Immigration

CD2 Candidate Ann Kirkpatrick Opens New HQ, Launches Dozens of Canvassers

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Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tucson’s CD2, opened her new headquarters at 4742 N Oracle Rd, Tucson, AZ 85705, and launched dozens of volunteers to knock on doors for her and US Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema.

She said the key issues in the race are: protecting choice in women’s health care, immigration reform including citizenship for the DACA recipients, and halting the separation of children from their parents at the border.

She has also called for creating a public option for Americans to buy into Medicare, protecting Medicare and Social Security from Republican attempts to cut earned benefits, and giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices to reduce costs for our seniors.

I canvassed 49 houses myself for four hours in the 101° heat and found that these issues resonated with voters I talked to. I met:

  • An independent voter who is Latino and who is upset by the US immigration policy.
  • A Republican who said he was upset with Trump and will vote for Kirkpatrick and Sinema to put a check on the president.
  • An independent who wanted to know where to donate to the Sinema campaign.

All three of them wanted to volunteer for the Democrats.

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Governor Ducey’s ads scapegoating ‘brown people’ and fear-mongering over the Mexico border

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Sunday was the first full weekend of the NFL season, something to which I look forward, with my Minnesota Vikings playing in the morning and their division rivals Greenbay Packers and Chicago Bears playing in the evening. Sweet!

But my football binging experience was ruined by Governor Doug Ducey’s hateful ads scapegoating “brown people” and fear-mongering over the Mexico border, and a smear campaign against his Latino Democratic opponent, David Garcia.

I warned you that this was the GOP strategy. The GOP’s ‘ICE, ICE Baby’ campaign strategy:

Arizona Republican candidates for office at every level of office are — once again, as they have in every election cycle since 2004 — running on anti-immigrant hysteria ala Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer and Donald Trump.

Scaring old white people who vote Republican with scapegoating “brown people” and fear-mongering over the Mexico border is all they have.

Sadly, this has too often succeeded in Arizona. There are a lot of scared old white people who vote Republican in this state.

Governor Doug Ducey kicked off his reelection campaign by using your taxpayer dollars to film a campaign ad to praise his leadership on border security. Ducey uses taxpayer-funded event on border security to shoot campaign video.

Arizona’s Governor does not want to talk about the teacher crisis in Arizona, Arizona teachers make 36 percent less than peers in other careers. Don’t forget that, or the GOP’s decade plus of underfunding public education in Arizona. Arizona’s Governor does not want to talk about how he supported the lawsuit by “Kochtopus” organizations – his benefactors who got him elected four years ago with a deluge of dark money – to knock the InvestInEd ballot measure off the ballot that hundreds of thousands of Arizonans supported. Arizona’s Governor does not want to talk about how his supposed 20 percent pay raise for all teachers does no such thing. 20 percent pay raise for Arizona teachers was 100 percent bull.

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Donkey Feed September 6th, 2018

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By Michael Bryan

Welcome back to your Feed for the Week! Slip off your shoes and strap on the feedbag! It’s time for some Feed…

First, some video. Former Reagan Budget Director Stockman warns that the Trump economy is not nearly as strong as it might seem and Trump’s policies are making it worse:

Now some graphical goodness showing just how unbalanced in favor of the wealthy the GOP tax cut was, and how much worse it grows over time:

Next, the book everyone will be talking about this week and next:

Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, will drop on Sept. 11th, everyone will be talking about it (WaPo), and it is already breaking news (CNN), and yet more news (Daily Kos).

Now, just click Continue Reading for the rest of the Feed…

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Borderlands Theater presents “Sanctuary” play at Southside Presbyterian Church

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“Based on real people and events Sanctuary chronicles the Tucson birth of the 1980’s Sanctuary Movement.

In 1981, when Carol and Mica find out about detained Salvadorans fleeing civil war, they set out to process political asylum applications. After they meet Victor, a Salvadoran in a Border Patrol detention center, they realize they’re going to need help. They call on Father Hartford, who is first to meet Nidia, another Salvadoran with strong but different opinions on the Salvadoran civil war.

Carol and Mica enlist pastor Jeff Chord of Southside Presbyterian Church, who sits on the National Presbyterian Council and before long Quaker Will Hewitt joins the group with ideas of his own. As the number of detained Salvadorans and Guatemalans continues to grow, the group must choose whether or not to stand up for what they believe. Will they choose the law of man or the law of God?

Sanctuary kicks off a trilogy of plays dealing with immigrants seeking refuge in the U.S., exploring the U.S. involvement in Central America, its consequences, and response.”

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Surprising ruling for DACA in Texas

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When Republicans in red states wanted to reverse President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program so they could deport innocent children of undocumented immigrants, they let the state of Texas take the lead in a case of forum shopping for a conservative activist judge who lets his political views color his judicial decisions.  Texas had  judge Andrew S. Hanen of the Federal District Court in Houston, the perfect fit.

This is the same Texas judge that Texas and other red states used in 2015 to block a similar executive order by President Obama that would have added protections for the undocumented parents of citizens and other lawful residents (DAPA).

So the State of Texas and eight other states filed a separate lawsuit seeking to declare the DACA program illegal and seeking an injunction to stop it. Judge Hanen gave the GOP plaintiffs what they asked for with the DAPA program, so surely he would give them what they wanted with the DACA program, right?

Well surprise, surprise, surprise. Judge Hanen, his judgment no doubt colored by the recent spectacle of the Trump administration’s family separation policy and images of innocent children being abused and caged like animals,  said no – as have all the other federal courts that have ruled on the DACA program. (Since there is now not a split among the circuits, as anticipated, this case is not ripe for review by the Supreme Court).

The New York Times reports, Federal Judge in Texas Delivers Unexpected Victory for DACA Program:

A federal judge in Texas declined on Friday to halt an Obama-era program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation, handing a temporary victory to activists who are waging a legal fight against the Trump administration to save it.

The judge, Andrew S. Hanen of the Federal District Court in Houston, said the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, had been relied upon by hundreds of thousands of immigrants since it was established almost six years ago, and should not be abruptly ended.

The ruling means that young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as small children can continue to apply for the program, which shields them from immediate deportation and provides a permit to work legally in the United States.

“It’s a huge sigh of relief,” said Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “This is a huge loss for Trump and the Department of Justice, who clearly want to end the program.”

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