An Open Letter to Sheriff Adrian Garcia

La Raza Justice Movment

July 27, 2010

Honorable Adrian Garcia

Sheriff of Harris County

1200 Baker St

Houston, TX 77002

Dear Sheriff Garcia:

On Tuesday, July 20, 2010I was contacted by someone from the area of 45 and Airtex.  One night prior, at around 9:30 PM, she had been the victim of a home invasion in which her husband was beaten, and many items had been stolen from her.  She contacted me to help her navigate the bureaucracy regarding some follow up information that she had regarding the investigation, and she was aware of my work in human rights and my work with La Raza Justice Movement. 

As this is an open letter, I will not disclose many of the details related to the case.  However, I intend to send a supplement letter with the details.

By Friday, July 23 it became clear that the victim had some new actionable, time-sensitive information.  This information, after several more days, would not be useful.  I was advised by a deputy that the correct procedure would be to have the victim call and request a “supplement,” if an investigator had not yet been assigned.

She did call.  A deputy arrived, and he refused to take a supplement, saying only that it was the investigator’s job.  Mind you, five days later most deputies could not verify whether an investigator had been assigned or not.

That same day, I spoke to Sergeant Haynes.  Understandably, he was unable to release information to a third-party.  He also added that civil rights legislation prevented knee-jerk reaction to new information.  I told him that I, too, was particularly interested in civil rights, but that civil rights should not be used as a way to excuse lax police work.  The new evidence that was being introduced required only routine police work, and hiding behind civil rights legislation is a slap in the face to those of us who have labored for years in the civil and human rights area.

It was not until Monday, July 26^th that an investigator was assigned, and today, Tuesday, this investigator is to meet with the victim.  The backdrop for all of this is a neighborhood which has seen an alarming increase in property crimes over the past several months, and now this, a home invasion.

Sheriff Garcia, there are several problems with either your policy or procedures and their application to this case.  Under no circumstances should it take a week to assign an investigator to a home invasion case.  It would seem that this should be a priority just under homicide.  Further, new, time-sensitive information should not go into a black hole until an investigator is assigned.  Time-sensitive information on a case involving a home invasion should be responded to immediately, regardless of whether an investigator is assigned or not.  When I asked a deputy why it took so long to assign an investigator, the response was that the case load was too heavy.

Sheriff, this is surprising to me, considering that you have chosen to support the implementation of 287(g), the controversial program in which people are deported after having been detained for violations as small as traffic violations.  In a report by 11 News, Lieutenant Michael Lindsay, was quoted as saying: “A lot are saying, ‘Well, you know, you’re deporting somebody for a minor crime.’  They’re not being deported for any crime at all.  They’re being deported because of their status here.”

Sheriff, where are your priorities?  Here I am giving you the case of a lady who has had her loved one abused by criminals in her own home, and you are concerning your self with deporting an average of 1000 people per month, oftentimes for petty offenses, sometimes even college students who failed to stop at a signal.  You should not concern yourself more with making your deportation numbers than with ensuring the peace.  You should not spend so much capital, including your capital with our community, in running such a large deportation operation at the expense of real police work.  Where is your conscience?  Where is the security?  Where is the peace?

Hector A. Chavana Jr

La Raza Justice Movement

CC:      Houston Unidos, La Raza Justice Movement, Media

Good Americans Are Losing Their Homes, “not minorities…defective…useless…wasteful…” Just watch it.

I mean what else can I say or analyze about this video? I guess what pops into my head is that many minority policy reformers never get off of their point of view, that you have to stroke the white ego to get things done. They are the ones with the power, they say. It is true that when something affects whites, something is done about it. Sometimes, however, in running only toward practical reform, these reformer lose the bigger lessons, or don’t want to invest the time in learning the bigger lessons.

Then there is this from Candidate Rand Paul, according to the Huff Post, “Republican Senatorial candidate Rand Paul wants to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s a rather ho-hum proposition in the larger context of conservative ideas — except that Paul wants that fence to be electric and he wants it built underground.”

On CNN Rick Sanchez mused jokingly about the possibility of having to get all those Mexicans to wear the dog collars that would activate the electricity in said fence.

Don’t these libertarians want less government and less spending.  I suppose when ideals can be pushed aside when their cultural privilege is compromised.

Contact the Democratic Solidarity Committee if you have any questions: atx.dsc @ gmail.com

—-
El sábado, 12 de junio, racistas y personas que apoyan a la ley SB 1070 se reunirán en el Capitolio para abogar para una ley similar en Texas. SB 1070 ataca a los inmigrantes y a las minorías y debemos demostrar que resistiremos legislación similar en Texas. ¡Únase con nosotros en solidaridad con aquellos que están resistiendo la ley SB 1070 en Arizona y a través del país!

Comuníquese con el Comité Democrático en Solidaridad si tiene alguna pregunta: atx.dsc @ gmail.com

What she does not reveal is that the bill that she introduced in the last legislative session makes unauthorized presence a crime.  It amends the Texas Penal Code to make unauthorized presence a misdemeanor.

