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Quick Link: SB 1070 Florida Style

11:45 am By la Macha · arizona|Florida|Immigration · 2 Comments

20 Oct 2010

Tim Elfrink at Miami New Times (full disclosure: I work for the paper) reports that the law drafted by Florida state representative William Snyder, and supported by GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, includes a clause that “Even if an officer has ‘reasonable suspicions’ over a person’s immigration status … a person will be ‘presumed to be legally in the United States’ if he or she provides ‘a Canadian passport’ or a passport from any ‘visa waiver country.’” Elfrink points out that aside from four Asian countries, all other visa waiver countries are located in Western Europe.

What the…? Yep, that’s right. The Florida law in a nutshell: If you’re a white non-Hispanic, you’re presumed to be in the country legally and don’t need to show any proof. If you belong in the “all others” category, better carry your papers.

Of course, there’s an explanation for such blatant racism, as Snyder told a radio host: “What we’re doing there is trying to be sensitive to Canadians. We have an enormous amount of … Canadians wintering here in Florida … That language is comfort language.”

Ah, yes tons of Canadians wintering here in Florida … along with MILLIONS of South Americans. In the biggest tourism destination in the state, Miami, people from South America comprise 52% of the visitors alone. That’s not even counting tourists from Central America and the Caribbean. These are people with plenty of disposable income, and plenty of tourism options. If Florida became a state suspicious of Latinos, they would just take their billions of dollars elsewhere. For a state whose economy relies so heavily on tourism, especially from Latin America, you’d think politicians would be a little bit more worried about making everyone feel comfortable. But that’s what makes it obvious this little clause isn’t about tourism at all. It’s about using every thin veil and pretense possible to try to legalize racial profiling.

Things just get ever better, don’t they?
Read the whole thing here.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Jail

6:38 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Phoenix · 4 Comments

14 Oct 2010

Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio (yup he’s still around) was trying to not fix the inhumane conditions inside the jails within his jurisdiction as ordered by a lower court’s ruling. The court ruled that jails in Maricopa County do not meet constitutional minimums when it comes to food quality and housing conditions for inmates on psychotropic drugs. Yesterday, The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s appeal of the 2008 U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake’s decision.

Now Arpaio must end severe overcrowding and ensure all detainees receive necessary medical and mental health care, be given uninterrupted access to all medications prescribed by correctional medical staff, be given access to exercise and to sinks, toilets, toilet paper and soap and be served food that meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines. Basically, the judge ordered that yes Sheriff Joe, the incarcerated are humans and need to be treated as such.

The ACLU proved at the 2008 trial that the sheriff routinely abused pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail by feeding them moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines in holding cells for days at a time during intake.

Via / AZ Central and the ACLU

Image Via / SPLC

Jan Brewer and the Headless Horsemen Coming Home to Roost

3:54 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Media|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 6 Comments

10 Sep 2010

Arizona Governor Janet Brewer is most recently known for 16 seconds of silence and way too much talking shit before those 16 seconds. From America’s Voice:

Brewer had to admit that she wasn’t exactly being accurate when she talked about headless bodies in the Arizona desert. Her false justification for SB1070 isn’t isolated however. Seems the whole country is doing it, it being exaggerating and/or just plain old misleading people when it comes to the situation along the U.S. Mexican border.

What Brewer, hasn’t addressed is the role that U.S. policy has on violence in Mexico. For example, a report from Mayors Against Illegal Guns (PDF file of the report here) states that 90 percent of the guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes originate from the U.S. nor has Brewer responded publicly regarding her possible connection with Corrections Corporation of America and how that connection may have played a role in her deciding to sign SB1070 into law. What Brewer has done, well what her campaign for governor has done anyway is stop ads from running on the TV station whose local news has been conducting an investigation on the possible CCA Brewer connection.

Leaving Water Bottles for U.S. Bound Migrants Not Criminal

7:57 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|U.S.-Mexico Border · 1 Comment

7 Sep 2010

Last year, activists from the organization No More Deaths were convicted of
“knowingly littering” by leaving water bottles for migrants crossing the U.S. border.

Last week, that conviction was overturned. From Colorlines:

Dan Millis, a volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was convicted in a federal court of littering when he and three other volunteers left water for border crossers in 2008 along a section of the Arizona desert that was a designated wildlife refuge. He faced a $5,000 fine and six months in jail for refusing to pay the $125 ticket.

On Thursday the Ninth Circuit overturned his conviction and ruled 2-1 that the statute was vague enough such that water did not constitute garbage. The dissenting opinion was written by Judge Jay Bybee, a former Bush administration assistant attorney general who co-wrote that administration’s torture memos. Bybee wrote: “Leaving plastic bottles in a wildlife refuge is littering under any ordinary, common meaning of the word.”

U.S. Dept. of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio

1:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Women · Comments Off

3 Sep 2010

Yesterday morning, the United States Department of Justice announced the filing of a lawsuit against Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio over his refusal to cooperate with a federal civil rights investigation by refusing to turn over requested documents for a year and a half.

