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Arizona gov. signs bill targeting ethnic studies
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Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks .Print .. AP – FILE - In this Monday, April 20, 2009 file photo, Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer listens to a question … .By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writer Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 12, 6:23 am ET
PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.

State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for years, said he believes the Tucson school district's Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people.

Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race, he said.

"It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it," Horne said.

Brewer's signature on the bill Tuesday comes less than a month after she signed the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration — a move that ignited international backlash amid charges the measure would encourage racial profiling of Hispanics. The governor has said profiling will not be tolerated.

The measure signed Tuesday prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.

The Tucson Unified School District program offers specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group.

For example, in the Mexican-American Studies program, an American history course explores the role of Hispanics in the Vietnam War, and a literature course emphasizes Latino authors.

Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, said the program promotes "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race. He's been trying to restrict it ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta told students in 2006 that "Republicans hate Latinos."

District officials said the program doesn't promote resentment, and they believe it would comply with the new law.

The measure doesn't prohibit classes that teach about the history of a particular ethnic group, as long as the course is open to all students and doesn't promote ethnic solidarity or resentment.

About 1,500 students at six high schools are enrolled in the Tucson district's program. Elementary and middle school students also are exposed to the ethnic studies curriculum. The district is 56 percent Hispanic, with nearly 31,000 Latino students.

Sean Arce, director of the district's Mexican-American Studies program, said last month that students perform better in school if they see in the curriculum people who look like them.

"It's a highly engaging program that we have, and it's unfortunate that the state Legislature would go so far as to censor these classes," he said.

Six UN human rights experts released a statement earlier Tuesday saying all people have the right to learn about their own cultural and linguistic heritage, they said.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman didn't directly address the UN criticism, but said Brewer supports the bill's goal.

"The governor believes ... public school students should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people," Senseman said.

Arce could not immediately be reached after Brewer signed the bill late Tuesday.

I believe in the goal of this bill....which is to desgregate. It is not an attempt to prohibit the learning of any ethnic history....but trying to prevent the further division caused by those who use these classes as a means to segregate that ethnicity...even if they think they are doing it in a positive way..ie. pride in ones ancestoral beginnings...In the end they are creating a them vs us scenario....and that really isn't a good thing. I mean if you think about it it is kind of ironic and sad.....We keep telling our children that skin tone doesn't matter and then the first thing we do is shove them in to a racial segregation training program(may not be the intent of the class but many times the result and reality)????

not so sure the bill or law was the best way to go about it tho...It seems a little intrusive and difficult to enforce....not to mention a bit subjective as to when it is just a history course and when it turns in to an ethnic solidarity class...

I suppose anything excepting the caucasion role in anything is acceptable.

You learn your heritage from your family as you do faith, values and how you conduct yourself day in and day out.

We're on a road to some nasty times in this country...

I"m not sure what the fuss is all about..

I'm Italian American.. I was born in the USA and so were my parents but all my grandparents came from the "old country". We were taught Italian customs by our parents and grandparents.

But we were also taught by our Grandparents that we were American first and foremost..

I guess I don't get the need for all these different studies. Mexican American, Native American, African American...

Really, there is only one word that matters right... American!

Oh well, I don't suppose I'll ever understand this stuff...

What ever happened to people coming to this country to be Americans? I'm 5th generation German/American. I would never fly a German flag higher than an American flag, but I still keep a pickle ornament on my Christmas tree. I have no problem with people celebrating their roots or learning about their history. I've been to German festivals, eaten pickles, pretzels with mustard, and washed my schnitzel down with a warm beer. I know that my family came here to become Americans, not to get special treatment for not being an American. That's all I ask of any immigrant. If you come here, become an American.

I'm an American.

While my forefathers came here from another country, they were here and fighting in the revolutionary war for the independence of this great nation. So I claim only the heritage they fought for me to have, as an American. That's all I am and all I want to be.

No hyphens for me...

Good.

I'm thinking that I might need to move to Arizona.

Ohio sucks more by the day, and Arizona has made two moves in as many weeks that I can actually agree with while Ohio hasn't made one in recent memory.

I think that when the United Nations stops putting terrorist states on commissions like human rights, or countries like Iran on woman's rights I might actually give a crap about what they have to say...Well not really since it is corrupt to the core. I really wish we would export all the jobs of people that work in the UN. Maybe send them to a fine country like Saudi Arabia?

The thread on immigration laws in Arizona is locked and the ethics law debate seems to not be all that interesting so I'll put this here... the Obama adminisration at work.. sort of.

Holder Admits to Not Reading Arizona's Immigration Law Despite Criticizing It
Updated May 14, 2010
FOXNews.com

Despite repeatedly voicing concerns about Arizona's new immigration enforcement law in recent weeks and threatening to challenge it, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he has not yet read the law -- which is only 10 pages long.

