ACLU-AZ: SB1070 and the fight over Section 2B

No one will comply...

Independence Day, 2012 

Central Phoenix, Arizona 

-----from the ACLU of Arizona------

Damaging Provision of SB 1070 Could Take Effect in a Few Days Without Court Action 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2012

CONTACT:

Alessandra Soler, ACLU of Arizona, (602) 773-6006 (office) or (602) 301-3705 (cell)
Adela de la Torre, NILC: 213-674-2832; delatorre@nilc.org
Steven Gosset, ACLU: 212-549-2666;  media@aclu.org
Laura Rodriguez, MALDEF: 310-956-2425; lrodriguez@rabengroup.com

PHOENIX — A coalition of civil rights organizations today asked a federal district court to block implementation of the “show me your papers” provision of SB 1070, Arizona’s racial profiling law, until the court has had time to consider additional legal claims that the law is unconstitutional.

The civil rights organizations’ lawsuit includes evidence and claims that are not present in the federal government’s separate challenge to SB 1070, on which the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision last month. In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down three other provisions of SB 1070. The Court noted potential constitutional problems with section 2(B), the “show me your papers” provision, but did not strike it down based on the evidence and claims that the federal government brought in its case. The Court noted, however, that other challenges could be brought against the section.

In their motion today, the civil rights groups contend that section 2(B) unlawfully discriminates against Latinos and individuals of Mexican origin. The groups present evidence that legislators who supported the law routinely used false “facts” and discriminatory language and that they intended section 2(B) to impose statewide the racial profiling tactics used by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. The groups also introduced new evidence demonstrating that, if it is allowed to go into effect, section 2(B) will violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment and the well established principle, which the Supreme Court reaffirmed in last month’s decision, that federal immigration law preempts state immigration enforcement laws. Finally, the groups ask the district court to block a separate provision of SB 1070 that creates a state crime for “harboring” undocumented individuals, which the Supreme Court’s recent decision makes clear is unconstitutional.

“Assertions from politicians and law enforcement officials in Arizona that nothing will change once section 2(b) goes into effect are simply false,” said Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona.  “‘This provision requires that local agencies shift priorities to aggressively seek federal immigration violators, sending a clear message to Latinos that they are not welcome in Arizona. “ 

The request was made on behalf of plaintiffs in Valle del Sol v. Whiting, et al. (formerly known as Friendly House v. Whiting, et al.), a class action lawsuit challenging SB 1070, which was filed in May 2010.

“Our Constitution protects us from state laws that intend to discriminate based on on the color of a person’s skin or her or his nationality,” said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. “The district court should block this hateful provision that threatens countless Arizonans’ basic right to live free from fear of harassment or prolonged detention.”

Police chiefs across the country have long concluded that section 2B could not be implemented in a race-neutral manner. Immigration experts agree that there is no way to determine immigration status based on external or physical characteristics and that police will end up using race and ethnicity to decide who could be in the country without authorization.

“In a state that’s more than 30 percent Latino, requiring police to act as immigration agents is an invitation to racial profiling on a massive scale” said Omar Jadwat, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Police chiefs and communities know these laws don’t work, and we hope that the courts will continue to block them from going forward.”

“The ‘papers provision’ is unconstitutional and the people of Arizona should not be subject to this law for even a single day,” said Victor Viramontes, MALDEF National Senior Counsel. “This law would result in Latinos being illegally arrested and detained across Arizona.”

The coalition includes NILC, ACLU, MALDEF, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the ACLU of Arizona, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Asian American Justice Center, both members of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, as well as the NAACP. The law firms of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Altshuler Berzon LLP, and Roush, McCracken, Guerrero, Miller & Ortega are also acting as co-counsel in the case.

Read the Proposed Motion for Preliminary Injunction

Read the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order

Resisting SB1070, Tent City, and White History's Lies

 

Excellent reflection below by the director of Puente Arizona on the immigrant rights movement this eve of the decision about SB 1070 from the US Supreme Court. 

Signs of resistance by Peggy Plews. 

Please come out to this weekend's:

  Rally and Vigil to Shut Down Tent City 

Saturday, April 23, 2012 at 8pm. 

