Jeff Biggers: At Supreme Court, Arizona Leaves Affected Voices at Home: Q A With Carlos Garcia, Puente Human Rights Advocate

While Gov. Jan Brewer unceremoniously dumped her disgraced SB 1070 partner Russell Pearce from Arizona’s front seats at tomorrow’s historic Supreme Court hearing on the state’s controversial immigration law, the seminal voices of those most affected by Arizona’s punitive measures will remain tucked away in the shadows — and unheard, even in the landslide of media and political forums sure to follow. In effect, as legal experts battle over the ramifications of states’ rights and immigration jurisdiction, and political pundits range the arpeggio of opinions on racial profiling, criminalization of immigration without proper papers, and SB 1070’s “attrition by enforcement” approach that has struck a nerve with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the legions of undocumented laborers propping up Arizona’s fragile economic recovery in tourism, construction and agriculture have largely been cut out of the national discussion on the state’s landmark immigration showdown.