The Supreme Court has decided on SB1070 and it appears that little by little the most aggressive anti-immigrant legislation created in U.S. history is being dismantled. It was born in a laboratory called Arizona and was carefully nurtured in a bright white petri dish branded with the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) logo and bought and paid for by the giant private prison industry.

The masterful art of taking the fear of others who don’t look like you, who talk different than you, perhaps maintain different customs, coupled with the outright racism of others, the ardent desire to preserve the white race by yet others, and profiting from that fear by cashing it into votes and laws is impressive. The concept is basic, yet Machiavellian and diabolical. You scare the hell out of the voters with fictitious talk of decapitated bodies in the Arizona desert and an alleged invasion of this country using key elected officials like Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona and ex Arizona state senate president Russell Pearce, and you end up with a terrified voter willing to cast their vote over and over for those who they think will protect them from this “invasion.” But why would these politicians be so hell bent on using the immigrant as their whipping post? Simple, they love the title and the power that comes from holding an elected position. Senator X, Legislator Y, the Honorable Z, etc. It commands respect and grants you unbelievable power, and we all know what happens when you allow power to swell your head. As Lord Acton put it, “Power corrupts, and absolute power, corrupts absolutely.”

That’s exactly what’s happened to Arizona’s politicians. The whole lot of them! After all, most of those politicians supportive of SB1070 took money from the private prison industry.

There is big business at play here. What we’re looking at is a multi-billion dollar business that is simply not going to go away. These private prisons are here to stay. It falls right in line with the privatization of our education system and our health care system. Perhaps even the social security system at the rate the Republican controlled congress is headed.

To give you an idea of the impact the private prison industry has had on the political landscape, I’ve taken a section from an AZ Central article that thoroughly explains it.

Political footprint

The nation’s largest and oldest corrections company, CCA runs more than 60 prisons and immigrant-detention centers across 19 states and the District of Columbia. It has by far the largest political footprint of the dozen or so companies that operate private prisons in the U.S.

CCA has spent about $17.6 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies over the past decade, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks the effect of money on U.S. politics. The agencies include the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, which contract with private operators such as CCA for immigration-detention centers.

Thirty of CCA’s 35 lobbyists on Capitol Hill previously worked for members of Congress or for federal agencies. Two CCA senior executives are former directors of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, including Harley Lappin, whom CCA hired in June as chief corrections officer a week after his retirement from the bureau. CCA is a major bureau contractor. Another CCA vice president, Bart VerHulst, previously worked as chief of staff for then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

Since 2000, the company has won $3.84 billion in federal contracts, including just under $546 million for federal contracts in Arizona, according to government records. CCA’s six prisons in Arizona hold inmates from other states, federal prisoners and immigration detainees. Its bid calls for moving out prisoners from Hawaii and California at its existing Red Rock and La Palma prisons in Eloy and moving in Arizona prisoners.

CCA lobbies heavily on the state level, employing 178 lobbyists in 32 states over the past eight years, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan group that gathers lobbying and campaign-finance data.

In Arizona, the company has cultivated high-level connections. Former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini sits on CCA’s board of directors. Perhaps the highest profile among CCA’s 22 registered lobbyists in Arizona belongs to Chuck Coughlin, president of HighGround Public Affairs Consultants and a senior political adviser to Gov. Jan Brewer. Besides CCA, HighGround’s 23 lobbying clients include Maricopa County and Salt River Project.

Coughlin served as chairman of Brewer’s transition team when she took office in 2009 and as her campaign manager in 2010. He also has managed election campaigns for Senate President Russell Pearce.

Other heavy hitters with ties to CCA include Paul Senseman, a lobbyist with Policy Development Group, who served until last fall as Brewer’s spokesman and whose wife, Kathryn Senseman, lobbied for that group while he worked for Brewer; and Bradley Regens, who joined CCA in 2007 after nine years as an Arizona legislative staffer, including two years as director of fiscal policy for the state House of Representatives.

Brewer has advocated for privatizing Arizona prisons. But even other privatization supporters say her CCA connections raise red flags.

“I’ve questioned Brewer’s choice of staff in the past for the same reason; she has a lot of contract lobbyists, and I have a problem with that,” said Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City. “At the very least it gives the public the appearance that these companies have too much influence, and you have to wonder what’s going on when they leave Brewer’s office and go right back into lobbying.”

