U.S. struggles to handle unaccompanied children from Central America crossing border
As many as 400 minors are entering Texas each day without a parent - most of them from Central and South America. Where to put them is the question. Tens of thousands are being housed in overcrowded facilities. The House held a hearing Tuesday on the crisis, with some lawmakers placing the blame on the Obama administration. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has ordered five dozen criminal investigators to Texas to prosecute human smugglers. But what should the federal government do with the children who are already here - amnesty, deportation. Anderson discusses the issue with CNN Contributor Dan Restrepo, who served as senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the National Security Council and former Custom Border Patrol Commissioner Ralph Basham.
What should the U.S. do with #undocumented children coming across the border unaccompanied? Tweet #AC360 @CNN pic.twitter.com/UWGyMlaoUt
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 26, 2014
Jorge Ramos: Latinos prefer Barack Obama
Anderson Cooper talks to Univision's Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas about who Latinos support and why voter turnout could make all the difference this election.
"When you can compare it to 2008, it is expected to be just as high," says Salinas about turnout, and she tells Anderson that tracking shows enthusiasm has increased to be at 2008 levels.
Recently Ramos challenged Pres. Obama on immigration reform. At the Univision town hall on Sept. 20, he said, "A promise is a promise, and with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise." The president responded in part by saying he takes responsibility, and vowed to work every day to give everyone in America a "fair shot," but never promised that he would "get everything done 100%."
"He broke a promise...it's very difficult for Latinos to believe Pres. Barack Obama," says Ramos. But forced to choose between the two candidates, he explains Obama is preferable because of his support of the Dream Act, and due to Romney backing self-deportation.
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Post by: Filed under: 2012 Election • Hispanic • Mitt Romney • President Barack Obama |
Immigration issues and Latino voters
John King looks at Latino populations in swing states and how they could impact the outcome of the presidential race.
Courting the Latino vote
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Ana Navarro discuss which candidate has made and kept promises that affect Latinos.
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Post by: Filed under: 2012 Election • Hispanic • Mitt Romney • President Barack Obama |
Would Marco Rubio be a good VP pick?
Alberto Gonzales and Juan Carlos Lopez talk with Soledad O'Brien about the candidates' strategy to win Latino support.
Arms Trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Foreign Policy in Focus
Lately, the news from Mexico has not been particularly positive. Every day the number of victims of the ongoing turf wars in the northern border area of the country grows. In 2009, Mexico reported 7,724 drug war-related deaths,1 while in January of this year alone, the number of people killed in Ciudad Juárez reached a stunning 227. Recently, over the weekend of March 13, 2010, nearly 50 people were killed in that bloody city, including employees and family members of the U.S. Consulate. Most scholars and politicians believe that these deaths are all related to drug gang activity, implying that they are the result of in-gang struggles for control of businesses and territory; fights amongst gangs for routes, and because of clashes with the military.
Much of the discussion and debate regarding the sad situation along the U.S.-Mexican border has been centered on analyzing drug policy and immigration laws. No doubt failed drug policies and practices are fueling much of the violence across the American border. More recently, however, and for the purposes of this essay, a focused discussion on the guns that fuel such violence is taking shape.
Mexico has very strict gun-ownership laws. While the country’s constitution allows for citizens to bear arms, the conditions it places on this ownership—through amendments to the constitution—are much more limiting. Indeed, only one entity is permitted to sell weapons, and it is run by the army. This does not imply that the situation is perfectly controlled, however; there are certainly ways around any law or institutional arrangement. Yet the violence in the northern border states of Mexico seems to be nurtured not only by weapons acquired illegally from Mexico, but also by those trafficked illegally from the United States.
Latinas need voice in abortion debate
Silvia Henriquez
Special to CNN
When Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered her oath last summer, many women - and especially Latinas - felt renewed hope as a champion of women's rights took her place on the U.S. Supreme Court.
With Democrats in the White House and both houses of Congress, we believed that we could stop playing defense and actually advance women's rights, including access to abortion.
However, the health care debate quickly convinced us that we had to mobilize.
First, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, crafted the Stupak-Pitts amendment, designed to restrict women's access to abortion coverage in the proposed public health insurance marketplace. Millions of women who have access to abortion coverage through their insurance plans would lose this coverage if the insurance plans were offered in the exchange.
The day my name got changed
Rudy Ruiz
Special to CNN
The case of the New Mexico hotelier who required Latino employees to adopt English names and avoid speaking Spanish at work reminds us of the need for balance as we grapple with cultural evolution in America.
Many of us take our name and its pronunciation for granted. I imagine I did too - until I was 5 years old.
That's when my dad dropped me off on the front porch of Sunnyside School in Brownsville, Texas, the border town where I was born and raised. Like any kid on his first day of school, I was engulfed by longing and loneliness, staring forlornly at my dad through the screen door as he walked away.
When I turned to face the classroom, the teacher's mouth moved and I heard words, but I failed to understand. Tears pricked my eyes. I didn't speak English yet, having been home with my mom up until that first day of kindergarten.
Latinos are assimilating in the USA
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
CNN
Have you ever seen 47 million people hold their breath and hope for the best?
Take it from this Latino in America, when many of my compadres heard that CNN was putting together a documentary on being "Latino in America," that's pretty much what happened.
For those of us in the Latino community who worry that those of us in the media are missing the best and most nuanced stories about America's largest minority because we're too busy harping on stereotypes and accentuating the negative - "I'll take an order of high school dropouts, with a side of gangbangers and mix in some gardeners and housekeepers" - there was a concern that CNN would blow the assignment.
Interactive: Voices from the Latino Community
Dana Rosenblatt
CNN
Concepcion Saravia, originally from Nicaragua, says she's always been surrounded by a large family.
"I guess it's a Hispanic thing," says Saravia. "You grow up with a lot of people around you and you always have someone there for you."
Robert Garcia thinks Latinos such as himself live a life that straddles multiple worlds.
"I think that you have the world that you live in as an American that you see in everyday life and you have the world that you come home to that's a Spanish-speaking family, eats Peruvian food," he says.
Josefina Lopez describes her "American dream" as "becoming the type of person that transcends class, gender and all the other limitations."
Click here to keep reading and discover some personal testimonies of Latinos living in America...
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Anderson Cooper's birthday surprise
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