I have a question for you: Do I look "illegal?"
I'm probably not going to get pulled over and questioned about my citizenship while driving in Arizona. I'm probably not going to have to carry my birth certificate in my car to prove I was born in the United States. And let's be honest: The only reason this is true is because I am not a Latino.
It's disgraceful that Latinos have to worry about this in any state in the union in 2010.
Brave New's Cuéntame project has been at the forefront of the fight against Arizona's racist anti-immigrant law, which allows the targeting of anyone a police officer "reasonably suspects" is in the country without documentation. (Reasonableness in the state that just threatened the jobs of teachers with accents is, of course, in the eye of the beholder.) We've tracked this issue in a series of short videos and launched a Facebook drive for an economic boycott targeting this unjust law.
A couple of days ago, though, we had a real breakthrough in our activism online. We let our supporters on Facebook vote for a slogan for a t-shirt to protest the racist law, and we got an avalanche of comments. "Do I Look 'Illegal?'" came out on top, and within hours we had hundreds of orders for t-shirts bearing this slogan. Shortly after, the phrase was in use on the major Latino groups on Facebook.
Clearly, there's a hunger out there for ways to push back against the racism insinuating itself into state policies and the wider national discourse.
I have a second question for you: Do you look "illegal?"
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A people who built a place and reside in that place have the right to determine how they will live. The paralells that I see and the history ignored is the similarities between a distant Government (Washington/England) telling remote States (Arizona/Colonial America) how they will conduct their lives.
There is no parallel with Nazi Germany there is a distinct parallel with Colonial Pre-revolution America.
Please cease desist from writing any more articles....you're making yourself look very foolish.
Thanks, signed anyone with common sense.
So maybe if these same said conservative latinos had actually paid attention to that old nazi chestnut, they should have been voting to HELP LGBT Americans attain EQUAL rights. Since we have been attacked for some time now, the right wingers feel empowered to now go after other non-white and/or heterosexual groups, and that means latinos are now being targeted.
Sometimes irony can really bite you in the @$$.
Not all conservatives "go after" non-white and/or non-heterosexual groups. Wow, that is not very open minded of you to think that way. In my opinion, all LEGAL citzens of the USA deserve equal rights.
Do you beleive it is ok for a police officer to require to see my driver's license if I happen to fail to signal a left hand turn while at a stop sign?
This bill does also cover employers of illegals.
If you really care to know the truth read the bill
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf and a simple explanation
Center for Immigration Studies
http://cis.org/Announcement/AZ-Immigration-SB1070
"Before asking a person about immigration status, law enforcement officials are required by the law to have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal immigrant. The concept of “reasonable suspicion” is well established by court rulings. Since Arizona does not issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, having a valid license creates a presumption of legal status. Examples of reasonable suspicion include:
• A driver stopped for a traffic violation has no license, or record of a driver's license or other form of federal or state identification.
• A police officer observes someone buying fraudulent identity documents or crossing the border illegally.
• A police officer recognizes a gang member back on the street who he knows has been previously deported by the federal government.
The law specifically states that police, “may not solely consider race, color or national origin” when implementing SB 1070.
When Arizona’s governor signed the new law, she also issued an executive order requiring the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board to provide local police with additional training on what does and what does not constitute “reasonable suspicion.”
What is truly disgraceful is that you and those who seemingly support the status quo on boarder enforcement want to continue empowering the human traffickers, murders, rapists, and violent criminal illegals that victimize Latinos.
Authorities say the boy called 911 early Tuesday saying his 44-year-old mother might be dead. The teen and his mother were illegal border crossers and the boy says Mexican smugglers had kicked them out of a vehicle because she was sick.
Deputies found three illegal immigrants in the desert about 50 miles west of here Wednesday, a day after authorities discovered as many as 100 immigrants abandoned by smugglers in temperatures that exceeded 110 degrees.
Suspected Illegal Immigrant Charged With Rape, Impregnating 10-Year-Old Girl
Suspect in 2 Rapes Is Charged; Courts: Jose Zavala, an illegal immigrant from Mexico... He is accused of raping a 64-year-old woman who lives in the Thunderbird Oaks.
A Salvadoran man who was in the United States illegally has been charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Manassas girl
Rape Charges: The suspect, an illegal immigrant, has a criminal record, has used aliases and has been deported twice after serving jail time.
A 17-year-old charged with raping an 8-year-old girl and leaving her for dead at an abandoned landfill is in the United States illegally.
An illegal alien from Ecuador has been charged with raping a 6-year-old girl with Down syndrome, authorities said.
Robert you should be ashamed!
Why are you being so hard on them???
From our geneaology as best as I can my ancestors have served in the Armed forces in every generation back to colonial times with some branches of the family a bit late off the boat.
In the debate about immigration I keep hearing an overt anglo-phobia. Now I'll be the first to admit we conquered this land and displaced other people to obtain it. Slavery is a blight on our history too. But the same European-Americans who allowed slavery fought and perished to end it (I realize that the reasons for the Civil war are vast and debatable). Until recently the United States has been a nation of European-American people.
So while we may take most of the blame for the failures of our nation the same must go with the credit. That's not to minimalize anyone's contribution, it just a sheer matter of numbers. The European-American for the most part founded and built this country, along with the at first enslaved but now equal African Americans. As my African-Americans brothers are proud to celebrate their rich heritage so do I celebrate my European-American forebearers, their culture and custom.
I'm not reassured by the protests, I see that the immigrant right advocates have used more American Flags this time which is a positive step but I still see the divisions of MeCha, and LaRaza, and the chanting in Spanish. It seems it is the immigrants who want to cling to the other to that which separates us. As a European-American it almost seems as my culture and heritage is to be diminished. What a strange situation that my people could create a Nation that so many are so desperate to come to but so contemptous and sickened by the culture that created it. It's a paradox that I have not been able to satisfactorily unravel.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/05/02/20100502arizona-border-violence-mexico.html
So let's put it in perspective. Whether they do racial profiling or not law enforcement does a lot of racial stereotyping. Moreover, they tend to be right wing politically. Contrary to the civil manner in which gun toting tea baggers get treated my experience at left wing demonstrations has been uniformly bad since the 60's. The cops look for any excuse to break things up and toss lefties in jail. It's all about law enforcement politics. Of course, the police will cook up any story that suits them to claim "reasonable suspicion" for stopping pigmented people. This law will accomplish nothing towards dealing with illegal immigration because it attacks the wrong end of the problem. Until we start jailing the employers of illegal immigrants we won't see real change. But are we ready for the economic consequences?
"Do I Look Like I Hire Illegals?
"Am I in the country illegally?"