¡Alto Arizona!

Indigenous Peoples Take a Stand Against #SB1070

June 15, 2010 by Cloee Cooper

86 years after the Indian Citizenship Act, indigenous communities are challenging the notion of what it is to be a U.S. citizen. In June of 1924 the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act. Controversial for its time, the Act recognized the citizenship of U.S. indigenous people.

Prior to 1924, individuals in the indigenous community were only granted citizenship if they served in the military, denounced tribal affiliations, or assimilated into American society. Those opposed to the 1924 Act wanted indigenous citizenship policies to remain the same however, and in some places inequality persisted. Until 1947 Native Americans did not have the right to vote in Arizona and New Mexico.

Now indigenous communities organize alongside immigrant rights supporters in Arizona to oppose nativist laws.

In an April 24 letter to governor Jan Brewer, Robert Warrior, the Osage president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association states,

“S.B. 1070 will have tremendous negative impacts on indigenous people on both sides of the border between the United States and Mexico, and it ought to go without saying that some of the people most impacted by this invidious law are descended from peoples who lived in the Sonoran Desert centuries before anyone even thought of the United States. Regardless of proximity or descent, though, the new law is morally wrong and panders to the worst currents in U.S. politics.”

Salma Hayek Criticizes #Arizona's #SB1070, Calls To Obama For Reform

Salma Hayek Pinault isn't afraid her image will be tarnished by sharing her thoughts on the immigration controversy. The Mexicana, who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen, gave this candid response to Mexican news agency Notimex when asked about SB 1070:

“What surprises me is the lack of humanity with which they are treating the immigrants," she said. "What I can’t understand is how the United States, which is considered a hero around the world that helps other countries, doesn’t help the foreigners who enter their country. It’s a contradiction.”

This isn't the first time Salma has spoken out against laws that criminalize immigrants. Back in May, 2006, la actriz publicly criticized a bill being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives that would make being an illegal immigrant in the U.S. a felony. Hayek Pinault shared this response with the New York Daily News:

"As a human being, I find this situation intolerable. As an immigrant, I find it offensive. And as an American citizen, I find it disheartening."

Tell em', Salma!

(via via blogamole.mtvtr3s.com)

In Washington DC, testifying before Congress.

Today I testified before Congress, the Home Land Security Department, as well as the Department of Labor in Washington DC, and a huge coalition of wombyn’s and children’s rights.  I testified along side of four other strong and powerful wombyn who have been affected by the racist policies in Arizona like SB1070 and 287(g). I carried a special and important message Stop SB1070, terminate 287(g), and pass the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill.

I cannot believe that I am in the nations capitol at this time. I have never been to DC before and it is an honor to be here on such an important and urgent mission.

Below is the message I had to share:

#Indian Country Today - Native Contingent Leads Anti-#SB1070 March

Standing in solidarity with indigenous migrants

By Shadi Rahimi, Today correspondent
Story Published: Jun 4, 2010

PHOENIX – As an estimated 100,000 people marched six miles May 30 to protest Arizona’s new immigration law, they were led by Lakotas, Paiutes, Yavapai-Apache, Tohono O’odham, Akimel O’odham, and other tribal members.

Those in front held a banner that read, “Lakota-Nation: America Was Built With Stolen Land. No Border. No Boundaries.”

Shannon Rivers, an Akimel O’odham who organized the march, said they were marching in solidarity with “brothers and sisters” crossing the borders, and for the right of mobility for indigenous people.  Rivers said Senate Bill 1070 – which would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police the power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country without citizenship – is a racist bill that should be repealed.

“We, as indigenous people, have been dealing with immigration since the Spaniards and Europeans came. We need to remind them, they too are immigrants. This is the first of many bills to come in the age of xenophobia and post-9/11 laws.”

A majority of those crossing the border from Central America to the U.S. are indigenous people who have been negatively affected by the North American Free Trade Agreement, Rivers said, and U.S. industries that have displaced them from homelands, extracted their resources, and contaminated traditional means of income and sustenance, such as corn.

Legal Discrimination: A Look at Immigration Policy History in America

by Eleonore Rohrer, June 4, 2010

We read statistics and follow headlines, but let’s be real about it: unless we live near the border or in large cities, we’re pretty removed from the “Immigration Debate,” and even more so from laws like the one passed in Arizona.  Nevertheless, an issue so polarizing, so hyped-up, so provocative in one part of our country can’t be rendered irrelevant by distance and merits a second thought.  I suggest we all take a moment to consider the immigration situation rationally, gathering perspective not from political extremes or economic speculations but from our past of immigration policies.  After all, if understanding history stops us from making the same mistakes twice, it is about time we take a look over our shoulders.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” invites our Lady Liberty with a welcoming smile towards Northern Europe. The United States of America, the world’s Melting Pot, has a history of immigration, but so too one of discrimination. This is not to say that the US is an inherently discriminatory nation—persecution is certainly a worldwide phenomenon—but rather that, so proud of what our nation stands for, we do not recognize how exclusionary our policies truly are until we see them in hindsight.