"I have not had a chance to -- I've glanced at it," Holder said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing when asked by Rep.Ted Poe, R-Texas whether Holder has read the state law cracking down on illegal immigrants.

"I'll give you my copy of it if you would like," Poe responded.

Holder told reporters last month that he fears the new law is subject to abuse and that the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department are in the midst of conducting a review.

The Arizona law requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.

The law has sparked protests across the country, including a City Council-approved boycott of Arizona businesses by Los Angeles.But proponents deny that the law encourages racial profiling, with some saying the local controversy is a symptom of a broken federal immigration system.

However, varying public opinion polls show 60-70 percent of Americans support the law.

Holder said last month that a number of options are under consideration, including the possibility of a court challenge.

On Thursday, Holder said he plans to read the law before reaching a decision on whether he thinks it's constitutional.

When asked by Poe how he could have constitutional concerns about a law he has not read, Holder said: "Well, what I've said is that I've not made up my mind. I've only made the comments that I've made on the basis of things that I've been able to glean by reading newspaper accounts, obviously, television, talking to people who are on the review panel...looking at the law."

On Sunday, Holder said he does not think Arizona's law is racially motivated but voiced concern that its enforcement could lead to racial profiling.

Holder said he understands the frustration behind the Arizona law, but he warned during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" that "we could potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done."

web page

I know that none of them have time to read a 3000 page bill that is going to reshape and ultimately destroy our economy.. but evidently they can't even read the 10 page bills either before they reach a conclusion.

If anyone can correct me - stop me anytime if i am wrong - please !!!!

If you cross the north korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labor.

If you cross the iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the saudi arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.

If you cross the venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.

If you cross the cuban border illegally you will be thrown into political prison to rot.

If you cross the u.s. Border illegally you get:

1 - a job,
2 - a drivers license,
3 - social security card,
4 - welfare,
5 - food stamps,
6 - credit cards
7 - subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house,
8 - free education,
9 - free health care,
10 - a lobbyist in washington
11 - billions of dollars worth of public documents printed in your language
12 - and the right to carry your country's flag while you protest that you don't get enough respect.

I just wanted to make sure i had a firm grasp on the situation.

That's just frightening.

Of course, if our representatives are just voting for/against stuff without reading even the simplest of measures, it does make the past 40 or so years make perfect sense .....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-kobach-arizona-20100513,0,6646845.story?page=1

A voice for Arizona's immigration law
Law professor Kris Kobach is a popular defender of the state's strict new immigration law, which he helped write. Both the law and Kobach are targets of public outcry.
1 2 next | single page
Law professor Kris Kobach at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. (Don Ipock / For The Times)


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XFirst lawsuits filed to challenge Arizona illegal-immigrant law By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

May 13, 2010
E-mail Print Share Text Size la-na-kobach-arizona-20100513

Reporting from Kansas City
Hundreds of miles from Arizona, law professor Kris Kobach leaned back in his chair at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, took a sip of coffee out of a Justice Department mug, and calmly defended the controversial immigration law he helped write.

At 9 a.m. this Tuesday, he is on hold with a radio station in Tucson and in an interview with another in St. Louis. He has three more lined up.

Since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law late last month, Arizona has become ground zero in the debate over illegal immigration. Senate Bill 1070, which has prompted protests, boycotts and lawsuits, makes it a state crime to lack immigration papers and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally. President Obama called it misguided and warned that it could lead to racial profiling.


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Kobach said the law actually discourages racial profiling and only kicks in when someone violates another law.

"If they are running down the street with a pistol in one hand and a bag of money in the other and someone screaming, 'Bring back my money,' then the police officer can stop them," he said. "But just walking down the street, of course not."

In the last few weeks, Kobach has been contacted by legislators from around the country seeking his advice and has been interviewed on local and national radio and television programs more than 50 times. A national survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 59% of adults polled supported the Arizona law.

Kobach, 44, is an Ivy League-educated, outspoken advocate for the movement to fight illegal immigration and the go-to guy for cities and states looking to pass laws against it. He is counsel on nine ongoing cases around the country, including in California, targeting sanctuary cities and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and defending the right of cities to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants and employers from hiring them.

Kobach said he is motivated by a desire to "restore the rule of law" in immigration and to show that states and cities can do their part to help the federal government with enforcement.

"People act like the law can't be followed in immigration," he said. "I take it as a challenge to show that it can."

His opponents say that the laws Kobach writes and defends promote discrimination.

"At the end of the day, his involvement has been costly and the laws that he has supported have been divisive," said Omar Jadwat, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has appeared opposite Kobach in courts in Pennsylvania, Texas and Missouri. "They distract and divert the resources of these towns and cities into hugely controversial and expensive sideshows that benefit only him."

