As the judge laid down the sentence for convicted killer, Gary Thomas Kelley, you could hear the frustration in her voice and it even seemed like she was choking back a couple of tears. Judge Susan Brnovich is not a newcomer to the Superior Court of the State of Arizona. She previously served as a Commissioner and was subsequently appointed to the position of Judge by Governor Janet Napolitano. She entered handling domestic battles and now handles murder cases.

For Brnovich to be visibly upset by this case I feel displays the frustration she has with Arizona’s current climate. At the same time, I think that Brnovich, a Republican, thinks as a Republican would, and when Gary Thomas Kelley gave his final arguments, pleading for leniency prior to sentencing, he defiantly stated “I don’t hate Mexicans” as he pointed to the Varela family members sitting in the pews. Brnovich, prior to declaring the sentence stated “you’re justified in saying you’re not a racist, however you are a murderer.”

You see, that’s the problem with the conservative mindset. They will go out of their way to declare someone, not a racist, yet they will call them a murderer, without flinching.

However, Kelley is just that, a racist and a murderer. When Kelley approached Juan Varela on May 6, 2010, he had one thing in mind, and he articulated it loud and clear. “Go back to Mexico wetback”, Kelley said, followed by “you’re going to die today.” Varela’s 78 year old mother Paula stood by and watched as Kelley blurted profanity after profanity while he stood there unbeknownst to Varela, with a snub nose revolver hidden in his waistband.

Varela’s brother Antonio yelled at Kelley, told him to, “go home.” Kelley was interested in just one thing, murdering a wetback! According to Kelley himself and in accordance with the Defense’s opening statements witnessed by yous truly, Kelley had approached Varela aggressively, questioning whether or not Varela had been at an SB1070 rally. Varela a fifth generation American whose family lived in Texas and moved to Arizona over 40 years ago are representative of the well known phrase, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” Varela told Kelley to go away, but Kelley would have no such thing, Kelley continued with the threats and coaxed Varela out of his yard, where he pointed the loaded weapon an fired a single shot killing Juan Varela, a husband, brother, son, uncle and little league coach.

Varela was representative of America, a U.S. Citizen, who coached little league and drove his daughter to and from school daily. He tended to his garden as he sang Christian hymns in front of his South Phoenix home.

It was amazing to watch the Phoenix Police screw up the investigation in this racially motivated crime. According to the family, within fifteen minutes of the Phoenix Police arriving, Sgt. Tommy Thompson held a press conference and announced this matter to be a dispute between neighbors and nothing more. The family was furious at Thompson and the Phoenix Police Department who not only didn’t call it right from the beginning, according to the family, they did a shoddy job on the investigation, if you can call it an investigation.

The family was equally shocked to see Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski and councilman Michael Johnson show up at the scene. According to Antonio Varela councilman Johnson claimed that he didn’t want this incident to be seen as a racial bias crime, but just a dispute between neighbors. The family felt this was part of a coverup to avoid further enraging the South Phoenix community that would at later date suffer the loss of one of it’s unarmed residents at the hands of an accused rogue cop Richard Chrisman that had been involved in a prior incident of planting evidence on a disabled African American woman.

Arizona has been a polarized state since the attack upon the Immigrant community commenced shortly after 911. Things gradually got worse and Arizona became the pitre dish for the rest of the nation. Laws targeting Immigrants and affecting the constitutional rights of people of Mexican descent or with similar characteristics were passed through Arizona’s Republican controlled legislature like pizzas coming out of a delivery joint.

Arizona’s governor Jan Brewer signed two crucial bills that were complicit in the Varela murder. Brewer signed SB1070 and a concealed weapon law that nixed any licensing to carry a gun concealed.

By signing those laws and with the help of the media, Arizonans like Kelley felt empowered to take the law into their own hands. Although neither law had actually gone into effect, Kelley, while downing beers and perhaps listening to conservative talk radio and observing images of Jan Brewer on Fox news stating that Arizona was under invasion, coupled with pictures of individuals trekking through the desert, was sufficient to push an unstable and angry Kelley to murder. After all, Kelley felt it was his duty to lash out at what he thought was a “wetback” that had somehow invaded his country.

