Which Side Are You On ?

  Which Side Are You On ?

The Border is Invading America.  August 29,2025.  NY Times. Opinion.  Jean Guerrero. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/opinion/immigration-border-politics.html?unlocked_article

 Press title. Americs's Border Politics Are Coming for Your Rights. 

This piece is a misinformed application of a series of bankrupt, unrealistic political  arguments. 

Each of what is said is relatively accurate.  But, what is not said, is far more important. Yes, the Democrats did not do enough on immigration during the last  two decade. But, the fascist currently in power not only are worse, their movement is organized to destroy U.S. democracy, not only to oppose more immigration.  Yes, the author notes the terror, but that terror is connected to a political project of taking over the nation.  It is not only terror against immigrants. 

So, take each of the points argued and listed as Democratic Party weakness. But, what is not said. Well, Obama tried to pass the Dream Act, when it failed he created the Dreamers where 640,000 achieved some legality. The Democrats failed to pass real immigration reform- in part because of the arguments like those in the piece.

Biden, on day 1, tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform. It would have covered about 13 million.  It failed. Others tried to pass the Farm Modernization Act, it would have covered 3 million plus.  It failed.  Biden dismantled the many horrendous practices of Trump 2016-2020;

Who has been admitted.- and not considered in the essay ?  By my count is 4,700,000 in H-1 B, H-2A, refugees, Temporary Protected Status, refugees, and more. I am not arguing each of these programs were good.  When claiming there is little difference between the Democrats and the MAGA Crowd, you do need to count. 

I am uncertain if the author’s purpose is the support the MAGA claim that the actions of the Democrats on immigration are not significantly different that the current  militarized terrorism in the streets. This is a dangerous false argument supporting the destruction of our democratic constitutional order.

Or is there some other purpose ? I don’t know.  

But, this is a perspective being promoted on line particularly in right wing circles. The argument is neither right nor left.  It is nihilist and based  ignoring substantial history of change in immigration policies during the last two decades and upon totally unrealistic political perspectives and how change is made in the U.S.  The argument has contributed to the 40 year failure to adopt realistic political reform. 

Dr. Duane Campbell.  40 years engaged in the struggle for immigrants’ rights.

Author, Choosing Democracy – a practical guide to multicultural education.  1996- 2010.  Allyn and Bacon. 

 

 

LULAC Condemns Trump Immigration Agenda

 

LULAC CONDEMNS PASSAGE OF HARMFUL SENATE BILL THAT THREATENS WORKING FAMILIES AND TARGETS IMMIGRANTS ACROSS AMERICA

Nation's Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Warns that "One Big Beautiful Bill" Threatens Economic Stability and Deepens Inequality for Millions of Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today issued a strong statement of concern following the U.S. Senate's narrow passage of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill," which advances sweeping tax cuts and domestic policy changes that disproportionately harm working families, especially the Latino community and millions of others who form the backbone of the American economy.

 

https://lulac.org/m/U2FsdGVkX1_Q0XsLu6ylh42p0032bKkkMcsQAewbRoJGT8WVZAmnYN3mfUCo7J2LBDFFkrbiuRA

 

Texas Republicans At It Again

 

This month, Texas Republican legislators introduced a bill to create a new vigilante force (armed with immunity from prosecution) that will supposedly be tasked with hunting down immigrants. This same bill includes new penalties against asylum seekers: including life in prison sentences for some immigrant families. This is unacceptable and we’ll do everything we can to fight back.

We know history is on the side of human rights. I’ll continue to advocate for an efficient and just immigration system that upholds our values as Americans. I would love to have your help in that fight.

 For far too long, politicians have used immigrants and asylum seekers as pawns in a political game. They’ve put in place cruel policies and targeted families seeking a better life—and done nothing to fix the underlying problem for decades.

Thank you,

the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border David Dorado Romo August 9, 2019 The Texas Observer The El Paso shooter wasn’t a “lone wolf.” His act of white supremacist terror is part of a century of racial violence targeting fronterizo communities.

