As I'm sure you would have guessed, Arizona's new law mandating that police enforce US law and determine whether their 'customers' are in the country legally has sparked massive protests:
Hundreds of people gathered outside Arizona's Capitol building on Sunday in a largely peaceful protest against the state's tough new immigration law.
Chanting "Yes we can," waving American flags and holding signs reading "We have rights" and "We are human," demonstrators kept up a festive spirit as they denounced the bill signed Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer.
The new law requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally. It also requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they're in the United States illegally.
Apparently the protesters were tipped off to keep the Mexican Flags out of sight at this particular photo op.
Interestingly enough, according to Rasmussen 70% of Arizona's voters favor the bill, which given Arizona's demographics would have to include a number of Hispanics..
And in another interesting little factoid, long time Joshua's Army member, and correspondent Ellen G. is a Phoenix resident who happened to check out the rally and according to her,a lot of the protesters came in a fleet of buses with California plates and had political cadres from the like of MeCha and La Raza running the show.
And speaking of outside agitators, the protest managed to attract one of the top race pimps in America:
The Rev. Al Sharpton, along with leaders from the National Action Network and the Hispanic Federation, announced Sunday that he will legally challenge the law.
The law "is an affront to the civil rights of all Americans and an attempt to legalize racial profiling," Sharpton said in a statement after the bill's signing Friday. "As one who helped to make racial profiling a national issue and who has in the last year visited Arizona several times to rally against these draconian immigration policies, I am calling for a coalition of civil rights organizations to work with those in Arizona to resist and overturn this state law."
The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, a group that represents 30,000 Latino churches worldwide, also said Saturday it plans to file a lawsuit against the bill.
"In addition to this law being illegal, if this law goes into effect, we expect it to have a dramatic affect on the state with U.S. citizens, legal residents and others moving out of the state out of fear of being singled out," William Sanchez, an immigration attorney representing the coalition, said in a statement.
Now, when I say 'attract' that's simply a figure of speech. Rev Al is a professional, and he almost never makes appearances for free, as any union or group he's ever appeared with could tell you.Not unless he figures the PR value is going to add to his bottom line in the future.
You see, like most pimps what Rev Al's heart really bleeds for is the dollars, and the fact that the people who put on this show were willing to shell out for a slimy racist like the Rev says a great deal about whom they are.
Is the bill 'illegal'? Hard to see how,since it merely requires police to enforce existing laws and applies equally to a Mexican day laborer or a Swedish student who overstays his visa... unless an activist judge pulls the protection clause out of shape and determines somehow that the Constitution covers non-citizens here illegally.
Another point that shouldn't be ignored, especially for those legal Arizona residents who view this as 'racial profiling'.
Illegal aliens cost the state millions in social services that it never recoups, commit crimes out of proportion to their numbers and lower both the cost of labor and the chances of an unemployed or underemployed Arizonan finding work, especially in industries like construction.
It's something you might want to consider before being stampeded by people with an agenda who definitely do not have your best interests at heart.
3 comments:
This is really a controversial topic. I know of a few people who are undocumented and honestly, do deserve a kind of program that will help them settled. But then, can we take all of them?? It is literally a debated and hot topic.
Children are Watching
by stopdainsanity2
When I entered kindergarten – I was put into a class for the mentally retarded. Because my skin was brown my teacher assumed I did not speak English and required special bilingual support which was not available at the time. Yes – I was a Mexican-American citizen child AND I spoke English.
It literally took 2 weeks for my parents to force the school to place me in the mainstream kindergarten class — even though I could respond to questions in English. At the time if was easier for frustrated- overworked teachers (not bad people) to send me to the special needs class – no questions asked – based on my skin color. Although the error was corrected, as a child I never lost the feeling I was not welcomed and somehow my rights as a citizen were not equal to those of white americans. Be careful – children are watching.
Hi Saje,
That's exactly why we need a 'points' system based on provable time in the country, English proficiency, necessary job skills, the ability to have family members, employers etc. act a guarantors to assure that the illegal alien in question will not become a public charge, and so on.
I also am strongly in favor of any `path to citizenship' being predicated on illegal aliens going to the back of the line behind legal immigrants who have followed our laws. It's only fair.
None of them should be allowed to start their residency period for citizenship until legal immigrants have been processed, and only a certain amount should be allowed to start their citizenship residency period in any given year.
Admittedly, we don't treat immigrants like this,but as I've pointed out many times, THESE AREN'T IMMIGRANTS. They're illegal aliens and this is a special case.
Stopdinsanity... Sorry, but to be blunt, I doubt your story.
No child just gets put into a 'special needs' or special ed class. In order for that to be done, the parents have to meet with the special ed teacher at the school and a school district official to formulate a legal document known as an Individualized Educational Plan ( IEP) which assesses the child's needs and sets goals for his progress.
Anyone who has a special needs child has this and it's pretty much universal with a few local variations on terminology.
Sorry, better luck next time.
Regards,
Rob
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