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A actor and activist who is famous for his role in the 1987 film "La Bamba" on Sunday said that Mitt Romney has begun pandering to Hispanic voters now that he has become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"We call that Hispandering," Esai Morales told CBS News' John Dickerson in a recent interview. "The problem is that, you know, with Romney, he's says his grandparents or his father was born in Mexico. I surprised I'm not seeing him in a photo op outside of a taco stand."

"But I'm in the middle on this one," he added. "I was looking forward to a lot more immigration reform from our current president. I supported him."

"Remember what you promised us," Morales advised President Barack Obama. "Be true to yourself because every time you don't, you give the opposition a lot of ammunition to say, you know, where's that change that was promised?"

During the Republican primary battle, Romney had courted conservative voters with anti-immigration positions. He called Arizona's tough immigration law a "model" for the country; he promised to veto the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act; and he said that undocumented immigrants should self-deport.

But now that the former Massachusetts governor has pivoted to his general election campaign, he is considering support for a version of the DREAM Act sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and insisting that he only supported the uncontroversial parts of the Arizona immigration law.

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The author of a controversial anti-immigration bill in Arizona said on Tuesday that young children could simply get state-issued identification to prove they are in the U.S. legally.

Appearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, former Arizona state Senate president Russell Pearce (R) defended the state's SB 1070 law, which requires police to check the immigration status of suspects during traffic if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that they undocumented immigrants.

Committee Chairmen Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pressed Pearce on why the law's official training manual instructed officers that the way a person was dressed could constitute a "reasonable suspicion."

"Do you think that dress is an inappropriate measure?" Schumer asked. "Is there a reason to stop somebody because of their dress, and I would ask you if it's not inappropriate, what does an illegal immigrant dress like?"

"This is just a list of things that lead you to ask questions," Pearce explained. "You have to respond to reasonable suspicion to do your job, Mr. Chairman. And this is just a list of things to look for."

"Under federal law, under the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona Constitution, you know, we have the Equal Protection Clause," he added. "I knew those kinds of issues would be raised by those open-border folks that are against any enforcement. We've been sued on everything we've done from voting fraud -- to stop voting fraud -- to welfare fraud to going after illegal employers who compete illegally, immorally and have a competitive advantage over the honest employer. Doesn't seem like no matter what we do, Mr. Chairman, we're attacked for simply enforcing the law, trying to protect American citizens and jobs for Americans. ... We simply wrote the bill to preempt those kinds of silly arguments and try to protect everybody's rights."

Schumer also wondered why the bill did not exempt minors from having to produce proof of citizenship.

"Again, reasonableness is the thing," Pearce said.

"All the children can be checked and should be checked under the law and its regulations," Schumer pointed out. "What are the children supposed to show?"

"Mr. Chairman, if they don't have ID then they're not supposed to show anything," Pearce replied. "You're not required to have ID unless you're a driver or -- In Arizona, we allow parents to go and get an Arizona ID at any age if a parent so choses."

"So you think under this law, children, to prevent themselves from being sent to a detention center or whatever, would have to carry some kind of ID?" Schumer observed.

"Mr. Chairman, that's not accurate," the former Arizona Senate president insisted. "Mr. Chairman, there's a reasonableness, again, inferred. You know, you're taking the extreme and I understand trying to make a point, but, Mr. Chairman, it's just not accurate. It's just not so."

"This makes exceptions to law enforcement, you know to make reasonable decisions based on the circumstances at the time. I think it's demeaning to law enforcement to assume they don't know how to do their job in a respectful proper manner," he remarked.

"I'm just going to submit for the record Section 3B, and it doesn't make any exceptions at all," Schumer pointed out.

According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, official state photo identification cards are "available to all ages (including infants) for a fee of $12."

Arizona requires that infants have a birth certificate, a Social Security card and a parent with a valid Arizona ID to receive a photo identification card.

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Hmmm... I wonder if we'll be hearing anything about our buddy Sheriff Joe Arpaio with this news?

LulzSec claims hack of Arizona law enforcement info:

Hacking group LulzSec took aim at law enforcement in the state of Arizona on Thursday, saying it was releasing "hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords" belonging to those in law enforcement.

The group, which has claimed responsibility for various denial-of-service attacks in recent weeks, ranging from the CIA and U.S. Senate's public websites to those of various video game companies, said it specifically targeted Arizona "because we are against SB 1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona."

SB 1070, a tough immigration law, was passed a year ago by state legislators, but immediately challenged. A preliminary injunction by a federal judge has blocked most of the law from going into effect. Arizona is planning to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the injunction. Read on...

