The draconian immigration law signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in Arizona last Friday is rightfully generating nonviolent resistance of various forms across the country.
According to an op-ed by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”:
…requires police to question anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being an undocumented immigrant — a mandate for racial profiling on a massive scale. Legal immigrants will be required to carry papers proving that they have a right to be in the United States. Those without documentation can be charged with the crime of trespassing and jailed for up to six months.
It honestly reminds me of the law Gandhi resisted in South Africa, which required people of color to carry identification which could be checked at any time.
During an interview on Democracy Now! today, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva said that the there is also a part of the law that would “require school teachers to become immigration officers and keep a list of potentially undocumented kids… which is another clear violation of federal protection.”
In response Grijalva – along with other Democrats, religious leaders and activists – has called for an economic boycott of the state aimed specifically at getting organizations that are planning on coming to Arizona for conferences or conventions to back out. At least one group, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has already responded by moving their convention planned for this fall to another state.
In his weekly sports column, Dave Zirin has proposed extending the boycott to the Arizona Diamondbacks, because its executives are a major funder of the state Republican Party, which pushed this immigration bill. I personally don’t see why the boycott should be limited only to baseball.
According to Dennis Herrera, a city attorney from San Francisco, who has urged the city to cancel any contracts it might have with Arizona:
…a similar boycott 20 years ago, which included the National Football League’s decision to move the Super Bowl from the state, led to Arizona finally dropping its refusal to recognise to Martin Luther King Day.
Obviously, immigration is a far more pressing issue than recognizing a holiday, so getting the state to reverse course will take far more pressure from the public than was needed during that campaign. Thankfully, Grijalva’s call for economic sanctions is being complemented by many other types of action. On top of demonstrations in many communities around the country – from cities in Texas and Florida to Minnesota and Maine – The Guardian has reported that:
Scores of lorry drivers were reported in the US media to have threatened to stop carrying loads to and from the state.
[…]
The Rev Al Sharpton, an advocate of African-American rights, said in New York yesterday he would organise “freedom walkers”, just as the civil rights movement had organised freedom riders to board segregated buses in the 1960s. “We will go to Arizona when this bill goes into effect and walk the streets with people who refuse to give identification and force arrest,” Sharpton said.
Finally, while some on the right are challenging the idea that the Tea Party movement is racist, Eugene Robinson makes an interesting point about their conspicuous absence at rallies denouncing this law over the weekend:
Isn’t the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom? It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim — and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state — would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish?
As this debate heats up, it’ll be interesting to see how much pressure can be mobilized against the state to reconsider this law, which Robinson says is more like “an act of vengeance.”
Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws, pass no permit conceal weapons laws and the state boycotted Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
Draconian immigration law? Eugene Robinson? Al Sharpton? Just more rherorical crap from the liberal left loons.
I don’t know Robinson and don’t particularly care for Sharpton myself, but insulting them isn’t constructive and doesn’t address their arguments. On this issue I think Robinson made some very good points, and I’m personally impressed by the idea of freedom rides around this issue. Obviously many people feel very strongly that this law is racist, will lead to discrimination, will create a rung of second-class citizens who have to carry papers (when the rest of us don’t), will actually make law enforcement more difficult, including many police chiefs and policemen in the state. If you disagree, why? Make an argument.
There’s a difference between “reasonably suspect” and “probable cause”. Law enforcement has always had the right to question based on suspicion but must have probable cause to arrest. The law will probably fail based on the latter.
Getting back to Robinson and Sharpton, both are race card droppers who take every opportunity to use the “victim” ploy.
I saw Jay Leno at Correspondent Dinner his best line was; “That was my favorite story (this year) Republicans and a Lesbian bondage club. It’s ironic, Republicans don’t want lesbian getting married but they do like watching them “tie the knot”. So I thought that was interesting.”
You can say the same about Tea Party (the hatters nor debaters or as others have dubbed them screamer not dreamers), they say they respect the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors who only care about getting reelected on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster, just like Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago, keep passing them Arizona and the rest of us will continue to challenged them and you will fail in a court of law (and yes we will Boycott You).
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