TerryGreeneSterling.com » Phoenix

David Duke, McCain, Hayworth, White Supremacy and Arizona Immigration Law

Terry Greene Sterling — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:46:14 +0000

Did David Duke endorse J.D. Hayworth in the Republican primary Senate race against McCain?

Recently, I wrote a story for The Daily Beast about Arizona’s white supremacy problem. In a nutshell, a white supremacist political party claims it donated to the SB 1070 legal defense fund (Brewer doesn’t \want the money but she still hasn’t found the contribution), an alleged Nazi is patrolling the desert for narcos, and a Pinal County sheriff named Paul Babeu who endorsed John McCain in the Republican primary mano-a-mano with JD Hayworth appeared on a conspiracy theorist talk show and then followed that up with a stint on a white supremacist talk show. Next, J.D. Hayworth called for McCain to distance himself from the Pinal County Sheriff. Here’s the story.

And here are two other stories that preceded mine.

First, Arizona Daily Star covered the initial mess.

Second, Incredible video of Babeu and Channel 12 Newsman Brahm Resnik:

Now a website purported to belong to David Duke claims that David Duke endorses Hayworth

Immigrants and Healthcare in Arizona

Terry Greene Sterling — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:16:49 +0000

Joaquín was 24 and suffering from renal failure.
He had to decide whether to die a slow death in Phoenix or risk his health in Mexico.
He is one of the characters in my book.
I wrote about Joaquín recently in The Arizona Republic.

Here is a video I took of Joaquín.
Joaquín Decides

Arizona, SB 1070, the justice department law suit, and a mural whitening

Terry Greene Sterling — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:54:56 +0000

I will be chatting live at Washingtonpost.com on this very subject on Wed. July 7 at 1 pm Eastern, 10 am Arizona time.

Join in.

Also, I wrote about an effort to recall a small town’s most controversial pol and a talk radio show host. The reason has to do with calling Mexicans “taco flippers,” railing against an elementary school mural that prominently displays a Latino child, and campaigning against a Spanish-language sign intended to encourage Census participation. You can read the story here.

Obama’s speech triggers more questions in SB 1070 land, Arizona immigration law country.

Terry Greene Sterling — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:02:26 +0000

The two key Arizona lawmakers who pushed SB 1070 through the Arizona Legislature expressed outrage after President Barack Obama voiced support for comprehensive reform of federal immigration policy earlier today.

You can read a really good analysis of just why, exactly, Obama chose this time and place to speak about immigration in a big way. Just link here. Obama delivered his talk at American University, in Washington. He said this, in a nutshell: It’s time to reform federal immigration policy using a four-pronged approach of border enforcement, workplace enforcement, visa policy modernization and a stand-in-line-and-pay-your-fees pathway to a green card. (Citizenship, and voting privileges, would come years later.) (Oh, and the comprehensive immigration reform Obama touted is not new; Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain, with President Bush’s blessing, tried to get it passed back in 2006. )

Obama also took a couple of jabs at Arizona and SB 1070, saying the law pummels law enforcement authorities with burdendome expenses and responsibilities, and, of course, opens the door to racial profiling.

Almost immediately after Obama stepped down from the podium, John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills legislator who has become a key spokesman for SB 1070 after sponsoring a similar law in the Arizona House, appeared on TV in Phoenix. He told FOX News he was offended that Obama lumped immigrants who came here illegally with immigrants who came legally, like his grandparents. He said the Obama plan meant “amnesty” and SB 1070 protected against racial profiling.

Kavanagh had recently done a little offending of his own, when he “joked” to a roomful of Latino journalists that Canadian “illegals” could stay in Arizona because they had money. You can read about that here.

Sen. Russell Pearce, the main sponsor of SB 1070, told Phoenix FOX news that Obama was fear mongering and just wanted “amnesty.” Pearce has been accused of fearmongering, too. The Arizona Republic noted that Pearce erred when he attributed 9,000 deaths to “illegal immigration.” In a fascinating and informative profile, reporter Gary Nelson notes:

Pearce has frequently cited a soaring crime rate caused by illegal immigration as one of the reasons for his stance.

However, statistics from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports show that violent and property crimes in Phoenix have decreased in the last three years at a rate that is even faster than the nation’s as a whole.

As recently as two months ago, Pearce wrote a constituent that illegal immigrants are responsible for “over 9,000 American deaths every year.” The number has been attributed to U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who said he “extrapolated” from a Government Accountability Office study. The study, however, was on illegal-immigrant prison populations and does not mention that figure.

Arizona Governor says most “illegal” immigrants smuggle drugs.

Terry Greene Sterling — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:35:38 +0000

At a recent televised Clean Elections debate of Republican gubernatorial primary candidates, Gov. Jan Brewer vowed that she’s done more than any other “governor has ever did” to come to the aid of the state.

