Houston students join others nation wide to "come out as undocumented.

Immigrant students will publicly declare their undocumented status at UH-D on May 17th. The event is part of the Right to Dream day of action initiated by the United We Dream campaign.

The students and their supporters seek to gain relief from the increased deportations under the Obama administration and step up pressure on lawmakers to pass the DREAM Act, a piece of legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for eligible undocumented youth who completed either two years of college or two years of military service.

Obama’s immigration policies have come under fire by immigrant activists and national Hispanic organizations. Campaign season has kicked into full swing, and the growing importance of the Latino vote in swing states has been recognized by both Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have begun courting Latino voters.

“This is bigger than the DREAM Act, this is about justice and equality for all students. I deserve the right to be an engineer,” said Dulce Matuz, President of Arizona DREAM Act coalition.

Sen. Marco Rubio unveiled a scaled back version of the DREAM Act to help the children of undocumented parents gain legal status. Rubio’s version would provide DREAM Act students with visas before allowing them to go through the normal immigration process, a move some of his fellow Republicans have decried as backdoor amnesty. Previous versions of the DREAM Act called for undocumented students to receive permanent residency or citizenship.

As part of the student’s campaign they have released a “Declaration of DREAMs,” which claims certain rights for DREAMers:

• The right to live our lives without fear
• The right to live with our families
• The right to live with our loved ones
• The right to move freely
• The right to education
• The right to give back to our communities
• The right to build a strong sustainable economy
• The right to fulfill our Dreams.

FIEL, a local DREAM Act activist organization, organized the local coming out action in concert with 22 other events around the country.

“Under the Obama Administration, we’ve experienced record high deportations and our communities are still stuck in the shadows. And, despite waiting over ten long years, Congress has not passed the legislation to protect us. Enough is enough. Through the Right to Dream campaign, we’re launching a nationwide call for real and lasting relief for DREAMers and our communities,” said a statement released by FIEL.

The rally will feature DREAM Act eligible students sharing their stories alongside their supporters.

Right to Dream video from Los Angeles
 

Three members of the H.I.S.D. school board voted against merging Kaleidoscope charter school with Long middle school

At a meeting in April, the Houston Independent School District Board decided to merge the exemplary-rated Kaleidoscope Charter School with Jane Long Middle School by a vote of 6-3.

The decision was called “horrible” by activists who gathered over 640 signatures in a petition to save the school. At the meeting, 35 supporters in red shirts stood together to urge the school board to not merge Kaleidoscope with what they feel is a struggling middle school.

“Out of all the schools that are currently Exemplary, why would you shut one down?” asked community organizer Fidencio Leija Chavez, Jr. “Instead of embracing it — keeping it intact — they’re wanting to take it apart and dismantle it.”

A coalition of local Latino groups, which included Mi Familia Vota, Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL), and National Hispanic Professional Organization (NHPO) Leadership Institute sought to keep the school open.

The school board took about ninety minutes to reach their decision after hearing from parents, who were concerned about the quality of education at Jane Long, and students who brought up issues of potential bullying.

“Every opportunity to learn from and empower our community is a win for us. Students, parents and community leaders took a heart-felt stand for quality education and fought to save a successful program in Southwest Houston. That we lost is bitter but that we came together is cause for celebration.” said a press release put out by the coalition.

HISD Trustees Manuel Rodriguez, Juliet Stipeche and Board President Michael Lunceford supported keeping the school open.

Kaleidoscope has just over 100 students, many of which are immigrants.

MillerCoors will choose 12 individuals from the pool of nominees to participate in the 2012 MillerCoors Líderes program. The 12 Líderes will be announced during Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15- Oct.15), when the public will have the opportunity to vote for the Líder of the Year. The MillerCoors Líder of the year will receive a $25,000 MillerCoors grant to develop a community leadership project benefitting the Hispanic community.

“We are excited to open the nomination process to the public and anticipate a great response,” says Jose Ruano, multicultural relations manager for MillerCoors. “There are many Latino leaders who are working hard to improve themselves and their communities. MillerCoors is proud to shine a light on those who are making a difference and award one Líder with a grant to make an impact in his or her own local community.”

The general public can nominate a candidate on www.MillerCoorsLideres.com, until May 25, 2012.

Elianne Ramos, Vice Chair, Communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) was one of the 2011 MillerCoors Líderes based on her exceptional contributions to the Latino community.

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund has received an anonymous gift of $4 million dollars which will enable the organization to award scholarships to 600 students who are currently college freshmen during the current academic year, with an opportunity of renewal in their sophomore year.

The majority of the students are pursuing careers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), or health care fields. All of the students come from low-income homes, and are the first in their families to pursue a college degree.

