Carlos Quintanilla outgoing President of Accion America and Candidate for Congress in the 33rd Congressional District has called for a renewed Public Education Campaign On Cheese Heroin. His call is in response to the recent deaths of two teenagers ages 14 and 17 within the last week, both students at Thomas Jefferson High School.

Quintanilla who has been canvassing the area from Walnut Hill to Northwest Highway and Marsh on the west and up to Interstate 35 east, says the number of young teenagers addicted and using Cheese Heroin is again at epidemic proportions with at least 100 addicted youths within this area. We cannot blame the school system, students or those teaching our Children, we must hold our community accountable for not having the necessary information to prevent this tragic situation.

Mr. Quintanilla has been in contact with TJ Principal Edward Congers and Mayor Mike Rawlings about this issue and both are on board to help launch this major community education campaign. We need you again members of the media to Save our Children.

Quintanilla is calling for:

1. Public information outreach to parents whose Children are entering the second wave of potential Cheese Heroin addiction, targeting again Thomas Jefferson High School and its feeder pattern schools.

2. Re establishment of the “Cheese Heroin Task Force” with specific emphasis on Children becoming addicted and re shifting priorities to saving the lives of those addicted and already introduced to Cheese Heroin versus the Let’s Highlight those who are doing well.

3. Allocation of funding for summer youth recreation programs.

4. State funding for Adolescent treatment of Cheese Heroin addiction including access to suboxen

5. Increase police presence and Eye Spy Neighborhood Watch Program.

A Press Conference will be held Friday at 4pm in front of Thomas Jefferson High School. Members of the community, leaders and others have been invited to join the Public Awareness Effort. “Saving Our Children, Again”. Family members of the two youth that died and family members whose Children are currently seeking treatment have been invited to attend today’s 4pm Press Conference.

Ruling caps five-year legal battle over latest unlawful ordinance enacted by the City of Farmer’s Branch, costing taxpayers millions

New Orleans, LA – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the City of Farmers Branch, located outside of Dallas, TX, violated the Constitution by passing a housing ordinance aimed at driving out Latinos. The court held that “the ordinance’s sole purpose is not to regulate housing but to exclude undocumented [immigrants], specifically Latinos.” The Fifth Circuit further held that the City of Farmers Branch’s Ordinance 2952 is an unconstitutional and invalid regulation of immigration and “constitutes an obstacle to federal authority over immigration and the conduct of foreign affairs.” Today’s ruling affirms the permanent injunction issued by the district court on March 25, 2010, which has since blocked implementation of the ordinance.

The challenge was brought by MALDEF, the ACLU and the ACLU of Texas.

“Today’s decision soundly rejected Farmers Branch’s immigration scheme which was really designed to push out Latinos” stated Nina Perales, Vice President of Litigation at MALDEF and attorney who successfully argued the case before the Fifth Circuit on October 4, 2011. “The federal courts have made clear that cities cannot make their own immigration laws and target residents for expulsion simply because of their race or nationality,” continued Perales.

Ordinance 2952 is the latest in a series of anti-immigrant ordinances enacted by the City of Farmers Branch, Texas. Past unsuccessful legislative efforts to pass anti-immigrant ordinances – both blocked by MALDEF and ACLU attorneys – include Ordinance 2892 and its later replacement Ordinance 2903. These past ordinances sought to require landlords of apartment complexes to verify that every person living in an apartment in the City, was a United States citizen or an eligible immigrant. Defense of the series of cases has cost taxpayers for the City of Farmers Branch millions of dollars.

“Other Texas municipalities should pay close heed to what the 5th Circuit held today,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas. “Farmers Branch has invested over 5 years and literally millions of its residents’ taxpayer dollars in costly litigation trying to regulate immigration. As the Court held, immigration regulation is a ‘national problem that needs a national solution.’ It is time for Farmers Branch to give up its mean-spirited and quixotic efforts to do the federal government’s job.” ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project (ACLU IRP) has served as co-counsel on the case.

Today’s appellate ruling follows the March 2010 determination by the U.S. District Court that Ordinance 2952 was preempted by federal law.

