ALEC thinks they're meeting in Scottsdale, AZ this November...

ALEC thinks they're meeting in Scottsdale, AZ this November...
 
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a massive non-profit body that brings corporations and legislators together to draft "model" legislation.  For example, AZ Senator Russell Pearce and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison firm, have been members for years.  ALEC finalized the model legislation which became, almost word for word, Arizona's SB1070, aka "Support Our Law Enforcement."  It's the latest in the historical pattern of colonization, slave codes, convict leasing, and the drug war, that CREATES crimes and therefore criminals, for profit.
 
With British Petroleum (BP) and the Koch brothers as some of their funders, ALEC has pushed for Three Strikes and Mandatory Minimum sentencing, as well as the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.  More than 200 of ALEC's model bills became actual laws throughout the country over the past year.

We're a group of people in occupied Indigenous lands, now called Arizona, who demand the end of SB1070 and 287g, the criminalization—and then the incarceration—of migrants, and the militarization of the border. We oppose private prisons, detention centers, and security companies, not simply because they are private, but because we are sickened by profiteering on human misery.   ALEC desires "free markets" and "limited government," which means they use the state to support profit-making, the continuance of colonization, and neo-liberal policies (NAFTA, CANAMEX, etc.) that draw lines, make laws, and build freeways and prisons to exploit labor and the earth.

Whether maintained by the state or corporations, we're against all systems of control.  We are for freedom of movement for all people.
 
ALEC should know there are a million better things to do with their time than plotting mass incarceration.  But there’s nowhere we’d rather be than confronting their meeting. We're calling for four days of action here in occupied Onk Akimel O’odham lands from November 29th - December 3rd, 2011, with an emphasis for action on November 30th (N30!).  We encourage a creative diversity of tactics on N30, the 12th anniversary of the Seattle uprising against the WTO.  No matter the acronym, ALEC is no different than all the other gangs of businessmen, politicians, and bureaucrats that we’ve been resisting for over 500 years.

In solidarity with everyone locked up and locked down in AZ, and all O’odham, Yaqui, Lipan Apache separated by the border, and anyone dispossessed by the wealthy and powerful… 

Project Baldwin
projectbaldwin@riseup.net


see also: azresistsalec.wordpress.com

MUSIC VIDEO:Shining Soul: 'Papers' Militarization of Border

SHINING SOUL MUSIC VIDEO "PAPERS"

WEBSITE: http://shiningsoul-music.blogspot.com/
DOWNLOAD AT: http://shiningsoulmusic.bandcamp.com/
EMAIL: WORKWITHSHININGSOUL@GMAIL.COM




"The militarization of the U.S./Mexico border
has led only to cultural and environmental destruction
of the indigenous peoples whose land is on or near
the border, such as the O'odham, Yaqui
and Lipan Apache Nations.

Border Militarization brings death and terror
to indigenous peoples from other parts
of the continent migrating to this land.

The immigration struggle is also
an Indigenous struggle. '

http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2011/07/music-videoshining-soul-papers.html

NOLA Anarcha- Why Anarchists Should Protest the ALEC Conference

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is coming to town! They are a bunch of nasty fuckers who bring corporations together with state legislators so corporate lawyers can hand pre-written bills to the politicians, who then try to get the bills passed in their state legislatures.

ALEC has been making the news a lot recently, with NPR pieces[pt.1, pt.2] about how, in meetings with private prison corporations, they wrote the infamous SB1070, the anti-immigrant law that anarchists and others have been fighting against in Arizona.

Leaked documents from inside ALEC prompted an interview segment on Democracy Now! The documents show that ALEC, in partnership with it's corporate members, actually wrote many pro-corporate laws that have since gone into effect, including free trade agreements that were a main focus of the anti-globalization movement many anarchists participated in after the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999.

And on the Huffington Post, an article explains how ALEC is carrying forward the ideological program of deregulation and privatization pushed by Milton Friedman. This simplistic, fundamentalist capitalist ideology has had many negative local effects, as was mentioned in a recent article on this blog.

Now, anarchists have no illusions about the fact that big business owns and runs the government, but at least corporate power usually fears public anger that arises from the blatant merger of State and corporate power enough to put on a political puppet show for us! Mostly, the way elites legitimize the unequal and unjust system that they preside over to the rest of us is to make sure that it at least has the appearance of people, through elected politicians, getting to decide democratically what happens in our country. ALEC doesn't bother with that populist song and dance, they facilitate the outright penning of legislation by corporations themselves becoming law. So we end up with things like Immigration Policy, brought to you by Corrections Corporation of America! etc...

While ALEC's dealings aren't a meaningful divergence from the normal machinations of power, it is easier for people to see that the system's a sham, and easier for them to finger the true culprits, when corporations are writing their own legislation. This is why the anti-ALEC organizing to confront those economic power structures is worth supporting.

Of course, there will surely be those in the protest calling for the political charade to be played out fully once again, for the kabuki theater to re-close the curtains that shields us from what's happening backstage, so we can once again be whisked away to fairyland, where democracy exists and people power is in charge, and we can return to our peaceful slumber, dreaming the American Dream.

But, there will be also be people protesting who know returning to the democratic facade is not going to solve any of our problems, and that confronting the corporations behind the curtain of our "democracy" is the first step to destroying their control of our lives and communities.

In that spirit, anarchists should come out to the locally-organized ALEC protests in New Orleans (August 5th, 2pm, 500 Poydras St.). Come out not to demand stricter adherence to lobbying laws, more transparency, or less corruption. Come out to demand an end to the power of corporations, and their use of State violence to increase their wealth, and thereby control over our economy, society, and lives. Come out to say that it doesn't matter whether that power is hidden behind the veil of democracy, or is blatantly transparent, as it is with ALEC, that either way it has to be dismantled. Anarchists should come with flags, in black, or with banners and signs to show our united stance, to show that we are not in favor of a return to the democratic political farce, but organizing for an end to capitalist control.

Not only should anarchists participate in the protest on August 5th, but we should organize other actions to confront the corporations who are members of ALEC during the conference, from August 1st-6th. ALEC's members include oil companies responsible for ruining the Gulf and Wetlands, big banks who own hundreds of foreclosed homes in our city while people sleep on the streets, and private prison companies directly profiting from tough on crime laws, the creation of a racist, militarized police state, and booming incarceration rates, which Louisiana leads the nation in. Let's get creative and use their conference to catalyze our own actions to take back our city from these profiteers of human suffering!

Operation Chinga La Migra by LulzSec

http://lulzsecurity.com/releases/chinga_la_migra_1.txt

##################### CHINGA LA MIGRA BULLETIN #1 6/23/2011 ####################

We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.

The documents classified as "law enforcement sensitive", "not for public distribution", and "for official use only" are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.

Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust "war on drugs".

Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors - the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world. See you again real soon! ;D

LulzSec releases ‘classified’ data of ‘racist’ Arizona law enforcement

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/23/lulzsec-releases-classified-data-of-racist-arizona-law-enforcement/

The group of rogue and jocular hackers known as Lulz Security - or LulzSec - released data Thursday night it claims belongs to Arizona law enforcement in a campaign dubbed "Operation Chinga La Migra."