“We were humbled and encouraged that someone felt so strongly about our mission to send an anonymous gift of $4 million dollars,” says Frank D. Alvarez, President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. “We have a pool of academically-talented students, who would not have been selected to receive our support because of lack of funds,” he added, “thanks to this generous donation, these students can now continue to earn a college degree.”

“I will be the first to attend a four year university and achieve a bachelor’s degree. Having an abundance of little cousins and sisters I want them to have hope that they too can succeed” says Alejandro Pena, freshman accounting major from the DePaul University in Chicago, and one of the awardees. “I am creating footsteps for other Hispanics like my sisters and cousins to follow,” he added.

To help students like Alejandro, HSF created Generation 1st Degree, a new initiative which aims to send at least one member of every Latino household in America to complete a college degree. The initiative is focused on closing the “degree gap” that exists between Hispanic students and their peers.

HSF’s seeks to the boost degree attainment among Latinos from 19 percent to 60 percent by 2025.

This is not the first time HSF has received a gift of this nature. HSF was one of the organizations chosen by president Obama to share a portion of his Nobel Peace Prize, and Gil and Jacki Cisneros, who won $266 million in a multi-state lottery, donated a portion of their winnings to advance the Generation 1st Degree initiative in their hometown of Pico Rivera, Ca.

“Once there is a college graduate in the home, others in the family realize they too can pursue a college education,” says Alvarez, “if we want this nation to compete in the global economy, we need to help Latino students and their families believe college is possible, and help them with the resources to get there. This multimillion dollar donation will help us do just that.”

Controversies are brewing in the U.S. over the hijab. Recently, Ambercrombie & Fitch was sued for discrimination because a woman says she was fired due to her wearing the Muslim headscarf. Now a Missouri jail will allow the hijab for Muslim women.

The St. Louis chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations recently requested law enforcement officials in St. Louis County provide religious accommodation for Muslim women who wear an Islamic headscarf, or “hijab,” and are being held in the St. Louis County Jail in Clayton, Mo.

CAIR-St.Louis made the request after a Muslim woman was recently jailed because of an unpaid traffic ticketed and reported that an officer forcibly removed her hijab.

Director of St. Louis County Justice Services Herb Bernsen said he would review current policies “to try to work out a solution that would satisfy both our security needs and individual concerns.”

In a recent meeting that included Bernsen, Chief of Police for the St. Louis County Police Department Colonel Tim Fitch, representatives of CAIR, Muslim community leaders and other law enforcement and county officials, it was agreed that any Muslim woman wearing an hijab would be screened by a female officer in a private area and have the scarf returned following the screening.

A letter of apology will be sent to the woman whose hijab was removed according to CAIR representatives that attended the meeting.

“We thank all those involved in discussing this issue for their goodwill and flexibility in meeting both the religious needs of those held in the jail and the legitimate safety and security needs of the facility,” said CAIR-St. Louis Executive Director Faizan Syed.

Syed said a similar policy on religious accommodation could be adopted by other area jails.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to overturn a lower court ruling that said a Muslim woman “had the right to wear the scarf unless jailers could show it was a security risk.”

In that case, the Muslim woman’s suit cited the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which prohibits state and local governments from imposing “a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution.”

Back a long time ago, in a time when Facebook was still a pimply-faced teenager, the annual Great Tejas Warrant Round Up would scare the bejeezus out of me. My love for speed and immaturity usually meant I had at least one outstanding traffic ticket (speeding) that I “forgot” about.

I didn’t need to worry, the brave officers of the Houston Police Department were more than happy to track me down and “remind” me I needed to handle the resulting warrant. To ensure I didn’t forget to pay, they gave me shiny wrist jewelry to wear to the courthouse while the issue was resolved.

I’ve grown up now. At least to the point where the roundup doesn’t send me into paranoid fits like it used to. Of course, my love for speed remains intense, though neglected, like a needy ex-girlfriend.

Every time I slide behind the driver’s seat, mi ojos fixate on the 1-6-0 mph on the speedometer as I crank the car. Memories of my glory days when I was gunslingin’ in the barrios of Houston’s underground street race scene flood my brain, that is, until my wife jumps into the passenger seat and tells me to fasten my seatbelt. Like my baby brother says, “FAIL.”

Why do automakers torture us innocent speed demons?

The 2013 Mustang Boss has 444 horses to unleash. A 65-mph speed limit is just cruel.

Take Ford for example. They recently rolled out the 2013 Mustang Boss 302 at the Houston Auto Show. Maximum speed is electronically limited at 155-mph. This beauty of a car was specifically designed to perform on the legendary Laguna Seca racetrack. Ford knows darn well most people who buy this beast don’t have the cojones to unleash its 444 rabid horses. At least not us law-abiding citizens who feel like 5 o’clock traffic is the perfect cruising speed.

