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Immigration Advocates Rising Up in Anger Across the Nation Over New Arizona Law
Public furor is mounting across the nation over Arizona's new "show me your papers or go to jail" immigration law.
One Hispanic congressman, Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson) is urging tourists and national conventions to boycott his state.
Another, our own Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), wants baseball owners to yank the All-Star Game from Phoenix next year.
"Major League Baseball needs to revisit the issue of whether the All-Star Game, one of America's greatest televised exports to Latin America, should be played in a state that doesn't show any respect to Latinos," Serrano said.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder said he may step in to challenge the new law, which permits police to stop residents merely on the "reasonable suspicion" that they are unlawfully in the country.
Given that 30% of Arizona's population is Hispanic and 10% is Native American, you can bet many dark-skinned legal residents and citizens will be victims of this new police authority.
In Arizona, carry your birth certificate or passport at all times.
Another provision of the new law, aimed at day laborers, makes it a misdemeanor for an undocumented immigrant to solicit work on public streets.
The law's bizarre definition of soliciting is: "any verbal or nonverbal communication by a gesture or a nod that would indicate to a reasonable person that a person is willing to be employed."
This is "a mandate to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in that state.
Even Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said yesterday he thinks the law is unconstitutional.
Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law Friday, immigrant rights advocates say they've seen a huge surge of interest in scores of immigration rallies scheduled for Saturday, May Day. The two biggest local events will be at Union Square and Foley Square.
"People are sad and fearful that Arizona's example will spread to other states," said Saul Linares of the Immigrant Workplace Project on Long Island.
Linares hasn't seen this much fervor around immigration since the spring of 2006.
Back then, Congress was debating the Sensenbrenner bill, which sought to make being in the country illegally a felony, rather than a violation.
That spring, millions of people poured into the streets of more than 100 cities in historic protests to demand a path for legalization for the country's 12 million undocumented.
The marchers defeated the Sensenbrenner bill, but a Republican-controlled Congress refused President Bush's entreaties to fix our broken immigration system.
This time around, the Democrats are in charge, but they have continued to ignore the problem. So right-wing extremists in the Arizona legislature have taken matters in their own hands.
Arizona makes clear why immigration is a federal responsibility. Congress needs to stop ducking and hiding and fix the problem now.
- Posted in
25 Comments so far
Show All"Arizona makes clear why immigration is a federal responsibility. Congress needs to stop ducking and hiding and fix the problem now." -- Juan Gonzalez
I agree -- Congress needs to quit ducking. However, Congress also needs to quit ducking the issue of NAFTA, and how NAFTA brought about the collapse of farming, etc., in Mexico, and how that collapse precipitated widespread immigration to the U.S.
This is a multi-pronged issue!
Thanks, CD, for posting an article from Juan Gonzalez -- I hope in the future you will choose to post more of his articles.
Could you see this troublesome Arizona action as a way to prod congress into relieving Arizona of the friction, or burden they seem to be experiencing? If there is economic pain caused by nafta or globalism, maybe Arizona shouldn't be carying it alone.
I'm really glad you brought up this issue, and I agree that Arizona should NOT be carrying the load all by itself, as a state, which is the reason I brought up NAFTA, which, among other issues, Obama "promised" to renegotiate. Or, at one time, I thought he said he might, or would, be interested in renegotiating the rules/laws of NAFTA and the effects of the collapse of the Mexican agricultural economy, not only on Mexico, but also on the U.S.
Here in NYC, the load is big, too! And, no one, especially the liberals, wants to address the issues involved -- unemployment, very low wages, social service cuts, housing, etc.
It's in the interests of the corporations to blur the issues, and to pay lower and lower wages to everyone!
When I lost my job in December of 2006, I could NOT find work, not even a stop-gap job as a cashier. I could go on and on about outsourcing jobs, and how H1b Visa programs, among others, limit job possibilities for people in this country. Paul Craig Roberts was one of the very few writers who dealt, head-on, with these issues. And, he was marginalized by both the right and the left.
Losing a job can open a person's eyes to any number of issues that previously weren't relevant, or weren't clear to the eyes and ears.
Good post and I agree about Juan Gonzalez.
Why should my anger be directed only at our Congress when the Mexican ruling classes have for centuries refused to resolve the social problems of their own country? If I am mad I am mad at both.
The people who sneak across the border for jobs, and the ones who are invited in on H1B visas are both resources for American corporations. This is one way for them to reduce wages in middle-class jobs. Corporations look at human resources the same as they do natural resources. They are exploitable. H1B visa holders are taking away jobs from American workers in a legal way. The ones sneaking in the country take away jobs illegally. Either way the middle-class is hardest hit. But Congress will protect the corporations and not the middle-class workers. When an empire is going good it can afford to finance a middle-class, but when an empire is in decline the the middle-class becomes an operating expense that the empire must cut. Read IRON HEEL by Jack London and see what our future is like.
