Maddow on the Brewer Debacle
 

p.s. fact: at 1.33 you actually see her mouth the word *shit*.

I wish one of the reporters had said "Answer the question, Claire!"

Jan Brewer Admits She Was Wrong About Beheadings


PHOENIX — A claim by Arizona's governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who gained national attention defending the state's tough new immigration law and warning of increasing border bloodshed, has spent the time since the gubernatorial candidates' debate earlier this week trying to repair the damage done from her cringe-worthy contest against underdog challenger Terry Goddard.

"That was an error, if I said that," the Republican told The Associated Press on Friday. "I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there's a lot of violence going on and we don't want that going into Arizona."

She said she was referring to beheadings and other cartel-related violence in Mexico in comments she made earlier this summer about decapitated bodies found in the state's southern region.

Brewer's candidacy caught a big break in April, when she signed a controversial new state immigration law that put local police officers on the front lines of enforcing federal immigration law. At the time, Brewer's primary campaign faced serious challenges, but signing the bill cleared her path to what proved to be an easy primary win on Aug. 24.

Brewer stumbled through her opening statement of the debate Wednesday. She lost her train of thought for more than 10 painful seconds as she laughed, looked down at the table and finally regained her composure.
Goddard, who trailed by 20 points in a July poll, said he brought up the beheadings comments because Brewer hadn't acknowledged she was wrong.

"It's a kind of fear-mongering that has hurt our economy. It has driven jobs away," he said. "She wouldn't come off it."

Brewer apparently first referred to beheadings during a June 16 interview with Fox News, talking about "the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings and the fact that people can't feel safe in their community" in discussing controversy surrounding the immigration law.

She went further in a June 27 interview on Phoenix television station KPNX when asked about the earlier beheadings claim.

"Oh, our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," Brewer said.
A veteran Arizona political observer said her latest gaffes may not sway many voters but could put a charge into Goddard's campaign.

"I think it gave him an opening," said Bruce Merrill, a longtime pollster and retired Arizona State University journalism professor.

Goddard can now play the debate clips over and over as he attacks her competence to lead Arizona.

In fact, there have been beheadings in Mexico in violence associated with criminal cartels that include those active in cross-border smuggling.

And some violence has spilled over the border, including the March slaying of a southern Arizona rancher, Robert Krentz. Law enforcement officials have said they believe Krentz was killed by an illegal immigrant, likely a scout for drug smugglers.

But none of the southern Arizona coroners who handle immigrant cases have seen headless bodies.

Pima County's Dr. Eric Peters said some people might be confused when just skulls are sometimes found in the desert, but that's because of decomposition and animals that feed off bodies. He said it'd be clear if any one of those skulls had been severed from a body.

"You would find what we would call tool marks because you need to use some sort of tool to forcibly remove someone's head from the spine," he said. "You'd see saw marks," even on skulls that have long been in the desert.

A Republican legislator who was the prime sponsor of Arizona's immigration law said Brewer's critics were just playing games and ignoring the real issue – violence bleeding across the border into the United States.

"I can tell you there's been 300 to 500 beheadings and dismemberments along that border," state Sen. Russell Pearce said Thursday. "It is a national security concern, yet we're worried about this game-playing, this word-smithing."

U.S. shifts approach to deporting illegal immigrants

To unclog courts, federal officials shift focus to illegal immigrants who've committed serious crimes

...........

The Obama administration is changing the federal immigration enforcement strategy in ways that reduce the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants, even as states such as Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio and Texas are pushing to accelerate deportations.

Full Coverage: Immigration policy in the USA

Among the recent changes:

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton ordered agency officials on Aug. 20 to begin dismissing deportation cases against people who haven't committed serious crimes and have credible immigration applications pending.

• A proposed directive from Morton posted on ICE's website for public comment last month would generally prohibit police from using misdemeanor traffic stops to send people to ICE. Traffic stops have led to increased deportations in recent years, according to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank whose research supports tighter enforcement.

The directive said exceptions would be made in certain cases, such as when immigrants have serious criminal records.

• ICE officers have been told to "exercise discretion" when deciding whether to detain "long-time lawful permanent residents, juveniles, the immediate family members of U.S. citizens, veterans, members of the armed forces and their families, and others with illnesses or special circumstances," ICE executive associate director of management, Daniel Ragsdale, testified July 1 in the administration's lawsuit to block Arizona's controversial immigration law. The law requires police officers to determine the immigration status of suspects stopped for another offense if there was a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the USA illegally. A U.S. district judge has held up the provision pending review.

• A draft memo from ICE's sister agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), to Morton discussed ways the administration could adjust regulations so certain groups, such as college students and the spouses of military personnel, could legalize their status or at least avoid deportation if Congress doesn't pass comprehensive immigration reform. USCIS rules on applications for visas, work permits and citizenship. USCIS spokesman Christopher Bentley said the memo was intended to stimulate brainstorming on how to legalize immigrants if new laws aren't passed.

The administration's new direction puts it at odds with those who believe the nation's immigration laws should be strictly enforced and that all illegal immigrants should be deported.

ICE is "thumbing its nose at the law," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.

The changes have also drawn complaints from immigration advocates. They say deportations under Obama are at record highs and immigrants who remain behind are living in limbo, without work permits, Social Security cards or driver's licenses.

"This isn't a free ticket," said Raed Gonzalez, a Houston attorney who saw cases against his clients dropped last month. "The government can put them back into proceedings at any time."

Morton said in an interview that the new strategy is smarter, not softer, enforcement. At a time when more than 10 million people are in the country illegally, record sums are spent on enforcement and the federal budget faces huge deficits, it makes sense to target people who pose the biggest threat to public safety or national security, he said.

