Monday, August 29, 2016

Immigration Myths vs Facts: New pamphlet published for 2016 election Inmigración: Mitos y Realidades. Se publica un panfleto nuevo para las elecciones de 2106

People's World August 25,  2016 

Download in English: "Immigration Myth vs. Fact"

Descargar al español: "La Inmigración Mitos y Realidades"
The issue of immigration has become central to the 2016 presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump has chosen to focus on the supposed threat of immigrants to the American way of life as a major campaign theme. From his first campaign speech, he took aim at immigrants Mexico is supposedly "sending" to the United States, whom he characterized as killers, drug dealers, and rapists. He also has singled out Muslims as posing a terrorist threat. When called on these claims, Trump has not backed down, but has instead repeated them again and again.

Trump also proposes "solutions" to the supposed immigrant and Muslim threat to the United States. He has called for the mass deportation of the approximately 10 to 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. He proposes to build a wall along the 1,900 mile U.S.-Mexican border, and says he will "make Mexico pay for it." How? He proposes to seize the money that undocumented immigrants earn working in the United States and send back to their impoverished families and communities in Mexico. He will also, so he says, end birthright citizenship, even though it is written into the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and thus cannot be changed by a presidential decree or even a vote in Congress.  He has said he would bar Muslims from visiting this country.

Various Republican politicians running for office down ticket also have adopted these bigoted and extremist positions, many of which have found their way into the Republican Party Platform for 2016.   Efforts to pass legislation in favor of a more rational and humane immigration policy have been blocked by Congress, mostly by Republican representatives and senators. With the help of Republican appointees to the Supreme Court, twenty-six GOP attorneys-general have blocked President Obama's efforts to provide relief for undocumented immigrants via executive orders.
These political misleaders legitimize bigoted speech and actions among the public, with the danger that this will lead to a rise in hate crimes against immigrants, Latinos, and Muslims. This has happened many times before in the history of this country.

Trump has flooded the country with a veritable tsunami of misinformation about the relationship of immigration to crime, terrorism, poverty, and unemployment. Most of his false information seems to come from a network of far-right nativist organizations founded by John Tanton and funded by right-wing businesses and foundations.

These include: Numbers USA, which likes to claim that the environment is threatened by immigration; the Center for Immigration Studies, which puts out massive amounts of dubious "research," all with an anti-immigrant slant; and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which calls for a reduction of both undocumented and documented immigration. Credence is lent to these dubious organizations by the corporate-controlled press, which often quotes them uncritically without mentioning that many people knowledgeable about the immigration situation regard some of them as hate groups.   This misinformation in the media programs voters to be receptive to Trump's anti-immigrant message.

In 2008, the pamphlet "Immigration: Myths and Facts" was issued to counter these lies. A second edition was published in 2013. Given the level of anti-immigrant propaganda that is coming out of the Trump campaign, we have updated this important information source.

You can download it here and distribute it to all your workmates, friends, relatives, and neighbors.  You can also contact politicalaction@cpusa.org if you are interested in obtaining printed copies to distribute.

Download in English: "Immigration Myth vs. Fact"

Descargar al español: "La Inmigración Mitos y Realidades"
La nueva edición de nuestro panfleto:  “La Inmigración:  Mitos y Realidades” está lista para repartirse y utilizarse en la lucha.

El tema de la inmigración se ha convertido en un punto céntrico en las elecciones presidenciales de 2016. El candidato del Partido Republicano, Donald Trump, enfoca su campaña en la amenaza que los inmigrantes supuestamente representan para la vida diaria de los habitantes de los Estados Unidos. Desde su primer discurso en la campaña, utilizó como su blanco los inmigrantes que, según él, México “envía” a  los Estados Unidos, a quienes tacha como asesinos, narcotraficantes y violadores. También ha lanzado un ataque general a los musulmanes que, según él, representan una amenaza terrorista.  Cuando otros desmientan estas calumnias, las repita en lugar de retirarlas.
Trump también propone “soluciones” a la supuesta amenaza que los inmigrantes y musulmanes, según él, representan para los Estados Unidos.   Propone construir una muralla a lo largo de la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México (una distancia de 3,058 kilometras), y dice que obligará a México pagar el costo de este proyecto.  ¿Y cómo piensa lograrlo?  Pues, según dice, se apoderará a las remesas que los inmigrantes indocumentados aquí ganan trabajando con salarios bajísimos y envían a sus familias aún más pobres en México.  También dice que va a acabar con la práctica de considerar a quienquiera nazca en suelo estadounidense como ciudadano de este país, a pesar de que ese derecho está inscrito en la decimocuarta enmienda de la constitución, y por lo tanto no puede modificarse por decreto presidencial ni por una ley aprobada en el Congreso.  Amenaza con prevenir que los musulmanes visiten a este país.

Varios candidatos republicanos que se han postulado para elección a puestos más allá de la presidencia han adoptado estas actitudes extremistas e intolerantes también.   Todos los intentos de aprobar políticas migratorias más razonables y humanistas en los  últimos años han fracasado en el Congreso, en gran medida por la actitud obstruccionista de los congresistas republicanos.  Una demanda sometida por 26 fiscales estatales, todos republicanos, a las cortes federales ha bloqueado un intento de parte del presidente Obama de aliviar la situación de los indocumentados mediante una orden ejecutiva; al nivel de la Corte Suprema, fueron los jueces nombradas por presidentes republicanos quienes más daño causaron.

Estos falsos líderes políticos prestan legitimidad a las declaraciones y acciones racistas entre el público en general, lo que conlleva el peligro de aumentar el nivel de “crímenes de odio” en contra de los inmigrantes, latinoamericanos y musulmanes.  Semejantes cosas han sucedido muchas veces en la historia de este país.  

 http://peoplesworld.org/immigration-myths-vs-facts-new-pamphlet-published-for-2016-election/