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If you were president of the United States, would you hire an alleged former spy for Fidel Castro to be ambassador to El Salvador, a country teetering on the brink of hard-core socialism? President Obama just did. On Dec. 9, Obama nominated Mari Del Carmen Aponte to be ambassador to El Salvador, despite the fact that in the late 1990s, the FBI discovered that she was working with Cuban intelligence officers. According to Insight Magazine, "When the FBI eventually questioned her about her involvement with Cuban intelligence, she reportedly refused to cooperate." Why would Aponte escape the Obama administration's scrutiny?...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to host "Saturday Night Live" on November 7th and the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), has slammed the decision, calling it a "slap in the face" to Latino viewers. "This is not about lacking a sense of humor. Everyone knows that SNL is not just a comedy show. For the last 40 years, it has become a highly coveted platform for candidates from political parties who are looking to reach and connect with the American public," said Janet Murguía,...

President Obama’s Task Force on New Americans has issued its much-anticipated plan to facilitate life in the U.S. for immigrants and refugees by enhancing pathways to naturalization, building welcoming communities and providing “mobile immigration services in underserved communities.” The government-wide initiative aims to “strengthen federal immigrant and refugee integration infrastructure.” This includes multilingual media campaigns promoting immigrant rights and other free tools to make life easier in the U.S. and up to $10 million for “citizenship preparation” programs. The goal is to “strengthen civic, economic and linguistic integration and to build strong and welcoming communities,” according to the report issued...

President Obama met with more than a dozen prominent civil and immigration rights activists Thursday ahead of his speech debuting a series of new steps that will extend deportation relief and work permits to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants. Attendees at the meeting included AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, NAACP president Cornell Brooks and Al Sharpton. The MSNBC host has come under fire in recent days after The New York Times reported he and his companies were at one point subject to $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens. Also in attendance was Janet Murguía, the head of...

DES MOINES, Iowa — On Jan. 5, 2012, Paul Valin called the police to report he’d found a backpack containing what he believed to be meth-making equipment. That simple act of good citizenship landed his and wife Cindy’s house on the National Clandestine Laboratory Register, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of meth labs. The NCLR “contains addresses of some locations where law enforcement agencies reported they found chemicals or other items that indicated the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites.” The fact that Valin found the backpack more than 15 miles from his house isn’t the sort...

Nationwide, Latino groups and leaders, including civil rights group National Council de la Raza (NCLR), have taken to the streets and the halls of power to rally alongside the African American community against the acquittal of George Zimmerman. NCLR announced yesterday that it had joined the NAACP, National Urban League (NUL), National Action Network (NAN) and other civil rights organizations in asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to meet and discuss possible next steps to be taken by the U.S. Department of Justice following the verdict in the Zimmerman trial. “While we respect the legal process and the jury’s decision,...

(CNSNews.com) – Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts’ cousin, a lesbian seeking to get married in California who will have reserved seating for relatives at two upcoming cases, wrote that she believes her cousin will rule in favor of same-sex marriage in an op-ed posted on the National Council for Lesbian Rights. A spokesperson for the court did not respond to questions about a potential conflict for Roberts. “I know that my cousin is a good man,” Jean Podrasky, 48, of San Francisco wrote. “I feel confident that John is wise enough to see that society is becoming more...

We voted – now let’s get things done. That was the strong takeaway today from Latino leaders and activists during a discussion of the sweeping and historic Latino vote in yesterday’s election. “Last night Latinos confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House goes through Hispanic neighborhoods,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). ”The Latino giant is wide awake, cranky and is taking names,” said labor leader Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Yesterday’s Latino vote made history in two ways. Over 12 million Latinos came out to vote,...

Campaign 2012: By choosing to head his policy council with an open-borders advocate and former leader of the Hispanic activist group favoring amnesty, the president has signaled a divide-and-conquer re-election campaign . In another move aimed at aiding his re-election, President Obama on Tuesday announced that Cecilia Munoz, a former senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), would replace Melody Barnes as head of his Domestic Policy Council. Hispanics are a key part of the coalition Obama and a key part of his re-election strategy will no doubt be to portray Republicans and others who advocate...

He goes into this at about 15 minutes into the video. You need to hear these people. The text does *NOT* do it justice. This is what danger we are in. Obama's La Raza speech And I promise you, we are responding to your concerns and working every day to make sure we are enforcing flawed laws in the most humane and best possible way. Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. (Applause.) And believe me, right now dealing with Congress -- AUDIENCE: Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes,...