2939 W. Durango Street

"Imagine no prisons..."

maricopa county jail: tent city

phoenix AZ april 2011

----------------as posted at POLITIC365.com----------------------

Arizona, Arpaio and SB1070 Spur Crusade for Immigrant Rights

BY CARLOS GARCIA

The migrant rights movement in this country is about to enter a new phase and every person, no matter their position, will have to decide how they will relate to it.

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.

From 2007 to 2010, even before SB1070 was introduced, our community faced checkpoints, bore witness to women forced to give birth in shackles, and traveled to work and school on a daily basis already wondering if we would reunite with our families and loved ones at the end of each day. In 2010, Arizona sought to erase us from history with a ban on ethnic studies and remove us altogether through SB1070.

In what amounts to a state of war by attrition on our community, it could get worse this summer as we expect that the injunction will be lifted on some of the remaining portions of SB1070. Further criminalization and tools demanding all law enforcement to investigate and deport in massive numbers is set to become law.

But that will not be our future. We are on the move, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re not running away as the authors of SB1070 had hoped, we’re moving our communities forward, and we will not let the last violent gasps of a dying generation’s prejudice stop us.

This struggle has both destroyed parts of our community and made us stronger. In the past years, we have learned important lessons and developed new ways to fight. The name ‘Arizona’ currently is a mark of embarrassment that makes people think of bigotry. But in the not too distant future, people will think of the birthplace of a new human rights movement when they hear talk about the state.

For more than a decade, we petitioned Congress for immigration reform only to be kicked around as a political football by both parties. We hoped things would change with President Obama but instead of feeling our pain, he caused more of it. Instead of executive action to grant us relief, he gave us record deportations and unprecedented quotas. When all else failed, we looked at the courts but even they seem ready to deny us our humanity.

Since Governor Brewer signed the bill meant to send us running, migrant communities have responded by losing our fear and peacefully defending ourselves. By learning our rights and more importantly, how to defend them when law enforcement tries to ignore them, we have created networks of protection that are prepared for the raids and the wrongful arrests. We have deepened our culture and celebrated our vision for a world without hate. People who before hid in our homes for fear of being picked up by police now are leading marches and supporting neighbors in efforts to keep our families together.

If Arpaio wants to find us, we will instead find him because we have learned that we are safer coming out of the shadows than living in them. When undocumented people confront the system, it crumbles and it becomes clear that they are more afraid of us than we are of them.

If undocumented people are willing to risk everything by confronting Sheriff Joe Arpaio, what are other supporters, allies, and family members willing to do?

As more of SB1070 is poised to go into effect and federal policies spread the same nation-wide, what will you do as we learn to defend our neighborhoods?

We have declared that we will not comply with hate. Every single person and institution must make the same evaluation. Will the federal government willingly deport Sheriff Arpaio’s victims when he hands over those caught in his raids? Will school districts agree to ask kindergarteners for the documents? Will neighbors draw the shades when checkpoints go up on their block?

Or will we refuse to comply and as a result prevent SB1070’s strategy from working?

 

 

In Solidarity with Tucson's Ethnic Studies students and teachers

Arizona's Centennial Day (February 14, 2012)

Attorney General Horne's Office

If they are coming for us now, they will be coming for you next. Immigrants are today’s scapegoats but there will be someone next to blame and fill the private prisons.

As undocumented people fill the vacuum of leadership on these issues and demonstrate real courage, all of us are called to follow their example.

The truth is that the suffering in Arizona isn’t caused by the cold hearts and bigoted minds of our adversaries. It is the apathetic souls of those who look upon Arizona and stand idly by. Perhaps people hear ‘immigrant’ and believe it does not apply to them or that we somehow deserve the treatment we receive.

White fear of the re-browning of this continent and general worry over unemployment and economic security has turned many against migrants as an easy scapegoat. But if we look deeply enough, we see that we hold in common both the cause of our troubles and the solution to our suffering. Around the world, people are toppling those who have ruled by broken promises and brutal policies. Arizona and the US will be no exception.

Change has always come when people challenged and broke unjust laws. Nonviolent civil disobedience has been used to historically to challenge racism and inequality from factory floors to lunch counters and buses.

And so, this is a call to action whether you are a community member directly affected, consider yourself an ally, or someone who up until now has been a bystander in the immigration battles. The undocumented youth movement has set an example of what it is to be unafraid, and the bravery they display far outweighs the courage elected officials lack. They have proven that the safest place for anyone targeted by these laws is out, proud, and part of an organized community.

