Poison Pills

In the ongoing quest to limit the human rights of the most vulnerable in Arizona, the Republican lead State Legislature has been introducing small poison pills into bills.

In a quiet manner, without the political theater that SB1070 created, bills that apparently have nothing to do with immigration had been embedded with articles designed to cause extensive damage.

The first one is ID requirements for notarized documents, House Bill 2037 ARS Sec. 41-311, that states anyone seeking to have a document notarized must show an ID issued by the U.S. government. Foreign documents (passports, matriculas etc.) are not acceptable, unless they are seeking to purchase real estate, and then they must also provide proof of legal status. Of course (that is intrinsic part of the game) notaries can be penalized for noncompliance by suspension or loss of their license.

This has a lot of implications on any legal procedures that undocumented persons may seek from child custody, to wills, to medical directives, power of attorney, legal representation, on and on, affecting the right to petition to authorities.

The second article

ARS Sec. 14-5108 affects directly undocumented children.

It states only children legally in the country can have guardians appointed by the courts.

So what happens when undocumented children need to have a guardian appointed??? Does Corrections Corporation of America take over as "guardians"?

Anti immigrant legislators have a sick obsession to hurt innocent children and families, maybe because they really want to affect the morale and the future of the whole community.

Both articles came in effect July 29th, 2010.

I Thought You Were On Our Side: Congressman Gutierrez Talking Students Down

522 Steps

Near my home in Chandler, Arizona there is a neighborhood called Arrowhead Meadows that include a working class block with small town homes. This community has been very much affected by the economic downturn and the immigration laws the State has been implemented, among them the Employer's Sanctions Law and SB1070.

Those laws are seeking "attrition to enforcement" or in other words to get rid of the immigrant working class population that hold the jobs citizens and legal residents do not want to do. This immigrants live in neighborhood like this.

Laws have an effect on the economy and in Arizona this is painfully true. It may be causing a considerable effect in the falling home prices and the low occupancy rate of rental properties all over the State. Read the article by the Arizona Republic here with data on the real state market and the projections for the near future.

I see this neighborhood as a little barometer of the economic situation of the state.

Recently I have been noticing more and more for sale and for rent signs, so I took a walk this afternoon and counted how many steps it took me to find a - For Rent- sign in this particular block.

It is impossible to determined which homes and how many where emptied by the implementation of SB1070 last July the 29th. We can only guess.

This is the finding of my little qualitative research:

Streets: Walking on Arrowhead from W. Galveston St to W. Ivanhoe St.

First sign - 94 steps

Second sign -130 steps

Third sign -170 steps

Fourth sign -230 steps

Fifth sign -360 steps

Sixth sign -420 steps

Seventh sign -455 steps

Total of steps walked: 522

To see the pictures of the signs and the street please click here

Raids

On Tuesday, August the 10, 2010 at 9:00 pm I got a phone call from a teenager asking for help. Her home have been just raided by ICE agents in a little town in rural Arizona and she could have been taken but the agents were in their own words "humanitarians" and they ordered her to appear the following day at the ICE building in Downtown Phoenix. The raid, later I found out, was part of the Obama Administration's show of force to demonstrate its critics they are as tough on immigration as the Republicans. In fact, the Democrat administration has been increasing the numbers of deported immigrants to a record 380,000 during the past fiscal year and according to TRAC, exceedig in 2009 the number of deportees by 20,000 from the previous numbers in 2008. The operation took place from Monday, August the 9th to Wednesday, August the 11th in at least 6 cities across the state and more cities and towns in the nation, according to the Arizona Republic. I knew when it was in progress.

At this point I have spent the last two days stopping the deportation of my mentee, a DREAM Act student, star HS graduate from a small town out of the big cities,recipient of a handsome full ride scholarship to a great university in California, victim of this aforementioned operation.

Thanks to the network of hope created by dreamactivist we were able to gather support for her and a good lawyer who stepped forward to take her case pro-bono, so impressed the lawyer was of my young friend's academic and leadership accomplishments. Otherwise she could have been in Nogales right now.

And this story does not have a happy ending. Her dad was detained and he is awaiting deportation. Her family is broken now.

