NDN Blog

While there have been zero actual arrests of undocumented immigrants as a result of Arizona's anti-immigrant legislation SB1070, a new study shows that it has succesfully driven thousands of legal, working, tax paying, Hispanics out of the state

Arizona Fox 11 has a the full story HERE:

What impact did SB 1070 have on Arizona's Hispanic population? One Mexican bank is out with a study claiming Hispanics have fled the state by the thousands.

Call it fear of SB 1070 or a plummeting Arizona economy, It's not clear exactly why Hispanics are leaving the state, But the reality is they are.

"They may be cheering, but this is not a good thing for Arizona," said Kat Rodriguez with Derechos Humanos.

It is important to note, that while the study is inconclusive as to whether or not Hispanic's are leaving the state because of SB1070, or because of the Economy, the loss of revenue from a sizable portion of the population will effect the bottom line of everyone as people in the state struggle to get back on fiscally sound footing.

According to the study facilitated by the Mexican Bank, BBVA Bancomer Research, the Mexican government has tallied 23,380 people have left Airzona and come back to Mexico. This could have dire effects on the economy in Arizona:

Fewer Hispanics in the state could actually hurt the economy.  A study released by the Arizona chamber of commerce says Latino buying power is expected to boom.

The Tucson Hispanic chamber of commerce says the impact of Latinos is clear. Despite an economic downturn across the state, Latino-owned businesses are expanding.

Incidently Sabrina Tavernise, of the New York Times  has written about a similar situation occuring in Virginia, please read that here.  The full Fox News 11 Arizona report is below:

A new CNN poll out today reports the following:

Forty-nine percent of people questioned in the poll say the tax cuts should be extended for families making less than $250,000 a year, with another 15 percent saying the cuts should not be extended for anyone. That leaves 35 percent who favor an extension of the tax cuts for all Americans regardless of how much money they make.

Providing tax cuts at this point for wealthy Americans simply makes no sense.  It isnt politically popular, isnt economically smart, and perhaps more than anything else, I can't really believe the Republican Party, so concerned about the deficit, want the country to borrow $700b from foreign countries to fund tax cuts for those who don't need it. 

Passing just the tax cuts for the middle class makes a lot of sense.  Would help provide a break to those struggling the most today. Will not hurt the economy.  Is popular with the American people.  

I have joined the camp that says the Democrats should draw a line in the sand on this one.  Let the Republicans make their case, and expose for all to see their lack of seriousness about deficit reduction, and their top-down approach to economics.  I think this is a fight worth having.

Two long time NDN contributors have written thoughtful analysis on the 2010 Midterm Elections.

Fernand Amandi, Executive Vice President of Bendixen and Amandi, has written a thoughtful analysis on how the Hispanic vote effected the elections in Florida:

The diversity, complexity and competitiveness of Florida politics makes this state a perfect laboratory to study voter attitudes and campaign strategies, making Florida's experience a microcosm of not only the national experience but also a leading indicator of the nation's political future. So what did we learn? True, conservative voters turned out in higher proportions than progressives, motivated by a variety of factors from the poor state of the economy to a perception of runaway spending and a general response to increased government intrusion into daily life.

I highly recommend checking out this on the ground reporting from what will be a contentious swing state in 2010. You can read this piece in full here.

Maria Cardona, principal at the Dewey Square Group has also written a great piece on the Hispanic vote and the 2010 Mid-Terms nationally:

Nov. 2 was a victory for Latinos. In several key contests, including those in California, Nevada and Colorado, the Latino vote was decisive for Democrats. And Republicans have themselves to blame for this. Many Republican candidates ran terrible ads against Latino immigrants. Those ads were effective, all right. Coupled with the new anti-immigrant law in Arizona and Republicans efforts to duplicate it in several states, the ads drove Latinos to the polls - but to vote for Democrats. Immigration is not the top issue for Latinos. The economy and jobs still top our concerns, especially with an unemployment rate at 12.6 percent for Latinos, as compared with 9.6 percent for the population overall.

You can read Maria Cardona's full editorial here

In the most recent New York Times Sunday Magazine, former Bush speechwriter David Frum puts together five "positive and productive" lessons for conservatives to act "effectively and responsibly." A sample: 

Lesson 1: The danger of closed information systems. Well before the crash of 2008, the U.S. economy was sending ominous warning signals. Median incomes were stagnating. Home prices rose beyond their rental values. Consumer indebtedness was soaring. Instead, conservatives preferred to focus on positive signals — job numbers, for example — to describe the Bush economy as “the greatest story never told.”