As the migrant rights movement steps into this new phase, we do not do it alone. Allies can harbor anyone targeted, hire anyone fired, and refuse to allow Arizona or Arpaio to become the new normal. At the end of June, we will rally together in Phoenix at Sheriff Arpaio’s self-described ‘concentration camp,’ tent city and begin a summer of resistance in the state and across the country where these laws and their champions are calling for a challenge.

The present may feel heavy but the future is bright. Because love always overcomes hate. Our numbers are on our side. The truth is on our side. With or without those in power, history is on our side. We just have to put our shoulders to the gears of history and push.

Carlos Garcia is the director of Puente Arizona, a Phoenix-based human rights organization dedicated to empowering migrant communities.

 -----------------

Freewayblogging the SB1070 Resistance

Phoenix, AZ (July 28, 2010)

Arizona's tax base eroded by anti-immigrant legislation.

Even the cookie monster says: "STOP SB1070"
Resistance Alley, Phoenix (June 4, 2011)

Apparently, America's undocumented immigrants paid $11 billion in taxes last year, while the multinational GE paid NOTHING. No wonder Arizona's economy is still in the gutter - we chased away all the honest, hard-working taxpayers, while cutting extra breaks to freeloading, exploitative corporations...So, thanks a lot SB1070, ALEC, Russ Pearce, and Jan Brewer - and all the idiots who voted for the right wing last election thinking they were protecting their own interests. You screwed us all.

-------------------------

Unauthorized Immigrants pay taxes too.

Immigration Policy Center

April 18, 2011

Estimates of the State and Local Taxes Paid by Unauthorized Immigrant Households

Tax Day is an appropriate time to underscore the often-overlooked fact that unauthorized immigrants pay taxes. The unauthorized, like everyone else in the United States, pay sales taxes. They also pay property taxes—even if they rent. At least half of unauthorized immigrants pay income taxes. Add this all up and it amounts to billions in revenue to state and local governments. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by households that are headed by unauthorized immigrants.

These households may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Collectively, these households paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes. The states receiving the most tax revenue from households headed by unauthorized immigrants were California ($2.7 billion), Texas ($1.6 billion), Florida ($806.8 million), New York ($662.4 million), and Illinois ($499.2 million) {See Figure 1 and Table 1}. These figures should be kept in mind as politicians and commentators continue with the seemingly endless debate over what to do with unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States. In spite of the fact that they lack legal status, these immigrants—and their family members—are adding value to the U.S. economy; not only as taxpayers, but as workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs as well.

SB 1070 Resistance Dancin' in the Streets!

This is long and a few days late (so I know I'm not stealing anyone's audience), but it's such a joyful Feathered Bastard that I still can't resist. There's a tune I've been listening to lately called "The Great Stone Wall" by Jim Page, that reminds me that things haven't always been so dark, so bitter, and so hateful on this planet as it seems to be here and now some days. We're so indoctrinated to the way things are that we fail to understand that things haven't always been this way - and its not the only way for them to be tomorrow, either. Ordinary people really can change the world.

Now, read on about the all night party outside of Sheriff Joe's jail while supporters waited for civil rights organizer Sal Reza to be released after his second arrest last week. And hit Stephen's blog (this week's is too funny) at the Phoenix New Times often for updates on what's happening in this place. Between the protests, parties, patrols, prisoners, people power (check out Guadalupe's resistance, too, folks), and my own personal battles (as well as the theft of my laptop from my home), I can't begin to tell you myself what's going on from day to day. So, I'm going to keep hitting up the New Times until they tell me to stop.

Enjoy the Feathered Bastard now, knowing that no matter what the mainstream media reports and pollsters tell you about popular opinion in Arizona, Sheriff Joe is eating a lot of crow these days - spoonfed by people of every age, color and creed. And PLEASE - regardless of anything else you hear, beg Natalie Merchant and all those superstars heading to the Dodge Theater this month to cancel their engagements - we need their moral support more than their money now more than ever. Tell them to come join the people dancing in the streets.

------------------------------------------

Salvador Reza Released, Prosecutor Admits No Probable Cause for Arrest

By Stephen Lemons, Sat., Jul. 31 2010 @ 1:54PM

As civil rights leader Salvador Reza stood in stripes before a night court judge around 3:30 a.m. this morning at the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix, the county prosecutor made an eye-popping admission.

