Immigration issue draws Conor Oberst

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100730/NEWS01/307309946#immigration-issue-draws-oberst

By Kevin Coffey

Conor Oberst has always been into political causes.

But now, he says, it's getting personal. Because of time spent in Mexico and friendships with Mexican natives, he's ratcheting up his activism, speaking out against new laws cracking down on illegal immigration in Fremont and in Arizona.

Oberst, an Omaha native, recently recorded an album in Mexico and on the Texas border. He named his Mystic Valley Band after the Valle Místico near Tepoztlán and recently wrote “Coyote Song,” a tune about two lovers separated by the border.

And he's outraged at the situation of a close family friend who came to the United States illegally from Mexico decades ago. She recently returned to Mexico so she could come back here legally, and though her three daughters and husband are citizens, she can't return to the U.S. for 10 years.
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“That blows my mind,” Oberst said this week in his first interview with The World-Herald since 2006. “I don't see how that serves society. I don't see any justice in that. I don't see what the point is.”

Fremont supporters of the law — which would fine employers and landlords who hire and rent to illegal immigrants — said they were motivated by jobs lost to illegal immigrants and by the rising costs of law enforcement, medical care and education springing from illegal immigration.

FULL story at link.

[pinboy3niner]

1. Oberst is a stand-up guy

I saw Bright Eyes perform--along with Springstein, Fogerty and R.E M.--when they were campaigning for Kerry in '04 on the Vote for Change Tour.

And, of course, Oberst is participating in the Sound Strike boycott of Arizona.