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I have been noticing on cable the last few days, commercials for an organization called-- "Voto Latino". I saw some of these commercials on A&E last night as I was watching Dog the Bounty Hunter, and also on Discovery channel. The slogans for this organization are "It's your country-- represent", and "Voting+Desire=power." My jaw dropped open when I saw these commercials. Could you imagine if a group called itself "Vote White?" Or talked about "White power", instead of Latino Power? "It's our country?" It's enough to invade, and flood across the border, but this is just sickening. Listen to this...

Here is video of Sen. John McCain today, August 25, 2008, at a Phoenix school where he was joined by Hip-Hop Star Daddy Yankee. McCain received the endorsement of Daddy Yankee because of his efforts on behalf of the Latino community. . . . (see video)

The city of Los Angeles had good reason to push a tough anti-graffiti bill through the Legislature, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasted no time in signing it. L.A. pushed the bill not only because taggers did their dirty work at more than 650,000 locations in the fiscal year that ended June 30, but they also were bragging about their work on Internet sites. How's this for a statistic: In the year ended June 30, taggers defaced nearly 32 million square feet of surfaces. And they weren't picky about what they defaced: murals, billboards, freeway signs, bus benches, walls everywhere and...

Presidential Candidates Blame Each Other for Failed Immigration Reform Legislation Addressing the nation's largest Latino rights group today, Sen. John McCain will accuse Sen. Barack Obama of distorting his record and remind Latino voters that he championed immigration reform legislation that ultimately failed in Congress last year. McCain and Obama are locked in a fierce battle for Latino voters — a Democratic-leaning minority group that could have considerable influence in key battleground states this November. Obama leads McCain among Latinos by 30 percentage points, according to a recent Gallup poll, despite heavy support from Latinos for Sen. Hillary Clinton in...

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will be using the National Council of La Raza convention, which begins tomorrow in San Diego, as a platform for courting the increasingly significant Latino vote. Convention organizers hope to press the senators for answers on some of the thorniest issues affecting Latinos, among them immigration policies and solutions to the nation's health insurance and mortgage crises. This week, as they prepared to participate in the four-day event at the San Diego Convention Center, some local groups said they were optimistic about what they would hear from the candidates and in convention sessions,...

Have you ever wondered what term to use when describing someone whose ancestry links to a Spanish-speaking country? Is it Hispanic? Latino? Latin? Spanish? What's the difference? The ancestry of the U.S. Latino population is linked to the following regions, in alphabetical order: Central America, Greater Antilles, Mexico, South America and Spain. Collectively, these represent 22 Spanish-speaking countries. In the United States, this group comprises more than 48 million individuals, outnumbering Canadians in Canada and twice the population in Australia. If the U.S. Latino population represented a country, it would make up the second-largest Hispanic "nation" in the world, second...

It might not be perfect, but the manner in which the presidential candidates are chosen in the United States works. snip the $64 million question is staring everyone in the face: Where do Hillary Clinton’s supporters go from here? These are their choices: Support Barack Obama, the rival she ran such a ferocious campaign against; cross party lines and give their vote to Republican John McCain; or go for the unthinkable — abstain from voting. snip Even after Obama increased his Latino voter outreach, the numbers didn’t move his way. Major endorsements from high-profile Latino politicians such as Rep. Luis...

For many conservatives, John McCain is not their favorite Republican. They think he's built a career at their expense, painting them as fools and bigots. They resent his holier-than-thou attitude. And they're not inclined to trust anyone who has been so fawned over by the national media. Curiously, a lot of liberal Democrats feel the same way about McCain. He isn't their favorite Republican either - but it's because they know he'll be tough to beat in November. They would have preferred to run against someone more extreme and easier to demonize. That's not John McCain. I first met McCain...

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs. The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order. "The kids were crazy, running from place to...

Obama, who has struggled to overcome Clinton's significant advantage among Latino voters in state after state, sought to one-up his rival for the Democratic presidential nod by joining the call for creating a national holiday to commemorate the father of the United Farm Workers. "That's why I support the call to make Cesar Chavez's birthday a national holiday. It's time to recognize the contributions of this American icon to the ongoing efforts to perfect our union." Eight states commemorate Chavez' birthday in some fashion. In California, all state offices are closed, but local government facilities and public schools are open....