"We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement," the group said on their website.

LulzSec is targeting the state's law enforcement because they are against SB1070, Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law.

They called Arizona a "racial profiling anti-immigrant police state."

"We're trying to track down whoever did it and secure our system," Steve Harrison, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, told the Phoenix New Times. "Right now we think they got into our computers through our e-mail."

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said it was not aware of the cyber attack until LulzSec tweeted Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Twitter account.

"The media has been giving me a lot of heat lately but nothing compared to tent city!" Arpaio tweeted Thursday. LulzSec responded, "Media? Heat? You? Chinga La Migra!"

LulzSec announced Tuesday that it would team up with hacker activist group Anonymous, as the manhunt for people involved with both groups continues. LulzSec has also claimed responsibility for the Sony hack that compromised millions of peoples' personal information, as well as several government hacks. The group burst onto the public radar with a well-publicized hack of PBS NewsHour's website in early June.

The group has quickly become an Internet sensation, with over a quarter of a million Twitter followers and numerous LulzSec-inspired songs on YouTube.

"Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarrassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust war on drugs," LulzSec announced.

The package of data was uploaded to the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.

"Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors - the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world."

Updated June 23, 2011 at 9:16pm EST.

Los Angeles gets tough with political protesters

For acts of political protest that his predecessor treated as mere infractions, Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is seeking jail time.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is throwing the book at dozens of people arrested during recent political demonstrations — a major shift in city policy that has him pressing for jail time in types of cases that previous prosecutors had treated as infractions.

Some of the activists arrested, including eight college students and one military veteran who took part in a Westwood rally last year in support of the DREAM Act, face up to one year in county jail.

Trutanich's aggressive stance is the latest episode in the city's decades-long legal struggle over the rights of protesters. The Los Angeles Police Department's treatment of demonstrators at the 2000 Democratic National Convention and at a 2007 May Day rally at MacArthur Park led to lawsuits against the city.

Trutanich said in an interview that recent demonstrations, conducted without permits, had cost the city thousands of dollars for police response and disrupted traffic. Organizers of illegal protests should face consequences, he said.

"My whole deal is predictability," he said. "In order for us to have a civilized society, there has to be a predictable result when you break the law. I want to make sure that they don't do it again."

The new policy, he added, was designed with an eye on what he called "professional" protesters who demonstrate repeatedly — sometimes for pay, he said — and never seem to be punished for their illegal activities.

"There's a right way and a wrong way" to protest, Trutanich said. "When you break the law, it's a not a mainstream 1st Amendment activity. You have the right to protest; you don't have the right to break the law."

Critics, including civil liberties advocates and at least one City Council member, accuse him of overkill and say his policies could imperil legitimate free speech.

"We should be incarcerating those who are truly public threats as opposed to students who are raising their voices out of passion for a cause," said City Councilman Ed Reyes, who has met with Trutanich on behalf of the DREAM Act supporters.

Reyes said the city should give people arrested in certain forms of protest a chance to work out deals with prosecutors to avoid jail time and criminal records.

Until recently, that was city policy — first-time offenders arrested in protests were typically granted what is known as a city attorney hearing, an informal alternative to a court date where defendants could negotiate deals.

In 2009, under Trutanich's predecessor, Rocky Delgadillo, all but one of 12 students arrested at a protest over fee hikes at UCLA were offered plea deals that reduced their charges to an infraction with a $100 fine.

"Our policy was that this is an exercise of 1st Amendment rights, and if this was your first time, you would get a hearing," said Delgadillo, who said his policy was based on the belief that a protester demonstrating for a political cause is different from a typical criminal.

John Raphling, an attorney who is representing a protester charged with three misdemeanors after a May 21 demonstration at City Hall over rent hikes, said Trutanich's approach is aimed at quashing dissent. "It's saying, 'You better not step out of line, you better not speak out,'" he said. "Why is he taking an approach that's a hundred times more harsh than anyone before?"

Others accuse Trutanich of acting from political motives, noting that he has flirted with a run for L.A. County district attorney — a motivation Trutanich denies.

The effect of his new approach can be seen in the prosecutions of those who took part in at least four demonstrations last year — including 10 people arrested at an August rally for laid-off janitors in Century City and 24 arrested at three protests against Arizona's controversial immigration bill, as well as the DREAM Act supporters.

At the May 20 rally for the passage of the DREAM Act, a bill that would have granted amnesty to illegal immigrants enrolled in college or serving in the military, nine people walked into the street in front of the Federal Building in Westwood, locked their hands together and sat down. They included recent graduates and current college students, one an honors student in her last year at UCLA, and a Navy veteran, Jonathan Bribiesca Ramirez.

The protest snarled rush-hour traffic on Wilshire Boulevard for hours. When police ordered the protesters to disperse, they refused. They were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and blocking the sidewalk or street — misdemeanors that carry a maximum sentence of up to one year in jail.

As he has in the other protest cases, Trutanich has denied city attorney hearings to the DREAM Act protesters. Their trials are set to begin in March.

In at least one other case, however, the city attorney's office has offered to dismiss charges against some members of a group of protesters, according to their attorney, Cynthia Anderson-Barker. That case involved five students at Cal State Northridge who marched against budget cuts as part of an apparently spontaneous protest. The university's provost, Harold Hellenbrand, wrote a letter to Trutanich asking that the charges be dismissed.

Felipe Plascencia, who along with several other attorneys from the Mexican American Bar Assn. is representing the students in the DREAM Act demonstration for free, said he was shocked to learn that Trutanich was pressing ahead with those cases, as well as Trutanich's suggestion that the protesters were "professionals."

"I have not seen any evidence of that whatsoever," Plascencia said. "These were college students trying to prove a point. It's an injustice for [the city attorney's office] to have dragged on for this long."

Protest, he said, is an American value and has long played a prominent role in L.A. city affairs. In 2006, some 500,000 people marched downtown to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration. "The whole foundation of this country was rebelling against an unjust system," he said.

Plascencia also heads the Mexican American Bar Assn. PAC, which supported Trutanich with endorsements and fundraising in his campaign for office. He has lobbied Trutanich to reduce or drop the charges against the DREAM Act protesters and says he hopes they will eventually be dismissed.

For now, however, the various protesters facing charges say their lives have been on hold. Garrick Ruiz, 34, is one of them. In May, he and 13 others locked their hands together outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in protest of Arizona's SB 1070, a measure that requires police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they stop and subsequently suspect may be in the country illegally.

"We knew we were doing something against the law and that we would have to go through the court system," Ruiz said. "That (Trutanich) has taken this path and sought this level of prosecution has been a shock."

This is not the first time Ruiz has been arrested for protesting. He was jailed for demonstrating at the Democratic National Convention in 2000 — and later saw his charges reduced to an infraction.

Last month, Ruiz and the group that staged the Arizona-law protest held a noisy demonstration outside Trutanich's City Hall office. They said his efforts will not deter them.

"If he thinks this is going to stop protest, then he doesn't understand why we did what we did," Ruiz said. "I had to do something, regardless of the personal cost."

