¡Alto Arizona!

Arizona Boycott Against AZ SB 1070 - www.arizona-boycott.org

This site was created to support the efforts Against Arizona SB 1070. This site contains a growing list of companies based out of the State of Arizona. If we boycotts these companies, we will show Arizona that America is against the passage of this bill.

This website contains a list of AZ based businesses, conventions, events, news and links: http://www.arizona-boycott.org

Arizona: This is what Apartheid Looks Like

*A brief note... as noted previously, I have not discontinued writing... I only have discontinued deadline column writing. What is happening here in Arizona compels me to join with others to write about Apartheid Arizona. Thanks. RR

Arizona: This is what Apartheid Looks Like

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

Those who think that there’s an immigration crisis in Arizona are correct, however, this is but part of the story. The truth is, a civilizational clash is being played out in the same state in which the state legislature questions the birthplace and legitimacy of President Barack Obama and where Sen. John McCain competes with Senate hopeful, J.D. Hayworth, to see who is the most anti-immigrant.

It is also the same state that several years ago, denied a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., and that today permits virtually anyone – on the basis of trumped-up fear – to carry concealed weapons anywhere.

Welcome to Apartheid Arizona – the land of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, “States Rights” and a desert that has claimed thousands of migrant lives. By way of the same extremist legislature, the battle here is even much larger and more profound. This civilizational clash is being waged daily here via more bills involving who belongs, what language can be spoken here and who and what can be taught in the state’s schools. This is beyond the notion of who is “legal.”

SB 1070's Russell Pearce at Tempe Tea Party and who is behind this law

SB 1070's Russell Pearce tells a distasteful joke at the Tempe Tea Party, The Hate Group FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) admits to writing SB 1070 and Pearces neo-Nazi ties are exposed.

Source: Youtube.com Humanleague002 video page

American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Moves Fall Conference Outside of Arizona

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, April 23, 2010
CONTACTS:
George Tzamaras or Jenny Levy
202-507-7649
202-507-7628
gtzamaras@aila.org
jlevy@aila.org,

Washington, D.C. – The Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), moments after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the harshest anti-immigration bill passed in the U.S. in more than a decade, instructed its Executive Committee to move the Association’s fall 2010 conference, previously scheduled for Arizona, to another state.

AILA President Bernie Wolfsdorf explained, “We cannot in good conscience spend association dollars in a state that dehumanizes the people we represent and fight for. What Governor Brewer has done by signing this bill into law is to validate all of the irrational fears by people who are not willing to acknowledge the economic and cultural benefits of immigration to our country.”

“If Arizonans are serious about ending illegal immigration, they should be the first in line at the United States Capitol to urge Congress to the do the right thing and pass comprehensive immigration reform,” Wolfsdorf concluded.

###

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.

On the Eve of SB-1070’s Enactment: What Can President Obama Do?

Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Yesterday, for the first time, President Obama addressed the imminent passage of SB-1070, an Arizona immigration bill he said would “undermine basic notions of fairness” and “trust between police and their communities.” In his brief statement he acknowledged that the federal government’s “failure to act responsibly” has led to the “irresponsibility of others.” Nonetheless, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) irresponsibly signed the bill into law Friday afternoon. While Congress must work to enact just immigration reform, the President must react swiftly to address the crisis in Arizona. The nation is now looking to the President to demonstrate leadership and moral courage to follow his own advice and stop the implementation of this likely unconstitutional and “fundamentally racist” law. How can he do it? He can start by reasserting the federal government’s exclusive authority to enforce immigration laws.

According to the constitution, immigration law has been the exclusive purview of the federal government. Local and state governments are precluded from enforcing it or promulgating their own laws. The inception of the widely acknowledged failed 287(g) program in 1996 which allows local law enforcement to enforce immigration law after entering into an agreement with the federal government, marked a sweeping reinterpretation of the constitution. In effect, the 287(g) program and others like it have created a balkanized system that increases and sometimes sanctions racial profiling, diverts resources from law enforcement, and creates a growing distrust between local police and immigrant communities. SB-1070 is now the culmination of the federal government’s outsourcing of its immigration enforcement authority to state and local police. Arizona is proof that police and ICE partnerships are not only costly and dangerous, they can also be used as a stepping stone towards more radical solutions. The President has the power to immediately halt them.

