ColorLines

Nothing to see here...

OK, we're sort of kidding about nobody noticing.

But in a video for ColorLines.com, L.A. painter Ramiro Gomez' new immigration-themed project on the Westside -- in which he plants cardboard cutouts of migrant workers on lawns, sidewalks and construction sites throughout Beverly Hills -- the cutouts quickly blend with the landscape, and the folks walking by don't seem particularly startled.

And really, that's the point:

More >>

rat_fink

An anti-illegal-immigrant group is suing the LAPD over its relaxed impound policy for unlicensed drivers.

Washington, D.C.-based Judicial Watch, which unsuccessfully sued the department over its policy prohibiting officers from investigating a person's immigration status, joins the L.A. police union in objecting to the new impound rule.

The department rolled back its 30-day impounds after ...

More >>

Tara Tiger Brown

The LAPD's move to drop 30-day impounds of cars belonging to unlicensed drivers stopped by cops has been controversial to say the least.

The L.A. police union thinks the new policy could put dangerous drivers back on the road: It's suing the department, arguing that the rule contradicts state law.

But immigrants' rights advocates think the department just wrote a check for ...

More >>

Disney Pixar

The LAPD recently changed its ways, saying that unlicensed drivers can generally have their cars back after one day if they're stopped by cops. State law says such impounds should last 30 days. But immigrants' rights activists have argued that illegals, who can't get licenses in California, have been unfairly targeted and stripped of their vehicles. By the time 30 days rolls around, impound and tow fees often add up to more than the cars are worth.

It has been a political hot potato, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck have pushed for the change -- over the dead body of the L.A. police union. Now ...

More >>

csac.ca.gov

Budget deficit be damned.

It's here! The day Republicans have been dreading and undocumented California students have been fighting for since 2001.

College kids without U.S. citizenship can now apply for "conditional permanent residency" via the official DREAM Act application, which will allow them access to state financial-aid funds.

"Good news" ...

More >>

Ron Rogers

The dreaded ICE van.

In a plea for the Latino vote, President Obama keeps promising that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will ease up on the deportations.

In a direct contradiction to that promise, ICE officers across the country just conducted a week-long deportation sweep called "Cross Check" --

More >>

lowjumpingfrog

If you plan on coming to America in a small "panga" boat, try to land in Venice. Stinking wet with ragged clothes on, people will assume you belong.

Unfortunately for this group of 20 suspected illegals, likely from Mexico, their boat came ashore along a wide-open stretch of beach in El Segundo. You could see them for miles around, and soon the authorities were swarming like white boys on fish tacos.

Today's unfortunate and allegedly illegal entry happened ...

More >>

InsightOut News

Occupy la Casa Cardenas.

Things got pretty rowdy at the foreclosed North Hollywood home of undocumented immigrant Blanca Cardenas (and her U.S. citizen family, including two small children) on Monday night.

Occupy L.A. protesters, who have been rallying against both the Bank of America foreclosure and Cardenas' resulting deportation, can be seen in a video of the on-site demonstration running through doors, picketing on the front porch and refusing to leave the premises. This, despite about 20 LAPD cops in riot gear waiting to pounce...

More >>

Estrella TV

Cardenas' husband and baby daughter.

Update: Here's video of Occupy L.A. breaking back into Cardenas' foreclosed home.

A married couple with two children were protesting the foreclosure of their home in North Hollywood on February 22, when the unthinkable happened.

Blanca Cardenas, a 37-year-old mother with a 19-month-old baby girl, was arrested by LAPD officers for trespassing at the property. According to her U.S. citizen husband, Gerardo Quinones, she was hauled down to the Van Nuys station, where she posted $1,000 bail -- "but they didn't let her leave."

Cardenas stayed in LAPD custody for one week, until yesterday...

More >>

modelmayhem.com

Cindy Reyna.

Updated at the bottom: She was arrested on suspicion of DUI. First posted at 1:58 p.m.

Immigrants' rights activists are coming to the aid of Cindy Reyna, a UC Santa Barbara student and sometime model who they say was arrested and now faces deportation despite being a potential DREAM Act student.

The DREAM Act, which has not been passed on a federal level, would give amnesty to undocumented students who spent most of their lives in the United States: U.S. Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano has said immigrants who would be DREAM Act eligible would not be a priority for deportation.

Nonetheless, activists say that Reyna ...

More >>

Ariel Dovas

In a contentious debate that seemed to pit older, white Los Angeles against the more liberal, browner shade of town and the leaders it elected to City Hall, the L.A. police commission today said illegal immigrants could essentially keep their cars when they're caught driving without a license.