Too often, conservatives dupe themselves. They wrap themselves in closed information systems based upon pretend information. In this closed information system, banks can collapse without injuring the rest of the economy, tax cuts always pay for themselves and Congressional earmarks cause the federal budget deficit. Even the market collapse has not shaken some conservatives out of their closed information system. It enfolded them more closely within it. This is how to understand the Glenn Beck phenomenon. Every day, Beck offers alternative knowledge — an alternative history of the United States and the world, an alternative system of economics, an alternative reality. As corporate profits soar, the closed information system insists that the free-enterprise system is under assault. As prices slump, we are warned of imminent hyperinflation. As black Americans are crushed under Depression-level unemployment, the administration’s policies are condemned by some conservatives as an outburst of Kenyan racial revenge against the white overlord....

Lesson 2: “The market” (the whole free-market system) must be distinguished from “the markets” (the trading markets for financial assets)....

Lesson 3: The economy is more important than the budget.... 

Lesson 4: Even from a conservative point of view, the welfare state is not all bad....

Lesson 5: Listen to the people — but beware of populism.... 

The irony of this piece appearing in The New York Times aside, it's a strong list. I'll just pray that it goes directly from Frum's lips to John Boehner's ears.

Today, Sen. Robert Menendez, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Rep. Luis Gutierrez will meet with President Barack Obama to discuss ways of passing comprehensive immigration reform or the DREAM Act in a lame duck session

Simmi Aujla of The Politico has the full story HERE:

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will meet with President Barack Obama Tuesday afternoon to talk about the chances of getting comprehensive immigration reform or the DREAM Act passed in the lame duck session, a House Democratic source said.

Senator Menendez indicated on a conferecne call with immigration activists that the white House was interested in moving some form of immigration legislation:

Menendez said on a conference call with reporters Monday that the White House is “ready and willing” to talk about immigration.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have both indicated that the would be willing to bring the legislation up for a vote between now and when the Congress goes out of session at the end of the year.

A bit of good news coming out of California, as the state Supreme Court has upheld Assembly Bill 540, a law that gives in state tuition to immigrants in the country without documentation provided they have completed high school in the state.

Laurel Rosenhall, of the Sacramento Bee has more HERE: 

California's public colleges and universities can continue charging in-state tuition to students who have graduated from the state's high schools but are in the United States illegally, the state's Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a unanimous decision written by Ming Chin, one of the court's more conservative justices, the Supreme Court upheld a state law, known as Assembly Bill 540, that allows students – regardless of their immigration status – to pay the lower in-state rate at public colleges as long as they attended California high schools for at least three years and graduated.

The prosecutor on the case has said that he intends to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.

This case is significant for several reasons, as momentum builds to give The DREAM Act an up and down vote in lame duck session of Congress, AB 540 may present an alternative to the passage of the DREAM Act this year.

The unanimous decision by the state Supreme Court is important because it notes that the AB 540 works within already existing federal laws. According to  Thomas Saenz, President and
General Counsel of The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund:

....The California Supreme Court concluded that California's tuition waiver met the requirements established by federal law to allow the State to provide a post-secondary education tuition waiver to graduates of California high schools, including undocumented students, who have proven ties to the State. Such ties includes the payment of taxes to the State. In its decision, the Court explained that, even though the federal government has established some restrictions on state power, states retain the power to enable undocumented students to have meaningful access to college education.

While it is necessary to push as hard as possible to pass DREAM Act now in Congress, AB 540 presents the flip side of anti-immigrant state passed laws such as SB1070 and presents an opportunity for other states to attempt to do the same in the future.

Which is not to say, that this case does not also speak to the broader problem of not passing comprehensive immigration legislation soon. In the absence of a unifying federal solution states, for better or worse will continue to pass a patchwork of legislation that will continue to cause controversy and lawsuits. 

Rep. Lincoln Diaz Balart, a retiring Republican Congressman from Florida, has sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urging her to bring the DREAM Act up for a vote in the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.

Catalina Carnia of The USA Today has the full story here:

The prospects for considering what is known as the DREAM Act are slim, however, as Congress begins its lame-duck session focused on what to do about tax cuts set to expire and how to fund the government.

"These deserving students are being punished for decisions not made by them, but by their parents," Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., says in a letter to Pelosi.

In a bit of a twist, GOP strategists are conceding that Hispanic's saved Democrats from sustaining heavier loses in the midterms. Under this rationale, GOP strategists are floating the idea that Democrats in turn should do everything in their power to pass immigration related issues.

GOP political strategist Ana Navarro told USA TODAY's Alan Gomez and other reporters recently that some Democrats were saved by the Hispanic vote in the midterm elections -- and need to respond accordingly.

"Harry Reid owes his political life to the Latinos in Nevada and, in my view, he owes a debt," Navarro told Alan.

