May 7th, 2008 | TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- A high school student says he may file a lawsuit against a physical education teacher who took a Mexican flag he had brought for Cinco de Mayo and put it in the garbage.

Clint Straatman denies Froylan Camelo's version of events but said he took the flag Monday because "white kids" might have hurt the 16-year-old. He said he put it in a garbage can because he had no place else to keep it.

Camelo said he was changing into gym clothes at Minico High School in Rupert when Straatman told him, "Give me the flag."

"I said, 'What's the problem?'" Camelo, speaking in Spanish, told The Times-News of Twin Falls. "He said, 'The problem is that we are in the United States and not in Mexico.' He grabbed it from me. He threw the flag in the garbage can."

Camelo said that Straatman told him the flag would be returned at the end of the school day, but that Straatman taunted him instead.

"I asked, 'Where is my flag?'" Camelo said. "He said, 'What, the U.S. flag?' I said, 'No, the one for Mexico.' But he wouldn't give it to me."

Camelo said he then took the undamaged flag out of the garbage. He said he's been contacted by the American Civil Liberties Union and is considering a lawsuit against Straatman.

Camelo and others brought Mexican flags to the south-central Idaho school to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the May 5 recognition of Mexico's victory over the French army on that day in 1862. About a third of the student body is Hispanic.

Straatman denied saying the words Camelo attributed to him, and said the student may have misunderstood him because of his poor English skills. He said he took the flag from Camelo after Camelo had been waving it in the school gym, and denied withholding it later.

"I had to confiscate it so it wouldn't escalate any problems in class," Straatman told The Times-News. "We're worried about that stuff all the time. We always have kids saying stuff to each other, and we have a lot of fights between kids."

Scott Rogers, superintendent of the Minidoka County Joint School District, said an investigation has been started. He said he could not comment specifically about personnel decisions.

"We believe in nondiscriminatory practices and cultural sensitivity," he said. "We train for that and talk about that. If there is a teacher making derogatory comments we don't approve of that. We also don't approve of a student disrupting the classroom."

Rogers said he was at the school early Wednesday and that the school was quiet. He said he noticed a few students wearing clothing in the colors of the Mexican flag - red, white and green - in protest of Monday's incident.

Salon provides breaking news articles from the Associated Press as a service to its readers, but does not edit the AP articles it publishes.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/14/navarrette.mexican/index.html?iref=newssearch

and here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/28/navarrette/index.html?iref=newssearch

Commentary: The ugly Mexican-American immigration debate

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- In an episode of the television show "Seinfeld," Jerry Seinfeld worries that his dentist has converted to Judaism so he can tell jokes about Jewish people. Someone asks Seinfeld, "And this offends you as a Jewish person?" No, he says, "it offends me as a comedian."

As a Mexican-American, that's how I feel when someone takes note of my support for comprehensive immigration reform, or my opposition to absurd "solutions" to the immigration problem, and concludes that I'm more Mexican than American.

Anyone who thinks there is no racism in this debate should read my e-mail. You'd find that readers say things to me they'd probably never say to a columnist who wasn't Latino. Like this: "You want your people here and despite your convoluted attempts to justify your position, you clearly don't give a whit on how they get here." Or this: "You keep justifying the illegal immigrants because you are a Mexican." Or this: "It is soooo obvious that you are a racist who is ONLY looking out for "your" people!"

Others suggest that I wouldn't be so quick to defend illegal immigrants if so many of them hadn't come from Mexico, or suggest that U.S-born Latinos like me have a vested interest in "bringing in your relatives" or in using immigration to increase the size and power of the U.S. Hispanic population. Others accuse me of having a secret agenda.

They're half right. I do have an agenda, but it's no secret. I've written op-eds and columns for nearly 20 years, and I still write 15,000 words a month.

My views are well-known. As an opinion writer, my agenda is to expose shameful politicians who use immigration to scare up votes, to be skeptical of feel-good solutions that don't work, and -- consistent with the journalist creed -- to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

My agenda is to demand what this debate really needs: more honesty, an end to hypocrisy, a ban on simple solutions, to be purged of racism and nativism, and an understanding that our anger should be aimed not at people but at government.