Hoa binh
DO YOU PEOPLE really WANT Republicans back in power? I regularly have to ask Republicans/Conservatives what is IT they WANT!
1) You do not like big government but government grows under Republican rule.
2) You do not want government in your lives but you like the “show me your papers” law in AZ.
3) You do not like Wall St. but you want to keep them unregulated so they can FINISH the job of ruining our economy.
4) You chant “Drill Baby Drill” but think Oil Companies should NOT be responsible for SPILLS and let the government take care of the environmental disasters.
5) Conservatives despise illegal aliens but hire them on a regular basis.
6) Right-wing chicken hawks get off on WAR but you let your children/grandchildren PAY FOR IT.
6 and a half, lol) You people demonize gays but Larry Craig’s men’s room was the most popular attraction of the 2008 Republican National Convention and gay porn sells best in Red States.
7) You hate taxes but love Reagan even though Reagan/Bush RAISED taxes. On & on & on…
What the #*~/? Can you blame Progressives for thinking Republicans/Conservatives are corrupt, mental deficient hypocrites?
Not since the WWII has a population been so damn messed up. The Germans and Italians had an excuse for embracing corporate, police state Fascism. They didn’t have any history of such political abominations to learn from. However the Republicans/Conservatives have the examples of Mussolini/Hitler to examine. SO TELL ME PLEASE WHY you’d put SO much wealth and power in a Corporate owned police state?
(Ask John McCain why the Energy Department is involved with so many military projects in AZ instead of working on new tech and alternative sources)
Funny how the news media jumped on this Arizona immigration law story but completely IGNORED the following: John McCain and the Republicans seem to be leading the charge toward a police state:
S.3081 - Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010 proposed by Senators Lieberman and McCain “…removes the right to trial for American Citizens and gives government the AUTHORITY to detain Americans INDEFINITELY for SUSPECTED TERRORIST ACTIVITY…”
WHAT?
The really IMPORTANT thing about this Act is just WHO defines SUSPECTED ACTIVITY? I’m sure the CRIMINALS and CONS who oversaw the recent economic meltdown (or what I like to call greatest looting of a nation’s wealth and resources in the history of mankind) FEEL THREATENED by the ACTIVITY involved with calls for JUSTICE.
Republicans know DEMANDS for ethics, responsibility and accountability are going to come down HARD on them. Especially McCain/Lieberman who’ve been covering up Banking/Financial/Wall St SCANDALS since the 80’s. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what comes next…
consciousmc.blogspot.com
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“THE Devil knew not what he did when he made man politic…”
Shakespeare
Love the quote, SPO. Timon of Athens, by my Google.
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Have the Republicans left power?
FYI:
How Mexico Treats Illegal Aliens:
http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/04/28/how_mexico_treats_illegal_aliens?page=full
Actually, I was an illegal alien in Mexico most of the several years I worked there. Like here, I was probably better off being blue eyed than had I been Hispanic and foreign, but everyone knew that the maestro B was gringo and indocumentado, but even those who had their differences with me had the honor to not turn me in.
Like Americans, Mexicans' attitudes towards foreigners tend to reflect their perceived self-interest. When they want to hire Guatemaltecos, Guatemaltecos are hunky dory. If those Guatelmaltecos get caught looking at the Jefe's daughter, suddenly they are Indios and the black-eyed, straight-haired daughter indubitably Gallega.
Mexico suffers deeply from the years of Spanish racism and slavery --- almost as much as the United States from its more recent history of slavery.
Hypocrisy exists in Mexico. What excuse could that possibly offer racism and hypcrisy in the United States?
Beyond that, how could it possibly render the business of allowing such racism and hypocrisy to continue to be practical or sensible?
Here is another feed on how Mexico deals with it's illegal aliens. not very nice, definitely more severe than Arizona's law against criminals.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8647252.stm
Note the attempts to use Mexico's laws as Straw Men on this issue, and remember who tried because they will be back.
Immigration laws are a crock. If an avocado from Chile doesn't need a passport or visa, then why does a human. I see immigration laws as yet another Wedge Issue utilized to promote the usual Us versus Them bullshit. Historically, what passes for immigration legislation in the USA has always been a veil hiding the racist core of the US citizenry. It's clear that attitude hasn't changed much since the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the model upon which all future immigration laws were based.
