Tequila Party?

Well, there might be a Tequila party but it isn't the type of parties that we are used to... Instead, this Tequila party is in the midst of formation, inspired by the success of the Tea party, but this party is a boycott against the democratic party from the Latino voters. The idea of the Tequila party is floating around be the Latino voters are tired of the democratic party not delivering or putting aside Latinos are top priority. Robert de Posada, the man behind this fall's controverial "Don't Vote" ads said "The Tequila Party is a great concept to basically say, 'You know what? This blind support for you is coming to an end'. If you are perceived as someone who will never vote for a Republican, then you're screwed," because Democrats will take you for granted."

I think that it's about time that the Latino voters stand up for themselves! It always seems like they are getting pushed around from one political party to another just to gain votes that are needed, and then tossed out once they have done what was expected. There have been so many false promises made to the Latinos to gain their vote, but with no outcome once the elections are over. It isn't fair what is happening to them, and even though I don't necessarily agree with everything the Latinos are in favor for, I don't think that it's right that they get tricked and lied to just to gain their vote. I know that elections are basically a pleasing game, just promising anything to gain as many votes but then not acting on what was promised, but it seems like Latinos are targeted wwwaaaayyyyy more than other other ethnic, or religious groups out there! I say go Tequila Party! It's time to stand up and actually be heard (Just not pretended to be heard)! The only think I would change is the name- it's a little hard to take a political party seriously when the name they want to be called by is known to make clothes come off.... hmmmmm....


Article 

U.K. imposes new permanent immigration quota

Britain has decided to cap their work visas starting in April 2011 to 22,000 non- EU workers allowed in the country, reserving 1,000 of those visas to talented scientists, academics and artists. This is about one-fifth smaller than the amount of visas given in the year 2009.  This new decision came after growing pressure from the public and the burden on public services. Along with the cap,  no staff member who earn under 40,000 pounds (US$63,500) per year will be eligible to stay for longer than 12 months.

It seems like the whole world always complains about the United States closing their borders to immigrant workers. Now, with Britain capping their visas, countries shouldn't be complaining about us anymore! Especially since in the future, Britain will "kick out" visa holders making less than $63,500. That seems a little excessive to me. If our country created an outrageous rule like that for our visas, people everywhere would be having a cow and complaining about how we do not support the poor or the underprivileged BUT it would certainly solve our issues with illegal immigrants "taking our jobs" because we could just kick them out, oooorrrrrr they would actually start taking our real jobs such as medical or law practices, than we would really see the true meaning of taking our jobs!

Article

Only in Prescott....

So there's an elementary school in Prescott called Miller Valley Elementary School and last semester they started to paint a mural on one of the sides of the building that has a "darker" colored boy as the main focal point. Well, that did not sit well with the citizens of Prescott. Many were outraged that someone would even think about painting an African American boy on the side that faces one of the busiest intersections in the town, and to make it better, the painter tried to defend himself and say that the boy was not African American but was instead Hispanic. Like that made it any better!! So the painter decided to lighten the skin of the boy because "Jeff Lane, the school's principal, insisted his request for the faces in the mural to be lightened had nothing to do with race, but was intended to make them appear happier and brighter." Soooooooo does that mean that darker skinned people aren't happy and bright?! Interesting choice of words. This event was so big that it even made news in the U.K. where I found an article talking about it. AWESOME!! So not only do we hold up the ignorant stereotype claiming that white people are happier and brighter BUT we officially have been openly racist, especially after SB 1070.

For more information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7807030/Artist-attacked-over-childrens-skin-tone-in-Arizona-school-mural.html

Arizona takes a hard hit economically because of SB 1070

Yahoo! News reported that since Arizona passed the immigration bill just four months ago, the state has lost about 141 millions dollars in visitor spending. Meetings and conferences that are canceled as a protest against the immigration bill will also cost the state nearly 2,800 thousand jobs and would trigger over a quarter billion dollars in lost economic output and more than 86 million in lost wages over the next three years.

