Homeland Theater
San Francisco: youth march against ICE raids
Hundreds of high school and college students from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area skipped class on Halloween morning, Oct. 31, to participate in a youth-led "Stop the Raids" protest against immigration enforcement in downtown San Francisco. Transit officials shut down the Fruitvale and Coliseum BART stations in Oakland and the Richmond BART station after hundreds of East Bay students entered the stations and boarded trains to San Francisco without paying. Officials kept the stations closed for more than an hour. Some BART trains bound for San Francisco were delayed at the West Oakland station by protesters who held doors open and demanded that the Fruitvale station be reopened, passengers and BART officials said. Three people were detained at the Richmond station. (San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 1)
White supremacists busted in Obama assassination plot
From Reuters, Oct. 27:
Skinheads held over Obama death plot
WASHINGTON - Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday.
Protected status renewed for Central Americans, urged for Haitians
On Sept. 24, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nationals of El Salvador through Sep. 9, 2010. The extension allows Salvadorans who have already been granted TPS to re-register and maintain their status for an additional 18 months. An estimated 229,000 Salvadorans are eligible for re-registration. They have 90 days to re-register for the special status, which was set to expire on Mar. 9, 2009. TPS does not apply to Salvadoran nationals who entered the US after Feb. 13, 2001. (USCIS update, Sept. 24)
Immigrant rights marches in North Carolina and beyond
On Oct. 12, about 65 people marched more than three miles from the Mills Manufacturing plant in Woodfin, NC, to downtown Asheville to protest an Aug. 12 ICE raid at the parachute manufacturing plant and the impending deportation of the 57 workers arrested there. (See INB, Aug. 16.) The march concluded at the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office. Speakers blasted what they said was overzealous or selective law enforcement by local sheriffs, particularly Van Duncan in Buncombe and Rick Davis in Henderson. Activists also criticized Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower, who claimed some responsibility for alerting ICE about unauthorized workers at Mills Manufacturing. A group of about 200 people also marched along US 25 to the Henderson County Courthouse in Hendersonville, NC, in defense of immigrant rights. Nuestro Centro, WNC Workers Center and the Coalition of Latin American Organizations sponsored both marches. (Ashville Citizen Times, Oct. 13)
ICE raids South Carolina poultry plant
On Oct. 7, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents executed a federal criminal search warrant at the House of Raeford's Columbia Farms poultry processing plant in Greenville, SC, arresting 11 workers on criminal charges and 320 workers on administrative immigration charges. (ICE news release, Oct. 9) About 100 ICE agents raided the plant during shift change. ICE officials kept the workers inside the plant for most of the morning as they sought to determine how many were present in the US without permission. (AP, Oct. 7; Charlotte Observer, Oct. 8)
Canada: British Columbia gas pipeline bombed again
A gas pipeline owned by EnCana near Tomslake in northern British Columbia was bombed for a second time in a week Oct. 16. Neither that explosion nor the earlier one on Oct. 11 significantly damaged the pipeline, which carries sour gas, natural gas that contains toxic hydrogen sulfide. The second blast created a small leak and forced a shutdown of the pipeline. Last week, news organizations in the region received anonymous letters demanding that local oil and gas projects be shut down.
Anti-war protesters arrested at presidential debate
Fifteen anti-war protesters were arrested on disorderly conduct charges outside the presidential debate at Long Island's Hofstra University Oct. 15. A skirmish broke out between protesters and mounted police at the gates when police refused to allow anti-war Iraq veterans into the debate. Mounted police pushed a group of about 200 people away from the gates—injuring at least two, one of whom was taken away in an ambulance. Most of those arrested were members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). (Newsday, The Indypendent, Oct. 16)
3rd Infantry Division to patrol US streets
A little-noted news story about the transfer of Iraq-hardened combat troops for active duty at home in the immediate prelude to the elections has been seized upon by Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! Oct. 2 and—with considerably greater paranoia—Naomi Wolf on AlterNet and YouTube Oct. 8, as evidence of an imminent "coup d'etat" or "October Surprise." Gina Cavallaro wrote for Army Times, Sept. 30, emphasis added:
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