Racial Profiling Discussion Undermines Solidarity with Immigrants

The video of Lou Dobbs's show on which Al Sharpton and a representative of ACORN named Bertha Lewis criticized Arpaio has been emailed around. It exemplified my concern about the focus on Arpaio and racial profiling, which overshadows the real issues. Because they don't want to take a stance on "illegal" immigration they skirt the issue and focus on how it hurts the people we should be more concerned about.

Below are some excerpts of the transcript from the show. As you can see, the issue they are concerned with is only the racial profiling. I certainly don't think racial profiling is okay, but the focus on stopping people because of their skin color reinforces the idea that there is a supposedly legitimate reason to be stopping people- but it isn't the color of one's skin. What's left unsaid is that people being harassed and arrested because they are undocumented is not that much of a problem. Either that or it is not strategically useful to address that. Why not?

I understand that addressing the racial profiling exposes the hypocrisy of the sheriff's law enforcement tactics. And when the audience understand that as citizens they too can be caught up in this crazy man's antics, they might have sympathy for undocumented people. But the way the racial profiling thing is being discussed, it creates a hierarchy of people based on value. The citizen is more valuable than the non-citizen. The legal is more important than the "illegal". Sure, if you're on a mainstream tv show, especially Dobbs's show, it makes sense to speak the language. But i tend to think that the idea is not to advocate for the undocumented by exposing the racial profiling.

Despite the fact that Sharpton and Lewis were denying political motivation (as in not trying to gain power for Democrats), they are at the same time buying in to the terms of the debate set by mainstream politics. Even though they are criticizing Arpaio, i do not see them as advocates for undocumented immigrants.

If we want to be in solidarity with undocumented immigrants, we mustn't allow these movement leaders to control the terms of the debate.

SHARPTON:But when we are told that you have a sheriff that are pulling people over constantly because of the color of their skin, they become a suspect of being an illegal immigrant, that's a civil rights violation, Lou.

But on top of that, when you get people that are born American citizens saying because of the color of my skin, I'm constantly pulled over, questioned about show my citizenship papers, this is a violation of people's civil rights...

LEWIS: He actually is giving law enforcement folks who do the right thing a bad name.

Let me just say this. The federal government's job is to protect our borders and to make sure we have the same immigration program and so therefore...we cannot have people like Arpaio taking anything that he wants to do and profiling based on people's color. It's not right.

DOBBS: You conflated a number of things. One, that he is indeed racial profiling which he denies which by the way his department denies and over a fifth of his department is Hispanic, by the way. The rest of the statement that's interesting is, I asked you how is the federal government doing, in enforcing border security, and in enforcing U.S. immigration law. And what's ironic about that is, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security as governor of Arizona was the first person to call for emergency action on the border in her state.

SHARPTON: Well, again, we're confusing two issues. I think what National Action Network and NAACP board joined with ACORN today was on the violation of civil rights. We're not talking about immigration policy, one way or another on that issue...

SHARPTON: ...Bertha and I may disagree on how to deal with the border. All of us agree that people because of the color of their skin should not be stopped. When they do, we ought to deal with it. That was the basis we came on.


(Source).

Breaking down the Mexican Drug War

It is interesting to see how quickly the debate about border security has become dominated by the issue of violence and drugs. I thought i was just hearing more about it because i became interested in the parallels between the drug war and the war on migrants, turning to narco news for information, which also resulted in me getting google news alerts on the merida initiative or plan mexico. I have several articles bookmarked, waiting for me to read so i can better understand the implications of the plan mexico and other responses to the violence and the drug trade.

The drug cartel violence has been in the news in the US more lately because Hillary Clinton went down to Mexico to talk about it, and Obama recently decided to send more agents down to the border. I believe that some people are mainly afraid of the violence touching US citizens. I believe there are other stronger political motivations for getting involved.

