Free Republic

Latino leaders who went to bat for Jerry Brown in last year's campaign are now counting on the governor to help them pass bills supporting farmworkers and illegal immigrants. Latino census growth, the pending redrawing of political districts and the election of a Democrat for the state's top office create a confluence of opportunity not seen in years, activists say. "We are turning back the ugliness of a previous period, piece by piece," Nativo Lopez of the Mexican American Political Association said of the 1990s, when voters approved a ban on public benefits to illegal immigrants that later was deemed...

Immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez was jailed in Los Angeles Thursday after being indicted by the grand jury there for eight felony counts alleging voter fraud. Los Angeles arrest records show that he was booked into the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail. Los Angeles District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said he faces a mental competency hearing on Aug. 6. The Mexican American Political Association, of which he is president, responded with a press release today. “Let it be known that he will be fasting in stance with...

Immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez was cleared today to face trial after a mental competency hearing – but proceedings were interrupted when Lopez refused to identify himself to the court, and was sent to jail. Lopez faces voter fraud charges that he registered to vote in Los Angeles while living in Santa Ana. On Feb. 3, he was ordered to have a competency hearing after he fired his attorney and repeatedly told the court that he was not the defendant. The competency hearing began yesterday. “He refused to identify himself,” Deputy District Attorney Juliet Schmidt...

Longtime Latino rights activist and former Santa Ana school board chairman Nativo Lopez has been charged with four felony counts of voter fraud and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to this announcement by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Bowen’s office worked in collaboration with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which has charged Lopez with fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. The charges stem from Lopez allegedly registering to vote using an office address in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles although he lived with his family in Orange County,...

Felony charges have been filed and an arrest warrant issued for a well-known Orange County political activist suspected of committing election and voter registration fraud, the California secretary of State's office announced Wednesday. Investigators in the agency's election-fraud unit said Nativo V. Lopez, 57, of Santa Ana leased office space in Boyle Heights and registered to vote using that address although he lived with his family in Orange County. They also say Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Assn., cast an illegal ballot in L.A. in the 2008 presidential primary. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which is...

LOS ANGELES Circulating recall petitions in languages other than English is not necessary, a federal appeals court ruled in a local school board case Tuesday. The 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier decision by a three-judge panel that found the petitions must be translated into other languages. "The expense and trouble of fulfilling the translation requirements are likely to deter proponents who otherwise would launch petitions," the opinion stated. A lawsuit challenging the legality of a 2003 election that resulted in the recall of Santa Ana Unified School District trustee Native Lopez was...

LOS ANGELES Two national Mexican-American organizations are launching a "popular referendum" to collect the opinions of hundreds of thousands of Spanish-speaking immigrants both legal and illegal on immigration reform legislation pending in Congress. Starting late next week, the Mexican Brotherhood Latin America and the Mexican-American Political Association will begin distributing questionnaires in Spanish at churches, work sites and activist organizations in over 20 states with high concentrations of immigrants. "This will reveal what immigrants think, what they are willing to accept, fight for and reject," said MAPA President Nativo Lopez. The nonscientific surveys come on the heels of massive national...

... From 1994 to 2002, the CDE [California Department of Education] received approximately $331 million in federal funding for adult education programs, including English instruction. Forty-nine percent of this money went to so-called community-based organizations (CBOs). ... the one that received the most money, [was]Hermandad Mexicana Nacional ... ...Hermandad registered 721 people who were not U.S. citizens, 442 of them voting illegally. By that time Hermandad was $8 million in debt despite receiving a staggering $35 million in grants during the previous decade. Through the California Department of Education, Hermandad received 23 grants, ranging from $428,000 in 1994-95 to $3.5...

Federal challenges to English-only initiative petitions are roiling election officials across the state and have thrown into doubt a handful of citizen-spawned ballot issues. The question is whether petitions circulated for signatures to qualify initiatives and referendums for the ballot must be translated for voters who speak another language. California began providing Spanish-language ballots statewide in 2002, and local jurisdictions also provide multilingual election materials. But petitions, which are written by ordinary people hoping to change laws from the grass-roots level, are often available in English only. Federal judges have disagreed on the question, resulting in disruptions to elections in...

