Posts in Category: Featured Articles
The Passing of Harry P. Pachon
Harry Pachon died yesterday morning with family by his side. He was 66 years of age. Harry Pachon was battling Parkinson’s disease and had been confronted with many complications this past year. We all join in expressing ourcondolences for Harry’s family, his wife Barbara, and their children.
His colleague, Jack H. Knott, Dean of the School of Policy, Planning, and Development University of Southern California, observed that:
“Harry was a kind and generous person and a wonderful and beloved friend and colleague to many at USC and in the broader Latino Community. He will be dearly missed as a friend and colleague, and his legacy of extraordinary contributions to Latino politics and policy at a crucial period in the development of the Latino Community in America will be remembered always.”
Harry P. Pachon, Ph.D. was a professor of Public Policy at USC and joined the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) in 1993, as president. Roberto Suro is the current head of the TRPI.
He was a tenured Professor of Public Policy at SPPD. Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Harry was the Luther Lee Professor of Public Policy at Claremont Graduate School. He published 4 books and numerous book chapters and journal articles over the course of his career concerned with Latino social capital, educational opportunities, civic and political engagement, electoral behavior, and racial justice. In addition, he served as the principal investigator on several million dollars of externally-funded research grants and contracts and was an effective and well-liked teacher who inspired his students.
Since 1993, he was the President of the nationally-renowned Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI), which moved from Claremont Graduate University to USC in 2003. Under his leadership, TRPI grew into a civic research organization with national visibility and impact, making major contributions in the areas of immigration, education policy, and Latino politics and policy. As director of TRPI, Harry had a tremendous impact on the Latino community, both locally and nationally. He testified several times before congressional committees, served on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, and co-founded and served as chairman of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Education Fund (NALEO). He also served on the boards of several local organizations, including the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, Southern California Public Radio and KPPC, and the Education Advisory Committee of the Rand Corporation.
In 1997, Dr. Pachon was appointed to serve as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Additionally, saluting his ongoing work on behalf of Mexicans living in the United States, the Mexican Government presented Dr. Pachon with the Ohtli (humanitarian) Award. He was a board member of the Haynes Foundation and Southern California Public Radio.
Dr. Pachon was a founding board member and past executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund. While at NALEO, he initiated a nationally acclaimed U.S. citizenship project that has been replicated on a multi-ethnic basis across the country and initiated the National Directory of Latino Elected Officials, which is now in its seventeenth year of publication.
Dr. Pachon had authored over twenty articles and journals, and co-authored three books on U.S. Latino politics and political behavior. He held academic positions at Michigan State University, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, City University of New York, and held the Kenan All Campus Chair at the Claremont Colleges. He recently was a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California in the School of Policy, Planning and Development.
Dr. Pachon received his B.A. and M.A. in political science at California State University of Los Angeles, and earned his Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. He has been awarded post-doctoral fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Association of Schools for Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).
Funeral arrangements will be announced soon. For further information, please contact his close friend.
Gina M. Adams
SVP, CSR Market Manager
Bank of America
333 S. Hope Street, 20th Fl.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Ph. (213) 621-7408
Fax. (213) 621-3674
Selected Publications
Co-author, New Americans by Choice: Political Perspectives of Latino Immigrants (1994), Hispanics in the United States (1985) and Mexican Americans, 2nd Edition (1974),
Co-editor, Latinos and U.S. Foreign Policy (2000)
with J. Lee, “Leading the Way: An Analysis of the Effect of Religion on the Latino Vote”; American Politics Research; Forthcoming
and M. Federman, “Addressing Institutional Inequities in Education: The Case of Advanced Placement Courses in California”; In Bringing Equity Back. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; Forthcoming
with M. Barreto and F. Marques, “Latino Politics Comes of Age in the Golden State”; In R. de la Garza & L. DeSipio (Eds.), Latino Politics in the 2000 Elections. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; Forthcoming
with E. Flores and J. Medeiros, “Equal Employment Opportunity or Enclave Employment? A Critique of the U.S. GAO Report of Hispanic Employment in Federal Agencies”; Tomas Rivera Policy Institute; 2006
with J. Lee, “The Path to Home Ownership Among Latinos of Mexican Origin”; Casa y Communidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design, edited by Henry Cisneros and John Rosales, Builder Books, Washington, D.C. pp. 155-176; 2006
with Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza, “Awash in the Mainstream: Latino Politics and the 1996 Elections”; California Politics and the 1996 Elections. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1998
THIS WEEK IN IMMIGRATION
