January, 16 2012, 08:01am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael Earls, (202) 494-8555
Pili Tobar, (305) 890-3076
Romney to Campaign with Anti-Immigrant Radical Kris Kobach in SC on Monday
Experts discuss: who is Kris Kobach, and how Romney's embrace of Kobach will affect the presumptive nominee with Latino voters?
WASHINGTON
Today at 11 a.m. EST, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), other immigration reform leaders and a leading civil rights group will discuss a stunning development. Mitt Romney has fully embraced Kris Kobach, the controversial author of the anti-immigrant bills enacted in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and elsewhere, a move that could disqualify him with many Latino voters across the country.
After trumpeting the endorsement of Kobach, Romney will campaign on Monday in South Carolina with Kobach at his side. Kobach is the architect of laws aimed at driving out of the country undocumented workers and families who have settled in the U.S. The Romney-Kobach team solidifies Romney's positioning as the most extreme Republican contender on immigration issues, including his pledge to veto the DREAM Act if he is elected president.
WHAT: What does Romney's embrace of anti-immigrant radical Kris Kobach, and his campaign appearance with him on Monday, mean for Romney's chances with Latino voters?
WHO: Rep. Luis Gutierrez, United States Congressman (D-IL)
Heidi Beirich, Director of the Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer, Service Employee International Union
Frank Sharry, Executive Director, America's Voice
WHEN: Today, January 16, 2012 at 11:00 am EST
WHERE: 1-800-862-9098; Passcode: KOBACH
America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform. The mission of America's Voice is to realize the promise of workable and humane comprehensive immigration reform. Our goal is to build the public support and create the political momentum for reforms that will transform a dysfunctional immigration system that does not work into a regulatory system that does.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
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PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
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