Breaking: LulzSec leaks Arizona law enforcement papers (Updated: Details!):

LulzSec just now announced a trove of leaked material it claims is from Arizona law enforcement agencies, made available as a 446MB torrent.

We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.

The documents classified as "law enforcement sensitive", "not for public distribution", and "for official use only" are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.

Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust "war on drugs".

Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors - the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world.

See you again real soon! ;D

Many of the documents seem to be mundane, but the sheer size of the dump means that it'll take some time for reporters to parse. After the jump, I'll post anything newsworthy that I spot on a skim-through.

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So much for those "free markets" in Texas that Rick Perry is so fond of bragging about. As Rachel Maddow points out, that "free market" apparently includes offering the film industry tax incentives to film in Texas and then denying the tax breaks after Gov. Perry's film commission decides they don't like your movie.

'Machete' will not get incentive funds:

Officials with the Texas Film Commission announced late Wednesday they are denying tax incentives for Austin director Robert Rodriguez's film "Machete." [...]

The controversy started months earlier when Rodriguez released a special movie trailer during all the debate over Arizona's new immigration enforcement policy. [...]

In 2007 and 2009, Texas lawmakers gave the "thumbs up" to a bill to provide incentives for filmmakers who spend money making movies in Texas.

But the Texas Film Commission -- which is based in Gov. Rick Perry's office -- has now given " Machete" a "thumbs down."

It is denying funding for the film because of a provision in the state law that allows incentives to be denied if the film in question "portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion."

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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he would not hesitate to arrest protesters that were blocking his jail.

"It appears that there are groups, individuals that are gearing up for some civil disobedience if this law does take effect," Stephanopoulos noted Wednesday. "Are you prepared for that? What are you going to do about it?"

"Yeah," replied Arpaio. "I'm ready for it. I hear a rumor they want to block my jails. So, if they want to block the jails, they can have a little trip in the jail."

"So, we're not going to put up with any civil disobedience just because they want to show -- give a message through the media about this situation that is occurring here in Arizona."

Gee, I wonder if Greta Van Susteren will ask Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer about this the next time she comes on her show fear mongering about Arizona's illegal immigration problem? Seems she has some advisers that have lobbying ties to the private prison industry. Color me not shocked. From KPHO-5, Phoenix, AZ:

Hotel Owners: Ariz. Politicians Scaring Tourists - Private Prisons Might Gain From New Immigration Law:

Between the economy and boycotts related to Arizona’s tough new immigration law, SB 1070, tourism in the state is down 10 percent.

They said state politicians are not helping matters. Just flip on cable news, and you’re likely to see an anchor or reporter talking about an invasion at the border, or headless bodies in the desert, or a rash of kidnappings.

During this election cycle, Arizona politicians have touted the potential danger of illegal immigration. Gov. Jan Brewer is one of the loudest voices.

She has made several statements to the national media, the validity of which CBS 5 Investigates could not confirm. The governor told one media outlet that almost all illegal immigrants are bringing drugs across the border. U.S. Border Patrol officials said that statement is false.

Brewer also said law enforcement officials have found decapitated bodies in the desert. Calls to all of Arizona’s border county medical examiners revealed no decapitated bodies have been reported to them.

A look at data from the FBI shows crime in Arizona is actually down. Murders in Phoenix have dropped by 50 percent since 2003. The violent crime rate across the state has dropped every year since at least 2004. Even the number of illegal border crossers is down. Border Patrol numbers show they are arresting half as many illegal immigrants as they did in 2004. [...]

In the meantime, a CBS 5 investigation revealed that there is one business that could gain from the implementation of SB 1070 and similar immigration measures. The private prison industry houses illegal immigrant detainees for the federal government. Those companies could gain contracts with state and local agencies to house illegal immigrants arrested for state violations.

Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, holds the federal contract to house detainees in Arizona. The company bills $11 million per month. CBS 5 Investigates has learned that two of Brewer’s top advisers have connections to CCA.

Paul Senseman is the governor’s deputy chief of staff. He is also a former lobbyist for CCA. His wife is listed as a current lobbyist for the company.

Chuck Coughlin is one of the governor’s policy advisers and her campaign chairman. Coughlin’s company, HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, currently lobbies for CCA.