Brewer’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Since 2003, CCA employees and affiliates have given nearly $2 million in campaign contributions to state-level candidates and ballot issues across the U.S.

In Arizona, CCA associates and its political-action committee have reported giving about $35,000 in political donations over the past decade to Brewer, Pearce, former House Speaker Kirk Adams, House Speaker Andy Tobin and many others. A big chunk of that, $11,520, was given for last year’s election campaigns.

Arizona lobbying firms that represent CCA made about $35,000 in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle. Whatever influence contributions may bring, they are wielded on behalf of many clients.

Given the recent Supreme Court decision on SB1070, President Obama’s executive order regarding the Dreamers, The fact that ICE pulled the 287g certification from 7 law enforcement agencies, including the one previously granted to the Department of Public Safety, and to add insult to injury, ICE made it very clear that they would not pickup anyone suspected of being in the country unlawfully unless they had committed a felony.

It’s obvious that the private prison industry is being dealt a serious financial blow. The less undocumented immigrants captured and detained in CCA’s prisons, means a smaller invoice that can be tendered to the Feds for incarceration of individuals who the states feel is the Feds responsibility. This is shocking to me given the amount they spend on lobbyist. Does this then come down to a war behind the scenes that hasn’t been exposed by the media? The Obama administration has to be aware that they are dealing the private prison industry a big financial hit. The private prison industry has to have voiced their opposition to this administration’s recent immigration policy, and it’s applications.

The question remains, how will CCA and Geo Group, the two largest private prison industry purveyors explain the dramatic loss in revenue to their investors? Will CCA and Geo Group take advantage of Citizens United and get behind Romney with substantial backing for the Super PACS in the hopes that a President Romney would reverse these executive orders?

Allow me to float an idea that the general populous should be very concerned about. These private prisons that have traditionally held what many call “illegal aliens”, may soon be holding your brother, your sister or your neighbor. We could soon see harsher penalties for crimes committed, longer prison sentences, and, there’s a great likelihood that those sentences will be carried out in private prisons. To quote the AZ Central story, “CCA lobbies heavily on the state level, employing 178 lobbyists in 32 states over the past eight years.” I ask, what do you think they’re going to do with an army of lobbyists when the amount of immigrants they have been incarcerating diminishes? It’s obvious that state legislatures will be lobbied for specific laws with harsher penalties creating a new breed of prisoner.

I don’t think CCA and Geo Group, really care about the color of your skin, they just care about filling their jail cells for profit.

I imagine there’s a lot of disappointed investors, legislators, racists, xenophobes, white supremacists. They all had their personal reason for supporting SB1070, and they all worked in tandem to ensure it’s preservation, but in one fell swoop on June 25, 2012 they all took a serious hit from SCOTUS and the Obama administration.

Private Prison Industry Giant

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and W60 AM Radio, Los Angeles, San Diego and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana and the Tucson Citizen in Arizona. Carlos Galindo is President and founder of the Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, Inc.

http://www.carlosgalindo.com

As soon as Romney heard the news about President Obama’s executive order he threw a conniption fit. He was caught totally off guard by the breaking news. As I stated in another blog, a politically astute move. Romney’s first statement chastised the President for having granted relief via an executive order and hinted that a new incoming President could in fact revoke the executive order. He then said he agreed with Marco Rubio in that a long term relief was needed and that this action by the President would somehow make reaching a long term solution more difficult. I would argue that it makes it much easier given the fact that the issue is now clearly on the table and that any President would now have to take the issue head on.

Romney later appeared on “Face The Nation” and absolutely refused to address whether or not a “President Romney” would strike down the executive order that gives relief to undocumented youngsters who were brought here at a young age by their parents. Romney avoided the question like the plague. Par for the course for Romney.

Romney and his advisors have been scrambling trying to figure out what they’re going to do to attract the Latino vote now that President Obama pulled the rabbit out of the hat.

Well, the response came today in a reply from Romney addressing whether or not he and his team were vetting Marco Rubio for the VP spot. Romney has been highly evasive regarding his vetting process or any potential candidates for the vice president spot on his ticket. Yet today he immediately confirmed that Rubio was in fact being deeply vetted as a potential vice presidential candidate.