People visit a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting in El Paso. , AP Photo/John Locher

In the immediate aftermath of the El Paso shooting—the largest massacre of Latinx people in the history of the United States—politicians of all stripes stood before the cameras and gave their diagnosis of what just happened. They sounded like the proverbial blind men who touched one part of the elephant and confused the different fragments for the whole. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, a Republican who once praised the “freedom fence” for keeping out “riff raff,” emphasized that the atrocity was committed by an outsider. Other voicesblamed mental health, video games, and the lack of gun control laws. But none of these diagnoses went deep enough, looking only at the symptoms. Before we know how to fight back effectively against white supremacist terrorism like the El Paso massacre, we have to know exactly what we’re up against. History offers an important instrument to determine the root causes of what I characterize as a deadly epidemic. The chilling manifesto reportedly posted online by the alleged shooter tapped into entrenched narratives with deep roots in the history of the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s unlikely that the 21-year-old from Allen, Texas, knew just how utterly repetitive his words and actions were. The height of Texas Ranger violence against Mexicans occurred from 1915 to 1919, with some 300 ethnic Mexicans murdered between 1915 and 1916 alone.  UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS The shooter wrote that he was protecting whites in America from “cultural and ethnic replacement” brought on by “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He claimed that “Hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved Texas, changing policy to better suit their needs.”

What Terrorism Does

On Saturday, we lost 22 innocent lives. We have the power to end this epidemic. Let us do better for them, for ourselves, and for the next generation:

Javier Rodríguez. 15. Javier was getting ready to start his sophomore year, a soccer player ready to start another season. His whole life ahead of him. His sister says she “lost my everything, my best friend.” 

His classmates organized a vigil for him. No student should ever have to do that. We must not accept this epidemic as a new normal or the status quo. Let’s do better for this generation and the ones that follow. 

Jordan Anchondo. 24 years-old. She went to Walmart to buy school supplies—and decorations for her daughter’s 6th birthday party. When the gunman entered, she shielded her 2-month-old son. Jordan didn’t make it, but her son did. 

Andre Anchondo. Jordan’s husband. 23 years-old. They married last year. He’d just finished building their family a home. Saturday was going to be the first time family & friends would see it. But he, too, was killed—while shielding his wife, who was shielding their son. 

Arturo Benavides. 60 years-old. An Army veteran and a bus driver—he spent his life serving our community and our country. His wife was with him in Walmart. She made it out. He did not.

David Johnson. 63 years-old. When hatred entered Walmart on Saturday morning, David responded by protecting his wife and his 9 year-old granddaughter. He passed away, but they survived. 

Jorge Calvillo García. At 61 years-old, Jorge passed away this weekend while he was protecting his granddaughter. He was from Torreón, Mexico. His son, Luis Calvillo, was shot as well. They were outside of Walmart on Saturday, raising funds for EP Fusion, a local girl’s soccer team. 

María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe. María is from Chihuahua, Mexico—and was only here so she could be at the El Paso airport when her daughter arrived. She was 58 years-old. 

Teresa Sanchez. At 82 years-old, Teresa bore the brunt of evil on Saturday. She was from Mexico as well. 

Luis Alfonzo Juárez. 90 years-old. His wife, who he’d been married to for almost 70 years, was also a victim of Saturday’s shooting. He didn’t make it—but thankfully, she did. Beto was able to meet their family at the hospital, and they're showing this community's strength.

Gloria Irma Márquez. A mother of four and a grandmother, Gloria was from Juárez—part of our binational community. She lost her life at 61 years-old because this country failed to protect her. 

Iván Manzano. Like Gloria, Iván was from Juárez, where so many of our neighbors live. He was 46 years-old when he lost his life in our country. 

Elsa Mendoza Márquez. 57 years-old. Elsa lived across the border in Juárez, where she was a teacher. When she ran into Walmart on Saturday to buy supplies for her students in Juárez, her husband and son waited outside in the car. They survived the shooting. Tragically, she did not. 

Sara Esther Regalado. 66 years-old. Adolfo Cerros Hernández. 68 years-old. They, too, were from Mexico—and are remembered as being loving parents. “I don’t know how long it will take for my soul to heal,” their daughter wrote. 