What i have made of it so far is that the violence has increased because the drug war in Columbia caused cartels to form or grow in mexico to transport the same cocaine, along with marijuana and other drugs. The political corruption in Mexico is well known. In fact, most people figure that in the war on drugs, it's just that one cartel has been favored over the others, leading to more access to resources and impunity and therefore more war over turf. Of course the mexican government would rather control the cartels, and several within the government probably want there to be no cartels. However, since illicit drugs are the number one source of revenue in Mexico, it's no wonder that so many people, from poor youths to police officers, to the president, and from what i hear even people in the US DEA, are involved in it.

An important part of this is Los Zetas, "former Mexican soldiers from an elite US-trained Special Forces team who deserted to work in the more lucrative drug trade". They were trained as death squads, and in torture at the School of Americas. "While Los Zetas started out as the Gulf cartel’s private army, they appear to be diversifying their operations. The DEA reported this year that it believes Los Zetas are attempting to break free from the Gulf cartel to form their own cartel... Los Zetas have entered the immigration industry in southern Mexico with relative ease and little resistance from other more established Mexican cartels." This and more information can be found at "Wall of Violence" on Mexico's Southern Border by Kristin Bricker. See also: US created monsters: Zetas and Kaibiles death squads by Brenda Norrell.

Despite knowing that Los Zetas were trained by the US and now are involved in the violence of the drug war that the US is so concerned about, the government wants to provide more resources and training to the mexican army. This also despite the common knowledge of the corruption. Of course, this isn't so unusual since we know that Osama bin Laden and others were also trained by the US.

The bad decisions made under the guise of a war against drugs also fits the pattern of the previous failed attempts in the war against drugs in Columbia. Efforts have not been made to deal with the demand for drugs (legalization, decriminalization and/or treatment). I believe that everyone mainly wants drug cartels under control. Whether or not they really want to stop the drug trade is another story. In fact, there is much evidence that the US government, or at least certain individuals are directly involved in the drug trade.

What I am primarily concerned about is what the training, resources, and whatever else is going to the mexican army will mean for indigenous and rebellious communities in mexico. There are already too many examples of disappearings, murder, torture, imprisonment, and other abuses as it is. Zapatista communities have been invaded by soldiers claiming to be looking for marijuana plants, despite the communities having a policy against drugs and alcohol. See another case: Video: Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities. See also EZLN Criticizes the Drug War.

I think it was John Ross's book Zapatistas: Making Another World Possible: Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006 in which he described foreign investor's concern that the Mexican government get the Zapatistas under control after the uprising in 1994. US investors have a lot of stake in being able to exploit mexican people and resources. Something that could not continue if they were able to break free. It is likely not a coincidence that the huge uprising in Oaxaca occurred recently and now the US government is getting involved militarily to help maintain the stability of the the country. On a side note, i find it interesting that so many anti-immigrant folks would argue that migrants should go back to mexico to fight for a better country. I hope that if it came down to it, those people would protest any effort the US government makes to help the mexican government stop a rebellion. I don't see that happening.

The Merida Initiative will also benefit the military industrial complex by putting money into buying US-made aircraft and other technology, as Kristin Bricker describes in US Releases $90 million in Plan Mexico Military Hardware and Training.

This drug war is, in a way, already affecting people in the US. Sheriff Arpaio is giving as his primary reason for pulling over every brown-skinned driver, the fact that some undocumented immigrants are falling victim to those involved in drug and human trafficking in maricopa county. This is resulting in the undocumented immigrants who get caught up in the sweeps lingering in jail, detention centers, or being deported, in addition to getting abused, in some cases, by officers (although aside from broken arms, i'd call the whole operation abuse).

In addition, youth of color in the US may be further targeted in the drug war. According to Kristin BrickerGangs: New Target in the War on Drugs? "Since the US is the world's biggest drug market and Mexican drug trafficking organizations' primary source of weapons, US officials can't blame Latin America for all of its drug woes. So they're turning to gangs. The US government recently released three major drug-related reports: the National Drug Threat Assessment, the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, and the National Gang Threat Assessment. In all reports, gangs figure prominently in drug trafficking. The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report is broken down by country, and gangs feature prominently in almost every country report."