Then it amends the Code of Criminal Procedures so that law enforcement can check the status of anyone that they suspect of being in violation of the above-referenced code.

In other words, if someone is SUSPECTED of being here without papers, their immigration status can be checked without a warrant, and ostensibly detained.

This gives license to any law enforcement officer to detain any person of color for any reason and then claim that they reasonbly suspected us of being undocuemted.

The computerized tests cost nothing extra, and an English-only format might actually cost the state of Alabama more due to federal funding being yanked and the law suits which would result.

Northamerican arrogance always amazes me.  English-only in a country in which english-speakers are the illegal immigrant makes no sense.  Perhaps I would have no problem with English-only in England.

I always take time in the English only debate to point out a few things.  By some measures, the gringo is the most successful immigrant in American history.  The white man did not bother to learn the language when he arrived.  He stuck to his own and built his own society.  If we wish to be successful, why do we follow a learn-the-language philosophy? 

I think that the answer is very complex, but if I were forced to propagandize it into a simple phrase: Our self-esteem is so shot from colonization, that we can only imagine ourselves as wage laborers for the gringo.  With this goal in mind, learning English is the best strategy.

Our call as immigrant workers, families, and youth is for a reform rooted in our dignity and human rights.  We state clearly as low-wage, migrant worker-led organizations across the city and country that our call is NOT for Schumer’s blueprint of immigration reform.  Our message comes after direct consultations with thousands of our members who are undocumented low-wage workers and youth from diverse national and ethnic origins.

The statement generally calls for non-cooperation with liberal, sell-out power brokers, as did Isabel Garcia from Coalicion De Derechos Humanos, at ground zero in Arizona’s quagmire.  The call is for us to push for what we want.  One thing that we want, minimally, is at least as many rights as corporations enjoy in the reform.  I mean a country that wants to pretend to be a democracy can offer that, right?

The Schumer/Graham blueprint clearly says:

For the 11 million immigrants already in this country illegally, we would provide a tough but fair path forward. They would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society by performing community service and paying fines and back taxes.

However, the statement makes no mention of CEOs bowing their head, admitting that they are law-breakers and paying fines. How is it fair to require the people who supply the labor to admit to breaking the law and at the same time allow those supplying the wages to get off with no penalty? So, if the corporations who hired 12 million undocumented workers get economic amnesty for having done so, then we want the same for our workers.

A “fair” approach would be to require the same thing of the employers or to allow “amnesty” for both parties. Not only should corporations match the worker’s penalty dollar for dollar, but there is also a little matter of FICA taxes for employers, which many employers have illegally exempted themselves from by hiring undocumented workers.

So, why do they get a pass? For those of us unwilling to accept the Schumer/Graham blueprint, let’s call it the “corporate amnesty plan.” Let’s use their language against them.

NO to power brokers
NO to taking their scraps
NO to corporate amnesty
Amnesty for people before corporations

As I started looking into the bill, I found that there are many similarities to HR4437. One news outlet noted that simply giving a ride to an undocumented person would be considered a criminal act under the bill. The bill would also turn unauthorized presence into a criminal offense at the state level. Perhaps the most troubling provision, which is more oppressive than anything found in federal HR4437 version, is that any law enforcement officer who has a reasonable suspicion that someone might be undocumented would be legally obligated to request immigration documentation.

The atmosphere that such legislation promotes is similar to the atmosphere that the Nazis created before the mass executions started. Immigration docs are the new Star of David that the Nazis required Jews to have on the lapel. It is nothing short of the creation of an untouchable under-caste and the creation of fear and revulsion of having any association with undocumented humans. After all, associating with “those people” could criminalize you and have consequences on your career, education and future.

One request for help from non-Arizonans that I could find is from Pablo Alvarado,
Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. His e-mail says:

Please take action by going to www.AltoArizona.com to sign a petition urging the bill’s veto. When you sign the list, you will send a message that the nation is unifying in its condemnation of Arizona’s dangerous legislation. You will continue to receive updates on where we will take things, should the bill be signed into law. Please forward this email to 5 people asking them to do the same. We have all fought hard to earn equality for our friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family who currently live and work in the U.S regardless of immigration status. The time is now for full legalization, not criminalization enacted by racist local demagogues. The time is now for the country to come together to urge the federal government to stop immigrant bashing.

You can also go to Presente.org’s site to sign a petition. Many of us in Houston participated in Presente.org’s campaign to get Lou Dobbs off of CNN. It worked. He’s gone.

Stop the Arizona Immigration Bill From Becoming Law. I will continue to look for more ways for those of us outside the state to help our compas in Arizona.

The New York Times posted a cheat sheet on the Healthcare Reform Bill. There is not much analysis, but it gives you a quickie analysis on the main bill and it’s tag along side bill, which were essentially part of the same package.

It is projected that roughly 31 million people who were not covered will now be covered and that 23 million will remain without coverage. Starting in 2014 most United Statesians will be required to have coverage or to pay a penalty.

