Tag: anti immigration
Arizona Republican Warns About ‘Browning Of America’ On Tape

Arizona Republican Warns About ‘Browning Of America’ On Tape

A state senator has come under fire for her comments about immigration at a recent meeting at Arizona’s Republican Party headquarters.

In audio obtained and published by the Phoenix New Times, Republican Sylvia Allen can be heard warning that the United States is “going to look like South American countries very quickly” and sounding alarms about the “browning of America.” She gave the remarks at “Mormon Political Pioneers” held at the headquarters, the Times reported.

“I said we needed to be able to control our immigration process so that we have time to assimilate people into our society and economic system. Jobs, housing, education, and health care,” she said. “Plus to be able to teach them about the American form of government. That’s all there was to it.”

She also made comments that seemed to feed into white nationalist fears about racial minorities “replacing” white people in the United States.

“The median age of a white woman is 43. The median age of a Hispanic woman is 27,” she said. “We are not reproducing ourselves, the birthrates. But here’s what I see is the issue. It’s because of immigration.”

After the remarks were published, she issued an apology.

“Let me start off by sincerely apologizing to anyone who has been hurt by my words. My intent was not to offend the residents of Arizona, but I see the effect was different and I am recognizing that. While I do apologize for the remarks, please let me clarify what I failed to articulate properly during my speech,” she said.

She said her concern about South American immigration is that “some of these countries are socialist and that we must preserve our Constitutional Republic form of government and that we have not taught the next generation the difference.”

Allen also added: “During my speech, I have referenced the presentation titled ‘The Browning of America’ by Dr. James H. Johnson who is a well-respected demographer. I want to make sure the public is aware that those are not my words.”

The Phoenix New Times suggested that Allen’s warnings don’t actually comport with Johnson’s views:

Allen’s interpretation of Johnson’s research does not align with how he presents it in public lectures. In frequent talks to business groups, Dr. Johnson describes the trend of increasing immigration from Hispanic countries as a reality that the U.S. will need to adapt to if it wants to maintain its “competitiveness in the global marketplace.”

In a 2013 lecture to the National Entrepreneur Center in Florida, Johnson disputed the notion that immigrants place a burden on society. He distinguished between the “fiscal impact” of immigrants, such as healthcare and education costs, with the “economic impact,” which factors in the spending power of immigrants and other benefits.

Watch the NowThis clip, which includes the audio of Allen’s comments, below:

 

Trump’s Muslim Ban Creates Chaos, Panic, And Anger Worldwide

Trump’s Muslim Ban Creates Chaos, Panic, And Anger Worldwide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s sweeping ban on people seeking refuge in the United States and visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries caused confusion and panic among travelers on Saturday, with some turned back from U.S.-bound flights.

Immigration lawyers in New York sued to block the order, saying numerous people have already been unlawfully detained.

The new Republican president on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. He said the moves would protect Americans from terrorism, in a swift and stern delivery on a campaign promise.

The bans affects travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The action prompted fury from Arab travelers in the Middle East and North Africa who said it was humiliating and discriminatory. It drew widespread criticism from U.S. Western allies including France and Germany, Arab-American groups, and human rights organizations.

Iran condemned the order as an “open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation” and vowed to retaliate. Of the seven countries targeted, Iran sends the most visitors to the United States each year – around 35,000 in 2015, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The ban extends to green card holders who are authorized to live and work in the United States, according to Gillian Christensen, a Homeland Security spokeswoman.

It was unclear how many green card holders would be affected, but exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis.

LEGAL RESIDENTS STUNNED

Legal residents of the United States were plunged into despair at the prospect of being unable to return to the United States or being separated from family members trapped abroad. Immigration lawyers worked through the night to help stranded travelers and enforcement at entry points was uneven.

“I never thought something like this would happen in America,” said Mohammad Hossein Ziya, 33, who came to the United States in 2011 after being forced to leave Iran for his political activities.

Ziya, who lives in Virginia, has a green card and planned to travel to Dubai next week to see his elderly father. “I can’t go back to Iran, and it’s possible I won’t be able to return here, a place that is like my second country,” he said.

Saleh Taghvaeian, 36, teaches agricultural water management at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, said he feared his wife will not be able to return from Iran after a visit.

“In Iran they’re not being allowed to get on the airplane,” he said.

In Cairo, five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York on Saturday, sources at Cairo airport said. Dutch airline KLM said on Saturday it had refused carriage to the United States to seven passengers from predominately Muslim countries.

At least three lawyers from the International Refugee Assistance Project were at the arrivals lounge at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4, buried in their laptops and conference calls, photocopies of individuals’ U.S. visas on hand.

‘IT’S SCARY’

“Just because Trump signed something at 6 p.m. yesterday, things are coming to a crashing halt,” said Mana Yegani, an immigration lawyer in Houston. “It’s scary.”

She and fellow lawyers worked all night fielding calls from travelers with student and worker visas who were being denied entry into the United States and ordered on flights back to the Muslim-majority countries.