Alexander Gerhard Hoffman. Alexander also wasn’t from the United States. He was from Germany—but he lost his life visiting our country at 66 years-old. 

Maria Flores and Raúl Flores. The couple went to Walmart on Saturday morning and never came home. They were 77 years-old. Both of them. 

Angie Silva Englisbee. 86 years-old. This wasn’t the first time Angie experienced tragedy. Her husband died at 38 years-old, leaving her to raise seven kids by herself. Her grandson called her “the hero of our family.” She, too, was killed.

Leo Campos. 41 years-old. Maribel Hernandez. 56 years-old. They went to Walmart after leaving their dog to be groomed. When Maribel’s brother heard they never came to pick him up, he feared the worst. Soon, it was confirmed: Leo and Maribel had both lost their lives. 

Margie Reckard. 63 years-old. “I’m like a puppy run away from its momma,” said Antonio Basco, her husband of 22 years. “But my wife, she’d say, ‘Get up off your rear end.” He continued: “I know she’s looking down and she’s smiling.” 

Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez. Juan and his wife, Nicholasa, shopped together every week. Juan was from Zacatecas, Mexico, but had lived in El Paso for two years. Nicholasa was injured in the shooting. Juan lost his life at 77 years-old.

Courage. Strength. Resilience.

This is Chris. He is a hero. He was at the Walmart on Saturday with his mom. When he heard gunshots, he made sure his mom was okay, then he ran towards the killer and threw bottles of apple juice at him to distract him. Even though he knew it meant he would be in the line of fire. We are so glad Chris is recovering and honored that he calls this community home. 

Recorded by Beto O'Rourke

On the Terrorism in El Paso

August 4, 2019

This statement was written by members of El Chuco del Norte DSA. We are posting it in solidarity.

Our hearts hurt, our souls hurt, everything hurts. We are mad, we can’t stop crying… as the horrors of white supremacy have hit our beloved El Chuco. Yesterday, in El Paso, we experienced the consequences of a manufactured “national security crisis,” of a fake “invasion” by a president that perpetuates hate against our Latinx community and has made it his mission to “other” us. Just know it wasn’t an El Pasoan that did this. El Paso wouldn’t do this. El Paso is kind. El Paso is love. El Paso is a city where, in the wake of this tragedy, so many people showed up to donate blood that the donations centers couldn’t even accommodate all of us and had to ask us to come back tomorrow or make an appointment. El Paso is a city where funeral homes are saying they won’t charge families for the funeral costs of the victims. El Paso is text messages and phone calls all day long from family and friends checking in on each other. El Paso IS family. El Paso IS home. This was done by an outsider who does not represent El Paso.

This was a home-grown domestic terrorist, a white supremacist who drove over 10 hours to inflict violence on our community. This white supremacist attack ties directly into the increased militarization of El Paso and our US-Mexico border, the concentration camps in our city, and the increased white supremacy rhetoric coming from the White House. And because this is a border town, the only policy or “change” to come will somehow be to further militarize the border in the name of “safety.” Why do our communities have to live through this? Why are we expected to show how resilient and united we are in the face of white supremacist violence, instead of naming and denouncing it and fighting back?!

We are forced to live under the terror of white supremacy every day in our community where we have children in cages and barbed wire lining the walkways of our pedestrian bridges crossing Ciudad Juarez y El Paso. When some of the very victims of this attack drove themselves home, as opposed to receiving much needed medical care, because they were in fear of being deported. The fact that ICE and Border Patrol were on the scene of yesterday’s attack should tell you what life is like for our predominantly Latinx community.

I know this was an act of gun violence, but this tragedy goes far beyond just guns. We can not let the focus be politicized by either political party, we have to understand that this, this was fascism! This was white supremacy violence that directly targeted our community for the sole fact that we are over 80% Latinx. And we cannot let this be another shooting brushed under the rug that is soon forgotten. This will not be a re-run! We have to do something; we can not let people forget about what happened to us and to our community!