Two Hispanic gangs, the Nortenos and the Surenos are becoming increasingly active in this region. Police say they're not just in Medford, but everywhere from Ashland to Grants Pass. Residents of one West Medford neighborhood say gang activity has completely changed the place they call home. They're worried about the effect it will have on their children, and Medford Police say they will have to change their approach as local gangs are now taking their gang banging to a whole new level. Residents of this West Medford neighborhood say they've seen the changes. "There is an increasing gang problem in...

"Meanwhile, exit polls show Latino and Asian Republicans may also have played an important part in John McCain's victory in the GOP primary. Mitt Romney led among white Republican voters but McCain led among Latinos and Asians, the second- and third-largest voting blocs behind whites among California Republicans."

DENVER — On the day she is to become a woman, Monica Reyes sits in front of the church for Mass. Her white dress — sewn in her mother’s Mexican hometown — spills over her chair like an oversized lampshade.The priest urges her to live as a daughter of God. Her parents give her a gold ring shaped like the number 15. Near the end of the service, Reyes lays a bouquet of roses before a statue of the Virgin Mary. Monica Reyes has her picture taken at the alter after her Quinceanera Mass in Denver Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007....

WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party's highest-ranking Latino official abruptly resigned Friday, marking the latest casualty in the GOP's bitter internal fight over immigration and dealing another setback to President Bush's years-long effort to court Latino voters. The announcement by Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida that he was quitting as general chairman of the Republican National Committee came after he had expressed frustration over the tenor of the immigration debate within his party. ... "Mel Martinez was a symbol of the party's outreach to Latinos, and that seems to be disappearing," said Lionel Sosa, a longtime Republican strategist and advisor to...

The Latino vote for Bush was far from decisive, however, and it may be years before it plays a pivotal role in a national election. Latinos may represent about 14% of the U.S. population, but they constituted just 6% of the 2004 electorate -- 7.5 million voters out of 125 million. According to Census Bureau data, only 34% of the nation's adult Latino population registered to vote in 2004, and 28% voted. By contrast, 67% of the country's adult white, non-Latino population and 56% of its adult black population voted in 2004. Black voters outnumbered Latino voters nearly 2 to...

A summer surge against gang violence has yielded more than 1,300 arrests since June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. "We've arrested the worst of the worst," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for ICE Julie Myers said at a Tuesday press conference announcing the results. Community Shield is part of a nationwide crackdown on gangs, with the goal of taking some of the most violent illegal immigrants off the streets. The surge in arrests is aimed at gang members -- illegal immigrants who law enforcement sources say have been terrorizing communities across the country. "We've arrested quite a number of very...

"They don't deserve this," said Garcia, a retired nurse. "They were dignified and respectful people who became servants in their community after they came back from the war. They kept on giving back." The sisters were among about 100 people who came to the sidewalk outside KLRN, San Antonio's public television station, to protest tonight's start of "The War," a 14-hour documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns that weaves the stories of so-called ordinary Americans into the fabric of global war. Burns mingled wartime facts and film footage with narratives from people in four American communities who talked about the impact...

MIAMI -- For the first time in a U.S. presidential campaign, candidates vying for the Democratic nomination will take part in a debate Sunday that will be broadcast across the U.S. in Spanish. The event, held at the University of Miami and broadcast by the Univision Network, marks the Democratic candidates' recognition of the growing political muscle that the country's more than 44 million Hispanics could wield in the 2008 election. Seven of the eight Democratic candidates will be taking part in the debate — including front-runners Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and...

The goal was to work within the halls of Congress. Now, immigrant-rights groups want to replace the lawmakers who walk them. Labor unions, immigrant advocates and Democratic activists have spent the two weeks since the Senate squashed a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill constructing the early framework of a political payback plan. Capitalizing on the Latino voting bloc and its disaffection with the Republican Party, the groups intend to use the recent debate as a rallying shriek in the 2008 election. "We are the fastest-growing sector of the electorate, and we have shown a capacity to show up when we are...