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protester-prosecution-20110211,0,6707905,full.story

Todos Somos Arizona January Update

from comrades in Cali: Todos Somos Arizona

January 2011

Since Todos Somos Arizona was created in April 2010, upon the signing into law of Arizona’s SB 1070, we have been busy! Our goal has been to call attention and inspire resistance to laws such as SB 1070, and to call for an end to the criminalization of immigrants and communities of color. It is to these racist laws and policies that place a target on the backs of immigrants and people of color, that we say, “it is our moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

Check out these highlights:

• May 6, 2010: We organized a protest, where 14 people staged a sit-in in front of the Federal Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles blocking buses used for deportations from accessing the facility for several hours.
• July 18^, 2010: We convened a community town hall to educate each other on immigrant rights, histories of migration, current laws that legalize racial profiling and criminalize our communities.
• July 26th, 2020: Dozens of activists participate in banner drops protesting Arizona’s SB1070 and calling for an end to the criminalization of immigrant communities.
• July 29^, 2010: On the day SB 1070 took effect, 10 more people from our collective engaged in an act of civil disobedience at the Los Angeles headquarters of G4S/Wackenhut Corporation, a private prison and security corporation that lobbied for and stands to profit from SB 1070.

Since then, the 24 Todos Somos Arizona demonstrators along with many others struggling for social and economic justice in Los Angeles have become the targets of an unprecedented politicized prosecution by the Los Angeles City Attorney that seeks to criminalize dissent at a moment when dissent is most necessary. For their decision to stand peacefully for justice, they have been charged with multiple misdemeanors and threatened with the possibility of up to one year in jail. The charges and potential jail time in these cases are far more severe than anything faced by those who took similar actions in Santa Ana, Arizona, and elsewhere.

What does this mean? We have more work to do!

Todos Somos Arizona is organizing an action, in collaboration with the other local groups being targeted by the City for their acts of protest, to denounce this criminalization of dissent and continue to call for end to the criminalization of immigrant communities and communities of color!

PLEASE JOIN US!

WHAT: Street theater demonstration in front of City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich’s office

WHERE: City Hall East.

WHEN: January 18, 2011

TIME: 9:30 a.m.

And please stay tuned for upcoming Todos Somos Arizona events!

In Solidarity,

Todos Somos Arizona

Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz., says two men came to the city last year "talking about building a facility to hold women and children that were illegals."

Laura Sullivan/NPR

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.

"The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman."

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.

"They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate."

But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?

"They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said.

That's because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona's immigration law.

Behind-The-Scenes Effort To Draft, Pass The Law

The law is being challenged in the courts. But if it's upheld, it requires police to lock up anyone they stop who cannot show proof they entered the country legally.

When it was passed in April, it ignited a fire storm. Protesters chanted about racial profiling. Businesses threatened to boycott the state.

Supporters were equally passionate, calling it a bold positive step to curb illegal immigration.

But while the debate raged, few people were aware of how the law came about.

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, pictured here at Tea Party rally on Oct. 22, was instrumental in drafting the state's immigration law. He also sits on a American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) task force, a group that helped shape the law.

Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, pictured here at Tea Party rally on Oct. 22, was instrumental in drafting the state's immigration law. He also sits on a American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) task force, a group that helped shape the law.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce says the bill was his idea. He says it's not about prisons. It's about what's best for the country.

"Enough is enough," Pearce said in his office, sitting under a banner reading "Let Freedom Reign." "People need to focus on the cost of not enforcing our laws and securing our border. It is the Trojan horse destroying our country and a republic cannot survive as a lawless nation."

But instead of taking his idea to the Arizona statehouse floor, Pearce first took it to a hotel conference room.

It was last December at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. Insiders call it ALEC.

It's a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country.

It was there that Pearce's idea took shape.

"I did a presentation," Pearce said. "I went through the facts. I went through the impacts and they said, 'Yeah.'"

Drafting The Bill

The 50 or so people in the room included officials of the Corrections Corporation of America, according to two sources who were there.

Pearce and the Corrections Corporation of America have been coming to these meetings for years. Both have seats on one of several of ALEC's boards.

Key Players That Helped Draft Arizona's Immigration Law

Source: NPR News Investigations

Credit: Stephanie D'Otreppe/NPR

And this bill was an important one for the company. According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in "a significant portion of our revenues" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants.

In the conference room, the group decided they would turn the immigration idea into a model bill. They discussed and debated language. Then, they voted on it.

"There were no 'no' votes," Pearce said. "I never had one person speak up in objection to this model legislation."

Four months later, that model legislation became, almost word for word, Arizona's immigration law.

They even named it. They called it the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act."

"ALEC is the conservative, free-market orientated, limited-government group," said Michael Hough, who was staff director of the meeting.

Hough works for ALEC, but he's also running for state delegate in Maryland, and if elected says he plans to support a similar bill to Arizona's law.

Asked if the private companies usually get to write model bills for the legislators, Hough said, "Yeah, that's the way it's set up. It's a public-private partnership. We believe both sides, businesses and lawmakers should be at the same table, together."

Nothing about this is illegal. Pearce's immigration plan became a prospective bill and Pearce took it home to Arizona.

Campaign Donations

Pearce said he is not concerned that it could appear private prison companies have an opportunity to lobby for legislation at the ALEC meetings.

"I don't go there to meet with them," he said. "I go there to meet with other legislators."

Pearce may go there to meet with other legislators, but 200 private companies pay tens of thousands of dollars to meet with legislators like him.

As soon as Pearce's bill hit the Arizona statehouse floor in January, there were signs of ALEC's influence. Thirty-six co-sponsors jumped on, a number almost unheard of in the capitol. According to records obtained by NPR, two-thirds of them either went to that December meeting or are ALEC members.

That same week, the Corrections Corporation of America hired a powerful new lobbyist to work the capitol.

The prison company declined requests for an interview. In a statement, a spokesman said the Corrections Corporation of America, "unequivocally has not at any time lobbied — nor have we had any outside consultants lobby – on immigration law."

At the state Capitol, campaign donations started to appear.

Thirty of the 36 co-sponsors received donations over the next six months, from prison lobbyists or prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America, Management and Training Corporation and The Geo Group.

By April, the bill was on Gov. Jan Brewer's desk.

Brewer has her own connections to private prison companies. State lobbying records show two of her top advisers — her spokesman Paul Senseman and her campaign manager Chuck Coughlin — are former lobbyists for private prison companies. Brewer signed the bill — with the name of the legislation Pearce, the Corrections Corporation of America and the others in the Hyatt conference room came up with — in four days.

Brewer and her spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

In May, The Geo Group had a conference call with investors. When asked about the bill, company executives made light of it, asking, "Did they have some legislation on immigration?"

After company officials laughed, the company's president, Wayne Calabrese, cut in.

"This is Wayne," he said. "I can only believe the opportunities at the federal level are going to continue apace as a result of what's happening. Those people coming across the border and getting caught are going to have to be detained and that for me, at least I think, there's going to be enhanced opportunities for what we do."

Opportunities that prison companies helped create.

