Archive for category Journalism
The City of Escondido in San Diego County Faces Accusations of Committing their DUI Checkpoint to Immigrant Capture, not Public Safety
Posted by kevinsantamaria in Immigration, Journalism, Politics, Security on March 26, 2012
03/20/12- The City of Escondido is one of the only cities in the U.S. where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) work out of the city’s police department. Their collaboration launched in May of 2010 under the name “Operation Joint Effort.” It said its plan is to arrest criminal illegal immigrants. San Diego Police Chief Jim Maher reports that this operation has lead to the arrest of 700 criminal illegal immigrants. This operation has led to the Escondido Police Department receiving the national “Partnership for Public Safety Award” at the international police chief’s convention in Chicago. However, there are several problems with this operation. First, the operation works to arrest all “criminal illegal” immigrants. This predisposes all undocumented immigrants who are who are stopped at DUI checkpoints because by default they are all criminals under the law. Secondly, the Escondido Police Department refuses to release information of the names and crimes of the supposed 700 deported individuals. The controversial relationship between Escondido police and ICE has recently come to face accusations now that the Escondido Police Department are using DUI checkpoints as immigrant checkpoints and profiting from impounding their cars.
Bill Flores, a retired Assistant San Diego County Sheriff, is leading the charge against the Escondido Police for using the DUI checkpoints as immigration checkpoints. The Escondido Police have given the excuse that they only deport “criminal” illegal immigrants and that under the state grant to conduct DUI checkpoints they are required to conduct a sobriety check and driver’s license check. The State of California’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), who hand out the grants to conduct DUI checkpoints, affirms though that there is no requirement to check for driver’s license, nor do they penalize a grantee for not checking a driver’s license. The chief of police has even admitted he uses DUI checkpoints to check for immigration status and it has been documented that ICE is often notified when an undocumented immigrants is found. With the cities high rates of undocumented individuals being caught at checkpoints, the benefits of towing has also sparked a new conversation.
John Carlos Frey, an investigative journalist, estimates that the city has pulled in millions of dollars from the DUI checkpoints. The city has raised the contract fee for tow companies from $25,000 in 2004 to $100,000 in 2011. Frey claims the city raised its stated cost for towing cars to justify the increase. Documents prove that the city increased the time officers had to spend towing a car from 30 minutes in 2007 to three hours in 2012. This allows the police department to take advantage of a loophole. They receive $350,000 in grants to conduct the DUI checkpoints from OTS, but under certain conditions, they may not generate profits from checkpoints except to recoup expenses. They have seemingly therefore raised their recoup expenses. The State of California has tried to reduce the impounding of cars, which mostly affects undocumented immigrants at a cost of $2,000 per car for holding the car for 30 days by recently passing the bill AB 353. This bill prohibits police from seizing a car solely because the driver is unlicensed. This solidifies that fact that for every one DUI there are ten people without documentation caught. Escondido seems to be ubiquitous with reorganizing its city policy to catch undocumented immigrants as its Hispanic population has recently reached 49%, while their first and only Hispanic city council member, Olga Diaz, came to office in 2008. She is up for re-election in 2012.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE TRANS-BORDER INSTITUTES PANEL DISUCSSION ON “STATE AND LOCAL IMMIGRATION POLICY” WITH MAYOR OF ESCONDIDO, SAM ABED AND RETIRED ASSISTANT SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF, BILL FLORES.
Frey, John Carlos. “Escondido Police Under Fire.” KPBS, March 14, 2012
Breier, Michelle. “Escondido Honored for ICE Partnership.” UT San Diego, February 9, 2012.
Documentary Highlights Plight of Mexican Journalists
Posted by kristinjones28 in Journalism on March 21, 2012
3/21/2012- San Diego’s Latino Film Festival wrapped up this weekend on Sunday, March 18. Put on by the Media Arts Center of San Diego, the festival ran from March 8 – 18. One of the films that was shown on the final day was a documentary titled Reportero, which was run as a special advance screening for the festival.
Directed by Bernard Ruíz, Reportero follows a veteran reporter and his colleagues at ZETA, a Tijuana based newspaper, during a time when Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Since 2006, there have been over 40 journalists who have been murdered or gone missing. As a result, many mainstream media outlets now openly self-censor in an effort to protect their staffs.
The documentary follows the ZETA staff in Tijuana as they “cope with the daily dangers of uncovering the illicit ties between power, money, and drugs in Mexico’s largest border city.” (Fronteras Desk) Through interviews and archival footage, the documentary reports on many of the unpunished crimes committed against the staff.
ZETA’s current editor, Adela Navarro Bello, spoke of her former editor’s wishes to close the paper, “I asked him not to close it. To keep the paper going…I told him we shouldn’t allow organized crime to win and destroy our paper.” (Fronteras Desk) Reportero documents the compelling story about a newspaper which refused to stay silent, when much mainstream media did, despite all of the risks involved.