This is Romney’s way of testing the waters with the party and his base. He wanted to get a reaction to see if Rubio is in fact palatable. After all, he is a Latino, and that might not sit well with some of the conservative white base. We will see in the next few days what type of blow back Romney receives from his litmus test.

Meanwhile he’ll also get a good read on the Latino reaction. What Romney has to understand is that unfortunately for him Cuban Americans don’t always rate as common Latinos for the rest of the Latino community. Don’t get me wrong, I embrace my Cuban brothers and sisters as members of the Latino community and many of them Immigrants like many of us. However, Immigrants from other countries don’t always embrace them as warmly as I do. This primarily due to the immigration policy maintained by the United States regarding Cuban refugees. The U.S. has maintained a wet feet, dry feet policy with the Cubans. Immediately upon touching U.S. soil, Cubans are taken in and examined and processed on a fast track for residency and citizenship, yet Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans etc. don’t have such luck and find themselves working by day and living in the shadows by night.

Can this move bring Romney the much needed Latino vote? He needs to stay above 30 percent of the Latino vote to win this election. The last Latino vote poll taken gave President Obama 73 percent of the vote and 26 percent to Romney. This poll was taken prior to President Obama’s bold executive order. It’s my understanding President Obama has gained a considerable amount of those Latinos who were polling in favor of Romney since his executive order.

It’s amazing how a sector of the community that has largely been ignored and devalued, now plays a major role in the presidential elections. Everyone is pandering to the Latino vote. Well, let’s be clear, everyone with the exception of Arizona’s politicians, they are oblivious to the turning tide and the Latino tsunami that will eventually drown out any chances of political survival for these primarily white, privileged candidates, that have spent their legislative sessions creating laws targeting Latinos.

Romney & Rubio strike a deal

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana Arizona. Carlos Galindo is a founding member and President of the Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, Inc.

http://www.carlosgalindo.com

I just want to point out that Barack Obama’s executive order regarding the Dreamers was the most politically astute move I have seen to date. President Obama not only did what many wanted, he was politically astute in doing so. I don’t think anyone would argue that it was done for political reasons, although I must also add that he had from the very beginning said he supported the Dream Act, which would also lend itself to the idea that he did it because it was the right thing to do.

However, here enters the astuteness of the move, he not only forced the Republican’s hand on the immigration issue, he has Romney talking “long term solution” for the Dreamers. This, after Romney said he would veto the Dream Act if he were the sitting President.

The Republicans have been trying to find a way to spin this as a negative, but they won’t dare say they would repeal the order recently granted by President Obama, they know that to say so, would surely be the defeat of Romney and would leave them scarred for a decade to come.

So, the Dreamers got what they and what many of us wanted, a relief for youngsters brought here at a very young age who have kept their nose clean and have managed to weave themselves into the fabric of this great country. Meanwhile the President got the dialog on the table in a bold move to give relief to Immigrant children and with a very promising future for their parents.

This President and his advisors are consummate professionals and astute politicians. It doesn’t hurt that President Obama is a Harvard graduate and that he grew up poor and as a commoner. This allows him to feel what we feel and relate to things as we relate to them.

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana Arizona. Carlos Galindo is a founding member and President of the Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, Inc.

http://www.carlosgalindo.com

Jan Brewer seems poised and ready to strike once the Supreme Court renders it’s decision regarding SB1070. Brewer just issued an executive order directing the AZPOST (Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board) to issue material previously given to officers enabling them to determine who might be in the country legally.

AZPOST, the agency that oversees police officers in Arizona was commenced 44 years ago under a Republican administration and according to their website their purpose in part is as follows:

The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board was created by an act of the 28th Arizona legislature on July 1, 1968 as the Arizona Law Enforcement Officer Advisory Council. The name was officially changed to its present form on July 17, 1994.

The Board was originally created to address the need for minimum peace officer selection, recruitment, retention and training standards, and to provide curriculum and standards for all certified law enforcement training facilities. The Board was also vested with the responsibility of administering the Peace Officer Training Fund.

