Suddenly, I'm in Scottsdale. The film I co-directed with Annabel Park opens today in three theaters around the greater Phoenix area. A week ago, none of this was planned. But on that day, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into a law that sounded very familiar to me. (In fact, it was originally drafted by the same man, Michael Hethmon, a Washington DC attorney and anti-immigration lobbyist who is a central character in our film.) Moments later I was on the phone with Harkins Theatres, the largest independent theater chain in America, and the only one based in Arizona, and three days later I was on a plane.
If we are successful this weekend, I'm told that 9500 Liberty will be released in other cities in Arizona and across the country. (In this business, much depends on the opening weekend.)
I want to say on behalf of the people of Phoenix that you can't judge a state by its legislature. I have been welcomed by all, in particular members of the Phoenix business community deeply concerned about the potential economic impact of SB 1070. I imagine that's why 9500 Liberty enjoyed such great reception a few weeks ago at the Phoenix Film Festival. The concerns of the Phoenix business community -- mostly Republicans by the way -- are explored in this film about Prince William County, Virginia, my home, where a very similar mandate for immigration status checks was repealed after two months of implementation, due to its chilling economic impact, due to the expensive law suits it engendered, due to reemergence of the silent majority, due to the courage and integrity of the Police Chief, and, due to the behind-the-scenes leadership of the Prince William County business community.
I have to run and do a local TV news interview! So, if you 're interested in hearing more, I'll offer excerpts from an interview I did, which you can read in full at our website: www.9500Liberty.com.
On the economic impact of mandatory immigration enforcement at the local level:
Prince William County is one of many counties that are satellites of Washington, DC, where there's so much going on with defense contractors, and the federal government, and the lobbying industry. So our regional economy remains strong no matter what the national economy is doing. What happened with the Immigration Resolution was our county suffered in its competition with neighboring counties for capital investment. It's impossible to know how many investors or home owners or business owners we lost to Fairfax, or Arlington, or Loudoun County because for a year or so, people really didn't have a good impression of us in terms of racial harmony, political stability, and fiscal solvency. The foreclosure rate in our county grew to seven times the average for the region, which hurt our property values tremendously. This forced us to raise the tax rate, and, at the same, time cut back on public safety, school budgets, and other services.
The difference hopefully is that at the county level, businesses and will simply move across the county line if they don't like what the local government is doing, but in a state the size of Arizona, I imagine most businesses are stuck here because you're locked in the middle of the state. That might work to your advantage. On the other hand, you don't have the thriving regional economy that we have in the DC area. You're struggling economically, you have a big deficit, and really you need your economy to expand instead of contracting if you're going to take care of that. Deficits and a contracting economy are a bad recipe.
What do you think will happen with enforcing SB 1070 in Arizona? Can it be overturned?
I don't know how much [the bill] will change things in Maricopa County. The corruption of law enforcement with political agendas started here a long time ago. But I'm concerned it will spread to other parts of the state, and this will have a negative effect on public safety, as law enforcement officials statewide are less able to build relationships of trust with communities of color.
As far as overturning it, as long as it remains a partisan thing, there's no hope. If you want to change the law, it's going to require fiscally responsible leaders from both parties who are concerned about the economy to stand up and challenge it. That's what happened in Prince William County. The business community, the religious community, Republicans, Democrats and independents came together, and almost as soon as that happened, the police mandate for immigration status checks was repealed.
How would you say a bill like Arizona's SB 1070 affects the jobs of law enforcement officers?
I have a great deal of respect for the law enforcement profession. It's one of the things I value most about the making of 9500 Liberty. Learning what they do and how they approach their work. The law enforcement community -- I mean the real professionals who are not motivated by politicians and are more interested in the science of police work -- they understand that they need us to trust them in order to keep our communities safe. When people don't trust law enforcement, it hurts everyone -- people don't report crimes, people don't give the police tips to help solve crimes, people go to gang leaders to solve disputes rather than to the authorities, thus empowering the gangs. Trust between law enforcement and communities of color is essential to keeping all of us safe. And it's not just racial profiling you have to worry about here. Even the perception of racial profiling really hurts a community, because perception is what affects trust the most, not necessarily reality.
