Feds pressure bosses to fire immigrants

Once again Tucson activists filled the intersection of Congress and Granada to call for resistance to the notorious SB 1070 law, slated to take effect on July 29. Gathering in front of the state building on July 9, Tucsonans protested and listened to local poets and spoken-word artists denounce SB 1070 and proclaim “We will resist” this racist law.

Many young Indigenous activists vowed to resist SB 1070. WW photo: Paul Teitelbaum

Indigenous activists spoke of the continuing injustice on their lands and offered traditional prayers and dance to build unity and beat back the attack unleashed by SB 1070. An open mike was made available, and many people, most notably youth, expressed their outrage and determination to organize and fight back against this law and the right-wing forces that pushed it upon Arizona.

Two days later, on July 11, members of the Ya Basta! Coalition, which initiated the call for resistance to SB 1070, were invited to meet with an interfaith group of churches planning how they can participate in the day of resistance on July 29. Ya Basta! members spoke of the group’s intention to fill the streets of downtown and shut down the city. “We want no Operation Streamline that day,” Lynda Cruz said, referring to the mass trials of immigrants that occur in the federal courthouse downtown. “We want no business as usual in the state building,” she continued. “We want to shut down downtown.”

Other Ya Basta! members talked of how they were encouraging a day of no work, no school, no buying and selling — a day when people will stop everything and fill up the streets of downtown Tucson. Many of the churches participating in the meeting expressed interest in this and offered to organize caravans from their parishes to downtown.

Federal lawsuit, increased raids

On July 6 the Obama Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer, seeking to stop the enforcement of SB 1070. The federal lawsuit claims that by passing SB 1070 the State of Arizona preempts federal law and violates what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution and federal statutes the highest law in the land. An individual state may not create laws that interfere with federal law. Since SB 1070 represents an attempt by Arizona to establish its own immigration policy, the lawsuit claims, it interferes with federal immigration policy and therefore federal law.

The lawsuit also claims that the State of Arizona will preempt federal law with SB 1070 by overriding federal law that allows the Department of Homeland Security to exercise prerogatives when it comes to immigration policy. SB 1070 allows no prerogatives and mandates that police agents must comply with the law or face a civil liability. There are times when federal immigration law may be waived and a person is allowed to remain in the United States, such as in the case of the anti-Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who freely resides in Florida. The federal government claims that SB 1070 would preempt this prerogative.

It is clear from the Obama administration’s statements and the reading of the lawsuit that this filing does nothing to advance the immigrant rights struggle. There is scant mention of racial profiling or the expanding police powers that SB 1070 unleashes. Nor has Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder or anyone else in the administration taken the time to dispel Gov. Brewer’s wild statements and outright lies about increased border crime, drug trafficking, extortion, kidnappings, murders and even beheadings all caused, she says, by migrants. (Washington Post, July 11)

Although an injunction against SB 1070 would be welcome, it will do nothing to affect the war being waged against immigrants. The racist demagogy continues, the border militarization continues, the community and workplace raids continue. Deportations have increased, far outpacing the levels set during the Bush administration.

The immigration section of the Department of Homeland Security has undertaken a more clandestine, less visible approach to terrorizing immigrant workers. Instead of descending on a business in a full military-style assault and rounding up workers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents now quietly audit the employee records of companies, levy fines and force the company to fire undocumented workers. The workers’ lives are thrown into turmoil, and the company is pushed to request low-wage “guest workers” to replace those they just fired. (New York Times, July 9)

The outcome of the federal lawsuit against SB 1070 will not affect the tactics of Tucson’s Ya Basta! Coalition. The Month of Resistance to SB 1070 continues and plans for a major mobilization on July 29 are being refined as the coalition gathers steam.

If SB 1070 is declared null and void in a courtroom, the people will still be in the streets, letting the state know that they will not tolerate this racist attack. Activists demand an end to the militarization of the border, the criminalization of migrants and the attacks against workers, whether by military-style ICE raids or backroom audits.