Immigration

As Mayor, Kate Gallego will “Make Phoenix a City that Will Work for Everyone”

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Phoenix Mayoral Candidate Councilwoman Kate Gallego

In a runoff race for Phoenix Mayor, candidate Kate Gallego, a former Phoenix Councilwoman, appears to be leading her opponent Daniel Valenzuela, another former member of the Phoenix City Council.

With popular Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton resigning his office and now serving Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District, a special non-partisan election was held in November to elect his successor. In a four-way race, Gallego received 45 percent of the vote and had a 19-point lead over her closest contender, Councilman Daniel Valenzuela. Commentators at the Arizona Republic feel that Councilwoman Gallego, with her energized and devoted base, has the turnout advantage right now going into the March 12, 2019 election.

The Blog For Arizona profiled both candidates in June and interviewed both on their positions in and their vision for moving Phoenix forward. Over the last week, we contacted both campaigns for an update.  This piece describes Councilwoman’s  Gallego’s goals and vision for the fifth largest city in the country.

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“Immigrants Under Fire” talk by author Margaret Regan

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Tues. Jan. 15, 12 to 2.m. United Nations Association of Southern Arizona – UNASA Center 6242 E Speedway Blvd, Tucson, Arizona 85712 “Margaret Regan, a prize-winning Tucson author and journalist, will discuss the current state of the border and immigration. Her talk is titled, “Immigrants Under Fire – The Continuing Humanitarian Crisis of Detention, Deportation … Read more

Ballot Initiative Proposes to Make Tucson a Sanctuary City

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Joel Feinman
Zaira Livier

Public Defender Joel Feinman and community organizer Zaira Livier propose to put a ballot initiative before Tucson voters in November that will make Tucson a sanctuary city, like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.

“We envision a Tucson that serves as a safe refuge for all people regardless of their immigration status, race, color, age, gender identity, ethnicity, ability to speak English, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status,” according to the People’s Defense Initiative, which Feinman and Livier co-founded last April.

Titled the Tucson Families Free & Together initiative will prohibit city police officers from detaining people on the basis of immigration status, and from assisting in the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and minimize record-keeping of communications between Tucson and federal authorities.

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Senator Steve Farley is Running for Mayor of Tucson to Protect the City

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Steve Farley came to Tucson 25 years ago and has represented the city in the state legislature for 12 years.
Steve Farley came to Tucson 25 years ago and has represented the city in the state legislature for 12 years.

Veteran state legislator Steve Farley announced today that he is running for Mayor of Tucson, so that he can protect the city from attacks by the Trump administration and the state Legislature. He pledged to create a construction job training program for young people, to fight climate change and to protect migrant and asylum-seekers.

He was surprised by the retirement of Mayor Jonathan Rothschild after 8 years in office. “I realized that the experience I could bring to serve the city I would be amazing,” he said in an interview with the Blog for Arizona. “I chose Tucson for my home 25 years ago and it is a dream to be able to serve the city I love.”

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Fact checking Trump’s prime time address

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Media critic Erik Wemple of the Washington Post accurately notes The networks interrupted their programming for the lamest rerun on television, Donald Trump’s racist white nationalist anti-immigrant fear mongering. Trump used the Oval Office to try to create a border crisis.

Trump’s frustrated sales pitch on the border wall reverted to his oldest political tactic: Fear. Trump’s real fear is the loss of his white nationalist political base who feed off the epistemic closure of the “conservative misinformation feedback loop” media bubble. Trump’s public case for his wall has collapsed entirely, and in Trump Nation, that’s the “national emergency.” The real national emergency is the threat of Trump’s collapse.

Media critics had urged networks to take precautions ahead of his speech. ‘This president lies daily’: Critics demand networks fact-check Trump’s live immigration speech.

Afterwards, TV hosts say Trump speech lacked news. Dems say ‘told you so.’

Real-time analysis from on-air journalists followed Trump’s white nationalist propaganda. Anchors Scramble to Fact-Check Trump After Prime-Time Address:

NBC anchor Chuck Todd came on air with a blunt assessment. “He made a lot of dubious claims,” Mr. Todd informed millions of viewers after the network’s scheduled program had been pre-empted for a rare prime-time presidential appearance.

Shepard Smith on the Fox News network told viewers that contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertions, “statistics show there is less violent crime by the undocumented immigrant population than by the general population.”

And on ABC, the White House correspondent Cecilia Vega took issue with Mr. Trump’s depiction of a southern border in crisis. “Just because you say it’s a crisis,” Ms. Vega said, “doesn’t necessarily make it one.”

The post-speech fact checking has been brutal.

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