To add insult to injury, Latino “leaders” refused to get behind the grieving family. Some “leaders” went so far as to denounce this case, later determined to be absolutely SB1070 related and charged as a hate crime.

Lydia Guzman the ex President of Somos America and current director of Respect/Respeto said this to Nicholas Riccardi of the L.A. Times.

Lydia Guzman, a prominent local immigrants-rights activist, said she and others organizing protests against SB 1070 were wary of the case. “This guy did not get shot because he was Mexican,” Guzman said

At a time when local Arizona “activists” and “leaders” could have rubbed this awful murder in Jan Brewer’s face for signing such a law, they instead backed off from what should have been put front and center as the first SB1070 related murder, to being complicit by negating it’s existence and refusing to talk about it publicly. After all it was, without a doubt SB1070 related. The validity of the claim that this atrocious murder was directly related to Arizona’s “show me your papers” law was later verified by the defendant’s own testimony from the witness stand.

After what seemed like an eternity for the grieving Varela family, and after being kicked around by local politicians, police chiefs, mayors, vice mayors, councilmen, and those who were supposedly on their side representing the best interest of the Latino community in Arizona, the Varela’s received partial justice in the form of a guilty verdict. Well sort of, but not before going through an initial trial that ended in a deadlocked jury, that was subsequently, declared a mistrial.

An all white jury was deadlocked nine in favor of conviction and three against, when according to family members quoting prosecutor Heather Wicht, one of the three seeking to dismiss charges against the murderer stated to another jury member, (Paraphrasing) “if I had a knife, I would cut you up.” Obviously the jury deliberations had reached a climatic and polarizing moment, very similar to the current conditions in the state of Arizona nowadays, where people fall on one side or the other of the SB1070 issue, and many are willing to go to the death to support their position. Apparently that was sufficient for Judge Brnovich to call it a mistrial, which of course resulted in starting the process all over again from jury selection to a brand new trial. Which meant family members were forced to relive their pain all over again on the stand while their loved one’s killer sat there shaking his head and making faces. After all, what’s the big deal? He was just a “wetback” according to Gary Thomas Kelley.

The second trial carried the same testimony with Kelley admitting he murdered Juan Varela and confirming that Varela did not possess any weapons. The jury deliberated for a very short three hours, coming back with a guilty verdict which included aggravating factors that unfortunately did not include the racial bias enhancement charge. I truly believe that this jury did what everyone else has irresponsibly done in this case. They have wanted to lessen the outrage of the community in an attempt to depolarize an already black and white state, replacing black with brown of course.

Gary Thomas Kelley was a U.S. Citizen just like Juan Varela. The difference is, one was a cold blooded killer who hated Mexicans and felt empowered by this state’s acceptance of overt racism billed as political differences by those who are reaping the benefits, whether it’s pundits on conservative talk radio, corrupt Republican politicians or the private prison industry.

On July 5, 2011 approximately 14 months after Kelley killed Varela he received a sentence of twenty seven and a half years. A slight sentence for what many consider a premeditated murder given the fact that Kelley came over, gun concealed, with one thing in mind. To kill a “wetback.”

I spoke to Antonio Varela shortly after the sentencing. He was devastated and shared his feelings regarding the lack of support from members of the Latino community and the nightmare the family had gone through in seeking justice for his beloved brother Juan Varela. Antonio was right next to Juan when Kelley killed him and was threatened by Kelley with the same gun he used to kill Juan.

This morning I had Susie Mendoza on my Spanish language radio program. Susie is Juan Varela’s sister and has taken the lead as the matriarch of the family since Paula Varela, Juan’s mother has grown weaker and much more ill since the murder of her beloved son. Susie shared her thoughts with me and was thankful for a system that in the end worked, but didn’t necessarily give the family the relief they sought. She was thankful for the Prosecutors ardent work in prosecuting the case and appreciated the Judge’s passion as she sentenced a convicted murderer.

One thing’s for sure, the first SB1070 related murder has flown under the radar. Victim of an attempt to sweep Arizona’s dirty little open secret under the political rug. As the saying goes, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing.”

As the Varela family grieves every day, Latino leaders stand by idle, politicians continue furthering the great lie that Arizona is under an invasion, and every night, Arizonans like Gary Thomas Kelley settle down in front of their televisions and their radios with their beer in tow wondering what it would be like to kill a “wetback.”