Last year, I predicted that there would be an employer mandate, after Wal-Mart and SEIU, joined forces to advocate for such. (What a soothsayer, right?). In fact, there is an employer mandate portion, which would require employers with more than fifty people to cover employees, offer vouchers or face a penalty.

The Black Agenda Report characterized the fight between Obama and the right as a charade.

The fifteen month running battle between Obama Democrats and tea party Republicans was never much more real than televised professional wrestling. Like the opposing wrestlers, both sides work for the same bosses, for Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and the biggest medical providers. The real health care fight waged by the Obama administration has not been against Republicans, who never had the votes to stop, let alone dictate or pass anything.

The report goes through a laudry list of the needed reforms which went untouched and outlines the disgusting techniques the Democratic leadership used to force the most well-known elected progressive, Dennis Kucinch, to submit.

As far as the undocumented among us, they are banned from purchasing insurance from the insurance exchange, even if they pay the full price without subsidies. This means that the undocumented will be unable to take advantage of the “group rates” offered by putting people together in pools, even if they could afford the whole cost of the insurance. Mind you, undocumented people pay their fair share of income taxes, whether the right wants to acknowledge it or not. In fact the IRS designated years ago TIN numbers for just that purposes.

The most disappointing thing for those who ever believed in Obama (I don’t count myself as one of them) is the fact that single payer was never really considered and that Obama sold out early on to the pharmaceuticals. Here he is years ago saying that he was in support of a single-payer system. It is not so much that Obama did not get single payer. It’s that he decided early on not to even pursue it.

I realize that an entire essay can be devoted to proving that Obama never pursued it, but I would rather focus on what that means to those of us in the CIR battle.

Follow the logic: Obama said he would push for CIR in his first year. He didn’t. He said he wanted single payer, but he didn’t push for it. His position seems to be, “do what is possible in a bi-partisan manner, rather than pushing the people to believe in new concepts”. He pretty much let the tone of the policy be set entirely by Congress, and this healthcare bill is what we got out of it.

Now, when it comes to CIR, the debate will undoubtedly be over what legal status should be granted to our undocumented compas: guest workers or path to legalization. One advantage that CIR proponents have erroneously touted is support from big business. We all know that they have no stake in whether our people have guest worker status or a path to full citizenship. It is easy to predict that big business will easily fold on this issue. They only have an interest in whether employers will have to deal with ICE, and could not care less about the choices that our people should have the right to make.

The moderate to conservative crowd will be split between a very loud and organized deport-them-all minority and those who are ok with granting a temporary worker status.

Considering that the moderate to conservative bloc along with big business will average out to a push for a guest worker program, the powers that be will only have one opponent left—us, those of us who marched one million strong in LA, a quarter million strong in Dallas and fifty-thousand strong in Houston.

They will make the appearance of trying to entice us, but in reality all they will need to do is split us in order to dilute our power. They will need to dangle something in order for half of us to go along.

That thing that they dangle will be the DREAM provisions of CIR. The DREAM Act is a proposal which offers easier pathways to people who migrated as children and who had no choice to come with or without papers, being that they were minors when they came. This “act” has been lumped together with comprehensive reform in the Gutierrez bill.

They will do what they always do in order to pacify us: dangle our children in front of us to see if we will break. The offer will be: we won’t grant your masses the civil rights accorded to citizens(we just need your hands to work pay taxes), but we will legalize some of your children (perhaps soldiers and college grads, maybe workers too, maybe not). They will call it a compromise and a good deal, and seeing the way that Obama worked out healthcare, this is a deal that he will be willing to strike, without lifting a finger to push for so-called legalization for all working people.

Those of us fighting for CIR must be prepared to deal with this on a personal level. We, as organizers, activists and leaders must know on an individual level whether we will accept this compromise or not. We must also be prepared for the disagreements this is likely to cause within our orgs and coalitions.

I am proposing that those who are unwilling to trade full legalization for the DREAM provisions create a strong coalition across state lines and that we draw a line in the sand.  At a minimum, we should have a conference call on the subject.  Please contact me at hectorchavanajr at aol.com if interested.  You can see my blog at OurNewAnahuac.net for other ways to contact me.

For a full vision of what I believe the reform should accomplish, listen to my talk, posted at:

http://www.ournewanahuac.net/la-reforma-migratoria-discurso-en-espanol/2010/03/26/

A poem to honor him:

The Consecration Of Coffee

                                to Archbishop Oscar A. Romero

                   One day of god
                  drinking coffee in my patio
                     nothing is normal –
                            not the calla
                           with its penis of gold
                          nor the iris
                            like purple lava
                                a volcano spills.
                       I find in the depths of the cup
                chasubles embroidered
                   with black moths
                        & red stains –
                        the sun fires
                           a scintillation of silver bullets
                               & of candles drowned -
                                  there is blood in its shine.
                    I place the cup on its saucer
                   with a most tender care
                as if it were a chalice
                & say the litany:
                                       Guatemala
                                       Nicaragua
                                       El Salvador
                     & one side of my heart
                  tastes white & sweet
                    like cane sugar
                        & the other,
                                    like coffee,
                                            bitter & black.

                                © Rafael Jesús González 2010