"This is really my review," he stated cautiously of a statement from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office before him. "I did not see that this rose to the level of probable cause."

Reza's attorney Robert Pastor immediately pounced.

"Your honor," said Pastor, "I just heard the prosecutor tell the court that there's not enough evidence here to suggest that Mr. Reza committed a crime. I ask that the charge be dismissed and he be released immediately."

Of Reza's bogus charge for "obstructing a judicial proceeding," the judge herself seemed skeptical.

"I do not have enough information to find probable cause in this matter, sir," she told the county attorney.

She declined to dismiss the charge, but she released Reza on his own recognizance and set his next court date for August 18.

Reza, leader of the organization Puente, had been arrested late Friday afternoon after watching a band of protesters engage in civil disobedience by blocking Sheriff Joe Arpaio's command post for the MCSO's latest anti-immigrant sweep. The post was located near 35th Avenue and Lower Buckeye, close to the Lower Buckeye Jail. Reza was across the street in an unpaved parking lot.

Reza, after being released Saturday morning

Though Reza was not participating in civil disobedience that day, a pack of aggro sheriff's deputies ran across 35th Avenue and arrested him. Arpaio, MCSO Chief Brian Sands, and MCSO flack Brian Lee have all been videotaped stating that the arrest was because Reza had violated his order of release after he'd been let go on bond the night before for taking part in civil disobedience on July 29. This, as part of a "national day of non-compliance" to SB 1070.

After court was adjourned with Reza's O.R., a crowd of about sixty supporters, who had crammed into a viewing room to watch the proceedings from a TV monitor, erupted into applause. They then filed outside to wait another two hours-plus before Reza and the others arrested that day were set free.

Supporters danced all night waiting for Reza to be let go

The main entrance to the Fourth Avenue Jail had turned into an all-night block party for Reza supporters, with speakers blaring cumbia and protesters dancing in the middle of the street, sometimes in the pouring rain. At one point the crowd of Reza supporters numbered more than 100, and included numerous members of Unitarian Universalist Churches (referred to as "UUs") from across the country, who were in town to protest SB 1070 going into effect.

Sheriff's deputies and detention officers looked on from the roof, and from the corners of the building, but did nothing to stop the crowd. I asked one deputy why he and his compadres were seemingly okay with the revelry.

He simply shrugged and said, "It's a free country."

Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, was present in a parking lot with Reza as sheriff's deputies arrested the longtime anti-Arpaio activist. He said NDLON regarded Reza as a political prisoner, and that in the first two hours of putting up an online petition to "Free Sal Reza," NDLON had garnered 900 signers-on.

"They arrested him for no reason," he told me, as we all awaited Reza's release. "He was doing nothing. They just took him. To me it's clear that it's retaliation, because he's been highly critical of the sheriff. They [Arpaio and his staff] don't like him. They hate him."

Indeed, Reza has led several massive marches aimed directly at ending Arpaio's rule, as well as daily protests outside the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Phoenix, where Arpaio keeps two floors of pricey executive offices. Reza's Wells Fargo campaign ended with the bank asking Arpaio to leave, forcing the county to find another building for the MCSO, which Arpaio will likely move into sometime in 2011.

No one parties like a Unitarian...

When Reza finally emerged from jail Saturday morning, the sun was up, and his fellow activists were overjoyed to see him.

Reza said he was shocked by the arrest, which came without warning, just as he was about to leave for an interview.

"When I saw them coming, I thought they were coming for the people in the street," he explained. "But then they just passed them and went for me."

Regarding who actually ordered his arrest, Reza believes it was MCSO Deputy Chief Brian Sands, one of Arpaio's top henchmen, a man who looks like he would have felt right at home in the KGB.

"It was Sands," Reza contended. "Sands was in command."

MSCO thugs hustled a cuffed Reza to a van, where he remained for hours by himself. At one point, the MCSO opened up the van to display Reza to photographers and journalists like a captured prisoner of war.

"If they can do this to me," he told the reporters present before refusing interviews, "what do you expect they can do to anybody else."

Reza was transported to Fourth Avenue, booked, and forced to change into county stripes. As he was the night before, he was placed in solitary confinement. Reza said he was allowed no phone call, and there was no phone in the cell. He also stated that deputies never read him his Miranda rights.

