Open Lettter To Mohammad Abdollahi

Dear Mohammad,

It’s difficult for me to see the pictures and images of what happened on Monday, May the 17^th , 2010.

I guess you all reached a point of no return. Hearing so many DREAM Act stories makes me understand the depth of your desperation.

Your life and of all the dreamers has been put on hold for so many years that I think you only saw this option available to you. You sat down in a peaceful protest with your friends in front of powerful Senator John McCain's office and you are willing to risk to be deported, all world to witness, because the government of the place you grew up does not let you live freely, when freedom seems to be all around you.

I suppose you all knew I will not approve of this action. We are afraid for your safety (the safety of all dreamers) and afraid that you actually are going to be deported to a place that can mean a death sentence for you. This after being arrested, handcuffed and possibly mistreated. If I do not approve of your action it is not because I’m not proud of you but because I really care about you.

Of all places you chose Arizona to shout your pain to the world. Maybe you did this because Arizona is a dry and often inhospitable place, where people call children, teenagers, and young adults in your situation “illegals” more often than not. Maybe you came to his place because you feel that more immigrants are being criminalized even when are role model human beings, just like you.

Maybe you chose to come here because many people in this place are incapable of imagining what is like to be brought to a country swaddled in desperation and grow up in the shadows of society and, in spite of all, grow up to be a remarkable human being and a leader, like so many of the dreamers. Maybe you chose Arizona because many hearts are hardened by hate and cannot see past their prejudices. Perhaps you came here because you think Arizona is the epicenter of hate, specially after the governor signed sb1070 and you are fighting for all of us.

I really do not know where this is going to take you and all the dreamers. I really hope that your actions will soften some hearts when confronted with the ugly realties of what we have all done to children and young lives like yours in this country.

I pray today for your safety and for the safety of all DREAMers.

Love and hugs,

Carmen Cornejo

From the Blog Chicas Divinas-Divine Girls

What grade do I give the Arizona State Legislature on the 2010 session?

When the editors of the Southeast Republic asked me to answer how do I grade Arizona's Legislature after the end of the 2010 session, this is what I answered. (They only gave me 80 words but more, many more would be necessary to express my outrage).

Failure. Republican Legislators passed a disastrous bill SB1070 (with rushed modifications at the last minute that makes it worse). Massive cuts to education and social services for the disabled and vulnerable.

Instead of concentrating in solving Arizona’s economic woes they wasted their time on legislation that divides us instead of appreciating the contributions of all to the economy. Expect boycotts, continue fall on revenues from sales tax and a cascade of foreclosures.

(printed on the Saturday, May the 8th edition)

What Part of Legal You Do Not Understand???

Even before Gov. Jan Brewer signed Bill SB1070, way before, sheriff officers and rogue police from different departments have been stopping brown people under the suspicion of being in the country undocumented and abusing their powers. They have been proving into the immigration's status of Hispanics in hopes to discover undocumented persons and play their power trips and their ethnic grievances. This is what it has been going on in Arizona.

For what I hear their targets are primarily 1.-working class fellows whose English proficiency is not absolute or speak Spanish and 2.-young people even when they are all American. Rogue police officers know they are not fully educated on what their rights are and it is easy to get away with the situation . Rogue police officers are looking to snatch them and sending them to immigration holding tanks.

Some months ago I found a 3^rd generation Hispanic college student who was asked to produce his social security card besides his driver’s license. He left the scene with a sense that the request for a SS# was not right but he was not sure and “consulted” with some friends.

I come across this stories without seeking them. It just comes naturally when I’m going around giving away CADENA’s “Know Your Rights Brochures”.

This week when the community got together to rally with Al Sharpton against prop SB1070, I saw the opportunity to give away 200-updated-version of the Know Your Rights Brochures, half of them in English, half of them in Spanish, printed thanks to a generous donor.

This events are always a great opportunity to speak to people that, under other circumstances, I would not be able to communicate with and opens my vision of what is really going on the streets.

I had the chance to talk to a lady who was stopped by police, questioned extensively, searched in all her possessions, handcuffed and put on the back of a patrol car EVEN WHEN SHE HAS A DRIVER’S LICENSE AND A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD !!!! The reason, the officer did not believe that she was legal in the country, and apparently, she has the name of a person police is looking for or that is what they told her. Police officers look over and over her documents, asked repeatedly if they were false and scratched them on with their fingernails.
What part of Legal do you do not understand???? The searched continued and went into her possessions, the car contents and her purse while she waited handcuffed on the back of the police car. Finally the police gave up and she was dismissed without an apology. The lady speaks broken English and was Hispanic which matches my own description.
She was fighting tears as she recounted her story.

Fortunately this lady talked to an immigrant rights organization and they took pictures of her bruised wrists.
I told her not to remain silent and tell others what it’s going on Arizona even before the implementation of SB1070. Know Your Rights and share the information with others.

Know Your Rights and speak up. This is all we can do.

We Saw SB1070 Coming

My family has been working for 2 electoral cycles to vote out Senator Russell Pierce of Mesa, Arizona. We helped candidates from both political parties and canvassed, called and urged people to vote against him. Few heard the message.

Especially during the 2006 election we could count with our fingers the number of volunteers helping a way better candidate: a couple of acorn community organizers, the candidate, 3 high school students and a couple of teachers. We wondered where everybody else was.

Russell Pearce is an ideologue of the worst kind. While Joe Arapio attracts the attention of many and it is picketed by protestors Mr. Pearce has been concocting laws helped by extremist like Kris Kobach and organizations like FAIR and Numbers USA. In October 2006, he forwarded an email from" National Alliance, a white separatist group, to a group of supporters. The email titled "Who Rules America" ^[8] criticized black and white intermixing and Jews in the media for promoting multiculturalism and racial equality, for depicting "any racially conscious White Person" as a bigot, and for presenting the Holocaust as fact.^[9]"

The first time I saw him in person was for the 2006 candidate’s debate for the House of Representatives. We went to support of Tammy Pursley, the Democratic Candidate at the time. When Mr. Pearce started to speak I was completely startled at his speech because I expected to hear him trashing immigrants, sprinkling his speech with false statistics that create hysteria among misinformed followers. To my surprise he did not spoke about “them” but said something that I considered even more dangerous. “This country needs to go back to it’s origins” he thundered…. Not a Democracy but a Republic”.

Who is this man that wants to limit the access of people to the political process? I wondered. Does that mean that he wants to limit the access to the political process just to individuals like him because they deem themselves somewhat superior? or part of "God's plan"?

That is when it hit me that Russell Pierce was not only and anti-immigrant but represented a deeper problem and danger to Democracy.

When this man introduced the Employer’s Sanctions Law I thought members of the Legislature will not vote for a bill that threatened the economic stability of the State. “He is a Republican, isn’t he? Republicans are pro-business, right???? Wrong. The Republican dominated Arizona legislature does not care about business or the well being of the State anymore.

The week of April 23rd 2010 was one of the saddest of my life…. We have been putting so much work and energy trying to convince people that this man should be voted out because he does not care about anything but his narrow and backward ideology and because we saw SB1070 coming in a slow motion for years.

I hope people wake up, register to vote and realize this man needs to be voted out.