Arizona appeals block on immigration law

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:14:49 +0000

By Alan Gomez and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

PHOENIX — Arizona officials asked a U.S. appeals court to lift a judge’s ruling that blocks full enforcement of the state’s immigration enforcement law, as dozens of the law’s opponents were arrested across the city.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer called on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside a lower court ruling that put key parts of the law on hold until the full legal dispute is aired. Among them: a requirement for police to check suspects’ immigration status during routine stops if there’s a reasonable suspicion they are in the U.S. illegally. Some parts of the law took effect Thursday as scheduled.

Brewer said status checks and other sections of the law that U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton suspended were “critical to address serious criminal, environmental and economic problems Arizona has been suffering as a consequence of illegal immigration.”

The governor’s action came as hundreds of demonstrators, most of them pressing for the law to be struck down permanently, blocked parts of downtown.

Traffic and light-rail service near City Hall was stalled for nearly an hour, Phoenix Police spokesman Lt. Tommy Thompson said.

Several hundred protesters converged on the local jail where at least six people were arrested after chaining themselves to the building.

Sharon Lungo, who traveled to Phoenix from Oakland to protest the law, also known as S.B. 1070, said Bolton’s temporary suspension does not mean Hispanics in Arizona are safe.

“They’re going to continue to face the same kind of terror they faced before S.B. 1070,” Lungo said. “We’re here to say, ‘That’s not enough.’ “

She said she was proud of those arrested. “It was a strong show of people power,” said Lungo, 33. “We’re not going to stop until the hate stops.”

Near a collection of protesters at the state Capitol, Nikki Colletti was among a small group that came out to support the law. She wore a shirt that read, “Ask me for my I.D. I am legal.”

Colletti and other supporters hope the appeals court will reinstitute the law in its entirety. “I don’t see what the big deal is,” said Colletti, a Glendale, Ariz., credit manager. “Legal is legal. If you don’t want to respect American laws, you need to leave.”

Jim Walker, a retired Army sergeant, said the law, signed in April, already has prompted changes.

He said Spanish-speaking grocery store clerks in his hometown of Buckeye, west of Phoenix, rarely help him when he asks for aid.

“You go in there and ask for help and they won’t. ‘No Inglés,’ ” said Walker, 44. “Since the bill (was signed), they’ll say, in English, ‘May I help you?’ “

Phoenix U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said Bolton had received thousands of calls and e-mails since the ruling. “Some of them were positive, some not so positive and others clearly crossed the line,” he said. “We knew when the decision was made, this was going to happen.”

Gonzales said the messages directed to Bolton had “changed the complexion” of the judge’s security arrangement but did not elaborate.

In Yuma, Ariz., police were investigating a shot fired through the office window of U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., a vocal opponent of the law. In a statement, police did not tie the incident to Wednesday’s ruling but indicated it occurred after the judge’s decision was made public.

The Justice Department, which filed one of seven challenges to the law, did not comment on the appeal.

“Illegal immigration is an ongoing crisis the state of Arizona did not create and the federal government has refused to fix,” Brewer said Thursday. She asked the appeals court to set arguments for the week of Sept. 13.

Contributing: The Arizona Republic

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Police Dispatch

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Knee jerk; The devil made them do it

by Anna Mirocha

KNEE JERK INTERSTATE 10 JULY 3, 7:19 P.M. A drunk man pretended to be partially paralyzed to make trouble during his arrest, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. Several people driving down Interstate 10 reported a swerving car that ultimately crashed on the side of the road; the man inside was apparently passed out. One witness said the man suddenly awakened, exited the car, threw rocks and was generally “getting rowdy.” Deputies handcuffed the subject, who was very…

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‘The War Funding Vote: A Credit Card for War, But No Cash for Teachers’

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:06:48 +0000

In response to the vote on the war supplemental in the House today, Congressman Raul Grijalva and other House Progressives released an open letter:

The War Funding Vote: A Credit Card for War, But No Cash for Teachers

Once again, war is being paid for with a credit card while investments in our children’s future are tossed aside. These investments — $10 billion for teacher jobs, $1 billion for summer youth employment, $5 billion for Pell grants, $701 million for border security — were cut from the war funding bill coming to the House floor despite being fully paid for and not adding to the budget deficit. They have been jettisoned in favor of further borrowed war spending. Today’s bill doesn’t include anything to maintain first responder, police or firefighter positions despite the dramatic need for those jobs in every community in America. We believe this is fiscal insanity and a moral tragedy.

