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

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

When I went to the state capitol to protest Kyrsten Sinema’s SB1225, I had no idea I would be charged criminally and that I would witness the arrest of three of my friends and community members. Thank God all of us are U.S. Citizens or by now we would have been placed in Joe’s gulag and we would have subsequently ended up in CCA’s profit machine of a concentration camp commonly known as a private Federal Detention Center by those naive white folk who can’t possibly understand what it feels like to be caged like an animal after being offered employment under the current hypocritical U.S. labor system I call modernized slavery.

Of all people, I certainly thought that Senator Sinema understood what activism was all about. I mean, I remember seeing her at marches and protests at the State Capitol. She stood on a stage and riled the masses up. Telling them how much she supported them and how unfair this treatment was. As a member of the LGBT community Senator Sinema claimed to understand what discrimination felt like and how important it was to stand up and demand change from government.

Senator Sinema could have stopped Tuesday’s mayhem by shutting down her press conference. In fact, she was in the process of doing so, when the Capitol Police arrived. Instead she became more empowered by my removal from the press conference and in turn the crowd got more vocal, which lead to the arrest of a Latino businessman, a Latino Mother and a Latino 17 year old girl scheduled to check in for the military that week. As I previously mentioned, all of us are American Citizen’s exercising our rights under first amendment provisions.

I didn’t see Sinema bat an eye when she watched a frail young girl and her mom handcuffed and led away like common criminals, I didn’t see her twitch an eye as Genaro Alcantara an Arizona businessman and constituent of hers pleaded with her, “I voted for you”. And in fact, she even looked smug and fulfilled when she watched a member of the media, Latino Activist and Leader, yours truly, being led out of the hearing room.

When did Sinema decide that Latinos should be examining her backside? Why did Sinema decide that she didn’t have to address Latino’s answers on her offensive and hypocritical bill SB1225? Perhaps it’s always been that way, but her spin machine has always been so polished that a few key appearances on a stage provided by a popular Mexican radio station was sufficient to woo the Latino community. A little rah rah here and a rah rah there and voila, we have an enchanted Latino community ready to believe anything Sinema has to sell.

Why does the image of the guy from the “got milk?” billboard, with a ring of milk around his lips come to mind? However in this case I think “got atole” would be more appropriate. There’s a saying in Spanish that says “Nos dio atole con el dedo”, translated it means, “She gave us atole with her finger”. In other words, she doesn’t let us have the whole cup of atole to drink, she gives us a taste as a teaser every now and then to quell our desires and needs, with a promise of more to come.

Frankly, the Latino community is sick of being teased, sick of being lied to, and sick of being the sole of the opportunist politician’s shoe. One wants to use us for cheap labor (R) and the other obviously uses us for cheap votes (D). Tell me, what’s the difference? They are all cut from the same piece of cloth.

Because of Sinema barking orders for removal of those opposing her bill, and according to Russell Pearce’s allegations that Sinema feared for her safety, I and the rest of those arrested that day were banned from the Senate building.

I never thought I would see the day that Kyrsten Sinema would have 10 Republican co-sponsors on one of her proposed bills, much less the day in which her and Senate Tea Party President Russell Pearce would do a tag team against Latino activists.

So every day I go to the state capitol and protest my ban from the senate building. I sit there with signs and a group of about 20-30 people join me daily in solidarity.

As I sit there, I watch the lobbyists in their monkey suits come and go. State legislators stare at me and mumble as they look at me and read my signs. Frankly I don’t understand what the problem is. I’m exercising my 1st amendment rights. If it was a member of the Tea Party they would be smiling and throwing a thumbs up, but since it’s a Latino trying to exercise his rights, all I get is an index finger straight up.

