Immigrants Victimized by Sheriff in Arizona

The situation in Arizona is escalating for immigrants as they are victimized by a local sheriff. In response the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON) is holding teach-ins across the country to let people know about the situation in the Southwest. The below message comes from the NDLON:
The abuse of immigrants in Maricopa County, Arizona has become nothing less than a domestic human rights crisis that demands a response from us all.

A coordinated national intervention effort will not only alleviate local suffering by bringing much needed attention, resources, and support to our brothers and sisters in Arizona, it will also generate consensus to help scaffold efforts to achieve broader federal immigration reform goals.

We may not be able to pass large-scale, immigration reform legislation in Washington DC right away, but we can- and we must- put a stop to the dehumanization of immigrants. We can find unity in our condemnation of the worst treatment of immigrants, and we can make clear that we will not allow our country to become like Arizona.

Federal Immigration Reform Legislation Timeframe Uncertain

Efforts are under way in Washington DC to work with lawmakers and the Obama administration to rein in nasty federal immigration enforcement practices and to craft winning immigration reform legislation. We should all be part of a unified front that is ready to make the push for immigration reform legislation when the political and economic moment is appropriate. However, even the most optimistic predictions anticipate having to wait until 2010 for passage of bill that contains a path to citizenship for 12 million people living within the United States without status

Meanwhile, the Local Attrition StrategyAdvances with Dangerous Consequences

Into the vacuum created by the federal government's failure to act, a deliberate national movement has grown that seeks to have state and local governments take over enforcement of immigration law. It is now obvious that the intent of this movement is to effect immigration reform by attrition: to make life in the United States impossible for immigrants so as to force them to return to their home countries.

For this strategy to succeed, undocumented immigrants must be deprived of opportunities and stripped of their rights so that their lives are made sufficiently miserable that they self-deport. The very idea promoted by this nativist strategy- that undocumented people should be criminalized and made illegal”- creates a vicious cycle. If one is deemed illegal,s/he is undeserving, and her or his mistreatment is therefore permissible. And when cruelty becomes tolerated, each new round of abuse encourages the next, and the prospects for any form of legalization are put further out of reach.

Although these anti-immigrant efforts purport to be directed at undocumented workers and their families, all low-wage workers and communities of color are feeling the effects. The raw nerve exposed by this movement has encouraged a growing wave of vigilantism, demagoguery, and even violence directed against immigrants. Worse still, it has created the false perception among many whereby the rights of immigrants are understood on a different plane than everyone else.

Maricopa County, Arizona: Ground Zero

Immigrants’ rights are under unprecedented assault across the country, but nowhere more so than in Arizona. The infamous Sensenbrenner legislation never needed to pass to achieve its desired effects. The very ideas contained within the bill that brought millions of people onto the streets in protest have become the reality in Arizona, where immigrants have been dehumanized.

In Phoenix, the fifth largest city in America, the attrition strategyhas been taken to extreme and dangerous levels. Sheriff Joe Arpaio has become the public face of ICE' experimental and dangerous 287(g) program which devolves federal immigration enforcement responsibilities to willing local law agencies.

Sheriff' deputies roam the streets in black ski masks, separating children from their parents during routine traffic stops. People with known relationships to white supremacist organizations direct law enforcement activity. Vigilantes deputized as part of an official posse programraid government buildings with assault weapons and attack dogs to chase down suspected janitors. And last week, the nation witnessed the ritual humiliation of migrants in a spectacle evocative of some of the most horrific episodes of human history.

In Phoenix, the idea that immigrants are Illegalhas metastasized. The proposition is no longer just that immigrants should be deprived of rights, have less ability to form unions, not be allowed to send their kids to school, and be denied basic services. What is now being tested before is the country is whether those deemed to be Illegalare worthy of punishment.

Turning the Tide!

We must make clear that what is happening in Arizona is unacceptable. We will not tolerate the dehumanization of anyone living anywhere within the United States. We can stop the crisis in Arizona, we can re-establish boundaries of decency to the immigration debate, and we can re-take the moral high ground in the campaign to achieve comprehensive reform.

The campaign for immigration policy reform requires more than just legislation from Washington DC. It requires a shift in attitudes that recognizes the reality that 12 million of our fellow Americans are living in the United States without the same rights as the rest of us. They are not criminals worthy of punishment. They are our co-workers, they are our neighbors, they are our relatives, and they want and deserve the same opportunities we all do.

Action Plans

NDLON believes that a campaign to identify, condemn, and rein-in the anti-immigrant policies of Arizona is winnable and necessary for more ambitious, affirmative efforts for broader reform. Moreover, we hope to create a campaign where people can share in the struggle and share in the victory. We can tamp down the hatred in Arizona in the short term and build broad consensus for rational, humane reform that preserves the United States’ proudest tradition as a nation of immigrants.

Things you can do to help this campaign:

(1) Hold local teach-ins to raise awareness about the crisis in Arizona, and raise funds to support local efforts.

(2) Join us in Phoenix on February 27 and 28th for a national gathering and peaceful demonstration.

(3) Sign a petition to request the Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

(4) Call you Congressperson and let her or him know that we can not let our country become like Arizona.