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

This is the text of a leaflet against proposed anti-immigration legislation in Indiana. The leaflet was found somewhere but it is unclear how it got there or who wrote it.

UnDeveloping Controls: States of Internment and Humanity at the Crossroads

“We want the rule of law restored.” –Indiana Senator Mike Delph, author of anti-immigration Senate Bill 590

There is no homeland or nation at the crossroads, just spaces of flight that intersect. The misery of the modern world finds expression in the ongoing flows of global exodus. A population on-the-run is objectified for segregation. So the rule of law restores itself through an elaboration of lies. Race is an old lie, developed in the earliest days of established authority to divide and enslave. “Illegal alien” is a crude maneuver of the political machinery as it wets its appetite for another racialized scapegoat, to obscure the ineptitude and coercion of a dictatorial market, or to avert a rebellion from developing in its place.

In the halls of the politicians’ assembly, legislative measures are developed to further the management of internal populations, to expel some while caging others. “Reasonable suspicion” is a cloak for racist assumptions in the application of the rule of law. The undocumented immigrant faces a perilous journey to escape war, poverty, misery, and persecution only to find the American Dream gasping in democracy’s concentration camps. Precarity wears the mask of normalcy as it circumscribes individual and social possibility.

The rule of law is an elaboration of lies, giving reason to a system of authority and money that progresses without apparent end. There are no outsiders, just nations and states, lives lived in exile or escape. Democracy promises us an enlightened freedom and delivers us to atomized existences fed from the trough of mass production and consumption. The competition of the market is a starvation internalized, provoking another exodus of the will for human solidarity and mutual sustenance.

The citizen differs from the undocumented immigrant only by the manufacture of division: national identity and identification, the political unity of consensus and conformity. Nation-states are evolved strategies of social control through which hierarchy assumes power over fixed territory. Borders are the spatial demarcations of confinement and expulsion, lies in the sand, future ruins of the current crisis of disempowerment and economized distrust. A world of classes, borders, and armed guards is a humanity interned by state violence and deception.

Solidarity is borderless and holds human division in contempt. We are all strangers in a world of identity checks, private property, and states of internment. The ‘path of least resistance’ conceals the brevity of authority’s ascendancy. From the crossroads of shared experience, humanity learns from false freedom and life-as-repression: liberation is an elaboration of rebellion. Rebellion is liberation from control.

Oppose SB 590 and the state’s rule of laws! Our humanity will not be divided into competition, containment, and the fictions of race. Solidarity to those without papers! Abolish all states and dismantle the borders!

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

Australia: Solidarity actions with the Villawood detainees

This is one reportback about a series of actions that took place in various parts of Sydney today in solidarity with the detainees at Villawood detention center - who were occupying the roof there in an act of defiance at their own incarceration and out of respect for Josefa Rauluni who had committed suicide there yesterday morning.

Today afternoon a group occupied the foyer of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIC) and locked themselves to the front counter. This action was undertaken with the direct purpose that it could affect the outcome of the protest taken by detainees at Villawood who were saying they would be forced to jump from the roof if no-one from DIC would speak to them regarding their cases. By occupying and refusing to leave the DIC office we intended to apply some more force upon these faceless officials to actually respond to the desperation of those occupying the roof.

The action was also taken because it had become clear that the militancy of those incarcerated within these detention centers was far outstripping that of anyone outside. We hoped to raise the level of solidarity with those inside beyond passively pleading to some higher authority to be 'more humane'.

After gaining entry and occupying, the group asserted they would not leave until things were sorted out on the roof at Villawood. Management at DIC refused to accept any responsibility for the situation there, typically trying to pass the buck like the faceless bureaucrats they are. Eventually they expectedly passed the buck right on to the police, who were happy to threaten all with arrest.

Inspite of the intimidation tactics of the police, stalling tactics allowed the protesters to stay in a fair bit longer. All the while, we were in contact with those on the roof at Villawood, expressing our solidarity and finding out how they thought negotiations were going. By the time police rescue arrived to cut free those locked on at DIC it was becoming clear that there was a chance of a resolution out at Villawood that was at least satifactory enough to make the detainees on the roof not jump off.

By this point however, the police were determined to harass, intimidate and make arrests and so 2 of the protesters inside DIC were arrested and held for a number of hours and charged with trespass. A number of people gathered outside the police station where those arrested were being held in an act of defiance and solidarity. Due to further police provocation and harassment a further arrest was made at this stage.

In solidarity with all those incarcerated in prisons, detention centers or whatever name they are given we scream...
"Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons."

The Villawood detainees that had occupied the roof eventually came off not because of any discussions with the pathetic officials from the Immigration Department, but because of some significant, but only intermediary assurances from UNHCR.

