I'm almost in denial about having to ask people to do this: sign this petition at change.org to help stop the deportation of Prerna Lal. It's difficult to think of a more stupid move for the Obama administration to make than to initiate removal proceedings against Prerna. Prerna is arguably the most visible undocumented person, or Dreamer (after the DREAM Act), in the U.S.

As her website will tell you, she helped found dreamactivist.org, one of the most powerful online hubs for migrant youth, she's a blogger at change.org, and she's a board member of Immigration Equality. She also earned her Master's degree in International Relations and is currently studying to get her law degree at George Washington University.

The Obama administration is telling us that they're focusing their resources on the worst of the worst while folks on the ground know that they're going after people like Prerna all the time. If you don't want to read on, please sign this petition to stop Prerna's deportation.

The political consequences of this for the Obama administration going into the 2012 elections are enormous. While the mainstream media is ignoring it, pro-migrant voters certainly aren't going to vote for anyone who is deporting away more of our family members, neighbors, peers, and friends than any other President, Democrat or Republican, in history.

While pro-migrant voters shouldn't be equated with Latino voters, Latinos are easily the largest, most visible, and most organized segment of the pro-migrant electorate. According to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center a record 14.7 million Latinos stayed home during the midterm elections in 2010. It gets worse. Obama's approval ratings among Latinos has decreased from 73 to 54 percent. Obama is not going to be able to win Florida and the Southwest with numbers like that.

The Obama administration's strategy up to this point has been to try and talk about this out of both sides of it's mouth. The Obama administration tries to brag about it's skyrocketing enforcement numbers to independents while blaming Republicans for the mess. Pro-migrant voters aren't stupid. Even 7-year-old Daisy Cuevas understands that it is Obama who is responsible for forcing her to live in terror.

Meanwhile we're left to try and stop the deportation of our friends, like Prerna Lal, one-by-one.  The Obama administration deported almost 400,000 people in 2010 and only granted deferred action to 542 people. Obama deports more people in a day than we're able to save in a year.

Instead of expending our energy trying to help elect Obama we're expending that energy trying to stop deportations. As the 22 Democrat Senators who signed a letter (pdf) asking Obama to halt the deportation of all Dreamers point out, not only is this inhumane, but it's a waste of the Department of Homeland Security's resources. People like Prerna are going through the entire system only to have their deportations halted at the last minute.

Sign the petition to stop the deportation of Prerna Lal, and shout from the rooftops that it's time for Obama to stop this madness.

[Kyle de Beausset (@kyledeb) is a pro-migrant blogger at Citizen Orange]

This is truly sickening. Maricopa County's infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio just sent this shocking message to his followers:

"STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd."

Bogus accusations of "illegal voters" crop up every election, and every election they are proven false.  What's truly frightening is that, this year, Arpaio is recruiting an "army" to block people from voting in the name of "fraud prevention."

However, you can send a message to the Justice Department demanding that they send election monitors to Arizona immediately.  These are the people who are supposed to protecting our right to vote, not suppressing it.

When you take action, you'll also get to download a new voter protection card (in English or Spanish) with a nationwide hotline to report problems on election day.

We're encouraging voters to bring it with them to the polls and do their part to protect one of our most cherished rights - unfortunately, we're hearing reports of Arpaio-like tactics in other parts of the country too.

How will Arpaio's "army" and others like them single out who to intimidate? Hair? Accent? Shoes? This is un-American.

NOW on PBS:

The booming Hispanic population in political swing states is creating opportunities and headaches in both political parties as they try to court the Latino vote. NOW on PBS travels to Florida just weeks before its important primary to examine Republican tactics to win over Hispanic Americans. A fifth of Florida's residents are Hispanic, and Republicans are scoring points on traditional issues of faith and national security. But at the same time, they're frustrating Latinos with what many of them see as harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Who has the winning approach?

On the NOW on PBS website, also check out our new Democracy Toolkit, with tools, information, and links to take you behind the election headlines.

Considering that half the Republican platform consists of playing up the fear and hatred of brown peoples everywhere, it amazes me that they could even hope for the Latino vote. Talking about voting against your interests. The entire episode of NOW is available for download and streaming at their site.