A little later on, she said SB 1070 was a fine law that would protect the people of Arizona, regardless of a campaign by “media” and “certain organized organizations” that inferred it was a bad law.

A while later, she said she believed most undocumented immigrants didn’t come to work.

They came “acrost” the line to smuggle drugs , extort, kidnap.

“That is the truth. That is the truth,” she said.

It’s not the truth, according to the FBI and conservative sources.

You can see the whole debate here.

Brewer, as I’ve noted before, may not know the king’s English, but she knows how to win elections.

In 28 years, she has not lost a single one.

Arizona immigration law and this website — the dust hasn’t settled yet

Terry Greene Sterling — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:52:21 +0000

A COURT BATTLE OVER ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW, A WEBSITE REDESIGN, AND WONDERFUL BLOGGERS.

Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s contentious immigration law, is about to take effect July 29. As immigrants decide whether to hightail it out of Phoenix, the Mexican government, The American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Cvil Liberties Union, and many other groups seek to bar the law from taking effect on constitutional grounds in federal court in Arizona.

So the dust hasn’t cleared in Phoenix.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, the dust hasn’t cleared on my website, either. We’re slowly working on the redesign, but we wanted to keep it up so think of it as a remodel job.

Stay tuned.

My book, ILLEGAL, Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone, [Globe Pequot Press/ Lyons] is due out July 1, and already some wonderful bloggers are giving it some attention. Carmen in the Arid Zone gives the book a thumbs up, and not just because her name is indexed between “cocaine and coyote.” Ted Hesson of Long Island Wins runs an excerpt and generous critique in this post. And the Spar and Bernstein blog also was kind enough to mention the book.

With deepest gratitude, and …..

…..stay tuned!

Arizona’s newest immigration target: Anchor Babies

Terry Greene Sterling — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:40:36 +0000

Children are the next targets of the people who wrote SB1070.

I wrote about this, and why the numbers are deceptive, in The Daily Beast.

Arizona immigration war: A cowboy, a horse, a tea party

Terry Greene Sterling — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:30:02 +0000

A COWBOY RIDES INTO A PRO-ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW

TEA PARTY RALLY IN DOWNTOWN PHOENIX … AND SHOWS

THE POWER OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Earlier this month, on a hot afternoon, I covered a tea party gathering in favor of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, which goes into effect July 29 if not stalled by some sort of court action. The law is controversial because it forces all state policemen to become immigration enforcers, and requires them to check papers while lawfully stopping, detaining or arresting people they “reasonably suspect” of being immigration lawbreakers. Those lawful stops and arrests and detentions (detention is a muddy concept that bothers lawyers looking into this) could involve broken tail lights and misuse of leaf blowers, since all city and county ordinances fall under SB 1070′s enforcement umbrella. And if an American citizen driving, living with, or having lunch with someone he or she knows to be in the country illegally, and if the American happens to violate an ordinance, he or she can be criminalized for “harboring” an “illegal alien.” To top it all off, SB 1070 allows Arizona residents to sue the employers (state, county, city) of the cops if the cops aren’t properly enforcing the law.

Not a word of the SB 1070 refers to enforcement of the border.

The sponsor of the law, Russell Pearce, a state senator who says he’s had a hand in all of Arizona’s precedent setting and increasingly harsh immigration laws, attended the event. I snapped a photo. Notice the American Flag fashionista — this is typical dress at such events.

Pearce spoke at the rally. Then he walked a few feet to a fundraising barbecue held by Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth, who is running against John McCain in the Republican primary. J.D. Hayworth calls himself a consistent conservative, although his critics dispute that, pointing to a link with Jack Abramoff and votes approving spending when he was in Congress.

These events, both pro and con SB 1070, are theatrical. There are props. Example: Buttons.

I was taking a picture of one vendor’s button collection when, out of the wild blue yonder, a 75-year-old cowboy named Bud Hart rode his horse up to the Tea Party crowd. He carried a sign protesting SB 1070, and told anyone who would listen it is a bad law that will hurt the state economically. The Tea Partiers were polite to the cowboy, except for one woman who tried to shoo the horse. The horse, a 13-year-old Quarter Horse named Big’n, had a a gentle disposition, didn’t know what to make of the Tea Party lady. Other protestors, to their credit, told the woman not to scare Big’n, even if she didn’t agree with his rider. This upset the woman, and it is possible she complained to the cops. Someone complained to the cops, because they came over to Hart and told him to take down his sign. Below, Hart talks to the protestors.

And below, a picture of Hart being confronted by the Capital Police.