All of the Republican presidential contenders have turned down an invitation to speak in Orlando to the nation's largest gathering of Hispanic elected officials, at a time when their constituents are poised to be a powerful force in the 2008 election. Making the GOP field's absence particularly conspicuous, all of the leading Democratic candidates are planning to address NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, on June 30. The Republicans were asked to participate in a forum the previous day. About 1,000 Hispanic leaders, representing the fastest-growing part of the electorate, are expected at the conference. Hispanic...

They have been left out of documentaries, history books and movies, but if a grass-roots proposal gets off the ground, Latino veterans would be immortalized in San Antonio. Today, a committee of Hispanic veterans and others is set to announce plans for a proposed 21,500-square-foot facility that would highlight the accomplishments and contributions of Hispanics in the military. If it becomes reality, the National Hispanic Military Heroes Museum would honor 42 Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients, Latino admirals and generals, Hispanic astronauts, fighter pilots, Latino veterans who are female and the "Aztec Eagles," pilots and support personnel from Mexico who...

`Their time to shine' Whittier College holds Latino Graduation WHITTIER - As a graduating senior at Whittier College and president of the Hispanic Student Association, Astrid Bojorge says she's hardly had time these past few weeks to be nervous about her upcoming commencement ceremony, which takes place Friday at Memorial Stadium. That's because her mind has been on a smaller, more intimate and emotional graduation ritual that has become a time-honored tradition at many colleges and universities across the state: Latino Graduation. The Latino Graduation, which took place Saturday evening at the Shannon Center, began at Whittier College six years...

Some mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics have lined up to support the new amnesty bill for illegal immigrants making its way once again through the not-so-hallowed halls of Congress. What these antinomian, lawless Christians fail to realize is that all illegal immigrants are cheaters and lawbreakers. All illegal immigrants have cheated the immigration system, not to mention legal immigrants, and have broken the United States of America's already liberal immigration laws. No wonder it has been reported by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and others that illegal immigrants are more likely than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to drive while intoxicated,...

Checkpoint for Latinos, not drunks, critics charge Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:50 AM By Stephanie Czekalinski and Matthew Marx THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH More coverage Some central Ohio Latinos say they were targeted this past weekend when law-enforcement officials ran a checkpoint for drunken drivers on the Cinco de Mayo holiday, just blocks from apartment complexes with heavy immigrant populations. Instead of the arrests netting a large number of people who had too much to drink, they largely hauled in unlicensed drivers, nearly all of them with Latino names. The DUI checkpoint has drawn criticism from Latino community leaders. The checkpoint...

Immigration reform is a predicament wrapped in a dilemma. While it is common for issues to separate Republicans and Democrats, immigration is an issue that opens yawning divides within each group. "We are engaged in a struggle for the soul of the party," Mel Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee, told me. Martinez said Republicans must back more than border security if they are to survive politically. The party, he believes, must back legislation that will lead to the "regularization" of illegal immigrants already in this country. Alex Castellanos, media strategist for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney,...

Minutemen Go Inside Latino Immigration Meeting - Racism Espoused, Calls for Violence Against "Whites"by Linda Muller - Minuteman Project - ForTheCause.us There are many radical Latino groups calling for the violent overthrow of their "white" oppressors and the return of the American west to the mythical Aztlan from which they believe their land was stolen. Many Americans do not believe these fringe groups have any power and influence, so they dismiss them as harmless. Yet these groups continually draw U.S. Congressmen and staff members to their meetings. Corporate benefactors and foundations contribute funds and other means of support that enable...

The keynote speaker was Rev. Jacqueline Luck, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson. The title of her presentation was “Without Vision the People Will Perish.” .... “Mississippi is the most dangerous place in the United States for women and children,” she said, “...How can we not commit to do what we can?” .... In closing the celebration, Bishop Latino told the audience that in order to be a visionary, one has to see what others can not, or refuse to see.

Law enforcement agencies in Orange County are working with the federal government to deport illegal immigrants serving time in U.S. jails. The news could mean as many as 11,000 illegal aliens could be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Latino advocacy groups said the program contributes to the targeting and racial profiling of all persons who appear to be "illegal." Agents said that is not true because they are checking the immigration status of all inmates, not just those that appear "illegal."

