Mexican American Political Association Endorses Forrest Hill for CA Secretary of State

The Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) has endorsed Forrest Hill for Secretary of State!
Forrest, along with several other Green Party candidates, including Peter Camejo (governor), Donna Warren (Lt. Governor), Todd Chretien (Senate), and Mehul Thakker (Treasurer) spoke at the MAPA endorsement convention on October 7th in LA. All five Green candidates were endorsed over their Democratic and Republican rivals.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the mainstream parties do not represent the best interests of Latinos or immigrants," said Forrest. We are the only party willing to stand up for immigrant rights and refute the steady stream of misinformation fed the public by the media.

Myths and Facts about Immigration

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On Monday night, President Bush called for sending as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to "protect" the U.S.-Mexican border, and renewed his call for the creation of identity cards for "legal" immigrants.

The proposals generated by the president and supported by the Democratic Party are likely to resonate with many in the general public, who have been fed a steady stream of misinformation by the media.

Below are some of the myths perpetuated by politicians on both sides of the aisle and the facts that are never reported on television.

Myth: Illegal immigrants from Mexico and Latin America are over running the U.S.- Mexican border

Fact:

* Less than 1 percent of border crossings each year are by undocumented workers (David Lorey, The U.S. - Mexican Border in the Twentieth Century).
* 75 percent of immigrants in the U.S. have legal permanent visas (Department of Homeland Security).
* Half of the estimated 12 million immigrants who are undocumented didn’t cross the border illegally, but simply overstayed temporary visas (General Accounting Office Report, 2004).
* The percent of the U.S. population that is foreign born is 11.7 percent, which is 3 percent lower than it was 100 years ago (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
* Only 2 percent of the worlds immigrate population resides in the U.S.



Myth: Undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes and take advantage of social welfare programs.

Fact

* 96 percent of undocumented men and 62 percent of undocumented women are in the workforce (Urban Policy Institute).
* Undocumented workers make up 4.9 percent of the labor force in the U.S. (Pew Hispanic Center).
* Undocumented immigrants contribute an estimated $7 Billion per year to Social Security and 1.5 Billion to Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from their wages (New York Times, April 5, 2005).
* Since 1996, the Internal Revenue Service has issued 9.2 million Taxpayer Identification Numbers to allow undocumented workers to pay income taxes.
* In California, undocumented workers pay an estimated $1,500 more in taxes yearly than is paid by the state for services used (Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante).



Myth: Undocumented workers steal jobs from U.S. born workers - particularly from low income earners and drive down wages.

Fact:

* Undocumented workers make up less than 10 percent of the 43 million low-wage workers in America (Urban Policy Institute Study, 2004).
* Employment in about one-third of all U.S. job categories would have contracted during the 1990’s without the arrival of immigrant workers due to the moving of factories overseas (American Immigration Law Foundation Census, 2000).
* Wages are kept low not by undocumented immigrants, but by corporations that have carried out a one-side war on U.S. workers since the 1970s.

*****

Town Meeting on Election Integrity draws Hundred's in San Diego

Debra Bowen and Bruce McPherson's decision not to appear on a panel with Forrest Hill did not stop organizers from holding a town hall meeting on election integrity in California. With little notice several well know activist on election fraud were invited to participate, including Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org, Jim Lampley, sportscaster and activist against vote fraud, and Bruce Funk, Utah Registrar of Voter's who was fired for "whistle-blowing" on voting machine problems.

The meeting was hosted by Ed Asner, a strong critic of electronic voting machines and an advocate for clean money elections.

San Diego
Town Meeting on Election Integrity draws Hundred's in San Diego Print E-mail

Debra Bowen and Bruce McPherson's decision not to appear on a panel with Forrest Hill did not stop organizers from holding a town hall meeting on election integrity in California. With little notice several well know activist on election fraud were invited to participate, including Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org, Jim Lampley, sportscaster and activist against vote fraud, and Bruce Funk, Utah Registrar of Voter’s who was fired for “whistle-blowing” on voting machine problems.

The meeting was hosted by Ed Asner, a strong critic of electronic voting machines and an advocate for clean money elections.

The event was sponsored by the California Election Protection Network, Secure Accurate Elections, Election Defense Alliance, Network of Citizens, and Velvet Revolution - and attended by hundreds of citizens from the San Diego area.

Our campaign would particularly like to thank Sherry Healy of the California Election Protection Network for her insistence on pushing forward with the meeting after Bowen and McPherson had pulled out.

Forrest's message on the need for both election integrity and election reform received loud applause from the mostly bi-partisan audience.

"Because of our election system I don't know if these people will vote Green," said Forrest after the event. "But like many other events I've appeared at, when I say we need a viable third party in this country, I get a standing ovation.

*****

Links:
https://www.voteforrest.org//content/view/85/84/
https://www.voteforrest.org//content/blogsection/29/115/
http://www.mapa.org/index.html
http://www.mapa.org/Secondary/cand2006.html