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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Immigration raid causes Kosher meat shortage?
Financial problems at the company that was the target of a large immigration raid six months ago have caused a nationwide shortage of Kosher meat, USA Today reported Thursday.
The immigration raid occurred six months ago at Agriprocessors Inc. a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were arrested on immigration violations and criminal charges.
The company, which field for bankrupcy last week, owes between $50 million and $100 million to creditors, USA Today said.
It provided about 60% of the nation’s kosher meat.
Postville was one in a string of large raids at workplaces.
The raids have been controversial leading Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill to denounce what they called “inhumane” tactics by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
ICE has denied such accusations, saying that it is enforcing the law.
Read the USA Today story here.
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New Americans voted for Obama in high numbers
Latino immigrants voted for President-elect Barack Obama in higher numbers than other Hispanics, according to an analysis by the Immigration Policy Center, an advocacy group.
Among all Hispanics, 67 percent supported Obama, according to the analysis. Among Latino immigrants, the number was 78 percent.
It also says that new Americans helped push Obama to victory in several states including Indiana and North Carolina.
Read more here.
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Latino groups push Richardson for Secretary of State
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 26 Latino groups, sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama this week urging him to appoint New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be the next Secretary of State.
Richardson campaigned hard for Obama after his own presidential bid fizzled.
John Trasvina, chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, said: “No one is more qualified to serve as our country’s chief diplomat than Gov. Bill Richardson. He helped free hostages in North Korea, Iraq, Sudan, and Cuba, secured an agreement protecting refugees in Afghanistan, negotiated a peaceful transfer of power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and brokered a cease-fire in the troubled region of Darfur. He is not just a Democratic Party leader or an Hispanic community leader - he is an American leader.”
Richardson spent much of his childhood in Mexico, the birthplace of his mother. He often campaigned in Spanish.
His accompishments include:
— Two-term governor of New Mexico. First elected in 2002. Re-elected with almost 70 percent of the vote.
— Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, where he oversaw a Democratic takeover of the majority of the nation’s governorships.
— Member of Congress, 1982-1997.
— Secretary of energy in the Clinton administration.
— U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where he gained high marks for his tenure. In that post, he interviewed and offered a job to intern Monica Lewinsky at the behest of the White House, therefore becoming involved in the scandal that led to President Clinton’s impeachment.
— Negotiated the release of two U.S. contractor employees in Iraq in 1995. The visit included an intense meeting with former dictator Saddam Hussein, who first stormed out of the room after Richardson inadvertently offended him by crossing his legs and showing him the dirty bottom of his shoe, according to an account in Richardson’s biography.
— Also traveled to North Korea, Sudan and Cuba to help win freedom for captives.
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Former RNC chair says “anti-Hispanic rhetoric” hurt the GOP
Sen. Mel Martinez, former head of the Republican National Committee, said this week that the GOP “had better figure out how to talk” to Latinos if they want to return to power.
“There were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we’re going to be relegated to minority status,” he said, on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Martinez was discussing the rhetoric surrounding the immigration debate.