LOS ANGELES Police Friday announced a second arrest in the racially motivated shooting death of a 14-year-old black girl who was gunned down -- allegedly by two Latino gang members -- in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles last month. A news conference was scheduled this afternoon to announce details of the arrest, but police earlier identified the second suspect as Jonathan Fajardo. The other suspect, Ernesto Alcarez, 20, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges that were filed Dec. 26. Cheryl Green, an eighth-grader at Stephen M. White Middle School, was...

Michael Richard's frenzied meltdown onstage at the Laugh Factory. Black firefighter Tennie Pierce's charges of endemic racism in the Los Angeles Fire Department. NYPD unloading 50 rounds into three unarmed black men. Ten black teens and preteens on trial for hate crimes in Long Beach, Calif., after a savage attack on three white women. We might just be closing in on Christmas, but I'd say: Get ready for a long, hot 2007 if the current climate prevails. Race relations in America have taken center stage, and once again the fault lines have been highlighted as a predominantly black-and-white affair. That...

Leftist lawmakers threw punches and chairs at their conservative colleagues and some tried to block the doors of the congressional chamber Friday just an hour before incoming President Felipe Calderon was to take the oath of office there. Ruling party lawmakers, chanting "Mexico wants peace," seized the speaker's platform where Calderon was supposed to appear, while leftist opponents blocked most of the chamber's doors. The brawl was shown on live television across Mexico...

A Clayton County high school principal who told a group of Hispanic students they could face deportation if they caused trouble in school has agreed to step down at least through the end of the semester. Principal Delphia Young of Forest Park High School had found herself at the center of controversy since she called the school's Hispanic ninth- and 10th-graders to a meeting in the cafeteria earlier this month. Students reported that Young accused some of them of being gang members responsible for recent off-campus fights and said she told them she would call police and immigration officials into...

WASHINGTON -- Yesterday's voting showed a nation in which the white vote was nearly divided down the middle between Democrats and Republicans -- and a Democratic party that found its edge among minorities, especially in newfound strength with Hispanics. In fact, just months after House Republicans used a crackdown on illegal immigrants to energize their party's conservative base, Hispanic voters responded yesterday at the voting booth, shifting decisively toward Democrats. Exit polls showed more than seven in 10 Hispanics voted Democratic in races for House seats. Meanwhile, some 27% voted Republican -- an 11-percentage-point drop from the prior midterm election...

Tapping the passion that drew millions of Latinos to immigrant rights marches last spring, leaders from numerous national Hispanic organizations culminated a four-day conference Saturday with agreement on a broad political platform. Participants called it an important step in building a unified, national Latino political movement.

LOS ANGELES – Immigrants Without Borders is an Arizona-based assistance organization. It doesn't have the multimillion-dollar funding of national Latino organizations, nor does it have their fame. But this regional group has something the others don't: the ability to mobilize immigrants, to organize marches like the ones seen in the past few months and a long list of community contacts. Bringing these two sides together and the development of a long-term social and economic strategy for Latinos are among the goals of the National Latino Congress. Some 1,300 leaders and activists from across the nation are attending the event, which...

In a feeble effort to portray Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a racist, the Los Angles Times released an excerpt from a tape that was recorded during a private meeting. (Click Here to Listen to the tape)

"The sad result is that despite our many victories and other kinds of measurable gains, electing people to office and building organizations, the gap between the white majority and Latinos is virtually unchanged," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the nonpartisan think tank. "In some ways (the socioeconomic gap) has widened." ...snip... "I think we organize to take power but not to govern." he said. "A lot of people want to do the right thing but don't have the support and that's our limitation." Mr. Gonzalez and a group of Hispanic leaders decided to do something about the yawning socioeconomic gap...

Puerto Rico is known as the trampoline of the Caribbean. That's because people from Caribbean and Latin American nations use the island as an entry point to the United States. Puerto Rico's location is ideal for nearby residents to get to it on a small boat. The distance between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is about 80 miles of rough sea. From 1995 to 1997, the U.S. Coast Guard conducted an operation called ''Able Response'' and caught more than 9,500 Dominican immigrants. So far this year, the Coast Guard reported 6,796 illegal immigrants intercepted at sea. From that total,...

