No to Arizona SB1070
• U.S. Palestinian Community Network Joins Arizona Boycott • Chicago's Religious Leaders Protest Arizona Immigration Law •
We Stand Against SB 1070! • Southern Arizona Clergy Call For Solidarity And Resistance
Apartheid is a Crime, from Arizona to Palestine!
U.S. Palestinian Community Network Joins
Arizona Boycott
The United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) joins with civil rights groups, labor unions and people’s movements across the country in calling for a boycott of Arizona in response to the passing of the racist bill SB1070, recently signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer that targets and criminalizes the immigrant community and people of color. SB 1070 is the legalization of racial profiling and requires people to carry immigration papers at all times to prove their immigration status. This law is a blatant attack on the Latin@ and Indigenous communities in Arizona, and it is also an attack on all who care for human dignity, justice, and immigrant and workers’ rights.
We see the passing of this law as an assault on the historical achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and a threat against our collective civil liberties. We as Arabs and Muslims have also been targets of racial profiling in the name of “security.” As Palestinians and Indigenous Peoples, we, too, have been subjected to racist policies established by settler colonialists who have attempted to ethnically cleanse us from our land. Racial profiling and other racist policies look the same whether they are carried out in Phoenix, NY and El Paso in the US or in Jerusalem, Haifa and Nazareth in Palestine; and we condemn such practices unequivocally. Our community has historically stood, and will continue to fervently stand, beside oppressed national groups and our sisters and brothers in the Immigrant Rights Movement, in solidarity against racism and all forms of oppression.
We as the USPCN demand an end to all racial profiling and racist policies, including the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim policies that have been established and executed under the guise of “national security;”
We demand an end to the raids, deportations and other policies and practices that criminalize immigrant communities;
We call for a just solution for all immigrants seeking justice and legalization;
We pledge to boycott Arizona until this racist law is repealed and will engage in the broadest education campaign possible to support the boycott of Arizona and the overturn of SB1070. We call upon our sisters and brothers in the Arab and Muslim communities to join the national campaign against SB1070 and attempts by other state legislators to implement similar racist practices.
Apartheid is a crime, from Arizona to Palestine!
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Chicago's Religious Leaders Protest
Arizona Immigration Law
Holding frames around their faces to show who could suffer from the recent immigration crackdown in Arizona, dozens of religious leaders framed comprehensive immigration reform as a moral issue during a demonstration Wednesday at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago.
Rabbis, imams and pastors joined Catholic priests, sisters and brothers to condemn Arizona's new immigration law, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration paperwork and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country legally. The law is scheduled to go into effect in July.
They also called on the federal government to freeze the deportations of immigrants convicted of misdemeanors. "We stand in solidarity with all of those people in Arizona, both citizens and those who deserve a path to citizenship, in opposition to this legislation, which has its roots in white supremacist ideology," said the Rev. Larry Dowling, pastor of St. Agatha Catholic Church, reading a statement from the Priests for Justice for Immigrants and Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants. "We feel that the passage of this bill reflects a narrow-minded, xenophobic and racist attitude toward people of color, especially those of Latino backgrounds."
The Rev. Paul Rutgers, co-executive director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, called on Congress to pass legislation that, among other things, would protect border security and the human rights of all persons, encourage family unification and provide pathways to citizenship.
"Of equal importance, we call upon the members of our religious communities to examine how the teachings of their traditions inform the debate about immigration policy and to bring the social and moral values from their religious heritage to the public discussion and decision making," Rutgers said. "People of faith cannot be silent. It is time both to speak and to act."
Rabbi Ruthie Gelfarb of Congregation Shir Halev said the biblical injunction to welcome the stranger compelled her to take part in the demonstration. A chaplain for detainees at McHenry County Jail, Gelfarb described the heartache of prisoners who have not committed crimes but face deportation and separation from their families and longtime communities.
Religious leaders also condemned the profiling component of the Arizona law, some describing how they personally had been profiled in the past.
Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of the Archdiocese of Chicago described a two-hour detention at Midway Airport several years ago when he returned from Guadalajara. Dowling said he has already heard accounts of questionable traffic stops in the Chicago area.
Rabbi Joshua Salter, associate rabbi of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, said profiling African-Americans has had nothing but a negative impact on the community. To turn that approach on Latinos is unconscionable, said Salter, an African-American. "What does that say about America? What does that say about the people that define the other?" he said.
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We Stand Against SB 1070!
Southwest Workers Union (SWU) is supporting groups like El Puente, Tonatierra, Coalition for Human Rights (Coalicion de Derechos Humanos), Alianza Indigenas Sin Fronteras in the ‘front line’ struggle in Arizona. We stand against SB 1070!!