We have to come together and protect ourselves… because white supremacy is here, it’s been here, and it won’t go away until we make it go away… we have to figure out a way to make sure that these victims don’t just become another forgotten mass shooting wrapped up in politicking. It is clear that there is a target on our back as a border community and as a community of color.

We ask of our fellow DSA comrades, to please, please, please, refocus after this convention is said and done, and realize what communities like ours are being faced with day in and day out under a fascist regime like the Trump administration. The El Paso community, and all who support us, will mourn this tragedy, as we should, but let our tears and pain transform into political consciousness and action.

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Response to Trump's Immigration Policy

Trump's Policy at Work 

The greatest experiment in democracy in human history is now being run like a gangster-state. And so we protest, not because we want to spend our days this way, but because now we have to spend our days this way. We protest in the same way the brave rescue teams in Thailand have repeatedly dived into the dangerous waters of the flooded cave, not because they relish danger but because to do otherwise would be a moral failing.

In the eruption of protests this past month, outside federal buildings in cities large and small around the country, along the border, at detention facilities, there are at last the stirrings of redemption. There is a moral outrage percolating now throughout this great land, a sense that, with the taking of the children, with the stealing of the Supreme Court, with the destruction of environmental regulations and the rolling back of 60 years of civil rights advances, everything is on the line.

In ever-increasing numbers, and with ever-increasing urgency, as our own political flood waters rise, so we will keep protesting, keep fighting, keep pushing back, until bit by bit we redeem this wondrous democracy from rule by thugs.

Sasha Abramsky is a Sacramento writer who teaches at UC Davis. His latest book is “Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream.” He can be reached at sabramsky@sbcglobal.net.

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article214503109.html#storylink=cpy

Poor People's Campaign- Lets Stop this Atrocity at the Border

Duane Campbell 

This is just the beginning.  California Poor People's Campaign  enter the State Capitol for the 6th. week of non violent direct action.


Here is the presentation of your editor,

Thank you for being here today.  This is a critical day in our efforts. 

My Name is Duane Campbell.  I am a co-chair of the Immigrants’ Rights Committee of Democratic Socialists  of America.

Let us be clear. 

Seizing children from their parents at the border is immoral. 

This issue before us is  one of human decency.  Under the Trump Administration ICE has developed a new policy of deliberately separating families of immigrants and refugees.  They are separating parents from their children as a form of collective punishment.   They are violating both  due process and human rights.

 Many of us have seen the photos and the video.  We are here to disrupt the Immoral narrative  that terrorizes children for political gain. 

The United Nation says so.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops say so.

Most religious communities say so. 

 Trump, and Republicans in Congress have rejected a way to fix DACA and protect Dreamers. Now they are forcing a vote on two cruel bills that hold dreamers hostage to the Trump Administration’s deportation machine .

Hate Rising with Jorge Ramos

Stand Up to Hate

 The political statement below was passed by the DSA National Political Committee on December 1, 2015. Unfortunately, in just the one week since Donald Trump has gone even further in his inflammatory speech and there have been more instances of harassment and violence against targeted groups.

Fighting Back Against the Rising Tide of Nativist and Racist Reaction

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) call on all progressives across the United States to join together in a broad coalition against the rising tide of racist and nativist politics in the United States. The nativist fear-mongering by one Democratic and 27 Republican governors about the alleged threat posed to U.S. residents by Syrian refugees (themselves often fleeing ISIL violence) and undocumented immigrants obscures the true violent threat to our collective security: nativist, racist and misogynist terrorism.

Read the entire statement here.

http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2015/12/who-are-these-terrorists.html

Who's Making Money Off The War On Drugs?

Write a letter to your Congressperson : Terrorism

Your Representative:

I am outraged that Judge Kathleen Cardone has now dismissed all charges against the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, because of the refusal of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush to take decisive action and declare him a terrorist, as well as their deliberate mishandling of the immigration case against him.

Posada has never renounced his terrorist history, and his presence in Miami is a clear and present danger to the community. Each time he has been freed from prison, he has continued to direct mercenaries to carry out his terrorist attacks.