I know what you’re thinking. Car companies should just design a speedometer that reflects the speed limit. Then drivers won’t be tempted.

Answer: You and nobody you know would buy it. In 1979, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required that speedometers place an emphasis on 55-mph (the national speed limit) and display a maximum speed of 85-mph. Sales of new cars plummeted and officials had to deal with the backlash from the public. Surprise! No American wants to buy a “slow” car. In 1981, the NHTSA eliminated the speedometer rules.

It doesn’t matter if your car’s speedometer says 85 or 160, it’s all about the driver’s perception. Just because your car’s speedometer reads a maximum speed of 160, it doesn’t mean your econobox can actually go that fast, but the American public needs to think they have that option.

Back in the 70-mph reality of your average motorist, to reach break neck speeds safely, a car has to have the right mix of power to weight, specially rated tires and the aerodynamics needed to keep the car stable at high velocities.

Sports cars that can actually reach double and triple the legal speed limit often have their top speeds reduced by a governor installed by the manufacturer. The speedometers may say 155, but the car is capable of going much faster. The govenor is like an electronic leash that regulates the speed should the driver think he’s Danica Patrick at a NASCAR race. If the car hits the preset speed limit, the on-board computer will cut fuel to the engine to slow the car down as in the case of the Mustang Boss.

Buying a car that reads 160 on the speedometer isn’t practical, but neither is the Cupcake ATM recently introduced in Beverly Hills. Go ahead, indulge, this is America. Keep your dreams alive, at least until you see your wife’s baby blue mini-SUV sitting in the driveway. FAIL.

Follow me @EGMNRay

Ride Rumblings is a column dedicated to the musings of an ex-car geek. It comes out every other Monday.

Michael Schennum, the non-Latino, is the guy behind the "M".

“For the first time in our history, we have a Spanish sentence as our cover line,” Time’s Rick Stengel said in his Editor’s Note.

The Latino community quickly embraced the cover and the Michael Scherer’s story about how Latinos in Arizona are critical to the 2012 presidential election.

However, Latinos couldn’t bask in the glow of the stereotype-shattering cover for long.

Michelle Woo, a blogger for the OCWeekly, soon noticed her friend Michael Schennum as one of the “Latinos” on the cover. He is the man with short hair right behind the letter “M.” According to Woo, her friend is half Chinese and Irish and Norwegian. He is not Latino in any form. (See her original post)

Woo goes on to say that Schennum, a photographer for the Arizona Republic, posted on his Facebook page, “They never told me what it was for or [asked] if I was Latino.”

After Woo’s announcement, the story was picked up by a few media outlets, and Time sent the following apology.

“Over the course of three days, we photographed 151 people for the current cover,” a Time spokeswoman said in a statement to Yahoo News. “We took steps to ensure that everyone self-identified as Latino, that they are registered voters and that they would be willing to answer our questions. If there was a misunderstanding with one of our subjects, we apologize.”

The “Latinos” were photographed by Marco Grob in Phoenix. Grob, who is Swiss, spent a weekend during February chronicling Latino voters. To capture the diversity of Latinos, he photographed deacons, dancers and DREAMers; undergrads, car aficionados and immigration activists; Mexicans, Hondurans and Guatemalans.

“There were many unique challenges involved in this shoot,” says Grob, on the Time website “three days on four different locations including a university, a local restaurant, an outdoor market and a Catholic church. The terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Latina’ have a vast identity of their own,” he continues, “so for the duration of this project, we strove to break some of those stereotypes.”

Schennum's Linkedin profile picture.

The Downtown Devil was able to find a couple of Arizona State University students who had a positive experience with Grub, but they weren’t told they were going to be on the cover either.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists have yet to issue a statement on the subject.

“Perhaps it was an artistic choice! Maybe one stereotype of being “Latino” is that one must be Latino. How closed-minded are we?” concluded Woo.

The March 5 issue hits newsstands on Friday.

Follow me on Twitter @EGMNRay

Born in Texas on 1971, her parents, whom eventually became business owners, moved to Idaho for agricultural reasons. Blase grew up Republican and still maintains many conservative views. In 2011, She switched her political party affiliation to Independent because of Republican’s rhetoric on illegal immigration.

After graduating from high school, her mother wanted her to attend Boise State University. Instead, Blase chose to join the U.S. Air Force against her mother’s wishes.

While with the Air Force, she served fours years of active duty and an additional four years non-active duty. She was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas.

