The Dark Cloud Over Tucson

Greetings from sunny (and scorching hot) Arizona! I’ve been here for the last two weeks with the organization No More Deaths, participating in and learning from their organizing efforts to build pro-immigrant support in the local community in response to the threat of SB 1070. Through this work, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a great number of local people about the law – from business owners to homeowners to people calling in to an information hotline. These interactions have made it all the more clear to me just how harmful anti-immigrant legislation like SB 1070 is to communities. This legislation needs to be struck down and never repeated in other states. It’s critical that we learn from the experience of Arizona, and it is for this reason that I’m writing this post – to share some of the stories I am hearing day-to-day. Unfortunately, I doubt they will send very unfamiliar to any of you working in communities that have special agreements with DHS…

During outreach to businesses in a primarily Latino neighborhood, the business owners tell us they are struggling to get by. So many people have moved away since this law passed. They have moved away out of here. Those who do stay don’t want to come out and shop. The owner of a store that sells party supplies says he has it particularly rough, “No one wants to make a party anymore.” Another owner tells us that the police comes and picks-up immigrants on the corner near the business. At another stop, a business owner tells us with tears in her eyes that her brother is undocumented, and he had to leave to go back to Mexico on his own already because he was too afraid of getting deported. Now, his wife and children are here without him. And he is back in Mexico, with hardly any family and with no job. She says the law is wrong. We must do something about it. And many of the businesses are doing something. They are putting out the “We Reject Racism” signs that No More Deaths and its partner organization, Tierra y Libertad, are promoting. They are showing visible resistance, even amongst the hate that is out there from some community members. One business got its window broken and its sign damaged, most likely by SB 1070 supporters, but they were happy to put up another fresh sign and continue the resistance.

On the hotline number at a partner organization of No More Deaths, the phone rings off the hook with questions and pleas for help. One woman wants to know if she could be arrested for driving her relatives, who are undocumented, in her car once SB 1070 comes into effect. I have to tell her that yes; the law allows for arrests of that nature. I want to follow up and tell her some additional piece of information; something positive that could give her some hope in this situation. I am at a loss for words.