Welcome back from the Labor Day weekend! Here’s what you may have missed while tending to the grill:
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Arizona’s Gov. finally fesses up to her “headless bodies” fib. Think Progress: Jan Brewer Admits She Was Wrong About Beheadings: “Months after initially making the claim say that undocumented immigrants were beheading people in the Arizona desert, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has finally admitted that she was wrong.” Ya think? Also, in, “I Can Has Cheezburger,” says Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, NYC political analyst Andy Ostroy opines, “For a legislator who all but wants to crucify illegal aliens, at least they speak better English than Jan Brewer does.”
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More from Arizona…sheriffs gone wild. TPM’s David Kurtz reports in Be Very Afraid — Until The Election: “McCain-supporting, government-fearing Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu is at it again, this time claiming that Mexican drug cartels are in control of portions of U.S. territory down near the border. But other law enforcement officials we talked to dismissed this idea….Estrada also told TPM that “there are a lot of things that are happening this election year” and that “a lot of the fear is going to die after November.” More crazy ahead…Meanwhile, Alan Bersin, the commissioner of U.S. Border Protection argues, “This is not about sealing the border… Until we have a legitimate labor market between Mexico and the United States, people will attempt to come here to work.” [H/T ImmigrationProf Blog]
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Daily Kos’ McJoan cites Ezra Klein on social security and immigration: “The issue isn’t that Social Security is spending too much or that we’re living too long. It’s that we’re not having enough children (or letting in enough immigrants)…”
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Mari Herreras of Tuscon Weekly and Alternet on “Why Becoming a Legal Immigrant Is Next to Impossible.”
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Reviews still pouring in for Rodriguez’ ‘Machete’ — a bloody, star-studded, ostensibly immigration-related action flick, which opened Friday: Machete Review: Sharp, Bloody Fun (TIME); HuffPost Review; Vivir Latino “at the Cine”.
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A Labor Day Thank You to Immigrants for building the economy, via Alternet: “In tough economic times, undocumented immigrants are convenient scapegoats for stagnation and unemployment. But the economic reality doesn’t match up. And there’s no better time than Labor Day to set the record straight.”
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Finally, AP debunks the latest FOX News talking point on immigration, “birth tourism.” Via AP “Princeton University demographer Douglas Massey said in 30 years studying Mexican immigration, he’s never interviewed a migrant who said they came to the United States just to get citizenship for their children.”
Welcome back. Stay tuned.