotten a lot of positive reaction to it," said Steve Ship, CEO of Lucha Libre USA, which this week is launching a "Masked Warriors" tour. "So we are bringing it right to our audience."

Arizona's immigration law requires all immigrants in the state to obtain or carry immigration registration papers and requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question people's immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they're in the country illegally. The law is being challenged by the federal government and has sparked protests by Latino advocates around the country. READ MORE

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Yesterday’s South Carolina Republican debate set in idyllic Myrtle Beach belied the chaotic and boisterous verbal dueling going on inside the Myrtle Beach Conference Center.

There didn’t appear to be much adherence to time limits or audience control – the booing was at one of the highest decibel levels seen thus far. 

Only Romney seemed above it all by focusing not on the other Presidential contenders but rather on Obama bashing.  Most of the early questions focused on Romney’s business style and his job growth record – you would of thought he was the CEO of multiple Fortune 100’s by the number of jobs he allegedly created instead of financing the talents of the real job creators – entrepreneurs.

After debating on how to create jobs, who hated Osama bin Laden more and all agreeing 99er’s (those American out of work more than 99 weeks) are for sure deadbeats, questions of immigration landed on Romney’s podium.

The man who continuously asserted his priority to ‘strengthening families’ didn’t appear bothered much by splitting up families when a member is deported or having as many of the undocumented leave ASAP.

When the question on immigration was posed it was started by the moderating panel pointing out that Romney’s father was born in Mexico – while returning to the U.S. where Mitt was born making him the ultimate anchor baby (that’s my term not theirs).

The question was framed as to why when someone had a father born in Mexico are they also identified ‘as having one of the harshest stance on immigration.’ 

Let me point at what is being implied here.  Point One -Romney you are of Mexican descent, have relatives living in Mexico.  Point Two – Your father left Mexico for the U.S. to give his family a better opportunity.  Point Three - The people you are seeking to deport or at least the majority of them could be family or family of family, i.e. Mexican.  Point Four – You are the son of an immigrant yet don’t connect with the immigrant struggle.http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/por-que/details/leave-and-get-in-line-romney-tells-the-undocumented-at-the-sc-debate/13373/

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The Senate this week confirmed Robert Groves, a former census official and sociology professor at the University of Michigan, to run the Census Bureau. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced him ''a respected social scientist who will run the Census Bureau with integrity and independence.'' The appointment will hardly still controversy over the 2010 census. To guarantee the most accurate count of the 300 million or so Americans, federal officials promise confidentiality. But now a group of Latino clergymen is charging that widely published census data is being used to crack down on illegal immigrants. And they're calling on people in the country illegally not to answer the census. "Law enforcement has been very effective in areas where the data of census 2000 has been used," said Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, a Washington-D.C.-based group of 20,000 churches, many of them storefronts serving undocumented workers. READ FULL STORY
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Latinos flock to New Orleans

For the first time since it was a Spanish colony some 200 years ago, New Orleans is getting revitalized by Spanish speakers. One of the more dramatic and immediate impacts of Hurricane Katrina has been the influx of thousands of new Latinos who have moved to the city to detoxify, renovate and rebuild storm damaged roads, flood walls, businesses and homes. Following a mini-boom in Latinos has been a growing number of Latino-owned businesses, especially in the retail and service sectors. Two Mexican eateries, Taqueria Guerrero and El Rinconcito, now sandwich a longtime New Orleans Italian ice cream shop, Angelo Brocato's, in MidCity. A few blocks away, a Latino-owned beauty parlor recently opened. Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' Latino population hovered around 3%. Officially, it's now around 4.5%, according to a 2008 census survey. That number is sure to grow. Nearly half of all New Orleans area construction workers are Latino, according to a 2006 population study by Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley. And the number of Hispanic children registered in the Orleans Parish public school system reported nearly doubled, going from 3% up to 5.6%. READ FULL STORY
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The parameters of a new (and probably soon to be surreal) immigration reform battle were drawn up last week in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, June 25th, President Obama appointed Janet Napolitano as the administration's "point person" to help develop bipartisan, sensible legislation which will overhaul our long-outdated immigration system. Two hours before Obama's announcement, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, admitted the administration does not have the votes in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year. READ FULL STORY
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Latinos to protest Obama's immigration policies

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Latino activists said Monday they are planning a national "day of action" to protest President Barack Obama and demand an end to a controversial program involving local officials in immigration enforcement.

Actions are scheduled for Tuesday in 10 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, New York, Houston and San Francisco.

"Since signaling a new course in our immigration policy a few weeks ago, President Obama has continued his aggressive persecution, jailing, and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who he has labeled 'criminals' and whose lives are being destroyed through traffic violations and similar minor infractions," said Roberto Lovato of Presente.org, a Latino rights organization.

Protesters want an immediate end to Secure Communities, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that seeks to find unauthorized immigrants who have criminal records and deport them.