Since the Naturalization Act of 1790 (granting residency to "free white persons" of "good moral character”), the US has enacted a string of selectively discriminatory immigration policies. During much of the 19th century, these policies took the form of qualitative restrictions to entry: different documents have prohibited entry to convicts, prostitutes, paupers, the mentally or physically impaired, and idiots¹, to name some. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, the abolition of slavery in 1865, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 kept the discourse of ethnicity, race, and social stratification, alive throughout the 1800s.

#Arizona syndrome: 'We have met the enemy and it is us'

Arizona has stirred controversy with its new law giving local law enforcement officers authority to question people they suspect of not being in the U.S. legally. David L. Altheide, a professor who splits his time between Tempe and Olympia, offers observations about Arizona's approach.

FEAR is driving the legislation and emotions in Arizona these days. Fear is being manipulated through the mass media and inaccurate information to construct a moral panic about the threat of undocumented immigrants to our collective well-being.

Arizona state Rep. John Kavanagh, a supporter of the state's new immigration law, SB 1070, said: "... our intention is to make Arizona a very uncomfortable place for them to be so they leave or never come here in the first place."

Law trumps justice. My research on propaganda and the politics of fear convinces me that Pogo, the star of the old comic strip, had it right. Famously, Pogo proclaimed, "We have met the enemy and it is us."

The enemy is the unique political culture of Arizona that permits people who rally against "big government" to embrace a policy that requires police officers to zero in on any potentially undocumented person — 30 percent of the state's population. Welcome to Arizona, Pogo.

The Truth Shall Not be Spoken in #Arizona

As Arizona moves past the “tipping point” of non-white population, its government scrambles to safeguard historical white lies from exposure by public school ethnic studies programs. The governor “intends to wipe the white historical slate clean of actual genocides, enslavements, land piracies, and all manner of crimes against darker peoples.” The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona.”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona, if it is detrimental to the reputation and sensibilities of white people.”

The State of Arizona has very ambitious goals. It will not be satisfied simply to impose a kind of apartheid system in which Latino-looking persons have no rights that a policeman is bound to respect. Oh no, Arizona’s legislature and governor have a grander plan, a much larger vision to rewrite history so as to place white people back where they think they belong: at the unchallenged center of all things worth knowing and learning. In order to do that, it is necessary to erase and outlaw the past and present of those who are not white. Governor Jan Brewer thinks she can whitewash history and put barbed wired around the present and the future with the stroke of a pen.In signing what is effectively a ban on teaching any version of history other than the approved, white version, in elementary and secondary public schools, the governor seeks to impose an ethnic cleansing of the mind – a kind of official genocide of past generations. She intends to wipe the white historical slate clean of actual genocides, enslavements, land piracies, and all manner of crimes against darker peoples. The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona, if it is detrimental to the reputation and sensibilities of white people. Apparently, the true facts of history cause white Arizona great pain, like sunlight shining on Dracula. Gov. Brewer wants to shut out the light, by shutting down ethnic studies in the classroom, making the schools safe for white lies.

Racist #Arizona Law (#SB1070) Criminalizes “Being” While Brown

Arizona has virtually criminalized “being” while brown. Its new racist laws require police to profile and stop anyone who “looks like” an undocumented immigrant. Even police chiefs across the country, who know they cannot police communities that won't talk to them, are denouncing this racist, unjust and downright foolish law.

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

The new Arizona laws are only the latest manifestations of racist and xenophobic white American hatred toward immigrants. They won't be the last. Anyone who doubts this, or encourages others to doubt it is a racist fool, is allowing herself to be fooled, is trying hard to fool somebody else, or some combination of the above.

For all practical purposes, the state of Arizona has now criminalized “being” while brown.

Arizona law now requires teachers to compile lists of suspected immigrant children. It directs emergency rooms to deny care to those who cannot prove citizenship or legal residence. It requires everyone to carry proof of citizenship or legal residence at all times, and instructs local and state law enforcement officers to detain and question any and everyone who looks or acts like they could be undocumented. Make no mistake about, this is a racist and profoundly unjust law that everyone should disrespect and disobey.

