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The good people at the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte posted the following story on the organization’s blog today:

Rausel AristaRausel is a great guy and he needs your help

Rausel Arista– father to 2 young boys, a community leader, and an organizer here at the Latin American Coalition since 2012– was detained and put into deportation proceedings this morning at the Buffalo, NY airport on his way home to Charlotte. He is currently being held in a Buffalo area detention center, hundreds of miles away from home and his family.

Please take a few moments to help Rausel by taking one or more of the following actions: Read More

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Yesterday Raleigh joined the growing group of cities across the country that are recognizing the economic and social benefits of welcoming new immigrants. As a Welcoming City, Raleigh is committing “to ensure full support and equal access to opportunity to our newest immigrant residents and all who call Raleigh home.”

Raleigh mayor Nancy McFarlane shakes hands with Mercedes Restucha-Klem, a member of the city's Human Relations Commission, after declaring Raleigh a "Welcoming City." Photo by Ricky Leung.

Raleigh mayor Nancy McFarlane shakes hands with Mercedes Restucha-Klem, a member of the city’s Human Relations Commission, after declaring Raleigh a “Welcoming City.” Photo by Ricky Leung.

Recent studies have confirmed that immigrants moving to a city leads to more jobs and lower unemployment in part because they are more than twice as likely to take on the risk of starting small businesses. So more and more, cities are finding that making immigrants feel welcome and supported is just good business.
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Immigrants ICEHouse Speaker John Boehner’s most recent delay tactic in preventing passage of an immigration reform bill has been to state that Republicans have “widespread doubt about whether [the Obama] administration can be trusted to enforce our laws.”  As anyone paying attention to the immigration debate is aware, this is a ridiculous statement—the Obama administration has steadily increased the number of deportations conducted compared to previous administrations.  The most recent statistics show that almost 420,000 immigrants were deported in fiscal year 2012, more immigrants deported in a single year by any president.

A recent essay in the D.C. news website The Hill by a retired immigration judge makes a powerful argument against that ridiculous claim.  Retired Judge John Gossart, Jr. remarks:

“In my thirty-one years as a United States immigration judge, I have never had as many people come through my courtroom as I have over the last six years. During this time, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of non-citizens that the United States detains and deports, and the detained number of individuals appearing in immigration courts today is unprecedented. Read More

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The following is from the website Dictionary.com:

par·a·noi·a [par-uh-noi-uh], noun
1. Psychiatry. a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission. 2.baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others. Also, par·a·noe·a [par-uh-nee-uh]. Origin:  1805–15;  < Neo-Latin  < Greek paránoia  madness. See para-, nous, -ia

Here’s something else that the editors  might have added to the above definition:

3. The characteristic of being so absurdly and maniacally obsessed with a single public policy issue that one deludes oneself into believing that every other policy matter pales in importance and, indeed, that advocacy surrounding all other matters is really part of a conspiracy to target one’s issue. 4. The belief that millions of good people should suffer in the shadows so that it can be assured that a few thousand souls can purchase and own mass killing machines without meaningful regulation.  See for example: The American gun lobby.

If you think this is an exaggeration, check out the following news item:

The national pro-gun advocacy group Gun Owners of America issued an alert last week Read More

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Frank Bruni of the New York Times has authored an uplifting article about a candidate for student body president at UNC Chapel Hill that’s worth your time this morning (full disclosure: my daughter is helping to support his campaign):

“The campaign for student body president at the University of North Carolina here has just begun, and there’s nothing unusual in the number of candidates — five — or the fact that two are Morehead-Cain scholars, an elite designation.

But there’s a wrinkle that’s certain to generate discussion, especially in a state whose politics have taken a profoundly rightward turn. One of the candidates is an undocumented immigrant who readily identifies himself that way. In fact he’s at or near the head of the pack.

His name is Emilio Vicente. He’s a junior, 22, and a minority three times over: Latino, undocumented and gay. He came to the United States from Guatemala at 6, his mother leading him under barbed wire and into Arizona, as he recalls it. (He remembers the screech of a woman with them whose hair got caught.) And he flourished here, his grades earning him the private scholarship he needed for Chapel Hill, where he’s on this committee, that board, a one-man whirlwind of engagement.

Read the rest of the piece by clicking here. Read more about Vicente’s campaign by clicking here.

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