So the question is, what can be done? Although i never thought of myself as someone who would put effort into the legalization of drugs, this seems like a reasonable way to stop the drug cartels. In fact, i'm seeing more discussions about drug legalization in mainstream media and apparently El Paso's city council are talking about it as well. We know that the economic situation, as well as the natural corruptness of those in power are the main problem. People in the US need to bring to light was is really going on here, stop the Merida Initiative, and all militarization on the border, and in our communities. We need long term strategies fighting neo-liberal projects, capitalism, and the state in Mexico and the US.



Further reading:

US Police Train Mexican Police to Torture

Estado Fallido en México: Una justificación para la militarización (babel fish translation)

Why Plan Mexico will Crash and Burn

Video: Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities

Russell Pearce is an A-Hole

I was just listening to the senate judiciary committee (AZ) hearing regarding the warrants the mcso hasn't served. This is streaming on the web. Man, i can understand why these senators think they deserve higher salaries. That shit is boring. But i still don't think they should get higher salaries. Overall, i didn't find listening to it at all useful.

I was able to hear Russell Pearce spew some trash from his mouth. One particularly interesting quote that i was able to type right after i heard it was a portion of a sentence, "The sheriff’s the only one doing preventive law enforcement..." referring to Arpaio.

Preventive law enforcement, huh? Doesn't that imply that a crime has not yet been committed?

Check out some of his bills in the senate:

(this text is from an email he put out. excuse his poor spelling and grammar- he's just a government official)

Trespass: I have a bill to make it a state crime to enter or remain in Arizona in violation of federal law. A 2nd violation is a felony and a if one brings drugs or weapons into the country it is a class 2 felony with mandatory prison time.

SB1160 vehicle title; registration; legal presence (requested by law enforcement)
This bill would put the same requirements on titling or registering a vehicle of legal presence as required to get a driver’s license. Will have a tremendous affect on illegal’s driving around illegally. According to law enforcement a large percentage of hit and runs and serious and fatal accidents are involving illegal aliens.

SB1172 schools; data; non citizen students
This is needed to really know how many illegal aliens and non citizens are in our school. It does not prevent them from attending, but the debate continues on how many are really in our K-12 system at a cost of $9700 per student. The taxpayer has an inherent right to know who they are paying for.

SB1173 public housing; legal presence
Requires proof of citizenship to get public housing.

SB1175 illegal aliens; enforcement; trespassing. (remove handcuffs from law enforcement - Supported by Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, Sheriff Joe, County Attorney Thomas, Border Patrol 2544, law enforcement, Republican Party, and others)

SB1177 unauthorized aliens; employment; application; transporting (a good fix to the day labor problem)
This bill makes it a misdemeanor to solicit employment and makes it a state crime to employ them and requires anyone transporting them for purposes of work to have their vehicle impounded for a mandatory 30 days.

SB1243 justification; defensive display of firearm
This is a simple bill supported by the NRA and Citizens for Self Defense. It allows citizens to display a weapon in self defense without being charged with a crime.

SB1334 workers' compensation; unauthorized aliens
No workers compensation for illegal aliens. An employer who illegally employees them must be totally responsible for any injuries. This is needed because of a silly Arizona Supreme Court ruling.

SB1335 unauthorized aliens; licensing ( an enhancement to the Employer Sanctions bill)
This strengthens our Employer Sanctions bill (by the way we just won for the 5th time in court) This puts more teeth in requiring businesses to sign up for E-Verify and gives the County Attorney's civil subpoena authority to look at personal files of a business if the info that gives reasonable cause to believe they have illegal aliens employed (we will get a ton of resistance to leadership to not give this bill a hearing)

SB1337 driver license violations (a law enforcement request and just puts it back to how it use to be)
Makes not having a driver’s license a misdemeanor so they can arrest them. Today they cannot because it is a civil penalty. If they are lying, no ID, speak no English and they know they are a gang member or an illegal alien they must let them go. If you have a driver’s license and just don't have it on you it will not affect you.

SB1242 weapons; peace officers; posse; reserves (a fix on Reserve Officers that was left out accidentally)
Gives the Sheriff's more control over their voluntary Posses, Reserves when it comes to allowing them to carry Concealed.