I urge you as my representative to demand that Alberto Gonzales: 1.) Classify Posada as a terrorist; 2.) To begin the process for extradition for Posada Carriles to Venezuela, as required by the 1922 U.S.- Veneuela extradition accord, to face 73 charges of murder in the 1976 bombing of the Cubana airliner.


Finally, you must demand of the Bush administration to stop harboring Luis Posada Carriles. It is a shame that our nation is harboring a recognized terrorist while campaigning against terrorism around the world.

Sincerely,

Chiquita and terrorism

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070320_chiquitas_slipping_appeal/

Posted on Mar 20, 2007

By Amy Goodman

What do Osama bin Laden and Chiquita bananas have in common? Both have used their millions to finance terrorism.

The Justice Department has just fined Chiquita Brands International $25 million for funding a terrorist organization ... for years. Chiquita must also cooperate fully with ongoing investigations into its payments to the ultra-right-wing Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia. Chiquita made almost monthly payments to the AUC from 1997 to 2004, totaling at least $1.7 million.

The AUC is a brutal paramilitary umbrella group, with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 armed troops. It was named a terrorist organization by the United States on Sept. 10, 2001. Among its standard tactics are kidnapping, torture, disappearance, rape, murder, beatings, extortion and drug trafficking.

Chiquita claims it had to make the payments under threat from the AUC in order to protect its employees and property. Chiquita’s outside lawyers implored them to stop the illegal payments, to no avail. The payments were made by check through Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary, Banadex. When Chiquita executives figured out how illegal the payments were, they started delivering them in cash. Chiquita sold Banadex in June 2004 when the heat got too intense.

While the AUC was collecting U.S. dinero from Chiquita, it was butchering thousands of innocent people in rural Colombia. Chengue (pronounced CHEN-gay) was a small farming village in the state of Sucre. About 80 AUC paramilitary members went into the town in the early hours of Jan. 17, 2001. They rounded up the men and smashed their skulls with stones and a sledgehammer, killing 24 of them. One 19-year-old perpetrator confessed, naming the organizers of the mass murder, including police and navy officials. To date, he is the only one who has been punished. This is just one of hundreds of massacres carried out by AUC.

Chiquita has had a long history of criminal behavior. It was the subject of an extraordinary exposé in its hometown paper, The Cincinnati Enquirer, in 1998. The paper found that Chiquita exposed entire communities to dangerous U.S.-banned pesticides, forced the eviction of an entire Honduran village at gunpoint and its subsequent bulldozing, suppressed unions, unwittingly allowed the use of Chiquita transport ships to move cocaine internationally, and paid a fortune to U.S. politicians to influence trade policy. The lead reporter, Mike Gallagher, illegally accessed more than 2,000 Chiquita voice mails. The voice mails backed up his story, but his methods got him fired. The Enquirer issued a front-page apology and paid Chiquita a reported $14 million. The voice-mail scandal rocked the Enquirer, burying the important exposé.

Chiquita was formerly called the United Fruit Co., which with the help of its former lawyer, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and his brother Allen Dulles’ Central Intelligence Agency overthrew the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, in 1954. And you can go back further. Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez wrote in his classic “One Hundred Years of Solitude” about the 1928 Santa Marta massacre of striking United Fruit banana workers: “When the banana company arrived ... the old policemen were replaced by hired assassins.”

While the U.S. is seeking extradition of Colombia-based Chiquita executives, the administration of President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia, with its own officials now linked to the right-wing paramilitaries, has countered that Colombia would seek the extradition of U.S.-based Chiquita executives. Colombian prosecutors are also seeking information in Chiquita’s role in smuggling 3,000 AK-47 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to paramilitaries in November 2001.

A $25-million fine to a multibillion-dollar corporation like Chiquita is a mere slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business. Presidents like George W. Bush and Uribe, businessmen first, while squabbling over extraditions, would never lose track of their overarching shared goal of a stridently pro-corporate, military-supported so-called free-trade regime. As long as that remains the same, union organizers and hard-working farmers, like the men of Chengue, will continue to be killed on behalf of Chiquita or some other multinational company.

That next organic, fair-trade banana you buy just might save a life.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.

© 2007 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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