What was it like sitting across from Michael Hethmon [of the Federation for American Immigration Reform] and hearing his views?
I've grown accustomed to listening to opinions that are considered outside the mainstream. He was very candid, and I appreciate that. He said he sees diversity not as something to celebrate, but something to tolerate. I don't agree but I understand where he's coming from. A lot of it is simply based on a natural preference most people have to find and congregate with people who have similar views, culture, or race. The problem we ran into in Prince William County was this guy from Washington DC came to town and said, "I can help you legislate that preference." That's what FAIR does. They wait for an undocumented immigrant to commit some high profile crime that can be exploited politically. Then they come to town with their PowerPoint presentation saying I can help, but first we'll need some more fear. So then everything gets blown out of proportion and every crime your can find that supports that fear is seized upon.
I think we get into trouble when we're selecting and imparting information based on politics, not facts. Like that rancher in Arizona - they still don't have a suspect, right? Maybe he was killed by an illegal immigrant, maybe not, but it seems like fingers were pointed right away. In Prince William County our elected leaders were justifying Mr. Hethmon's law by saying their constituents were seeing a lot of Hispanics in ahead of them in line emergency room. These kinds of anecdotal assumptions are not a good foundation for legislation.
Dave Zirin: "This is Racist Stuff": Baseball Players/Union Speak Out Against Arizona Law
Yolanda Reid Chassiakos: A Woman Without a Country
With that Americans need to wake up an realize that boycotting Arizona will not stop politicians who are basically sub-contracted tools of Special Interest Groups! They don't only hold office here but in every state across the USA and we put them there because of our mass indifference to politics.
Both parties are at fault because they are indebted to those who contribute to their campaigns and when you are spending millions of dollars for a job that pays $90,000 a year you are buying more than a chance to represent a community.
If it's the same docs that are named in Gonzalez v. Arizona*, I don't really see that there's much of a burden being created here.
*(1) a state issued driver's license; (2) a U.S. birth certificate; (3) a U.S. passport; (4) a U.S. naturalization document; (5) another immigration document that proves citizenship; or, (6) a Bureau of Indian Affairs card number.
Well, perhaps not my EARLIEST opportunity...
You see, Mr. Byler, whether inadvertantly or not, has helpfully advised me that the largest independent theatre chain in America is "Harkins Theatres"...and that it is based in Arizona.
As such, I intend to make sure to never set foot in one of their venues, and advise as many of my neighbors as I can to do likewise,...and why.
Many thanks!
Buy American....boycott Arizona products and businesses
Regards
TM
And I'll endeavor to convince anyone who will listen to me to do the same.
I can't vote in Arizona elections....but back here in America we can choose to spend our money as we see fit....and since we believe in ALL the amendments to the constitution we can say and do as we like....unlike Arizonans with brown skin.
Vaya con Dios
TM
Migration is a natural phenomenon that has occurred for millenniums. Man-made measures will not stop or mitigate natural forces. Man-made measures are best directed to COPE WITH natural forces and its resulting effects.
All those Arizonians (and Americans elsewhere) including native Americans who are suggesting solutions to this natural phenomena should examine the reasons why their ancestors migrated to this country.
Those with European ancestry may want to read about the "Little Ice Age" across Europe that forced many of their ancestors to pack and flee to Americas with no paper-work. We need to learn from our albeit short history.
So, short of throwing up out hands and opening the borders to all comers, what do you suggest we do?
WHAT PART OF ILEGAL DON'T YU UNDERSTAND???????????????
AL MARTINEZ (HERE LEGALLY)
First, the polling numbers in Arizona indicate that the law is overwhelmingly popular. Arizonans as a group apparently think that Driving While Hispanic is at least a suspicious activity, deserving of police scrutiny.