It is also worth pointing out there were 2 other equally significant actions undertaken in solidarity with those on the roof today. One involved a few hundred people heading out to Villawood so that they could be visible and heard by detainees in a strong and direct show of support. The other was the taking over of a public square in Newtown by 30 or so people who hung banners and handed out flyers during peak hour.

The following is a text that was being distributed by those who were involved in the occupation at DIC...

Solidarity with Villawood Detainees

“It has come to this because we have seen life lost and we believe we have to do this in order to protect our lives” – detainees in Villawood

Early yesterday morning, Josefa Rauluni committed suicide in Villawood detention center. He was to be deported that day. This death rests in the hands of Australia’s paranoid and racist border policy.

Other detainees immediately responded to show respect for Josefa and express their anger at their own detention. 11 people have occupied the roof of Villawood and many more have been on hunger strike for over 20 hours.

The events of yesterday demonstrate the desperate situation in the detention centres and the brutality that underpins border control. Deportations and invisible queues have claimed more lives than we will ever know. The experience of living under this oppression cannot be measured.

The rooftop protest of several detainees is part of a growing militancy amongst those incarcerated in detention centres. In the past months we’ve seen hunger strikes, breakouts, roof occupations and self harm. The present protest in Villawood is an expression of rage by people whose control over their own lives has been taken away by the Australian Government. It acutely expresses how fortress Australia takes lives.

Yesterday there were protests on both sides of the fences in Villawood. We must continue to take action in solidarity with the struggles occurring from within the detention centres. Our actions must reflect the urgency of the situation as the government amps up its racist, anti-migrant rhetoric and implements harsher policies that cost people’s lives.

We struggle against the policing of peoples movement and micro-control of peoples lives at the borders (and in detention) not because of humanitarian concern, but because their struggle is also ours. We have more in common with these people than with the bosses and the politicians who make the decisions that affect all our lives.

We struggle against all borders because no death as a result of border protection brings us more freedom.

We tear down all cages because peoples’ desire to move will never be caged.

http://indymedia.org.au/2010/09/22/solidarity-actions-with-the-villawood-detainees

BOAF Art Auction

Join us for an excessively fun time. The Boxing Gym(no, it's not a boxing gym anymore) is located in Barrio Anita near the Southwest corner of I-10 and Speedway Blvd. Check out the Art page to see some of the art that's already come in.

Border Opposition Action Fund: Call to Artists!

BOAF is hosting an Art Auction on Saturday, Oct. 9. Details of the event will be posted soon. Money raised at this event will go to O'odham VOICE Against the Wall, O'odham Solidarity Across Borders and those who locked down at the Border Patrol Headquarters in Tucson, Az in May. The basics of art submissions are as follows.
Any medium is welcome.
Content does not have to be border related.
We are asking for submissions or their photos by Fri., Sept. 24. Photos with artist information will be posted.
We are asking for submissions by Fri., Oct 1.

33 charged with blocking L.A. city streets during immigration protests

Los Angeles prosecutors have charged 33 immigration activists with a variety of misdemeanor crimes related to three protests beginning in May that blocked city streets.

The protesters face charges, such as remaining at an unlawful assembly, resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer and blocking the sidewalk or street.

Those facing resisting-arrest charges face up to year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted. Those charged with unlawful assembly face up to six months in jail if found guilty, a spokesman for the city attorney's office said.

In the first incident May 6, eight women and six men participated in a protest against the new Arizona immigration law by blocking an intersection near the federal courthouse on Alameda Street with their hands locked together inside tube devices.

Prosecutors claim it took officers several hours to remove the protesters, who are to be arraigned Sept. 22.

Later in the month, California Highway Patrol officers arrested nine immigration protesters in front of the West Los Angeles Federal Building. The suspects sat in the street, locking their hands together and causing a massive traffic jam for several blocks.

On July 29, protesters blocked the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Highland Avenue by putting their hands together in a locking device and refusing to move.

Officers had to physically carry the demonstrators and used specialized equipment to remove the elaborate tube and chain locking systems connecting the protesters' arms.

-- Richard Winton

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/33-charged-with-blocking-la-city-streets-during-immigration-protests.html

Demonstrators use noise to break down barriers; anarchist march held at County Jail in solidarity with prisoners

SANTA CRUZ - A group of about 40 people stood behind the County Jail for more than an hour Friday night banging on large drums, empty water jugs and other noise makers in a demonstration to show support for prisoners in jail "with or without papers."

Around 6:30 p.m., the group of self-proclaimed anarchists and their supporters marched from San Lorenzo Park to the County Jail in protest of ICE's presence in Santa Cruz and the controversial federal program that checks the immigration status of anyone booked on criminal charges set to launch at the County Jail on Tuesday.