My agenda is to make sure that illegal immigrants, whatever their ethnicity, not be treated as scapegoats, picked on, or unfairly blamed for all of society's ills while we turn ourselves inside out making excuses for their accomplices -- the employers who hire them.

As a Mexican-American, I needn't choose between being Mexican and American. I'm both. But, it's true: I am more one than the other. As an American, I care about the little guy; Mexico doesn't. As an American, I recognize the positive impact of legal immigration; Mexico doesn't. As an American, I care about fairness and stamping out racism and prejudice; Mexico doesn't. In the country that nearly 100 years ago cast afloat my Mexican grandfather, there are winners and losers; in mine, we take it as fact that with hard work and sacrifice, anyone can win.

Some assume that the ugly tone of the immigration debate offends me as a Mexican. No. It offends me as an American.

Commentary: 10 ugly things about the immigration debate

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

A woman wrote in and asked me to be more specific: Just what was it about the immigration debate that was so ugly?

She came to the right place. After nearly 20 years of writing opinions and insisting that I don't speak for all Hispanics, in recent months, I've heard from hundreds of Hispanics who -- appreciative of my middle-ground approach to the immigration issue -- insist that I can speak for them anytime. So, with the authority vested in me, I'll now share some of what other Hispanics are saying.

It's not far off from what Janet Murguia had to say. As president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States, Murguia recently delivered an important speech to the National Press Club. The topic: the immigration debate and what she called a wave of hate sweeping the land -- one that isn't limited to illegal immigrants, but which is now affecting all Hispanics regardless of where they were born, what language they speak or what flag they salute.

The way Murguia sees it, immigration is "on the verge of becoming one of the largest civil rights issues of our generation." And, Hispanics are playing the piñata.

Murguia was right on the button. To borrow a phrase, it's getting ugly out there. And U.S.-born Hispanics see it as plain as day. Here are 10 things they find distasteful about this debate:

• The hypocrisy. We have two signs on the U.S.-Mexican border: "Keep Out" and "Help Wanted."
• The racism. With lightning speed, the debate went from anti-illegal immigrant to anti-immigrant to anti-Mexican.
• The opportunism. Too many politicians are trying too hard to portray themselves as tough on illegal immigration.
• The simple solutions. "Build A Wall." "Deport All Illegals." A quick rule of thumb: If it fits on a bumper sticker, it's not a workable policy.
• The naiveté. People ask why Mexico won't help stop illegal immigration. Hint: Last year, Mexicans in the United States sent home $25 billion.
• The profiling. Dark skin and Spanish surnames shouldn't be proxies for undocumented status. Been to Arizona lately?
• The meanness. Nazi-produced Internet video games let players shoot illegal immigrants crossing the border. Fun stuff.
• The amnesia. Americans think grandpa was welcomed with open arms and that he plunged into the melting pot. Whatever.
• The buck-passing. Americans love to blame Mexico for their choices, yelling across the border: "Stop us before we hire again."
• The double standard. The same folks who have zero tolerance for illegal immigrants easily tolerate those who hire them.

Some of this is painfully familiar, recalling earlier versions of this debate as it played out a hundred or two hundred years ago. Hispanics are the new Germans, the new Irish, the new Italians. But it's also ugly. It was then. It is now.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport

May 7, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster

MEDIA

Hate Radio's Bigotry Against Hispanics

On Monday, hate radio king Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News for five minutes to discuss the presidential race and managed to make an offensive comment. Limbaugh called Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), who is Hispanic, a "shoe shine guy." Yesterday, Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, blasted Limbaugh for uttering "the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type comment that has become so prevalent in today's society, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean] Hannity, [Bill] O'Reilly, [Michael] Savage." Racial slurs, particularly fueled against Hispanics, has found a home on right-wing radio, which claims 91 percent of radio airwaves. The nation's leading Hispanic advocacy group, National Council of La Raza, launched a campaign earlier this year decrying right-wing radio for its "rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans." "Talk like Savage's, or Limbaugh's or O'Reilly's, has become routine, even systematic, and certainly a big business. According to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the top five radio station owners that control 45 powerful, 50,000-watt or more radio stations broadcast 310 hours of nationally syndicated right-wing talk. But they broadcast only a total of five hours of countervailing talk," Salon reported. Yet these talkers are rarely held to account: For example, neither ABC, Time, nor Politico mentioned the offensive remarks when reporting on Limbaugh's TV commentary this week. Progressive radio host Mario Solis-Marich wrote Tuesday, "As a member of the largest minority ethnic group and a member of the media, I am continually puzzled and outraged by the idea that anyone can say anything about Latinos without fearing any consequence."

