New Orleans

Of course if you really listen to the Telemundo interview on YouTube, which I did thanks to the prompting of a friend, you will find that the Lou-leopard has really not changed his spots all that much.  This must be conversion-lite?  Perhaps one of the best examples occurs when Dobbs is talking about his buddy, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the notorious and infamous jail keeper of Maricopa County.

On Telemundo Dobbs had this weird “defense” of Sheriff Joe having “lost” his 287g Homeland Security money due to his ongoing racial profiling and community terrorism because he was victimized by…yes, you guessed it:  ACORN!  Of course Sheriff Joe still has Homeland Security money from ex-Arizona Governor and now DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, he just doesn’t have quite as much.  And, of course Sheriff Joe lost what bit he lost because he wasn’t really out looking for these immigrant “criminals” that Dobbs still wants to pretend are the vast majority of the 12 million undocumented workers in the USA.  To me it sounds a little bit like Dobbs is simply moving his position a couple of degrees without changing any of his hateration.  Now does he want us to believe his spiel will be he’s a friend of the immigrant, he just hates criminals, so it’s too bad that all immigrants are criminals.  Is this where he’s going?

There’s a good way to clear this up.  There is a huge call for a rally and march in Phoenix on January 16^th to force Arpaio to finally get right.  The demand will once again be for Arpaio to stop the terrorism of Maricopa County communities and his immigrant bashing and baiting.  The demand will also be to cease the abuses of the 287g program and to end the program since Arpaio is the poster boy for its unparalleled and unrestrained abuses.  March with us in Phoenix, Lou!  Stand up or shut up!

In fact I’m going to lobby right now for the organizers of the January 16^th March to formally invite Lou Dobbs to speak to the rally and clarify his position about immigrants.  Standing with immigrants means standing against abuse.

Lou Dobbs, it’s time to man up for immigrants.  You want anyone to believe you?  Meet us in Phoenix and prove you not all talk, but are at least about a little bit of action – and justice for immigrants.

San Francisco

The JBL’s, as we have fondly called them for more than a decade, were named for Jane Bagley Lehman, one of our dearly departed shining lights from the Tides Foundation’s early board.  Every year they recognize someone whose public advocacy from the local level has impact on national policy.  Salvador Reza, leader of the fight against Sheriff Arpaio and the outrages of the Homeland Security 287(g) program, Artemio Arreola, the political director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and one of the sparkplugs of immigration reform, and the widely known leader in this movement, Angelica Salas, from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) were the awardees.

The Momentum Conference specializes in presentations.  The designs are strong and moving.  The speeches are concise and timed to the second.  The graphics and video are hip and grabbing.  The momentum is fast paced with a strong up beat.

Artemio, Salvador, and Angelica all struck different notes after they were introduced by Russell Long one of our committee collective.  Yes, it was partially the welcomed accents and grammatical flourishes that add life to the language, but it was also the passion, sloppy and strident, as it burst over the two minute limits in each acceptance speech.  These were not slick appeals to the intellect delivered with poise and wit, but hammer strokes to the heart that spoke from pain and urgency about life and death.  These were calls for help for a cause that is struggling to hold the national light, but is every present in the raids in Phoenix, the worker centers of Los Angeles, and the hometown associations of Little Mexico in Chicago.

Salvador told me later he was surprised so many people he spoke to at the conference knew about Sheriff Joe and had heard about the problems in Phoenix.  This is the reality of someone fighting day to day on home turf.  It matters little to him whether this has been the subject of editorials in the New York Times, because the Times do not change his problem with the Arizona Republic.  When he looks out at the Momentum crowd, he doesn’t see his people, so he doesn’t assume support, and in fact clearly it surprises him.  He doesn’t these people in Phoenix or hears their voices.

Artemio had spoken about how he was going to use the money, $7500, which came with the award.   Suddenly, he was a philanthropist speaking to philanthropists.  Part of it was going to the hometown association in the Mexican state where he was from, part of it was going to help three families in Chicago struggling to survive as they faced exportation, and part of it was going to a new project that ICIRR was trying to start to add to the voices.  Didn’t he know that it is hard to track accountability in granting outside the US?  Didn’t he know that money is “wasted” when given to individuals?  Didn’t he know you get “more bang for your bucks” when you support established organizations and not new ideas?  Didn’t he know that $7500 was chum change?

Hell, no!  He was betting it all to win, place, and show!

The JBL’s were followed by a “fishbowl” discussion that was excellently moderated by Alexis McGill Johnson and featured the calmly collected and incisive remarks of Congresswoman Donna Edwards from Maryland’s 4^th District and the surprisingly frank and engaging Ben Jealous, a young man on the go who is now trying to remake the NAACP on its 100^th anniversary.  All of it was fascinating and timely, and they did a great job.

Unfortunately, they had to follow the passion of the immigrant rights warriors making these great leaders of our times seem stilted and artificial next to the heartfelt pleas of Salvador, Artemio, and Angelica to the Momentum participants for help and action right now, this minute, and no maybes.

New Orleans

Napolitano has ignited sparks from reformers (I would have liked to have written “firestorm,” but it would have been a lie) for increasing the pressure on immigrant families, ignoring violations of human rights, and advancing rather than stopping the abuses of 287(g) which subcontracts la migra to local law “enforcement” types like the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona.  This meeting was a “who’s who.”  Representatives were there from the AFL-CIO, SEIU, HERE, UFW, CASA de Maryland, National Immigration Forum, the Center for Community Change, America’s Voices, the National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network, the National Council of La Raza, LULAC, and others, but also from Wal-Mart, IBM, McDonalds, the Chamber of Commerce, and other businesses.

Talking to people there seems to have been several takeaways from the meeting.  One is that they are VERY sensitive to the problems with 287(g).  The President specifically mentioned it, but he also said they were sticking with it.  The gesture was a little like him saying, “…you have beautiful eyes,” and then popping his finger in your eye.  Another by all of the White House folks, was essentially that, “…the President can NOT get this done.”  I’m sure they added “without you,” but given the stunted capacity of the field operations for immigration reform and the atrophied “movement” for reform in recent years and what has turned out to be false and misplaced hopes that the White House could win this and “our” contribution could be handled in the beltway, this was sobering and bad news.

Given the messages of hate and polarization that we are seeing in the healthcare fight and the right mobilizations in many town halls, the real message of the meeting seemed to be that immigration reform has no real chance until late 2010, and without a huge surge from the base and a rekindling of the grassroots movement for real change here, it may have no chance at all.