This Is Arizona

This Is Arizona

by digby

Tucson, Arizona: On August 2, 2010 around 3:15 p.m. Officer Zinn and Officer Koontz of the Tucson Police Department called Border Patrol on a woman during a traffic stop. Border Patrol came and took her into detention.

This is Arizona.

Injunction or No Injunction. SB1070 or Not. We face this every day.

It’s hard to see this as anything but a campaign to drive Hispanic people out of Arizona. Indeed, SB1070 pretty much comes right out and says it:

The provisions of this act are intended to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry of unlawful persons and economic activity of persons unlawfully present in the United States.

In practice, this amounts to ethnic cleansing. Sure, they don’t say “Latinos” but even if you are an American citizen of Latino descent you have to ask yourself whether or not it’s worth it to stay in Arizona if you’re going to be subjected to this kind of harassment. Plenty of them are leaving (although it’s up in the air whether it’s the law or a combination of the law and general economic conditions.)I don’t blame them. But it’s hard to see how this ends well. We are, after all, always going to share a border with Mexico, which is a very different thing than any of the earlier “assimilation” controversies.

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