Juan Varela R.I.P.

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com

Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

Within the next couple of weeks the Arizona Department of Corrections will be recommending the company or companies that will be awarded a contract with the State of Arizona. That private detention corporation(s) will be charged with building a couple of new facilities to house inmates.

Although we’ve seen a decline in crime and a decline in a need for new facilities, the private prison industry continues to expand their operations in Arizona by and through relationships like the one they maintain with Chuck Coughlin who owns and runs High Ground Public Affairs and who in turn lobbies for Corrections Corporation of America. Coughlin, amazingly enough, is Governor Jan Brewer’s top political adviser. Although much of this may be a refresher course for many of you, it’s crucial to set the foundation for those who may not be aware of these very highly publicized facts.

In a declining market, a bad economy, and desperately trying to pull out of a recession, we find that the private prison industry has established ties that have allowed it to continue profiting to the tune of 5 billion dollars per year. Like a game of chess, the pawns were put in place while many Arizonans were sleeping on the political job. Once established these private corrections corporations have been able to maintain many states in a virtual checkmate.

As an example of failed policies and unneeded private prisons or as many of us call them, concentration camps, we need to look at Littlefield Texas who bought into the idea of building a private prison. Hell the idea seemed good enough. The private corrections corporation would build the prison at their own cost. There would be no subsidiaries in the form of taxpayer money and everything would be done up to code. Once built, profits would be shared, it would create jobs, it sounded like a great plan, especially given the fact that many of these prisons depend on undocumented Immigrants to fill them, and of course, officials in Littlefield are well aware of Texas’ stand on illegal immigration and the enacting of laws that are aimed at the undocumented Immigrant, therefore creating more prisoners to fill those jails.

Somehow the perfect model collapsed and Littlefield is stuck with a private prison that nobody wants and that is actually costing them money to maintain. In fact for the last couple of years Littlefield is having to dish out $65,000.00 a month to pay the note on the prison. The corrections corporation giant GEO bailed out and the contractors and snake oil salesmen all made their money leaving Littlefield holding the jailer’s keys.

What Littlefield and those in the private prison industry did not take into consideration is the fact that creating these laws would cause panic amongst their potential dweller, which would in turn caused a massive exodus from those states who would most likely benefit from incarcerating these potential inmates.

Another factor not considered by the private prison industry or those seeking to profit from the incarceration of Immigrants is the fact that securing the border has swayed many from making that dangerous trek across our border. Therefore denying the private prison industry of the desperately needed fodder for their private prisons.

I would imagine that there must be a behind the scenes struggle between the private prison industry who seeks a porous border in order to allow their favorite customers in and the Tea Party driven politician who insists that they want an even more secure border further damaging profits for private corrections purveyors.

In any event, Arizona is hell bent on building more private prisons. They have a commitment to those correctional giants and by golly they plan on keeping their word. So who’s going to be building these new prisons? Who get’s the latest contract? They’ve all got horrible track records, from escape, to abusing inmates, although, I don’t think Clarence Thomas would object to the latter, seeing as how he has displayed his support for inmate abuse by rendering dissenting opinions on such matters from the SCOTUS bench, however, that’s another story for another time. Let’s take a look at the bidders’ track record.

The bidders

Those companies are:

- Geo Group Inc., of Boca Raton, Fla. A publicly-traded company, Geo operates about 80,000 prison beds at 116 federal, state and local prisons and treatment facilities in the U.S. and three other countries. It reported $62.8 million in net income on $1.27 billion in revenues for its most recent fiscal year ending Jan. 2. It operates three prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections: the Central Arizona Correctional Facility (medium security) in Florence, and the minimum-security Phoenix West and Florence West prisons.

Geo has had at least 27 escapes in the past seven years, according to press accounts, including one three years ago that led to a murder in a convenience store in Houston. In 2007, Texas canceled an $8 million contract with Geo and closed the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, citing filthy conditions. The company is currently fighting a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging the use of excessive force, and unconstitutional and barbaric conditions at its Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Walnut Grove, Miss. Meanwhile, the FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating alleged illegalities in the appropriations and the construction of Geo’s $120 million Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Florida. The company did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

- Management & Training Corp., of Centerville, Utah. A privately-held company, MTC operates 20 prisons in seven states, with a capacity of 26,000 prisoners. It does not publicly release financial data. It began in 1981 operating federal Job Corps centers. MTC operates two prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections, a medium/minimum security facility in Kingman and a minimum-security facility at Marana.