Just before 7 p.m. on a recent weeknight, Kobach pulled up to the Community Center in Lansing, Kan., in a GMC Sierra with the license plate "1787," the year the U.S. Constitution was adopted. Inside, the recent college graduate running Kobach's campaign for Kansas secretary of state handed out stickers and lawn signs.

Kobach stood in front of an American flag and told a crowd gathered for the Republican town hall meeting that Arizona had long been under siege by kidnappers, drug dealers and human smugglers from other countries and that something had to be done. When he described the gun battle that resulted in the recent shooting of a sheriff's deputy, the audience gasped. When he talked about the state's efforts to make life miserable for illegal immigrants so they will return to their native countries, they applauded.

"It's not rocket science," he said. "You ratchet up the level of enforcement so people leave on their own."

After the speech, several people lined up to shake Kobach's hand. Among them was Dennis Bixby, whose 19-year-old daughter was killed in 2007 after an illegal immigrant without a driver's license ran a stop sign.

"He gets it," Bixby said of Kobach. "He's willing to fight the fight."

Leavenworth County Republican Party Chairman John Bradford said that if Kobach is speaking, people show up. "People love him," he said. "Finally there is somebody stepping up and doing something about [illegal immigration]."

Kobach said that adding "rhetorical flourishes" on TV is entertaining, but in court he sticks to the legal arguments.

"It's about threading the legal needle and making sure that it all stands up in court," he said.

Judges often have the final say on the constitutionality of restrictive immigration laws. In California, the federal courts struck down Proposition 187, which sought to deny public education and benefits to illegal immigrants, as an attempt to usurp federal responsibility.


In Kobach's cases, the decisions have been mixed. He lost cases in Texas and Pennsylvania, where cities sought to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. Kobach appealed and both cases are still pending. He won a case in California, where he argued that the state could not offer discounted tuition to illegal immigrants while not offering the same to students from outside California. That case is pending in the state Supreme Court.

In Arizona, Kobach helped state Sen. Russell Pearce draft a 2007 bill that required all businesses to use an electronic employment verification system. Kobach said Pearce asked him to help write the new immigration law.

Kobach defended the employer law and said he is confident that the current law will sustain legal challenges too. "It was drafted to withstand every legal argument that can be thrown at it," he said. "It's built like a tank."

Raised in Kansas, Kobach attended Harvard College and Yale Law School and earned a doctorate from Oxford University. In 2001, just before Sept. 11, he began working under Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, an experience that he said made him keenly interested in immigration and the crucial link between immigration policy and national security. Before the attacks, several of the hijackers had been stopped by local police for traffic violations. "We had a missed opportunity of tragic dimensions," he said. Kobach helped create a registration program designed to catch potential terrorists from Middle Eastern countries.


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Hamid Khan, executive director of the South Asian Network in Artesia, said the registration policy created a lot of fear and resulted in the deportation of many people without terrorist links. "It became a clear reminder of how communities are criminalized and how race and racial identity are how people get identified," he said.

Kobach, an avid hunter and rower, began teaching at the University of Missouri Law School in 1996 and now teaches several classes, including constitutional law and immigration law. His office is decorated with framed photographs of his family and of himself with President George W. Bush, along with stacks of legal textbooks and court documents and a talking George Washington doll.

Jennifer Kerr, a student in his immigration class who agrees with her professor's beliefs, said Kobach encouraged students to engage in "spirited debate" about the issue.

"People in the class had different opinions," she said. "They were all over the spectrum. Some vehemently opposed him."

The professor in the office next door, Douglas Linder, disagrees with Kobach on most everything — from the interpretation of the Constitution to immigration policy. Linder said he believes the Arizona law violates the Constitution, will result in racial profiling and threatens the relationship between local police officers and community members.

"In all the debates we've had, I'm not sure I've ever been successful convincing him he's wrong about anything," Linder said. "He has very strong opinions."

Kobach's wife, Heather, said she agrees with her husband's politics but that his immigration work has taken a toll on her. When opponents call him racist, she gets offended and feels like a "nervous wreck."

"I think of him as a soldier," she said. "He gets attacked all the time. He continues to do it because he believes in it."

One might say that Holder "acted stupidly" in his rush to judgement. Next up? A beer summit.

The King and his court are most-wiling to speak and act before they think. That is not a good trait of leadership.

In the Kagan thread I jokingly said that I knew I wouldn't like her, I just needed to figure out why... and I was summarily blasted by mac for my rush to judgment without the facts...

Now that Obama's chosen Attorney General, the highest ranking law enforcement official in the land, has admitted, in a not-so-joking way, that he approaches law the same way, let's see who will defend him.... He doesn't like it, he is considering challenging it.. but he hasn't read it. Brilliant.

