April 2005 U.S. Immigrant Alert! Newsletter

Published by National Immigrant Solidarity Network
URL: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org

Beat Back the Racist Minuteman Project and the REAL ID Act!
February 2005 U.S. Immigrant Alert! Newsletter
Published by National Immigrant Solidarity Network
URL: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Newsletter/April05.pdf

In this issue:
1. Minuteman Project
2. REAL ID Act
3. Immigration News
4. Immigration Incarceration Industry
5. Information About the Network
6. Please Subscribe to the Newsletter

Actions!
1) Protests Ignite and Media Swarms as Minuteman Project Invades Southern Arizona!

While the vigilante, border activist and humanitarian groups all agree U.S. immigration policy is flawed, the dispute on how to fix the border is clashing out in the desert heat

There was no fooling around April 1 when hundreds of “vigilantes” swarmed to defend small stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border, picking up the slack where they say the government is failing to stop the so-called “invasion of mobs of illegal aliens and terrorists.” The month-long gathering, dubbed the Minuteman Project, has attracted volunteers from all of the country to come camp in the desert and monitor the border.

Yet, the story of the weekend was the flocks of media that crept into the Southern Arizona desert, often times outnumbering the number of Minuteman volunteers and the dozens of protestors that met to confront them.

Many have criticized the amount of media attention, saying that they paid too much attention to a project that may or may not be successful. “The media has become a story in itself,” said Bisbee resident Mike Anderson as he stood on Highway 80 with a sign Saturday morning. “I want the media to go home and the vigilantes to go home with their guns,” he said.

Organized primarily to reap media attention to a region wrought with conflict and controversy rather than slow down the amount of undocumented travelers, the project has been called patriotic by some and racist by others.

(Arizona IMC)

2) DREAM Act 2005: More Endorsements Urgently Needed!

April 6: Senator Hatch and Senator Durbin are poised to re-introduce the DREAM Act very soon, hopefully within a week or so. Our expectation is that this year's bill will likely be substantially identical to the one that emerged from the Judiciary Committee last session by a 16-3 vote. Advocates are working hard to gather as many organizational endorsements as possible before the bill is reintroduced. More information on how you can help

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