SWU makes a Call to Action to join forces and efforts to win the battle of Arizona! SWU will be mobilizing social movement organizations and movements to go and stand with our sisters and brothers in Arizona who are leading the battle.
On May 1 SWU will march in San Antonio, Texas recognizing the front line struggle of the people in Arizona and we will make a call for organizing caravans to support the Battle of Arizona and to Win the Struggle for Human and Immigrant Rights.
How did we get to this battle of Arizona?
Janet Napolitano, ex-governor of Arizona is now head of Homeland Security for the Obama administration. So for some time, Arizona has been the ‘ground zero’ of immigration repression and forced deportations. SB 1070 is a continuation of this process.
Arizona is the home headquarters of John McCain’s right wing state rights, tea bagger movement. Sarah Palin was just with Mc Cain adding racist fuel to the fire with her “don’t retreat, reload” comment.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer just signed SB 1070, racial profiling made legal, as many in the front line social movements have called it. This law criminalizes migrants without papers, and authorizes all law enforcement and social service agency workers to report and arrest people they “think” “seem to be” undocumented people from Mexico and Latin America. As many activists put it “you will be stopped because you are brown.”
Stand Against SB1070! Fight for Human and Immigrant Rights!
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Southern Arizona Clergy Call For Solidarity
And Resistance
Calling Arizona Senate Bill 1070 a racist law, Tucson-area religious leaders organized a press conference at noon on Wednesday, April 28.
At the gathering at Southside Presbyterian Church, religious leaders called for people of faith and conscience to resist the enforcement of SB 1070. "As people of faith we will not comply with SB1070. This is a law that is not just
unconstitutional and mean-spirited, it is sinful and unjust" said Reverend Jorge Sotelo, rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.
"We have heard the stories and witnessed the tears that recent raids and now this law have instilled in our children and the families of our congregation. We will not stand by idly. We will stand in resistance to this law and in solidarity with all of God's children." said Reverend Alison Harrington, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church.
More than 30 religious leaders representing a variety a denominational and faith traditions attended. In addition, people of faith and conscience have been invited to attend.
"On Wednesday the voice of communities of faith will be heard. Religious leaders and people of faith will stand together in solidarity with those most effected by this unjust legislation and to show resistance to the efforts that attempt to divide our communities and rip apart families," said the Rev. John Fife.
Joins Its Arizona State Conference
National NAACP In Outrage Over Racial Profiling Impact of Arizona’s New So-Called Immigration Law
The NAACP issued the following statement April 30, 2010 regarding SB1070; a new law in Arizona that gives local law enforcement the right to arrest anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 into Arizona law on Friday, April 23rd.
“The NAACP is outraged that in 2010, a sitting Governor would sign a law that empowers local law enforcement to legally use racial profiling to target entire communities. It is a violation of the respect for human rights that is the moral standard of our nation and it threatens the safety of us all as both immigrants and citizens will be fearful of reporting crimes to police. The law unwisely redirects the role of the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Department to local police officers diverting local resources from fighting crime to investigating undocumented people who might be in this country,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Governor Brewer’s signature on SB1070 is another attempt to roll the clock back on civil rights protections in this country.”
“The passage of SB1070 is an embarrassment to the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution, and if we are not careful will leave a permanent stain on the United State’s reputation throughout the world. As an association that has fought for more than 100 years to ensure that basic rights and freedoms would be equally extended to all, it is disheartening to see the State of Arizona enact a law that tramples on the civil rights of Hispanic persons, and one that cannot be enforced without resorting to racial and ethnic profiling. We intend to use the full weight of our 2200 branches and units to ensure that this law is repealed and does not happen in other states across this nation,” stated NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock. “As a nation we must enact comprehensive immigration reform so people who are in this country without documentation will have a path to citizenship, and we look forward to working toward that goal with the President and Congress in the coming months.”
The proposed law requires state, county, and municipal employees to ascertain the immigration status of a person if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person is unlawfully present in the U.S. It also subjects local governments and their personnel to lawsuits by any citizen who feels that the new law is not being enforced sufficiently. The law would impose a $500 fine, among other costs, and a misdemeanor charge leading to possible deportation for individuals who could not show proof of legal presence
“The NAACP is deeply disappointed that Governor Brewer signed SB1070 into law. This new law effectively legalizes the incendiary practice of racial profiling and will adversely affect communities of color across Arizona. Moreover, it sets a dangerous precedent for other states to follow suit and pass similar discriminatory measures,” stated NAACP Washington Bureau Director and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy Hilary O. Shelton. “We look forward to working with other national civil rights groups, the U.S. Congress and President Obama to achieve comprehensive immigration reform so that racially and ethnically discriminatory laws like SB1070 are rendered irrelevant and useless.”
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