MTC currently faces lawsuits over the deaths of an Oklahoma couple killed after three inmates escaped from its Kingman prison last year. The company has also had escapes from prisons it operates in Texas and Utah. In two separate instances, it has been ordered by the U.S. Department of Labor to repay a total of more than $650,000 in back wages to officers from whom it withheld overtime pay in Texas and four other states. MTC spokeswoman Issa Arnita noted that the Utah escapees were inmates working outside the prison. And she said MTC added razor wire – not then required by Texas at minimum-security facilities – after the Texas escapes. She said that after the Department of Labor determination, MTC voluntarily audited all its facilities and compensated any employees who were due back wages.

- Correctional Corp. of America, of Nashville, Tenn. CCA is the largest private-prison company in the U.S., housing about 80,000 federal and state prisoners in 66 facilities across 19 states and the District of Columbia. A publicly-traded company, CCA reported net income of $157 million on $1.67 billion in revenues for 2010. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections, but houses federal inmates and inmates from Hawaii, California and Washington at six prisons in Eloy and Florence.

CCA has had at least 21 escapes at various facilities over the past decade, including several that have led to assaults and other crimes. CCA also faces several lawsuits over its Idaho Correctional Center, dubbed the “Gladiator School” for allegations that guards and supervisors there regularly allowed violent inmates to assault and beat other inmates during 2009 and 2010. In January 2010, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered hundreds of female prisoners removed from CCA’s Otter Creek Correctional Complex after a series of charges that guards regularly sexually assaulted female inmates there. CCA did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

- Emerald Correctional Management, of Lafayette, La. A privately-held company, Emerald operates about 3,800 beds at six federal, state and local prisons. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections, but operates the San Luis Regional Detention Center south of Yuma in partnership with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has had at least five escapes in the past decade.

Last year, the Houston Chronicle, reporting on the death of a Cuban immigrant, investigated the company’s Rolling Plains Regional Jail and Detention Center in Texas. It noted that the company had no doctors to care for more than 500 immigration detainees at the facility, using only poorly supervised vocational nurses. Emerald did not respond to calls for comment.

- LaSalle Southwest Corrections, of Ruston, La. A privately-held company, LaSalle operates about 7,700 beds at 12 prisons in Texas and Louisiana. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections. It has had eight escapes in the past six years, including three of minimum-security prisoners who walked away while on work crews outside the prisons.

Source: www.azcentral.com

The corporate giant’s on this list have successfully bought their way into Arizona politics utilizing the hot button issue nowadays “immigration”, while funding local corrupt and profoundly racist politicians. I really doubt that Arizona will end up with a Littlefield, Texas problem, especially given the fact that if anything does go wrong, Arizona’s Republican led administration will ensure that you, the tax payer, flip the bill for their mistakes.

Welcome to Arizona, where everything is for sale to the highest bidder, from the Arizona State Capitol Building that’s already been sold, to the politicians contained within that are bought and sold daily, to our Immigrant labor that can be used for profit by corporations involved in manufacturing, agriculture, food, or the latest, the correctional industry.

America Tangled In The Private Prison Industry

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com
Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

It didn’t surprise me to see the current governor of North Carolina sign an aggressive anti-Immigrant bill. I fully expected her to follow the status quo for states like Arizona who have devalued the Immigrant and the Latino in the United States. I liken it to the blacks in the 1800′s, they were valued at 3/5 of a man. Nowadays brown is the new black, and we Latinos are feeling the full brunt of the attack from racists, xenophobes and politicians who know how to incite emotional outrage over the Immigration issue to ensure votes for their otherwise failed campaigns.