Why Cybraceros? (a mock promotional film by Alex Rivera)

Alex Rivera, Why Cybraceros? (5 min. 1997, USA) takes the form of a mock promotional film. It is based on a real promotional film produced in the late 1940's by the California Grower's Council, titled Why Braceros? This film was used by the Grower's Council to defend the use of braceros, or temporary Mexican farmhands. I use footage from this old industrial to briefly lay out the history of the Bracero Program in the United States. At the half way point the piece takes a sharp turn as the narrator advocates a futuristic Bracero Program in which only the labor is imported to the United States. The workers themselves are left at home in Mexico, as they Tele-commute to American farms over the high-speed Internet. The narrator explains that in this imagined future there is no difference between rich and poor on the Internet, this is a future in which truly everyone can work from home, even braceros.

This dystopic concept, of a world in which immigrants can labor in America but never live in, or become the responsibility, of American society, is to me not only a bizarre twist on the American Dream; in some ways this is the realization of the American Dream. The United States has always benefited from the low wage (and sometimes free) labor of recent immigrants, who are drawn to America, in part, by The Dream of instant success. Simultaneously, nearly every wave of new immigrants suffers through several decades of intense discrimination, and usually a combination of verbal and physical attacks. The Cybracero, as a trouble free, no commitment, low cost laborer, is the perfect immigrant. The Cybracero is the hi-tech face of the age-old American Dream.

¡ALTO ARIZONA! Posters are nice but stencils are cool....download a pdf: http://rageoneart.com/alto_arizona/

In support of PUENTE ARIZONA who has been leading the fight for some time now against the mistreatment of migrants and day laborers by Joe Arpaio, 287g and now SB 1070, I created these posters as part of the ALTO ARIZONA Art Campaign initiated by NDLON. Please use them and distribute. Go to this link to download a pdf: http://rageoneart.com/alto_arizona/

-Joel "rage.one" Garcia

Boycott Arizona... here's how: A basic consumer guide

(full disclosure: I have not heard any of the national immigrant and/or Latino organizations taking on the task of informing the community of which businesses/organizations to target, so I did a quick websearch and found what I found that the average consumer outside of Arizona might be able to use. This list is not comprehensive, nor is it as strategic as it needs to be. Apologies in advance... -Joel)

Greetings friends and allies,

In the wake of the recent adoption into law of SB1070 by the State of Arizona today (04.23.2010), one of the most draconian anti-immigration laws ever in the United States, many people have called for a boycott of the State of Arizona, including southwest Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva. Personally, I haven't been to Arizona in five years and do not plan on going there any time soon. I created this list to give folks/average consumers outside of Arizona a chance to show their disgust with the passage of this racist legislation by boycotting the following, Arizona-based companies.

2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ

Apollo Group (University of Phoenix). Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Arizona Diamondbacks, Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Best Western International, Inc., Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Cold Stone Creamery. Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

CSK Auto (Checker Auto Parts, Schucks Auto Supply, Kragen Auto Parts, Murray's Discount Auto Stores), Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Dial Corporation, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Discount Tire Company (America's Tire Company). Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Go Daddy. Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

Grand Canyon

Mesa Air Group (Mesa Airlines, Go!, Freedom Airlines). Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

P. F. Chang's China Bistro. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

PetSmart. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Sky Mall, Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

Taser International, Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona

U-Haul. Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

US Airways. Headquarters: Tempe, Arizona

SNL's Seth Meyers Slams Arizona's Immigration Law, Calls It 'Fascist'

Student Uses Facebook to Organize Massive High School Walkout

-Brenna Ehrlich, Mashable.com

Thousands of New Jersey high school students participated in a walkout today in protest of recent education cuts — all because of a call to action on Facebook.

The event was organized by 18-year-old Michelle Ryan Lauto — a Pace University student who once attended high school in New Jersey. Lauto decided to take action after Governor Chris Christie announced that he would be cutting $820 million in educational funding for next year, according to the Hartford Courant.

Nearly 15,000 students RSVP’d “Yes” via Facebook, but we’re not sure how many actually participated — still, sources like The Star Ledger report that students from several schools joined in the walkout. Check out footage of the protest below:

Newark students walk out of school, take City Hall

According to students who took part in the protest, it was largely organized via social networking efforts — texts, MySpace and, of course, the original Facebook Event. Lauto has been tweeting about the walkout all day, expressing her joy at the turnout and excitement about the barrage of interview requests she has received from the media. In fact, we’re currently waiting on comment from Lauto, who — last she e-mailed us — was preparing to meet a camera crew at her house.