Physician Warns That #Arizona #Immigration Law (#SB1070) Could Turn Doctors Into Criminals

Over the past few weeks, medical organizations and health care providers have come out against Arizona’s new immigration law, citing the likelihood that it will discourage a large segment of the population from seeking health care. Yesterday, however, Lucas Restrepo, M.D., published a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine that provided a whole new angle on the effect SB-1070 will have on the medical profession. Restrepo points out that, under the law, health care providers who treat undocumented immigrants could be considered criminals:

The new Arizona state immigration bill (SB-1070) signed into law on April 23 will seriously obstruct, if not undermine, the practice of medicine in the state of Arizona. It specifies that those who “conceal, harbor or shield or attempt to conceal, harbor or shield” a foreign person who came to the United States illicitly “are guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor” punishable by a fine of at least $1,000 (Sec. 5, Section 13-2929). It can be argued that health care providers who neglect to report illegal immigrants under their care will violate the law and be considered criminals. [...]

The Usual Suspects: Arizona and the Black/Latino Divide

by Sikivu Hutchinson

“When it comes to immigration rights and reform, there is a pronounced disconnect between black leadership and average black folk.”

As soon as Arizona’s fascist anti-immigrant SB1070 legislation passed, black civil rights leaders from Jesse Jackson to California Assembly member Karen Bass roundly condemned it. The toxic national climate couldn’t be more primed for this law. In recent months, the high octane atmosphere of jingoistic racism, xenophobia and Manifest Destiny posturing amongst white zealots and the legislators who shill for them has become standard order. Now that the nation is in an uproar over SB1070, civil rights coalitions have begun trying to mobilize African American opposition to the Bill by linking black social justice activism with the immigrant rights movement.

However, when it comes to immigration rights and reform, there is a pronounced disconnect between black leadership and average black folk. In the L.A. African American Conservative Examiner respondents expressed support for SB1070. One believed that if similar laws were enacted in California it would be a deterrent to attacks on African Americans by Mexican immigrants. On the liberal to moderate The Grio website some black posters sounded off about bearing the brunt of racial discrimination, yet saw little connection between their experiences and an authoritarian crackdown on Arizonans of color under the legislation. Living elbow to elbow with Latinos in the same socioeconomically depressed communities, black anxiety over interracial violence and social/demographic usurpation by Latinos in the low wage job sector has intensified. In cities where black and Latino day laborers compete for construction and home improvement jobs, white hiring preferences for Latinos have ignited controversy over racist stereotypes about lazy blacks versus hardworking Mexicans. In Los Angeles communities where predominantly black neighborhood schools have become majority Latino, social and classroom segregation between the two groups is a hard reality. The prevalence of Latino anti-black prejudice, ranging from “pigmentocracy” bias to caricaturing blacks as backward and “ghetto,” is a recurring complaint among some African American youth. Further, the perception that Latino organizations don’t support African American activism around such issues as racial profiling and police brutality has long fueled mainstream black wariness of black/Latino coalition building.

Podcast: Foes of AZ Immigration Law Plan National March on Phoenix (#SB1070)

Public-News-Service_Podcast-Audio Click Here

May 26, 2010

PHOENIX - More than 50,000 people are expected to march through downtown Phoenix on Saturday, May 29, to protest Arizona's new immigration law.

The law requires authorities to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally. Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, a restaurateur, says Mexican-American citizens are horrified at the prospect of being arrested and deported for lack of documents.

"I have people coming to my restaurant, just in fear. Older people who have been here and their families have been here, are now asking, 'Should I get a passport to protect myself?'"

Organizers are also expanding a national boycott of companies linked with campaign contributions to supporters of the new law. That boycott began with picketing at Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games. One of the latest targets is a beer distributorship largely owned by the wife of Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain.

Alfredo Gutierrez, who chairs the Arizona Boycott Committee, says a political action committee controlled by the distributor has contributed heavily to lawmakers responsible for the new Arizona law.

#Arizona: A Critical Resistance Boycott (#SB1070)

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

The first rule of any boycott is to keep your eyes on the prize; translated, this means never lose sight of the big picture.

*RUSHING TOWARDS APARTHEID: *Arizona is speeding towards an apartheid state. Some of this rush has to do with repressive laws (including the legalization of racial profiling and the elimination of ethnic studies) that have been recently signed by the governor. Truthfully, however, this move pre-exists the recent legislation and much of the repression against the Mexican community here is also historical in nature and it is actually nationwide.

On the surface, it is about migration issues. Yet if we probe a little deeper, it’s about the Browning of Arizona. Probe some more and you will see that much of the hate has little to do with peoples’ legal status. That’s where English-Only and the new anti-ethnic studies law comes in. It is not simply about our physical presence (red-brown), but about our culture –which is thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. In this sense, it is beyond physical removal and even beyond thought-control; this is about our souls (they can’t have them).

*THE PRINCIPAL TARGETS: *Mexicans-Central Americans in this country are the primary targets. Also generally targeted are Indigenous red-brown peoples from the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Tragically, in the end, as state and federal governments defend themselves against racial profiling charges, they will move toward a checkpoint society in which officials will demand documentation of everyone in the country, of all ages and at all times.