While trying to make sense of all this, specially the fact that ICE wanted to take a teenager just barely 18 years old, my young friend's grandmother, and elderly lady kept asking me "Why do they treat us like this???" I had not explanation. By the way, my young friend family is a mixed status one with members that are citizens, legal residents, non legal residents in the process of fixing their immigration situation and undocumented immigrants.

My friend's family described how ICE had taken at least 10 residents from the little town in the last days and how the kids are not been sent to school terrified of "la migra".

The family related too how many businesses are empty or closing down but she did not had to tell me that because the same is happening in the Hispanic working class neighborhoods in the Phoenix Metro area and all over the state.

Big time.

So things are just the same as in the GOP days.

According to The Center for Constitutional Rights and due to a freedom of information request placed by immigrant's rights organizations who ordered the bureaucrats to release data, the Obama administration and DHS continues to deport non criminal immigrants whose only infraction is to come to the country illegally, contrary to the Administration's claims that now they are targeting on the criminal elements.

I have the story of my friend, the star student, as proof that although they promised change, things continue the just same or worse.

Liberty and Justice in Phoenix -Runner's World - Update

The story of Coaches Miguel Aparicio and Carlos Borja is now online. The two immigrants with passion for running where one gets dismissed for political reasons (after all this is Arizona ) and the other makes a public stand defending a long time friendship.

Their dedication to their students and their love for coaching is really touching and inspiring.

I have the privilege of meeting them for lunch along with mentor Fredi Lajvardi.

No cropped pictures here!

Quick Hit: The Baby Bully Parade

The GOP demonstrates once more how election season is the ugliest of all. Now we have to endure the sad spectacle of US Senators lining up in the Baby Bullying Parade, joining their manly voices to stage hearings that will challenge the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, seeking to deny birthright citizenships to children of the undocumented.

So far the Baby Bullies are Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and our own Arid Zone John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ).

Never mind that the Right to Citizenship on the 14th Amendment is one of the clearest concepts on it. Never mind that the Republican party is always shielding on the mantra of "defending the Constitution", and BTW aren't they the "Pro-life" people?

Obviously the Republicans are trying to create a bogus wedge issue on election season to unleash the xenophobic base of the party.

Of course denying citizenship to babies born of undocumented parents will (potentially) be used to negate public services to children, including basic nourishment and education. Great! what are we going to do with millions of non- citizens without education, and the most basic welfare.

Also their stance represent a disconnection on the real motivations for workers to immigrate to the USA- JOBS!. I've never met a undocumented immigrant who has come to this country to conceive and have children in the USA and wait more than 18 years to be claimed by a citizen son or daughter. There is no secret immigrant agenda of purposely having children in the USA. That is only the belief of people that would wish us immigrant workers were automatons without life and love.

The Running Men of Alhambra

A coach that helped create a successful athletic program that inspires high school kids to strive for the best and win big is prohibited to approach his team and to continue coaching. Was he dealing with drugs? Has he committed any crime? Has he become a terrorist or has he threatened the safety of the students? No, his sin: Being an undocumented immigrant brought to the USA as a minor, released from the horrific detention center by Corrections Corporation of America.

This is just part of the story by John Brant published by Runner's World on his September edition.

Unfortunately Runner's World does not publishes its articles online so run to your favorite newsstand and get a copy.

I came across the story some months ago thanks to an article by the Arizona Republic titled Controversy Cost Alhambra Coach his Job and a tip from a friend who knew I will feel outraged by the dismissal of Coach Carlos Borja for insubordination after he refused to oust the assistant Coach Miguel Aparicio on the grounds that Aparicio is an undocumented immigrant.

Never mind that Aparicio has been working selflessly without pay to transform rebellious barrio teenagers into focused athletes for years, many times providing economic support to his pupils by the way of sponsoring their athletic gear, training trips etc.

The article on Runner's World explains in detail the story of Coaches Carlos Borja, Miguel Aparicio from their humble undocumented immigrant origins to their inspiration for teaching, mentor and make positive changes in the lives of many. It also provides a window of the strains the unsolved immigration situation of so many valuable individuals puts into our communities, taking school officials to make ethically wrong decisions, to appease political groups.

It is also a very cinematic story of immigrant survival, triumph, challenge and the trans-formative power of teachers that commit to their students no matter what.