Produced by NPR's Anne Hawke.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741&sc=fb&cc=fp

Prison Industry Funnels Donations To State Lawmakers Introducing SB1070-Like Bills Around The Country

In December 2009, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a powerful front group that helps corporate representatives craft template legislation for state lawmakers, funded partially by the private prison industry — hosted Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce (R) and began debate on legislation that would provide broad powers to local police to arrest anyone who might look like an immigrant. ALEC then distributed the template legislation to its members. The January/February 2010 edition of ALEC’s magazine highlights the draft version of SB1070 — the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” — as model legislation.

In April of this year, Pearce then introduced ALEC’s template as the infamous SB1070 law. Notably, the ALEC task force which helped Pearce devise his racial profiling law included Laurie Shanblum, a lobbyist from the mega-private prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) which previously played a role in privatizing many of Texas’ prisons. An investigation from Arizona’s KPHO-TV found more ties between SB1070 and the private prison industry: Paul Senseman, Gov. Janet Brewer’s (R-AZ) deputy chief of staff was a former lobbyist for CCA (his wife is still a lobbyist for CCA) and Chuck Coughlin, Brewer’s campaign chairman, runs the lobbying firm in Arizona that represents CCA. In These Times reporter Beau Hodai, who also reported much of SB1070’s connections to the private prison industry, has a chart to explain the relationship.

CCA is set to receive well over $74 million in tax dollars in FY2010 for running immigration detention centers. In a presentation given earlier this year, Pershing Square Capital, a hedge fund with a large financial stake in CCA, suggested that CCA’s profitability depends on increasing numbers of immigrants sent to prison. Many of the legislators helping to earn CCA more profits with radical anti-immigrant bills mirroring SB1070 have been recipients of private prison industry cash or have worked closely with the CCA-funded ALEC organization:

– TENNESSEE: Earlier this year, legislators in Tennessee passed an immigration bill with provisions “similar to, but less harsh than, those of SB 1070, including requiring city and county jails in the state to report any person who may be in violation of immigration laws to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” But that wasn’t enough: right-wing local lawmakers also passed a resolution honoring Arizona’s SB1070, and a delegation of state lawmakers promised to introduce an anti-immigrant bill even “broader” than SB1070 in 2011. Many of the leading local lawmakers who voted for the anti-immigrant bill and resolution received thousands of dollars from CCA’s political action committee in the past two years, including State Reps. Gerald McCormick ($250), Barrett Rich ($500), Eric Watson ($250) and State Sens. Bill Ketron ($1,000), Jim Tracy ($500), Dolores Gresham ($1,000), Bo Watson ($500), and Jack Johnson ($500). Tracy, who sponsored the resolution honoring Arizona’s SB1070, also received $2,000 directly from CCA founder Tom Beasley, reports the Nashville City Paper. CCA retains five lobbyists in the state and spent at least $50,000 this year to lobby on immigration and other issues.

– OKLAHOMA: Rep. Mary Fallin (R-OK), who won her party’s nomination to run for governor this year, received the maximum donation permitted by law from CCA. State Rep. Randy Terrill (R-OK), who announced that he was planning an “Arizona-Plus” immigration bill that would be harsher than SB1070, is a proud member of the CCA-funded American Legislative Exchange Council.

– COLORADO: A group of Republican lawmakers in Colorado, after a research trip to Arizona this summer, have stated that they plan on passing a SB1070 law in Colorado next year. CCA’s lobbyists in Colorado have raised funds for many of the lawmakers in the group. CCA lobbyist Margy Christiansen raised $400 State Rep. Randy Baumgardner, one of the leaders of Colorado’s Arizona expedition, and CCA lobbyist Jason Dunn raised $150 for State Sen. Mike Kopp, the Republican minority leader who is promising to promote an SB1070 bill next session.

– FLORIDA: During the gubernatorial primary campaign between disgraced businessman Rick Scott and Attorney General Bill McCollum (R-FL), the prospect of importing Arizona’s SB1070 became a prominent issue in the race, with both candidates promising to bring a version of the law to the state. While many Florida Republicans recoiled at the idea, which stands to alienate many Hispanic voters, a cadre of state lawmakers and candidates for the state legislature, most funded by the prison industry, announced their support for an SB1070-type law. State Rep. Bill Snyder, who has received $500 from CCA, pledged to introduce a bill more draconian than SB1070. State House candidate Ben Albritton, another outspoken supporter of SB1070, took $500 from CCA, and State Rep. Joe Negron, who has been working with Snyder to sponsor the bill, received $1,000 from the Geo Group, another major private prison contractor which operates immigrant detention centers. Overall, the Republican Party of Florida has been the biggest recipient of prison industry cash in the past two years: $37,000 from CCA and $145,000 from the Geo Group.

– PENNSYLVANIA: In the Key State, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-PA) introduced the ALEC-drafted “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” one month before State Sen. Russell Pearce (R-AZ) introduced his version of the bill in Arizona. Metcalfe is a highly active member of ALEC. He was paid $1,500 by ALEC just to attend its meetings with CCA lobbyists on how to draft the law.

In Tennessee, the average daily number of immigration detainees sank to 40 in FY2009, down from 95 in FY2008. This may change with CCA’s aggressive lobbying for more laws encouraging aggressive arrests of immigrants or people who look like immigrants. Charles Maldonado, who has reported on CCA’s corrupting influence at the Nashville City Paper, notes that CCA may see new business at its West Tennessee Detention Facility with the passage of more SB1070-related laws.

ALEC, with funds from several private prison companies, helped sponsor “truth-in-sentencing” and “three-strikes-you’re-out” laws all over the country for the past two decades. These laws have greatly increased incarceration rates, and have contributed to America’s distinction of having the largest prison population in the world.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/16/sb1070-prison-lobby/

Los Angeles: Banner drops in solidarity with the struggle against SB 1070

SB1070: Will Be Stopped, but Worse Will Come from Feds

from Chaparral respects no borders

Here's my prediction about SB1070. It may or may not go into effect on July 29th, but I think it will be stopped in some way, probably by the federal government. Then the federal government will come up with some Comprehensive Immigration Reform that is as bad or worse than SB1070, but not as blatantly horrible. It will provide a few crumbs for certain folks- perhaps to buy off the some of ones with the most capacity to build resistance, but it will involve more border security and attrition through enforcement (with a new gentler formula). We are also possibly going to see a guest worker program and perhaps some sort of id that involves biometrics.

After Prop 187 in California passed it was found to be unconstitutional. Yet it was important historically because it set things in motion. In particular, the federal government passed welfare reform that instituted restrictions on welfare to immigrants that mirrored some of prop 187.

The excerpts at the end of this post, from Border lines blog discuss the reasons the federal approach to immigration is not likely to be much different from AZ's.

This is why I say This is bigger than SB1070. We have people coming to Arizona from out of town, doing this Arizona Freedom Summer (beware the RCP) and thirty actions in thirty days sorts of things, but need to be clear that SB 1070 is not the main issue here. People keep voting for Sheriff Joe and racist legislation- there need to be some efforts to change minds and/or undermine the strength of racism here. As I've mentioned before, if we don't look beyond the pieces of legislation and the bad sheriffs and the raids, the economic situation that so many face is overlooked. We also have a criminal "justice" system that seeks to criminalize people they see as a problem- particularly people of color, whether immigrants or not. In seeking to move immigration reform along, some folks think it's okay to further militarize the border even when it already harms the communities such as the O'odham down at the border.