CCA issued the following statement to CBS 5 Investigates:

“CCA, unequivocally, did not at any time lobby - nor did we have any outside consultants lobby - anyone in Arizona on the immigration law. Nor are we proposing to house detainee immigrants as a result of SB 1070. We currently have no contracts with the State or any counties. CCA very proudly does have a presence in Arizona, as we own and operate 6 correctional facilities, employing more than 2,500 Arizona residents. These contracts are with other state and federal jurisdictions.”

Meanwhile, at Rancho de la Osa, Richard and Veronica Schultz said they don’t know much about the motives behind the politicians making alarming statements about the border. Read on...

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Another Sunday and another chance for Bill Kristol to prove he's wrong about everything. Apparently Bloody Bill thinks using the Justice Department and our court system for the Obama administration to sue the state of Arizona over their immigration law somehow shows a "disrespect for democracy". I guess Bill doesn't have much use for that third branch of our government if he thinks using the courts isn't democratic.

I'm also getting sick to death of hearing about how the law polls. If we used polls to decide what was right in this country we'd still have Jim Crow laws on the books, which would probably be fine with a lot of Republicans unfortunately.

WALLACE: Bill?

KRISTOL: Yeah, and some -- and the great thing about the federal system is there are 50 states and Republicans in different states can say - - honestly take different positions. I'm not sure I would vote for this law in Virginia. We have very different circumstances than they do in Arizona.

But what strikes me about it -- I looked at the polls on this last night -- this law was always popular by about 3-2 when it was polled in May, when it first burst into the news. It's now -- its popularity has increased. That is, the popularity of the Arizona law has increased. The unpopularity of the Obama's administration's position...

WALLACE: Let me just -- let me just quickly...

KRISTOL: ... has increased.

WALLACE: ... put up on the screen -- this is a Fox News poll out this week, and what it shows is that overall -- overall, Americans approve of the Arizona law by a margin of 52 percent to 27, so basically two to one.

I will add, though, Hispanics, Bill, oppose the law overall around the country by a margin of about four to one.

KRISTOL: Right. But that 52-27 percent is interesting. It was 50 to 32 about two or three weeks before. So in other words, the number is increasing.

WALLACE: Right.

KRISTOL: And this reminds me of health care. We're having a big national debate. Voters are learning more about it. And more voters are more pro-Arizona as it goes on. That is bad for the Obama administration.

I mean, people in Washington tend to assume, "If only we could just educate them a little more and, you know -- and give some more speeches around the country, we'll their mind," and that's been very much the Obama administration's view on stimulus, on health care, and now on Arizona, on immigration. And I think it's not going to work.

And I think this is foolish of the Obama administration. I think it's bad law. And it, above all, shows a -- I think when in doubt...

WALLACE: Bad law meaning that the...

KRISTOL: Bad law -- I mean, I think it's -- I'm sorry, the bad lawsuit. Also, it just -- it shows a disrespect for democracy. When in doubt, let the voters and let the state legislatures have their way. If there's a clear abrogation of someone's individual right, of course, then the federal government can step in.

This is, at best -- at best -- a very murky case. And instead of waiting for the law to go into effect, instead of taking the attitude of let's see what happens with the private lawsuits that have been -- that have been filed, the Obama administration is stepping in and trying to override the democratically legislated laws of Arizona.

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Apparently Rep. Steve King, R-Nutsville, doesn't think the Department of Justice has any lawyers capable of drawing up their own legal briefs and of course in the wingnuts like King's world, if the brief agrees with anything in the ACLU's lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law SB 1070, the evil commie "leftist" organizations suing Arizona are really the ones running the DOJ.

After he carried on about how terrible Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, John Morton, President Obama, Michael Posner, amd Mexican President Felipe Calderon all were for voicing their opposition to the new law, repeating the tired talking point that none of them have read it, King had this to say about some Chinese immigrants who haven't yet been deported:

King: I'll go even further. Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State, he said he brought it up early and often to the Chinese that we had a problem with a law in Arizona that could bring about racial profiling. These are the people that... we've got 40,000 Chinese in the United States that have been adjudicated for deportation... the Chinese won't take them back. And we're sending them some 550 year old bones from paleo, ah... paleo vertebrates that, so they can keep their artifacts straight. We need to send them the 40,000 Chinese that they won't take. Deport them as well as the bones, Mr. Speaker.

Nice. Should we just box them up with the bones, Steve King? What a jerk. Then we get to this wingnut hackery.