I asked if he thought the MCSO was trying to break him.

"I think it's going to be a long time before they break me," he laughed. "I was ready to go eighteen days...that's when the court date is."

I wondered if he planned to sue the MCSO, as so many of Arpaio's victims have done, earning massive payouts from county coffers. Reza didn't say yea or nay.

"I just wish the [ U.S. Department of Justice] would get on the ball and do something about it," he replied. "I don't know what else they want...It's very clear."

The DOJ has been investigating Arpaio for more than a year now for civil rights violations. There's also a federal grand jury in Phoenix looking into Arpaio and the MCSO for criminal abuse of power.

Concerning the detention officers, Reza said he actually got along with some this time.

"Some of them are nice," he said. "Some of them, they basically don't like Arpaio."

This sentiment was echoed to some degree by Sarahi Uribe, a Yale graduate and organizer with NDLON, who'd been one of the protesters blocking sheriff's patrol cars from leaving for the sweep. She, too, was released on her own recognizance by the judge.

"One of the clerks or one of the officers inside slapped a message on the window [of the cell] that said, `By the way, what you guys are doing is awesome,' and walked away," Uribe told me.

Still, she was interrogated repeatedly by 287(g) officers in the jail, even though she's an American citizen. This, likely because she's not white and she initially refused to tell them her country of origin.

She also described "disgusting" conditions in the holding cell where she was kept with several other women. Uribe said women were sleeping on a floor littered with feces. Like Reza, she was never Mirandized.

Before he headed out to get some much needed rest, I asked Reza if he had any words for Sheriff Arpaio.

"Yeah," he said. "Come back to civilization."

Fat chance of that. They don't call it "Mari-Kafka County" for nothin'. For those of you reading who loathe Reza because of his politics, keep this in mind: There was no probable cause for his arrest. And if you want Arizona to resemble part of America, rather than a Third World junta, you should denounce his detention just as if you were one of his supporters.

Fear is an infectious disease.

This is very sad, the example Arizona is setting for the rest of the country's white supremacists, our selfish, vindictive, and entitled tea-partiers, and all of our under-the-radar everyday racists - they want to be just like us...

------------------------------------------

Fremont vote brings reaction from across the state

Date Jun 22, 2010
KHAS-TV
Nebraska

(6/22/2010) By Anthony Pura - Tuesday night, Fremont voters voted to make it illegal to hire or rent to illegal immigrants. But, the ACLU said not so fast saying it will challenge the laws. And, what is happening in that northeastern Nebraska town has many concerned here in the tri–cities.

So what do local residents think of the recently passed legislation?

Grand Island has a large and growing immigrant population including Hispanic, Sudanese, Somali and Asians and many do not have the proper paperwork.

City leaders tell me, from their end, there are no plans or even talks of passing any type of ban or restrictions on illegal immigrants. If similar laws did come, it would come from a state level.

News of an immigration ban in Fremont has reached this church in downtown Grand Island.

Cristo Cordero De Dios practices the Lutheran faith. Its congregation has close to 70 people and all its services are in Spanish.

"Most of our church is Hispanic, most are from Mexico, some are from Chile, some are from Venezuela and a few other places," said Pastor Juan Aguilar.

Pastor Aguilar told News 5 there is growing concern in his congregation. Close to half do not have their legal papers in order.

And even though Fremont is not Grand Island, there is the unease of what could come.

"There are a lot of worries in our families, our church because most of them do not have proper paperwork, it could be difficult for them to have money for a good life or a good standard of living," said Pastor Aguilar.

But Grand Island City Council President Peg Gilbert said right now the city cannot deal with any type of immigration reform law. It is focused on the budget. She also said these types of laws should not be left up to cities.

"There is a going to be legislation introduced in the state level this year and that would be my preference that at least we are consistent with Nebraska," said Gilbert.

Many of Nebraska's lawmakers said there is overwhelming support for these types of laws in the state.

"We have to pray that our authorities in government make the right choices to resolve this issue in the best way," said Pastor Aguilar.

That way runs through lawmakers in the state or cities across Nebraska.

Again, the ACLU has vowed to challenge Fremont's immigration laws.

Senator Charlie Janssen of Fremont plans to propose a bill similar to Arizona's in the full legislature.

And Grand Island leaders said they think what happened in Fremont will put some added pressure on legislatures to act.