For more reading on these topics (especially if you're new to these issues in AZ), see This is Bigger than SB 1070. Whether or not my prediction comes true, this is still bigger than the latest law. It was too big before.


From Border Lines blog:

It’s likely that SB 1070 will be judged, in whole or in part, as unconstitutional and will never be fully implemented. Even so the Arizona law marks another step forward in the consolidation of the attrition through enforcement strategy, just as its Legal Workers Act of 2008, which the courts have upheld, signaled the deepening dimensions of immigration law enforcement...

The Arizona law highlights a deepening conundrum for the federal government. By no means is DHS opposed on principle to having local law enforcement join in immigration enforcement. But it does insist that such cooperation be on the terms it sets. Having opened the door to federal-local cooperation, DHS is finding it hard to control the eagerness of localities to join in the immigrant crackdown...

With its Support Local Law Enforcement Act, Arizona not only adopted the “attrition through enforcement’ framework of the restrictionist institutes. It also adapted parts of the federal playbook for immigration enforcement: identifying new ways to increase what DHS calls “law enforcement partnerships” and extending the federal government’s own focus on the expanding category of “criminal aliens.”

Rather than waiting for DHS to reach out and expand its own federal-local collaborative programs, Arizona politicians have asserted the state’s right to enforce existing federal immigration laws. In the view of the supporters of the new law, the main problem they are attempting to address is not some inadequacy in federal immigration law. Rather it’s the failure of the federal agencies to adequately enforce the law...

The federal government has not explicitly endorsed ["attrition through enforcement"], but its actions are closely attuned with this restrictionist agenda.

Even as the White House and DHS continued to insist that only a CIR strategy will fix the broken immigration system, it has systematically moved to make it increasingly difficult for unauthorized immigrants (illegal border crossers and those overstaying their visas) and for legal immigrants who have violated criminal laws (mostly drug use) to live and work in the country. At the same time, DHS has steadily strengthened border control through increased checkpoints, increased agents, and increased border-control infrastructure...

The Obama administration has also proved an ardent advocate of increased federal-local cooperation in immigration enforcement. Among other things, it has strongly supported collaborative programs initiated by the Bush administration such as Operation Community Shield, Criminal Alien Program, Fugitive Operation Teams, Operation Stonegarden, Border Enforcement Security Taskforces (BEST), and the 287(g) program – all of which involve local police and sheriff deputies in the enforcement of immigration law.

In addition, the Obama administration has consolidated and promoted the Secure Communities program, which was developed under DHS Secretary Chertoff as a pilot project to encourage and facilitate the checking of the immigration status of all those arrested by local law enforcement. Secure Communities is advancing rapidly under Secretary Napolitano, who has prioritized the detention and removal of all those DHS and the Justice Department identity as “criminal aliens.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency responsible for immigration investigations and interior enforcement, has a special program to promote what its calls “law enforcement partnerships.” ICE Access (Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security) “provides local law enforcement agencies an opportunity to team up with ICE to combat specific challenges in their communities.”

Established in 2007, ICE Access underscores the increasing outreach of DHS to local law enforcement officials in immigration and other homeland security matters. The program supports “a multi-agency/multi/authority approach that encompasses federal, state, and local resources, skills, and expertise.”

Tucson: Anti-borders/SB 1070 banners dropped

On the morning of June 25, 2010 two banners were hung on the 22nd St. overpass for commuters heading NW on Aviation Parkway in Tucson, Az.

Chandler: Coalition asks city to oppose implementation of SB 1070

A group that calls itself Coalition for Immigration Reform - East Valley asked the Chandler City Council to pass a resolution opposing Senate Bill B1070 and vowed to take the campaign to Mesa, Tempe and Gilbert.

But after the council's brief response to their plea Thursday night, members said they were not hopeful that a resolution would ever come up for a vote.

"I didn't see any great openness on their faces. It's not in their political interest," said retired teacher and longtime Chandler resident Brian Barabe, who made the presentation.

SB 1070 takes effect July 29 and makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. Barabe argued that enforcement will be a financial burden. "Has the city calculated the losses to tax-paying constituents in terms of lost rentals, lost mortgage payments and lost sales in general as breadwinners are arrested or families flee the city out of fear of arrest," he asked the council.

Two other members of the group said even though they are longtime Chandler residents and U.S. citizens, their Hispanic heritage and appearance makes them fearful. "I still remember what happened in 1997; I was here," said Ana Cabrera.

Chandler drew widespread criticism for a roundup of suspected illegal immigrants in 1997. For four days police and federal agents set out to arrest undocumented immigrants in downtown neighborhoods, and they arrested 340. But some of those taken into custody were legal residents, and Hispanic community leaders were outraged. The city was sued and paid more than $500,000 in out-of-court settlements.

Raquel Leyva serves on a city commission but said she is worried what would happen to her adult mentally disabled son if he is confronted by police. He carries no identification and is fearful of strangers, she said.

After the three spoke, Mayor Boyd Dunn said Chandler will make certain the law is followed carefully and without racial profiling. Councilwoman Trinity Donovan encouraged them to meet with the city's Human Relations Commission. Neither addressed the request for a resolution.

Police Chief Sherry Kiyler told the speakers outside the meeting that officers would not engage in racial profiling and police departments across the Valley are working to understand the law and how to enforce it. "I think the fear is greater than the reality," she said.

Barabe said his organization is an informal group of about 30 longtime friends and many are supporters of local Latino arts and culture. They will appear before the other East Valley city councils and meet with municipal officials in coming weeks, arguing the economic bill's negative economic impacts, he said.

Barabe, a former high school Spanish and English teacher, questioned whether enough of the city's police officers can are fluent enough in Spanish to make arrests and read suspects their Miranda warnings.

"Have the city and police department calculated the human costs with an eye toward the distrust of police and damage to the spirit of cooperation with police in the Latino community that will result from enforcement of this law?" Barabe asked the council. "Has the police department been able to assure the council that racial profiling will not occur during traffic stops and criminal investigations?"

Earlier this month in Tempe an activist group pushed that city to defy the state's new immigration law, but municipal spokesman Nikki Ripley said the city will enforce the law when it goes into effect next month.

Refusing to enforce the state law could subject a city to lawsuits, said Paul Bender, an Arizona State University law professor.

Tolleson, Flagstaff, San Luis and Somerton have joined a lawsuit to block the bill from taking effect.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2010/06/25/20100625chandler-coalition-resolution-against-immigration-law.html

Phoenix: La Comunidad Resiste Contra SB 1070

Gathering + Demonstration

Games+Music (Haymarket Squares and Others to be announced!)+Speakers+Rally

Food Not Bombs will be providing things to fill your bellies!

Bring: Games, Beverages, Blankets, Chairs, Chairs, Instruments, Crafts, Art Supplies, Friends, Literature, Things for Shade, and anything else you might like!!

