The Justice Department sues loudmouth Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio

A Meditation, Odd News, and Musical Sharing

by Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger

Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law, is set to go into effect on July 29. With days left to go, Organizers are in a race against the clock to minimize the bill’s impact on immigrant communities. Meanwhile, legal experts are examining the strategy behind a federal Department of Justice suit recently lobbed against the Arizona law, and other immigrant rights supporters continue to pressure the state via boycott. All of these acts are contributing to a tumultuous fight that’s escalating by the day.

Taking a road trip this summer? You might want to have the Constitution riding shotgun.

In the way that only he can, watch Jon Stewart lambast Arizona’s “Show Us Your Papers” law as a product of “the meth lab of Democracy.”

SB 1070, which makes being undocumented a crime, shows us that we are becoming a country that asks for “your papers, please” much like in Nazi Germany where “Papiere, Bitte” meant the same in German.

Despite what Governor Brewer says, racial profiling is officially legal in Arizona, given that there is no other way to determine what an undocumented person looks like beyond brown skin, which would serve as a proxy for criminality — the crime of not carrying proper identification and a birth certificate. Find out what you can do to help repeal SB 1070.

By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger

While immigrant rights groups pressure the federal government via high-profile marches and rallies, anti-immigration forces are pushing punitive laws on the state and local levels. Thousands of immigration reform proponents rallied last week to push federal lawmakers to pass reform this year, but the Arizona House of Representatives passed one of the toughest immigration laws in the country, which enables racial profiling of Latinos.

After President Obama was elected in Nov. 2008, many thought his election was a historic one, above all, because he was the first black man to hold the office. Oh how innocent we were, how 20th Century of us. As any focused observer can now see, his presidency is becoming historic for all the wrong reasons.

Way too much discussion around the Gates/Crowley debate has been focused on racial profiling, or even race relations in the U.S., when it was really about failing to communicate without reacting.

We must change how we handle those who offer their lives for our nation’s well-being, reshape the entire conversation on immigration, and recognize the great value in accepting those who work to make their dreams come true and keep their families safe. These changes are essential to our country’s well-being and future health. Let’s make big changes this year. Especially in light of the newest supreme court nominee, made by a President who hails from Hawaii and Kenya, let’s live up to our potential and remember what it means to be a “nation of immigrants