| Thousands of Children Stuck in Foster Care after Parents Deported, Report Finds A report released this week reveals yet another devastating consequence of the enforcement-only approach to immigration—a startling number of children whose parents have been detained and deported are placed in foster care and face enormous barriers reuniting with their families. According to the Applied Research Center, 1 in 4 people deported in FY 2011 (nearly 100,000 people) left behind a U.S. citizen child. The report found that the odds of reuniting the families are so low that the parents “basically fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the child welfare system.” Sadly, because of the regular increase in the number of annual deportations, this number is expected to triple in the next five years.Congressional Members to Join Civil Rights Groups in Fight Against Alabama’s “Juan Crow” Law In the days following passage of Alabama’s extreme immigration law (HB 56), many business, religious and civil rights leaders spoke out about the law’s damaging impact on immigrant communities, farms, businesses, and schools. Since then, many notable community and civil rights leaders have stepped forward to add their voice to those demanding a repeal of the law. The Alabama NAACP, for example, recently joined immigrant rights groups to call for an end to what one African American minister described as “Alabama’s worst times since the days of segregation and Jim Crow.” This week, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez met with members of several congressional caucuses—Hispanic, Black, Asian Pacific American and Progressive—to address what he calls Alabama’s “civil rights emergency.” New Data Highlights Devastating Impact of Secure Communities on Immigrant and Latino Communities New data on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) controversial Secure Communities reveals the program’s devastating impact on immigrants, Latinos and U.S. citizens. Released by the Warren Institute at Berkeley Law School, the report, “Secure Communities by the Numbers,” examines the profile of individuals who have been apprehended through the program and funneled through the system. The results are startling. Many communities, in fact, are questioning their level of cooperation with the government on certain aspects of this flawed enforcement program. DOJ’s Lawsuit Against South Carolina Latest Legal Challenge to State Immigration Laws Alabama Law Enforcement, Courts Implementing New Law in Different Ways Across State
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‘Illegal’ Should Be The New N-Word
By Jose Armas / Albuquerque freelance writer on Fri, Nov 4, 2011 Tweet
Following the GOP presidential wannabes has been, well … entertaining. In answer to our immigration dilemma, top contender Herman Cain would build an electric fence to electrocute folks. Michele Bachmann would build two walls!
Is it any wonder this slew of presidential hopefuls is also known as the “committee to re-elect the president?” Who could have more loony ideas? Well, Democrats are working just as hard on this issue.
No matter. After years of passing laws targeting undocumented immigrants, economic necessity may begin to force more rational answers.
Farmers in Alabama, Washington state, Georgia, Utah and Arizona are now whining that crops are rotting in the fields because immigrants are fleeing their states, or afraid to show up to work. Interestingly, some employers are offering twice the undocumented wages to “American” workers, but are finding few takers.
Hundreds of millions of agriculture, construction and service dollars are at stake. And we’re now destined to pay higher prices for scarce food and products because of our continuing wacky immigration course. We need a climate for common-sense solutions. While not a presidential candidate, I’d like to propose a start:
n Let’s stop demonizing and pursuing undocumented workers. They’re a national resource. And we have a symbiotic relationship with them. To his discredit, Obama’s administration has arrested record numbers of undocumented immigrants, thereby adding to the wasted billions on needless police actions, deporting needed labor, building hatred fences and behaving as ugly Americans.
n Stop referring to the undocumented as “illegals.” Otherwise decent people and the media have embraced this misleading “illegal” slur and are unwittingly are carrying the water for the racists in our midst.
The fact is, undocumented folks are merely guilty of a misdemeanor. Just like those who run red lights, don’t buckle their seat belts, talk on the phone while driving or jaywalk. Note that the Journal recently reported on the crackdown on jaywalkers: Cops will be issuing warnings to violators. We don’t label these millions of miscreants “illegals.”
“Illegals” is a derogatory slur, a hatred code word and should be stopped. Hate crimes against Latinos since 9/11 have doubled with the escalating anti-immigrant mood. Calling people “illegals” is disrespectful enough, but they’re also slandered by being called “terrorists,” “un-American,” “criminals.”
Politicos and the media play into the hands of these bigots who incite hate and violence and have poisoned the well of rational discourse. All parties, liberals and conservatives, are drinking from this toxic well.
It’s time to stand up to the persistent racism fouling our society. If decent people everywhere would say, “Enough!,” then we could begin to develop a rational, long-term immigration plan – none of which exists in today’s political picture.
But let’s close this shameful chapter in U.S. history. One that includes the owning of slaves, the slaughter of Native American people, the internment of Japanese Americans and now, the dehumanizing and battering of lowly immigrants whose only crime is to be brown and poor and vulnerable.
I’d like to see Herman Cain’s grandchildren respond to learning about black lynching and then, of their grandpa’s presidential campaign plan to electrocute/kill hungry human beings who came here to work backbreaking jobs and improve our society, all the while, forced to live in hiding and in fear.
Likewise, there’s a great, if sad irony in Gov. Susana Martinez, whose grandparents are now branded as “illegals,” a slur she herself casually throws around today. Would her grandparents be proud of the first Latina governor in U.S. history nonchalantly using this ugly slur and wasting taxpayer money to pursue folks, like themselves, for wanting to legally drive on our streets? I doubt it.
Let’s stop using the vile slur so we can create the climate for real immigration reform.