Federal officials have praised the program, arguing it allows authorities to catch criminals who would otherwise fall through the cracks. But critics say it results in the deportations of immigrants who are in the United States illegally but have no criminal arrest records. READ MORE

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What Health Care Reform Means for Latinos

Health care reform plans don’t include any kind of public coverage for undocumented immigrants. President Barack Obama has even said that including the undocumented would create "a lot of resistance." But this hasn’t stopped opponents, including anti-immigrant lobbyist groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), from denouncing supposed "loop holes" in the proposals that they say would benefit the undocumented. "Many Americans have used town hall meetings to express their opposition to illegal aliens covered under the proposed health reform," FAIR announced in a statement. A few days ago in New Hampshire, a group of opponents of health care reform in one of the famous "town halls" expressed the sentiment more openly: "We do not need illegal immigrants. Deport them to their countries, and the second time they’ll get shot in the head." But it’s not only undocumented immigrants who would be excluded. Activists are struggling to expand coverage for another particularly vulnerable group that does not qualify for public assistance: legal immigrants in their first five years of residence in the United States. READ FULL STORY
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Linda Alvarado personifies the American Dream. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a poor immigrant family, she was able to go to college and found a successful construction company that went from pouring concrete sidewalks to building multi-million dollar airports, convention centers and stadiums.

“The American dream is also the Hispanic American dream,” says Alvarado. “America is a country that has a lot of diversity and it enables people in ways that perhaps in other countries may not be as easy.”

Alvarado, who is Mexican American, calls her veer into construction “one of those great unplanned careers.” She was attending Pomona College in Claremont, California on an academic scholarship, majoring in economics, and needed a job, she says. “I didn’t want to work in the library or food service, so I got a referral to work grounds-keeping.”

Her soon-to-be-boss tried to dissuade her, telling her she’d have to do heavy lifting and wouldn’t be able to wear nice shoes. But something about the experience really spoke to Alvarado. “I said to myself, ‘Let me get this right. I don’t have to go the gym, I will get a tan and will work with all this single men—and you’ll pay me to do this,’” she jokes. That job was followed by one at a development company where, Alvarado says, “I dreamed of getting into construction and building high rises.”

“Sometimes, while people plan on what they are doing, opportunities may come our way,” she says. “We need to be careful that we don’t eliminate ourselves and run when in fact there are opportunities even in very non-traditional careers.” READ MORE

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President Barack Obama’s signature battle to overhaul the United States’ $2.5 trillion healthcare industry to extend coverage and lower costs for Americans has met fierce opposition from Republicans. But a move by Democrat backers to exclude 12 million illegal immigrants from buying health coverage and restrict the participation of authorized migrants has drawn the ire of U.S. Hispanics — a bloc that overwhelmingly turned out to vote for Obama in last year’s election. Hispanic lawmakers and activists are riled by the bill pushed in the U.S. Senate by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, which denies illegal immigrants the option to buy health insurance and places a five-year wait period on legal immigrants before they can access health benefits. READ FULL STORY
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Nike mentors give Latino youth a career boost

Seven Latino students at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus are getting a jolt of business savvy from Nike workers, one meeting and piece of advice at a time. As part of a mentoring program that partners the Nike Latino and Friends Network with students from the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), each of the students – all first-generation college scholars from migrant-worker backgrounds – work with a Nike employee at honing crucial job skills and creating networking opportunities. READ FULL STORY
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Focus sharpens on Saratoga's Latinos

Bety Hernandez walks horses by day at the Saratoga Race Course and watches over them by night. She has worked behind the scenes for nine summers at the track, sending money home to Mexico to support her mother in Guadalajara. Tuesday, Hernandez was the center of attention when she received the "best of show" award for a photograph she entered in the exhibit, "Vision, A Look at Life Behind the Scenes." When she accepted the award, Hernandez said in Spanish, "It's very important for people to see what the Latin community is contributing to this community." READ FULL STORY
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Lawyer Leads an Immigration Fight

On a recent morning, Kris W. Kobach, a conservative law professor, rushed late into a federal courtroom here with his suit slightly rumpled and little more than a laptop under his arm. His mission was to persuade the judge to uphold an ordinance adopted by a Dallas suburb that would bar landlords from renting housing to illegal immigrants. A team of lawyers from a Latino advocacy group had set up early at the opposing table, fortified with legal assistants and stacks of case documents. Unfazed, Mr. Kobach unleashed a cascade of constitutional arguments. Case names and precedents spilled out so rapidly that the judge had to order Mr. Kobach several times to slow down. READ FULL STORY
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The Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey has sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to revoke 287(g) status for Morristown and Monmouth County, according to Sunday's editions of El Diario, a regional Spanish language daily newspaper. The letter was sent last week signaling "profound disagreement" with the administration's move to grant immigration officer status to Morristown police and the Monmouth Sheriff's Department.http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/noticias/2009/7/19/no-a-poder-migratorio-para-pol-136230-1.html# "We are asking him to reconsider," Martin Perez, LLA president, is quoted as saying. READ FULL STORY
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