‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Will the DOJ Sue Arpaio?; AZ Won’t Change SB 1070

America's Voice Blog

Posted 08/18/10 at 11:12am

The Spanish-language press covers a pair of stories of stubbornness in Arizona today, as Sheriff Joe Arpaio refuses to cooperate with a Department of Justice civil-rights investigation and the state legislature decides not to change SB 1070 in light of last month's federal ruling keeping parts of the law from going into effect. Meanwhile, maritime smuggling is up, and prominent conservative leader Sam Rodríguez is down (on calls to change the 14th Amendment, that is).

Will the DOJ sue Arpaio? The Associated Press reports that Maricopa County (AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio has ignored a Department of Justice deadline to submit documents related to a DOJ investigation of Arpaio for potential civil-rights violations. The federal government has threatened to sue Arpaio if he does not cooperate with the investigation.

AZ won't change SB 1070. Another AP article reports that the Arizona state legislature has dismissed, at least for the moment, the idea of amending certain sections of state law SB 1070 per Governor Jan Brewer’s suggestion. The state is in the middle of appealing the partial injunction issued by a federal judge last month, preventing some of the law’s most controversial provisions from going into effect.

Sam Rodríguez fumes at the GOP. Notimex (via El Financiero) quotes Reverend Samuel Rodríguez, Jr. criticizing the rhetoric used by some Republican leaders, and their calls to change the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution to revoke birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. Rodríguez called the proposal “misguided and anti-Hispanic” and warned it would continue “diminishing the party’s appeal for Latino voters.”

Smuggling by sea. EFE covers a rise in drug trafficking and human smuggling over sea routes in the Pacific. Relatedly, according to the AP:

“the federal government decided to expand a surveillance program on the border with Mexico to improve security of U.S. ports.”

In other news... EFE writes that while immigration reform is hardly imminent, the approach of November’s midterm elections is keeping the issue hot; in Chicago, activists promoting the DREAM Act announced a series of actions to increase pressure on Congress to pass the bill, Notimex reports (via El Financiero); and El Diario-La Prensa (New York) turns its attention to Plainfield, New Jersey, which has suffered an increase in attacks against Hispanics, particularly day laborers.

America's Voice has started a new series, “‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration,” to bring Spanish-language coverage of immigration and politics to a wider audience. Look for daily roundups (in English) of some of the best Spanish-language news.

The latest Spanish-language reporting and analysis on immigration can now be found at AmericasVoiceEspanol.com. Check it out!