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Posts Tagged ‘Maricopa County’

Con la Vista al Voto : Sheriff Joe’s Latino Voter Suppression Army

6:54 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Midterm Elections 2010|Politics · 2 Comments

31 Oct 2010

Con la Vista al Voto : From now until election day 2010, VivirLatino is going to have at least one post a day looking at the midterm elections and issues around the election including policy and the much hyped Latino vote.

As if things in Arizona, especially in Maricopa County, weren’t hard enough for Latinos, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on Friday:

“STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd.”

We already know that Sheriff Joe decides who is and isn’t legal by looking at who looks Latino. And while the part of SB1070 that allows for asking for people’s papers based on their ethnicity, alleging voter fraud is just an attempt to make Latinos walk around with their “papers” and to intimidate people who may be voting against Jan Brewer.

Almost immediately after Arpaio’s shout out, America’s Voice launched a petition targeting Attorney General Holder, demanding that he send election monitors to Arizona.

On Friday afternoon, the Justice Department announced that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 400 federal observers and department personnel to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for the Nov. 2, 2010, general election. One of those jurisdictions is Maricopa County in Arizona.

The other areas being monitored are:

o Autauga County, Ala.;
o Bethel, Alaska;
o Apache and Navajo Counties, Ariz.;
o Riverside County, Calif.;
o Randolph County, Ga.;
o Kane County, Ill.;
o Salem County (Penns Grove), N.J.;
o Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.;
o Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
o Shannon County; S.D.; and
o Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson Counties, Texas.
o Maricopa County, Ariz.;
o Alameda County, Calif.;
o Seminole County, Fla.;
o Honolulu, Hawaii;
o Neshoba County, Miss.;
o Colfax County, Neb.;
o Passaic County, N.J.;
o Orange County, N.Y.;
o Lorain County, Ohio;
o Philadelphia, Pa.;
o Bennett and Todd Counties, S.D.;
o Shelby County, Tenn.; and
o Harris County, Texas.

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

287g Programs Expanded, Despite “Revamps” Immigrants Fearful

10:37 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration · 2 Comments

11 Jul 2009

NA-AY903_IMMIG_D_20090710164113 Did any of the immigrants’ rights groups have anything to say about the announcement of the expansion and “revamping” of the 287(g) program?
287(g) programs allow local law enforcement agents to enforce Federal immigration laws. The revision of the plan is supposed to calm the fears of immigrants and advocates who say that 287(g) programs encourage racial profiling among other abuses.

From the LA Times:

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday…

…Some police departments check immigration status in a wide variety of crimes. Friday’s directive lays out federal priorities: violent crimes such as rape or robbery, as well as major drug offenses; followed by property crimes, such as burglary and fraud.

All 66 police departments that already participate in the program must sign a new, uniform memorandum within 90 days.

They also must agree to pursue the criminal charges that prompted an illegal immigrant’s detention. In other words, police can’t make an arrest just to find out if someone is in the country illegally…

…The memorandum says that police agencies will be bound by civil rights laws and subject to oversight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they arrest and detain illegal immigrants for possible deportation. Any agency that cannot prove that it is following those standards could lose its federal authority.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Officially Under DOJ Investigation

2:39 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice · 3 Comments

11 Mar 2009

aleqm5ju_4eh4du9r9t5xsbw7sy6wydiea It’s about time! Arizona’s Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been officially put on notice, on notice that his actions and the actions conducted in the police department he ran are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

From Latino Politico:

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil-rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after months of mounting complaints that deputies are discriminating in their enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division notified Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday that they had begun the investigation, which will focus on whether deputies are engaging in “patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.”
An expert said it is the department’s first civil-rights probe related to immigration enforcement.

One of the things that can happen in such an investigation is that the police department can be put under the guidance of the Department of Justice until certain changed are made.

Pero the investigation is just the start, it’s not a victory. We still need to put the pressure on the DOJ and the U.S. government as a whole so that we move away from enforcement first immigration policies to policies that put the human rights of people first.

Hip Hop for Justicia : Hip Hop Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio

9:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|arizona|Immigration|Music · Comments Off

10 Feb 2009

If you’re in the Tempe, Arizona area tonite, you can put you can move to musica por el movimiento. In direct response to the continued racist and anti-immigrant antics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, renowned musical artists from Chicago, Detroit, New York, and from the Arizona area are unleashing their lenguas for “Stop the Circus! (Fight for Tolerance, Stop Arpaio)”.

On Wednesday, February 4, 2009 in a shocking display of anti-immigrant racism, the man who calls himself the “Toughest Sheriff in America” publicly chained and paraded 220 immigrant detainees through a gauntlet of media cameras from the Maricopa county jail to outdoor tents. The immigrants housed in the “tent city” will be surrounded by electrified fencing and subject to different disciplinary standards than other prisoners. Disobedience of Sheriff Joe’s “tent city” rules is punishable by chain-gang labor; eerily reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.

Donde :

Stray Cat
2433 E. University Drive
Tempe, AZ
8pm

Scheduled to perform: One Be Lo, Wordsworth, Verbal Kent, G-Owens, Fiyah Station, Nobuddie, Bliss-Writers Bench: Hosted by Wild Life Refuge.

Check out Wordsworth aqui:

Let us not forget the roots of hip hop, as a way of speaking truth to power and reflecting realities ignored in the mainstream media and in portraits of the “American dream”. Protest comes in many forms so let us build movimiento con musica.

For mas informacion contact: Jill Garvey(jill@newcomm.org) at the Center for New Community
312-266-0319 or 773-787-6353 (mobile)

Maegan La Mala: Thank you Julio! To be honest I was a little nervous. [...]

Ana L. Flores: I was very excited when you decided to join us. I really wanted your voice there as it would add dep [...]

Maegan La Mala: Hola Juliana and thanks for commenting. There is a dearth in activist/critical thinking Latino blogg [...]

Julio Ricardo Varela: Good for you for asking. I got goose bumps just reading this and yes, yes, yes, to it all. Thank you [...]

julianabritto: The sense that I get is that you might feel a little frustrated at the dearth in activist bloggers? [...]

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