Battle over Arizona’s immigration law goes beyond legalities and borders
The following material about what it means to be an American is an excerpt from an article by Valeria Fernández, at 90DAYSTOPHOENIX. You can read the full story here. This is part four of an ongoing series of videos I’m using with permission.
90DAYSTOPHOENIX.com is an independent media project that has been documenting Arizona’s ongoing struggle to “sift through the truth and lies behind the immigration debate.” Journalists, photographers, filmmakers and others are working together to give a real-time on-the-ground account of Arizona’s controversial new immigration law – SB 1070 – that will take effect tomorrow. Another goal of the project is to show as large an audience as possible how this new law will effect people throughout the state.
According to the Associated Press, “A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown. The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.”
What does it mean to be an American?
Is it defined by being born in a place? Is it the color of your skin? Is it the papers you carry? Is it marked by the desire to defend the Constitution? Or is it to be a Tea Partier?
More important, can a person who crosses the border illegally be an American?
Our politicians don’t think so. They want to banish 460,000 people, some of whom have lived here for decades, for not having the papers to prove that this is where they belong.
I have seen the anti-immigrant climate escalate over the past three years as I’ve worked on a film about the politics of immigration in Maricopa County with director Dan DeVivo. And recently we created wwww.90daystoPhoenix.com to document the three-month period before SB 1070 goes into effect on July 29, barring a successful court challenge.
Latinos have a reason to be upset, worried and even fearful about a law that is breeding hatred and resentment against them.
Yes, I know there are provisions in SB1070 supposedly intended to prevent racial profiling, but the other language of the law encourages it. I donʼt believe that all police officers in the state want to racially profile people. But they are required to enforce SB 1070, and if they don’t, their bosses–the cities, counties and the state itself–face citizen lawsuits.
The police find themselves between a rock and hard place.
Just watch this video of Juan Miguel Gonzales, a U.S. citizen whose wife was detained and deported after they were pulled over for a questionable traffic infraction last month. Despite being a U.S. Citizen he feels this will result in his own “deportation” because now he has to leave Arizona to reunite with his wife.
Other harsh immigration laws in the state target the economic migrant and mistakenly racially profile Latinos citizens too. Such cases have already made their way into federal courts in Arizona.
A law like SB 1070 didn’t happen overnight, it took a long time for politicians to convince Arizona voters with the idea that we are being invaded by “illegal aliens” who sell drugs, cause mayhem and take American jobs and deplete public benefits.
These lies have become sound bites that voters believe. In truth, crime is down in Arizona and unauthorized migrants are barred from most public benefits.
For more information on the 90DAYSTOPHOENIX project, click here.
Tags: arizona, immigration laws, undocumented workers
Immigration | admin July 28, 2010
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