DEMAGOGUING IMMIGRATION: A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found, "Thanks to energetic opposition from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, immigration was the biggest topic, at 16%, on conservative talk radio in the second quarter" of last year -- when conservative radio led the effort to defeat congressional comprehensive immigration reform, largely by resorting to fear and hatred. Radio host Neal Boortz urged listeners to help defeat "this illegal alien amnesty bill" and "yank out the welcome mat." Speaking of undocumented immigrants he said, "Give 'em all a little nuclear waste and let 'em take it on down there to Mexico. Tell 'em...it'll heat tortillas." Michael Savage repeatedly exhorted listeners to "burn a Mexican flag" and to "tell them to go back to where they came from." CNN's Glenn Beck, who also has a radio show, took particular issue with Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) support for the immigration bill (though McCain has since changed positions), deriding the senator as "Juan McCain." Beck called McCain's support for the bill and the fact that his national director of Hispanic outreach was of Mexican background "an audacious slap in the face." 

A 'RACE WAR': Right-wing radio's discussion of immigration often veers away from policy to focus on race. Savage once warned his listeners, "The European-American, or the white person, is being erased from America's future...There is a racial element to the immigration invasion, at least I see it that way." Discussing a pro-immigrant parade in L.A., O'Reilly said, "So now, it's becoming a race war." O'Reilly also accused supporters of immigration -- "who hate America...because it's run primarily by white, Christian men" -- of seeking "to change the complexion...of America." These hatemongers have made clear their primary concern: maintaining a white majority. Just this year, Fox News's John Gibson gave "a big round of applause" on his radio show to the "non-Hispanic white women" who were having babies, which he said vindicated his call on "the dominant, or largest population sector, which is Caucasians," to "make more babies." "And what happens to white people?" Savage wondered. "That's the real question here. Will our brown brethren, who are so nationalistic and so anti-gringo and anti-Anglo, be as enlightened as the European-American is? I don't think so." 

HEALTH SCARE: Right-wing radio hosts have also -- wrongly -- claimed that illegal immigrants should be kept out of the United States because they bring strange diseases in. O'Reilly agreed with a caller into his radio show who said that illegal immigration "surpasses the impact of 9/11" because "each one of these people is a biological weapon." The caller claimed that that "illegals crossing the border" are bringing "tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy." O'Reilly agreed, and said there was "an absolutely airtight case" that more Americans "have either been killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here," than died on 9/11. (O'Reilly later insisted he "never said anything like that.") Last summer, CNN's Lou Dobbs repeatedly claimed that there were "7,000" cases of leprosy in the U.S. in the last three years, and suggested the cases were due to illegal immigrants. When confronted with a CBS analysis that found only 7,000 cases of leprosy in the last 30 years -- and an unknown number involving illegal immigrants -- Dobbs simply replied, "If we reported it, it's a fact."

Fresh off of challenging its own Democratic majority, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is taking on CNN.

In a letter issued Friday to Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Bewkes, the CHC's chairman, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) contended that the news network is skewed in favor of anti-immigration efforts.

The CHC has been raising its profile. Notably it felt bold enough last week to challenge its party leaders for taking up bills focusing on immigration enforcement instead of a comprehensive approach. And now the caucus is going after Lou Dobbs.

CHC leaders expressed outrage that their appeals for a meeting with Bewkes have been rebuffed for several months, and that even letters to the Time Warner head have landed instead in the hands of CNN President Jim Walton.

