5,000 March in Arizona Against Sheriff's Human Rights Abuses

Originally posted on the website of The National Daylaborers Organizing Network, the article below reports on the people's response to Sheriff Joe Arpaio's abuse of power and lack of dignity for others -- more broadly, the 5,000 person march represented a denouncement of immigration policy that criminalizes workers and families.

Philadelphia is not a county whose law enforment is officially in partenership wtih Immigration and Customs Enforcement through 287(g) agreements. However Philadelphia immigrant communities are not out of the clear when it come to having their rights trampled on in these hard economic times with reports of people disappearing and being handed over to ICE by the police and Philly's public transportation agency, SEPTA.

Immigrant and non-immigrant, the media stunts that Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona has been pulling for years seek to dehumanize those behind bars, to drive a stake between the public and their friends, family and neighbors who are incarcerated.

The latest show -- where inmates where marched through town in chains to a tent city that has been in use since 1993 -- was a response to being asked to cut the Sherriff department's budget by 20% in the face of Arizona's $1 billion deficit. Arizona men and women live, eat and sleep in tents in the middle of the dessert.

In the midst of this crisis, there are many like Arpaio who would like to keep us very confused about who is to blame for this current crisis and who should be asked to pay. Media stunts like this are shameful and a distraction from the real threats to our livelihoods --- loss of jobs at living wages, loss of quality education for all, loss of our healthcare and loss of our homes.

To learn more about the 287(g) agreements and the fight against Human Rights Abuses in Arizona (and beyond) --- visit the National Daylaborer Organizing Network at www.ndlon.org

Peaceful 5,000 Person March in Phoenix Raises Sheriff Arpaio Human Rights Abuses to National Level
"Arpaio's America is not my America."
Saturday, February, 28. 2009, Phoenix, Arizona
An estimated 5,000 people marched nearly five miles to demand that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio be brought to justice. Marchers rejected Arpaio's scapegoating of immigrants by waving signs saying "We are human," and they held banners demanding the immediate revocation of the 287(g) agreement with the federal government.

We are excited to see such a strong and peaceful showing of opposition to the wrongheaded policies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio,says Salvador Reza of Puente. Janet Napolitano has the legal authority to terminate Joe Arpaio's 287(g) agreement, and she has the moral duty to do so immediately.”

"The federal government has the obligation to repair our immigration laws and to uphold the U.S. Constitution," said Pablo Alvarado. "Joe Arpaio is a symbol of the dangerous consequences of the federal government's failure to act."

The march led by local leaders began at 10:30 am at Steele Indian School Park and traveled down Central Ave to the Federal Building at 1:00pm. One week after witnessing federal raids in Washington state , the gathering of people from as far away as Portland, Oregon and Ithaca, New York sent the message to Secretary Napolitano,

We are Human. Terminate the 287(g) agreements. Reform Not Raids. Arpaio is not my America.”

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