UPDATE: WTVN Apologizes On-Air

The Ohio Action Circle has been awaiting an apology from 610 WTVN in response to the community reaction against their offensive promotional contest "Win a Trip to Phoenix, Arizona."

A short time ago, an apology aired during a commercial break in which General Manager Brian Dytko addressed the situation.

The OAC would like to hear from you, the community members.
What is your opinion of the apology? What do you think is the appropriate response? Please leave your comments below.

Below you'll find the audio and the transcript of WTVN's apology. The .mp3 file is also available for download here.



Transcript:
This is Brian Dytko, Station Manager of WTVN with a message regarding our station’s recent “Win a Trip to Phoenix, Arizona” promotional contest. Our contest was meant as a humorous response to a City of Columbus ban on travel to Arizona by city employees. In fact, a key element of the promotion was that city employees were specifically invited to enter the contest. We regret that our promotional copy has been characterized as condoning violence. This was not our intent, and we do not condone violence of any kind. We apologize for our actions here. We are always striving to engage our community on important issues of the day and sometimes we do a better job than others, but we always take the input of our community seriously.

BREAKING NEWS: WTVN TO PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE

As you may know since Wednesday - May 26, we have been trying to contact Brian Dytko, General Manager of Clear Channel Communications in Columbus, to demand an apology for the insensitive WTVN promotion.

We organized with a clear and concise message to WTVN and Clear Channel: this promotion is offensive and we demand an apology.

As you saw here at the OAC blog, we made several attempts to get in touch with Mr. Dytko.

Less than an hour ago, Mr. Dytko apologized for the insensitivity of the promotion, saying that he has heard from hundreds of people locally and nationally, including "supporters of WTVN and Clear Channel" (sponsors).

Today, Wednesday at 5:00PM, he will go on the WTVN airwaves and make a public apology! Set your dial to 610 WTVN AM to listen in.

This is indeed a victory for all. It demonstrates the power of people and organizations uniting and organizing, using creative tactics and actions while staying on message and demonstrating in a peaceful manner. When we do this in an organized manner, we win.

Please, let your networks know of this victory. There will be other follow-up actions to this, so keep an eye here for upcoming announcements!

Mil gracias to all...
iHasta la proxima victoria!

Rubén Castilla Herrera

State Director

Reform Immigration For America

Students Unite to Fight for their DREAM, Demand Education Reform

Columbus, Ohio

May 27, 2010

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Columbus Councils, The Ohio Hispanic Coalition, and the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), through their Youth Program, Dream Talks! have united a group of high school students to hold a rally at 4:00pm on June 6, 2010 at John Bishop Park in Whitehall to demand Education Reform and be given access to their DREAMs. 

June 6th marks graduation day for several Whitehall students. For many of them, it also marks the last day they will have ease of education. Today's most important civil rights issue is being played out in America's high school classrooms. Every year, more than one million students drop out, meaning almost one of every three freshmen will not have a high school diploma four years later. While roughly 70 percent of all high school students graduate on time, only about half of African American and American Indian and Alaska Native students do, and just about 55 percent of Hispanic students graduate. 

“Every student, regardless of their background, deserves an education. It goes beyond finishing high school; we must provide a pathway to further education. Catering to every student’s DREAMs will ease a transition to college and this can only be done in unity” advocates Fernando Bergas-Coria, VP for Youth Development for a Columbus LULAC Council. Mr. Bergas-Coria, a Whitehall graduate and community activist, leads a program called Dream Talks! where he meets with high school students at their school and speaks to them about the importance of attending class everyday and maintaining high grades. His first group of students consisted of approximately 58 youth who expressed their desire to host a rally to make others aware of the broken education system and to get their parents involved in the process. 

The Rally will begin at 4:00pm on June 6th and many of the students will be arriving in their graduation cap and gown to further illustrate their desire to continue learning. Speakers at the event include Claudia DeLeon from LULAC in Columbus, Josue Vicente from the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, Jesus Ovalle coordinator for CHSE in Columbus, Fernando Bergas-Coria for Dream Talks!, Charleta Tavares who is a strong supporter, as well as two leading students and their supporting parents. Enrique Infante, a well known artist, songwriter and community activist, will present live with his band DJVU Latin Fusions.

CONTACT:
Claudia Y. De Leon, (956) 463-0655, Deleon.claudia@gmail.com
Fernando Bergas-Coria, (614) 887-6357 fernandoGBC@live.com

ABOUT LULAC ‐ The League of United Latin American Citizens, better known as LULAC (www.lulac.org), the oldest and largest Hispanic membership organization in the country, advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community‐based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.
 

ABOUT The Ohio Hispanic Coalition ‐ The Ohio Hispanic Coalition (OHCO) was founded in 1990 as an advocacy agency; today it has grown into a multi‐service agency serving the growing Latino/Hispanic community in Ohio. The Mission of OHCO is to improve the well being and quality of life of all Latinos through advocacy, education, training and access to quality services.
 

