Meanwhile, Back at the Baby Jails

Everybody who thinks Rapey McLiarFace (stolen from Wonkette) has any more respect for brown babies than he does for white women, stand on your head.

Erik Loomis:

This nation is in a fight to the death over whether people of color will be treated with human rights. I don’t want a bipartisan solution to this, not that one was ever going to happen anyway. I want to crush conservatives’ belief that they can ethnically cleanse the nation. Abolish ICE is a good beginning.

And only electing Democratic candidates to take over Congress is going to do it.  

31 Days. How many Democratic voters are you sending to the polls?

Southern Towns Try Just Killing Off All the Browns

So the places that committed treason in defense of slavery and are still proud of it are now denying basic human rights to non-whites.  Big surprise.

Think Progress:

Sixteen localities in six southern states have been restricting access to basic utility services, including gas, water, and electricity, according to nonprofit advocacy organization Project South, which sent letters to the cities Monday demanding an end to discriminatory practices like requiring U.S.-issued photo identification and social security numbers in order to receive public services.

Project South asserted that Latinx immigrants in various cities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, who cannot provide social security numbers and IDs have been overwhelmingly impacted by the restrictions, which have left countless residents without the basic utilities needed to live.

Not because they're not paying their bills.  Just because they are not White, and don't give me that "illegal immigrant" bullshit.  Show me Just. One. public official who is full-blooded Native American. 'Cause everybody who is NOT full-blooded Native American is a fucking immigrant.

The practice of requiring photo ID and social security numbers is not mandated by local or state law. It also violates federal laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974, which forbids the denial of government services on the basis of a person’s refusal to share their social security number, as well as the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits policies that discriminate on the basis of a number of factors, including race.

“Access to water and utilities is a human right, It’s a fundamental human right,” Shahshahani added, pointing to the fact that the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognize access to basic utilities as linked to the right to life and human dignity. “Every human being should have access to water regardless of their immigration background.”

Campaign of Terror

Digby:

But that isn't the only horror being inflicted on immigrants in this country.Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions and the rest of the deplorable GOP are terrorizing the Latino community in order to rid this nation of --- Latinos. They are doing everything in their power to scare them into taking their families and leaving the country by going after mothers and babies, teen-agers brought by their parents and even legal residents who had a brush with the law decades ago.. I suspect they would prefer that Hispanic Americans follow:

SNIP

You can't beat the irony of ICE deporting someone who committed domestic violence 20 years ago in the same week that the ttorney general unilaterally ruled that women cannot seek asylum in the country if they are fleeing domestic violence. 

This is a campaign of terror being waged by the government against a specific community in the United States. There's no other way to describe it.

If You Cared About Houston, Care About Puerto Rico.

They are Americans, goddammit.  Native-born American citizens. And everything around them is destroyed.

Digby:

 I'm pretty sure the president doesn't consider Puerto Ricans to be Real Americans what with their "foreign" language and all. But he could at least show some mild interest in the fact that 3 million people are living in what is being called apocalyptic conditions.

(CNN)Days after Hurricane Maria pounded the island of Puerto Rico, killing at least 10 people, authorities are starting to see firsthand the scope of devastation that left the US territory off the grid.
Without power and communications in much of the island, millions of people, including city leaders and first responders, have been cut off from the world since Maria hit Wednesday.
Authorities flew over the island Saturday, and were stunned by what they saw. No cellphones, water or power. Roads completely washed away and others blocked by debris, isolating residents. 

"It was devastating to see all that kind of debris in all areas, in all towns of the island," Jenniffer González, the island's non-voting representative in Congress told CNN.
"We never expected to have a lot of debris in so many areas. A lot of roads are closed, older ones are just gone," she added.
At least 10 people have been confirmed killed by the storm, according to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's office.
Roselló met with more than 50 mayors and representatives from across Puerto Rico on Saturday. Some described the conditions in their communities as "apocalyptic" and said there have been incidents of looting in both homes and stores.
"We know a little more today than we did yesterday," Rossello said. "This is going to be a long road."
A dam is in danger of collapsing, adding to the crisis.

SNIP

To donate to help:
Unidos por Puerto Rico
“Unidos”: A Hurricane Relief Fund for Hurricane Maria Victims in Puerto Rico

More inportantly, call your member of Congress and tell them to make sure Puerto Rico gets all the FEMA help and infrastructure rebuilding it so desperately needs. 

Whom We're Deporting

Digby's right; this is a disgrace. 

Private First Class Andres De Leon, 72, signed up for the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam when he turned 18-years-old at a time many were trying to avoid the war. He served for 12 years and spent two full years overseas before being honorably discharged. Like many veterans, he suffers from depression, that spiraled out of control when his mother passed away. But unlike most veterans, his depression led to him being deported.

De Leon may have moved to Madera, California with his family legally when he was 12-years-old but he was deported when he became addicted to heroin to medicate his depression and was eventually arrested for possession. Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) lists this as a valid reason for deportation and three years into his sentence at Soledad State Prison, ICE came knocking.