The buzz is about the economy and the Immigrants, and as usual, they blame the economy and spending on the Immigrants. Tangled like dolphin in a Tuna fisherman’s net, U.S. Citizens that bear semblance to people Indigenous to this continent such as the Mexican or Central American’s are harassed, asked for I.D., and detained until their legal status is determined by overzealous and angry law enforcement officials who’s emotions have been primed by pundits on conservative talk radio and by anti-Immigrant propaganda displayed on “conservative” television shows.

There’s a growing trend that has emerged lately. It appears that certain politicians, either Immigrants themselves or children of Immigrants, feel they need to reversely overcompensate for what they represent. They seem to think that the best way to set the record straight on the fact that they are fully assimilated foreigners, or children of foreigners, is to create laws or support laws that adversely pursue the very thing they symbolize.

Nimrata “Nikki” Randhawa Haley, South Carolina’s 116th governor is the daughter of Dr. Ajit and Raj Randhawa, Sikh immigrants from Amritsar, Punjab, India. However, for Nimrata, being an Immigrant whose parents benefited by coming to this country and in turn benefited her, doesn’t faze the Republican Sikh Methodist woman who is more interested in pandering to the South’s racist than doing what might be best for South Carolina and it’s desperate need for Immigrant labor to cultivate their main crop, tobacco.

What Nimrata has done, is not just sign a draconian law into effect, she has enacted a special police force in compliance with provisions within South Carolina’s SB20 specifically under section 23-6-60. This “special” force will wear “special” badges and insignia that will identify them separately as the “Illegal Immigration Enforcement Unit.” They will also use cars with specific emblems identifying the vehicles as that of the special Immigrant hunting force of South carolina.

Let’s see where have I seen this before? Special laws created to pursue a certain sector of the community that has always been there serving as that country’s workforce. A secret or “special” police force that wears certain emblems with “special” vehicles that clearly identify them as someone you should fear and for God’s sake, never question.

Oh, that’s right, Nazi Germany carried on in the same exact fashion. The police force was called “The Gestapo.” They were charged with ensuring that Jews were rounded up and that anyone who facilitated the movement of Jews would be likewise prosecuted. The same provisions contained within SB20 and the same ones that are found within it’s precursor, Arizona’s SB1070. Seriously, what’s next? Tattoos on the forearm?

I will venture to answer the question, would Adolf have been proud of Nimrata? Well of course, she has acted as any other good political leader would in the United States today right? Invoke fear and hatred towards a certain sector of the community citing them as the root of all evil in this country, create laws that will ensure attrition by enforcement, cause “good” citizens to inform on each other and ensure that these citizens are kept in line with a special police force.

In the Adolf era they called it Nazism, today we call it Americanism.

Apparently The Confederacy Lives On In South Carolina

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com

Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

On June 17, 2011 the Director of the Department of Homeland Security issued a stunning memorandum to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The memo in part read as follows:

This memorandum provides U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel guidance on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion to ensure that the agency’s immigration enforcement resources are focused on the agency’s enforcement priorities. The memorandum also serves to make clear which agency employees may exercise prosecutorial discretion and what factors should be considered.

The turnabout in change and policy is a win for President Barack Obama and helps neutralize those who have been critical of his administration regarding Immigration policy and in particular enforcement, especially when it comes to the secure communities program placed in effect under the Bush administration, but that has continued in force under the Obama administration.

Pro Immigration advocates have been extremely critical of President Obama calling for a halt to deportations and immediate relief from congress in the form of the controversial legislation titled “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act”, commonly referred to as the Dream Act. The Dream Act was originally penned and presented in August of 2001 and subsequently reintroduced once again to the Senate in May of 2011.

The memo issued by Morton addresses “Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion Consistent with the Priorities of the Agency for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Aliens.” Which includes the following:

• settling or dismissing a proceeding;
• granting deferred action, granting parole, or staying a final order of removal;
• agreeing to voluntary departure, the withdrawal of an application for admission, or other action in lieu of obtaining a formal order of removal;
• pursuing an appeal;
• executing a removal order; and
• responding to or joining in a motion to reopen removal proceedings and to consider joining in a motion to grant relief or a benefit.

Morton’s memo makes it clear that certain factors should be taken into consideration while excogitating prosecution of individuals in the United Stated unlawfully. The memo refers to the first set of these as positive factors. These individuals would essentially be given priority in expediting their cases for possible immediate release or deferral of arrest or prosecution.

