As the Supreme Court sits down this week to hear oral arguments in Arizona v. United States, pharm legal analysts will dissect the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070 from every possible angle. They will wrestle with questions of preemption and which party bears the burden of proof. They will attempt to reconcile SB 1070’s controversial language and
DetailsSo the so-called Se Communities program, which we prefer to call S-COM – because really it doesn’t make anyone any safer – is a federal deportation program. It’s tremendously controversial, and it is undermining public safety. It is putting victims and witnesses of crimes at risk of being deported, s and also burdening our local governments. The program operates through the sending of fingerprints. Whenever someone is arrested for any reason at all, their fingerprints are now sent off not just to the FBI, as they always were, but also to immigration officials. So from that fingerprint, what can come back almost instantly is what is called a detainer, or hold request. And that is a cruel request to trap a community member in our local jails when they would otherwise be let go. So we’ve seen victims, survivors of domestic violence, who may be arrested along with their abuser. And then they’re about to be let go as they should be, and suddenly they have this hold and it’s this…
DetailsWhile 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
DetailsThe U.S. Supreme Court takes up yet another incendiary election issue Wednesday when it hears arguments on a controversial Arizona law that targets illegal immigrants. As with last month’s test of the Obama health care overhaul, the case pits the federal government’s assertion of power against some states, and with some exceptions, it pits
DetailsTwo years ago, on July 29, 2010, I was arrested in Phoenix for nonviolent civil disobedience during large protests against SB1070, Arizona’s anti-immigrant law. As the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association and a man of faith, I knew it was my obligation to stand in opposition to this draconian legislation that harms immigrants and
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