Kansans shudder, scoff at 'reconquista' Whispers of effort by Hispanics to take over parts of U.S. has some worried, others chuckling By Tim Vandenack The Hutchinson News Michelob Ultra tvandenack@hutchnews.com The influx of Hispanic newcomers to southwest Kansas, most of them Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, frequently makes Evelyn Fulton wonder, somewhat darkly, what the future holds. "I truly believe if we aren't careful, they're going to take us all over and we're just going to be standing there (thinking), 'What happened?' " the longtime Dodge City resident said. Ninety miles away in Liberal, similar thoughts sometimes cross Candy Brock's mind. She's...

I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship. All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this...

The first time Angelica Reyes was wounded while serving a one-year tour of duty in Iraq, she felt as if she moved in slow motion inside the thick, red smoke that enveloped her Army humvee. "I know I was going fast, but inside it was real, real slow," said the 21 year-old Elgin resident, who suffered third-degree burns to her thigh and a ruptured eardrum in the suicide bombing. The second time Reyes was woulded, three months later, she touched her cheek and saw her hand covered in blood from a shrapnel wound. "I was hysterica, I couldn't belive I...

Latino Immigrants Come to the U.S. with Negative Stereotypes of Black Americans, New Study Shows How Latino immigrants relate to blacks and whites -- and how those groups relate to Latinos -- has implications for the social and political dynamic of the South, says political scientist Paula McClain Durham, N.C. -- Latinos bring negative stereotypes about black Americans to the U.S. when they immigrate and identify more with whites than blacks, according to a study of the changing political dynamics in the South. The research also found that living in the same neighborhoods with black Americans seems to reinforce, rather...

Inspired by the millions of immigrants who took to the streets to demand legal residency, Latino advocacy groups and politicians have called for a national Latino congress to keep the issue in the political spotlight. Organizers are inviting leaders from across the political spectrum to Los Angeles -- the country's Latino epicenter -- to draft an agenda to strengthen immigrant rights, health care and education. "These mobilizations have shown that the immigrant community and the Latino community have political potential in impacting public policy,'' said Angela Sanbrano, president of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities. "But we...

Hispanics don't speak in one voice on illegals Monday, June 5, 2006 By ELIZABETH LLORENTE STAFF WRITER The group's name is You Don't Speak for Me, and the fledgling organization is against illegal immigration. But this coalition of Hispanics -- which has a presence in New Jersey -- is already drawing fire from a growing chorus of immigration advocates questioning who really speaks for You Don't Speak for Me. The group was created by the nation's most powerful lobbying organization for strict immigration policies -- the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR, which is based in Washington, D.C., also sends...

Californians for Justice filed a writ in April demanding that the state drop its requirement that students must pass the math and English test in order to receive a diploma. "Students who put in their time should graduate," said Tonto Moro, one of the students who failed the test. "They don't require prisoners who serve their time to pass a test in order to get out of jail. It is unfair to us who have committed no crime to be treated worse." Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman previously granted this year's senior class a reprieve from passing the...

President Bush plans to address the nation on Monday night at 8 PM to con the American public into buying into his ludicrous immigration policies. His approval ratings are at an all-time low, with only 31% of Americans approving of his job performance, while "68% believe the United States is worse off today than it was before Mr. Bush became president." Bush's immigration policies would open the floodgates to illegals, and Americans do not approve -- and it looks like the Senate agrees. Another poll shows support for the House's tough and very sensible immigration legislation, HR 4437: ...69 percent...

PHOENIX -- A middle-age Hispanic man pushes a mower across the lawn of a giant home in an affluent neighborhood. A middle-age white woman pulls up driving a BMW. "Can you please come here por favor," she said, sticking her head out the window. "I was wondering how much you charge to landscape this home?" The man stops and asks: "Why would I charge to landscape my own yard?" She blushes and drives off. The commercial clip later freezes and an on-screen message appears: "I am an American." The commercial is being filmed for a new Web site created by...

Joe Gringo lives in a nice neighborhood. In fact, it is the swankiest community in town. The cost of moving into his home was high and no one gave him anything. Joe and his neighbors worked hard and many years to achieve their success. Then one day, the fence that surrounded the community came under disrepair. The homeowner’s association met, fees were raised, but there always seemed to be a more pressing emergency in need of the money. Because fixing the broken fence was never taken seriously, strangers began to trespass and eventually someone snuck into Joe’s house and hid...