Consider the following: Despite widespread shortfalls in education funding around the country, the $10 billion that would have saved 140,000 teacher jobs across the nation — all of it offset — has been cut. The $37.12 billion in war funding, on the other hand, is not paid for. Every single penny adds directly to the national debt. This is not good for national security. This is continuing a failed policy at the exact wrong time.

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Show Cancelled at Solar Culture

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:51:20 +0000

The Wobbly, MaryClare Brzytwa and Jess Matsen show at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave., previously scheduled for tonight, has been cancelled according to www.solarculture.org.

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Mexico braces for effects of Arizona immigration law

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:55:27 +0000

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — The other side of the border is also preparing for the implementation of Arizona’s new immigration law, which could lead to a surge of deportees back to

Mexico

Migrant shelters along the border in Mexico say they’re bracing for new arrivals after the law goes into effect Thursday.

Mexico’s government has added more workers to its consulate in Phoenix to assist detained Mexicans. Migrants who have been deported say they’re watching to see how the law is enforced before deciding whether to try again to cross the border illegally into Arizona.

“On the plane, everybody was talking about the law,” said Ernesto González, a deportee who arrived here last week on a U.S. government flight from Tucson. “Everybody knows it’s coming.”

Arizona’s law makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It requires police to check a person’s immigration status when the person has been involved in another offense and the officer has reasonable cause to suspect the person is in the country illegally. The check can be made only during the course of a lawful police action, such as a traffic stop or investigation of a crime.

The law also allows Arizona citizens to sue police departments if they feel the new law is not being enforced — a provision related to so-called “sanctuary cities,” where local government officials refuse to enforce anti-illegal-immigration laws.

The Obama administration and several rights groups have sued to stop the law from taking effect. The Mexican government has filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the lawsuits.

In Nogales, Sonora, the state shelter for migrant children added 50 beds to the 100 it already had, Director Maria Isabel Arvizu said. The San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales also is expecting more migrants, Director Francisco Loureiro said.

“All of us are getting ready for people to come back,” Arvizu said.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry declined to comment on preparations for the law. But El Universal newspaper reported that the consulate in Phoenix increased its consular-protection staff from eight to 11 and is distributing pamphlets to inform Mexicans about the law.

Across Mexico, radio talk shows, blogs and the news media have turned Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer into a household name.

On Friday, a morning show on Televisa aired a comedy skit in which an actor dressed as Brewer rampages through Mexico City with a stun gun, zapping people. The country’s newspapers have been running articles daily about the legal battle over the law.

Academics in Mexico say they are paying attention to the Arizona law and similar proposals in other U.S. states, said Victor Manuel Sánchez, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, a graduate school in Mexico City.

“It’s going to have an effect on the ways people migrate,” Sánchez said.

The Mexican government has also made changes to its own immigration laws after some rights groups, such as Amnesty International, claimed it was mistreating illegal immigrants in its country.

This month, Mexico increased the punishment for migrant smugglers from a maximum of 12 years in prison to 16 years.

And the Mexican Interior Ministry said it will step up efforts to protect migrants here in response to a report by the United Nations that accused Mexico police of robbing migrants and extorting bribes from them.

However, Mexico retains Article 67, a law that requires local Mexican authorities to check the immigration papers of all foreigners who come to them for help.

Many Mexicans coming off the deportation flight here last week said the risk of being punished as criminals under the Arizona law was making them think twice about trying to get back into the state.

“I think people are going to think harder about it and decide not to risk it because it’s scary to think that you’ll be tried as a criminal and they’ll want to put you in jail,” said Francisco Juárez, who jumped a border fence into Arizona on Tuesday and was caught minutes later by the Border Patrol.

Others, though, said nothing would stop them. “My wife is up there. My whole life is up there,” said Efrén de la Paz, 34. “Of course I’m going to try again.”