Actually imports into the USA do need a "passport or visa". They get inspected before entering the country and they need an import permit. They might even be returned at the border if they do not pass inspection. Also, avocados are not a burden on public services.
Please elaborate on the "racist" immigration leislation you seem to know so much about. My personal experience as well as as experiences of several people i know were all positive. Actually comparing the US immigration system to Canada's, the US is hands down better. In Canada you go in and you are basically on your own. In the US you need to find an employer first then you get to come in. That way you do not become a burden on the system. And, unless you are from some country from which droves of people immigrate to the US (India, China, etc) the whole process from alien to green card takes about 6 months. I say that's not too bad.
Go here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_immigration_legislation and educate yourself.
No need. I speak from experience.
You ask a question because you don't know, then you say you have experience, which is to be inferred you do know. Students like you generally get poor grades.
Wait. Chameleon . . . you ask Karlof to elaborate and give more information, and when he does, you refuse to look at it because you already know everything? What the hell?
Big Business controls your immigration, not so great. My folks immigrated to Arizona. they were banned from quite a few states as the local doctors did not want the competition. Intel and Microsoft still do this. They hire foreign PH.D's for peanuts, and move production off shore with a resultant loss of JOBS
"I see immigration laws as yet another Wedge Issue utilized to promote the usual Us versus Them bullshit. Historically, what passes for immigration legislation in the USA has always been a veil hiding the racist core of the US citizenry. It's clear that attitude hasn't changed much since the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the model upon which all future immigration laws were based."
The above is the rationalization of a virus. What utter gall to keep me outside of you.
The law is based on CRIME from illegal aliens. It is a real wake-up call when the father of your childrens classmates is tortured and killed while you are asleep two streets down. You would have to experience the violence to alter your current thought processes. There will always be illegal mexican aliens in Arizona, the laws against the employers are not enforced. I personally saw immigration come to a Sheraton and round up all the landscape crew. the owner had called the immigration people on his own landscape crew, so he wouldn't have to pay them. It was in Paradise Valley, very ritzy, no one walks they drive. So it was easy to catch them all as poor day laborers do not live there, or walk there.
(Crossposted)
Please see comment section at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/27-9#comment-1490188
for excerpts from prominent education historian Joel Spring as he explains and well-documents, with other historians, the "invention" of the shifting “now you see it, now you don’t” social constructs of “whiteness” and “race,” whom and what they served – and how and why.
What might these histories "laws," and ever-changing "definitions" of "whiteness" and “legality” illuminated by Spring have to do what’s happening in Arizona TODAY regarding the kind of immigration reform unfolding there?
How may these histories complicate the claim made by the bill’s sponsor, GOP State Senator Russell Pearce, that: “This law is not about race,” he said. “It's about what is illegal”?
(Excerpts in the posts are from Joel Spring’s The American School: 1642-2004, Sixth Edition, New York: McGraw Hill, 2005 - with an excerpt from historian Tim Tyson’s Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004.)
Thom Hartmann brings up a good point:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2010/04/arizona-bill-really-voter-supression
Is the Arizona Bill really Voter Supression?
Speaking at a rally yesterday in Phoenix, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) asked President Obama not to cooperate with the “unjust and racist” Arizona law if and when illegal immigrants are picked up by local police. Approximately 2,500 people marched to the state capitol yesterday to protest the law and the video of it that's made it to YouTube shows it was, at times, very confrontational, bordering on violent. Arizona’s tough crackdown on immigrants is igniting the national immigration debate and the immigration reform movement as Arizona has become the first state in the US to make it possible to be arrested and held in jail for walking, driving, or breathing while brown-skinned. Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that the real purpose of the Arizona bill is to suppress the Latino vote - which is largely Democratic - by making it more difficult for Latino voters to register or vote because they'll have to keep track of and bring with them their birth certificates, and even these may be subject to challenge if the voting examiners don't think they look right. And there's a huge variety from county to county across America in how birth certificates look.
The AZ PD are not looking for birth certicates. They are looking out for the illegal alien that is shooting his illegal automatic weapon at the other illegal alien in front of him with with the van full of illegal workers from south of the border. Don't really need to ask for ID. They are already breaking the law. a lot of times the van has an accident and the some people die. This is very exciting during the work commute, other cars take automatic fire as well., and people die.
"Conservatives" in Arizona and elsewhere including half-term gov Palin can rightfully be called advocates of fascist, big gov. police states...where people are jailed unless they provide the police w/ the right documents.
A trucker in AZ was just arrested by the police at a weigh station and taken to jail when he couldn't prove he was a legal citizen, but was released 90 mins later after his wife brought his birth certificate from home....fascism has come to America.
Fascism has been here a long time. Where are the Iraqi WMDs?