In concluding its ruling, the Fifth Circuit stated that:
“This country has a large Latino population and millions of Latinos live here without legal permission. However, the great majority live quietly, raise families, obey the law daily, and do work for our country. For all that they contribute to our welfare, they live in constant dread of being apprehended as [undocumented immigrants] and being evicted, perhaps having their families disrupted. As unsatisfactory as this situation is it is the immigration scheme we have today…

“Because the sole purpose and effect of this ordinance is to target the presence of [undocumented immigrants] within the City of Farmers Branch and to cause their removal, it contravenes the federal government’s exclusive authority over the regulation of immigration and the conditions of residence in this country, and it constitutes an obstacle to federal authority over immigration and the conduct of foreign affairs. The ordinance is unconstitutional, and the judgment of the district court is affirmed.”

Omar Jadwat, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said: “Today’s decision conclusively rejects Farmers Branch’s unconstitutional attempt to turn a municipal law into an anti-immigrant weapon. It is another defeat for the ‘self-deportation’ movement and the latest example why states and cities should not be implementing hateful policies that lead to racial profiling and violate people’s fundamental rights.”

Yesterday, in an Oak Cliff Justice of the Peace courtroom, two tenants celebrated a victory in their quest for decent living conditions. Judge Juan Jasso ruled in favor of Ramona Robles and Rigoberto Gutierrez, who, after filing complaints with the city about unbearable temperatures at their Lancaster Avenue apartment building, found eviction notices on their doors.

“If a complaint is made against the city, then anything that happens after that is considered retaliation,” Jasso ruled. “I’m entering judgment for the defendant.”

Both Robles and Gutierrez told the court they had each attempted to pay their $500 rent after complaining about the temperatures but were rebuffed by management, who then used the non-payment as grounds order to evict them.

“I tried to pay rent on June 30 and again in July,” Robles told Unfair Park in an interview outside the courtroom. “They wouldn’t take it.” By that time, she said, she’d already complained to the city twice about the faulty air conditioning, and an inspector had clocked the temperature in her one-bedroom apartment at 95 degrees.

“There was no air for three weeks,” Robles said. “Everyone was complaining, saying they’d come home from work and couldn’t sleep because it was so hot.”

She reached out to attorney and activist Domingo Garcia, who recommended she call activist Carlos Quintanilla and his group Accion America. Quintanilla had been working with tenants of a Pleasant Grove complex to demand air conditioning, though a judge recently ruled in favor of the property owners.

Quintanilla said the tenants and their activist supporters lost that fight because they didn’t keep meticulous records of conditions and complaints. “In this case we have photos, records of the complaints to the city and records of the retaliation,” he said outside Jasso’s courtroom. “We’re gonna sue to make sure they fix the apartments.”

Even after filing complaints and having the eviction notices reversed in court on Thursday, Robles, Gutierrez and other tenants of the building, Town Lake Apartments on Lancaster Avenue, say they still lack functioning air conditioning and suffer from constant cockroach infestations.

“I moved in two weeks ago. and I still haven’t unpacked my pans because the cabinets are full of roaches,” Paula Martinez said. “They fall down on you from the ceilings.”

A Town Lake manager listed in case documents as Mickee Trevin hurried out of court with another woman and refused to answer questions from Unfair Park.

“Don’t be afraid,” Quintanilla told a small group of tenants outside. “You can fight and win. This sends a message to all apartment complexes that they can’t have people living in squalor.”

Source: Dallas Observer

The Federation of Korean Association of USA (FKAUSA) hosted the 1st Annual Special General Meeting and Leadership Conference at the Omni Hotel in Irving. In effort to integrate the Korean community with the larger community at hand, the conference linked together various organizations and speakers. Groups included NAACP, LULAC, Nation of Islam, Accion America.

Also, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was part of the introduction and expressed his thanks for the Korean community’s social and economic impact on the city. Speakers included personal stories in their dealing with people of different ethnicities, their respective organizations missions, and solutions for moving forward and uniting with the Korean community.

“Our community,”said Carlos Quintanilla of Accion America, “must look to all communities to start building relationships they include: the Black community, the Asian and the progressive Anglo community, relationships must be mutually beneficial and cannot be one sided. Much of his speech was on the lack of brown and black faces in politics.”

As many anticipated, the conference did not end without differences of opinions.

No stranger to controversy, Minister Jefrrey Muhammad from the Nation of Islam spoke on the relationship between Korean store owners and the Black community, specifically in South Dallas. “I was disappointed that they may have felt offended by Rev. Jeffrey Mohammad’s remarks,”said Richard Sambrano, co-Chairman of LULAC, “but I could be wrong!”

After the minister finished speaking, host and VP of Korean Society of Dallas, Ted Kim, stated “It is important that we all know how we all feel and that was accomplished” and reminded the audience in order for one group to understand the other, “we need to know where everyone stands.”