Contributing: Sergio Solache

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Rasmussen: Brewer 56%, Goddard 37%

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:54:05 +0000

Rasmussen provides some new Arizona poll numbers:

A new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey finds Brewer leading Democrat Terry Goddard by a 56% to 37% margin. That’s little changed from a month ago. Just two percent (2%) prefer another candidate while five percent (5%) are undecided.

Brewer’s prospects dramatically improved after she signed the much talked about immigration law that has become the subject of a national debate. In Arizona, 65% of voters continue to favor the law while just 27% are opposed. Nationally, most voters would like a similar law in their own state.

By a 60% to 34% margin, Arizona voters oppose the Justice Department lawsuit against their state. Opposition to the lawsuit is similar nationwide. The law is scheduled to go into effect on July 29 and a federal court is currently hearing the federal government’s claim that the law should not be implemented.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters in Arizona want President Obama to send more U.S. troops to their state in an effort to help secure the border. Only six percent (6%) believe there are already too many troops in the state.

Forty percent (40%) believe that the immigration law has had a positive impact on the state’s image while 46% believe it’s had a negative impact.

Forty-three percent (43%) believe the law is good for the state’s economy while 37% say it’s bad for the economy.

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Downing

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:00 +0000

We’re living in a golden age of TV (not including all that ‘reality’ stuff)

by Rene Downing

We live in an age of great television. Not all television is great, of course—not even a small percentage of it is worth a single minute of your time on Earth. From what I’ve heard (and yes, I’m condemning reality TV sight-unseen), watching shows like The Real Housewives of New Jersey is the entertainment equivalent of consuming trans fats: Even now, millions of Americans are accruing irreversible spiritual damage from the intake of those sounds and images. But still. There…

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Team Hayworth Blasts McCain’s Ties to Convicted Ponzi Schemer

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:34:40 +0000

After noticing our earlier post on their candidate’s links to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramhoff, Team Hayworth suggested we note U.S. Sen. John McCain’s ties to fundraiser Scott Rothstein, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison last month for running a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Here’s the story from Jonathan J. Cooper, via HuffPo:

A now-disbarred Florida lawyer who admitted to orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme gave more than $180,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, contributions that McCain’s Senate rival is now making an issue in their competitive primary.

Scott Rothstein was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison after he confessed to running a $1.2 billion fraud using faked legal settlements.

Rothstein also was a key contributor and fundraiser who bundled more than $500,000 in campaign contributions for McCain’s 2008 race, according to the campaign finance watchdog Center for Responsive Politics.

The exact amount he raised from others is unknown, but Rothstein boasted to the Wall Street Journal in 2008 that he raised as much as $1.1 million for McCain.

The campaign of former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging McCain in Arizona’s Aug. 24 Republican primary, demanded that the four-term senator account for and donate all of the money connected to Rothstein.

“McCain can’t have it both ways. He can’t be the champion of campaign finance reform one day and then take more than a million dollars from a convicted felon the next day,” Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders said.

Read the whole thing here.

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A showdown over immigration

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:56:26 +0000

Yet the 22-year-old who graduated recently from Northern Arizona University spends her weekends in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods in Flagstaff, Ariz., raising money to battle the state’s new immigration law. She and other volunteers pass collection cups around soccer matches, neighborhood festivals and quinceañeras— traditional Hispanic coming-of-age parties for girls turning 15.

“I’ve never been more of a churchgoer in my life than now,” Cooper, a volunteer with the Repeal Coalition, a group trying to repeal the state’s immigration law, says of her fundraising efforts.

Cooper and others who feel strongly about Arizona’s immigration enforcement law are preparing for what could be an onslaught of litigation starting July 29, when the law is scheduled to go into effect. It would require police officers to question the immigration status of suspects stopped for another offense if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” they are in the country illegally.

The law has spurred protest marches, support rallies and economic boycotts. It has renewed the focus on immigration in the upcoming congressional elections, energizing Tea Party activists who say Arizona’s law is needed because of the federal government’s failings in securing the border.

The law’s fate, and that of about 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, will be determined in court. The outcome of the legal battle over immigration in Arizona could jeopardize hundreds of immigration laws passed by state and local governments.