Enforcement of the order was spotty and disorganized.

Travelers were handled differently at different points of entry and immigration lawyers were advising clients to change their destination to the more lenient airports, said Yegani, who works with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The order seeks to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution. In a television interview, Trump said the measure was aimed at helping Christians in Syria.

Some legal experts said that carve-out showed the order was unconstitutional, as it would violate the U.S. right to freedom of religion. But others said the president and U.S. Congress have latitude to choose who receives asylum.

Lawyers from numerous immigration organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of two Iraqi men, one a former U.S. government worker and the other the husband of a former U.S. security contractor.

The two men had visas to enter the United States, but were detained on Friday night at Kennedy airport, hours after Trump’s executive order, the lawsuit said.

Green card holders were also being stopped and questioned for several hours. Officials also denied travelers with dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship from boarding planes in Canada that were headed to the United States, Yegani said.

“These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here,” Yegani said.

Those with visas from Muslim-majority countries have gone through background checks with U.S. authorities, Yegani noted.

Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway reaffirmed the president’s decision in a Twitter post on Saturday.

“@POTUS is a man of action and impact. Promises made, promises kept. Shock to the system. And he’s just getting started,” she tweeted.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Mica Rosenberg, Jonathan Allen and David Ingram in New York and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Mary Milliken)

IMAGE: A woman waits for family to arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, U.S., January 28, 2017.  REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Bigotry And Xenophobia Now Have Free Rein

Bigotry And Xenophobia Now Have Free Rein

President Donald Trump will build a wall along the border with Mexico. You know that’s true because, well, he says it is.

Starting his tenure with a showman’s gifts for displays of authority and action, he signed an executive order calling for the “immediate construction of a physical wall.” Putting still more pressure on undocumented workers, he also signed an order that will make it easy for border enforcement agents to deport those who have not been convicted of any crime.

That’s in keeping with Trump’s campaign pledges, which made xenophobia an art form. He has called Mexicans criminals and rapists, vowed to deport millions, and pledged to ban Muslims from the country.

Among his expected executive orders was one that would ban all Syrian refugees indefinitely. (Shamefully, he was also expected to ban all refugees for 120 days.) As he told ABC News, in yet another brazen misrepresentation of the facts: “It’s going to be very hard to come in. Right now, it’s very easy to come in.”

Those sweeping actions represent not just the prejudices of Trump’s supporters — bigotry to which he proudly panders — but also, likely, his own. In a story on Trump’s lies about massive voter fraud, New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush told of a tale Trump allegedly heard from a friend and repeated to GOP congressional leaders about people in line at a Florida polling place “who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote.” Just let that one sink in.

Indeed, Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was a triumph of racial resentment and fears about demographic change, a primal scream from whites who are anxious about an America that is becoming increasingly diverse. It’s no surprise that so many Trump supporters held aloft signs proclaiming their intent to take their country back.

Economic insecurity no doubt played a role in Trump’s victory; workers at the low end of the wage scale do experience keen competition from illegal laborers, who depress pay a bit, according to research.

But here is a fact — a verifiable truth — that you won’t hear from President Trump: Illegal immigration into this country has plummeted from its highs before the Great Recession. According to the Pew Research Center, a reliable, nonpartisan institution, the number of undocumented workers has fallen every year since 2008.

That makes sense. While some, including minors from violent regions such as Guatemala, have fled war and dangerous gangs, most have come to this country seeking higher wages and more promising futures for their families. When the Great Recession hollowed out those hopes, they returned or simply stayed away.

For years now, more Mexicans without papers have gone back than have entered the United States. In other words, according to Pew, illegal immigration from Mexico is zero overall.

There’s another relevant fact that you won’t hear from Trump, who signed his executive orders with the claim that, “Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders.” In reality, President Barack Obama deported more undocumented workers than all his predecessors combined, angering the immigrant community who depended on him for protection. He sent millions home.

But facts cannot permeate the racial antagonism that propelled Trump to victory. Remember that he introduced himself on the national political stage with a five-year-long smear of Obama’s legitimacy. The premier birther, Trump claimed that Obama was a foreigner, a usurper, a puppet of terrorists. That falsehood had nothing to do with economic insecurity but everything to do with deeply held resentment of the nation’s first black president.

That bigotry now has free rein, and it will rend the civic fabric for years to come. In addition, it tarnishes our image abroad as a beacon of diversity and tolerance. Already, it has damaged our relationship with our neighbor, Mexico.

But for all the xenophobia that Trump encourages, his supporters will be disappointed to learn that white Americans are headed, inexorably, for minority status, based on legal immigration and birth rates. Demographers say that by the year 2045, no ethnic group will account for more than 50 percent of the population.

In other words, it’s not likely that Trump will be able to make America white again.

Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.

IMAGE: Trump supporters celebrate as election returns come in at Donald Trump’s election night rally in Manhattan. REUTERS/Mike Segar