Please Join Us in a MARCH and RALLY on JULY 23, 2005

MARCH Starts at 11:00 am from the FEDERAL COURT HOUSE to KLINE PARK, 155 N. Mesquite Street in Las Cruces, NM.

GUEST SPEAKERS FROM NM, CA, TX AND AZ
PRESS CONFERENCE
ENTERTAINMENT
FOOD AND REFRESHMENTS

Sponsored by: LAS CRUCES LULAC COUNCIL 120 & VECINOS UNIDOS DE NUEVO MEXICO

For more information please contact Phillip Archuleta, Civil Rights Chairperson 505-524-9136/505-496-8822

Street Patriots’ Summer Fireworks

Street Patriots entertain morning rush hour traffic with cryptic signs about their private secrets on historic Route 66 in June

Street Patriots parade with Gay Rights advocates during Albuquerque Pride with signs and many handouts in June

Street Patriots greet library patrons on section 215 at the city’s busiest library one Saturday morning in June

Street Patriots hand out stickers & buttons while dancing to Cuban salsa at the Albuquerque Museum amphitheatre on the Glorious 4th of July

Street Patriots check out moviegoers’ opinions with flyers downtown one hot Friday evening in July. We distributed more literature than all other events combined – and to a greater variety of people – families, older couples, teenagers and city workmen.

And this week, we Patriots are strolling for red, white & blue light specials in the evening twilight at Nob Hill’s historic shopping district.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thursday, July 14, 2005

CONTACT:

Kimberly Lavender, Communications Manager, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622

ALBUQUERQUE – On Monday July 18th at 6:00pm the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) is hosting the second in a series of “Reform the Patriot Act” town halls at the Peace and Justice Center at 202 Harvard SE in Albuquerque. Featured speakers include Albuquerque City Councilor Eric Griego and Global Dialog Director Valerie Gremillion.

The bill to be considered next week will make permanent the parts of the Patriot Act that Congress initially intended to expire. For example, it would make permanent the most unwise and intrusive provisions of the Patriot Act, such as those that give the government access to your medical, library, financial and other personal records, without any requirement that the federal government demonstrate that there are any facts connecting records about you to a foreign terrorist

“Nearly 400 communities - including seven states - have passed resolutions calling on Congress to amend the Patriot Act to restore basic checks and balances,” said ACLU of New Mexico Communications Manager Kimberly Lavender. “Here in New Mexico, thirteen communities, the NM State House of Representatives, the NM Library Association, the NM Municipal League and others, passed resolutions within months of the Patriot Act’s passage.”

ACLU members in New Mexico have been reaching out statewide to let their neighbors know how the Patriot Act affects them. The ACLU Central New Mexico Chapter will be airing the movie “Unconstitutional” Thursday July 21 at the Erna Ferguson Library Community Room at 6:15 p.m. The “Street Patriots” have been handing our information weekly in Albuquerque around town while wearing “sign” boards that display personal information, like “I took Viagra this morning” and “I keep a handgun hidden in my home office.” Their message: the Patriot Act puts Americans’ privacy at risk by allowing law enforcement agencies access to medical, financial, religious, and gun purchase records.

The 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act were not properly vetted the first time, and included unwarranted expansions of federal power, yet some in Congress are poised to make them permanent with no real corrections. If they succeed, extreme provisions like Section 215 – which gives the FBI broad access to your personal records without individual suspicion, probable cause or any meaningful ability to challenge the secret court order that allows this access -will forever be a fixture of our laws.

The following can be attributed to Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy:

“Congress rightfully put sunsets on some provisions of the Patriot Act, so that lawmakers could reexamine the extraordinary powers when cooler heads would prevail. We cannot afford to sacrifice the very freedoms we seek to protect. Although the House Judiciary Committee’s base bill does not expand the Patriot Act in the unwise and unwarranted way the Senate Intelligence Committee proposed, it can and must be modified to ensure that Patriot powers are focused on terrorists, and not ordinary Americans whose civil liberties must be protected to preserve our American values.” For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the Patriot Act, go to: http://www.reformthepatriotact.org

Congress is rushing to vote on a bill next week to make the Patriot Act permanent, without including meaningful reforms to prevent the abuse of its expanded secret search and surveillance powers. Among other things, the Patriot Act gave the government easier access to your personal records without reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime or that there is any connection between you and a foreign terrorist.

