Looking for Trouble

Independent media project focuses on Arizona’s tough new immigration law

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 – scheduled to take effect July 29. Another goal of the project is to show as large an audience as possible how this new law will effect people throughout the state.

The law, which now faces a federal suit, has been called one of the ‘toughest legislations in the nation.’ It means that all immigrants in Arizona must now carry their alien registration documents and it means that police can question anyone they think may be in the United States illegally. It will also address people that knowingly hire illegal immigrants or who transport them.

In two separate hearings in a Phoenix courtroom on Thursday, attorneys representing a broad coalition of civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice argued that portions of SB 1070 need to be enjoined because they usurp the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration law. Judge Susan Bolton gave no indication of when she might rule on the case.

While we wait for a decision, I will (with permission) be re-posting some of the videos produced by the 90DAYSTOPHOENIX project.



In this video, independent journalist, Valeria Fernandez, put’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 287g illegal immigration enforcement powers into perspective. What is 287 County? 287g County, aka Arizona’s Maricopa County, is the home of 500,000 undocumented immigrants. They account for about 8% of the state’s workforce. In the wake of a series of new laws that target undocumented labor and empower the local police to enforce federal immigration laws, immigrants and their families are subject to daily persecution. In Maricopa, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has the largest police force in the nation enforcing a section of immigration law known as 287(g) that allows the federal government to deputize local police to act as immigration agents.