CBN News --SANTA ANA California – It is an image that is hard to forget: illegal immigrants by the thousands demanding legal citizenship. But American patriotism seemed to be lost in a sea of flags from South of the border. This has led many Americans to wonder where these protesters pledged their allegiance – to America or Mexico? More than half of the 12 million illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and 22 percent come from the rest of Latin America. That means 78 percent of the illegals are Hispanic. This is Santa Ana, California, not Mexico. But sights and sounds...

They invoke the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, but the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have marched nationwide are not following one charismatic leader. Instead, they're loosely guided by Hispanic advocacy groups, churches and labor unions - organizations that have helped transform isolated campaigns in major cities into a broad movement with a coordinated strategy. "There is no one leader, and that's a good thing," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican-American Political Association, a central organizer of rallies in Southern California. "It's a shared leadership among people who we don't even always know." What...

They invoke the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, but the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have marched nationwide are not following one charismatic leader. Instead, they're loosely guided by Hispanic advocacy groups, churches and labor unions - organizations that have helped transform what began as isolated campaigns in major cities into a broad movement with a coordinated strategy. "It's a shared leadership among people who we don't even always know," said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican-American Political Association, a central organizer of rallies in Southern California. The young movement is still morphing, allowing both...

East LA College Immigration Forum Thursday March 30, 2006 @ 7:00pm In the Student Center East LA College is on Cesar Chavez & Atlantic in Monterrey Park Speakers include: Nativo Lopez - Head of Hermandad Mexicana and the Mexican American Political Association, Nativo Lopez has a long history in the Chicano movement. With most of his base in Orange County, Nativo Lopez is currently the organizer for the April 1st rally at Costa Mesa. He is also a supporter of the Million Votes for Peace Campaign. Coyotl Tezcatlipoca - A grassroots student organizer against the racist Costa Mesa city council,...

As reported in the Register and throughout the local news media last week, Citizens for Constitutional Rights is a coalition of Hispanic and union groups that is threatening a limited boycott of businesses in the city of Costa Mesa. At a press conference in front of City Hall on Thursday, the group also asked city residents to begin a campaign of "nonviolent civil disobedience" by refusing to cooperate with police officers who are investigating crimes. What prompted the protest is a plan approved last year by the Costa Mesa City Council to train local police officers to help enforce federal...

Group opposed to city's immigration policy announces boycott, which local leaders call futile. A Santa Ana-based immigrant rights group that opposes Costa Mesa's immigration enforcement decision today planned to repeat its call for a boycott of Costa Mesa businesses and for civil disobedience. Local leaders disparaged the boycott plan as divisive and unproductive. Nativo Lopez, a spokesman for Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, first called for the boycott in late January. On Wednesday he announced he'll take the issue to Costa Mesa City Hall, where he planned a press conference for today. Lopez, along with several local labor unions and Latino advocacy...

SANTA ANA – As local law enforcement appealed to Latino leaders Wednesday to help with controversial plans to enforce immigration laws, one Hispanic activist threatened protests in Costa Mesa if the proposals are approved. Nativo Lopez said if the plans are enacted he will ask Latinos to refuse to cooperate with Costa Mesa police through a campaign of "non-confidence and silence," will launch a boycott of businesses within the city, and will hold a mass march and rally there on President's Day weekend. Lopez was among several people, including Sheriff Mike Carona and Costa Mesa Police Chief John Hensley, who...

Hundreds of people packed into the downtown San Bernardino city library Thursday to applaud critics of an immigration-reform bill and organize February as a month of opposition. The immigration bill and an escalating anti-Latino and anti-immigrant political atmosphere led UCR Ethnic Studies professor Armando Navarro to call the meeting under the auspices of the National Alliance for Human Rights.

Nativo Lopez, director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, expressed that the Latino and immigrant communities should not rule out extraofficial measures of pressure against the California economy to protect SB60. "The Latino labor force is 40% of the statewide labor force. Its force and impact in the economy should be used as a weapon to help us in our struggle", said Lopez This means, said the activist, that "if (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is not going to respect our rights, we should be ready to retain our labor, to organize strikes, to not send our children to school, because each of them brings...

<p>Mr. Bustamante, the only major Democrat running to replace Gray Davis as governor, is accusing Arnold Schwarzenegger of being anti-immigrant. The lieutenant governor told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he is "shocked" that his opponent is "trying to take on immigrants in this state. I think that is wrong." On CNN, he said, "Arnold's going back to the same wedge-issue politics that his mentor Pete Wilson suggested."</p>