Seven lawsuits, including one by the Department of Justice, have been filed in federal court to try to stop the state’s law; a court hearing on the Justice suit and one other case is scheduled for Thursday. Even if the law does take effect as scheduled, its enforcement could spur another rush to state courthouses.

So advocates on both sides of the debate are gearing up for a fight. Prosecutors across the state are learning immigration law — the enforcement of which is typically handled by federal officers — for the first time.

Cities such as Flagstaff that refuse to enforce the new state law are preparing to defend themselves if they are sued.

A police training video warns that activists could try to entrap law enforcement officers with video cameras by trying to force a confrontation. Defense lawyers are searching for help in Arizona and beyond to defend people they believe will be wrongfully questioned under the law.

Supporters of the law say it was necessary to stem a dangerous stream of illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona. Some, such as Rick Gray, a member of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots who is running for a seat in the state Legislature, say Arizona had to act because the U.S. government has ignored the problem.

“It really should be an embarrassment to our federal government,” Gray says. “If we cannot secure our border, there’s an impotence there.”

Gabriel Chin, a professor at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, says the passion over the law is “unlike anything that I’ve seen here, both because it affects so many people potentially in the legal system and because of the civil rights and constitutional implications.” He adds, “Something has been unleashed here in Arizona that … had not existed before.”

Challenging the law

The first line of attack for critics is the series of lawsuits in federal court in Phoenix trying to stop the law from taking effect.

One of the main arguments in those suits is that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and Arizona’s law tries to take over that role. In court documents, Department of Justice attorneys argue that the new law — officially called the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act — “crossed a constitutional line” by encroaching on a federal responsibility.

Foster Maer, an attorney for LatinoJustice, a Hispanic civil rights group supporting the lawsuits, says that stance is bolstered by statements made by Arizona politicians, law enforcement officers and the bill itself that express a desire to drive people out of the state. The bill states that “the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.”

“It’s that whole attitude that fundamentally reflects, ‘Yes, we’re trying to take over immigration policy,’ ” he says. “It really demonizes Latinos generally and immigrants specifically.”

Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, says the lawsuits his group and others filed serve as a warning to other states weighing similar immigration laws.

Having the federal government join the challenges, he says, acts as a “cannon shot across the bow” to those states.

State legislatures passed 353 immigration-related laws in 2009 and introduced more than 1,100 this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Those laws dealt with far less controversial issues, such as fining businesses that hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there were 11.9 million illegal immigrants nationwide in 2008.

Ruthann Robson, a constitutional law professor at the City University of New York School of Law, says judges rarely halt laws from taking effect. The Justice Department and other challengers must show that irrevocable harm will result from the law, which Robson says is difficult.

“It’s almost like saying, ‘This is an emergency. You need to do something now before what happens can’t be fixed,’ ” she says. The law could still be found unconstitutional later on, even if it takes effect.

For Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who signed the law April 23, finding the money and manpower to defend her state has not been easy.

To do so, Brewer created the Border Security and Immigration Legal Defense Fund. The fund has collected roughly $1.2 million from private citizens in 50 states through mail and online contributions, according to Brewer’s office. Brewer has called the lawsuit a “massive waste of taxpayer funds” and has said “these funds could be better used against the violent Mexican cartels than the people of Arizona.”

The governor hired a legal firm — Arizona-based Snell and Wilmer — to lead the defense.

Outside legal experts are assisting, including the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which advocates limiting immigration, and University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law professor Kris Kobach, who has helped Arizona and other state and local governments draft and defend tough immigration laws.

Yet the law institute’s Michael Hethmon says they are still outmanned.

“The number of attorneys involved on the alien side of this probably outnumber the legal team on the enforcement side by thousands to one,” he says. He calls his group’s efforts to curtail illegal immigration through state and local laws “a march out into the heartland.”

The state’s main defense to the claim that it is performing federal duties: The new law is merely an extension of the hundreds of immigration-related bills passed by states and local governments across the nation in recent years.

Arizona’s 2007 law fining businesses that hire illegal immigrants was similarly challenged as threatening federal authority. It has been upheld by a federal district court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge to the 2007 law and is scheduled to do so this year.