Racism Kills: Hate crime charge in Phoenix.

This is what Arizona looks like these days. So many of these kinds of crimes go undocumented, for political reasons...

From Stephen Lemons' Feathered Bastard blog this week at the Phoenix New Times:

--------------

Rick Romley Seeks Hate Crime Enhancement for White-on-Brown Shooting in South Phoenix

By Stephen Lemons
Wednesday, Jun. 16 2010 @ 9:26AM

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has confirmed that prosecutors will seek a hate crime enhancement against Gary Kelley in the May 6 shooting death of Juan Varela in a South Phoenix neighborhood.

Kelley, an Anglo, is currently charged with second degree murder in the slaying of his Hispanic neighbor. According to the Phoenix Police Department's report on the incident, Kelley, 50, allegedly told the 44-year-old Varela, "You fucking wetback! Go back to Mexico!" before fatally shooting him in the chin with a .38 revolver.

MCAO spokesperson Jaime Brennan stated that County Attorney Rick Romley "has filed the hate crime aggravating circumstance allegation" in the killing. Brennan added that the sentencing enhancement "allows prosecutors to argue for the maximum sentence, which would be 22 years in this case."

Varela's family was angered that Phoenix police did not refer to the killing as a bias crime from jump. Initially, the Phoenix PD played down the possibility that the Varela murder was a hate crime, characterizing it more as the result of a dispute between neighbors.

Yet, there were some complicating factors. The Varela family and Kelley knew each other, and Kelley's other Latino neighbors actually described him to me as a "good guy" when I visited the block Kelley and Varela lived on shortly after the shooting.

However, the Phoenix PD's report described a drunken and disturbed Kelley, who morosely told one officer after his arrest that, "I love all people; white, black, or Hispanic and I am not racist in any way."

The Varela family has stated previously that they believe that Arizona's post-SB 1070 climate was a factor in the murder.

Phoenix radio host Carlos Galindo, who has been acting as a spokesman for the family, told me today that the family is heartened by the hate crime enhancement, though they would like to see Kelley's charges bumped up to first-degree murder.

"We had to struggle to make sure the investigation took the right direction," said Galindo. "We met with Rick Romley and [Phoenix Mayor] Phil Gordon, and they were very supportive. Hopefully, this will send a message nationally, and deter those that might attack people because of their ethnicity."

Galindo said the family would be holding a press conference shortly to address the change in prosecutors' stance toward the crime and the alleged perpetrator.

Boycott this Brutal, Murderous State.

After hearing a brief report about this reported undocumented migrant's murder on KJZZ, the local NPR station around 5:00 or 6:00 this AM, and finding the article I originally posted below about it (along with a separate one which identified the suspects as citizens, but didn't identify the victim as an undocumented or illegal immigrant), I headed downtown to the Phoenix Police Department to find out the full story. 

They referred me to their public records office on the other side of town. 

They in turn, sent me to Maricopa County's Superior Court complex where the suspects were to be arraigned, but since I didn't have their names with me and "this happens all the time", no one there could direct me to the right court room. Besides, someone said, they were probably being arraigned in the jailhouse courtroom, not there.

So, since I was in the same building as the HQ for the Maricopa County Sheriff's office, I stopped in and asked them for help, certain that they would have the suspects names and maybe even a press release by then, since they apparently handled the arrests - nothing was forthcoming from the information desk, however, except the phone number of their press office (not even a name). 

Now, I checked the MCSO website before leaving home on this excursion. Since the "crime of the week" featured there this AM was not the murder of immigrants, but rather, sex offenses (featuring a complete cast of suspects of color in their mugshot line up) - and there was absolutely nothing on the site about the murder - I didn't bother calling the MCSO press officer to try to get more information.

Instead, I actually paid for an Arizona Republic, sure that there would be at least a blurb in there, giving me the names I'd read earlier on the KPHO website, so I could get to the arraignment and find out first hand what was going on. Not a word. 

By then I was pretty steamed, so I called the Republic, and spoke to J.J. Hensley. He was aware of the body found in the fire last Wednesday, but not the story that unfolded Sunday as I relayed it to him - the MCSO was keeping that pretty hush hush. He was sure interested, though, and Googled the same info I found as we spoke, promising a follow-up from their paper.