A post-election analysis by the Pew Research Center found Latino voters preferred Democrats over Republicans, 64% to 34%. In Nevada, Reid -- the Senate majority leader -- was preferred over GOP nominee Sharron Angle by more than a two-to-one ratio.

This new GOP tactic seems somewhat disingenious as it has consistently been the GOP that has killed any forward movement on the DREAM Act or any other immigration related measure, when there was a procedural vote to even move to a vote on the DREAM Act in the Senate, not a single GOP member voted in favor of moving forward.

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, is skeptical that Republican members of Congress are serious about passing the DREAM Act, or any other immigration legislation that may address the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently here:

Asked whether legislation that addresses security as well as citizenship issues will make its way through a new Congress, Grijalva told Univision this weekend, "I doubt it."

"Most of the extremists who will be part of this majority in the House, their campaigns' whole focus was that they don't want immigration reform and they just want to deal with the security issue," said Grijalva, who narrowly won re-election this month.

Seems to be a bit of talking out of both sides of the mouth, on an issue that is incredibly important to not just the Hispanic, community but also the military and the country as a whole.

A Neo Nazi organization nearly incited a riot on Saturday in Arizona. The Members of the White-supremacist National Socialist Movement held a rally to show support for Arizona's anti immigration law SB1070.

Connie Cone Sexton of the Arizona Republic has more HERE:

Two people were arrested Saturday afternoon for throwing rocks as a neo-Nazi group marched to the federal courthouse in Phoenix, police said.

Several people received minor injuries, including some police officers and members of the National Socialist Movement, said Phoenix Sgt. Tommy Thompson. The group, which was marching down Jefferson Street toward the court house, was blocked several times by protesters who were marching the opposite direction. At one point, a canister of tear gas was thrown to break up the protesters but it did little to deter them.

Many people who support SB1070, contend that it does not lead to racial profiling. Yet the fact remains that some of the most vocal supporters of the legislations have been affiliated with White Supremacist groups. While it is not a direct correlation, it is necessary to understand that there is a perception among those who dislike minorities, that this legislation will somehow affect Hispanic's in the state disproportionately.

The organization has a history of including members who have colorful criminal histories. According to the Anti Defamation League:

In December 2008, Paul Paletti, the NSM's Wisconsin Membership Director, pleaded guilty to battery, resisting arrest, and obstructing police in state court in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The December 20, 2008, plea agreement requires Paletti to pay $1,713 in fines and to serve two years probation, during which time he is forbidden from engaging in any white supremacist activities.

Video from the near riot is below:

Yesterday evening something shocking occurred at the Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey as the New York Giants faced off against the Dallas Cowboys.  It wasn't just the fact that the Cowboys, 1-7 before the game upset the  Giants who had won their last five games.  Rather, it was that that the stadium experienced two separate blackouts totaling about twelve minutes. 

When the stadium went black in the midst of a Giants possession, players reportedly hit the ground while fans in the pitchblack dome held friends and family hands and flipped out cell phones for light.  The lights came back.  However, the failure of power at a major televised sporting event bears some comment.

The Giants released a stadium afterwards that the first outage of certain lights occurred when one feeder line into the stadium failed.  A second feeder took over but then failed a few minutes later, leading to the total blackout.  Eventually the first feeder was restored allowing the game to continue.  The Meadowlands has received publicity for installing a large solar energy array that meets about half its daytime needs.  This energy used during the day, however, did not come into play during last night's outage.

While accidents happen and the 82,000 fans in the stadium last night didn't panic, a blackout at an NFL game is not a good thing and frankly shouldn't happen in a first world country.  (Tellingly, to rationalize it, all Giants co-owner Steve Tisch could say was "we have all experienced blackkouts in our homes.")  It is one more reason that America needs to update its outdated network to Electricity 2.0.

What might have prevented last night's blackout?  Onsite storage, a smarter grid to rapidly sense problems before they occur and dispatch power accordingly and greater backup capacity--all elements of Electricity 2.0 that increase reliability and network resilience, might have avoided it.  How to get those elements in place?  Open up the network to new technologies and capital.

Last week, NDN hosted an event on microgrids and localized power generation with industry leaders.  Could a microgrid have helped avoid this outage?  By themselves, islanded microgrids do not improve reliablity over the wider network.  However in combination with grid backup they dramatically improve it.  Sports complexes like military sites, univerities, corporate campuses and real estate developments are ideal candidats for microgrid and cogeneration technologies.  However, we need to put in place the policies that can enable them: policies that our panelists identified such as allowing private electricity tielines, switching to outcome-based pollution standards, driving the development of microgrids at DOD installations and the removal of barriers to microgrid-grid connections.