Attorneys working overtime

If the new Arizona law survives the initial challenges and takes effect, Arizona’s city and county attorneys will be tasked with prosecuting violators in court.

In Pima County, Ariz. — one of the most active corridors for illegal immigration in the country — the state attorney’s office already is stretched thin.

A 10% cut in the budget over the past two years has left two dozen attorney positions vacant, leaving 74 lawyers. They are handling more responsibilities and working longer hours with no overtime pay.

Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall says she has cobbled together a team of her attorneys to dive into immigration law for the first time. With no financial assistance from the state for the added work, her team has amassed more than $40,000 in attorney hours figuring out how to handle the new law, she says.

“One of my attorneys said, ‘I go to bed thinking about this law, and I wake up thinking about it,’ ” LaWall says. “That’s not healthy.”

The Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council regularly trains its prosecutors on new laws enacted by the Legislature.

The council’s interim executive director, Elizabeth Ortiz, says her staff sometimes relies on officials from other states to train Arizona prosecutors on enforcing new laws.

This time, Arizona is leading the way. It is the first to make being in the country illegally a state crime, and there is no example to fall back on. “We will figure it out,” Ortiz says.

The law allows for jail sentences of up to six months for multiple violations and could lead to the deportation of people who are in the country illegally.

Dave Byers, director of the administrative office of the Arizona Supreme Court, says state court officials will hold a special training session through videoconferences with state judges because many aspects of the new law will be challenged in court.

“We don’t train judges on the answers to those questions,” Byers says. “We will explain to them … areas where they will likely get cases.”

State police officials are preparing the state’s 15,000 officers to defend themselves against potential lawsuits.

Part of a 90-minute training video produced for the officers warns that activists will try to entrap them into abusing the law, using recording equipment to document their every move and analyzing their police reports in detail.

“The scrutiny (you) will be placed under in the next few months will be unlike you’ve ever seen,” immigration attorney Beverly Ginn warns officers in the video.

‘We’re not trying to alarm people’

The defense of illegal immigrants charged under the law probably will vary by county, Pima County Public Defender Robert Hirsh says. Most of the crimes created by the new law are misdemeanors, and Hirsh says his office generally doesn’t defend people charged with basic misdemeanors. Larger counties, such as Maricopa County, which encompasses parts of Phoenix, could do so, he says.

Yet Hirsh says such work may not be necessary because some law enforcement agencies simply may use the law to hand over suspected illegal immigrants to federal officials.

The Justice Department says in court papers that the law would burden federal agencies while distracting them from higher priorities, such as illegal immigrants involved in terrorism, drug smuggling and gang activity.

“Are they really going to run these people through misdemeanor court, while they’re dealing with diminishing budgets?” Hirsh asks.

National civil rights groups are rallying legal support for those arrested under the new law.

“We’re definitely beefing up our presence in Arizona,” says Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Hispanic civil rights group.

Legal citizens questioned under the law may take their grievances to court.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, director of the ACLU of Arizona, says the organization has been training community groups around the state on how to receive complaints.

“People are going to go to the organizations and the churches that they feel more comfortable with,” Meetze says.

Community groups such as the Somos America Coalition train citizens in community centers, high school auditoriums and gatherings in people’s living rooms about their rights, what to do if they are arrested and how their families should respond if they are separated.

“We’re not trying to alarm people,” said Alfredo Gutierrez, co-founder of the coalition. “We’re trying to allay their fears on how to best protect them.”

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The McCain-Hayworth-Deakin Debate

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:30:26 +0000

U.S. Sen. John McCain and Republican challenger J.D. Hayworth spent a second night tearing each other apart, while Jim Deakin laughed at both of them and promised to dismantle everything from Medicare to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Top Stories Tucson » News

Arizona appeals block on immigration law

Police Dispatch

‘The War Funding Vote: A Credit Card for War, But No Cash for Teachers’

Show Cancelled at Solar Culture

Mexico braces for effects of Arizona immigration law

Rasmussen: Brewer 56%, Goddard 37%

Downing

Team Hayworth Blasts McCain’s Ties to Convicted Ponzi Schemer

A showdown over immigration

The McCain-Hayworth-Deakin Debate