Many of the participants were satisfied at the outcome.

Hopefully the conference sparked new relationships and all communities of color will understand each other more thoroughly and move towards a path for a better tomorrow.

Participación de Carlos Quintanilla en el Programa Enfoque de Telemundo Dallas.

IRVING – Irving ISD made history Thursday by changing the way board members are elected.

It went ahead with a plan that creates five single-member districts, leaving two at-large.

Irving previously only had an at-large system, in which the general Irving population selects all seven board members. The current school board is all white, despite the district being composed of 84 percent minority students. Minority leaders wanted single-member districts, in which each district selects its own member.

The 6-0 vote came after several public hearings on the issue, but the move angered some minority leaders. They wanted the board to approve a seven single-member district system. They told News 8 the fight is far from over.

“The reason we don’t want a 5-2 is because we know nothing is going to change here,” said Anthony Bond from the Irving NAACP. “If they don’t go to a 7-0, we are suing them. We are calling for the kids to disrupt classes. We will be using every means necessary to get these people’s attention.”

Carlos Quintanilla from Accion America told News 8, the organization will not ask students to protest, but will concentrate on voter education and electing Hispanics to the board.
The 5-2 plan would potentially open the door for two Hispanic seats on the board. With the 7-0, the possibilities included at least four minority seats.

Full story

Dallas dentist and horse racing advocate David Alameel, a Democrat, will run for Congress, he said in an email to supporters this week. He’s challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, whose redrawn congressional district is less Republican than the incumbent would like. It’s still Republican, but it’s also a district where more than half of the voting-age population is either Hispanic or African-American. In his email, Alameel said he’ll start with $2 million in his campaign account.

Dallas Morning News

Chanting in unison, “We want classroom breakfast!” more than 1,000 children ate breakfast together Saturday morning at a rally sponsored by Accion America. The rally kicked off an effort to promote healthy eating habits among the fast growing Hispanic population of Texas and raise awareness about the benefits of Breakfast in the Classroom programs. Attending the rally were kids from 60 soccer teams, parents, representatives from school districts throughout Texas.

Hosted by Accion America in partnership with the Oak Cliff Soccer Association, the rally was held at Kiest Park in Dallas. The got breakfast? Foundation donated breakfast and milk to more than 1,000 children involved in the ongoing soccer program that takes kids away from negative activity into positive recreational and team-building activities.

The rally included guest speakers Mike Rawlings, Mayor of Dallas, Texas, Estafania Shine, Program Director of Learning4Today and Attorney and President of the Oak Cliff Soccer They encouraged parents to get their kids to participate in current school breakfast programs and become got breakfast? Ambassadors for Breakfast in Classroom programs within Texas. And where those programs do not exist, parents were encouraged to talk to principals, teachers and school administrators to get on board with Breakfast in Classroom programs. A video of the event is available on YouTube under Got Breakfast  Rally. Carlos Quintanilla, President of Accion America, whose organization served over 100,000 meals to children this summer, emphasized the importance of eating healthy and getting school districts to participate in Breakfast in Classroom programs by addressing the myths that go along with failure to have this program available to students.

“Breakfast in Classroom programs are successful for many reasons, while serving breakfast in the cafeteria has its drawbacks from a functional standpoint,” explains Quintanilla. “Classroom by classroom ensures that all children get a healthy meal. The district saves money and even makes money in the long run by having that efficiency.” 

By switching from the traditional cafeteria breakfast to serving “grab ‘n’ go” classroom breakfasts, schools can feed more children. “For school districts with high free or reduced fee student population, cafeteria breakfast is a dinosaur,” says Gary Davis, founder of the got breakfast? Foundation. “Cafeteria breakfast is fiscally inefficient and socially impractical. For school districts truly desiring to feed more eligible children breakfast each school day while positively impacting their bottom line 100 percent, classroom breakfast is the real and proven solution.”

According to the Food Research and Action Center’s School Breakfast Scorecard for 2009-2010, serving Breakfast in the Classroom is a key strategy for increasing participation rates. Studies show kids who eat breakfast perform better in school. Research has documented the following benefits of Breakfast in the Classroom:

• Improvements in attendance
• A reduction in tardiness
• Fewer stomachaches and visits to the school nurse
• Increased test scores
• Fewer disciplinary problems
• Improved diets
• Reduction in obesity rates

To allow Homeland Security to continue to take aggressive and unacceptable actions against our community is not an option. We are calling on every good citizen, on every good resident, on all good Christians, on all people regardless of color and ethnicity to join us to end the unacceptable practice of separating families. You cannot take a mother from her Child and you cannot take a Child from their mother, it is morally wrong and intolerable.