While walking through the courtyard today I ran into State Senator Ron Gould, he frowned and walked towards me in a threatening manner as I asked him why he was focused on an anti-Immigrant agenda rather than fixing Arizona’s woes. Gould didn’t answer my questions. By the way Ron Gould (R) Lake Havasu City, Arizona, conducts his meetings with a yellow don’t tread on me sticker prominently displayed on his laptop and facing the audience. If Gould believes so much in the Tea Party “motto”, “don’t tread on me”, then I wonder, why is Ron Gould trying to tread on me?

It seems like the nightmare doesn’t end. Everyday there’s a new twist at the Arizona State Capitol. I ran into Paul Babeu yesterday and he didn’t want to answer questions as to why he receives so many border security funds yet he isn’t a border county. I bantered with gun lobbyists and chatted with Senator Steve Gallardo. No, no, no, I didn’t go inside the senate building! I’m banned remember! Senator Gallardo came out to where I sit outside the Senate building to have a cup of coffee with me.

I tried once again to ask Senator Sinema some questions regarding SB1225 and she called capitol police and asked for an escort. Lord have mercy! You would think I’m a Latino terrorist armed with provocative questions.

So I’m sitting here writing this blog and the words to to Alice Coopers song, “welcome to my nightmare” keep popping into my head.

By the way, today I celebrated my one week anniversary of being banned from the Senate building and my sit in at the Arizona State Capitol, or should I say, sit out. It seems that everyday brings a different twist.

Channel 10 interviewed me today and said Russell Pearce denies there’s a blacklist, I’m inclined to agree with the Tea Party Senate President, it’s not a blacklist, it’s a brown list! All of those banned to date from Russell Pearce’s kingdom called the Senate building are Latinos.

Welcome to my nightmare! The life of a Latino living in 2011 Arizona.

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

When I saw Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s tweet the other night I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t see a lot of reaction from the pro-Immigrant Latino leaders. Perhaps it wasn’t sanctioned by their head honchos. It seems that what little the Latino pseudo leaders do nowadays, takes forever, because they have to approve “the action” first. Sounds ridiculous to me! Especially when you see a tweet from Joe Arpaio that reads like this one. “We signed up a total of 137 inmates including 15 illegal aliens who wanted to donate their organs.”

So Joe has been hell bent on nabbing “illegals” in his racial profile raids for processing and ultimate deportation. He loves to crunch numbers. As he’s conducting his operations he’s reporting play by play action. Of course he isn’t as damaging as the Phoenix Police is with their constant harassment of brown drivers which in many cases leads not only to a confiscation of their vehicle for not having a driver’s license but in most cases leads to an arrest and a ride to Joe’s jail where with his 287g certification he is authorized to check their legal status which ultimately leads to deportation, of course, not without a lengthy stop at the private prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America for some billable incarceration time to the Feds.

Arpaio get’s hot under the collar when someone tries to lessen his operations as being less damning than that of other police agencies. He outright defends his notoriety as the world’s toughest Sheriff, and he wants the world to know he’s responsible for the most amount of deportations in Arizona.

Well it appears now Sheriff Joe wants to apply a different philosophy to the deportation process. Get out, but leave your organs behind. When you start truly analyzing the hypocrisy of these anti-Immigrant politicians it’s just downright amazing. Imagine how ludicrous that is. To focus solely on the deportation of these unwanted “illegals”, yet to crave their innards for use by U.S. Citizens. It’s truly outrageous!

If, an when, Jan Brewer stops denying dying Arizonans a transplant, these “illegal” innards could very well go to an Immigrant hating U.S. citizen. Hell he could even be a Tea Bagger for all we know.

We shouldn’t be surprised at the hypocrisy from Arizona’s Rethuglicans. While Jan Brewer denied transplants to Arizonans on their deathbed, she transplanted rose bushes from the front of the capitol building to the back lawn where she held her swearing in ceremony, and while Sheriff Joe Arpaio arrests and detains Arizona’s dishwashers and landscapers for ultimate deportation he asks them to leave their illegal internal organs behind. What’s next Arizona?

One thing is for sure 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/www.carlosgalindo.com