The bodies of Henry Sanchez, brother of Reps. Linda and Loretta Sanchez, and his girlfriend were found last week in a sunken boat off the Southern California coast. This was most certainly a tragic incident, but please, who goes boating in the middle of the night, especially if you don’t have to? I guess if you are a commercial fisherman with a fancy boat with the lights, GPS, radar, etc. I can understand.

Last Tuesday, same day as the second presidential debate, ICE went ahead with yet another immigration raid. This time about 300 workers were arrested at a poultry processing plant in South Carolina. Note how ICE scheduled the raid on the same day that the media was focused on the presidential debates and economic meltdown.

A few weeks ago, in response to the immigration raids, Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a bill to protect U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents from unlawful detention. Hundreds of U.S. citizens have been unlawfully detained by the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement efforts. This bill calls for customs agents to follow more strict guidelines to avoid detaining people who are lawfully in the country and will require that detainees will be informed of their rights. This is a good start to remedying some of the unjust actions that ICE has taken in our communities across the country. Thank you Senators Kennedy and Menendez!

In the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Roybal-Allard is introducing a bill requiring the humane treatment of those detained by ICE. As has been published in various outlets, many detainees are dying from inhumane treatment. One of the most heart wrenching works illustrating this is Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m dying. I highly recommend this short book as a primer about the horrific situation that so many are enduring in ICE custody.

A report was recently released showing how real income has declined for Latinos during the past 8 years, but Latinos who work in unionized jobs are earning more.  Unionized low wage workers earn 17% more than workers who aren’t in unions, plus they are covered by health benefits, which is a serious problem in our communities, especially when children and young adults aren’t receiving adequate care for preventable and easily treated illnesses.

And finally, Bill Clinton is still holding a grudge against Governor Bill Richardson for his decision to back Barack Obama in the primaries. As las gatas said about this back in the spring, I don’t think that Bill Richardson is crying in his tortillas over President Clinton’s sentiments.