By 2009, an immigration judge ordered De Leon back to Mexico where he hasn’t lived for over 50 years. He’s living in Tijuana today in a one room apartment after spending his first few weeks homeless and on the streets. With no friends or family and certainly no veterans benefits, his sister fears that his type-2 diabetes isn’t being taken care of.

“I got no choice,” he told a local TV station Fox40 back home. “I have to stay here but I’m doing the best I can.”

His story is sad enough and you would think that there aren’t many like him, but you’d be wrong. Once back in Mexico he met Hector Barajas, a former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne who told De Leon there were dozens like them. In 2013, Barajas started a safe house for veterans from the United States that are deported to Mexico.

“We believe none of these men should be left behind,” he said. “We talk about supporting the troops, let’s keep supporting these men. Treat these men with honor.”

One in six veterans who served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from a substance abuse issue. Those veterans who seek treatment for PTSD report alcohol-use disorders to the tune of 60 to 80 percent, according to the National Center for PTSD.

De Leon, Barajas and their friends are victims of cracks in a complicated system. Justice For Vets is an organization that works to help veterans that end up in the courts because of drug and alcohol abuse. They work with veteran treatment courts that require mandatory treatment and court appearances to help incentivize veterans to get clean and sober. But immigrants aren’t eligible if they break the law. They’re simply deported

OK, all you warmongering, military-felating "patriots:" where do you stand on honorable veterans being thrown out of the country like common criminals?  Why do you hate America's veterans?

Racist Idiot KY "Prosecutor" Pretends to Know Law

First of all, you don't even have to have a high school diploma in this state to be an "assistant county attorney".  Pass the bar, yes.  High school diploma, no. They are not elected, but rather hired by the elected county attorney, most of whom hand out "assistant" jobs to their idiot nephews who can't get real jobs.

Secondly, "assistant county attorneys" hardly qualify for the title "prosecutor."  They handle misdemeanor cases in traffic court.  My dog could do a better job.

Because my dog is not a racist shit-head.

Being Hispanic in Oldham County, Kentucky is enough to be pulled over by a cop, according to one prosecutor. You can also be coerced into a plea deal if you have a certain last name.

Last July, Mauro Martinez was pulled over for speeding but he was not charged. Instead, he was cited for not having a license because he only had a Guatemalan ID at the time. During a court hearing about the citation, Assistant County Attorney Travis Combs pointed out that the defendant’s issue was that he was pulled over for being Hispanic. In a video recording of the hearing, prosecuting attorney John K. Carter says “that’s probable cause.”

After a video of the exchange was circulated by the Courier-Journal, Carter reversed course and said the speed at which Martinez was driving was probable cause. But the judge presiding over the case and Martinez’ defense attorney, Dawn Elliot, did not interpret Carter’s remarks that way.

SNIP

“Clearly he had an opportunity to clear that up on the record over 24 hours ago, but now there’s buzz about it,” Elliot said. “My reaction and the judge’s reaction speaks for itself. We certainly interpreted him talking about probable cause for my client’s ethnicity.”

Elliot believes Carter’s comment highlights a growing trend of racially profiling Hispanics in the county. She claims that prior to Martinez’ trial, she was informed by an assistant attorney that there is a special form for “people that have that type of last name” to plead guilty. If people without driver’s licenses are stopped, as Martinez was, officers encourage them to sign the form and agree to two years of unsupervised probation. If they are caught driving again without proper ID, they can be sentenced to jail for 90 days.

Elliot is calling for an investigation of the county's officers.  Oldham County, by the way, borders Louisville, which spurred some white flight a few years ago when it merged the city and county.  Looks like Oldham got its share of racist shitheads.

No, You Can't Tell By Looking

I'm surprised. Given the attitude of many non-Hispanics in my Kentucky county, where virtually all the scut work is done by Hispanics, from tobacco cutting to housecleaning, I'd have guessed it was more like two in three, or even three in four.

Amanda Peterson Beadle at Think Progress:

One In Three Americans Falsely Believe Most Latinos Are Undocumented 

More than 30 percent of non-Hispanics inaccurately think that a majority of Latinos in the U.S. are undocumented, according to a new poll from the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Latino Decisions about media portrayals of Latinos and immigrants. Only about 18 percent of the Latino population in the U.S. is undocumented, and 37 percent of U.S. Latinos are actually immigrants. In its report, the NHMC said media portrayals of Latinos and immigrants exacerbates “stereotypically negative opinions” about them. “It is producing attitudes among non-Latinos that contribute to hate speech and hate crimes,” said Alex Nogales, president and CEO of NHMC. The organization plans to share its results with the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to push the agencies to study the impacts of hate speech in the media.

As I always say when this subject arises: Unless you are 100 percent Native American, you're here because of immigrants so shut the fuck up about "illegals."