I heard the policemen tell Hart that he had to take his sign down, and Hart told the policeman about his constitutional right to free speech. The policeman said Hart shouldn’t carry a sign because the space had been rented. Hart, sounding like a Tea Partier, talked about his constitutional rights some more. The police finally gave up. It’s not clear whether the shoo-lady with hurt feelings had complained to the police, or whether JD Hayworth, who had Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Tom Tancredo and Russell Pearce lined up to speak at his fundraising barbecue, complained. Whoever complained, though, dropped the complaint. Hart rode off into the sunset on Big’n.

I called him a few days later.

He told me he grew up on Arizona ranches, and knew a thing or two about the Constitution. He said he’d never protested before, but SB 1070 sickened him and so he decided to take a stand. He’d lived among Mexicans for decades he said, and most were good hardworking people who didn’t deserve persecution. Enough is enough, he said. This had to stop. And honestly, where else but in Arizona would a Constitution-savvy cowboy be free-spirited enough to ride into a rally and speak his free speech mind?

When he’s not protesting, he’s caring for Big’n. He told me he’d keep the pony until one of them died, and if Hart died first, he’d made arrangements for Big’n to go to a family with kids.

Big’n is an unusual horse.

He is, to hear Hart tell it, a superb roping and work horse, but he’s also gentle.

Hart rode him into a bar last year, and Big’n seemed not to mind the bar folk petting him in the dark, smoky, strange room.

As I said, only in Arizona……..

Faces of Phoenix protests for and against Arizona’s immigration law

Terry Greene Sterling — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:27:42 +0000

TERRY GREENE STERLING: PHOTOS FROM A HOTBED OF (IMMIGRATION LAW) PROTEST – PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Soon, this site will be redesigned. We’ll have lots of new features, and my web designer, who is very smart about these things, says I won’t be able to use such HUGE pictures. What can I say? I’ll have to defer, after all, he knows what he’s doing. But until we get the new site launched, it is Bigpicturepalooza.

Here are two photos I shot at the May 29 pro-and-con immigration-law rallies. You can read the law in earlier posts on these pages.

This is a picture of a boy marcher whose mother is an undocumented immigrant. She is a professional clown. She entertains kids at birthday parties. This explains why she painted her son’s face with the words: For America. Naturally, the boy and his mother are opposed to the law. Estimates for the march this child attended ranged from 10,000 to 100,000. I figure there were about 30,000 marchers, but I couldn’t be sure since I was reporting from the middle of the march.

Below, a portrait of a man who doesn’t have work and came to pro-SB 1070 Tea Party rally in search of work. He told me he didn’t really blame immigrants for taking his job, but he said he figured he’d get work if he showed up at the rally. He didn’t get a job, but he got one lead by the time I left the rally around 9 p.m. Estimates for this sedentary rally, in a stadium, where people sat and listened to speakers, ranged from about 5,000 to 10,000. I think about 3,000 people were there when I visited.

Arizona Immigration Law Update May 28, 2010

Terry Greene Sterling — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:06:42 +0000

NEXT BATTLE IN ARIZONA IMMIGRATION WAR – WHETHER TO BAN SOME KIDS BORN IN USA FROM BEING CITIZENS

Senator Russell Pearce, the East Mesa Republican who pushed the most controversial immigration law in the nation through the Arizona Senate and House, now has a new cause. It has to do with not allowing all people born in the United States to be citizens — like those kids born to unauthorized immigrants.

This is a new plank in the election-year anti-migrant movement, and Pearce threw the first volley on the O’Reilly show on FOX. Next came the usual slew of viral e-mails about how immigrants are having all these babies in hospitals. The segment in RED is word-for-word copy of a viral e-mail that followed Pearce’s O’Reilly appearance. It sets the stage for the new election year-campaign to de-citizenize citizens.

Just One Hospital

Unbelievable!

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas , Texas is a fairly famous institution and for a variety of reasons:

1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963

2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after

3. Jack Ruby-who killed Oswald, died there a few years later.

On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44 per day---every day)

A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal aliens. That's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas .

According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.

The average patient in Parkland in maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal alien. By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay.

OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital , they do. Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics. NINE.

The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were also born at Parkland . Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico . This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)

How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects?

Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the US illegally - now she is having her own child there as well. (That's right; she's technically a US citizen.)

These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.

Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal aliens, they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification - no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income - an illegal alien need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.

Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for Americans.)

There are about 140 patients who received roughly four million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is going to sue them! Illegal aliens get it all free! But U. S citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal alien patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.

In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

(Sorry for the length, but this needs wide circulation particularly to our "employees" in Congress.)

Remember that this is about only ONE hospital in Dallas , Texas . There are many more hospitals across our country that must also deal with this.

If you want to verify the story:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp

In other update news, Kris Kobach, the controversial Kansas lawyer who was a lead author on SB 1070 and has been labeled a Nativist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is running for Secretary of State of Kansas. Here is his campaign sign.

And someone defaced these Republican signs, below, including a McCain sign, in central Phoenix.

You be the judge.