"We are deeply offended that you did not take the time or effort to respond to a request from twenty Members of the United States House of Representatives and a United States Senator, but instead simply passed the letter along to Mr. Walton," the lawmakers wrote. "It is additionally offensive that you did so on a topic as important and sensitive as your company's treatment and portrayal of Latinos in this country."

Representatives of Time Warner did not return calls Friday, and a CNN spokeswoman declined to speak for attribution.

In an April 23 letter to Menendez and Baca, Walton said Time Warner's corporate chief would be unable to address lawmakers' concerns.

"As a matter of long-standing policy, Time Warner's corporate management never interferes with the editorial decision-making of its news operations," Walton wrote.

According to the letter, Walton offered to meet with both lawmakers, as well as any other CHC member, noting that corporate employees and Congressional staff had been in contact in recent weeks.

"I share your interest in providing CNN's viewers with the accurate and balanced reporting and commentary they need to make informed decisions, and in that regard, value very much your perspective and feedback in our programming," Walton wrote.

But Hispanic lawmakers dismissed Walton's explanations.

"It really is a slap in the face, that as many members as there are in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the House and the Senate, that we don't get a direct response," Menendez said in an interview on Friday.

According to Menendez, many of CNN's news programs have adopted "the language Lou Dobbs uses," referring to the host of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," who uses the platform to complain about illegal immigration.

"The news program has become the equivalent of opinion and not information," Menendez said, asserting that news anchors opt for language describing "hordes" of immigrants crossing borders, and use phrases such as "illegal" rather than "undocumented" when describing such immigrants.

Baca said he met with Walton several weeks ago to raise the matter - not as a CHC representative, he said, but as an individual lawmaker. He recommended that the network produce a show to "counterbalance" Dobbs.

"It was a very positive meeting. I said look, there's a lot of good programs that CNN puts on, and we watch a lot of it. We're only talking about a specific individual. The other programs are pretty good in terms of the news that they bring out," Baca said.

He said the CHC's opposition to Dobbs does not infringe on the First Amendment.

"You still have freedom of speech, but you've got to put out the facts and information. He lavishes it in a negative connotation, and that goes beyond freedom of speech. He's a news broadcaster and he should be fair and objective," Baca said. "He oversteps his bounds on the freedom of speech."

A CNN spokeswoman pointed to the network's coverage of the immigration debate in a variety of formats other than Dobbs' show.

This is not the first time the 20-member CHC has sought to inject itself into programming. Along with other Latino organizations, Hispanic lawmakers successfully lobbied PBS and filmmaker Ken Burns to add nearly a half-hour of footage to the World War II documentary "The War" last fall.

We're sorry to announce that we're adding yet another flashpoint to the map showing the tragic consequences of hate.  A young man says something nice in Spanish about a baby and is assaulted by the father at work the next day.  The man's uncle, who intervened, is beaten to death.  This is what hate does and why we need to push back on what's driving a climate in which these kinds of incidents are on the rise.  As far as we know, this has only been covered in the local press so far:

Fight victim wanted safe place for his family

By Tracy M. Neal Staff Writer // tracyn@nwanews.com

Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/58237/

BENTONVILLE - Miguel Barron brought his family to Arkansas 14 years ago to escape violent gang activity in Los Angeles.

Barron died in Arkansas as the result of an alleged violent act by two co-workers.

The men - Willie Blackston and Darrell Day - appeared in court Monday where they pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with Barron's death.

Blackston, 28, is charged with murder in the first degree, a class Y felony punishable with a sentence ranging from 10 to 40 years or life in prison.

Day, 35, is charged as an accomplice to first-degree murder, a class Y felony; intimidating a witness, a class C felony; and terroristic threatening in the first degree, a class D felony. The class C felony is punishable with a prison sentence ranging from three to 10 years, while the class D felony carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.

The men pleaded not guilty during arraignments before Circuit Judge David Clinger. An omnibus hearing in the case is scheduled for 8: 30 a. m. March 17.

