{"id":545058,"date":"2010-04-27T14:59:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011714418_newimmigrationenforcementlawforarizona.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-04-27T14:59:22","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:59:22","slug":"new-immigration-enforcement-law-for-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/545058","title":{"rendered":"New immigration-enforcement law for Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

We can find a better way<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arizona\u2019s conservative leaders right now are, in effect, swinging their clubs like neolithic cavemen at anything that moves, even though they might knock the brains out of the members of their own community. [\u201cArizona\u2019s unhelpful law invites racial profiling,\u201d editorial, Opinion, April 27].<\/p>\n

I am referring, of course, to the recent passage of SB-1070. This law compels any Arizona police officer to arrest anyone who looks \u201cillegal.\u201d The law also makes a provision to allow anyone \u2014a flag-waving super patriot for sure \u2014to sue a police department that does not try to apprehend the illegal border crossers. I think they will have to stop 50 in order to catch five real \u201cculprits.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course, Arizona\u2019s leaders do not mind inconveniencing Arizona\u2019s Mexican-American population. In their minds it will be all right to stop people, scrutinize them and then let them go. The right to be free of police abuse is no bother to these leaders.<\/p>\n

That sure beats trying to find out what propels human beings \u2014mostly Mexicans \u2014to cross the U.S.-Mexican border without proper documentation. It sure makes it convenient to allege that most, if not all illegal crossers are drug traffickers. That most undocumented crossers are simply looking for work \u2014 the work that you and I do not want \u2014 is not important.<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t we do better than the neolithic club-swinging, racial profiling and stopping and interrogating brown-skinned people? Couldn\u2019t we find a better way?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Carlos Gil, UW professor emeritus, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Arizona governor wants to suppress Hispanic vote<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are other motives besides illegal border crossings in Arizona\u2019s \u201cdesperate move.\u201d In what had been a reliable Republican state, Democrat Janet Napolitano was twice elected governor in 2002 and 2006. The expanding Hispanic community in Arizona votes for Democrats.<\/p>\n

When Napolitano was appointed U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer advanced to the governor\u2019s office. Her fear of losing an upcoming election is probably greater than her concerns about illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

In 2004, as secretary of state, Brewer blocked more than 100,000 voters, mostly Hispanic, from registering. Registering to vote if you are not a citizen is a crime, but no one has been prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutor David Iglesias was sent by then-President George Bush and \u201cbrain\u201d Karl Rove to investigate the illegal voters, but was unable to find one valid voter-fraud case. As a result, he was fired by the Bush administration. Seattle attorney John McKay suffered a similar fate when he failed to find fraud in the governor\u2019s race between GOP Dino Rossi and Gov. Chris Gregoire.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Brewer\u2019s \u201cgoal is control of our borders \u2026,\u201d but history and evidence indicate that Hispanic-voter suppression is her primary objective.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bill Taylor, Renton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can find a better way Arizona\u2019s conservative leaders right now are, in effect, swinging their clubs like neolithic cavemen at anything that moves, even though they might knock the brains out of the members of their own community. [\u201cArizona\u2019s unhelpful law invites racial profiling,\u201d editorial, Opinion, April 27]. I am referring, of course, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}