Date:	Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Time:	7:00pm - 11:30pm
Location:	Civic Space Park

Chuck D calls Jan Brewer 'a Hitler'

Public Enemy's Chuck D has released another song condemning Arizona nearly 20 years after the incendiary "By the Time I Get to Arizona," in which he blasted Gov. Evan Mecham as a racist "cracker" over his refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday.

The track, which starts off sampling "By the Time," as you may have guessed, is more concerned with the relative merits of SB 1070.

The track is called "Tear Down That Wall," and the rapper told Billboard he wrote it because "the governor is a Hitler," adding that "Tear Down That Wall" is "something that has its own life. It's not that you're doing anything to be opportunistic. I talked about the wall not only just dividing the U.S. and Mexico but the states of California, New Mexico and Texas. But Arizona, it's like, come on. Now they're going to enforce a law that talks about basically racial profiling."

SB 1070 makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

Chuck D has also issued a statement that reads, in part, "Jan Brewer's decision to sign the Arizona immigration bill into law is racist, deceitful, and reflects some of the most mean-spirited politics against immigrants that the country has ever seen. The power that this law gives to police, to detain people that they suspect to be undocumented, brings racial profiling to a new low. Brewer's actions and those of Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, the Arizona State Senate are despicable, inexcusable, and endorse the all-out hate campaign that Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, and others have perpetrated upon immigrants for years. The people of Arizona who voted for this bill, as well as those who crafted it, demonstrate no regard for the humanity or contributions of Latino people. And for all of those who have chosen not to speak up, shame on you for silently endorsing this legislated hate."

The track is currently available at slamjamz.com and will appear on his Chuck D solo effort at a later date.

Los Lobos, Hall and Oates, Conjunto Primavera, Cypress Hill and Pitbull are among the artists that have canceled Arizona shows in protest. Artists speaking out against the law include Shakira, Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana and members of Rage Against the Machine, who formed the Sound Strike, a coalition of musical artists opposed to the bill, including Kanye West, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Sonic Youth, Tenacious D., Joe Satriani, Cypress Hill, the Coup and Rise Against.

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2010/06/21/20100621chuckd-arizona-immigration-law-hitler.html

The Calm Before the Storm….An Anarchist Perspective on Challenging the Violence of SB 1070.

by survivalsolidarity

The Calm Before the Storm….An Anarchist Perspective on Challenging the Violence of SB 1070.

A flock of racists slowly approach us on the wing of Arizona’s future. They are prepared to land on occupied Akimel O’odham Pi-Posh land (Phoenix). Like vultures they circle above us waiting for SB 1070 to go into effect. Spectators throughout the world wait eyes to the sky, ear to the ground for them to land. Unfortunately no one has stepped up to shoot them outta the sky just yet.

However a few warning shots have been fired in the air by radicals, some of them being, the march of black flags that busted through the seams of Phoenix’s business district hurling news-boxes in the street, the lock-down inside the Tucson Border Patrol Headquarters and the revolutionizing of everyday day life in Tempe through door-to-door organizing and demanding that the city council take a stance on racism in the form of SB 1070. We do recognize that for outsiders looking in it may appear as though things are much quieter than they are. The silence has only been due to the amount of much needed attention, intention and passion being poured into our vision for long-term resistance within the places we love and fight for. We promise you that without a doubt, a storm of insurrection approaches.

For radicals within the many occupied territories of Arizona our past months have consisted of day-to-day pondering on how to respond to the casualties of the US/Mexico border (reported deaths usually surpass 200 and often sit just beneath 300). Our nights are filled with starlit walks that spill into chatters of resistance welcomed by the sunrise of another day we fight together. These talks are the culmination of years of planning for so many of us. We pick up where the anti-minutemen meetings in San Diego left off. We are the reawakening of the energy within the 2007 No Borders Camp and expanding it to be as large as the international No Borders Movement erupting in one place. The student walkouts and riots within the mid-2000’s in response to HR4437. Are you getting the idea yet? Regardless of how the state feeds it’s vultures with SB 1070 we plan to unfurl our attack and make them pay! Regardless.

The Recent Bills and State Lead Attacks Within Arizona

Many of us have witnessed SB1070 transforming into the heaviest of rains in a continuous downpour of state sponsored racism. It trickles down the same path of other oppressive laws such as HB 2008 (a bill limiting the benefits undocumented families can receive from the government) and HB 2281 (A bill that explicitly prohibits classes that “advocate ethnic solidarity”). The introduction of each of these laws continues the institutionalized attack on the safety and mental well being of families and communities throughout Arizona.

As anarchists we unabashedly oppose all laws. The reality of the interconnectedness of these laws to the further exploitation of people through institutionalized capitalism is a grim truth Anarchists have always known. We also hear the call for solidarity from those that are indigenous to this land. We answer it with urgency and vigor.

We aim for our attack to be one that could trump the negativity to follow the instituting of SB 1070. We strive for our messaging to rise into a clear non-rhetorical context; One that provides a way to connect the dots between actions and targets. With that in mind, we also recognize the need for our actions to uncover the exploitative nature of capitalism and colonization. Between the diminishing economy and the blinding spectatorial spotlight covering Arizona’s politics the time to attack has never seemed riper.

Pushing our ability to both critically and creatively develop actions that are inclusive and within an accessible social context is a must. The fear and disruption that Arizona is forcing onto peoples lives is unacceptable. It is also something that would not be hard to recreate and throw back into the states face. This should be a goal of those orchestrating responses to SB 1070.

A common shortcoming within a majority of popular North American anarchist organizing is the inability to connect our actions to larger community experiences. With Arizona attacking it’s people from so many socially disruptive angles we are provided with a monumental context for our actions to play into.

Taking a glance at a few of the recent ripples the state of Arizona have sent into peoples lives provides a little insight into our motives for yearning to disrupt the lives of those in power. In the first weeks of June 2010, in Tempe, AZ The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office raided Arizona Mills Mall. They separated shoppers from employees and according to one employee they were also flashin guns at people. An employee, told a television station,

“They show me the gun and tell me I have to walk to the freakin’ break room.”

Weeks later Arpiao’s sheriffs raided two restaurants that they have been investigating for more than a year. In a statement following the raid Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the following:

“This is another example of a case where desperately needed jobs are being occupied by illegal aliens who have disregarded our laws and our borders,”

These borders and the laws that accompany them establish an almost impossible amount of silent borders in the everyday life of those they target.

In the fields of California’s Central Valley, a wall is placed in the lives of the farm workers that are repeatedly sprayed with pesticides and can’t seek medical help due to the fear of their deportation. Within the maquiladoras of Central and Southern America the health risks that the workers face are literally life threatening. Women working at these factories have been exposed to such high amounts of chemicals at the workplace that they often experience difficulties when going into labor. Many of their children are born with extreme cases of birth defects. The same companies often fire women immediately after discovering women are pregnant. What is mentioned is barely a fraction of the violence these workers face. Due to the amount of loopholes in capitalism no one is ever held accountable for these fucked up conditions. When families are torn apart through raids and deportations they are literally separated and often from there main source of income. While living in a constant fear of deportation a barrier is literally placed on families between them and their communities. A news report from Rio Rico, AZ reported that About 70 parents usually attend monthly parent-teacher meetings at their Pena Blanca Elementary School. In April of 2010, at the last meeting of this school year, only 20 showed up.

