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Making Waves

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Convergence

Immigrant Rights

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Arizona. 1070. You.

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So I have to say, I wasn’t surprised when I heard about the passage of SB1070. I wasn’t surprised because every time I come home, I hear stories of ‘el Arpaio’, or I hear about the latest law that got passed banning this or ticketing you for that. I remember how Arizona was the last state to recognize a Dr. Martin Luther King holiday, I remember the countless attempts to undo affirmative action, ban bilingual education, copy laws like Proposition 187 from California.
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The State of Hate

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We came to Arizona from the copper mines in Cananea. Recruiters came to Mexico trying to find people who would come work. We came in wagons, there was nothing here..nothing! They dropped people off from place to place. Our job was to clear the desert. And look at it now! – Antonia Franco
People marching in a protest..protester at the front has a sign with the Arizona flag on it

Arizona, Arpaio and SB1070 Spur Crusade for Immigrant Rights

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While many are waiting to see the decision of the Supreme Court related to the Department of Justice’s SB1070 case, a human rights crisis of epic proportions is already roiling in Arizona. The status quo we face now and the results of even the best possible decision from the Supreme Court still represent a steady march toward anti-immigrant attrition that the state has constructed over years.  First we faced efforts to restrict our ability to function in society: drivers’ license bans, denial of social services, and English only rules. Then they built ways to humiliate and dehumanize us through Sheriff Arpaio’s outdoor jails and Florence’s expanding penal colonies.