April 24, 2010 archive

I won’t kid you.

Or maybe I will.  Who knows what I’ll do.  Ha!

Arizona just passed a law that is an unjust law.

But Arizona isn’t the only place this is happening.

Migrants living here who aren’t citizens are not the only ones suffering.

We suffer too.

It is the same suffering, there is no separation.

That’s what solidarity is.  Always has been.  Always will be.

From The Hill this afternoon:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-…

Congressman Raul Grijalva, (AZ- 07) the co chair of the Democratic progressive caucus, is closing his Tuscon and Yuma offices because of death threats being made to staffers on the eve of SB1070 possibly being signed by Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Drinkwine Brewer. Yes, that is her real name, Drinkwine Brewer, and   she just signed the anti- undocumented worker, latino and hispanic profiling, race baiting bill into law this afternoon.

One man called the congressman’s Tucson office twice and said he would “blow everyone’s brains out,” spokesman Adam Sarvana told The Hill.

Opponents of the bill, who include Grijalva, say that the bill is discriminatory.

Thousands of people concerned that the bill violates the U.S. Constitution have gathered outside the state capitol of Phoenix in protest since the bill cleared the legislature on Monday.  The bill makes it a crime to be in this country illegally, and it requires any Arizona police officers to question people about the status of their citizenship and immigration status if there is any reason to suspect that they are undocumented workers, also known as “illegal aliens.”  They must be able to show proof of citizenship upon request, merely based upon suspicion.   The bill also makes it illegal to hire undocumented immigrants for day labor, to transport them, and allows lawsuits against government agencies that Arizona feels are hindering enforcement of immigration laws.

What an unbelievably ignorant and oppressive and probably illegal “immigration” law Arizona has just passed.  In its efforts to oppress the Mexican American and immigrant population within its borders, and anyone who might appear to be in that group (some Native Americans?) Arizona has enacted a law that facilitates prejudicial law enforcement and a blatant police state.  Put simply, this law is an outrage passed by and for the radical right, and it’s designed to make life for brown people and those who aren’t very white even more difficult.

The basic provisions of the law:

The law, which opponents and critics alike said was the broadest and strictest immigration measure in the country in generations, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime. It would also give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Opponents have decried it as an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status.

According to The New York Times

The Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles called the authorities’ ability to demand documents Nazism. While police demands of documents are common on subways, highways and in public places in some countries, including France, Arizona is the first state to demand that immigrants meet federal requirements to carry identity documents legitimizing their presence on American soil.

And President Obama isn’t exactly thrilled either:

Even before …the bill [was signed], President Obama strongly criticized it.

Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 24 active-duty service members in the Rose Garden, he called for a federal overhaul of immigration laws – an overhaul that Congressional leaders signaled they were preparing to take up soon.

Saying the failure of officials in Washington to act on immigration would open the door to “irresponsibility by others,” he said the Arizona bill threatened “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

And the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF} notes:

“Governor Brewer caved to the radical fringe,” said a statement by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, predicting that the law would create “a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions.”

When is the last time you saw a new state law greeted with such an outcry?  Probably never.  This law is that bad and deserves all of this and more.

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