Arizona Anti-Immigrant Politics Bite Russell Pearce, Recall Underway
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Randy Parraz Press Conference - all photos by Robert Hääscħ
Conservative Republicans may wish to reconsider their anti-immigrant strategy after the first ever senator in Arizona, Russell Pearce, was recalled from office today. Pearce was the architect of SB 1070, the most aggressive anti-immigrant bill in the history of the U.S.
Randy Parraz, along with committee members from Citizens for a Better Arizona, turned in over 18,000 signatures today to make the recall of Sen. Pearce a reality.
“Thank you all for all that you have done to make today possible. Hundreds of people have given of their time and money to build a movement to hold Russell Pearce accountable. We have successfully completed the first phase of our journey together to recall Pearce. Phase II starts tomorrow.” the charismatic civil rights leader said in a written statement today.
Arizona SB 1070 requires law enforcement to detain any person they suspect of being in the state without documentation. Since most undocumented immigrants in Arizona are from Mexico, the law insured racial profiling by anyone who appeared to be Latino.
While the majority of the the law was ruled unconstitutional or made subject to a stay of execution, pending legal battles that have cost the state of Arizona millions of dollars, forcing cuts in schools and government services, conservative legislators in other states followed suit. A slew of copy-cat SB 1070 style laws was proposed by Republicans from a variety of states, playing on anti-immigrant sentiments to gain political favor and to win headlines.
Colorado and Florida rejected those efforts. However, Utah, South Carolina and Georgia approved similar laws. Already, farmers in Georgia are choosing which portion of their harvest to save and which to allow to rot since migrant workers have deemed the state unfriendly to Latinos and did not show up to pick the crops this year. The losses are estimated at $300 million dollars. Food prices in some sectors could soar as a result.
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