The modified rule will allow unlicensed drivers to avoid 30-day impounds if they have insurance, registration and a valid ID.

Under the 4-1 Police Commission vote, such drivers aren't eligible for the deal if ...

More >>

Félix Beltrán

Angela Davis, former Black Panther, is the go-to commentator on any protest or political uprising these days. (And, apparently, the go-to stencil for "street artists" designing nostalgic protest fliers.)

So why hasn't anyone asked her how she feels about the DREAM Act -- the national push to grant undocumented students and soldiers their citizenship, and one of the greatest civil-rights fights of the 21st century?

Maybe because...

More >>

Getty Images

Chief Beck, mayor's pet.

Get mad, Arizona nation:

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, known to side loyally with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on all politics Latino, says he has a pretty great solution to the illegal-immigrant impound debate.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the chief suggests...

More >>

Heraldsburg Magazine

Looks like illegal immigrants really can hang out on a street corner and whistle at well-proportioned white women ask for work.

In fact, the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court in decades says so (sorry John & Ken). The court today denied a petition to overturn a lower-court decision that says Redondo Beach and other western municipalities can't ban day laborers from gathering and soliciting jobs.

The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, which challenged Redondo Beach's now outlawed rule, was ecstatic:

More >>

ACLU of Southern California

The White House debuted its 2013 fiscal year budget Monday, and buried in the 250-page document is one line item could have big ramifications for L.A. County jails--the federal government slashed funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program by two-thirds compared to the previous year.

Ten years ago, the federal government was feeling generous--it disbursed $565 million to state and local agencies nationwide to offset the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants convicted or detained for a crime; back then, in 2002, L.A. County received a $34 million piece of that pie. In 2013, Los Angeles' slice will be much, much smaller: $2.53 million, according to county estimates, which means you, L.A. taxpayer, will be on the hook for making up the difference.

More >>

Lorna Valle with Marian and Lindsay Stephanie Taque-Valle.

The cousin of Lorna Valle, the mother who allegedly tried to drown her two daughters in the bathtub of a converted garage in South Los Angeles yesterday, says she was denied treatment at a hospital because she was an illegal immigrant.

Valle's one-year-old daughter passed away en route to the hospital; her five-year-old is still listed in "grave" condition at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Speaking to KTLA, Luis Padillas said his cousin, who is originally from Guatemala, was severely depressed and wanted to go home. Valle sought help from a local hospital, but "the hospital didn't want to treat her because we didn't have papers," he told the station's reporter in Spanish. Padillas said the family is seeking a lawyer to file a negligence suit against the hospital.

Video after the jump.

More >>

As if they don't have enough to worry about.

No matter the hot L.A. news item, it always seems to turn into an immigration debate.

And that should come as no surprise: Rough estimates have placed close to 1 million illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County. And whenever law enforcement or press come sniffing, the paperless are at risk of being outed.

This fear has reportedly played a large factor in the sheriff's probe of Miramonte Elementary in unincorporated South L.A.:

More >>

workersforjustice.org

Politics in paradise.

The illegal-immigration debate is on fire at Pomona College in far-east L.A. County.

"You'd think that if any place was going to be a safe haven for immigrants, it would be at colleges and universities," says Peter Dreier, a professor at Occidental College in L.A. proper. "But that doesn't seem to be the case at Pomona College. They've joined in that wave of anti-immigrant hysteria."

Dreier serves as a talking head in a new mini-documentary about the controversy produced by labor union Unite Here Local 11...

More >>

Southern California Immigration Coalition

Bad news... for drunks and aliens.

It's common knowledge, by now, that DUI checkpoints around L.A. County double as illegal-immigrant crackdowns.

It works like this: Illegals aren't allowed to hold driver's licenses in California (a public-safety outrage for another day), so when they're asked to show their licenses at a DUI checkpoint, their cars will inevitably, under state law, be impounded and held for 30 days. Immigrants rights advocates argue that the policy works as an indirect tax on undocumented aliens.

So LAPD Chief Charlie Beck recently made the executive decision to do away with the impounds...

More >>

Nice try, bud.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has been on somewhat of a lucky streak, what with his laughable non-charges for carrying a loaded gun through airport security.

That's probably because, as noted by LA Weekly's Gene Maddaus, wiggle room in law enforcement "seems to work in favor of state lawmakers, and against guys with names like Memphitz." So the score, as of yesterday, looked to be white politicians, 1; minorities, 0.

Not anymore! Donnelly's signature drive to repeal the DREAM Act, signed by Governor Jerry Brown last fall to give undocumented immigrants access to financial aid, just went in the trash:

More >>