As many as eight sheriff's deputies stood on the jail roof to monitor and film the protesters, but did not interfere with the protest.

The event had a personal connection for Watsonville resident Nayeli Gil, who said she watched a cooperative effort between police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest and deport her undocumented brother seven days ago.

Gil, who was born in Tijuana, said living in the U.S. has delivered an opportunity for a higher education for her. She said her brother was trying better himself as well.

"What they are doing is disrespecting people's rights; it's rude and unfair," Gil said. "It's frustrating. He was trying to work for his family. They're making our lives miserable."

The noise drew neighbors outside to the street to investigate. Many stood on the sidewalk and watched.

"I'm over it, I think immigration should be here; this is getting outrageous," said Blaine Street resident Frankie Daly. "There is too much gang violence in Santa Cruz. This is a beach town, not a gang town."

Visiting Santa Cruz from Florida, Paula Lalinde said the demonstration was impressive.

"It's a creative way to deliver their message," Lalinde said. "There is something very basic about it and natural, using [noise] to stand up for basic human rights. It breaks through the walls."

Neighbors who had questions about the noise were handed a pamphlet put together by "some local anarchists."

"Despite our racial, cultural and class divides, all who are persecuted and marginalized by the law have some common cause," the flier read. "Those of us who aren't directly affected by ICE should do whatever is in our power to resist and show solidarity with affected individuals and communities. But what we need isn't immigration reform, it's the destruction of all borders and detention centers.

"The first step is kicking ICE out of Santa Cruz, but this isn't the end."

The flier also points the finger at the media and neighborhood organizations for an increased awareness of crime in the city and efforts aimed at increased police presence.

Around 8 p.m., protestors marched down the street and dispersed quietly.

Jail Commander Lt. Bob Pursley said there is always a concern when the focus of a protest is the jail and internal security measures were put in place, although he would not say what those were.

"We're happy it ended the way it did," Pursley said. "They were able to get their point out and did it in a peaceful manner, which is always a good thing.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15697532

"UA Against SB1070" asks the Regents to take a stand

Glen Grunberger and Daniela Ugaz from UA Against SB1070 addressed the Arizona Board of Regents today during the call to the public.

The grad students both urged the board to take a stand against SB1070.

Ugaz said the regents should publicly decry SB1070 to promise to students that they stand for diversity.

Grunberger said that fear, hatred and devisiveness are at the root of the law, and said those are contrary to university ideals of free expression, free thought and diversity.

If that didn't get a rise out of them, he added: "This state has become a net importer of Nazis."

Update at 5pm:

Regents chairwoman Anne Mariucci said she thinks SB1070 is worthy of discussion and public comment by the regents, and she said the topic could be on a future regents agenda.

http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/campus-correspondent/article_dc34a69e-a0d2-11df-96bb-001cc4c002e0.html

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

Costa Mesa action against the "Rule of Law"

June 15, 2010 — The City of Costa Mesa passed a resolution labeling itself a "Rule of Law City" against the undocumented immigrants! Costa Mesa has declared war on our community! The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has provided the city an ICE agent in their local jail to deport anyone without the "proper documentation". How can we help the police if we don't trust them? Our families will be torn apart and we cannot let that happen! The city has no jurisdiction on laws related to immigration, but yet the City Council has made of its city a smaller version of Arizona with the same harmful consequences on the people of Costa Mesa! *** This protest was organized by the people of Costa Mesa

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

MAY 29th: MARCH ON FORT SNELLING!

Dakota People and Allies relaunch the Take Down the Fort Campaign in response to the racist celebration and re-inactment of genocidal actions, and the 2010 proposed multi-million dollar renovation plans on a replica of what used to be Fort Snelling. Modeled after its 1820s condition, Fort Snelling was rebuilt after it was declared a historical landmark. The replica is crumbling and the Minnesota Historical Society wants Minnesota tax-payers to foot the $6.7 million bill to rebuild the structure at a time when state social services and education system are on the chopping block.

May 29th is the National Day of Action Against SB1070
In response to Arizona’s newly adopted anti-immigration legislation that promotes racial profiling and collective punishment by mandating law enforcement officers to check the citizenship of anyone who looks “suspicious”. A bill nearly identical to SB1070 was recently introduced in Minnesota by a Republican Representative and co-signed by five members of the House.

Immigrants and Allies to Kick Off Boycott Arizona – Minnesota! (BAM!)
An alliance of Minnesota immigrants and their allies are launching a campaign to Repeal SB1070 by encouraging individuals, organizations, and businesses to boycott Arizona, and to show the right wing extremists that we will not tolerate hateful Arizona style laws here in Minnesota.