The Heretik : A surge of BS...and squalid, cowardly, despicable demagoguery

Radar Online: An Iraq war translator's inside take on America's failure to communicate

A Tiny Revolution: If we find ourselves at war with Iran, it won’t just be Bush’s responsibility. It will also belong to a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Nieman Watchdog: Before Walter Reed there was Fort Stewart and Fort Knox, and...

Nuestra Voice: Look out for an attempt on the part of Gonzales supporters to call on the Latino community to somehow frame the pressure on Gonzales as racially motivated.

I've talked with people in the Spanish radio business who have told me that the "reconquistador" position Michelle Malkin is pushing is complete nonsense. The Latino community was outraged over the House Bill that called them felons and the Mexican flag was used as a symbol of their culture. Calling them the "illegal immigrant" community as Charles Johnson and many others do makes any kind of a civil discussion impossible. The Latino community fully understands the immigration debate and wants a fair and humane way to sort it out.

Families are a primary concern and Atrios sums it up: "Missing in the TV coverage of the immigration rallies I've seen so far is the primary issues that's motivating people to attend them: families.

Duncan has some great pictures posted now.

Here's information about the rallies.

BLACK-BROWN TENSIONS IN LA

DAVEY D, FNV NEWSLETTER - For those of you reading this who live outside of Los Angeles you should note the that folks are on edge cause of increasing racial tension between blacks and Mexicans. Over the past month there have been a few brawls at local high schools which were widely reported on the news down here.

Now the tensions have been inflamed by a letter that has been circulating around the city claiming that in retaliation for some beef between black and latino gangs, 500 black kids wearing white t-shirts would be targeted and killed by Mexican gangs on Cinco de Mayo which is today. For the most part, the letter appears to be a hoax. Folks who work closely with the gangs down here have not heard of any craziness jumping off, but because the letter has been so widely circulated, it has led to some town hall meetings and increased police presence on all the high school campuses down here. A lot of parents are refusing to let their kids come to school...read on

Associated Press is reporting that JEB BUSH was told of serious flaws in the "felon voter list" that sought to prevent a list of mostly African-Americans from voting but avoided purging republican-leaning latino voters. Despite this knowledge, Bush himself pushed to purge them anyway. It isn't just Glenda Hood anymore. It goes up to the Governor.

Now, of course, Bush's press person calls this story "irrelevant" since the list isn't being used, thanks to pressure from legal watchdog groups, and yes, the media.

It's irrelevant that the Governor tried to keep African-Americans from voting in Florida? I can't imagine why this doesn't merit a criminal investigation. Perhaps some of those cops Jeb has going out intimidating older African-American voters might want to look into it.

On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a blatant profiling bill into law, securing Arizona’s title as the first official police state in the nation. If enacted, a whopping 30% of Arizonans – or nearly two million Latinos—would be walking around with a target on their backs.

Under the law, police must stop anyone who they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe may be an “illegal immigrant.” President Obama slammed the new law as a severely “misguided” way to deal with immigration. Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, are scrambling to excuse the fact that the bill mandates racial profiling and could waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. According to Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), former lobbyist for the anti-immigrant group behind the bill, FAIR, police can use plenty of other cues—like people’s hair, or shoes—to determine immigration status.

Watch the new mashup by my organization, America’s Voice:

The irony here is that what was supposed to be a bill that mobilized the nativist elements of the GOP base has instead become a rallying cry for Latino and immigrant communities that have hosted intense, round-the-clock vigils and protests for the last six days in Arizona.

The Arizona Republic reported yesterday:

A line of activists and protesters filed in front of the state Capitol on Friday morning to rally against the immigration bill, joining those that had stayed the night. [...]

Students had left schools Thursday and protested at the Capitol.

Student protesters have been out front, protesting the Governor all the way to her hotel Thursday night to demand she veto the bill, while posting pictures on twitter with the hashtags #SB1070 and #altoarizona (“alto” means stop in Spanish and AltoArizona.com is a hub of activity around the bill).

On Friday, the mainstream media finally began to cover this grassroots display of outrage and power – CNN’s Rick Sanchez reported that protests of the bill were sending twitter over capacity and posted pictures from the thousands of protesters waiting outside to hear the Governor’s decision. As the final decision came down, pictures streaming across twitter showed the bill’s opponents gathered peacefully on their knees, in a moment of silence for human dignity that was echoed across Spanish radio, facebook, and twitter. Not your average tea party.

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