" He came here with his family to escape gang violence, " Frederico Barron said about his brother through an interpreter. " He found a quieter place here. He wanted to avoid his children being exposed to gang violence. "

Frederico Barron - Miguel Barron's wife, Maria Vidales de Barron - and other relatives talked about Miguel at the family's Rogers home Saturday morning.

Frederico moved to Arkansas and told his brother that life was peaceful here. So Miguel packed up his family and moved to northwest Arkansas. They both worked at a Tyson Foods plant before finding jobs at West-Ark Steel a few years ago, Frederico said.

" He wanted a healthier place for the kids, " Frederico said.

The brothers worked together at West-Ark Steel on South Lincoln Street in Lowell, along with their nephew, Miguel Villeda. Both Frederico Barron and Villeda continue to work at the plant.

Miguel Barron, 41, died Jan. 5 at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale after being removed from life support. A medical examiner concluded that Barron died from blunt-force injury to the head, court documents state. He was hospitalized Dec. 27, 2007, and placed on life support.

Villeda said, through an interpreter, that on Dec. 26, Blackston's wife was in the back seat of the couple's car with a baby. Villeda told her in Spanish that the baby was cute.

The next day at West-Ark, Blackston's wife pointed out Villeda to her husband as the man who spoke to her, Frederico Barron said.

Court records allege that Blackston and Day had been drinking at work, and toward the end of the workday, Blackston punched Villeda in the face.

Frederico told The Daily Record that Miguel Barron walked out of a bathroom and attempted to stop Blackston from attacking Villeda. Frederico said Blackston punched Miguel Barron in the face. That caused him to fall and strike his head on the floor, Villeda said.

Blackston then kicked Miguel Barron in the ribs twice, Frederico said.

Frederico said he tried to go into an office to ask someone to call 911, but Day pulled him out of the office.

As Villeda and Frederico tried to carry their injured relative to a van so they could take him to a hospital, Blackston said, " I'm sorry, Miguel, " then punched the fatally injured man in the face again, Frederico Barron said.

Day and Blackston then attempted to fight Frederico and Villeda, both said.

The incident lasted about 10 minutes. During the entire incident, Frederico said, Blackston was saying obscene and derogatory statements about Mexicans.

An office worker had called 911, and emergency medical personnel and police arrived on the scene.

Day is accused of ordering others not to seek aid for Miguel Barron after the attack, according to court documents. Day is also accused of threatening a co-worker who witnessed the attack.

Blackston is being held in the Benton County Jail in lieu of $ 200, 000 bond. Day is being held in to the county jail in lieu of $ 100, 000 bond.

Miguel Barron's family took his body to his birthplace - San Juan del Rio, Mexico.

He was the breadwinner for his family, which includes his wife and six children.

" I hope (Blackston ) never gets out of jail, " Frederico Barron said. " He will do the same to someone else. " 

Kudos to MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) for launching http://www.truthinimmigration.org/Home.aspx this week.  The new site tackles the many myths, exaggerations, false "facts," and just plain lies which are regular features of the immigration debate.  For anyone concerned about arriving at real solutions to immigration, this website is an important tool to fight the damage that hate groups, and the networks that hand them a microphone, inflict on any attempt for rational debate on this challenging issue.  For more information on how hate groups are infecting the debate with code words of hate, watch this video of Stacy Burdett of the Anti-Defamation League.

Read on for more information about http://www.truthinimmigration.org/...

New Web site monitors immigration myths

By Eunice Moscoso |

March 21, 2008

Cox News

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) on Thursday launched a Web site which it said would expose myths and inaccuracies about immigration.

Peter Zamora, the group's regional counsel in Washington, said that conservative talk shows on television and the radio are putting falsehoods on the air every day that demonize immigrants.

Such "hate speech" has led to an increase in crimes against Hispanics and makes it impossible to have a rational policy discussion on immigration reform, MALDEF officials said, in a conference call with reporters.

Zamora said the site - http://www.truthinimmigration.org/ - will have new postings three to five times a week about statements in the media, on Capitol Hill, and in political campaigns.

Last month, the National Council of La Raza and other Hispanic groups launched "We Can Stop the Hate," a campaign and Web site.