America’s Voice has done a great job of researching and compiling his numerous civil rights violations and how ineffective they are in the context of “serve and protect”.

INEFFECTIVE TACTICS

* Violent Crime Rates Rise Under Arpaio, Fall in Rest of Arizona
* Under Arpaio, 911 Response Time Increased, Arrest Rates Decreased
* Arpaio Admits He Arrests ”Very Few” Non-Hispanics
* Over 40,000 Un-served Felony Warrants
* Conservative Think Tank Report: Arpaio’s Policies are Ineffective, Harmful, and a Waste of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars
* Mesa Police Chief: Arpaio’s Approach Hurts Community Safety

OPERATING ABOVE THE LAW

* Arpaio Under Investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for Civil Rights Abuses
* Arpaio Under FBI Investigation for Using his Power to Intimidate Political Opponents
* Judge Says Conditions in Arpaio’s Jails “Violate the Constitution”
* 2,700 Lawsuits Filed Against Arpaio
* Federal Officials Take Away Arpaio’s Deputies’ Authority to Make Immigration Arrests, Arpaio Vows to Defy the Restriction
* Arpaio Threatens Attorneys with Criminal Charges for Criticizing Him
* Department of Labor Investigates Arpaio, Finds He Owes Employees $2M in Unpaid Overtime
* Arpaio Suspected of Misspending $50M in Taxpayer Funds, Refuses to Turn Over Records
* Advocates Awarded $475,000 for Civil Rights Violations by Arpaio Deputies
* Arpaio Stages Phony Murder Plot Against Himself, Accused Released for Wrongful Imprisnment, County Pays Over $1 Million to Settle

INSPIRING TERROR IN LATINO COMMUNITIES

* Arpaio Marches Immigrants in Shackles to Tent City Surrounded by Electric Fence
* Arpaio Separates Mother from Kids for Unpaid Traffic Ticket
* Arpaio Conducts “Crime Suppression” Sweeps in Latino Communities
* Arpaio Forces Mother to Give Birth while Handcuffed to Bed
* Arpaio’s Deputies Deploy Heavy Duty Machine Guns

Viernes Video : Arizona’s Jan Brewer Has Done So Much but Can’t Really Explain It

9:12 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Politics · 2 Comments

3 Sep 2010

This is not really something to point and laugh at because really how can you laugh at incompetence veiled in hate. It’s really hard for me as an outsider in Arizona to know if Gov. Brewer’s 16 seconds of pain is a case of nerves or an indication of her inability to effectively govern as indicated by signing laws like SB1070 that hurt the state and it’s people. What do you think?

Gov. Jan Brewer's Opening Statement – 9/1/2010 Debate @ Yahoo! Video

Back to School Shopping List in Arizona : Pens, Pencils, Papers?

6:08 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education|Immigration · Comments Off

23 Aug 2010

Two incidents in Arizona that have come to my attention demonstrate just how far the rhetoric that spawned SB1070′s and Obama’s “boots on the ground” enforcement reach/impact is. Just in case they can’t catch the anchor babies or deport their undocumented parents, two border towns have added an extra school supply for students just in time for back to school time : proof of legal status.

Today, Colorlines writes about the small border town of Ajo, Arizona and how Tom Horne, running for Attorney General and a big supporter of HB 2281, which bans schools from teaching classes designed for students of a particular ethnic group (unless you’re white I guess), wants only kids with proof of status to get on the school bus.

Viernes Videos : Leaving Arizona and Anchor Babies Behind

8:51 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Uncategorized|Videos · 4 Comments

20 Aug 2010

Believe it or not, it’s emotionally and spiritually exhausting to come to the digital page daily and write about the struggles of the community.

So to start off this beautiful day let’s think of ways to escape (or survive in Arizona). Hat tip to Laura Martinez of Mi Blog es Tu Blog for tweeting the hell out of this.

And the latest from News with Nezua on the “Terror Baby” madness and healthier alternatives.

News With Nezua | Terror, Baby! from nezua on Vimeo.

Monday Morning Mini-Movie Via La Frontera Times : Ice Breaker

6:00 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice · 1 Comment

16 Aug 2010

School is in session ya’ll

Lady Gaga=Not Impressed

2:04 pm By la Macha · Arts|Music · 11 Comments

4 Aug 2010

As most of you know by now there’s been boycotts of Arizona in the works ever since SB 1070 was signed into law. Artists in particular have led the way calling for an enforcement of the boycott from other artists.

Well thank The LORD Lady Gaga had something to say about calls for boycotts:

If you can’t see the video, she basically does some sorta mumbly thing about how she won’t endorse the boycott, that she will not cancel her show because she’s going to protest instead. Um. Yeah. Cuz, yano, canceling your show isn’t *protesting* when it’s a part of a movement by artists to boycott the state. It’s….Hm. What is it?

Anyway. I guess it’s good that she felt the need to explain herself. Which means that there was a significant amount of pressure put on her. I wonder if I should be keeping a look out for her louder screaming, though? What do you think? Will this be last we hear of Ms. Gaga on immigration?

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