Kidnapping and Violence against Undocumented Immigrants

Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the U.S.. Why are those of us in the area barely hearing about it? Because it's happening to undocumented immigrants and drug dealers, not to those considered "us" by the media and the authorities. Can you imagine what things would be like if mexicans were kidnapping white people here in phoenix? It would be quite a different attitude coming from the media and government officials. Of course they're worried that the drug-related violence, which is much worse in Mexico, will touch "us" soon enough, which is partly why they are throwing money into the drug war in Mexico. Notice the statement below about not one involving a "truly innocent victim" in the article called Human smuggling makes Phoenix kidnapping capital of U.S.

In the past year, there were 359 kidnappings in Phoenix, and not one was legitimate involving a truly innocent victim, said Mark Spencer, head of the union which represents more than 2,500 Phoenix police officers. He said all the kidnappings were connected to illegal immigration and the numbers may represent just the tip of the iceberg.

"The investigators up at the violent crimes bureau are estimating that this 359 represents just one-third of the reported kidnappings that take place in Phoenix," Spencer said.

Also view Napolitano's recent statements on putting more agents on the border.

"Every American has a stake in this," Janet Napolitano said in a phone interview with USA Today. "Violence on the border easily seeps into our communities. It also creates a fear in border communities that the rule of law doesn't apply anymore, and that's just unacceptable." (Source).

The kidnapping and associated violence are part and parcel of the underground economies which have resulted from the criminalization of drugs and unauthorized movement into the U.S.. Yet the police, such as sheriff Arpaio, use the kidnapping and violence as pretext to further terrorize undocumented immigrants. The police and homeland security are doing almost exactly what the kidnappers are doing: holding people against their will and profiting from it.

What do i mean they're profiting from it? Well, i intend to go into more detail in the future, but we can say for sure that someone is directly profiting from detaining immigrants. How about the "GEO Group, the nation's second largest prison company, [who] saw its earnings jump 29% over 2007," and other companies as detailed in How the Jailing of Migrants Drives Prison Profits.

The government is very afraid of the power and violence of the mexican drug cartels, though both profit from the criminalization of people and drugs. The Merida Initiative, also called "Plan Mexico" fits into the continuation of this profit-making, but adds a bit more control over the drug cartels.

"...according to human rights advocates, the plan prioritizes companies over people, lining the pockets of American defense contractors while putting both political dissidents and ordinary Mexican civilians at risk. Government documents leaked to the nonprofit Center for International Policy provide an idea of what the specifics of the plan will look like: more than half the funds would pay for technology and personnel to bolster the Mexican military's counternarcotics operations. The initiative would ignore the US's own involvement in the transport and sale of drugs" (Source).

I have only known of plan mexico for a couple months. Many people, despite criticizing the mexican government for corruption and human rights abuses, as well as criticizing the U.S. government for their unfair attitude towards immigrants, somehow have faith in this plan.

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said he believes Congress will assess the program this spring.

"One of the things that we might be looking at is getting them more hardware such as helicopters," he said. "And there's a need for more training to help them stop the weapons that are smuggled south."

There is talk of Obama sending the national guard to the border, which Napolitano did in 2006.

I intend to discuss the drug war further in the future.

Note: There are some who say that the numbers regarding kidnappings in phoenix are inflated. I intend to look into this further.

Recent Immigrant Arrests, Cops break woman's arm

There was a raid by the marcopa county sheriff's office (MCSO) monday morning, according to Illegal Immigrants Arrested At Painting Company.

The sheriff's office started investigating after several calls came in from former employees of the Cochran Painting Company located on West Frier Drive in Glendale. The calls claimed that U.S. citizens who worked there were recently fired while the illegal immigrants were not, the sheriff's office said.

The eight were arrested on charges of felony identity theft and forgery charges.

I also received an email which described arrests of day laborers by the phoenix police department this past monday during the day. These arrests took place near the Macehualli work center. It is thought that they were stopped for trespassing.

There were also arrests made by the department of public safety (DPS) last thursday as reported by the arizona republic.

