Immigration
We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.
Day laborers sing ‘Ese Gúey No Paga’ (That dude doesn’t pay)
Not only is getting the work really fracking hard – you have to hang outside Home Depot and chase contractors’ trucks – but lots of times day laborers work all day and then get ripped off for their pay.
This cumbia music video from Los Jornaleros del Norte (The Day Laborers of the North) and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network highlights the fight against wage theft.
“Ese gúey no paga,” they sing. “That dude doesn’t pay!”
Mas…Day laborers sing ‘Ese Gúey No Paga’ (That dude doesn’t pay)
East L.A. Play by Play: ‘Undocumented Football’ (poetry video)
It’s the fall football classic — Garfield versus Roosevelt — the East Los high school football rivalry that has lasted generations; David A. Romero supplies the play by play.
DREAMers: Here’s how to apply for DACA [POCHO Video PSA]
This video tries maybe too hard to be cool, but it’s packed with information for college students on how to apply for DACA. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is President Obama’s program — established by Executive Order — that can keep you from getting deported and help you get a driver’s license, work authorization, and in-state tuition rates.
In Beverly Hills, a cardboard gardener ‘represents’ (photos, video)
We first met West Hollywood artist Ramiro Gomez when he began placing his hand-painted cardboard figures of immigrant laborers in prominent public spaces in Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Even as his audience has expanded via out-of-town art exhibits and a documentary film, he still plants cutout cardboard workers in places where their real-life counterparts have been before. Gomez’ aim? To make workers who are normally INVISIBLE become visible to passersby who look away or look but never see.
This gardener with a hose popped up Wednesday just before sunset in Beverly Hills near that famous hotel. Like all Gomez’ creations, he has a name. Meet Sergio.
Mas…In Beverly Hills, a cardboard gardener ‘represents’ (photos, video)
RIP: Two toons from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Tony Auth
Tony Auth, the Pultizer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, died Sunday at 72. These two toons are POCHO Prize winners, we think.
Mas…RIP: Two toons from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Tony Auth
Undocumented immigrants: The invisible victims of 9/11
The undocumented immigrants impacted by the bombing of the World Trade Center were practically invisible to the government and agencies that were supposed to help them, two academics reported Tuesday.
The victims and their families were never properly counted because of their social and political isolation from wider society:
- Immigrants without papers distrusted law enforcement and were wary of drawing attention to themselves.
- Even if they did come forward, they lacked the paperwork necessary to prove claims and receive assistance.
- Public opinion linking immigration and terrorism after 9/11 exacerbated the risks of coming out of the MIGRA closet.
Study authors Alexandra Délano and Benjamin Nienass explain:
How the Minutemen will stop the ‘Latino-ization’ of America (video)
Thank God for patriots like the Minutemen, who are mobilizing a militia to stop the hordes of refugee children invading our country. These volunteer vigilantes are fighting the fiendish conspiracy which wants to Latino-ize America! The Daily Show’s Michael Che is on the case.
It’s a long, hard road from Central America to El Norte
Escaping criminal gangs in Central America and crossing Mexico to enter the U.S. without papers is only the first step in a long journey, a journey with an ending that remains unknown.
The Intercept tells the story:
A few nights ago, Ana crossed illegally into the United States from Guatemala. Her husband paid a coyote $4,000 to smuggle Ana and their son through the lowland jungles of southern Mexico, up the San Pedro river to the Texas border.
“A gang was after us,” Ana says in a daze, digging her knuckles into her cheeks to stay awake. She and her child were just released from a 48-hour stay at a detention center where it was too cold to sleep.
Alaskans praise candidate who will save us from illegals with tats
(PNS reporting from ANCHORAGE, AK) Some they call him Joe, some they call him Doh! but one group of Alaska voters is 100% behind Joe Miller, the Tea Party-affiliated candidate who is seeking a United States Senate nomination.
“His campaign mailer (click on photo to enlarge) convinced us that Miller will do a great job keeping the thriving Latino community of Alaska in check,” read a press release issued Thursday by Cecilia Jones, the president of National Organization for Minorities, Advertisements, Media Exposure and Symbolism. “And that especially goes for your drug-dealing border-crossing tat-wearing illegal alien Democrat voters!”
Mas…Alaskans praise candidate who will save us from illegals with tats
Bush Sr. backs DREAMers, Reagan says ‘no border fence’ (1980 video)
Come with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear (1980), when Republican candidate George H.W. Bush backed the rights of kids brought into the country without documents and GOP rival Ronald W. Reagan just said no to a fence on the Mexican border.
War on drugs, war on immigrants are racism in action (video)
America’s “mass incarceration and the U.S. deportation machine are deeply intertwined,” according to Colorlines.com. “And black immigrants get swept up in both systems. A new video from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration spells it out.”
Jon Stewart: I can solve kid crisis at the border (educational video)
Why do the right wing haters make it so hard? The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart knows exactly what to do to clean up the mess at the border. PRO TIP: Do not risk monitor damage and/or electric shock by drinking coffee, beer or any other beverage while watching this educational video. Extreme danger of spitting on the screen! Kombucha drinker? Put down the beverage and step away from the computer.
Reality check at the Sierra Blanca, Texas border checkpoint (video)
At the Sierra Blanca, Texas, border checkpoint, even La MIGRA has realized that immigrants have rights.
PREVIOUSLY ON THE BORDER:
Mas…Reality check at the Sierra Blanca, Texas border checkpoint (video)
Political Science: How a bill becomes a law (toons, video)
Last week, the Republican-uncontrolled House of Representatives failed to pass a minimal spending bill to help with the unexpected crush of Central American refugees, adjourned, and then reconvened to approve a mean-spirited barebones measure that also would reverse President Obama’s DACA relief for DREAMers, and worse. Then they adjourned again.
Of course, the bill has no chance of passage in the Senate, let alone getting a Presidential signature.
Their obstructionist mission accomplished, the do-nothing pendejos left town for their summer hideouts in the rich white safety of their home districts.
Their Tea Party-twisted debates, however, left a lingering aroma over Capitol Hill, and it wasn’t Laspang Souchong.
SPOILER ALERT: The aroma was SHIT.
Mas…Political Science: How a bill becomes a law (toons, video)