Connecting Indigenous Resistance and Addressing Colonization

“One of the central messages of colonization is the assertion that we are not entitled to autonomy over our own bodies—they are simply machines to be used in sweatshops, prisons and farms. Devoid of our own self-determination regarding sexuality and gender, we are as disposable as any other piece of equipment that has lost its use.” —Trishala Deb and Rafael Mutis of the Audre Lorde Project Conquest By Andrea Smith

Addressing the militarization of the O’odham border has become one of Arizona Anarchists main focuses this year. From the forming of the Diné, O’odham, anarchist/anti-authoritarian Bloc, to the recent Border Patrol lock-down we refuse to allow the invisibleness of Indigenous issue to continue. As you read this you can know for sure that there is a BP officer on the Tohono O’odham reservation looking for someone or something to target. The Tohono O’odham often have their houses raided by masked BP and homeland security agents. BP harasses elders travelling to sacred ceremonies and school children going to class; they steal the O’odhams horses and have even recently killed an O’odham youth. One of the most appalling facts that cease to see the light of day is how the building of the border literally dug up the bodies of O’odham ancestors. All this recent colonization comes on the back of 500+ years of Indigenous people being under attack. We say fuck that! It’s time to attack.

Reflecting on the Zapatistas struggle to the south of us we see one of the most obvious places to attack; that being any of the larger systems of infrastructure. Everyday, the results of NAFTA and “Free” Trade are felt in the bones of the people affected most by those policies.

“And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For them there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization are simply a question of relative strength.”
— Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth)

Borders are strung together through intricate webs of capitalism. Their purpose, to protect capital. That is why attacking everything that resembles capital to those in power is an obvious target. The racist legislation we are up against is part of the same stranglehold that capitalism strong-arms people with all across the world. The unapologetic rate of Arizona’s—current institutionalized racism is still a bit alarming. Connecting the current state-sponsored abuse, international colonization and flexing of white supremacy based policies and that of similar occurrences within the recent past provides a clearer picture of our enemy rises.

We see the violence of the state suffocating our communities. We prepare today for the fights of years to come!

“The government has failed us you can’t deny that!” “Stop singin and start swingin!”

—Malcom X

Local couple encourages protest against Arizona's immigration law with $10,000 song contest

by Brian New / KENS 5

Posted on June 8, 2010 at 5:41 PM

Tired of what he said is the inexcusable silence of San Antonio leaders, local advocate Paul Ruiz is putting up $10,000 of his own money for those willing to speak-put against Arizona’s new immigration law.

Ruiz and his wife, Margaret Ruiz, called on local artists Tuesday to write and produce an original song protesting Arizona’s law. The San Antonio couple will be awarding $10,000 to the best songs.

Ruiz said he’s been bothered by the silence in San Antonio on this issue.

“Why such silence in San Antonio?" he said. “We had less than 500 show-up in Milam Park (for a protest) in a city of more than a half of a million Chicanos. Explain that to me."

Ruiz said, with the exception of Police Chief William McManus and Mayor Julian Castro, few local leaders have spoken-out publicly against the law.

"We found it incomprehensible that the council hasn't spoken out,” he said. “We found the business community not speaking out. We found the priests and the minister not speaking out."

Ruiz made the announcement about the singing competition Tuesday at the Guadalupe Theater with more than a dozen local and international performing artists on hand, including Tejano star Little Joe.

For more information on the contest contact Ruiz at margaret-ruiz@sbcglobal.net.

Protesters chain themselves at Santa Ana federal building to protest Arizona law

LA Times

Eight people who chained themselves together outside the federal building in Santa Ana were arrested during a noisy noontime protest Thursday.

The protesters, most of whom dispersed after police shut down Santa Ana Boulevard, had gathered to protest Arizona’s recent immigration legislation and to call on Santa Ana to declare itself a sanctuary city.

Eight of the protesters had chained themselves together with lock boxes and stood at the driveway of the federal detention center.

“We want an end to racist anti-migrant laws,” said Anna Vilchis, 22, a recent UC Berkeley graduate who lives in Santa Ana. “Undocumented people are human beings, we’re not criminals.”

Police successfully dispersed dozens of protesters who were standing in the area and at noon had given a final warning to the chained protesters to disperse before beginning arrests, said police spokesman Anthony Bertagna.

Bertagna said those arrested were taken to the city jail and will be cited and released. He said the protesters did not advise police about the protest, making it difficult for them to prepare. "This type of event drains our resources," he said.

The protesters said they were part of a loosely affiliated group calling itself “We are Arizona.”

-- Paloma Esquivel from Santa Ana

UFW Will Challenge Arizona Officers

KCBA

Salinas, Calif.- United Farm Worker leaders are saying no to SB1070. They say it is racist and it targets Latinos unfairly.

" Here are all my documents. We leave with nothing, "said Efren Barajas the Vice President of UFW. Barajas and board members may return to the Central Coast with a criminal record. " We won't take licenses, citizenship and green cards,"said Barajas.

The group is joining protestors from across California, Texas, Oregon and Washington State on July 29. They're challenging police in Arizona to arrest them when the new immigration law starts next month. " Challenge Arizona police to arrest us for being Latinos, for being suspicious and not having documents,"said Barajas.

If police stop them for any reason and suspect they're in the country illegally,officers can ask about their immigration status. If they can't provide documents, they go to jail. " I'm pretty sure this is going to make an impact. Its one of the first steps in order to get immigration reform,"said Sergio Guzman.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department said it's training deputies to spot illegal immigrants. And will prove the new law does not encourage racial profiling.

Anarchists attack ICE facility in Loveland, Colorado

ICE Facility Attacked in Loveland

Over the weekend of the 15th of May, an ICE field office in Loveland, Colorado was attacked. Every window and door was shattered, totaling around twelve panes in all.

The unmarked facility is one of many such hidden ICE buildings in the U.S. that attempt to operate in secrecy. One tactic used by ICE to maintain this secrecy is to take people from their homes in the middle of the night to be "processed" before taken to privately-owned ICE prisons.

By operating in secrecy, ICE is able to maintain this particular sub-station within a shopping and residential district without revealing the repression used to create and sustain borders.

This action was taken in the climate typified by SB1070 in Arizona and local anti-immigrant sentiment. However, the ICE office would have been targeted regardless of legislation.

Resistance and attacks against manifestations of borders, prison and power will continue as long as families are separated and people are imprisoned, deported, and harassed.

As others have said-

NO DEPORTATIONS!!! NO BORDERS!!

Solidarity means attack,
some anarchists

Anti-SB 1070 Demonstration Rocks Phoenix, Marchers Number in the Tens of Thousands

El Diablo, Joe Arpaio, and Jan Brewer torture a migrant

Despite threats of disruption from extremist elements, Saturday's anti-SB 1070 demonstration produced a diverse, spirited crowd of anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 that walked some five miles to the Arizona state Capitol without incident.