Cancela Aeroméxico vuelos hacia Phoenix y Tucson, en Arizona

Julio Reyna Quiroz, enviado
Periódico La Jornada
Martes 27 de abril de 2010, p. 23

Acapulco, Gro. Aeroméxico decidió suspender vuelos hacia Phoenix y Tucson, en Arizona, debido a una "significativa"  baja de la demanda, generada en gran parte por la aprobación de la ley migratoria en ese estado fronterizo de Estados Unidos, informó este lunes el director general de la aerolínea, Andrés Conesa Labastida. En una conferencia de prensa añadió que las tarifas aéreas están en niveles de hace cuatro años, por lo que desestimó las acusaciones sobre un elevado costo de los boletos, y consideró que la aviación civil es el mercado más competido de toda la industria en México. Conesa Labastida explicó que la ley antinmigrantes aprobada en Arizona ha afectado el tráfico de migrantes entre México y ese estado, por lo que Aeroméxico decidió suspender las frecuencias de vuelos o cancelar otro tanto por la baja demanda. Aeroméxico suspendió los vuelos desde la ciudad de México a Phoenix, y ahora sólo llega a aquella ciudad desde Hermosillo, aunque con un menor número de frecuencias de las que solía tener. El vuelo desde Guadalajara a Phoenix también se canceló, y los viajes hacia Tucson se han reducido, agregó el directivo. "No son decisiones propias, sino que hay una menor demanda de viajes entre ese estado y el país", fenómeno que ha sido notorio dado que Arizona es estricto en sus leyes hacia los migrantes indocumentados. Sin embargo, dijo que la baja en la demanda fue evidente tras la aprobación de la ley antinmigrante la semana pasada.

How Do You Boycott Arizona?

by Daisy Hernandez,The Colorlines Blog: Race Wire

It’s one thing to tweet “boycott arizona” and another to make it happen.

For those of you who want to make it happen: Don’t book a flight on U.S. Airways, get a domain name through Go Daddy or rent a U-Haul truck.

These are all businesses based in Arizona and you can find more by clicking here, courtesy of the Denver group Padres Unidos Jovenes Unidos.

So far, the first real pinch to Arizona’s economy has come from six canceled conferences. The state’s lost between $5,000 for the smaller groups and $45,000 for the larger ones. The Immigration Lawyers Association was one, nixing their meeting scheduled for later this year despite a reported $92,000 cancellation fee.

Everything else remains to be seen.

Yes, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón has said he’s pissed off about the new anti-immigrant law and he will do something. You know, someday. Soon. And yes, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has barred city officials from traveling to Arizona on business, except for work related to policing and public health, but the impact of that is yet to be seen and he doesn’t know what he can do about city contracts with Arizona businesses. He’s formed a task force to find out. Ditto for the city’s Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles politicans.

All of which means what we’ve always known: it’s up to people on the ground to make it happen. John Amato of CrooksandLiars.com is calling for a boycott of the Diamondbacks game tomorrow against the Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Who won’t be boycotting? Prisons.

That’s right. California has a fat contract with Corrections Corp. of American, your friendly private prison corp., to transfer about 4,000 prisoners every year from the Golden State to the Hate State. Schwarzenegger doesn’t support the Arizona immigration law but said yesterday that he won't cancel the contract with Corrections Corp. "I want to keep our prisoners where they are. I don't want to get them back...I want to send more out of state." Lovely. Now if only we could ship him out of state, or boycott him.

Image by Rjosef.

J Kēhaulani Kauanui: First Nations United Statement Against SB 1070

PRESS RELEASE***

Date: April 26, 2010

"While the power of the Europeans has continued, I see the other part of the Ghost Dance prophecy coming true today. So-called 'Hispanics,' with faces that sure look like Indians to me, are returning to repopulate North America. We cannot always speak to each other because we have learned the languages of different colonial powers. But these Indians have as much right to come and go on our land as the geese when they migrate north and south. No one would dare to ask them for their passports and visas as they cross man made borders.

Instead of seeing 'Hispanics' as outsiders who do not belong here, we need to start seeing them as ancestors of the original inhabitants of these lands. They are the living fulfillment of the Ghost Dance prophecy."

