Tucson, AZ – “This law is unwise. This law is stupid, and it’s racist. It’s a national embarrassment…if I were a Hispanic person in the state, I would be humiliated and angered.”

Tucson, AZ – Arizona’s Apartheid bill, SB1070, was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, April 23. The law gives local and state police the authority to stop anyone, anywhere, to demand proof of citizenship based only on “reasonable suspicion.” In Arizona, “reasonable suspicion” of being an undocumented immigrant means being Latino and speaking Spanish. The bill also lets citizens sue government institutions for not enforcing immigration law aggressively enough.

Tucson, AZ – “They have every right to be here. This is about civil rights. And the youth are leading the way.” Those were the words of Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Elias as we talked across the street from where over 100 students had gathered to protest Arizona’s SB1070 – the harshest, most anti-immigrant legislation in the country.

Police-state laws pending

Tucson, AZ – “Tucson today is the moral equivalent of Birmingham, Alabama in 1961,” said Mike Wilson, border rights activist and Tohono ‘O’odham tribal member, at a rally at the Federal Building here, April 15. The rally was held in response series of raids that took place the same day in Phoenix, Tucson, Rio Rico and Nogales, and in the Mexican city of Nogales, Sonora. The raids targeted people traveling on shuttle services, but whole neighborhoods were affected, with traffic brought to a virtual standstill while agents occupied urban areas in the biggest such operation in the seven-year history of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).