Protests mount against Arizona immigration law

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On April 23, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law. Since then, the measure has become notorious for provisions that require immigrants to carry documents with them at all times, authorize police officers to arrest persons suspected of being undocumented immigrants, and make it illegal for Immigrant rights groups across the country have also decried SB 1070 for promoting the use of racial profiling by police officers and for creating an increasing climate of fear in the immigrant community.

SB 1070 has sparked an uprising in the immigrant rights movement, with organizations across the country responding to the call for a nationwide boyJust before SB 1070 was scheduled to take effect in Arizona at 12:01 a.m. on July 29, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton issued an injunction blocking the most controversial parts of the bill. The federal government, civil rights groups, and two police officers— one in Tucson and one in Phoenix—had sued the state of Arizona on grounds of racial profiling and superseding federal jurisdiction over immigration law. Despite the partial injunction, immigrant-rights organizations across the country went ahead with protests that had been planned for July 28 and 29.

In California, hundreds protested in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In Jackson, Miss., protesters organized by the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) gathered inside the state capitol. About 400 people demonstrated in Chicago and 100 in Philadelphia. Several hundred joined a rally and march in New York City, holding signs stating, “Ningun Ser Humano Es Illegal” and “La Lucha Sigue!” From Mexico City and Guadalajara to Louisville and Duluth, many cities held events protesting SB 1070.

Many protesters emphasized the connection of SB 1070 with other Obama administration policies. In San Francisco, Renée Saucedo, an attorney with La Raza Centro Legal, stated: “It’s no coincidence that Arizona has this outrageous law [SB 1070] because all the proposals from Washington on immigration reform encourage the same criminalization, racial profiling, and discrimination. Immigrant communities are demanding an end to these policies and laws, including Secure Communities and E-Verify. We deserve a new direction from Washington, with real change, including legalization and workers’ rights.”

In St. Paul, organizers from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc) and the BAM! Boycott Arizona-Minnesota Campaign organized a protest of hundreds outside the state capitol building. Speakers included MIRAc organizers, as well as Javier Morrillo, president of SEIU Local 26. The speakers outlined similar programs already in effect, such as 287(g) and Secure Communities, and emphasized the need to stop the epidemic of hatred HF 3830, an SB 1070 copycat bill, has already been introduced in the Minnesota legislature by Rep. Steve Drazkowski. Minnesota is one of over a dozen states considering passage of similar laws. As part of the St. Paul protest, actors dressed up as biohazard workers in orange jumpsuits and face masks cordoned off the steps of the state capitol with “caution” tape, declaring the state quarantined from the epidemic of They then removed the jumpsuits to reveal shirts reading, “Ningun ser humano es illegal/No human being is illegal.” When organizers asked protesters to show their “papers,” participants raised up copies BAM! activists won a recent victory in the Arizona boycott, when they pressured the owner of an Arizona-based Jimmy John’s sandwich franchise in Minneapolis to sign a statement denouncing SB 1070 and supporting a fair and humane immigration reform. They plan to continue resisting SB 1070 and other On July 29, protesters across the country showed that they would not back down from the struggle for immigrant rights, despite the partial injunction of SB 1070. n 12 Socialist Action august 2010 TUCSON, Ariz.—The Ya Basta/ Enough campaign, a coalition of about 20 groups in the Tucson area, “communities uniting to resist” Arizona’s racial-profiling law, SB 1070, held a 24-hour vigil in front of the State Building in downtown Tucson. The vigil began at 4 p.m. on July 28, the day before the law was supposed to go into effect, and lasted until after 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 29.

Many people came and went during the 24 hours, but the total of all who participated probably came to more than 2000, with a high point of about 500 in the morning and afternoon of July 29, including about 50 day laborers who normally seek work in a “safe space” at the South Side Presbyterian Church.

During a speak-out and openmike session at the vigil in the early evening of July 28, Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Derechos Humanos organization, a key component of the Ya Basta coalition, made some comments about the court ruling by federal judge Susan Bolton. The ruling, embodied in a nearly 40-page document, was issued just a few hours earlier on July 28 and temporarily enjoined the state of Arizona from implementing key aspects of this racist law.

“Win or lose, we had to be here,” Isabel Garcia explained. “We have been announcing this protest for a month preceding July 29, and although this is some kind of victory, it is only temporary. There will be further court proceedings and appeals, and our fight is far from over, so we had to be here to voice our determination to resist this racist law and everything that led up to it.”

Analyzing the ruling, Isabel Garcia continued: “The ruling says that the state of Arizona cannot enact or implement immigration law. The federal government has jurisdiction in that area. The state of Arizona has tried to preempt authority that is exclusively federal.

“The ruling also says that you cannot create a police state for people of color. Without using the phrase ‘racial profiling,’ the judge made clear that people of color would be unreasonably subjected to harassment if the law were implemented. The ruling also says that there cannot be criminalization of people without documents, and you cannot criminalize someone for soliciting or offering work.”

However, Isabel Garcia explained further, not all aspects of the judge’s ruling are in favor of immigrant rights. “The judge did not issue an injunction against the part of the law that threatens arrest for those who, in the process of seeking work, ‘interfere with traffic.’ The judge also left in place the part of the law that makes it a criminal misdemeanor to ‘transport or harbor’ an undocumented immigrant.”

day laborers to seek work. cott of Arizona-based companies.

Lisa Luinenburg / Socialist Action (Top) Albany, N.Y., march on July 25, following the United National Antiwar Conference.

(Below) St. Paul, Minn., rally against SB 1070 on July 29.

The judge did specify that she enjoined Arizona from implementing SB 1070 because there would be “irreparable damage” to those who did not at all times carry with them proof of legal residence.

In summing up, Isabel Garcia stressed once again: “Our work is not over. We have a huge job and racism from spreading even further. ahead of us to educate the large numbers of the ignorant public on immigration issues. It is time for a real dialogue on these issues.

We cannot accept the Obama and Schumer positions. In his July 1 speech on immigration, Obama lectured immigrants for supposedly not following the rules.

anti-immigrant laws sweeping the country.

“But immigrants have been ‘following the rules’—of the labor market. For a century or more this country has invited low-wage foreign workers to come and of the U.S. Constitution. work jobs that others would not, such as fruit and vegetable picking and work in slaughterhouses.

We should be grateful to the immigrants who have enriched this country with their labor.”

Isabel Garcia also emphasized, similar laws already in effect in Minnesota. “We have to stop the so-called ‘free trade’ agreements whose result is to force people to leave (continued on page 11, in “Winter’s Bone: Evil in the Ozarks”)

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Although a judge blocked key parts of SB 1070, much work remains in the fight for immigrant rights.