NCLR said that the nation's three top cable news networks - CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC - regularly invite anti-immigrant extremists to their shows and do not identify the groups they are with or the fact that some are affiliated with white supremacist organizations or vigilante groups.

Check out the comments that have appeared on the ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration) website - which claims it is merely concerned about legality - in response to the Nick News feature on this issue:

"Did you know that the illegals have carved out their own hallways in the public schools? My daughter said that she feels uncomfortable when she has to use the hall to get from class to class. Legal American's are being terrorized by the illegals who are multiplying like rabbits."

"As much as it's going to irk me to watch this garbage I'm also going to be keeping a list of those advertising during the course of the show. If the companies expecting our kids to buy their products think they will walk away without hearing from my kids about their complicity with a racist hate group like LaRaza in promoting illegal activity.....and detrimental child welfare issues pertaining to the exploitation of anchors by self serving parents.....they can just think again."

"I have observed this sort of behavior too. The 'latinas' (I refuse to call them young women) are as bad as the gangbanger guys. They will stand there and glare at white, african-american or asian young women (basically anybody who is not hispanic) like they have some real bone to pick with them. They have a real chip on their shoulder and are looking for a fight. Except that they are so cowardly that neither they nor their male counter parts will fight anyone unless the odds are at least 10-1 in their favor. It disgusts me beyond words to think that I am forced to oick up the bill for these losers via my tax dollars. God help them if one of them ever so much as touches one of my daughters!"

Good thing the voices of hate haven't hijacked the immigration debate, right?

Applaud Nickelodeon executives for their decision to focus on how children are affected by our nation's immigration policy.

So, just in case anyone is interested in the facts, the Immigration Policy Center has an exellent study on the subject and the Fresno Bee published a useful piece, which we've reprinted below.

Immigrants aren't the threat some say they are
'Public safety' isn't a reason to limit debate on immigration.
02/26/08 22:40:41
Are those born outside the United States more or less likely than the native-born to commit crimes?
We do know that the foreign-born are more likely to be young, male and have less than a high school diploma, all factors that can contribute to involvement with crime.
Yet a new study released by the Public Policy Institute of California, "Crime, Corrections and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do With It?" finds what previous national studies have found. Young males born outside the United States who have less than a high school diploma have extremely low rates of incarceration in California state prisons and county jails.
More than 13% of U.S.-born men aged 18 to 40 who have less than a high school diploma are in California state prisons, county jails, halfway houses and the like, according to 2000 census data. For the foreign-born in that category, it is less than 1% (0.5%).
Further, rates of both violent and property crime in California (and the nation) have fallen dramatically since the early 1990s (to levels not seen since the 1970s), during a period of high immigration. The researchers looked at 29 California cities between the years 2000 and 2005. They found that cities with higher rates of newly arrived immigrants showed, on average, a greater decline in crime rates than cities with lower rates of newly arrived immigrants.
This research has significant implications. Many fearmongers cite "public safety" to justify limiting immigration, favoring high-skilled immigrants and/or increasing sentences (to deter noncitizens from committing crimes).
That's not necessary. The foreign-born, including those with little education, show remarkably low rates of criminal activity.
This reality is yet another reason why immigration baiting will continue to be, as Republican pollster David Hill puts it, "a dud of an electoral issue."
The obsession of a few vocal xenophobes, from Rush Limbaugh to Lou Dobbs, just doesn't match actual facts on the ground.
So let's debate the real policy implications of the immigration question, and not get detracted by the grenades thrown in by those who'd rather exploit this issue. We need a comprehensive immigration reform bill. When will Congress deal with the substance of this important issue?

In this video, Mike Spencer, cofounder of the San Diego Minutemen, erects an effigy of a priest wearing a devil's mask in front of a Catholic Church. Meanwhile, a First Communion Mass is taking place inside. Another Minuteman carries a sign that says, "Jail the Pope."

If you live in a state without the daily diet of protesters harassing day laborers, take a look. Here you can see what passes for acceptable behavior among the Minutemen vigilantes who harass and threaten workers they perceive to be illegal immigrants. Thank you to CRLAF for videotaping and posting an unvarnished view of this hate group.