Vessel

I was arrested in Arizona protesting SB 1070. It was kind of like giving birth in being the most painful yet joyful experience one can have. Humiliating, frightening, horrific at times, and yet listening to other prisoners, watching other’s strength and singing together hand in hand gives me fierce hope.

In discussing this with your friends, here are some helpful responses to common arguments:

1. Well, illegal immigrants are illegal, so they should be punished.

It’s more helpful to think of that term as an immigration status, not something that people have done wrong. If illegal immigration was a criminal activity, then produce, construction and meat packing companies couldn’t put ads in Mexican newspapers encouraging people to cross the border for low-paying jobs. They’d be charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. Wonder why Joe Arpaio targets immigrant communities instead of the businesses that hire them? Families are vulnerable. Corporations aren’t.

2. Being anti-illegal immigrant isn’t racist.

Yes, it is. Racism is prejudice plus power. If you are prejudiced against people because of where they are from, then you are racist. If you think they are stealing our jobs, then you’d be focusing on comprehensive immigration reform and business reform to stop them from offering those jobs. Yet these anti-illegal measures are not coming out of the chamber of commerce, they’re targeting families and individuals. If you are against illegal immigration, not illegal immigrants, then you’d be for comprehensive immigration and business reform, not “get them all out now at any cost”.

3. Non-citizens don’t have rights.

Yes, they do. When the 14th amendment was passed, it gave rights to the non-citizens of its day: slaves. Look it up.

4. Getting arrested for the sake of getting arrested is stupid, and that’s what you did in Phoenix.

Sort of. I come from a conservative state. I held dim views on civil disobedience. I’ve never been arrested for anything before, and yet willingly chose to be arrested in this way on July 29th. If I hadn’t, I would not be able to understand Phoenix like I do now.

One should look at the specific situation. I didn’t rob a gas station because I disagreed with SB 1070. I stood in the street and blocked traffic. Others blocked the jail. Both of these actions were symbolic attempts to block immigration raid vans, which Sheriff Joe was planning to do that day. He did not raid. Which, by the way, I view as racist and illegal. Arresting people to deport them prempts the federal power to do so. And he arrests people that appear to be illegal, which is not white people. What can one do when a corrupt system enacts its own self-justified laws? That’s why it’s civil disobedience. Also, it shows that we are in solidarity with those who are arrested for no reason than the color of their skin. And don’t spout legalism at me as a reason to obey or tolerate unjust laws. If you want to fully follow the letter of the law all the time then let’s go back to all the treaties we broke with natives and give them their land back.

5. Joe Arpaio enjoys a 76% voting approval rate, and is always voted in. So what he’s doing is what the people want.

What I witnessed down there is the New Jim Crow. He purposely arrests people of color, using immigration as a smoke screen, and either gets a trumped up felony charge against them or makes them too afraid to organize and vote. While I was there I listened to hundreds of people arrested for nothing, but most were brown. I know a community in fear when I hear it. I also know that he always has 5 or 6 people attempt to run against him, who are then continually harassed by the police Joe Arpaio. The Mayor of Phoenix is suing him for harassment. That’s how you get a high vote.

6. But illegal immigrants are violent! And bring drugs!

Once again, racism at work. Statiscally, illegal immigrants are less violent and border towns more peaceful than other towns of similar size. They are here to work and do not want to agitate anyone. They pay taxes through their paycheck like everyone else, but they do not get to use all the resources that citizens do. Check out the issue at the blog Bold Faith Type where they offer up statistics to counter this myth that Jan Brewer, Russell Pearce and Joe Arpaio would have you believe. I thought the comparing the AZ situation to Hitler blaming Jews for all the problems in Germany was extreme before I left. Now I realize it is terrifyingly accurate - illegal immigrants are a scapegoat for a failed economy in Arizona.

7. It’s ok if states take care of immigration in their own hands because the federal government isn’t doing anything.

No. We need comprehensive immigration reform at the national level to avoid situations like Arizona, where human rights abuses abound under falsehoods. They have rights at the federal level, and that is where energy should be focused. Arrest real criminals, not people who are here to work. The system is broken, and needs to be fixed. This is an American problem, and needs to be fixed by all of Americans, not by a Sheriff who is being sued by his own state. You want to try and travel across this nation where each state has its own laws about entering it, turning every state border into a customs office? That’s where we are headed if ‘let the state handle it’ logic prevails.

8. But the ‘show me your papers’ part of SB 1070 was stayed, so there’s no big deal.

Who knows for how long that will be stayed? There are other parts of the law that are troubling, not to mention 287g that justifies Arpaio’s raids on brown communities. What this legal battle in Arizona sets up is a legal precedence for the rest of the country. And there are more laws to follow, like SB 1097, which requires schools to report in illegal immigrant children to be deported or they’ll lose their funding. Families and neighborhoods aren’t enough, now they want to go after children. We need comprehensive reform to end this strife.

9. Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio and Russell Pearce are monsters!

No, they are people, with motivations like anyone else. Russell Pearce believes his son was killed by an illegal immigrant, and is exacting his vengeance on innocents. Joe Arpaio’s mother died in childbirth, and Jan Brewer makes a lot of money of off scapegoating illegal immigrants. A central point of Gahndi’s civil disobedience was love for your oppressors. There is a whole lot of healing that needs to happen, and that is why I always stand on the side of love.