Anti-immigrant bill might emigrate
Ever since last April when Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, signed into law the most overtly racist piece of legislation since the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, thousands of people across the U.S. have been mobilizing to resist SB 1070. The bill requires police officers in Arizona to demand documentation from anyone they suspect of being an “illegal” immigrant, and arrest anyone who fails to immediately provide proof of citizenship. The bill was closely followed by the passage of an equally outrageous new law: HB 2281, which banned ethnic studies classes in Arizona state schools.
Three days before Brewer signed SB 1070, nine students were arrested for chaining themselves to the Arizona State capitol in protest. That was only the beginning. Alto Arizona, an organization that formed in response to the new racist laws, de- Anti-immigrant bill might emigrate by Anna Simonton and Charlie Hicks clared the summer of 2010 “Arizona Human Rights Summer,” named to draw connections with the “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” of the Civil Rights Movement. The summer started with a 100,000-person march in Phoenix, the arrival in Washington of the Trail of Dreams students - four undocumented students who walked from Florida to Washington D.C. to demand justice for immigrants - and hundreds of solidarity events all over the country. In July, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging SB 1070. The lawsuit could be a huge step towards achieving justice on this particular issue, but ultimately it’s up to us and our communities to reclaim political power and define justice ourselves. To this end, the struggle continues.
As we follow the news in Arizona, it is crucial to understand that SB 1070 was not created by the Arizona State Legislature alone. It was originally drafted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center designated as a hate group. FAIR’s intention is to see the bill reproduced in other states and one of their employees, attorney Kris Kobach, gets paid to draft copycat bills for that purpose. Washington is one state that is likely to see such legislation in the near future, as it is home to two anti-immigrant organizations that share a P.O Box with FAIR.
The CxPJ is printing this flowchart to illustrate the connections between what’s happening in Arizona and the potential for the same thing to happen in our own state. If we can stay informed about who is involved in this scary shit, we’ll have a better chance of keeping our state safe for everyone.