Reporting from a new generation of journalists. » MALDEF

Update on Arizona: Fears of Latino Voter Fraud Lead to Massive Disenfranchisement

Amy Crawford — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:31:21 +0000

Disenfranchised voter Shirley Preiss, 97. (Photo by Stokely Baksh)

In an article for The Indypendent, former News 21 reporter Renee Feltz revisits Arizona, where thousands of potential voters have been unable to register due to new identification requirements. These voters, most of whom are poor, elderly and/or Latino, would have tended to vote Democratic. Thus it is in the GOP’s interest to continue stoking fears about illegal immigrants committing voter fraud.

Hans A. von Spakovsky, formerly a Bush appointee in the Department of Justice who now works at the Heritage foundation, is one Republican who would like to see strict ID requirements in every state.

von Spakovsky argues the “honor system” of signing a legally binding registration card fails to keep non-citizens from the polls, and suggests election officials should be allowed to access U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases “regarding voter eligibility based on citizenship.” He also wants all states to require anyone who registers to vote to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.

Citizenship is already a legal requirement to vote in the United States, but GOP scare tactics have led more than a dozen states to consider additional legislation to require documented proof of citizenship, and in many cases a Voter ID card, in order to vote.

Arizona is the only state with both of these requirements. Though there was—and still is—no evidence of voter fraud by illegal immigrants, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200 in 2004, requiring proof of citizenship in the form of a birth certificate, naturalization papers or a passport in order to register to vote. This summer Feltz and fellow News 21 reporter Stokely Baksh found that the laws proved burdensome to many citizens who wish to register—the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund found 38,000 cases of rejected registrations.

Read the rest of the story here.

Weekly Immigration News Round-Up, 9/20

Amy Crawford — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:10:10 +0000

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a San Francisco home earlier this month, they arrested all of the adults and may have left a 15-year-old child to fend for herself. Now, San Francisco officials are expressing outrage over the situation.
England, which has its own immigration controversies, also has immigration raids, though not on the same scale as those in the U.S. The U.K.’s Border and Immigration Office raided a car wash and arrested six suspected illegal immigrants last week. In a subsequent raid, three Bangladeshi men were arrested at a restaurant.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU filed suit against Farmers Branch, Tex. last week, hoping to overturn its newest anti-immigration ordinance. This is the third such suit to be filed since the city announced that it would enact the new law. Meanwhile, Farmers Branch has spent nearly $1 million defending itself in court and will have to raid its reserve funds to pay this year’s bills.
Hurricane Ike may have disrupted the Congressional race in Sugar Land, Tex., where Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson faces a challenge from Republican Pete Olson. The damage in Sugar Land, where a large South Asian community has built up political power, was widespread but not devastating.

Organization of the Week: MALDEF

Amy Crawford — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:21:36 +0000

Immigration is a fraught issue, and in recent years dozens of groups have sprung up to advocate for one position or the other, to lobby Congress, to fund candidates, or to fight it out in the courts. With all the vague or patriotic-sounding names, it can get pretty confusing. You might see spokespeople from these organizations quoted as experts in news articles, but sometimes reporters fail to identify a group’s position. This weekly feature will help you become a savvier consumer of immigration news.

This week’s organization, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, has been involved in a number of immigration lawsuits, litigating and advocating for Mexican immigrants and other Latinos.

Name: Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, or MALDEF. Founded in 1968 in San Antonio, Tex. It is now headquartered in Los Angeles.

Stance: Pro-immigrant. MALDEF opposes increased restrictions on immigration and supports extending rights for illegal immigrants. It actively opposes English-only laws.

Activities: MALDEF has had a hand on many major legal cases, including the case that struck down most of California’s Proposition 187. News 21 previously reported on MALDEF’s unsuccessful case against Arizona’s Proposition 200 and its victory against Farmers Branch, Tex. MALDEF also educates Latino voters about their rights and how to exercise them and encourages Latinos to get involved in politics and policy, and it helped to organize rallies after the murder of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pa.

Funding: MALDEF has a budget of about $6.5 million. Its funding comes from private donors and foundations—the Ford Foundation was a major donor in the early years—as well as unions and corporations (PDF; scroll down).

Major Players: MALDEF has 22 lawyers who litigate around the country. John Trasviña, MALDEF’s current president and general counsel, has testified before Congress in support of expanding the Voting Rights Act and in opposition to English as an official language. Lawyer Nina Perales fought Arizona’s Prop 200.

Controversy: MALDEF is frequently accused by anti-immigration groups of being a racial supremacist organization, because it works on behalf of a specific ethnic group. It is also unabashedly in favor of extending rights to illegal immigrants, which has drawn the criticism of many on the right.