-Chief Billy Redwing Tayac, Piscataway Nation

First Nations United, an Indigenous organization largely made up of members of the Red Lake/Ojibwe and Dakota nations, would like to formally express its outrage and disagreement with the SB 1070 ("Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods") Bill passed last week by the state of Arizona. This bill is extremely detrimental to the indigenous communities (including indigenous peoples of Latin American origin), which reside in the state of Arizona as well as those who live throughout the country. The language of the bill states that if there is "reasonable suspicion" that a person is an illegal immigrant, a "reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable" to check for documents. Such language purposefully promotes the racial profiling of brown-skinned people, and in particular, of people of American indigenous background. As an indigenous organization, which stands for the civil and human rights of indigenous peoples throughout the continent, we are concerned that this bill will promote the unfair and discriminatory arrests, prosecution, and deportation of people of American indigenous descent-not only of those who belong to federally recognized tribes, but also of the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who have migrated from South/Central America and Mexico to what is now called "the United States." Indigenous peoples across the continent do not recognize the borders established by the settler colonialist state on our lands, and, we do not agree with the malicious and dehumanizing way in which the settler colonialist government wants to enforce them.

As an Indigenous organization, we recognize that indigenous peoples from Latin America have every right to migrate up and down the continent as they please and as they have done through trade and communication routes since time immemorial. The native peoples of the continent should be the ones establishing immigration laws and enforcing them. However, because we were disempowered through genocide and colonization, and because we have consistently treated "foreigners" in a more humane and hospitable way, we respect peoples' rights to migrate. If we did enforce such power, only tribal identifications from throughout the continent (including documentation identifying peoples from Latin American indigenous ancestry) would be recognized as legitimate, and we could very well racially profile people of Caucasian descent as the true and eternal foreigners.

ARIZONA'S CALL TO THE NATION: TAKE 2 MINUTES TO JOIN THE WINNING SIDE OF HISTORY...

Dear Friends,

There are moments in history when our nation's character is tested. In these times, the country needs to stand together to uphold our most cherished values and to protect our proudest tradition as a nation of immigrants. In doing so, we must pay tribute to those generations who struggled and endured before us to cultivate the rights we all enjoy and deserve today. And while hatred and bigotry currently rule the day in Arizona, we have 90 days to stop SB 1070's implementation, to defend civil rights, and to set federal immigration reform efforts in the right direction. We will not fail in this call.

CLICK HERE TO STAND WITH IMMIGRANTS

People in Arizona have experienced a profound range of emotions in recent weeks. On Friday, Governor Jan Brewer joined the ranks of George Wallace and others like him who sought to gain political advantage by encouraging hatred and bigotry. And while Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio may have written themselves into the history books by supporting this repugnant law, they will appear as nothing more than a footnote. Indeed, this chapter of history will be written by the millions of immigrants who assert their place in the American story like all others who came before them. This chapter will be written by a new generation of fearless leaders, like the thousands of high school students who walked out in Phoenix and Tucson, and the nine brave leaders who sacrificed their freedom to prevent and protest the enactment of an unjust and unconstitutional law. It will be written by all of us.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS IN ARIZONA

Arizona's immigrant community is organizing and preparing to mount the political, legal, and economic pressure needed to restore constitutional protections to the state. They need the nation's help to change the federal policy that allowed for the formation of SB 1070. The simple fact is that the President of the United States has the moral authority and legal obligation to intervene and put an end to SB 1070. As Congressman Gutierrez said in his electrifying speech to thousands yesterday,

"Every time the federal government said that you could carry out 287(g) and sanctioned it you gave AZ an excuse to do SB1070. And it really isn't that difficult, to take the pen and a signature to say that the police do not have an inherent right to carry out immigration policy, it is the responsibility of the federal government."

We are asking you to answer Arizona's call. Specifically, we ask that you take three simple steps:

1. Take 1 Minute to send and urgent appeal to President Barack Obama, demanding federal intervention to defend civil rights in Arizona.
2. Consider making a donation to support litigation and organizing in defense of Arizona's communities.
3. Join us for a national conference call on Wednesday, April 28, at 10am PST//1pm EST to discuss national and local response efforts and to learn how you can help. RSVP for the call by emailing Yadira Hernandez.

The road ahead will be long, but together we will turn the tide.

Sincerely,

Pablo Alvarado
Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Law & Border: The Daily Show with John Stewart

The Arizona immigration law is very clear -- the police will only check people who are reasonably suspicious...

Protesters arrested after stopping van of deportees

 

Two dozen demonstrators were arrested outside a federal detention center in Broadview this morning, minutes after they halted a government van carrying immigrants marked for deportation.

Officers took the demonstrators into custody, one by one, as the crowd of supporters cheered and chanted "no deportations today."

As they were escorted to squad cars from Broadview, Maywood and Westchester, each demonstrator urged Congress and the Obama administration to deal with immigration reforms.

