Statement from People of North Carolina to Stand Against Arizona’s SB1070

Apr 282010
 

As People of North Carolina we denounce SB1070.  We stand with the people of Arizona, in particular, immigrant communities, and the grassroots call to honor the dignity and human rights of all.

SB1070, approved by Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) on Friday, April 23 attacks immigrant communities by setting a precedent for vast human and civil rights violations through institutionalizing racial profiling and criminalization of immigrant workers.  These laws are rooted in xenophobia and racism; they mandate racial profiling and are a direct attack on immigrant communities and communities of color.

In North Carolina we have seen the effects of anti-immigrant policies that have led to racial profiling.  Like Arizona, we have been the testing ground for anti-immigrant policies.  North Carolina has one of the highest number of 287(g) agreements and Secure Communities programs. As a state, we have suffered the effects of local enforcement as immigrant families are separated or live in fear of deportation.

We affirm the bold and heroic resistance of the people of Arizona who called, walked-out, picketed, protested, and took direct action to try to stop the passage of SB 1070.  We know that the struggles in Arizona are directly connected to the struggles we face in North Carolina; they are on the frontlines and we must reinforce, support, and follow their lead in challenging this xenophobic and racist reaction.  Their struggle for justice is ours and their victories and set-backs ripple across the fabric of the movement for human rights and liberation.

In light of the demands of our sisters and brothers in Arizona, we support their call for boycotts and divestment from Arizona, including ceasing tourism and divesting from entities in which Arizona is economically invested. Arizona, as an apartheid state, must be choked economically and pressured to repeal.

What is happening in Arizona is the extreme pole of the racist forces of reaction that finance hate groups such as the Tea Party and Minutemen. Well-funded organizations across the country such as the Koch Foundation and The Pope Foundation in North Carolina support the amplifications of hate-filled messages from Tom Tancredo, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and those public figures that attack working people from every direction. These groups capitalized on the economic crisis to amplify racism and use divide and conquer tactics to pit working people against each other and scapegoat immigrants.

Along with affirming and acting in solidarity with resistance in Arizona, we want to strengthen the connection between our states to work against the expanded militarization of the border and the criminalization of immigrants and people of color.  There are many ways we can connect, learn and grow from and with each other.

We condemn the vigilante-ism of renegade Sheriffs who abuse the powers and current laws and create terror within communities.  Sheriffs, such as Joe Arpaio, have rallied for tougher enforcement and an expansion of their powers, and their blatant profiling and human rights abuses have outraged the country.  In North Carolina we call out the mass round-ups and deportations in 287(g) counties at the hands of Sheriffs in Wake, Henderson, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Alamance, and Gaston Counties.  We are also concerned about the implementation of Secure Communities in Orange County under the direction of Sheriff Pendergrass and anti-immigrant attacks by Sheriff Bizzell in Johnston County.

We call on the people of North Carolina to support our sisters and brothers in Arizona by sending money to grassroots-led organizations, sending solidarity caravans, and answering their calls to action as they continue to pressure Governor Brewer and other policy-makers.  We also call on President Obama to end ICE ACCESS programs and put a moratorium on all deportations until just and humane immigration reform is realized.   Let us support caravans to Arizona and let us support local actions and organizing here in North Carolina!

We join the call for a national May Day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers.  Together we must  build a new immigrant rights & workers rights movement!

On May Day, International Workers Day, we demand:

  1. No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.
  2. No to the Schumer-Graham immigration reform blueprint that calls for greater border militarization, tougher enforcement, and criminalization of immigrants.
  3. No to immigrant detention and deportation.
  4. No to employer sanctions and “no match” letters.
  5. No to free trade policies that displace workers.
  6. Yes to a path to legalization without condition for undocumented immigrants NOW.
  7. Yes to speedy family reunification.
  8. Yes to civil rights and humane immigration law.
  9. Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers.
  10. Yes to education over incarceration and to LGBTQ equality in immigration policies and worker protections.

Over the next 90 days, there will be many opportunities to take action, show solidarity, and build our collective power to transform society and overturn Arizona’s SB 1070.  Let us reach out across culture, race, and gender to build strong alliances and organize bold actions that will shake the country and lay the foundation to build the kind of world we all need and deserve.

Si se puede!

Hasta la victoria!

La Lucha Obrera, No Tiene Frontera!

Together, we can!

In solidarity,

Farm Labor Organizing Committee

Coalition of Latin American Organizations

Black Workers for Justice

Trabajadores Unidos (Western North Carolina Workers Center)

Nuestro Centro La Comunidad, Asheville

Raleigh F.I.S.T.

Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation

UNC-Chapel Hill Feminist Student United

Dismantling Racism Works

Viridiana Martinez, Raleigh

Annie Dove, statewide VP, UE 150 NC Public Sector Workers Union*

Bridgette Burge, YWCA of the Triangle Racial Justice Program Co-Chair*

Emily Cabaniss, NC State Sociology Graduate Student*

Tema Okun, Durham

Michelle Johnson, Carrboro

Dani Martinez-Moore, NC Justice Center*

Jillian Johnson, Palante Action Network*

Rebecca Fontaine, Durham

Brigid Flaherty, Pushback Network*

Shafeah M’Balia, Rocky Mount

Erin Byrd, Raleigh

Natasha El-Sergany, Chair, UNC Chapel Hill National Lawyers Guild Chapter*


* for identification purposes only

Arizona anti-immigrant law sparks outrage, fightback

Apr 242010
 

By Paul Teitelbaum
Tucson, Ariz.
Published Apr 24, 2010 7:11 AM

April 23 — When the Arizona Senate passed a sweeping, racist anti-immigrant bill on April 19, it unleashed a firestorm of outrage from Arizona’s oppressed communities. The bill legalizes racial profiling and criminalizes all undocumented people as “trespassers.” It also contains provisions attacking day laborers, allows for the seizure of any vehicle used to transport an undocumented person, and calls for the arrest of anyone who provides assistance to an undocumented person.

Leilani Clark
Leilani Clark arrested for supporting justice.
Photo: SJEP Tucson

Gov. Jane Brewer signed the bill into law today, April 23. It is only the first in a stream of right-wing sponsored racist bills that are working their way through the Arizona legislature.

A few days earlier, on April 15, some 800 or more Department of Homeland Security and other federal agents descended on Tucson’s oppressed communities. The feds terrorized families, stopping buses transporting children to school and setting up what amounted to a six-hour military occupation of the south side of the city.

In response to this repression, a group of nine community college students from throughout Arizona courageously chained themselves to the State Capitol building in Phoenix on April 20. The students refused to leave until Gov. Brewer vetoed the bill. The nine are calling for a national movement to employ nonviolent civil disobedience as the next phase of the Immigrant Rights Movement.

While carrying out civil disobedience, the students were arrested by Maricopa County deputies and hauled off to the jail run by the infamous anti-immigrant Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Now known throughout the state as the Capitol Nine, the students were released early April 21.

Leilani Clark, a Pima Community College student and member of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST), was one of the nine students arrested. She said that the struggle against Senate Bill 1070 and all of Arizona’s apartheid legislation demands a statewide and national response.

Clark encouraged everyone to take action. Speaking on behalf of the Capitol 9, Clark told Workers World, “Don’t be divided or delayed by different interpretations of how to act — just act. Walk out, protest, educate, boycott, march, sit in, carry out civil disobedience. Anything and everything. ASAP!”

In a news release published April 20, this is what the Nine said about SB 1070:

“Among other things, the bill would require law enforcement officers to investigate, detain and arrest people if there is ‘reasonable suspicion’ that a person may be undocumented. This would give police agents absolute power to racially profile on the basis of race, skin color, language, and/or accent. SB 1070 is only the latest attack that will turn Arizona into an apartheid state, where brown-skinned people are politically, legally and economically discriminated and segregated.”

Protests continue in the thousands

By the afternoon of April 20, about 100 people gathered in downtown Tucson to protest SB 1070 and to demand that the governor veto the bill. The next day, some 200 high school students walked out of class to protest the bill. There are rallies and demonstrations planned throughout the city for each of the next few days.

On April 22 thousands protested outside the Capitol in Phoenix, and other actions took place April 23 in Phoenix and Flagstaff demanding that Brewer veto the bill. Students, including many high school students, held a demonstration April 23 in Tucson, walking out of school to do it.

In their statement, the Capitol Nine explained the importance of their action: “Arizona is ground zero for apartheid legislation and it must also be ground zero for organized action. … A people can only remain oppressed for so long before they rise from the shadows, from the margins, from oblivion. This is why today, students and community members have resorted to Nonviolent Civil Disobedience. We chain ourselves to the Arizona State Capitol because nothing else has worked. We stand for justice and reclaim democracy. Our purpose is to expose Arizona’s apartheid legislation and uphold our dignity and human rights.”

New York City: EMERGENCY PROTEST AGAINST FASCIST ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW

Apr 222010
 

Friday, April 23–  4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Immigrant Detention Center
201 Varick St.   (Varick and Houston St.)
Greenwich Village
#1 train to Houston Street
F,D,C,E,A to West 4th Street

The Arizona law targeting all immigrants, and all Latinos/as, has been passed by both houses of the Arizona legislation.  The governor has three days to either veto, sign or let it pass into law without action.  We must let the Arizona state government know that this racist attack will be answered by not only protests, but a full-scale tourism and convention boycott of Arizona.

In Arizona ICE has already sent in, before the bill has even been enacted, 800 ICE agents who have carried out terror raids and arrests.  We cannot sit by.  This is no different from the Palmer Raids and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  In Arizona, dozens of groups have been mobilizing, marching, and taking direct action.  Nine students, including one Fight Imperialism Stand Together member, chained themselves to the capitol building on April 20.  All were arrested on disorderly charges. They have all been released.

We must do our part immediately!

This protest is initiated by Bail Out The People Movement and the youth and student group FIST.  We urge all organizations to issue their own calls for this emergency protest, bring your signs and to send representatives to speak to the media.

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