The Phoenix PD made no arrests, and there was no clash between anarchists and cops, as there was back in January for a large anti-Arpaio march. This demonstration dwarfed that one many times over.

Pretty much says it all...

Phoenix police officers I spoke with estimated the crowd at 25,000 to 30,000 coming out of Steele Indian School Park, where it began. Organizers put the final number at 100,000, and though I usually err on the side of conservative crowd estimates, in this case after looking at aerial shots of the marchers, I'm inclined to think the organizers were closer to the mark.

After zigzagging its way down Third Street and Central Avenue, the crowd made its way west on Washington Street, ending at the Capitol where various speakers and performing acts ascended a massive stage set directly before the old Capitol building, with its copper dome and Winged Victory weather vane.

Attendees were looking for victory of another sort -- victory over Arizona's new "papers please" legislation, signed into law last month by Governor Jan Brewer.

As former state Senate majority leader Alfredo Gutierrez pointed out, the demonstration was more a pep rally than anything for the "Freedom Summer" that groups inside and outside of Arizona are planning -- a campaign aimed at registering new voters and organizing the Hispanic community.

He ain't El Santo, but he'll do

"This is about preaching to the choir," Gutierrez admitted. "We're not protesting anything. People are having one hell of a great time, except for a few people who had a bad upbringing."

Some of those "few" were represented by Mesa neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, who took up a position with a fellow white supremacist across from the crowd, bearing giant Confederate and American flags and sidearms, of course. Ready was protected by a cordon of cops, and was watched over by several observers from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Neo-Nazi J.T. Ready (right) gets into it with a Native American as a DOJ observer looks on

Ready got into arguments with a few folks while praising Adolf Hitler as a great "white civil rights" leader. But he was unable to provoke anyone, despite one hot moment with a young Native American man, whom he insulted repeatedly and told to go dance around naked, stuff like that. A friend of the man soon came by and pulled him away.

I asked Ready about photos I'd seen recently on the Web site of Maricopa, Arizona neo-Nazi Harry Hughes -- ones of Ready and Hughes in camouflage, on "patrol" in the desert for illegal aliens, armed with assault rifles.

I couldn't help but ask: Had Ready ever shot at or killed anyone while on such a patrol? After all, there's been other footage of him down on the border with heavy firepower.

Also, Ready was court-martialed twice, drummed out of the Marines, and has a criminal record. He once shot at an illegal immigrant in 2006. This, while Ready was running for Mesa City Council. The other guy was armed with a BB gun, Ready with a .38. Neither man was injured, though the illegal immigrant was arrested. Hardly seems fair.

Say it loud, and then get thyself to the voting booth

Ready answered my question cryptically, saying, "I can neither confirm or deny the statement." When I pressed him, telling him that was an odd way of answering such a query, he simply repeated himself.

Interestingly, both Harry Hughes and fellow neo-Nazi Scott Hume attended the pro-SB 1070 rally at Tempe's Diablo Stadium later the same day. (You can read more about Scott Hume, here.) Neo-Nazis at a pro-SB 1070 bash? Man, those nativists are full of surprises.

Nearby Ready, a little street theater ensued, with a quartet decked out as El Diablo, Joe Arpaio, Jan Brewer, and a Mexican guy in handcuffs. El Diablo hailed Ready as a comrade.

"I'm with you guys," he told Ready and the other white supremacist."You're my man!"

Then he turned to "Brewer," nearly salivating. "Look at my baby girl right here," he said as she primped herself. They then proceeded to torture the Mexican dude who was on his knees in cuffs.

"What don't you understand about illegal?" wondered El Diablo. "I drew the line in the sand. I'm the one that creates the border. I'm the one that enforces the law."

Crude, but funny, in a Punch and Judy sort of way.

Over on the stage, the bill lacked the big names of previous marches and rallies. There was no Zack de la Rocha this time. No Linda Ronstadt. And Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez didn't show as planned. Nor did any Arizona Congressmen make appearances.

Instead, the big draw was Mexican-American recording artist Jenni Rivera, who was much beloved by the crowd. She pretty much summed up the law and its supporters at one point.

Songstress Jenni Rivera on pro-1070 types: "They're haters, baby."

"What this law is trying to do is not only trying to separate families," she told the audience. "They're trying to discriminate, to single us out. They're haters, baby."

You got that right, Jenni. Big-time haters.

Rivera's show actually concluded the program. But there were a string of others on the mic before she closed things out. Hip-hop artist Olmeca gave a fiery performance. And there were numerous speakers, including Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who received one of the friendliest receptions, leading the crowd in chants of "Si, se puede!"

"Let's call out to the [U.S.] Attorney General and the President of the United States," he said, "to please come to and file that lawsuit to stop this law now. Let your voices be heard!"

Nice contrast to state AG Terry Goddard, who on Friday said he would "vigorously defend" the law if the feds seek an injunction to keep the law from going into effect.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called on the President to protect the civil rights of all Arizonans, and for Congress to pass immigration reform immediately.

The view from the stage on Saturday...

He also spoke of union solidarity with immigrant workers.

"In the labor movement we only really ask one question of anyone," he said. "That question is not where are your papers, that question is what side are you on?"

Tohono O'odham tribal member Mike Wilson, whom I wrote about earlier this year in my cover story "Blood's Thicker Than Water," had a great line about SB 1070.

"Racial profiling did not start last month," he told everyone. "Racial profiling began in 1492."

Wilson also attacked the O'odham Nation itself for being anti-immigrant.

"I am embarrassed to say that my own Tohono O'odham Nation is not a friend of the immigrant," he intoned, adding, "Forty-two percent of all Latino migrant deaths are on the nation. [Fellow humanitarian and tribal member] David Garcia and I put out water on the nation so that the migrants do not die.

"And yet the Tohono O'odham government removes, destroys or confiscates my water stations."

Not surprisingly, the most invigorating speech came from Pastor Warren Stewart of the First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix, who has spoken at previous rallies and has been working tirelessly to unify the African-American and Hispanic communities over this issue.

As if addressing his congregants, he told the marchers, "We will not let our enemies turn back the clock to a day when we were judged by the color of our skin, and not the content of our character."

He received thunderous applause when he informed the crowd that, "God is on our side as we fight for justice, liberty, equality for all people regardless of their color, and regardless of their country, regardless of their language.

"President Obama, hear us from Arizona. God put you in the White House, you are a person of color, stand with us!"

With that kind of oratory, Stewart could almost turn this atheist into a believer. Almost.

Still, even if it isn't a divine presence, there is something on the side of the anti-SB 1070 folks: History. Despite the efforts of the nativists and the haters to divide and Balkanize the country, the trend in America is toward inclusiveness and diversity. That's why the haters are almost all white, and the anti-SB 1070 campaign is a patchwork quilt of colors, ages, faiths, and ethnicities.

In other words, the army of hate is outnumbered and destined to lose. This will not happen without struggle and disappointments. And it will not happen overnight. But the pro-SB 1070 extremists have a date with history's dustbin, just like the segregationists, slave owners, and apartheid-supporters of old.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/05/anti-sb_1070_demonstration_roc.php