Tucson, AZ – Regarding the August 25 pardon that President Trump gave to the ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio, Stteffanny Cott from the Tucson immigrant rights action group L.U.P.E. said, “The truth is Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America’s most racist sheriff, used the Sheriff Department of Maricopa County to racially profile Latino and Chicano communities and violently contributed to the criminalization of immigrants and the separation of working class families.”
Phoenix, AZ – Over 500 activists and community members gathered here on the morning of July 29 to protest SB1070 on the day the law was going into effect. The law has lost some of its teeth due to pressure from the immigrant rights movement, which resulted in the long overdue federal injunction. On July 28, a judge struck down the part of the law that required all Arizonans to carry their proof of legal status constantly, as well as the part that legalized and mandated racial profiling, declaring these parts unconstitutional. However, most of the law remains intact, including the parts that criminalize day laborers and target families with mixed immigration status.
Los Angeles, CA – Dozens of protesters gathered outside the CBS studios in west Los Angeles, July 24, to protest Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was on set for an episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. A picket line marched at the studio’s entrances, accompanied by musicians. Demonstrators denounced Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, for her support of the racist, anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network organized the demonstration.