ABOUT Campaign for High School Equity ‐ The Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE) is a coalition of leading civil rights organizations representing communities of color that is focused on high school education reform. It was formed to address the unequal American public education system, which does not provide high‐quality education to students of color and youth from low‐income neighborhoods.

Cincinnati to host March for Immigration Reform

Cincinnati will be the host city of a Midwest rally for Immigration Reform. The march comes in response to the recent anti-immigrant laws in Arizona, to the anti-immigrant propaganda utilized by WTVN610 in Columbus, OH and to the growing failures of a broken federal immigration system. This latest manifestation of the growing dissatisfaction with both the broken immigration system and anti-immigrant sentiments will begin: 

Saturday, June 5 at 1:30 p.m. at Hamilton County Courthouse (1000 Main St., downtown Cincinnati)

Para preguntas en español contactar a Alma Diaz: alma.diazdf@yahoo.com o llama (859)816.3614.
For questions in English, contact sbeckborden@gmail.com or call 513-545-1015.

Attempt to Respond to WTVN610's Anti-immigrant Propoganda

WTVN610's Mr. Corbi, while on air, invited the Latino community to come to speak to him regarding his station's anti-immigrant propaganda. In these clips, Reform Immigration for America's Ohio State Director, Rubén Herrera, attempts to confront station directors. Nick Torres gives thoughtful narrative as to why this action is necessary. Here are two unedited clips of the events as they take place. Check out more clips at OAC's NEW YouTube CHANNEL!

Attempt 1:




Attempt 2:

Ohio S.B. 238: Political Grandstanding at the Expense of Public Policy

Original Post at AILA Leadership Blog

May 25

Written by: David Leopold

Tuesday afternoon the Ohio Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee held a final hearing on S.B. 238, a bill that prohibits undocumented foreign nationals from receiving workers compensation benefits.  The proposal is the brain child of Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) and squarely aimed at Ohio’s most vulnerable population; undocumented immigrants. But, S.B. 238 is an unnecessary and mean spirited bill which will do nothing to fix the broken immigration system which plagues Ohio and the rest of the nation.  In fact, if it becomes law, it will make things worse.

To start with, it appears that neither Senator Seitz nor his co-sponsors did their homework before introducing S.B. 238. No one knows how many unauthorized foreign workers have recovered workers compensation in Ohio and, therefore, whether such legislation is even necessary.  The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that only 1.1% of Ohio’s workforce is undocumented, making it highly unlikely that there is even much of a problem that needs fixing.  Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have first commissioned a study to determine whether a problem exits?

How would S.B. 238 work in practice?  Under the immigration law an employer is not required to test the authenticity of employment authorization documents and can accept them from an employee as long as they are not obviously fake.  Thus, under S.B. 238 an employer could conveniently look the other way when hiring an unauthorized immigrant and “learn” of his unauthorized status only after the employee is injured on the job.  S.B. 238 then burdens the employee with the daunting task of proving in a court of law that the employer knew he or she was an unauthorized immigrant when she was employed.  The law essentially rewards employers for suddenly “discovering” that a worker is unauthorized after a catastrophic injury.

Or suppose an undocumented employee is the victim of an unscrupulous employer who hired her knowing she was unauthorized to work, paid her sweat shop wages, and placed her in an unsafe work environment where she was badly injured.  Under these circumstances S.B. 238 permits her to sue her employer, but includes a strong disincentive to do so.  Does anyone really expect an undocumented immigrant to file a lawsuit against her unscrupulous employer under the threat of removal from the U.S.?  True, she may have no legal right to be here, but her undocumented status doesn’t justify creating a legal structure which effectively encourages her abuse.

What’s more, echoing the recently enacted anti-immigration law in Arizona, S.B. 238 arguably runs afoul of the federal immigration statute which provides for the protection of victims of human trafficking, violent crime, and domestic violence.  Many such victims have entered the country illegally but are nevertheless entitled to protection under the law, including the right to work in the US.  But S.B. 238 prohibits such victims from receiving workers compensation by excluding them from coverage as “illegal aliens”.

Nor is it clear that S.B. 238 will save Ohio taxpayers money as a result of reduced workers compensation insurance premiums.  The bill creates a burden on the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation and will likely generate other costs that will more than offset any savings in reduced workers compensation premiums.

Ohio and the rest of the nation need a functional, orderly, and fair immigration system designed to meet the needs of American business and families. Bills like S.B. 238 do nothing of the sort.  They merely create a climate of fear designed to intimidate a vulnerable population.  Unfortunately, Washington’s failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has left a void which cynical politicians are all too willing to fill.  Their actions are an appalling symptom of a broken immigration system.  As responsible citizens we must demand that the Obama Administration and Congress get to the hard work of enacting comprehensive immigration reform.