The bill to be considered next week will make permanent the parts of the Patriot Act that Congress initially intended to expire. For example, it would make permanent the most unwise and intrusive provisions of the Patriot Act, such as those that give the government access to your medical, library, financial and other personal records, without any requirement that the federal government demonstrate that there are any facts connecting records about you to a foreign terrorist.

This battle over reauthorization and expansion is the culmination of years of work by the ACLU, its members and freedom-loving Americans of every political stripe. If there were ever a time for you to speak out for reforming the excessive and intrusive parts of this legislation, that time is now.

Unless we can defeat this reauthorization or modify it, the chances for meaningful reforms to the Patriot Act this year will be slim. Or none.

In the days just after the 9/11 attacks, Congress was reluctant to deny the Bush administration any of the new surveillance and investigative powers it demanded.

But now, four years later, it is clear we need to apply the test suggested by the 9/11 Commission to those provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire. First, has the administration proved that they actually and significantly increase our security? Second, if so, do they contain safeguards to protect our liberties and prevent abuse?

The 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act were not properly vetted the first time, and included unwarranted expansions of federal power, yet some in Congress are poised to make them permanent with no real corrections. If they succeed, extreme provisions like Section 215 – which gives the FBI broad access to your personal records without individual suspicion, probable cause or any meaningful ability to challenge the secret court order that allows this access – will forever be a fixture of our laws.

Urge your members of Congress to reform the Patriot Act. Remind them you are part of a growing movement, among both conservatives and progressives, in favor of common sense fixes to the Patriot Act like those contained in the Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act. Go to:

http://action.aclu.org/julypatriotactvote

SANTA FE – Join the ACLU of New Mexico in a rally to reform the Patriot Act at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 9 on the Santa Fe Plaza. Decisive House and Senate votes on the USA Patriot Act are right around the corner. The Patriot Act was passed in the weeks immediately following September 11th, with the understanding that certain of these powers would be up for “sunset” by December 2005.

Congressman Udall, one of only 66 members of Congress to oppose the Patriot Act, will address the crowd. Udall, in conjunction with a bipartisan group of his colleagues, has called for leaders in Congress to conduct a full and open debate on the Patriot Act. “It is the responsibility of all Americans to see that no one, not even our own well-intentioned government, has the opportunity to curb our civil liberties,” said Udall in a recent statement on the Floor of the House of Representatives.
“The Bush Administration and some leaders in Congress now want to make these powers permanent, and are even pressing for further expansions to this assault on our fundamental freedoms. But there is good news: Democratic and Republican members of Congress, and liberal and conservative opinion leaders, are speaking out against the most extreme provisions of the Patriot Act” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director, Peter Simonson.

The flawed provisions of the Patriot Act threaten basic constitutional freedoms by giving the government the power to access our medical records, our tax records, and information about books that we buy or borrow, all without probable cause. The Patriot Act also gives the government the power to obtain a special “sneak and peek” search warrant to break into homes and conduct secret searches without notice of this intrusion for weeks, months or indefinitely, and without any connection to terrorism at all. The Patriot Act needs to be reformed, not expanded.

“Nearly 400 communities - including seven states - have passed resolutions calling on Congress to amend the Patriot Act to restore basic checks and balances,” said Simonson. “Here in New Mexico, thirteen communities, the NM State House of Representatives, the NM Library Association, the NM Municipal League and others, passed resolutions within months of the Patriot Act’s passage.”

As part of the nationwide campaign, ACLU of New Mexico members have been reaching out in Farmington, Gallup, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces to let their neighbors know how the Patriot Act affects them.

This summer the ACLU launched a new Web site, www.reformthepatriotact.org, to help Americans speak out and get more involved in the fight to protect the Constitution. Through this Web site, people can contact their lawmakers and urge them to oppose efforts to expand and make the Patriot Act permanent. They can also urge their lawmakers to support the common-sense reforms in the bipartisan SAFE Act.

Will you join us Friday, July 8, at 6:00 pm in front of the Century 14 Movies downtown?

We will distribute Restrict the Patriot Act information for one hour to the downtown crowd.

Next week, Friday, July 15, we’re joining the Shop & Stroll crowd at Nob Hill.
Meet us in front of the A Store at 6:00.

Join us for one hour and Make a Difference!

Tonight at 6:00 we’ll be distributing Restrict the Patriot Act information with our friends outside the salsa concert for one hour.

Meet us at the Albuquerque Museum (Tijeras NW) for one hour!

Thank you for giving us your time – literally – this great holiday week-end.

Joyce (for Kimberly)