When I traveled to Arizona with Ishita to create Checkpoint Nation, I wrote: It was the first time I had experienced the overwhelming size of the desert sky. The sunset was magnificent, and the endless stretch of cacti and desert rocks were lit up with the last pink moments of twilight. But the sunset’s beauty [...]

December 15, 2011 by Dana Variano | Tags: Arizona, border deaths, crisis, Derechos Humanos, desert, documentary, DRUM, homepage, human rights, human rights crisis, immigrants, immigration, International Migrants Day, Mexico, migrants, No More Deaths, U.S. Mexico Border, Vamos Unidos, video | Comments Off

This came across our desk – check out this event tomorrow! On Wednesday, September 28th, the Freedom From Fear Award will hold a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix to celebrate Arizona’s three winners of the award, which honors “15 ordinary people who have committed extraordinary acts of courage on [...]

September 27, 2011 by crissy spivey | Tags: Arizona, because we found it, Freedom from Fear Award, immigrant, immigration, winners | Comments Off

Originally posted on our Restore Fairness site Early one morning, Maria—then nine months pregnant—and her family were stopped by the police for no discernible reason. A special breakfast outing became a nightmare—and at one of the most intimate moments of her life, Maria found a team of immigration agents—not her husband—by her side. Maria’s chilling story, which Breakthrough [...]

September 8, 2011 by crissy spivey | Tags: Arizona, b-listed, breakthrough beat, Checkpoint Nation, immigration, Mexico, Restore Fairness, Rights Working Group, SB 1070, video | Comments Off

Post written by Dana Variano, Breakthrough’s newest media team member It was the first time I had experienced the overwhelming size of the desert sky. The sunset was magnificent, and the endless stretch of cacti and desert rocks were lit up with the last pink moments of twilight. But the sunset’s beauty was overpowered by [...]

August 25, 2011 by Dana Variano | Tags: ACLU, Arizona, BAJI, Border Justice, Border Patrol, Border Policies, Border Wall, breakthrough, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, DRUM, homepage, human rights, immigration, Mexico, Nogales, Operation Streamline, racial profiling, Sasabe, SB 1070, Secure Communities, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, U.S. Mexico Border, Vamos Unidos | 1 Comment »

Tonight at 9pm/8c, Current TV will premiere This (Illegal) American Life, a one hour documentary about the millions of undocumented students and workers in the United States.  The show follows the lives of Ilse, an undocumented American Literature major at UCLA who crossed the border at the age of 3, and Filemon, a strawberry picker [...]

August 1, 2011 by Maya | Tags: Arizona, breakthrough, California, college, current tv, documentary, farmworker, immigrant, Mexico, oaxaca, premiere, struggle, students, this (illegal) american life, undocumented immigration, vanguard series | Comments Off

From our Restore Fairness blog: In the early hours of March 12, a bus ferrying passengers from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut met with a horrific accident on the I-95 expressway in the Bronx, en route to Chinatown in Manhattan. The crash killed 15 of the passengers onboard, and the driver was later accused of being [...]

March 24, 2011 by Pulkit | Tags: American Immigration Lawyers Association, anti-immigrant bills, Arizona, b-listed, Bill Wright, breakthrough, bus crash, children, Chinese American, comprehensive immigration reform, culture shockers, Emily Ruiz, human rights, immigration, Jeanne A. Butterfield, Mohegan Sun casino, New York City, new york times, SB1070, undocumented immigrant, Wang Jianhua | Comments Off

In the aftermath of the shootings in Tucson, debates are raging over hate-filled rhetoric in the political sphere. According to Daniel Hernandez, the brave volunteer in Gabriel Zimmerman’s office who helped his boss amidst all the chaos: I think a lot of people are realizing that the political discourse has, for years, become completely destructive [...]

January 14, 2011 by Zebunnisa | Tags: Alto Arizona, Anti-Defamation League, Arizona, Civil Rights, Eboo patel, Gabriel Zimmerman, Harlem Gospel Choir, human rights, Jared Lee Loughner, jon stewart, Martin Luther King, Northwestern University, President Obama, Racism, Restore Fairness, The Daily Show, The Smithsonian, Tucson | Comments Off

Two years after placing President Obama in the White House with a burst of national ebullience, we are greeting decision 2010 in a decidedly different national mood. Americans continue to be affected by the recession, despite it meeting its official end since the last election cycle.  Despite the economy dominating the election,  many other important [...]

November 2, 2010 by Ava | Tags: abortion, affirmative action, Arizona, birth control, democracy, democrats, elections, equality, gay marriage, human rights, immigration, LGBTQ, Mid term elections, midterm elections, President Obama, republicans, SB1070, Vote, White House, women's rights | Comments Off

This summer, while the nation was in the throes of the debate around the extremely harsh anti-immigrant law, SB1070, set to be introduced in Arizona, our Restore Fairness blog had mentioned that the small town of Fremont, Nebraska had joined the bandwagon of taking immigration law into its own hands by passing a law that [...]

October 4, 2010 by ishita | Tags: anti-immigrant, Arizona, b-listed, breakthrough, culture shockers, Fremont, Gov. Dave Heineman, human rights, immigration, Latino, Nebraska, new york times, republican, Restore Fairness, SB1070 | Comments Off

As human rights groups focus our attention on those affected by Arizona’s harsh immigration law (SB 1070), we begin to sympathize with the racially oppressed and the numerous accounts of deportation. Cuentame, a Latino political advocacy non-profit, attempts to shift our focus by filming a direct enforcer of the law – Arizonan police officer Paul [...]

July 22, 2010 by Priya | Tags: Arizona, Attorney General Eric Holder, b-listed, breakthrough, Cuentame, Department of Justice, Do I look illegal?, equal protection, freedom of speech, human rights, immigration, Jack Harris, Paul Dobson, racial profiling, Restore Fairness, SB 1070, Sgt. Trent Crump | Comments Off