LA cop implicated in immigrant-intimidation letter by GOP candidate

From: Theresa Dang <lasoyriza@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:31:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: {Disarmed} [tupocc] Fwd: LA cop implicated in immigrant-intimidation letter by GOP  candidate

yikes! it gets stickier!

> From the piece below:
> "Separately, sources have told The Times that a Los
> Angeles Police
> Department officer who is close to Nguyen used an
> alias to order the letter
> produced and then paid $4,000 for it on his credit
> card."
>
> CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS
> Candidate reportedly bought voter list for
> controversial letter
> Tan Nguyen, seeking an O.C. congressional seat,
> denies using the list for
> that purpose.
> By Christian Berthelsen, Jennifer Delson and
> Christine Hanley, Times Staff
> Writers
> October 24, 2006
>
> Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen personally bought
> the list of voters to
> whom a racially charged letter was mailed, warning
> that immigrants could be
> jailed or deported for voting, according to the
> president of the company
> that sold the list and sources familiar with the
> still-unfolding investigation.
>
> Nguyen requested information on registered Democrats
> in the central Orange
> County Congressional district with Spanish surnames
> who were born outside
> the United States, according to people familiar with
> a state investigation
> into the letter. Nguyen, a Republican, is running an
> underdog campaign
> against Democratic incumbent Loretta Sanchez.
>
> "The only thing I can really say is, the candidate
> purchased the data,
> which he had a legal right to do, and if he went and
> did something illegal
> with it, he's going to have to answer for it," said
> Jim Hayes, president of
> Burbank-based Political Data Inc., the largest voter
> information broker in
> the state. Hayes met with investigators and provided
> them with the same
> information last week, sources said.
>
> Nguyen, who has drawn national scorn for his
> campaign's role in the
> mailing, maintains that he had nothing to do with
> the letter's production
> or distribution, saying a campaign office manager
> misappropriated the list.
> Nguyen fired the worker last week but said Sunday
> that he had offered to
> rehire her because he came to believe that the
> letter was accurate and did
> not violate the law.
>
> Separately, sources have told The Times that a Los
> Angeles Police
> Department officer who is close to Nguyen used an
> alias to order the letter
> produced and then paid $4,000 for it on his credit
> card.
>
> Appearing at a news conference Sunday, a defiant
> Nguyen defended the letter
> and rejected his party's calls for him to quit the
> race.
>
> On Monday, Nguyen's lawyer, William Braniff, did not
> dispute that Nguyen
> bought the list but said it was bought for
> legitimate purposes and used to
> send three or four other campaign mailers, including
> one in both Spanish
> and English accusing Sanchez of insufficient support
> for U.S. troops in
> Iraq and Afghanistan.
>
> One piece quoted a Sgt. Salvador Lujan as saying:
> "Hispanics are
> sacrificing themselves for our country in
> disproportionate numbers…. It is
> shocking that Rep. Sanchez refuses to support our
> troops and instead
> accepts the support of the Arabs."
>
> Braniff said the purpose of requesting a list of
> voters born outside the
> United States was merely to identify
> Spanish-speaking voters and not
> necessarily to target immigrants.
>
> Others say Nguyen knew of the letter in question.
> Orange County Republican
> Party Chairman Scott Baugh has said Nguyen was
> directly involved with the
> mailing, calling the mail house that produced the
> piece and asking that its
> handling be expedited.
>
> The data firm's assertion that Nguyen bought the
> mailing list himself
> raises further questions about his explanation and
> the extent of his
> involvement. Gary W. Schons, who is overseeing the
> probe by the state
> attorney general's office, declined to respond to

> questions about the
> purchase of the mailing list.
>
> "Arrests are not imminent," he said. "There's still
> quite a bit of
> investigative activity that must be completed."
>
> Nguyen has also contested the interpretation of the
> Spanish-language
> letter, asserting that it did not wrongfully tell
> recipients that
> immigrants cannot vote.
>
> The letter, which may have been sent to as many as
> 14,000 voters, warned in
> Spanish: "You are advised that if your residence in
> this country is illegal
> or if you are an immigrant, to vote in a federal
> election is a crime that
> can result in imprisonment or you will be deported
> for voting without the
> right to do so."
>
> Braniff said the controversy over the letter stemmed
> from an inaccurate
> translation by news media inferring that the word
> emigrado, or "immigrant,"
> included naturalized U.S. citizens.
>
> The word, Braniff said, referred to immigrants with
> legal status but not
> citizenship. Nguyen said the term is used by U.S.
> immigration agents to ask
> someone crossing the border whether they are a
> citizen or "a person who is
> here legally but with only a green card."
>
> But several people contacted by The Times, including
> Border Patrol
> officials and Spanish-language experts, questioned
> that explanation.
>
> The word "means anyone who comes from elsewhere,"
> said Octavio Pescador, a
> visiting social science professor at UCLA who is an
> expert on Latino
> culture. "It doesn't mean that a person only
> possesses legal residency. It
> has no legal connotation."
>
> Border Patrol spokesman James Jacques said he was
> unaware of the word being
> used frequently by agents.
>
> "I've never used that word, and I've worked here 10
> years," he said. "It's
> not part of any syllabus I know of. It's not part of
> any terminology we have."
>
> The letter went on to falsely claim that the state
> had developed a tracking
> system that would allow the names of Latino voters
> to be given to
> anti-immigrant groups.
>
> Democrats have seized on the incident, and on Monday
> gubernatorial
> candidate Phil Angelides and others staged a rally
> in Santa Ana to decry a
> "culture of intimidation" in the Republican Party.
>
> Angelides, standing on the steps of the old Orange
> County courthouse, said
> the letter appeared to take a page from national
> Republican strategy, and
> he accused Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of supporting
> the Minuteman Project
> border enforcement activists.
>
> "There is a culture of intimidation in the
> Republican Party," Angelides
> said, citing voting scandals in Florida and Ohio.
> "That is why Bush is
> president today. They do this time after time after
> time."
>
> Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has said he will
> notify recipients of
> the letter, saying it does not accurately reflect
> their voting rights.
>
> christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
>
> jennifer.delson@latimes.com
>
> christine.hanley@latimes.com
>
>

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

__._,_.___

Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar

Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

Recent Activity

 1

New Members

Visit Your Group

SPONSORED LINKS

• Civil right lawyer
• Civil rights
• Civil right attorney
• Civil right attorney california
• Nlg

Yahoo! TV

Staying in tonight?

Check listings to

see what is on.

Y! Toolbar

Get it Free!

easy 1-click access

to your groups.

Yahoo! Groups

Start a group

in 3 easy steps.

Connect with others.

.

__,_._,___