So now AZPOST’s job is to determine what an “illegal looks like”. Well at least that’s what Jan Brewer, Arizona’s illustrious governor thinks their job is. While signing SB1070, Brewer was asked by a reporter what she thought an “illegal immigrant” looked like. Brewer stuttered as she struggled to answer the very basic question this law hinges on. After all, if you’re signing a law into effect that is meant to be used to chase down and prosecute undocumented immigrants, you should have a good grasp on what the person you’re targeting looks like.

It’s obvious that Jan Brewer never considered what an “illegal immigrant” looks like, just as she didn’t consider the repercussions that signing this law into effect would create. Most importantly the loss of life it caused in the case of Juan Varela who was shot by his neighbor Gary Thomas Kelley just two weeks after the signing of SB1070 and a concealed weapon law. Kelley approached Varela asking him if he was on his way to, or returning from, a protest against SB1070. When Varela, a fifth generation American Citizen told him to leave him alone, Kelley pulled the concealed weapon from his waistband and brandished it while calling Varela a wetback and telling him to go back to Mexico. Kelley, viciously, and in a criminal act of hate, took Varela’s life in front of Varela’s seventy eight year old mother and his brother.

The effect of SB1070 on the State of Arizona has been great and diverse, from a mass exodus of lawful immigrants fearing harassment based on their prominent indigenous features, to the loss of jobs based on large businesses’ refusal to set up shop in Arizona because of the hostile and polarized environment.

Jan Brewer did what was politically expedient and fruitful for her flailing political career. Brewer was not concerned about how Arizonan’s might be affected, or to what extent they might take this law into their own hands.

As Brewer called Arizona’s traditional immigrant migration, an invasion, as she fabricated stories of decapitated bodies and exclaimed, “it’s out of control, it’s simply out of control”, border militia’s like J.T. Ready’s U.S. Border Guard were formed, and a get him, he’s brown, mentality prevailed. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been told to go back to Mexico, even though I’m a light skinned Mexican Immigrant and a naturalized citizen who speaks perfect English.

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson on Tuesday said, “The governor is optimistic that the heart of SB 1070 will be upheld and implemented,” he went on to say, “The governor thought this was an appropriate time to revisit the issue and make sure Arizona law enforcement is as prepared as possible for partial or full implementation of the law.”

So as we await the Supreme Court decision, AZPOST prepares to issue updated manuals on what an “illegal immigrant looks like” in order to facilitate police officers in determining who they should stop while driving brown.

There is of course someone else that’s preparing for the onslaught of immigrant arrests. The detention officers who work in the private prison industry who make certain that those determined to be “illegal immigrants” are stuffed into cells like sardines in a can, ensuring that the private prison industry gets the maximum bang for their buck, after all they invested a great deal of money in these local politician’s political campaigns to ensure they had the “right” people in place. That of course includes Governor Brewer’s right hand man, top advisor Chuck Coughlin, the equivalent to George Bush’s Karl Rove aka “The Architect”.

Coughlin is a lobbyist for CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), CCA in turn is a giant in the private prison industry and a specialist in detention of brown skinned folks. The influence that Coughlin has on Brewer is astounding. On his own website, “High Ground Public Affairs”, Coughlin brags about the influence he has had in putting the right people in place within the Brewer administration.

Coughlin’s bio states:

Coughlin was asked to serve by then-Secretary of State Jan Brewer as the Chairman of her Transition Team when she became Governor in 2009. As the Transition Team Chairman, Coughlin assembled a diverse team of business and community leaders who recommended to the Governor her executive management team, senior policy positions, cabinet recommendations and coordinated her swearing in ceremonies. Coughlin chaired the search committee which recommended the succession of Secretary of State Ken Bennett into the role left vacant by Brewer’s ascension to the office of Governor.

The Supreme Court decision could come as early as Monday, and as the immigrant community prepares for the onslaught, Brewer’s mouth and arms move about barking and signing executive orders, while Coughlin and the private prison industry pull her strings. Why does this remind me of the song from the sixties, “I’m your puppet.”

Carlos Galindo talking to white protester during SB1070 protests

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and W60 AM Radio, Los Angeles, San Diego and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana and the Tucson Citizen in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is President & Founder of The Immigrant Advocacy Foundation, a non-profit corporation in good standing.

http://www.carlosgalindo.com