Immigration showdown plays out in court and on the street; appeal could be heard in Pasadena
PHOENIX – The showdown over Arizona’s immigration law played out in court and on sun-splashed streets Thursday, as the state sought to reinstate key parts of the measure and angry protesters chanted that they refused to “live in fear.”
By day’s end, dozens were arrested in Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, officials geared up for the remote possibility that the Arizona’s challenge to a federal judge’s decision to block the law’s most controversial elements could be heard in federal court in Pasadena.
“The important thing is that people either for or against it don’t resort to violence,” Randy Ertll, head of El Centro de Accion Social said. “This has been such a volatile and heated issue.”
Regardless of calls for calm, little happened Thursday that dampened the raging immigration debate.
The judge has been threatened. Protesters rallied. And, the sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county vowed to continue targeting illegal immigrants. Lawmakers or candidates in as many as 18 states say they still want to push similar measures.
In Los Angeles, 10 people chained themselves together and hundreds of others marched around them during a protest that shut down a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard for more than six hours.
The protest began shortly after 10 a.m. Just after 3 p.m., officers began cutting the chains and carrying the protesters away.
“There were a total of 10 arrests,” Los Angeles Police Officer Rosario Herrera said.
City officials said if the Arizona’s appeal does come to Pasadena, the prospect of similar protests are not something to be feared.
“People should be encouraged to voice their opinions on this issue,” Pasadena City Councilman Victor Gordo said.
Despite the judge’s ruling, members of the Los Angeles City Council said the city has no immediate plans to lift the city’s economic boycott of the state.
Along the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, life continued as before, with officials sending back people who were captured while attempting to cross.
In Phoenix, hundreds of the law’s opponents massed at a downtown jail, beating on the metal door and forcing sheriff’s deputies to call for backup. Officers arrested at least 23 people, and dozens more were detained elsewhere throughout the day.
Activists focused their rage at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the 78-year-old ex-federal drug agent known for his immigration sweeps.
Outside his downtown office, marchers chanted “Sheriff Joe, we are here. We will not live in fear.” One was dressed in a papier-mache “Sheriff Joe” head and prison garb. Arpaio said he’d continue with a Thursday sweep.
“I’m not going to be intimidated and stopped,” he said. “If I have to go out and get in the car, I’ll do it.”
Elsewhere activists, armed with video cameras and aided by others listening to police scanners, roamed the county’s neighborhoods, saying they were ready to document any deputies harassing Hispanics.
Since Wednesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has received thousands of phone calls and e-mails. Some were positive, but others were “from people venting and who have expressed their displeasure in a perverted way,” said David Gonzales, the U.S. Marshal for Arizona.
Gonzales said his agents are taking some of the threats to Bolton seriously. He wouldn’t say how many there were or whether any threats were coming from recognized hate groups. He refused to discuss any extra security measures, which U.S. marshals routinely provide federal judges.
The protests, counter-protests and threats came as Gov. Jan Brewer appealed Bolton’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in San Francisco, but also hears cases in Pasadena.
The likelihood of the Arizona immigration debate playing out on the streets of the Crown City depends on whether Brewer seeks to expedite the state’s challenge. If that occurs, then the case would be heard at the Richard H. Chambers courthouse in Pasadena, according to Cathy A. Catterson, a spokeswoman for the Ninth Circuit and Court of Appeals executive.
Arizona has more than 400,000 illegal immigrants, and its border with Mexico is awash with smugglers who funnel narcotics and immigrants throughout the U.S. The law’s supporters say the influx of illegal migrants drains vast sums of money from hospitals, education and other services.
The Obama administration has decided to send National Guard troops to the border states to help federal agents with security.
Along the U.S.-Mexico border in punishing temperatures of more than 100 degrees Thursday, two immigrants climbed a fence and fled on foot, while a third threw rocks in the direction of Border Patrol agents. The officers arrested them.
The elements of the new law that took effect on Thursday will likely aid Arpaio in his immigration efforts.
In her temporary injunction, Bolton delayed the most contentious provisions of the law, including a section that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.
Bolton indicated the federal government’s case has a good chance at succeeding in its argument that federal immigration law trumps state law.
But she allowed police to enforce the law’s bans on blocking vehicle traffic when seeking or offering day-labor services and a revision to the smuggling ban that lets officers stop drivers if they suspect motorists have broken traffic laws.
Bolton also let officers enforce a new prohibition on driving or harboring illegal immigrants in furtherance of their illegal presence.
Opponents of the law said the ruling sends a strong message to other states hoping to replicate the law.
But a Republican lawmaker in Utah said the state will likely take up a similar law anyway when that state’s legislative session starts up in 2011.
“The ruling … should not be a reason for Utah to not move forward,” Utah state Rep. Carl Wimmer said.
Staff writer Dan Abendschein, City News Service and Associated Press writers Michelle Price, Paul Davenport and Bob Christie in Phoenix, Alicia A. Caldwell in El Paso, Texas, and Sara Kugler Frazier in New York contributed to this story.
“Urgente y original, la historia de Randy Jurado Ertll nos obliga a resolver algunos de los problemas más urgentes e importantes de nuestros tiempos.”—Matt Rothschild, editor de The Progressive Magazine Randy Jurado Ertll, un salvadoreño americano, creció en el Sur Centro de Los Ángeles a fines de los años 1970 y durante los 80, y también vivió en El Salvador cuando era un niño, así como en Rochester, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., y en Alexandria, Virginia. En cada una de estas ciudades presenció la dinámica y retos de la comunidad Latina. Porque ha vivido y trascendido las luchas, es capaz de captar una imagen realista y compasiva de la comunidad Latina a través de esta experiencia convincente narrada en este poderoso libro.
