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latinos

Living and Working [Il]legally in America — It’s Not Just for Latinos Anymore

According to statistics compiled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during 2004 alone, 540 Israelis were deported or about to be deported. If that many Israelis were caught, it stands to reason that there are many thousands more — in Los Angeles as well as the rest of the United States — who have not yet been located by authorities.

Border Protests Not Fight for Civil Rights

>Speaker after speaker at the recent immigration march in Los Angeles told the 500,000-strong primarily Latino crowd that racism and anti-immigrant sentiments lie behind the debates on Capitol Hill about border enforcement. This was the focus at the march and subsequent student walkouts, even though the House and Senate have debated competing immigration reform legislation, which has included discussions of some sort of guest worker or amnesty plan.

Blocs Play Key Role in Villaraigosa’s Win

With his election as mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa now has the chance to deliver on the coalition approach he offered to the voters in the recent campaign. If he succeeds, Los Angeles government may start to find solutions to problems that have previously seemed intractable. If he fails, he will leave a city more balkanized than before, and one that will have a harder time than ever solving its problems.

Twice Upon a Time

The adoring crowd, a beaming Antonio Villaraigosa, a message of inclusiveness and leadership — the image could have been from four years ago, when Villaraigosa\’s campaign for mayor energized much of Los Angeles.

But this time, Villaraigosa also got the more votes than the other guy, and then some, scoring an astounding 59 percent, to make incumbent James K. Hahn a one-term mayor.

Under a clear night sky, framed against a canopy of downtown skyscrapers, Villaraigosa projected energy and hope amid cheers that drowned out question marks and rumblings of unease in his very different, second-time run for mayor.

Orthodox Lobbyist in Eye of Ethics Storm

Missions to Israel are a staple of Jewish organizations, but when Pepe Barreto leads a group tour there in August, it\’ll represent something new.

Civil Rights Goes Beyond Ethnic Lines

When the nation\’s largest and oldest Mexican American civil rights group selected a new leader recently, the committee that recruited her included the organization\’s chairman, a man who is neither a Mexican American nor an immigrant. Meet Joe Stern.

The Same Boat

Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros once gave a speech about the tremendous growth of the Latino population in the United States.

Coalition Lesson

Community activist Karen Bass\’ victory in the 47th Assembly District\’s Democratic primary provides a valuable opening for coalition efforts between the Jewish community and a new generation of African American and Latino activists.

The Cost of Latinization

For the most part, Jewish leadership in Los Angeles and elsewhere can be expected to oppose the recall of longtime \”ally\” Gov. Gray Davis and, in a pinch, support his Mini-Me proposed replacement, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (see page 12). \”Go along to get along\” expediency and Pavlovian liberal sympathies provide much of the explanation.

Yet, as is all too often the case, the more pressing, long-term issues will be lost. Not only has Davis presided over a disastrous decline in the state\’s finances and an unprecedented debasing of its political culture. Now he has become handmaiden to the undermining of our most precious principles, the sanctity of citizenship.

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