Immigration

We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.

Manu Chao ‘El Viento’: ‘Beast’ train mangles limbs, lives (video)

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Manu Chao recorded El Viento (The Wind) five years ago in front of Arizona Racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous “tent city” prison, but the tapes were unreleased until now.

In this new music video, the Arizona footage is paired with scenes of would-be Honduran migrants maimed on the infamous “Beast” train (La Bestia) that runs through Mexico en route to El Norte.

NDLON (National Day Laborers Organizing Network) explains:

Mas…Manu Chao ‘El Viento’: ‘Beast’ train mangles limbs, lives (video)

This is your anti-immigrant GOP House of Representatives on GIFs

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From the party who brought you

REPUBLICAN LETTER TO IRAN!

No shit. We grabbed all the text and images from your House Judiciary Committee’s website as soon as we saw it so we could present it to you in all its animated GIF-y wonder. We made it better, though, since the GOP geeks apparently don’t know how to resize GIFS, even though they’re all GIFs of white people! And they do not — I REPEAT DO NOT — like President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

This webpage is called “AT THE FLICK OF A SWITCH”

¡Mira!

Mar 18 2015

1. Right now, one single person – the President of the United States – can turn off the enforcement of our immigration laws unilaterally. For real.

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Mas…This is your anti-immigrant GOP House of Representatives on GIFs

‘Undocumented’ family behind La Morada in the South Bronx (video)

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Towards the end of the 20th Century, Natalia Mendez and Antonio Saavedra left their home, family and country behind to cross without papers into the U.S. Now they run a popular Oaxacan restaurant in the South Bronx, La Morada.

This is exactly the hard-working law-abiding, job-creating kind of family President Obama’s executive actions were designed to protect, but recent court decisions make their future uncertain. What can a poor pocho do?

La Morada has 4.5 stars on Yelp. See you there for dinner? We’ll be the ones scarfin’ down the mole!

Mas…‘Undocumented’ family behind La Morada in the South Bronx (video)

Dear Mom: Don’t worry, everything is great here in New York (video)

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In The Letter, based on a 1947 short story La Carta by Dominican-Boricua-Mexican Marxist author José Luis González, a migrant writes home to Mom.

“Everything is super here in New York,” he tells her.

Seventy-two years later and an ocean apart, the story is as true now for the African protagonist of this video as it was for the original Puerto Rican migrant.

Did you read this short story in school? Here is the complete text:

San Juan, Puerto Rico 8 de marso de 1947

Qerida bieja:

Mas…Dear Mom: Don’t worry, everything is great here in New York (video)

Texas Senator Ted Cruz’ Pocho Ocho top legislative proposals

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tedcruzdonkeyhoteySenator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has reintroduced legislation to take away federal benefits from same-sex married couples. But this troglodyte’s penedjitis is too advanced to stop at one stupid and hateful idea.

That’s right, there’s more — Ted Cruz’s Pocho Ocho Top Legislative Priorities for 2015:

8. Federal guidelines on subsidized school lunches for poor children shall encourage incorporation of nutritious roadkill meat, especially racoon. Now yer ‘coon is a touch on the greasy side, not sweet like ‘possum, but if you cook ’em up right, mmmmmmm, racoon!

7. Women banned from buying condoms because it curtails a Man’s Right to Reproduce.

6. Solar energy outlawed because it sucks the light right out of the Sun.

Mas…Texas Senator Ted Cruz’ Pocho Ocho top legislative proposals

What does the farmworker see at the supermarket? (audio)

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produceaisleYou say tomato, I say tomahto, and when a migrant farmworker visits the produce aisle at a local supermarket he sees an entirely different picture.

PRI’s Monica Campbell reports:

In the produce aisle of a supermarket in Madera, in California’s rural Central Valley, Francisco surveys the fruits and vegetables on display in the produce aisle. He’s 40 years old and stocky. He’s also undocumented, and he asks to use his first name only.

 

 

Produce photo by Jaskam Dhatt

My True Story: ‘At first I said F*CK YOUR DACA!’

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dacacardThis process was a long one. At first it was about me saying fuck your DACA. Then finding out ways to help my sister pay for hers. Then having my dad call me out on my bullshit because he could have benefited from one. Then me trying to get a green card instead. Then that not following thru cos shit happens. Then trying to get my shit together. Then finding out that my parents could potentially benefit. Then finding out that they didn’t. This thing right here. This thing that wasn’t given to us. This piece of document that many fought thru sleepless nights and courageous actions. This thing right here. Love you mom. Love you dad. Love you sister. Peace.

PREVIOUSLY ON JULIO SALGADO:

Mas…My True Story: ‘At first I said F*CK YOUR DACA!’

The sad true story behind ‘Spare Parts’ (videos, audio)

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In 2004, an Arizona high school team beat the odds by topping M.I.T in an underwater robotics competition. The undocumented team members’ stories inspired a book, a documentary, and now a feature film produced by and starring George Lopez. Spare Parts (trailer, above) is in theaters now.

This interview with two original team members by Antonia Cereijido for LatinoUSA explains what REALLY happened before and after the events dramatized in the film. Is it our imagination, or does one of the guys almost break into tears at the end?

Mas…The sad true story behind ‘Spare Parts’ (videos, audio)

‘Testimonios’ of the undocumented (Lalo Cura music video)

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Testimonios tells the stories of undocumented immigrants and the “American Dream” — soulful rock en español from Lalo Cura. No one is illegal.

Lalo Cura is Sonny Carreño on drums, Adam Carter on guitar and backup vocals, Rafael Chávez y Moreno on guitar and vocals, Adam Hartung on bass and Sam Que on sax and backup vocals. Video by Sophia Vergara. Music and lyrics by Rafael Chávez y Moreno.

Official Report: La Migra’s border drone results not on fleek (videos)

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droneThe Department of Homeland Security Inspector General may not have the sad, exactly, but his end-of-2014 report on border-patrolling drones was not very happy.

Tio Sam, the Inspector General recommended, should spend his Migra-Industrial Complex money somewhere else. More drones are not on fleek, the report concluded.

The LexisNexis newsroom pulled this quote from the report:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Unmanned Aircraft System Program Does Not Achieve Intended Results or Recognize All Costs of Operations

Although CBP’s Unmanned Aircraft System program contributes to border security, after 8 years, CBP cannot prove that the program is effective because it has not developed performance measures.

Mas…Official Report: La Migra’s border drone results not on fleek (videos)

DJ for Juárez Catholic radio massages migrants’ feet (audio)

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juarezdjMigrants seeking a better life in El Norte often pause on the border across from El Paso — in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua — before they cross to El Otro Lado.

Jorge Gutierrez, a host on Radio Guadalupana, a religious station run by the Catholic Diocese of Juárez, is there for them. More than just a radio talker, he has put his faith (and hands) to work easing migrants’ pain. Public Radio International reports:

Feet are a symbolic part of practically every migrant’s story: They literally carry their owner’s weight along the length of an exhausting journey. And in the Mexican border city of Juárez, one man has made it his mission to care for this particular body part.

Here’s the radio report from Monica Oritz Uribe:

Mas…DJ for Juárez Catholic radio massages migrants’ feet (audio)

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