VISIT THE MAY 29 TAKE DOWN THE FORT PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

TAKE DOWN THE FORT CAMPAIGN

"Papers Please," new anti-SB1070 track by Talib Kweli

Activists protest Arizona law as Napolitano speaks at Pomona College

LA Times

A few hundred immigration activists descended Sunday on Pomona College to protest Arizona's controversial anti-illegal immigration law and the policies of commencement speaker Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Demonstrators said Napolitano has continued to expand immigration programs that they say were precursors to Arizona's law, which requires police officers to check the immigration status of anybody they stop and suspect may be here illegally.

Among those policies are the 287(g) program, which allows local police officers to enforce federal immigration law, and Secure Communities, which enables law enforcement officers to cross-check the criminal history and immigration status of people they arrest. Both programs operate under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"Brothers and sisters, although we are seeking to stop the type of enforcement and racial profiling policies that are being carried out in Arizona, the reality is that some of those policies are here in our backyard," Jose Calderon, professor of sociology and Chicano studies at Pitzer College, told the crowd.

Department of Homeland Security officials did not return calls for comment Sunday.

Organizers said they do not oppose the deportation of dangerous criminals but said immigrants who have committed minor offenses and U.S. citizens have been wrongly deported.

"Rather then putting an end to these discriminatory policies, Napolitano has called for these programs, especially Secure Communities, to be expanded to every city across the nation by 2013," Calderon added.

The two-mile march and rally were organized by the May 16 Coalition, a group made up of students, union and immigrant workers, professors, community leaders and local groups based in the Inland Valley region. As demonstrators marched, they were applauded and given the thumbs up by honking drivers.

Just several yards from where the commencement ceremony was taking place, the crowd began chants, including " Obama escucha, estamos en la lucha!" (Obama listen, we're in a struggle). Demonstrators banged on drums and waved signs that read Alto Az (Stop Arizona) and No mas racista (No more racism).

Across the street, about a dozen silent counter protesters held American flags and signs supporting Arizona.

Those attending the commencement ceremony said they could hear the crowd but still were able to hear Napolitano speak. Luisa Towne, 55, whose husband received an honorary doctorate, said she didn't mind the demonstration.

"That's what you're supposed to do, you get loud and you let government officials know there's a problem here," Towne said.

Minutes after Napolitano spoke, demonstrators marched to a nearby park, where they held a rally.

"I'm pretty sure [Napolitano] heard our message," said Eddie Gonzalez, a representative with the Inland Empire Day Laborer Congress.

Calderon added, "Even if she didn't hear us, we wanted the parents and the community to hear us, and they did."

ruben.vives@latimes.com

Dozens protest Lakers coach Phil Jackson's comments on Arizona immigration law

LA Times

Several dozen protesters waving signs and American flags demonstrated outside Staples Center before Monday’s Lakers-Phoenix Suns game, calling on Lakers coach Phil Jackson to denounce Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law.

Among those at Monday’s protest were 15 Los Angeles High School students brought by their teacher, Rodney Lusain. He teaches history to 10th- and 11-graders and said his classes are currently studying immigration and protest. Lusain said he wanted to bring his students to the demonstration “so they get to see the power of protest.”

Jackson, responding to criticism for his comments about Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration, released a statement Monday saying he has “respect” for those who are opposing the law.

“I’ve been involved in a number of progressive political issues over the years and I support those who stand up for their beliefs. It is what makes this country great,” he said in his statement.

“I have respect for those who oppose the new Arizona immigration law, but I am wary of putting entire sports organizations in the middle of political controversies. This was the message of my statement. I know others feel differently, even in the Lakers organization, but it was a personal statement. In this regard, it is my wish that this statement not be used by either side to rally activists.”

Sparking the furor are remarks made by Jackson to ESPN.com columnist J.A. Adande in which the Lakers coach seems to back the Arizona law, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration papers and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally.

“Am I crazy, or am I the only one that heard [the Legislature] say, ‘We just took the United States immigration law and adopted it to our state?’ ” Jackson said of the Arizona statute.

The Lakers coach then disputed the columnist’s assertion that the Arizona Legislature had “usurped” federal immigration law -- an allegation widely made by critics who say the law could lead to racial profiling of Latinos.

Supporters say the state law complements federal statutes and deny any intent to target Latinos.

“It’s not usurping” federal law, Jackson replied, adding that the Arizona lawmakers “gave it some teeth to be able to enforce it.”

Jackson, long known as a free spirit who in Adande’s words “has showed lefty leanings in the past,” also seems to chastise the Suns’ management for its criticism of the Arizona law.

--Robert J. Lopez at Staples Center and Patrick J. McDonnell

Tucson: Indigenous peoples against SB1070 & HB2281

Lakers fans prepare for Western conference finals by calling out coach Phil Jackson's support of SB1070

Go Suns!

Toki Wright - By The Time I Get To Arizona 2010