Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Needs To Resign!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nativo V. Lopez

E-mail: nlopez [at] hermandadmexicana.org or NativoLopez [at] mapa-ca.org

MAPA Joins American Muslim Alliance and Others in Calling for the Resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Washington, DC. There has been a lot of controversy around accusations that U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales allowed the Justice Department to be politicized when eight U.S. attorneys were dismissed-not based on their performance, but for partisan political considerations. In response, many Congressional Democrats have called for Gonzales' resignation as more of his top staff members leave the Justice Department.

The Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), the oldest non-partisan political and civic organization of the Mexican American, Mexican and Latino community in the U.S., however, calls for Gonzales to resign for reasons of much greater substance that has implications for both major political parties in the U.S. Congress.

"U.S. Attorney Gonzales has been at the helm of the Justice Department during the darkest period of deteriorating civil liberties in the history of our country," stated Nativo V. Lopez, National President of MAPA.

"Gonzales's interpretation that habeus corpus is not protected by the U.S. Constitution is the premise for the continued incarceration of targeted political detainees both in the U.S. and on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"His interpretation that the U.S. is not bound by the U.N. Geneva Convention on the use of torture of detainees is the premise for the repeated disclosures of torture by U.S. soldiers abroad.

"The Justice Department, under his leadership, has repeatedly used secret evidence to persecute and prosecute persons due to their political activities, most particularly Arab Americans and Muslims, and related federal and local policing agencies have been engaged in domestic spying.

"The case of South Florida University Professor Sami Al-Arian is a classic example of such persecution. Dr. Sami Al-Arian has been in prison for the past four years, much of this time in solitary confinement. After the government spent $80 million on a 10-year investigation and a six-month trial with 80 witnesses, the Palestinian civil rights leader was found not guilty of 17 charges against him in December 2005. The jury failed to return a single guilty verdict, yet Al-Arian remains in jail because the Justice Department demands that he testify before a federal grand jury in an unrelated case.

"Over the past twelve months, Gonzales' Justice Department has literally terrorized all immigrant communities with random and targeted raids on residences, private businesses, and commercial areas in search of undocumented persons for the purpose of executing their deportation. Public comments by Department of Homeland Security officials have clearly established the political motivations for the raids in line with President George W. Bush's desire for a massive guest-worker program as a pillar of any federal immigration reform.

"The massive immigration raids have resulted in flagrant violations of civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and their U.S. citizen immediate relatives, particularly their children who have been forcibly separated and abandoned by their parents.

"These are the substantive reasons that MAPA calls on all Latino organizations to set aside any considerations of ethnic pride, protectionism, and favoritism that would in any way be used to insulate Alberto Gonzales from public cries for his immediate removal from his current post as U.S. Attorney General.

"While the reasons given by Democratic leaders in Congress to remove Gonzales are certainly warranted, and more will soon be revealed about the direct influence by Republican White House operatives in the firings of the eight U.S. Attorneys, partisan politics and politicizing of the Justice Department is miniscule when considered alongside the eroding state of our civil liberties and civil rights."

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Nativo V. Lopez is currently the National Director of Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana (HML) and the National President of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA). Both charges require of him full- time advocacy for the civil, human, labor, and immigrant rights of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Latinos throughout the United States. He has dedicated his life to these causes since his years as a high school student where he founded the first student movement organization, United Mexican American Students (UMAS). He was born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles in 1951 to Mexican American parents, and is of both eighth-generation native U.S. born and immigrant stock. Nativo met the legendary immigrant organizer, leader, and advocate, Humberto "Bert" Corona, in 1971 and worked with him in various capacities for thirty years with the organizations Center for Autonomous Social Action (CASA), Hermandad Mexicana, and MAPA. He was a lead organizer in last year's springtime mass protest pro-immigrant marches and was part of the creation of the National Alliance for Immigrant's Rights (NAIR) in Chicago, Illinois.

The Mexican American Political Association, a non- partisan advocacy organization, was founded in Fresno, California in 1963 and has chapters throughout California. It is dedicated to the constitutional and democratic principles of political freedom and representation for the Mexican, Mexican- American and Latino people in the United States. For more information, visit the MAPA website at http://www.MAPA.org.

The main goal of the American Muslim Alliance is to organize the American Muslim community in the mainstream public affairs, civic discourse and party politics all across the United States. As a nationwide community, the AMA seeks to organize itself nationally: in every state and every congressional district. It is their mission to organize Muslims in all fifty states and have an AMA chapter in each of the 435 Congressional Districts. Currently, AMA has 101 chapters in 31 states. Dr. Agha Saeed is the founder of AMA. For more information, visit the AMA website at http://www.AMAWeb.org. http://www.AMAWeb.org

http://www.centerforhumanrights.org

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Join us in this prolonged campaign for driver's licenses and visas for our families. The first step in making change is to join an organization that pursues the change we desire. We welcome you to our ranks.

Other organizations leading this movement include: Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), MAPA Youth Leadership, Liberty and Justice for Immigrants Movement, National Alliance for Immigrant's Rights, and immigrant's rights coalitions throughout the U.S..

CONTACT:
Nativo V. Lopez, National President of MAPA (323) 269-1575