immigrant rights

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; There are real problems and there are distractions. The former require our undivided attention and focus but it’s the latter that often make the morning headlines.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; On Nov. 19, 2011, the Border Angels will hold their 25 anniversary celebration at the San Diego Centro Cultural de la Raza. The event marks a quarter of a century of defending and protecting immigrant rights on the US border and throughout America.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; In response to a new report out [last week] on families separated by deportation, I have to express my profound disgust with a system that has left more than 5000 citizen children in foster care because their parents were deported. These policies are un-American and deeply troubling.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; How does waiving the Endangered Species Act in Glacier National Park help secure the border?</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Simple. It doesn’t.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; An electrified fence. On the border. Designed to kill people. Along with “real guns with real bullets.”</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; This is the immigration “plan” recently proposed by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; And he’s one of his party’s frontrunners.</p>

<p></p>
<p><strong>Birmingham</strong><strong>, Alabama</strong> – Illinois congressman Luis Gutiérrez has always said that the fight for immigration reform is a civil-rights issue for the immigrant community in the United States.</p>

<p><strong>Program Director, American Friends Service Committee – San Diego</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Obama Administration officials this week touted their high record numbers of deportations – nearly 400,000 last fiscal year – as “smart and effective” law enforcement. It is neither.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Rather it reflects a precipitous loss of moral ground by a Washington political elite that has lost touch with the political realities of communities for which it is supposed to be representing.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Alabama is famous for self-deception, lying and stupidity unmatched in American history, except of course, by its neighboring sister state, Mississippi.</p>