Well it is hard to form an opinion when facts get in the mix you know.

The immigration problem is a problem of greed.

If greedy punks wouldn't hire illegal immigrants---then they couldn't get jobs.

But then the greedy punks would actually have to pay a decent wage to American citizens.

If America ended its STOOPID War on Drugs---then Mexico would cease being a warzone. And legitimizing the drug trade would provide many latin American countries with a proven commodity that is heavily sought after across the globe.

The immigration problem has to do with greedy people who want cheap labor, and America keeping some of the most valuable Latin American resources illegal.

Of course, America will never admit this. Instead, America will enact more laws----thats the answer. Nevermind that laws are on the books already to remove illegals from the country----we need more.

This country has a bunch of screwed-up policies that keep the immigrants flowing into the country. And there is an abundance of greedy pieces of garbage that want cheap labor--so they can sell cheap product, so that America can be "the greatest country in the world."

This country is a joke.

End the drug war and Mexico stops being a war-zone-----and people will actually be able to live there without trying to dodge the ongoing War that AMERICA STARTED---and is destroying their country. Legitimize the drug trade and immediately South and Central America have a billion dollar industry that can actually create REAL LEGAL jobs and trade. And the degree of wealth in this part of the world increases.

Americas drug war has destroyed Latin America. And latin Americans are coming here to work for fat rich scumbags who love the cheap labor. SO we have policies that are destroying latin America---and rich AMERICANS are profiting off of it; as Mexicans and other latin Americans flee their country.

Such a joke. This law is a joke. This country is a joke. The people who run this country are a joke. And people wonder why I don't vote.

There are no real choices. Only greedy scumbag one and greedy scumbag two.

America has been screwing over Latin America for decades---and one day it is going to come back on us hard.

I hope it happens soon.

Quote:

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The immigration problem is a problem of greed.

If greedy punks wouldn't hire illegal immigrants---then they couldn't get jobs.

But then the greedy punks would actually have to pay a decent wage to American citizens.

---

Maybe the greedy punks are the people that would rather pay $.50 for a tomato instead of $1.50.. or the people that would rather pay $200,000 for a house than $325,000.. maybe those are the people that are driving the other greedy punks to hire hispanics.. oh wait, those people that enjoy these lower costs are you and me... and we certainly can't blame ourselves, we must find other greedy people.. certainly can't be us.

Or are you among the self-righteous that will sit and admit that you would GLADLY pay 50% for everything if it was made/grown/produced by legal citizens? You probably are one that says that now, until such time as it actually happened and all of the sudden you had to cut your lifestyle in half because you couldn't afford it any more.. then those greedy punks that are now hiring Mexicans would still be greedy punks because the price of the stuff you buy from them would triple...

Quote:

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Or are you among the self-righteous that will sit and admit that you would GLADLY pay 50% for everything if it was made/grown/produced by legal citizens? You probably are one that says that now, until such time as it actually happened and all of the sudden you had to cut your lifestyle in half because you couldn't afford it any more..

---

OMG....I might have to actually pay a realistic price for something!?!?!? I'm sure slave owners made the same arguments in the 1800's.

Wouldn't bother me. Not one bit.

As I thought, you are one of the self-righteous who thinks that cutting your lifestyle in half will be fun and easy because its for the greater good...

One thing you obvious aren't aware of--is that I don't live an extravagant lifestyle. It wouldn't bother me in the least bit if inflation hit. I almost want it too so all the greedy scum in America will get slammed HARD----exactly how they deserve.

I consider myself someone who can make do with very little. Not a big deal to me.

Always love reading Tyler's stuff

The two heads of this problem need to be addressed ..

I am all about folks hiring " Illegal " immigrants getting nailed with a felony and jail time for a second offense , and let the penalty's get stiffer from there ..

I am for shutting down all Immigration until the problem & legislation are addressed properly ..The amount of bureaucratic paper word and time is ignorant and be speaks shame at the Federal level ( some thing new ) ..

I guess I am in the minority when I advocate " zero " amnesty .. Go back and come in the proper and legal way , period..

When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs one of the first things they did was to take the children from the Aztec women.

Why was this done? Well, the Aztecs conveyed their history to children by word of mouth. By taking the children away, the Spanish destroyed the cultural history of their subjects. All the histories of the Aztec disappeared as a result of this and were lost.

The Arizona Republicans are trying to do the same thing here. By banning ethnic studies they are hoping to take the "Mexican" out of the Mexican population of their state. These Arizona lawmakers are no better than the Spanish Conquistadores.

I think you need to reread the article. No one is banning ethnic studies. They are simply saying that the courses need to be available to all and not have seperate courses for each ethnic background.

I must say, seeing you two agree on a socio-political issue makes me go