The film was released in Mexico February 15, 2012, and will be released in the United States later in the year. (IMDb)
For a sneak peak of the film go to: http://sdlatino.festivalgenius.com/2012/films/reportero_bernardoruiz_sdlatino2012
San Diego Latino Film Festival. “Reportero.”
Photo Credit: San Diego Latino Film Festival
Mexican Cameraman Makes a New Life for Himself After Receiving Political Assylum
Posted by kristinjones28 in Drug Trafficking, Immigration, Journalism, Media on February 29, 2012
02/27/2012- On July 26, 2010, Alejandro Hernández Pacheco, 42, went to work like it was just another day on the job. A cameraman for Televisa in Torreon, Hernández and a reporter were sent to cover a news story in Gomez Palacio, Durango about killings connected to a prison in the city. Hernández was not scheduled to work off-studio that day. “After leaving the prison, the two men were carjacked, bound, blindfolded and taken to a home with two other kidnapped journalists, where the men were allegedly tortured, starved and beaten.”(El Paso Times) They were held captive for five days and were threatened with death by their captors, who were members of the Sinaloa drug cartel. On July 31, 2010, the captors freed Hernández and the other men early in the morning. They were told to run and not to look back. A group of armed policemen were waiting for them in the secluded area of Gomez Palacio, near where they were released.
Just hours after their release, the men were told they were going to be flown to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderón to be hailed as heroes. However, much to their surprise, they were greeted by dozens of Mexican and international journalists and cameras. According to Hernández’s attorney, Carlos Spector, by doing this, the federal government “recklessly exhibited Hernández as a potential witness against the Sinaloa cartel and put his life in danger” (El Paso Times). This, as well as Hernández’s fear about speaking out publicly against the Mexican government, for failing to protect him, led him to his decision to move to El Paso, Texas.
In August 2010, Hernández moved to the United States with a valid laser visa, and his family followed shortly after. After arriving, he applied for political asylum, which he was granted in August 2011, being the second Mexican journalist to receive the immigration benefit since the beginning of the current wave of drug violence that is rocking the nation. Just shortly after being granted political asylum, Hernández called Univision, a news company in El Paso, left his resume, and was hired right away. In an interview, Hernández said he is doing what he “loves most, which is looking for the news camera in hand,” and even though he misses his home in Torreon, he and his family feel lucky that they can feel safe here and not worry for their lives. (Borderzine)
Photo Credit: Victoria A. Perez/Borderzine.com
Mexican Photographer Awarded Third Prize in Prestigious Contest
Posted by kristinjones28 in Photojournalism on February 13, 2012
Pedro Pardo, of Mexico, was awarded the third prize of the World Press Photo contest in the category of “contemporary Stories” on Friday, February 10, 2012. The award was received for Pardo’s snapshot on the drug war in Mexico. The photo is of a forensic team examining six bodies found in a taxi cab in Acapulco. In the snapshot, some of the bodies can be seen still inside the vehicle’s cab, while one body is on the ground next to the car being examined by the white-gloved hand of a member of the forensic team.
The World Press Photo, founded in 1955, is considered as one of the most prestigious awards for photojournalism in the world. According to its website, “For over 55 years the World Press Photo contest has encouraged the highest standards in photojournalism.”
All of the prize-winning photos will be assembled into an exhibition, which will tour to 45 different countries around the world during the course of the year. The photographs will also be compiled into a yearbook, which is published in seven different languages and distributed worldwide.
To view Pardo’s winning photograph go to:
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012pedropardocis3-ai?gallery=2634&photographer=2628
World Press Photo. “About the Contest.” World Press Photo.
Félix Varela Awards To Celebrate American Journalism on U.S.-Latino Issues
Posted by kristinjones28 in Culture, Journalism on February 8, 2012
Gold Medallion of Father Félix Varela. Photo Credit: SCT Website.
Four years ago, the Al Día Foundation created the Félix Varela Awards to celebrate Excellence in American Journalism on U.S.-Latino Issues. This year, Al Día has collaborated with the School of Communications and Theatre (SCT) at Temple University, and the school’s Journalism Department, to relaunch the Félix Varela Awards. The announcement was made on January 26, 2012, by the Chairman of Al Día, Hernán Guaracao, and the SCT Interim Dean Thomas Jacobson. The four awards to be presented will be: best feature writing, best blogging, best documentary, and best photojournalism, on Latino and Multicultural Issues in the United States. The Awards honor Father Félix Varela, who was a prominent American intellectual of Latino origin, and who published, in the city of Philadelphia, one of the first Spanish-language newspapers in the United States.
Temple University’s Journalism Department Chair, Andrew Mendelson, is quoted on the SCT’s website saying, “The awards build on the department’s mission of emphasizing communities underserved by mainstream media.”
The recipients of the awards will each receive a gold medallion of Father Félix Varela, as well as a $10,000 cash prize, the largest prize in its category. Entries for the awards are due by August 31, 2012. The ceremony will be held November 16, 2012.
For more information, visit www.felixvarelaaward.com.