On a related note, the MCSO broke the arm of a woman who had been arrested and was suspected of being undocumented. The officers were trying to get her to put her fingerprint on a document. From the feathered bastard's blog:

Garcia-Martinez, who cannot read or speak English, believed the paperwork was a voluntary removal form to send her back to Mexico, and so refused to cooperate. She relented after six MCSO guards broke her arm, and left her in a room for several hours. When eight MCSO returned later that night and told her to give up her fingerprint or else, she allowed them to put her finger on the documents.

"She gave her fingerprint only after being in a cell for hours after being beaten up," observed Garcia-Martinez's new lawyer Danny Ortega. "This document did not require a fingerprint."

Let's not just focus on racial profiling

A consistent example of arpaio's abuses has been the racial profiling. And there's no doubt in my mind that this has occurred. I could be wrong, but it seems that racial profiling in this case, implies that people are being pulled over because they are perceived as being mexican, and that when people are pulled over who are not criminals, or not "illegal", then that is when it is wrong. In essence, it is okay that police harassment and arrests occur against the people who don't matter (undocumented immigrants), but it is a problem, a civil rights violation, when it happens to the people who do matter (citizens). If i'm not mistaken as well, "civil rights" refers to citizens, although this may just be a matter of semantics.

I know that most people involved in working towards arpaio's political demise are concerned about the well-being of undocumented immigrants. I fear, however, that if this fight is on the government's terms, then the focus will shift or has shifted to the negative effect the war on undocumented people will have on those who are supposed to be protected. What is happening to undocumented immigrants is unacceptable no matter who is doing it. Let's keep this in mind.

Arpaio is being Investigated

The big news locally is that Maricopa County sheriff arpaio is being investigated by Dept. of Justice. It is being considered a big achievement, and in some ways it is. But the huge march a couple weeks back was calling to stop arpaio and stop 287(g). An investigation is one thing, but let us wait for the results before we get too excited. I discussed many of my thoughts in Federal Government Will Not be Maricopa County's Savior.

One problem with appealing to the government is that to do so would require not being a threat. But any real just solution to the “immigration problem”, inevitably involving the dismantling of NAFTA and other neoliberal projects, as well as a serious change in social/political structure, is and always will be a threat to the government.

Another problem is that the government has an interest in appearing to be able and willing to deliver justice. But overall it is not in its interest to truly liberate the people from injustice and in fact its existence is actually antithetical to such an action. It would like to have people ask instead of demand changes, however, and would like us to think of it as a benevolent force in such cases when it’s actually worth the time to make reforms that benefit the people. Therefore, if we ask and they give, they are the heroes.

When i was informed of this investigation, i immediately thought of the ways that arpaio had been enforcing the state laws and that there may be more on their way. I had also thought of AZ senator Pearce's bills especially when Arpaio commented that if the 287(g) agreement got to restrictive (the rules are apparently being adjusted to prevent abuse) he might drop out of it.

Happily, i read this blog post that my partner emailed me that addressed the limitations of the investigation of arpaio.

At the forefront of this effort is Sheriff Arpaio and the county’s prosecutor, Andrew Thomas. They have found ways to charge immigrants that use the services of a smuggler with conspiring to their own smuggling. They have used a state law created to go after employers that hire undocumented labor against the workers.

Different courts have upheld their use of these laws. And Arpaio himself has vowed to continue to use them if the feds take away from him the power to enforce immigration laws under an agreement known as 287(g).

There’s also a bill in the works that would charge undocumented immigrants with “trespassing” into the state's land.

The trespassing bills have been attempted in the past. I'm not sure if those are among those former governor napolitano vetoed. While i do not believe napolitano was an advocate for undocumented immigrants, she certainly vetoed a lot of crazy laws. The new governor is not as likely to do so.

Having witnessed the gradual build-up in the war against undocumented immigrants, i have to say that it is important to view each attempt at increasing this war as a piece of a larger puzzle. Each law, each change in ability to enforce, each attitude promoted through the media builds up to a larger picture which becomes more and more overwhelming. Which is why stopping arpaio and 287(g) is important, but also paying attention to what pearce is doing, as well as the increasing threat of violence by the drug cartels/kidnappers, which i intend to write much more about.