The following positive factors should prompt particular care and consideration:
• veterans and members of the U.S. armed forces;
• long-time lawful permanent residents;
• minors and elderly individuals;
• individuals present in the United States since childhood;
• pregnant or nursing women;
• victims of domestic violence; trafficking, or other serious crimes;
• individuals who suffer from a serious mental or physical disability; and
• individuals with serious health conditions.

The next set is equally as important and further specifies those who would once again qualify for immediate release or deferral of arrest or prosecution.

The factors utilized for the following set would be what would essentially offer an escape valve for what are commonly referred to as the Dream Act students or for spouses of individuals married to U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents who currently don’t qualify for relief under the existing Immigration statutes. Amongst those categories are the following:

• the agency’s civil immigration enforcement priorities;
• the person’s length of presence in the United States, with particular consideration given to presence while in lawful status;
• the circumstances of the person’s arrival in the United States and the manner of his or her entry,particularly if the alien came to the United States as a young child;
• the person’s pursuit of education in the United States, with particular consideration given to those who have graduated from a U.S. high school or have successfully pursued or are pursuing a college or advanced degrees at a legitimate institution of higher education in the United States;
• whether the person, or the person’s immediate relative,has served in the U.S. military, reserves, or national guard, with particular consideration given to those who served in combat;
• the person’s criminal history, including arrests, prior convictions, or outstanding arrest warrants;
• the person’s immigration history, including any prior removal, outstanding order of removal, prior denial of status, or evidence of fraud;
• whether the person poses a national security or public safety concern;
• the person’s ties and contributions to the community, including family relationships;
• the person’s ties to the home country and condition~ in the country;
• the person’s age, with particular consideration given to minors and the elderly;
• whether the person has a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, child, or parent;
• whether the person is the primary caretaker of a person with a mental or physical disability, minor, or seriously ill relative; ;
• whether the person or the person’s spouse is pregnant or nursing;
• whether the person or the person’s spouse suffers from severe mental or physical illness;
• whether the person’s nationality renders removal unlikely;
• Whether the person is likely to be granted temporary or permanent status or other relief from removal, including as a relative of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident;
• whether the person is likely to be granted temporary or permanent status or other relief from removal, including as an asylum seeker, or a victim of domestic violence, human trafficking, or other crime; . and .
• whether the person is currently cooperating or has cooperated with federal, state or local law enforcement authorities, such as ICE, the U.S Attorneys or Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, or National Labor Relations Board, among others.

It’s clear that Morton’s memo was a directive from the White House to Janet Napolitano the Secretary of Homeland Security, and was meant as a form of relief for what many see as an unjust prosecution of young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents.

It’s important to note that many of the adult Immigrants currently residing in the United States have been here most of their lives and have been integrated into the existing workforce that the U.S. desperately relies on for their low skilled labor.

The broadening of the prosecutorial discretion suggested in this memorandum will provide relief for a large majority of those currently listed as part of those 12 to 20 million undocumented Immigrants currently believed to be in the United States and could very well be a changing trend in how DHS deals with unlawful Immigrants that do not pose a security threat to the Unites States or its citizens, potentially setting the tempo for Comprehensive Immigration Reform within congress.

President Obama Asking Both Sides To Calm Down

Victoria Falcone-Camey asked:

Carlos what do you think about those saying no support for Obama until he stops deporting?

My response may make some of you angry, but at least you know I am honest. I say what many of you think, but are not willing to say. By the way, the Rethuglicans need not jump on board. You are what’s wrong with Arizona and the United States.

So here is my response to the aforementioned question:

It’s the typical shoot yourself in the foot mentality. Let’s see what’s the alternative? Romney? Nah, don’t think he’ll stop the deportations! Oh, I know, Herman Cain, oh…he is afraid of Muslims and he said they shouldn’t permit birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents, Ron Paul said the same! So he’s not the guy! Should I go on?

We all know there won’t be opposition from the Dems in the primary, so……. It’s Obama and whomever the Rethuglicans nominate. So would we want any of those thugs sitting as Commander in Chief. Will they stop the deportations? NO….We know how much the GOP uses the undocumented people issue to rev up their base!

