Mint.com goes confusingly anti-immigration, cites racist source

Because femonomics has endorsed the use of Mint.com previously, and many of our readers and writers are probably Mint.com users, I felt it was important to bring this to your attention:  Mint.com has recently posted a blatantly anti-immigration infographic on their company blog, citing dubious statistics and one openly racist source.  To recap, Mint is a personal finance site that allows you to track your expenditures and your net worth.  It has absolutely nothing to do with immigration policy, overall fiscal policy, or macroeconomic issues, and has previously been silent on these issues.

Timothy Lee writing for the Atlantic was the first to point out this bizarre turn of events, and helps to debunk some of the statistics cited by Mint, starting with questioning their sources:

The most jarring name on this list is the openly racist vdare.com. The rest of the list is a mix of official government sources, non-profits, and blogs. The sources skew heavily in an anti-immigrant direction, although at least one is a pro-immigrant source (fiscalpolicy.org). While none of the other anti-immigrant sources is as offensive as vdare, few (if any) of them could be considered credible sources for statistics about immigration.
Given its sources, it's not surprising that the chart is riddled with implausible statistics. The most obvious whoppers are the claims that "about 43% of all Food Stamps issued in the United States are to illegal aliens," and "about 41% of all unemployment checks issued in the United States are to illegal aliens." Mint doesn't give specific citations, but these claims appear to come from this article at "Charlotte Conservative News," which itself does not cite any sources. Given that the law doesn't allow undocumented immigrants to collect unemployment benefits, this claim doesn't pass the straight face test. As for food stamps, I'm not able to find recent statistics, but a 1995 study found that undocumented immigrants with citizen children received about 2 percent of all food stamp benefits. The population of undocumented immigrants has increased in the last 15 years, but it hasn't increased by a factor of 20.
Another dubious claim is that undocumented immigrants cost Arizona taxpayers $2.7 billion, which would be roughly a quarter of Arizona's $10 billion budget. The post doesn't give a specific citation, so it's hard to fact-check it, but that figure seems implausibly high given that undocumented immigrants constitute less than 10 percent of the population.
The graphic doesn't even pretend to be a balanced look at the immigration debate. It doesn't estimate the amount immigrants pay in taxes. It doesn't discuss the number of businesses started by immigrants or the number of jobs they have created. It doesn't mention the crucial role that immigrants play in our high-tech industries. It doesn't show the ever-escalating costs of enforcing our draconian immigration laws.

Personally, if I can't trust a company to do good research and engage in public policy cautiously, I can't trust it with the logins to all my accounts, which is what a Mint membership usually entails.  Until this is straightened out, Mint users out there might want to consider revoking the company's access to your data.
[via Gawker]
Update: full image below jump, in case Mint takes down the link. 
Update 2: Mint has removed the site and apologized.  Statement from MintLife blog editor Lee Sherman in comments

Arizona, Immigration, Racism, and Federal Inaction

As I'm sure you've heard by now, a new Arizona law requires all immigrants in the state to carry their documentation on them at all times and present it upon a suspicious police officer's demand. For your roundup of news and background on this new immigration rule, check out Feministe, with a truly comprehensive link list. I can't imagine this law will last long, as it is straight up unconstitutional and enforcement promises to be a real nightmare. Arizona Representative Raul Grijalva has asked that organizations boycott the state in the face of a bill that he maintains is essentially codified racism.

Is this law primarily motivated by racism? This seems to be the consensus, and Latoya over at Racialicious even documents refried bean swastikas plastered on state buildings in protest (vandalism which reporters awkwardly mischaracterize as a hate crime). Our own Just A State School Girl picked apart the risk of racial profiling the bill presents earlier this week. NMDan of Daily Kos agrees with this take, and argues that such blatantly racist moves will motivate the electorate and ensure the swift downfall of the GOP. The vote did fall along party lines, but I am hesitant to characterize the Republican party as purely racist while Democrats are stalwart defenders of freedom. There is plenty of room for skepticism that anyone in DC is really dedicated to tackling immigration policy, Democrat or Republican.

What does Arizona's new immigration law imply about our country?

Lately, there has been quite a bit of coverage in the media about Arizona's new immigration bill. It is the toughest piece of immigration legislation in United States' recent history, and it will give the Arizona police power to detain anyone who they "reasonably" suspect is an illegal immigrant. Moreover, all non-U.S. citizens in Arizona will now be required to carry their documents at all times. As an immigrant to and a citizen of this country, this new law makes me angry and sad because I fear that it will lead to racial profiling and second-class treatment of both legal and illegal residents of this country, and it indicates that America might not be the "land of opportunity" and "the melting pot" that so many people who risk their lives to come here imagine it to be.

Cesar Chavez and the Continuing Struggle for Farmworkers Rights

Last week California celebrated Cesar Chavez day, honoring the farmworker advocate on his birthday, March 31st. Chavez died in 1993, but his work is still relevant today as farmworkers continue to face abusive conditions and as some loopy Texans recently tried to remove his story from textbooks (and failed - thank goodness!)

Chavez was the son of Mexican immigrants and grew up on their farm in Yuma, Arizona. When he was still a boy, his parents lost their farm (during the economic ravages of the Great Depression) and they went on the road as migrant farm laborers. Because of this, Chavez was unable to continue his formal education, but taught himself and grew to be very well-read and a gifted orator. He served in the military and then moved to San Jose where he became a community organizer working on behalf on behalf of urban minorities, and went on to found the precursor to the United Farm Workers of America. Chavez promoted non-violent protest, and organized and participated in fasts, boycotts, marches, and strikes on behalf of farmworkers rights. In recognition of his contribution to American society, Chavez was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.