In the meantime we deserve better from state and local government.

About the Author: David Leopold is an immigration lawyer and President Elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. David can be reached at dleopold@immvisa.com .

The Link Between Crime and Immigrants

May 24

By LEO J. PIERSON

Due to Arizona's new draconian laws, I have had to have this discussion with many people recently. It is the case that native born citizens often believe that immigrants bring crime (especially violent crime) with them to their host communities. It's what many of us immigration researchers refer to as the holy trinity of anti-immigrant sentiments: Drugs, Litter and Violent Crime. 

One excellent example of this is in the film 9500 Liberty, where one native born woman claims that her 83 year old grandmother no longer feels safe enough to take her trash out at night because of the presence of a newly arrived (and presumably violent) Latino immigrant population. Taken from my own research, I captured the following quote during a brilliant interview with a native born resident living in a new immigrant destination: "The ethnic groups that are living here have changed. The crime rate is high now versus even 5 years ago. I would feel comfortable when my children were small. Not any more!" (actual crime rate decreased in interviewee's community over the cited time period).

For the reasons that are highlighted in such public discourses, this is an excellent discussion for us to be having in more public settings. Put in the form of a question, one asks: is it true that increased rates of in-migration bring increased rates of crime—especially violent crime?

Based on commonly held beliefs, the answer is not what most would expect it to be and thus requires a bit of explanation.

While it is true that larger urban areas—which are the principal destinations for most newly arriving immigrants—have higher crime rates than the average small town in Ohio, when we look at the numbers over time, what we find is that of all the variables that lead to this "social fact," there is no (as in 0) correlation—i.e. relationship—between increases in violent crime rates and increases in patterns of in-migration.

In fact, recent research suggests a causal inverse relationship between the two—that is to say, over the course of time, increased rates of in-migration partially explain observed decreases in rates of violent crime!

A just released study* by Tim Wadsworth, a sociologist at the University of Colorado, shows that between the years 1990 and 2000, the U.S. urban areas that experienced the largest rates of in-migration also experienced either significantly decreased rates of violent crime or significantly smaller increases when compared to similar urban areas that experienced lower rates of in-migration. These findings might begin to help us understand why many law officials in Arizona have flatly contradicted Arizona politicians by stating that there is no "crime wave" on our side of the border. In fact, when we look at the numbers, Arizona's violent crime rates (including the border zones) have declined significantly over the past decade, even as their rates of net in-migration have gone up!

There are various explanations given in the research literature on immigration to suggest why this might be the case (While Wadsworth's research could not test the theories, it does lend them plausibility). One oft-given reason is that—contrary to popular belief—the choice to immigrate to the U.S. is not an individual decision. Rather, the decision to leave one's home for a new destination of opportunity is one that is made collectively. Decision making involves both immediate and extended family members, as well as friends and "community elders."**

The idea is that if home societies are deliberating on who to send to a new country in order to find work and new opportunities, those who are sent are not hardened criminals; they are trusted members of their home communities. Indeed my own research—though tangential to this particular topic—does directly imply the validity of such an argument.

So to the question: are immigrants also most often violent criminals? As many advocates and academics have long suspected, the answer is NO, and now we have the data to prove it.*** In actual fact, negative stereotypes rooted in false ideas of criminality serve to further stigmatize already economically, racially, and culturally marginalized immigrant communities. 

The outstanding thing about Wadsworth's data analysis is that it indicates one other important point. Not only is it the case that immigrants do not contribute to increased rates of violent crime, but it seems also to be the case that immigrants positively contribute to decreasing violent crime in the communities in which they—quite literally—settle.****

About the Author: Leo Pierson is a sociologist and instructor at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. His research focuses on local and state level immigration policy, and immigration conflict in the U.S. Leo is also the Ohio State Director of Civil Rights for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

__________________

*Wadsworth, Tim. June 2010. Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment of the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000. Social Science Quarterly. Vol 91 (2): 531-53. 

**For interesting discussions on immigrant decision making processes see Peggy Levitt's work on The Transnational Villages. See also Saskia Sassen's insights in Chapter 6 of Territory, Authority, Rights.

***"Computing estimates based on the pooled cross-sectional time-series models discussed above suggests that, controlling for a variety of other factors, growth in the new immigrant population was responsible, on average, for 9.3 percent of the decline in logged homicide rates, and that growth in total immigration was, on average, responsible for 22.2 percent of the decrease in logged robbery rates." (see p. 549 of above cited article by Wadsworth.)

****Special thanks is owed to Tim Wadsworth, of the University of Colorado, for directly providing me with his journal article, which I heavily leaned upon in order to write this post. In the concluding remarks of his article, Tim asks that his and other such research "play an important role in challenging the public discourse as we begin to shape new immigration policy for the 21st century." It is the sincere hope of OAC that in the "strong and slow boring of hard boards," we might begin to help accomplish precisely this task.