All these nay sayers are hurting because of what is happening to our people. I am too. Believe me I advocate every day and have been arrested and threatened and my wife was even assaulted, However, I’m a pragmatist while still allowing myself to dream at least a little. These nay sayers that claim they won’t support President Obama should just stop with their support of the Rethuglicans! Oh, did I say that out loud?

Any negative feedback for President Obama lends credibility to the right’s complaints and fuels the fire. It’s time the Dem lights and the failed leaders shut up! They didn’t do a damn thing when Bush was in office! Most of these policies, including the “secure communities” program were put in place under Bush’s administration.

These pseudo leaders and pseudo activists ran their non-profits, marched people in the streets and refused to register them to vote. Then they expected to bully their way through the political system. For years they profited from the oppressed who yearn for CIR. They have failed to properly lead and meet the needs of our beloved undocumented friends and family members. They didn’t stop to realize that the Blacks were in line, the gays were in line, the people demanding health care were in line, the Dems with power who supported Obama were in line. Everyone had and has had their hand out. No! They’ve had their fists out! They have been pounding it, insisting they will bail out on any support for President Obama if he doesn’t cough up what they want.

Victoria, just stop and think, if each state would have had the proper leadership, and had they been pragmatists when they saw what Bush was doing and how Immigrants were being used as scapegoats, they could have and should have prevented this attack at a state level.

However, you see these same activists in bed with the police chiefs who are more harmful with their police forces than Joe Arpaio! Daily they detain and arrest our people for things that are absurd, e.g. broken tail lights, broken windshields etc. They then take them to the local jail for processing through the 287g program. You have never seen these pseudo activists or pseudo leaders go after the local politicians, such as the mayors who hold hands with these police chiefs. They don’t go after the city council members who pass city rules that deny the acceptance of the matricula consular as an alternative identification to present to police officers, like they did here in Phoenix many years before the actual matricula law was passed this legislative session.

No Victoria, this is a much more complex issue. The local pseudo leaders and activists in each state and each “Latino” organization like to point fingers and yell at President Obama.

In the end, it diverts attention from their failed leadership.

In solidarity,

Carlos E. Galindo

What's your option? A Rethuglican?

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com
Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

In the first hour of this Straight Talk Show your host Carlos Galindo covers Jack Kevorkian and assisted suicides. Jack Kevorkian just died and although Kevorkian had to have been in pain, he didn’t choose to commit suicide. Did he have a change of heart? Some Christians say he will go to hell for helping people commit suicide. Listen to the calls that came in on Tucson’s number one progressive talk show.

On the second hour we interview Belinda “Dee Dee” Blase Garcia the president of the newly founded Tequila Party. Blase Garcia is a staunch Republican who just this week announced that she has gone Independent. I was shocked to see that Blase Garcia has already been successful in recruiting some staunch progressives to assist her in promoting the sale of her snake oil, or should I say “Tequila” Party?

Listen to a very controversial program from Friday June 03 2011 with guests David Abie Morales of the Three Sonorans and Belinda “Dee Dee” Blase Garcia Tequila Party President.

Link is available below:

First Hour Kevorkian, Second Hour The Tequila Party

Somehow The Tequila Party & Toilet Do Seem To Go Hand In Hand

I just returned from documenting a drop house raid in West Phoenix at approximately 91st Avenue and Thomas Rd.

As I arrived the street was cordoned off. There were several white vans ready to load the human cargo located inside the 4 bedroom home. I thought perhaps it was the usual 10-20 Immigrants normally found in these Phoenix drop house raids. I was shocked to learn that there were 108 undocumented Immigrants found in a house with not that much square footage. They were packed in like sardines. Most of the Immigrants were Central American and seemed to be disoriented and scared. I am sure that this event was one of the most traumatic incidents of their lives. Imagine the trek just to make it to the United States, and then to be arrested and zip tied for processing and deportation back to their native country. I couldn’t fathom the idea!

I spoke to Vinnie Picard the public affairs officer for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) for Phoenix, Arizona. He described the conditions of the home where the Immigrants were being held as squalid.

