Morning NewsTaco
Thursday September 19, 2012
North Carolina Sheriff Targeted Latinos; Called Them ‘Taco Eaters’ (Fox News Latino): A North Carolina sheriff and his deputies routinely discriminated against Latinos — whom he called “taco eaters” — by making unwarranted arrests with the intent of maximizing deportations, according to a U.S. Department of Justice two-year investigation.
Feds cut NC sheriff’s immigration database access (Associated Press/Seattle Post Intelligencer): Immigration officials have blocked a North Carolina sheriff’s access to the federal database used to check whether arrestees are in the country illegally. The move comes after a two-year U.S. Department of Justice investigation determined that Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson illegally targeted and arrested Latinos without probable cause to boost deportations. Johnson has been a vocal supporter of a federal program that trained local law enforcement officers to perform immigration checks.
Report: More than 1 in 10 US Latinos live in Los Angeles (Multi-American/SCPR): According to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center, the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area has the largest Latino population in the nation, with its 5.7 million Latino residents accounting for more than one in ten (11 percent) of all Latinos living in the United States.
Tight Contest Casts Light on Latina Vote (New York Times): At this point in the campaign, Mr. Obama holds a commanding lead over Mr. Romney among Hispanics, 68 percent to 26 percent, in a poll released Monday by the independent polling group ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions. The same survey found Mr. Obama’s edge among Hispanic women to be even greater: 74 percent to 21 percent.
Amid court challenges, early voting begins in U.S. election (Reuters): The November 6 election is still seven weeks away, but early, in-person voting begins in two states on Friday, even as Democrats and Republicans battle in court over controversial plans to limit such voting before Election Day.
Supreme Court Won’t Stop Texas Voting Map (Fox News Latino): The U.S. Supreme Court shot down a request from a Latino rights group to block congressional districts drawn by a lower federal court. The League of United Latin American Citizens claimed the districts, drawn by a three-judge panel in San Antonio, discriminates against minorities. But LULAC’s bid to change the congressional map was rejected by the high court.
Romney, Obama Move Over – Latinos Ready for Latino President, Poll Says (Fox News Latino): The majority of Latinos believe the United States is ready to elect a Hispanic president, but there are still some reservations about the prospect of it happening during this generation, according to an exclusive Fox News Latino poll released this week.
Some Latinos see hint of a compliment in Romney video (Los Angeles Times): Political experts said it is highly implausible the Latino vote would ever decline for Republicans to the level it has for black voters, as Romney appeared to suggest was possible as a worst-case scenario. Even with many Latinos viewing the GOP negatively, most polls still show about one-third plan to vote for Romney — a far higher share than the negligible support he’s getting from blacks.
Marco Rubio Calls Romney’s I-Wish-I-Were-Latino Comment: ‘A Joke’ (ABC News): “I think he meant it as a joke,” Rubio said on a conference call organized by the Republican National Committee, adding that’s “how most reasonable people would take it.”
On Air and Before Audiences, Romney Makes Push for Hispanic Vote (New York Times): Greeting the forum’s hosts briefly in Spanish, Mr. Romney expressed alarm over the economic struggles of Hispanic Americans and portrayed Mr. Obama as having failed to improve their circumstances.
Romney tells Latino audience he would fix immigration system (Los Angeles Times): Mitt Romney sought to assuage Latino voters Wednesday, downplaying positions he took on immigration during the GOP primaries, vowing to seek a bipartisan solution and castigating President Obama for failing to keep promises he made to the fast-growing population segment.
Romney Softens Tone on Immigration During Hispanic Voters Forum (Bloomberg): Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney softened his rhetoric on immigration, downplaying a key element of his plan for handling undocumented immigrants before an audience of Hispanic voters.
On Immigration, Obama and Romney Agree On Virtually Nothing (ABC News): Here’s a look at where both candidates stand when it comes to immigration.
Latinos Give Obama Higher Ratings on Immigration, Fox News Latino Poll Says (Fox News Latino): Three months after President Barack Obama announced plans to suspend deportation for some undocumented immigrants, Latinos are giving him higher ratings for his handling of immigration.
Texas Town’s Ban on Rentals to Undocumented Immigrants Gets Second Hearing (Fox News Latino): Should undocumented immigrants be allowed to rent homes? A Dallas, Texas suburb has said no for years.Now, the town’s long expensive fight to ban undocumented immigrants from renting homes will have perhaps its most important hearing before a largely conservative group of judges with the power to influence the national immigration debate.
Salt Lake County accommodating Spanish-speaking voters (Salt Lake Tribune): For the Nov. 6 general election, Salt Lake County will publish voter information guides and ballots in Spanish and will have bilingual poll workers available to help voters whose first language is Spanish.
Latino Students Returning To School After Federal Court Orders Block Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law (Think Progress): A year later and into a new school year, some Alabama school districts are seeing more Latino students. Although the Alabama Department of Education’s full numbers on Latino enrollment across the state will not be available until late October, early signs suggest the court orders blocking the law succeeded in reversing some of its impact on Latino students.
US bishops launch Spanish Facebook page as Hispanic community grows (DFW Catholic): As new statistics show the accelerated growth of the Hispanic population in many areas of the country, the U.S. bishops’ conference has launched a Spanish-language Facebook page.
Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the Latino faithful (Voxxi): On Tuesday The New York Times was among the first to report that an early Christianity historian at the Harvard Divinity School had identified a scrap of papyrus from the fourth century which she said had a written phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’ ”