"Congress provides enough money to deport a little less than 400,000 people," Morton said. "My perspective is those 400,000 people shouldn't be the first 400,000 people in the door but rather 400,000 people who reflect some considered government enforcement policy based on a rational set of objectives and priorities."

ICE statistics show that deportations have increased dramatically from 189,000 in 2001 to 387,000 in 2009. Much of the increase results from deportations of people who haven't committed serious crimes, according to TRAC.

This year, however, that trend took a sharp turn, according to an Aug. 12 TRAC report.

The number of criminal immigrants removed by ICE "climbed to an all-time high," the report said. In fiscal 2010, which began Oct. 1, "The removal pace of criminal aliens ... is fully 60% higher than in the last year of the Bush administration, and at least a third (37%) higher than in the first year of the Obama administration."

Jan Brewer still has a job :(

but Raul Grijalva looks to keep his job too. :)

Arizona election results

Raul Grijalva has guts and I hope he keeps his lead when all votes are counted.







U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) talks about Immigration Reform and Indigenous people's rights. Also about the need to recognize the presence and the rights of the Spanish-speaking Native peoples living in the U.S. as undocumented immigrants, and the racist attacks of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona who is supported by DHS Janet Napolitano:



"Desperation is a horrible devil."

- Raul Grijalva

Good for Raul!! I hope that he keeps up the good fight.

Have to post about this.

Got an email today from my oldest grand daughter who will turn 18 in July. her Mom brought home a voter registration card for her to keep on her dresser until she can fill it out and send it in plus booklets about voting rights, etc.

Haley says she is really excited to be able to vote soon so that she can help get rid of "people like that AZ govenor that hates immigrants. Great Grandpa was an immigrant!"

You GO, Haley!!!

Study: Latinos abandoning Arizona

MEXICO CITY — A new study suggests there may be 100,000 fewer Latinos in Arizona than there were before the debate over the state's tough new immigration law earlier this year.BBVA Bancomer Research, which did the study, worked with figures from the U.S. Current Population Survey. The study says the decline could be due to a new law that would allow police to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally, which partly took effect in July. It may also be due to Arizona's difficult economic situation.

The study also cites Mexican government figures as saying 23,380 Mexicans returned from Arizona to Mexico between June and September.

U.S. census figures from 2008 say about 30 percent of people living in Arizona are Latino, or about 1.9 million.

Panelists: Arizona SB 1070 has had profound impact on Native Americans

since the bill became law, racism has become legitimized, and violence against Native peoples "is more blatant than ever." Recently, "tribal members out in the desert chopping wood have been handcuffed and beaten because they didn't have any identification on them," he said. Although the people were on their tribal land, he noted, "somehow the border patrol saw this as a legitimate way to detain people and abuse people violently."

Makes me sick to my stomach. Thia has to be stopped. These are NATIVE Americans!

is this happening here in az? i live here and watch the news daily.. ive heard of no such thing. i also have many native american friends that well most of them like the seperation of themselfs not being clumped in. i dont care for the law much but there are alot of untruths flying around about it.

The article is by Native American spokespeople and stems from a panel of Native Americans as part of a discussion among Native activist leaders. It isn't from a news broadcast depicting one specific news event.

Now, I do remember that Gov. Brewer did take back her initial statements about headless bodies in the desert due to criminal Latino immigrants a couple of months back. That seemed to be a rumor and entirely false. Good she cleared that up.

yes it is good she cleared that up and im thinking the squeeky wheel is the one thats gets heard an that wheel is only a part of a group of wheels.

From the Economist

After SB1070
Adios Arizona

Lots of people are leaving

Nov 25th 2010

ARIZONA has changed a lot since April, when the state passed a tough new law against illegal immigrants. Known as SB1070, and controversial both because it could lead to discrimination against Latinos and because it usurps a federal prerogative, the law has not fully taken effect, and perhaps never will. A federal judge suspended parts of SB1070 in July, and it is now in an appeals court in San Francisco. But life has changed nonetheless.

In downtown Phoenix, usually a tidy and dull place, neo-Nazi supporters of the law recently confronted pro-immigrant demonstrators, and police had to spray tear gas. There are fewer concerts in the state because hundreds of singers and bands have joined in a boycott, called “The Sound Strike”. Business is also down sharply in the state’s convention industry. The Centre for American Progress, a think-tank based in Washington, DC, reckons Arizona has lost $217m in spending by conference visitors and $388m in economic output from cancellations and booking declines in this and the next two years.

Of course the law has had the biggest effect on immigrants, both legal and illegal, and Latinos generally. Researchers at BBVA Bancomer, a Mexican bank, this month estimated that 100,000 Hispanics, mostly of Mexican descent, have already left Arizona, for Mexico or for other states, because of SB1070. This means a lot of upheaval for families and individuals, and for Arizona’s economy. Ethnic Mexicans, whether native or immigrant, are younger on average than Anglos, reducing the average age of greying Arizona’s population. And immigrants pay more in taxes than they send to Mexico in remittances. Above all, they tend to have jobs—on construction sites, in hotels and homes—that do not replace but complement American jobs, according to BBVA Bancomer. A permanent decline in the immigrant population could thus destroy many more jobs than just those of the immigrants.

But Arizonans seem to regard these costs as acceptable, given that most of them continue to support SB1070. This month they re-elected Jan Brewer, the Republican governor who signed the law and was known for little else. Russell Pearce, the author of SB1070, has been chosen as the next president of the state Senate. He wants to follow up with more in the same vein.