I understand that we all make decisions in our lives, and that some require a calculated risk. However, it’s important to understand that there normally exists a lure that prompts us to take risks we might not otherwise take. It’s clear that employers in the U.S. are that lure, and that they have created a culture of deception in donating to campaigns of politicians that create anti-immigrant laws while they themselves are responsible for hiring those same Immigrants that these laws are meant to filter out of our “law abiding” society. I would call it a circular pattern, but the reality is that it’s not circular. If that was the case we would be allowing the influx of low skilled labor with the ability to return to their home country and at some time later return to the United States to work those jobs that desperately need to be filled by Immigrant labor. Instead we have created a hypocritical system of, today I hire Jose and utilize him long hours for low pay, and if he gets caught, even if he is caught at work, well, tomorrow I’ll hire Juan who just exited one of those drop houses and is anxious and dying to fill the job. The dirty little cycle repeats itself over and over with no apparent repercussions for the employer who in many cases even fires and rehires the same employee under a different name once e-verify rejects the previous name as an invalid match.

Meanwhile your average citizen turns a blind eye to the double standard utilized in employing undocumented Immigrants to fill low skilled positions. They don’t want to know who cooks their burger at their favorite fast food joint. They don’t care what the legal status of the construction worker is, as long as the house is completed, or the roads are built. They’ve served their purpose and we can all live in denial.

As long as a deal keeps being cut for the employer here in Arizona, we are going to continue seeing drop houses filled with potential employees, and every time we see it on TV, we’re going to continue to gasp in horror and wonder, are the Mexicans living next to me human traffickers? Well you never know, I guess everyone has the potential to get in the game if the lure is there. It sure looks like the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office bought into it, well let me clarify, certain members of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office.

Oh did I mention that of the 108 Immigrants caught today, 14 were women and five were minors?

Guatemalan Girl Looking

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com
Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

It appears that Sheriff Joe’s house of cards is falling apart. Joe Arpaio has been focused on chasing busboys, dishwashers, landscapers and nannies to name a few, while his own employees were involved in furthering a criminal enterprise of the same type he claimed to have been attacking.

There’s no doubt that having David Hendershott, Larry Black and Joel Fox as the top honchos at MCSO bred a culture of corruption including misappropriation of funds, political retribution, racial profiling and now we see it lent itself to facilitating the furtherance of crimes of the most egregious nature.

The arrest of three employees of the most notorious sheriff in the world has placed the exclamation mark on the phrase “Joe has got to go!” Just when does Joe plan on resigning? How long are irresponsible voters going to continue holding a double standard when it comes to Joe Arpaio. Most of Arpaio’s supporters are those of the mindset of, it’s black and white, or as they say, “the law is the law.” You often hear his supporters chant “what part of illegal don’t you understand?” Well that’s exactly the question I’d like to pose to them.

Isn’t the alleged corruption and subsequent removal of the top tier of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office sufficient to shake up the department and remove the head of the decaying MCSO empire? Wasn’t the millions paid out by taxpayers in lawsuits sufficient to awaken the already over taxed citizen into insisting on his immediate resignation? Wasn’t the 100 million dollar misappropriation of funds sufficient to expose the ineptness and corruption of the sheriff’s office? Wasn’t the hundreds if not thousands of racial profiling cases and police brutality cases filed against the sheriffs office sufficient to alert you of a prevalent culture of abuse? Were you not impacted by the hundreds of cases of child molestation and sexual assaults swept under the rug by the sheriffs office over a period of years? Was all this not enough to rouse your ire? And now this?

I think it’s high time that we as voters and residents of Maricopa County demand the removal of this man that calls himself the top law enforcement officer of Maricopa County. Many of us have not trusted this man from the very beginning and once he started on his campaign of self promotion at the expense of judges, politicians, low skilled laborers and average “joes”, we knew what we had in store for us. I guess none of us figured that it would come to this. A clearly corrupt, and out of control sheriffs office continues in the hands of a man who has served as the head of this organization for 19 years.

What’s next? Is it too far fetched to think that we might be told that Arpaio who served 25 years as a DEA agent of which part was spent in Argentina, Turkey and Mexico is actually the head of a syndicated criminal organization? Oh, that’s right! There are some who already refer to the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office as exactly that.

Hello??? DOJ??? Where are you???

Sheriff Joe Has Got To Go

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. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com
Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com