"There is now a racial reign of terror spreading across the country and it has to be stopped," said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and one of the people arrested.

Earlier, about two dozen demonstrators sat in the street outside the detention center and chanted "Illinois is not Arizona" as they planted themselves in front of a van carrying undocumented immigrants.

The protestors had hoped to stop a federal van headed to O'Hare International Airport for a flight out of the country but wound up stopping a Kenosha County van headed back to Wisconsin.

Arizona: Boycott the Diamondbacks: The Arizona immigration bill has brought echoes of apartheid to the state. Let us turn our backs on its baseball team in protest

Dave Zirin, guardian.co.uk,Tuesday 27 April 2010 07.00 BST

Gonna find a way
Make the state pay Lookin' for the day
Hard as it seems
This ain't no damn dream
Gotta know what I mean
It's team against team
Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona

This will be the last column I write about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the foreseeable future. For me, they do not exist. They will continue to not exist in my mind as long as the horribly named Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act remains law in Arizona. It's a law that has brought echoes of apartheid to the state.

One Democratic lawmaker has said that it has made Arizona a "laughing stock" but it's difficult to find an ounce of humour in this kind of venal legislation. The law makes it a crime to walk the streets without clutching your passport, green card, visa, or state ID. It not only empowers but absolutely requires cops to demand paperwork if they so much as suspect a person of being undocumented. A citizen can, in fact, sue any police officer they see not harassing suspected immigrants. The bill would also make it a class one misdemeanour for anyone to "pick up passengers for work" if their vehicle blocks traffic. And it makes a second violation of any aspect of the law a felony.

Chuck D. of Public Enemy's new song re: Arizona: "Tear Down That Wall"

  

 » download

Release date: 04/13/2010

1989 US President Ronald Reagan chastised the then Iron curtain of communist countries about the separatist existence of the Berlin Wall. There presently is a multi billion dollar wall funded by the United States with similar isolationist separatist policies ...the wall between the US and Mexico. Chuck D addresses the growing tangible and intangible wall existing between the black and brown people in North America.

In Mexico, new figures have been released showing more than 5,000 Mexican migrants have died trying to reach the United States since 1994. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says an average three migrants lost their lives every two days in the US-Mexico border region in 2007 and 2008. Track produced by Divided Souls from Baton Rouge LA.upon a tip from the great MC ...Scarface.

And now by default its attached to being a themed commentary to the recent passed one sided racist immigration LAW in the State of Arizona... This statement from Chuck D and his wife Dr Gaye Theresa Johnson

'Jan Brewer's decision to sign the Arizona immigration bill into law is racist, deceitful, and reflects some of the most mean-spirited politics against immigrants that the country has ever seen. The power that this law gives to police, to detain people that they suspect to be undocumented, brings racial profiling to a new low. Brewer's actions and those of Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, the Arizona State Senate are despicable, inexcusable, and endorse the all-out hate campaign that Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, and others have perpetrated upon immigrants for years. The people of Arizona who voted for this bill, as well as those who crafted it, demonstrate no regard for the humanity or contributions of Latino people. And for all of those who have chosen not to speak up, shame on you for silently endorsing this legislated hate.

In 1991 I wrote a song criticizing Arizona officials (including John McCain and Fife Symington) for rejecting the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The same politics I wrote about in "By the Time I Get to Arizona" are alive and well in Arizona today, but this time the target is Brown people.

These actions must stop. I am issuing a call to action, urging my fellow musicians, artists, athletes, performers, and production companies to refuse to work in Arizona until officials not only overturn this bill, but recognize the human rights of immigrants. This should include the NBA playoffs, revisiting the actions of the NFL in 1993, when they moved the Superbowl to Pasadena in protest against Arizona's refusal to recognize Dr. King. We all need to speak up in defense of our brothers and sisters being victimized in Arizona, because things are only getting worse. What they’re doing to immigrants is appalling, but it will be even more damning if we remain silent.'

“By the Time I Get to Arizona” — This Discrimination Must Stop; Chuck D. Calls For A Boycott of Arizona!

Chuck D and Gaye Theresa Johnson (The Huffington Post)
Posted: April 26, 2010 04:22 PM

The Arizona immigration bill — which Governor Jan Brewer has decided to sign into law — is racist, deceitful, and reflects some of the most mean-spirited politics against immigrants that the country has ever seen. The power that this law gives to police to detain people that they suspect to be undocumented brings racial profiling to a new low. Brewer’s actions and those of Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, the Arizona State Senate are despicable, inexcusable, and endorse the all-out hate campaign that Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, and others have perpetrated upon immigrants for years. The people of Arizona who voted for this bill, as well as those who crafted it, demonstrate no regard for the humanity or contributions of Latino people. And for all of those who have chosen not to speak up, shame on you for silently endorsing this legislated hate.