I knew of Arizona being boycotted because of the immigration bill, but I never realized that this state would be taking such a hard hit economincally. It seems a little drastic that people are boycotting all of the state by canceling meetings and conferences, especially because they are lumping everyone living in Arizona in just a single group and punishing the voters or people against the immigration bill. I feel like people should boycott our government and not the state as a whole. It isn't fair that we are getting punished for what out government wants to do. It also is unfortunate for the tourists that are boycotting this state because that means they get to miss out on some pretty awesome places like the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Fossil Creek, Walnut Canyon, Meteor Crater, Flagstaff/ San Francisco Peaks, and don't forget Route 66!!

Arizona is already suffering economically, it will be interesting how hard we will get hit in the next two or three years and how long the effects will last.


Article

California Supreme Court upholds law allowing illegal immigrants in-state tuition at universities

The Court in California has decided to uphold a law that lets illegal immigrants who have attended at least three years of high school and graduated from  a high school in California can now get the same tuition breaks as U.S. in-state students. The ruling reversed a decision by the state Court of Appeals that students who have illegal immigration status should pay out-of state costs. This gives students who are unable to apply for federal education grants or loans a break of more than $22,000.

Some people are having problems with this, claiming that it isn't fair that illegals are getting a tuition break while students who are citizens of this country that live out of state are having to pay overpriced tuition just because they aren't from California. Honestly, it wasn't like it was the illegal immigrant students are the ones that wanted to cross the border and live in California- it was their parents that decided to come across in search of a better life. So if they attended at least 3 years of high school in California AND graduated, why not give them in-state tuition? In the long run it would probably be better for the U.S. because then with their higher education they can start helping California and their economy instead of relying on the government welfare program. This is seems like a good plan to me! If people have such a problem with it, then maybe they should just move to California and attend high school for 3 years like the illegal immigrants.

Article

Desperate Housewives actually makes you think!

Last Sunday, I was watching the newest episode of Deperate Housewives called "Sorry Grateful". It might seem irrelevant to immigration, but actually, Desperate Housewives touched on a very touchy subject. I don't know if you have been following the story or not, but here is the jist of it: a family living on Westeria Lane, Gabby and Carlos found out that their oldest daughter isn't actually theirs, and was actually switched at birth with another family's daughter. So Gabby and Carlos sought out this family and decided to become family friends with them and were going to spend Thanksgiving together. Now that we are all caught up, here is where ABC brings in the issue about immigration: Gabby and the other father go to the bakery to pick up the Thanksgiving pies. They get stuck in traffic where Gabby convinces the father to drive on the shoulder where he then gets pulled over. The police ask for his Driver's License, but since he is an illegal immigrant he does not have a Driver's License. Therefore, the police arrest the father and Gabby is left to drive back by herself to inform Carlos and the other mother. The mother freaks out and take Gabby's biological daughter so that they can pack up as much of their belongings as possible before the police find out where they live and deport the mother also.

It seems like the whole nation is on the topic about illegal immigration- from supporting or not supporting SB 1070 or creating illegal immigration laws, it seems like that is all I hear in the news! Even though it's everywhere, never before have I actually heard or seen this topic discussed in a primetime show. I was shocked first of all, that the writers of Desperate Housewives had the guts to actually "go there" and write a storyline on such a controversial topic in a popular T.V. show, but also that ABC would allow it to air! I give them mad props for having the guts to go where no T.V. show like them has gone before, but it also made me think about the deportation of illegal immigrants. When I hear of deportation of illegal immigrants, my focus usually goes to them and how they got caught, or what they were doing before they got deported, but I never thought about what actually happened to the families of the immigrants that got deported. For example, after watching Desperate Housewives I think, that is going to happen to the mother and daughter, where are they going to go live? How are they going to be able to support themselves? Will they follow the father's lead and just go back to Mexico so that they can all stay together? Will the mother get deported also? If the mother gets deported what will happen to the little girl who is actually a U.S. citizen? Hmmm.... Who knew a show like Desperate Housewives could actually make you think!

