Homeland Theater

Deported to Somalia —despite Islamist rule

We have noted a growing number of cases in which immigrants are targeted for deportation by the Islamophobic policies of the US immigration authorities, only to face oppression by Islamist thugs who rule in the countries they fled. The Homeland Security Department's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has even been attempting to affect deportations to Somalia—even as the CIA is busily trying to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union which has usurped power there. Now, they have just succeeded, in a case which fortunately made page 2 of New York Times Metro Section Nov. 22—albeit after the fact, and too late to help the unfortunate Mohamad Rasheed Jama...

Arizona: border vigilante guilty

A civil jury ruled Nov. 22 that rancher and vigilante Roger Barnett must pay $98,000 in damages to a Mexican-American family that he illegally held and threatened at gunpoint. The family were legal residents hunting on lands near his ranch, but Barnett apparently assumed they were "illegals" coming across the border (Douglas Dispatch, Nov. 24)

So, what was up with that "macaca" jive anyway?

It is a real sign of hope that there is more to be lost than gained from overt racism (at least) in American politics, even in Dixieland. Former senator George Allen's foot-in-mouth routine brought to light a particularly anachronistic epithet. India's IBN shed some light, Nov. 9—although we caught a small inaccuracy:

Israeli firm gets Mexico border wall contract

How ironic. We noted in August that ex-Israeli security chief Uza Dayan was warning the US against emulating Israeli strategies in securing the Mexican border. Now it appears that Elbit Systems, an Israeli firm which is building the "Aparthied Wall" in occupied Palestine, has been awarded a contract, along with Boeing, to build the wall on the Mexican border. From Israel21C, Oct. 15:

Medicaid denies infant care based on parents' immigration status

This is insidiously sinister—a step towards something akin to apartheid, two-tier citizenship. Not that we don't already have that, of course, but this is close to legally acknowleding it and legitimizing it. From the New York Times Nov. 3, via CivilRights.org:

Drones to patrol Mexican border

From LA's NBC4-TV, Nov. 2:

FORT HUACHACA, Ariz. — The federal government has unveiled a new multimillion-dollar gadget to patrol and protect the U.S.-Mexican border.

Immigrants' lawsuit challenges detention

In a class-action lawsuit filed on Sept. 25, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project and the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic charged that ICE routinely holds immigrants longer than six months in defiance of the Supreme Court's June 2001 ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis. "These people have been kept away from their families, their communities and their lives for years--without even a hearing to determine if their prolonged detention is justified," said ACLU staff attorney Ahilan Arulanantham.

Media ignore Christian terrorism

Jennifer L. Pozner writes for Newsday, Oct. 8:

The terrorists who aren't in the news
Anti-abortion fanatics spread fear by bombings, murders and assaults, but the media take little notice

On Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.

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