King: And I'll make this further prediction now Mr. Speaker. That is that the announcement came out today that the Justice Department under Eric Holder, it now has a legal brief that recommends that they bring suit against Arizona. Here's my prediction. ACLU has written that legal brief for the Justice Department... that a-political, nonpolitical Justice Department has a brief that one day we'll get our hands on, a draft brief... release the draft is what needs to happen from the Attorney General, but in that draft we'll find the ACLU that's already sued Arizona with a 98 page case, there's the document that they're using to put their brief together in the Justice Department. The President gave the order to the Attorney General to look into Arizona's law and a Justice Department under Attorney General Holder looked at the lawsuit that's been brought by the ACLU and MALDEF and other organizations that are hard core left wing including SEIU and they have lifted the language right out of that lawsuit and that will be the draft Mr. Speaker.

That's my prediction and I put my marker down. When we get our hands on the draft from the Attorney General's office I will take that draft and I will take the language and I will highlight the language right out of the ACLU's lawsuit and I'll show you how the Justice Department lifted that language out of the lawsuit of the ACLU and MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Foundation and put it right into their draft advisory and the federal government will be conducting and carrying out the order of the President in a nonpolitical office, supposedly according to Holder's testimony at the direction of the ACLU and MALDEF and La Raza and the other organizations, the SEIU and many others that are hard core leftist organizations in this country. If we're going to have the rule of law it's got to be impartial, it's got to be objective, it's got to be Constitutional, it's got to be statutory and it's got to be consistent with case law. Arizona's law is all of those things but this Justice Department's unjustified attacks on Arizona is anything but.

It's a conspiracy... oh my! The leftists are telling the White House and the DOJ what to do. Don't I wish. If that were the case we'd have the Bush administration prosecuted for war crimes, Rove would be in jail for the AG scandal and his part in putting Don Siegelman in prison and that's just the start of the list. As usual there's no amount of race-baiting this wingnut won't use for political advantage.

From Guanabee.com: Puerto Rican Man Almost Deported To Mexico:

This is why Arizona SB 1070 will backfire: Immigration authorities in Berwyn, Illinois arrested Puerto Rican Eduardo Caraballo in a stolen car case, but when his mother posted his bail, he was detained because authorities didn’t believe he was a legal citizen. His mother brought his birth certificate, but Eduardo was unable to answer some questions about the island because he’s lived all his life on the mainland. Eduardo was detained for more three days and threatened with deportation–to Mexico.

I don't have any sympathy for car thieves if the man is guilty of what officials are potentially charging him of, but I don't want to see anyone who is a legal citizen deported to a country they were never a citizen of either. Three days to figure out this man was a United States citizen and that he should be tried in a U.S. criminal court if charges are pressed and not deported even after they got his birth certificate?

As Laffy said, "From the Department of Bound to Happen". I guess even if you show your papers that isn't good enough in some parts of Illinois now. Thanks Arizona. Looks like your xenophobia is spreading.

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As Think Progress noted, John McCain doesn't mind cracking down on the illegal immigrants who are crossing the borders to find work, but when it comes to doing something about those businesses that hire them... maybe not so much.

McCain: Enforce Immigration Laws On Undocumented Workers, But Not On Businesses That Hire Them:

Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed the state’s new anti-immigrant bill into law last month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been a fervent supporter. The law gives state police broad power to identify, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants. McCain, who called the law a “good tool,” said last night on Fox News that he is “proud of the work” Brewer is doing on immigration, and justified the law “because the federal government would not enforce its responsibilities.”

But while McCain offers support for this new draconian law targeting day-laborers and other undocumented immigrants, he is not in favor of enforcing laws prohibiting employers from hiring undocumented workers. Instead, he would rather “secure the borders” before holding Arizona businesses accountable to the law.

As they point out this is just another flip-flop for the not-so-mavericky McCain:

Back in 2007, McCain wanted to “strengthen the laws and penalties against those who hire illegal aliens and violate immigration law.” Now, it seems that McCain is all for enforcing immigration laws when when it is politically convenient, as Arizona businesses are presumably more organized and have more money and influence than the state’s undocumented workers.

This man just gets more pathetic by the day as this Senate race of his goes on. Van Susteren at least asked a decent question here but of course with no follow up, like telling him that his answer is completely ridiculous. I used to get sick of the same stuff out of Lou Dobbs who would attack the poor people coming here looking for work night after night on his show, but never made it a point to highlight the businesses that were hiring them.

You dry up the employment and they're not going to be flooding over the border. We've got businesses addicted to slave labor and politicians who would rather demonize the slaves than fix the trade laws that destroyed their small farms and drove them here to begin with. And round and round we go. Step on the little guy's neck, pit the workers against each other that should be on the same side of an issue and give the big guys taking advantage of everyone a pass.

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