In 1991 Public Enemy wrote a song criticizing Arizona officials (including John McCain and Fife Symington) for rejecting the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The same politics written about in “By the Time I Get to Arizona” are alive and well in Arizona today, but this time the target is Brown people.

These actions must stop. We are issuing a call to action, urging fellow musicians, artists, athletes, performers, academics and production companies to refuse to work in Arizona until officials not only overturn this bill, but recognize the human rights of immigrants. This should include the NBA playoffs, revisiting the actions of the NFL in 1993, when they moved the Superbowl to Pasadena in protest against Arizona’s refusal to recognize Dr. King. We all need to speak up in defense of our brothers and sisters being victimized in Arizona, because things are only getting worse. What they’re doing to immigrants is appalling, but it will be even more damning if we remain silent.

Truck driver forced to show birth certificate claims racial-profiling

by Alicia E. Barrón
azfamily.com
Posted on April 21, 2010 at 5:04 PM
Updated Thursday, Apr 22 at 3:21 PM

PHOENIX – A Valley man says he was pulled over Wednesday morning and questioned when he arrived at a weigh station for his commercial vehicle along Val Vista and the 202 freeway.

Abdon, who did not want to use his last name, says he provided several key pieces of information but what he provided apparently was not what was needed.

He tells 3TV, “I don't think it's correct, if I have to take my birth certificate with me all the time.”

3TV caught up with Abdon after he was released from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in central Phoenix. He and his wife, Jackie, are still upset about what happened to him.

Jackie tells 3TV, “It's still something awful to be targeted. I can't even imagine what he felt, people watching like he was some type of criminal.”

Abdon was told he did not have enough paperwork on him when he pulled into a weigh station to have his commercial truck checked. He provided his commercial driver’s license and a social security number but ended up handcuffed.

An agent called his wife and she had to leave work to drive home and grab other documents like his birth certificate.

Jackie explains, “I have his social security card as well and mine. He's legit. It's the first time it's ever happened.”

Desertion in the desert

By Markos Moulitsas - 04/20/10 05:16 PM ET (Source: The Hill)

In 1994, California conservative activists pushed through Proposition 187, a ballot initiative that prohibited undocumented immigrants from using social services or public education in the state. Legal challenges and the election of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 1998 killed the law, but not before California Latinos were lost to the GOP for generations. 

Indeed, since 1994, Democrats have won all gubernatorial, Senate and presidential elections in the state except for those won by current Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (originally elected in a bizarre recall election). In a state that is just slightly over 40 percent white, alienating Latino and Asian immigrant communities has been electoral death for the GOP, with few signs of a turnaround anytime soon.

Arizona Republicans seem intent on following the same path. The GOP-dominated Arizona legislature last week passed a bill making it a misdemeanor to lack immigration paperwork and requiring police to question people if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is an illegal immigrant. But undocumented white Canadians or Irish need not fear, because “reasonable suspicion” is not-so-veiled code for “brown skin."

God forbid you are darker-skinned and leave your wallet at home. In modern-day Arizona, that is grounds for jail.

Obama slams Arizona immigration bill

(Source CNN) President Obama on Friday criticized a controversial new immigration bill in Arizona, calling it "misguided."

"Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," the president said at a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the military.

"In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at the federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country."

Obama added, "As a nation, as a people, we can choose a different future, a future that keeps faith with our history, with our heritage, and with the hope that America has always inspired in the hearts of people all over the world."

Colbert Report - The Word "No Problemo"

"Harassing Latinos with racial profiling isn't an inevitable side effect of Arizona's anti-immigration law -- it's the entire point. - Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report" (05:28)

Join Luis Gutierrez and the AZ community to stand up to SB1070!!!

We need tens of thousands of people on Sunday! Invite friends, family, networks...got to Facebook Event page and confirm attendance and invite others to join. Please share this message!

Zack de la Rocha speaks out against SB1070!

Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine speaks out against AZ SB 1070 on April 23, 2010, in support of the AltoArizona! campaign. He also talks about the upcoming rally on Sunday, April 25, 2010 @ the State Capitol in Phoenix. Go to Alto Arizona Facebook event invitation to confirm attendance and invite other people to come!!! We need thousands of people to show up!!!