Desperate Housewives: 'Sorry Grateful' Episode

An Interactive Map Showing the Migration Patterns Since 1880's

I found this interactive map on New York Times that shows the percentage of demographics living in the country during a certain year starting at the year 1880. You can move the "time clock" which is in 10- year intervals and see the different races migrate based on the color coding. It's really interesting to move the dial and see how the different migration patterns of races have changed over time. One of the surprising things is in the 1920's, the southwest was predominantly Latin American, but for some reason in the 1930's it switches suddenly and the southwest becomes predominantly Western European. Then in the 1940's it reverts back to being predominantly Latin American. It's fun going through all of the decades and seeing how the colors change across the country. Another interesting thing is, until the 1980's there weren't very many Canadian immigrants, and even now, the Canadian immigrants are mostly populated along the U.S.- Canada border where as the Latin American immigrants have migrated to pretty much all of the southern and western parts of the country.

Interactive Map

Smugglers Stow Immigrants on Deserted Island

A local station did a report of a small island off of San Diego that smugglers are using to hid illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. Channel 10 news traveled with a a humanitarian group called Desert Angels to the island where they leave food and water for the immigrantst. The group told reporters that the immigrants are sometimes stranded on the island for days without food or water if smugglers are getting caught by the Coast Guard or due to bad weather. After the immigrants have been on the island, they get transported on small panga boats across San Diego at night. Researchers say that the immigration into the U.S. is down overall, but the number of immigration from water is rising.

This just shows how depserate people are to get into this country. Even though going by sea seems to give a better chance of not getting caught, I think that it is way more dangerous. The smugglers don't care about the people, as long as they have the money, they could care less about what happened to them. What's more dangerous with this, is that they are stranded on an island- which means there's really no way for them to get out of a scarey situation; unless they wanted to swim in the ocean! The report even talks about being stranded on the island if there was bad weather. I'm sure there aren't any sturdy buildings or shelters that the immigrants could hide under to stay away from the storm or to keep warm. This all just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

Article

Tunnel smuggling 30 Tons of Marijuana Found

CNN.com had a news video of a tunnel that was 6 football fields long along with 30 tons of marijuana! This tunnel connected a warehouse in Tijuana to another warehouse in Otay Mesa, California. Officials say that this tunnel is less than a month old, and parts of the wall are still wet clay. This just proves that the myth about illegal immigration contributing to the drug cartel is false. It isn't the illegal immigrants that are smuggling the drugs- it's the smart drug cartels that build tunnels UNDER the border that are able to bring in about 30 large cars or 60 small cars worth of marijuana into this country! This just shows that with determination, anything can get over the border and whatever we won't really prevent anything from happening. The good thing for officials on the U.S. side is that we are getting better are catching these culprits considering that this tunnel was only a month old. Either we got really lucky or we are just getting better at catching these smugglers- I'll go with the second choice!

New Clip

GOP's Plan For Non-Hispanic Voting Backfires

On November 2nd, many U.S. citizens did their citizen duty and voted for Governor, Senator, State Senate and Representative along with many other things. A few weeks ago, the GOPs in Nevada created an ad campaign encouraging Hispanic voters not to vote because they would have a bigger impact not voting than voting. Specifically, there was a 16% Hispanic turnout and out of those 16%, Reid had won 2/3 of those votes. Well, that plan failed. I don't understand how the GOPs could've thought that trying to convince Hispanics not to vote because they mean more not voting than voting could have possibly upset them! I mean who honestly thought that Hispanics would just listen to someone pretty much telling them that they don't matter and not vote! That same someone probably should have came up with a 'Plan B' JUST in case their brilliant plan backfired. Now Sharon Angle lost to Harry Reid and the Hispanics proved that they do mean more voting than not voting!

Article
Statistics