Second, that legislature is elected. People either liked these folks or didn't care enough to bother voting. While I acknowledge that Arizona has done its best to make voting as difficult as possible without blatantly violating federal law, it still isn't that hard.
Arizona has some interesting voter ID rules. A US passport alone won't even suffice as proper ID in Arizona, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's website. The rules almost seem custom-designed to discourage seasonal workers, folks sharing living quarters, homeless folk and other poor folk from voting. (Why am I not surprised?)
Add to that Arizona's long history of opposing even such simple and harmless things as a holiday for Rev. Martin Luther King, and a pretty obvious pattern emerges. Arizona is a state for white folk and the hired help of white folk will be permitted to live there as long as they know their place.
Still, I'd be happy to find my observations wrong. C'mon, Arizona. Prove me wrong.
Please?
Tolerate people of color..what kind of statement is that. Are we so arrogant in the white community that we can't think of embrassing people as human beings based on their character and not the color of their flesh.
Obviously none of these nice people have ever been profiled by the police and law enforcement because of their color. There are good people in the police force, but there are some real losers.
Also, these white Republicans are the ones who elected the persons who made this decision in
Arizona. They seem to be afraid of the decisions of their elected officials. I hope their fear comes to pass and then maybe they can learn out if feels to be "kicked in the teeth" by society.
I remember Evan, and from a state that could give us HIM of all people, this law does not surprise me.
I won't spend a day or a dime there. I'm hoping Democrats in the US Senate and Obama sieze this moment and pass a sane Comprehensive Immigration Reform, I'm not holding my breath, but it's what needs to happen. Latin@s don't deserve any of this racist cr@p that's been spewed at them.
Witness the overwhelming support of "sheriff Joe" Arpaio in Maricopa county as he has been merrily profiling Blacks and Latinos, abusing the prisoners in his jails, fabricating evidence against defendants of all races, and glibly sitting for glowing media "puff-pieces" whereby racist yay-hoos in other parts of the country can write him glowing testimonials affirming HIS vision of what American law enforcement ought to be.
If you liked Lester Maddox you'll LOVE Jan Brewer
And if you liked Bull Connor, you'll LOVE Joe Arpaio
Your average working Arizonan actually believes:
>>That a union will actually LOWER his/her wages.....
>>That he/she should actively support efforts to BAN all bilingual education programs
>>That a no-holds-barred war on " illegal immigrants" (ALL Latinos, in truth) will somehow benefit them.
Eggh....don't get me started.......
Arizonans are getting exactly what they want from their elected representatives...because, for the most part they believe what thier Republican masters tell them to
TM
In short, whether it be a function of the school system
Unfortunately, the proponents of this law have failed to consider that this law is impacting both legal residents or citizens of Arizona and illegal immigrants. So Arizona wants the illegals out of the state okay why not focus the law on developing stronger boarders more money for boarder patrol. But to give police the broad power to say ask a person about their legal status based on what???? This is my problem. What does an illegal immigrant look like? Seriously, if I cannot identify one how can the police be trained on how to do this? This is my big problem with the law!! It smells of racial profiling. This law has a two part prong that has unfortunately not been considered by the public. I am okay with you trying to stamp out your state's illegal immigrant problem. I am not okay with racial profiling!!
The sad part is America is a country of immigrants. Every immigrant group has written its history of discrimination and exploitation by children of prior immigrants. I would have thought we would have mastered how to handle immigration; so that future generations of Americans are proud of their history and the land that welcomed them, rather that live for decades with the bitter experience of unfair treatment and exploitation.
The fault of the current problem is the inept Federal govt which under both Republican and Democratic Presidents are hamstrung by elected representatives like the two senators of Arizona. So to a great extent people of Arizona are to be blamed for electing two selfish short-sighted senators, who are more interested in re-election than in providing some leadership. And sadly the same applies to the rest of the country.
Polls show a 70 percent approval rating for the law. I'd like to see these businesses post on their doors that they don't support the law. Stand up and be counted for the crooks you are.