El Paso Politics

Most Republicans that I know have been doing their best to run as far away from the Arizona law as they can. Some like David K are totally star-crossed in love with the idea. The Tea Party locally hasn't touched the issue, but now they can't run from it. This is the Republican member of congress in his own words.

I know, I know, you guys hate when I use foul language. I promise, I'm not gonna do that this time. She is:

This was apparently set out to the entire world via email, but in case you haven't seen it yet, here is the proposal from Jaime O. Perez, the Chief of Staff for County Judge Anthony Cobos: TEXAS IMMIGRATION BILL To: County Legislative Agenda From: Jaime O. Perez, Chief of Staff Office of El Paso County Judge Date: April 27, 2010 Re: Reform Legislation Whereas: The Supremacy Clause under Article VI Paragraph 2 holds, “the Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding”; Whereas: Everyone must follow federal law in the face of conflicting state law and the practice has long been established that "a state statute is void to the extent that it actu...

I can't improve on what Chuck D said back in the day with his song called "By the Time I Get to Arizona", which was protesting Arizona's lack of a MLK Day. But apparently Chuck D can improve on his own words. Check out Chuck D's new song on the law in Arizona.

If you listen to the rhetoric regarding the legislation in Arizona one thing is clear, the Republicans have their talking points ready. The first thing they do is try to push it off on the federal government, mostly because there is a Democrat in the White House and the Democrats control Congress. Never mind the obvious fact that there was a problem with immigration issues long before Obama was inaugurated. Funny how during the Bush administration the Arizona legislature didn’t pull a stunt like this. But since we are on the topic of President Bush, let’s talk more about the Republicans. I’ve heard Senator Cornyn and Lt. Gov Dewhurst talk about how the Arizona legislation represents a failure at the federal level to deal with the problem with immigration reform. The failure to address the problem is from Republicans. Mitch McConnell, a Republican Senator, said earlier this week that “This isn’t the right time to do immigration reform.” Sounds like a Republican that doesn’t want to deal...

If you are a Latino elected official, let me be clear. Yes, I am talking about you! This is the second year in a row that I went to the Cesar Chavez march and didn’t see a single Latino elected official in attendance. Not one. Now I’m sure you will all have stories about why you couldn’t go ranging from “I was out of town”, to “I had a prior commitment” to my personal favorite, “it wasn’t on my calendar”. It pissed me off last year when there weren’t any in attendance, but it infuriates me this year, especially considering that the day before was the day that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the controversial anti-immigrant legislation in to law. This was the perfect opportunity for our Latino leadership to send a clear message to Arizona. But none were in attendance. It’s frustrating to hear campaign rhetoric from these people about how they “need” our help when they are trying to get elected. But when we truly need their voice, they aren’t around. This is the reason why people don...