President Obama let his frustration over the stalled debt talks seep into an address on Latino issues on Monday, confessing that he’d like to “bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” He told the National Council of La Raza, “Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you.” But he told the group meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel that he has to work with Congress and will continue to fight for what he called a “balanced” plan that does not focus solely on spending cuts but that spreads the...

President Obama’s favorite La Raza group has teamed up with a federal agency to promote one of the administration’s many government cash giveaways with Spanish ads encouraging Latinos—possibly illegal immigrants—to apply for free U.S. taxpayer dollars.The new campaign warns Hispanics that time is running out to get up to “$50,000 in help” from Uncle Sam to pay their mortgage, past due charges, taxes, insurance and even legal fees associated with their home. The money is being disbursed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of a billion-dollar Emergency Homeowner Loan Program (EHLP).In 2008 the agency revealed...

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a leftist Latino rights group, is launching a campaign to get members of Congress to sign a pledge opposing “irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric toward Latinos,“ reinforcing Hispanics as ”an integral part of the fabric of America, and vowing to denounce “politicians who dehumanize and scapegoat Latinos.” (VIDEOAT WEB SITE Watch video of La Raza protesters screaming “Nazi” and “racist” at the Arizona attorney general.) Besides affirming the importance of Hispanics, the document, part of the Pledge for Respect campaign, also includes a clause that members of Congress will “meet with advocates and leaders...

Hilda Solis President Barry Hussein Soetoro’s Latina Labor Secretary States clearly states to the NCLR, the National Council of La Raza, an exclusive Latino Racist group that the ultra-progressives of the Soetoro administration have succeeded in changing the direction of the department of labor. From what to what is the question? Solis’ carefully crafted message attempted to veil the fact that the American government, Department of Labor has changed from a government agency that protects American laborers to one of a Racist government Organization with an exclusive agenda to protect illegal Latino workers. Of course, Solis thinks by adding politically...

Gov. Rick Perry sounded some familiar themes in a speech today at the National Council of La Raza conference in San Antonio. Some of the governor's remarks were aimed at appealing to nearly 2,000 audience members who sat waiting to hear about his positions on immigration reform, Arizona's controversial law and raising the quality of life for Latinos. After hitting his typical points by touting job creation and the state's economic standing, Perry briefly touched on the new Arizona law that has been criticized by some who say it encourages racial profiling and discrimination. He said the law "may be...

Bill White tried to create some daylight between himself and Gov. Rick Perry on the hot-button issue of immigration Monday whiley denouncing Arizona's controversial new crackdown on undocumented immigrants. On Saturday, Perry told members of the National Council of La Raza that the Arizona law would be a poor fit for Texas, even while noting Arizona's frustration with a porous border. Speaking to the same group Monday, White, Perry's Democratic challenger, inched further, suggesting the law's central tenet — that local and state law-enforcement officials should verify the immigration status of people they detain — is fundamentally misguided. “It would...

Progressives have launched the left's version of the Tea Party movement. Dubbed "One Nation," it's a grassroots coalition of 170 liberal and civil rights groups that organizers hope will help the progressive cause regain its voice two years after the election of Barack Obama and "counter the Tea Party narrative," The Washington Post reported. "Having been confronted with the specter of the Tea Party . . . we felt it urgent to organize the majority of this country, which voted in 2008 and has gone back to the couch," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, one of the movement's...

NCLR Action Kit: August In-District Visits These are trying times for our nation. As Congress goes into the August recess, we need to make sure that your senators and representatives do the right thing for our families, communities, values, economy, and country. Make sure your voice is heard! Use the guide below to schedule an in-district meeting with your elected officials during the August recess (August 3-September 4) and join hundreds of grassroots leaders throughout the country as part of both the Health Care for All campaign and the Campaign to Reform Immigration FOR America. Grassroots Action Kit In-District Visits...

We knew that Sonia Sotomayor had appeared at La Raza sponsored events; now we know that Sotomayor joined the National Council of La Raza as a member. And this was not just a youthful piece of radicalism that Sotomayor later outgrew, either, as The Hill reports: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was a member of the National Council of La Raza for six years, according to her Senate questionnaire released Wednesday. Sotomayor, who would be the first Latina Supreme Court justice, was a member of the group form 1998 to 2004. Sotomayor joined NCLR while on the federal appellate court....

Census Bureau: We’ll Work with ‘Community Organizations’ to Count All Illegal Aliens in 2010 Thursday, April 02, 2009 By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter (CNSNews.com) - The acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Thomas Mesenbourg, told CNSNews.com that the bureau intends to work with community organizations to make sure every illegal alien in the United States is counted in the 2010 Census. The Census is used to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representative. There are 435 House seats that are divided among the states in proportion to their population, which is determined by the decennial census. States...