WE URGE YOU, WE IMPLORE YOU TO JOIN US ON OCTOBER 17 AT 4PM,

SEND A TEXT MESSAGE,
FORWARD THIS EMAIL,
MAKE A PHONE CALL,
INVITE A FRIEND,
BRING YOU CANDLE,
BRING YOUR SIGN,
BRING YOUR SPIRIT SO THAT ANATOLIA CAN STAY WITH HER CHILDREN AND HER HUSBAND.

Irving family waits, hopes mom’s deportation will be stayed

By DIANNE SOLÍS
Staff Writer
Published: 09 October 2011 10:35 PM

IRVING — Family matters mightily when you lose your mother at 11, face military conscription at 14, and exit your war-torn country at 15 with a visa obtained by a father who wants to save your life.

That’s why 45-year-old Abel Garcia uses the metaphor “like losing a limb” to describe the potential deportation of his 47-year-old wife, Anatolia. Their three children agree.
“You also break the children’s hearts,” 12-year-old Jennifer, the oldest daughter, said in precise English.

Every immigrant has a hard luck story. But this story, at this time, may matter more to federal authorities.

Anatolia Garcia’s family and legal advocates are hoping that a recent focus on “prosecutorial discretion” may help her stay in the country.

Immigration officials are allowed to apply prosecutorial discretion that would halt some deportation cases, according to a White House and Department of Homeland Security reminder in mid-August. Homeland Security authorities gave guidance on who would qualify for a deportation cancellation — and said they would form a review committee for about 300,000 cases.

That announcement rippled through immigrant communities where desperation can turn rumor into fact. Soon the “guidance” became “el orden de Obama,” the order of Obama.
Hundreds of families in the Dallas area, and maybe more, could benefit from prosecutorial discretion if the person scheduled for deportation has no criminal record, has long ties in the community, or has U.S.-born children, among other factors.

Anatolia Garcia fits that description. Her husband is here legally, and she benefited for along time from his legal status as an asylum candidate. Now, her husband has temporary protected status as a Salvadoran, but that does not help his wife because she is Mexican.
Immigration laws and procedures can be conflicting and confusing. Reaction from immigration officials to the guidance announcements has been mixed.

Since memos about low and high priorities were issued in March and again in June, discretionary decisions that would halt deportations haven’t been uniform, said Laura Lichter, a Denver immigration attorney and the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“We have seen a lot of good decisions either on holding off on prosecuting, or granting relief, or agreeing not to deport someone,” Lichter said.

But Lichter said the majority of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials are “in a holding pattern” and seem to be waiting for more guidance. The immigration lawyers association is monitoring cases and stressing to immigrants that amnesty hasn’t been given.

Irving homemaker
Anatolia Garcia is a homemaker who oversees her three children’s studies and drives them to activities. Emmanuel, 9, loves mathematics; Natalie, 10, favors karate. Jennifer opts for mystery novels and gets her highest grades in reading. The family owns a brick, three-bedroom home in a neighborhood where family names are etched into the sidewalk cement.
Her life in Irving is vastly different than it would be back in Oaxaca, one of the most impoverished states in Mexico. She fears the drug-related violence and kidnappings that have gripped Mexico.

She said she doesn’t understand why she’s in deportation proceedings. Her Houston attorney has appealed her removal order but was turned down eight weeks ago.

Close monitoring
Three weeks ago, Garcia was told she must wear an electronic ankle monitor.
An ICE subcontractor visits twice a week because she’s considered a flight risk because her deportation date is near.

“We’ve paid our taxes for years,” Garcia said in Spanish. “We are current on all our bills. I’ve never committed a crime.”

Garcia calls the monitor “a humiliation.”
At the Dallas ICE headquarters, Nuria Prendes, the head of enforcement and removal operations, declined to comment on the Garcia case. But she did say there is an alternative to ankle monitoring when final deportation nears: “Detain them.”
Prosecutorial discretion dates to the 1970s, and several legal memos explaining when it can and can’t be applied have been issued through the years. In March and June of this year, John Morton, ICE’s director, issued memos providing guidance on who might be covered so that the agency’s limited resources were focused on “enforcement priorities.”

Learn More: Dallas Morning News