A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center published yesterday shows that there are now more Puerto Ricans living in the 50 United States than on the island itself.
"Some 4.1 million Puerto Ricans resided in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in 2007, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That is a slightly greater number than the population of Puerto Rico itself in 2007, which was 3.9 million.
"Puerto Ricans are the second-largest population of Hispanic origin residing in the United States, accounting for 9.1% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2007. Mexicans constituted 29.2 million, or 64.3%, of the Hispanic population. "
Mexican nationals will now need a visa to travel to Canada, that country's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, announced Monday. Canada decided to stiffen the requirements due to what officials said has been a surge in claims for refugee status by Mexicans.
In a news release, Canadian immigration officials said that for the first 48 hours after the new rules go into effect today, Mexican citizens can apply for entry on arrival in Canada. But as of Thursday, a visa will be required:
Refugee claims from Mexico have almost tripled since 2005, making it the number one source country for claims. In 2008, more than 9,400 claims filed in Canada came from Mexican nationals, representing 25 per cent of all claims received. Of the Mexican claims reviewed and finalized in 2008 by the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent administrative tribunal, only 11 per cent were accepted.
Read on »
Activists in the United States are pushing for a California ballot initiative that would end public benefits for illegal immigrants, cut off welfare payments for their children and impose new rules for birth certificates.
Read on »
As California lawmakers struggle with a budget gap that has now grown to $26.3 billion, one of the hottest topics for many taxpayers is the cost to the state of illegal immigrants, write Anna Gorman and Teresa Watanabe.
"The question of whether taxpayers should provide services to illegal residents became a major political issue in California's last deep recession, culminating in the ballot fight over Proposition 187 in 1994. That history could repeat itself in the current downturn, as activists opposed to illegal immigration have launched a campaign for an initiative that would, among other things, cut off welfare payments to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Those children are eligible for welfare benefits because they are U.S. citizens. "State welfare officials estimate that cutting off payments to illegal immigrants for their U.S.-born children could save about $640 million annually if it survives legal challenges." The report also includes the following findings:
Read on »
 Crash and Yasmin, the lively and outspoken hosts of the mun2 cable network’s hit show “The Chicas Project,” hit the road for the series’ fourth season … and the show’s cameras are pointing at you.
Over the course of the season’s 11 episodes, the pair will travel cross-country and collect video of Latinos sharing their views on various topics, from immigration to the economy. The odyssey will culminate in Washington, where the duo will present their findings on Capitol Hill when they meet with the president of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
But these mujeres aren't just looking for outlooks on politics.
To promote the show’s fourth season, the gals will head to Hollywood and Highland on Thursday (starting at 2 p.m.) to find out once and for all -- using the unscientific method of seeing which food they can give away the fastest -- whether Angelenos prefer hot dogs or tacos.
In Los Angeles, where taco establishments (both mobile and stationary) reign supreme, the winner would seem obvious, right? Maybe. Except that each night Pink’s Hot Dogs on La Brea Avenue is bustling with frankfurter connoisseurs.
So, naturally, settling the matter would require the two chicas to face off in a food smackdown. Crash, the outspoken rock chick from L.A., will be handing out 1,000 Joselito’s tacos and Yasmin, the fiery songstress from Queens, N.Y., will be giving away 1,000 Pink's hot dogs. The outcome will determine which kind of takeout rules Angelenos' hearts.
But if you want your Crash-and-Yasmin fix without excess fat, catch the premiere Thursday at 7 p.m.
-- Yvonne Villarreal
Photo: Yasmin, left, and Crash tempt Angelenos with Pink's hot dogs and Joselito's tacos. Credit: mun2
 A Latino graduate went deeply into debt on student loans in hopes of improving local education. Then the recession changed the odds, writes columnist Hector Tobar.
Antonio Plascencia Jr. went into debt for California. Big time. He placed a five-figure bet on your kids and their schools. And it's a gamble he could lose.
Plascencia got into this predicament because he's a wonky 25-year-old from the barrios of East Los Angeles and El Monte. He gets angry when he thinks about those high school friends who couldn't write a coherent paragraph and the teachers who accepted this sad truth without complaint.
When he graduated from El Monte High, he was a good student with an unspectacular 3.4 grade-point average. But he worked hard at Loyola Marymount University and latched onto a dream.
He would infiltrate Southern California's ailing public school system and change it from the inside, announcing to everyone that underachievement in barrio communities would no longer be tolerated.
To do this, he needed training. So he interned, networked and fought his way into one of the best boot camps for aspiring public servants in the United States -- the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies.
His plan was to come back home to California this summer and, with his newly minted master's degree, get a job and start to "make a little trouble" in the education bureaucracy.
Everything was going smoothly -- until the budget crisis hit.
Read more of Tobar's column here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Dallas Morning News reporter Katherine Leal Unmuth wonders what happened to Elian Majano, the young son of immigrants from El Salvador who disappeared from Lively Park in Irving, Texas, three years ago. He was 2 years old when he went missing.
"From time to time, I find myself thinking about an Irving toddler who apparently disappeared while playing with his older brother in Irving's Lively Park on June 21, 2006 -- Elian Majano, then two years old. Today, close to the third anniversary of his disappearance, he should be five years old.
"His father handed the photo (pictured at the right) of brothers Alexis, then 4, and Elian to me when I visited the family's cramped apartment in South Irving -- an aging complex occupied by many immigrant families. (Elian's parents are from El Salvador). Now this little boy has joined a long list of other missing children from throughout the country, his case featured on America's Most Wanted online."
Read more about Elian Majano here.
Click here for more posts on immigration and migrant issues.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Alex Sanchez, the nationally known anti-gang activist who was arrested last month on federal charges of racketeering and conspiracy, is gaining support from "clergy, professors, lawyers, community organizers and youths from Latino, black and Asian communities," writes Esmeralda Bermudez in the latest report on the controversial case.
"They hail the Salvadoran immigrant as a reformed gangster turned peacemaker and believe he is incapable of betraying the community's trust," she writes.
One of Sanchez's supporters, former state Sen. Tom Hayden, said outside court at Tuesday's bail hearing, during which Sanchez, head of the anti-gang group Homies Unidos, was denied bail: "If they wanted my house, they could have it."
You can read Hayden elaborating more about what he describes as a "weak case" from the prosecution in The Nation, and watch him speaking outside the courthouse on the video below.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Carpenter says that Sanchez's supporters have "been duped by his public face."
— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Mexican women left behind by husbands who migrate to the United States in search of work were one of the focuses of the documentary "Los Que Se Quedan," or "Those Who Remain," by Carlos Hagerman and Juan Carlos Rulfo, which we've mentioned a number of times here on La Plaza.
In response to those posts, Jared Wilkerson, one of the authors of a recent study on that subject, got in touch with us about the findings he recently made with his colleagues at Brigham Young University.
The study, called "Effects of Husbands’ Migration on Mental Health and Gender Role Ideology of Rural Mexican Women," found that those women generally have a poorer state of mental health than a comparison group. The study attributes this condition largely to the nontraditional gender roles that are forced upon the women because of their husbands' absence.
Read on »
|
|
Chris Kraul
Mexico City:
Deborah Bonello
Ken Ellingwood
San Diego:
Richard Marosi
Washington:
Nicole Gaouette