🚀 go-pugleaf

infoguy123@aol.com (InfoGuy123) wrote in message news:<20041025013120.18589.00003211@mb-m29.aol.com>...
> So let's get this straight: 
> 
>   An American peacefully attending a public forum in her own home state, in her
> own country, is brutally physically attacked in public and, in response, a
> high-ranking representative of a foundation set up by a multi-billion-dollar
> U.S. corporation (which profits mightily from illegal aliens annually shipping
> billions of dollars out of the USA) assures the crowd that the violent,
> non-US-citizen attacker of the American citizen will be given legal
> representation courtesy of the corporate foundation's deep pockets . . .   
> 
> 
>   "The plaintiff, Terry Graham, was challenging the forum's panelists from the 
> audience when she was attacked and brutally assaulted by Julissa 
> Molina-Soto, 32, an immigrants' rights activist . . . 
> 
>   "Denver police at the event arrested Molina-Soto and charged her with 
> assault. She was released within minutes after the intervention of Mexican 
> General Consul Juan Marcos Gutierrez and other Latino leaders, according to 
> reports published in La Voz Nueva, a bilingual newspaper.
> 
>  "As paramedics attended to Graham following the assault, Polly Baca -- a 
> Director of First Data/Western Union Foundation and head of Denver nonprofit 
> LARASA ("The Race") -- and ACLU lawyer Adrienne Benavidez assured the 
> largely Latino audience from the podium that Molina-Soto would have legal 
> representation."
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________
> 
> http://www.freespeechforum.org/
> 
> FIRST DATA/WESTERN UNION SUED FOR
> IMMIGRATION FORUM ASSAULT
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 20, 2004
> 
> FIRST DATA/WESTERN UNION SUED FOR IMMIGRATION FORUM ASSAULT
> 
> DENVER: A woman assaulted by a Mexican national at a Denver pro-immigration 
> forum sponsored by First Data/Western Union filed a civil lawsuit today in 
> Denver District Court. The lawsuit suit includes claims for ethnic 
> intimidation, civil conspiracy, assault and battery, robbery, personal 
> injury, and property damage against Colorado-based First Data Corporation, 
> its subsidiary Western Union, the First Data/Western Union Foundation, the 
> attacker and her former employer, Hep C Connection.
> 
> The plaintiff, Terry Graham, was challenging the forum's panelists from the 
> audience when she was attacked and brutally assaulted by Julissa 
> Molina-Soto, 32, an immigrants' rights activist.
> 
> Denver attorney Robert Corry, who is representing Graham, said, "No person 
> in the United States of America should fear violent retaliation for 
> exercising her First Amendment rights to speak out and participate in an 
> open community forum. The sponsors of this forum, First Data Corporation and 
> Western Union, had a duty and obligation to provide adequate security at the 
> event, a responsibility they utterly failed to satisfy."
> 
> The forum was held on July 22 at Denver's North High School. The school was 
> recently the focus of a national controversy for displaying the Mexican flag 
> in its classrooms.
> 
> Denver police at the event arrested Molina-Soto and charged her with 
> assault. She was released within minutes after the intervention of Mexican 
> General Consul Juan Marcos Gutierrez and other Latino leaders, according to 
> reports published in La Voz Nueva, a bilingual newspaper.
> 
> As paramedics attended to Graham following the assault, Polly Baca -- a 
> Director of First Data/Western Union Foundation and head of Denver nonprofit 
> LARASA ("The Race") -- and ACLU lawyer Adrienne Benavidez assured the 
> largely Latino audience from the podium that Molina-Soto would have legal 
> representation.
> 
> Molina-Soto is scheduled to appear on October 26 in Denver County Court on 
> the assault charges.
> Jeff Joseph, head of the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration 
> Lawyers Association (AILA), is representing Molina-Soto in the criminal 
> case.
> 
> Molina-Soto and her two children entered the U.S. nine years ago. A Mexican 
> citizen, she reportedly has permanent resident alien status. She has held 
> various jobs involving healthcare rights for legal and illegal Latino 
> immigrants.
> 
> Baca's organization, LARASA, and Molina-Soto, who until recently was 
> multicultural outreach coordinator for Denver's Hep C Connection, jointly 
> ran a Latino outreach campaign on Hepatitis C in 2003. Benavidez, head of 
> Denver's nonprofit Color of Justice, has long been a critic of the Denver 
> Police Department's treatment of minorities. Benavidez headed Denver's 
> Public Safety Review Commission, reviewing citizen complaints against police 
> officers, for five years during which time the Police Protective Association 
> accused her of bias. Former Police Chief Tom Sanchez protested the PSRC's 
> "witch-hunt atmosphere" under her leadership. A vocal opponent of Denver's 
> Columbus Day celebration, Benavidez also sits on the Board of Directors of 
> Servicios de la Raza ("Services For The Race").
> 
> According to the First Data/Western Union Foundation website 
> (www.westernunionfirstdata.org) LARASA, Services de la Raza, and Hep C 
> Connection have all received Foundation grants since 2001.
> 
> Molina-Soto's attorney, Jeff Joseph, debated Colorado Congressman Tom 
> Tancredo in February on the topic of immigration stating that "[The] 
> enforcement policy of immigration is not in line with reality." Joseph also 
> criticized President Bush's controversial immigrant amnesty proposal, saying 
> it did not give incentives for illegal aliens to register and become legal 
> US residents.
> 
> First Data Corporation has taken the lead in promoting massive immigration 
> and immigrants' rights -- including illegal aliens -- since settling 
> lawsuits charging that its subsidiary, Western Union, failed to disclose 
> unreasonably high commissions it charged when wiring customers' money to 
> Mexico.
> 
> In March, First Data/Western Union set up a $10 million "Empowerment Fund" 
> to be used for Latino and pro-immigration causes. Raul Yzaguirre, president 
> of the National Council of La Raza ("The Race"); Sal Gomez, Chairman the 
> Denver Hispanic Chamber Gomez; and Robert de Posada, President of the Latino 
> Coalition, were appointed by First Data to the Fund's Advisory Board. The 
> Empowerment Fund is separate and in addition to charitable donations 
> totaling about $5.5 million that First Data made as part of settlements of 
> the class-action lawsuits.
> 
> Since March, First Data/Western Union has sponsored immigration panels 
> across the nation. FIrst Data ignored complaints made prior to the Denver 
> forum that participants did not represent both sides of the issue. Panelists 
> at the Denver forum included Thomas Saenz of the Mexican-American Legal 
> Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF); Lisa Duran of Derechos Por Todos 
> ("Rights For Everyone"); Juan Salgado, President of the Illinois Coalition 
> for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Robert de Posada of The Latino Coalition; 
> Raul Hinosa, UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center; and 
> Roberto Ramirez, Founder of the Jesus Guadalupe Foundation. Some individuals 
> had complained to First Data prior to the Denver panel that it was skewed 
> and did not represent both sides of the issue.
> 
> First Data CEO Charles Fote announced in April that $800,000 of the 
> Empowerment Fund would be used to create a Denver pilot program to support 
> and increase the number of Latino business owners.
> "If ye love wealth better than liberty ... servitude better  than ... freedom,
> go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms ...  May your
> chains set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
>   - Samuel Adams

Jim