After her tour of duty, she continued her education Kansas and eventually opened two communication retail outlets and a coffee café in Wichita. In Kansas, Blase started to get involved in activism by joining the American G.I. Forum, the National Latino Peace Officer Association and other organizations.

She also started Cindo de Mayo contests that encouraged young Hispanic females to take control of their education by applying to win scholarships for college.

In 2006, Blase sold her coffee shop and moved to Arizona. It was in Arizona, on September 2010, where she founded Somos Republicans. The group has become the largest Latino Republican organization in the United States.

Somos Republicans was created when anti-immigrant sentiment hit a fever pitch in Arizona. It grew to 14 chapters in various states by February 2012.

On November 2, 2011, Somos Republicans announced Blase would step down to focus on the National Tequila Party Movement.

The Tequila Party consists of Democrats, Independents and Republicans with a mission of getting out the Latino Vote for the purpose of promoting immigrant friendly politicians.

The organization, is a counter movement to the Tea Party Republicans. Like Somos Republicans, the Tequila Party aims to increase Latino voter participation in a non-partisan way.

DeeDee working hard on the recall of Russell Pierce.

DeeDee Garcia Blase, was the first person to initiate the recall of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce. She cites Dr. Hector P. Garcia, founder of the American G.I. Forum, as one of her heroes. Blase is married to attorney Aaron Blase and has to two children

Notable Quote:

” I do not believe the mainstream media does an adequate job in portraying Hispanic patriotism. In fact, living in Arizona, I often see Hispanic people being demonized and portrayed in a negative light by isolationists.”

Follow me on twitter @EGMNRay

Tonight is the final Republican debate before the March 6 “Super Tuesday” nominating contests in 10 states. The debate, sponsored by CNN, is being held in Arizona, which has been at the center of the immigration debate because of its crackdown on illegal immigration and for its ban on Tucson’s Mexican-American studies program.

The candidates will no doubt have to face tough questions on immigration that they have thus far avoided. The candidate’s answers tonight could prove pivotal in the general election against President Obama who has ramped up his efforts to win over Latinos, particularly in Arizona.

It’s no secret Republicans have all but erased the inroads George W. Bush made with Latinos. Poll after poll show Latinos overwhelmingly backing the Democratic Party.

If the GOP wants a real shot at winning in the general election, they should endorse a Chicano. Not just any Chicano, but the Confused
Chicano!

Follow me on Twitter @EGMNRay

Launched in March 2011 by Secretary Napolitano and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, the announcement delivers on the goal of expanding Self Check nationally within one year.

“We are pleased to complete, ahead of schedule, our expansion of this important tool for employees,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas during a press conference at the agency’s field office in Orlando, Fla. “Since our initial launch in March, approximately 67,000 people have used Self Check and we anticipate that participation will dramatically increase with service now available to individuals across the country.”

The accuracy of E-Verify has been called into question by the National Council of La Raza and other Hispanic advocacy groups. According to NCLR, foreign-born U.S. citizens and legal immigrants are 30 times more likely than native-born workers to be wrongly flagged as ineligble to work.

Names that sound “foreign” or “ethnic” to employers, regardless of their immigration status, are at a higher risk of being entered into E-Verify incorrectly because of data entry mistakes like misspellings.

“Workers cannot afford to lose jobs in this economy because of database errors or employer misuse of a verification system, and layering the mass expansion of this flawed program on top of our broken immigration laws will neither address concerns about immigration nor solve our unemployment problem. It is time to stop playing with the issue of immigration and with the needs of the American workforce,” said Clarissa Martínez De Castro, NCLR Director of Immigration and National Campaigns, as she denounced legislation that would require all employers to use E-Verify.

In a report released in December 2010, The Government Accountability Office found that 97.4 percent of almost 8.2 million newly hired employees were immediately confirmed to work during fiscal year 2009, compared to 92 percent from fiscal year 2006 to second quarter of fiscal year 2007.

GAO did note that errors still persist and incorrect name matches disproportionately affect foreign-born employees. The report cited identity theft and employer fraud as other vulnerabilities.

Employees who have been wrongly flagged as not eligible to work are limited in their ability to find the source of the incorrect information in the DHS databases, they have to use such complicated methods as Privacy Act requests to get the issue resolved.

Self Check was developed through a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to provide individuals a tool to check their own employment eligibility status, as well as guidance on how to correct their DHS and SSA records. It is the first online E-Verify service offered directly to workers. Available in English and Spanish, Self Check enables individuals to enter the same information into Self Check that employers enter into E-Verify.

The online tool also offers guidance on how to correct potential record discrepancies prior to the hiring process.

Follow me on twitter @EGMNRay