So, what follows is the result of the AZ Republic's "investigation", published a few hours after that conversation - which conveniently leaves a few blanks to fill in after making sure we all know that the still-anonymous victim brought this on himself by having sex with the poor murderer's mother. 

No one seems to know or care whether or not this man was so casually murdered and set ablaze because he was undocumented. Or, maybe the Republic is just exercising responsible journalistic restraint, not wanting to make a bad situation here worse by reporting that undocumented migrants aren't all criminal aliens and murderous drug dealers - many are in fact victims of crime at the hands of citizens who count on no one caring what they do to them.


I don't think it's journalistic ethics that dictated the lines - and the blanks between them - in the story below, though. I think the Republic is in bed with the power elite here who just don't want more bad publicity; the "truth" be damned. This state has no journalistic integrity - save for a few good folks at the Phoenix New Times. 

For perspective: flash back a week or so ago to that deputy who was shot by "suspected illegal immigrants" who were "believed to be smuggling bales of marijuana" (on foot through the desert, of course, pursued by this lone deputy) at the time he was fired on with AK-47's. Or the rancher a few months ago who law enforcement "suspected" was murdered by illegal immigrants involved in drug trafficking. 

Where was the journalistic restraint seeking all the facts before reporting speculation then? And what about the MCSO's fiery press releases about how they're protecting us by rounding up undocumented brown-skinned drivers, and all of Russ Pearce's histrionics about how many citizens are being murdered and raped by illegal immigrants? 

So, read this story now having put things into context. Doesn't it seem like something's missing here? Like maybe some sense that the life that was lost was sacred, valued, innocent, even worth being elevated to nobility for having been so brutally victimized? Maybe even a candlelight vigil to remember him and all the other migrants whose lives have been so brutally taken by good Arizonans?

Here's the problem, I think: In the Arizona storyline, the victim is supposed to be a US citizen; the perpetrators are supposed to be criminal aliens (from Mexico, of course), and the murder is supposed to justify SB 1070 and shame those calling for a boycott into silence. What's the truth that should be reported here? That we have so devalued the lives of non-citizens that their murders (which "happen all the time here", as I was told in Superior Court earlier) aren't news - only their crimes are. The Republic doesn't even say what the victim's or suspects citizenship status are - and we all know that those details these days matter a great deal. And even KJZZ hasn't mentioned the story again since before the morning rush hour commenced.

Note how the Republic doesn't even once call this murdered man a "victim"...

BOYCOTT this ugly place, America. Bring all these bastards to their knees. Don't worry about the poor they say you're going to hurt by doing so; they sure don't care about us - we're already screwed by them anyway. Don't give this state another dime until they account for all their crimes and make restitution to their victims' families. 

That means repealing a whole lot more than just SB 1070. Otherwise, this kind of thing will never end.

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Slain Phoenix man reportedly slept with suspect's mom

by Jessica Testa - May. 10, 2010 01:12 PM
The Arizona Republic

Three men were arrested Sunday in connection with death of a man who was beaten and had his throat slit in Phoenix, apparently because he slept with another man's mother.

Adan Gonzalez, 20, Matthew Moreno, 19, and Booz Moreno, 23, are suspected of attacking a man who they thought was having an affair with Gonzalez's mother, according to court documents released Monday.

Last Wednesday, the trio apparently went to the man's house near 35th Avenue and Baseline Road, forcing their way in armed with a shotgun. They are suspected of beating the man who lived there.

The trio was accused of using a shotgun and a steel pipe to beat the man, eventually slitting the man's throat with a knife and setting fire to the house after stealing several items.

Witnesses reported seeing the men approaching the house, entering and then leaving a short time later as the house went up in flames, the court documents said.

The witnesses provided police with descriptions of three men and their vehicle's license-plate numbers. Police used the information to track down the three men.

The men were arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, arson, kidnapping and burglary.

The documents noted that Matthew Moreno and Gonzalez initially said they were not connected to the case, but eventually said they beat and killed the man.

Booz Moreno was found to be friends with the homeowner's son, according to the documents. He has been charged with extreme DUI and is being held without bail. Matthew Moreno is being held on $1 million bond.

Do Not Enter: AZ POLICE STATE.

Phoenix, April 29, 2010 rush hour, WB Loop 202.

(This would seem to suggest that a boycott is in order.)

(SENATE BILL 1070: full text)