04/19/12 Next week, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on Arizona’s arch-anti-immigrant law, SB 1070—an all-important, game-changing clash between the federal supremacy clause, the need for federal immigration reform, and the belief that states can and should pursue efforts to make undocumented immigrants self-deport. Activists, officials, lawyers, and lawmakers all over the nation have [...]
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04/13/12 On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law. Since then, there’s been a massive backlash against that harsh anti-immigrant legislation. Almost two years to the day Brewer signed the law, the constitutionality of SB 1070 will be argued before the United States Supreme Court. This will be one of the [...]
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04/13/12 News about Andrew Thomas, the Maricopa County attorney disbarred this week for being Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s corrupt partner in crime is really getting pickup.  We’ve written about the disbarring, but not the reason for the disbar. Talking Points Memo sums up the story of Thomas and Arpaio, the nightmare-team duo who used their positions of [...]
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04/12/12 It was last year that we first told you about Pedro Gutierrez, a DREAMer from Arizona who aspires to become a Marine, who came to the US when he was 7.  His grandmother, his only caretaker, died when he was still a child, leaving him an orphan.  But Pedro rallied, and with the help of [...]
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04/11/12 Russell Pearce—former Arizona state senator, sponsor of arch-anti-immigrant bill SB 1070—defeated last fall in a historic recall election. Paul Babeu—hardline anti-immigrant sheriff of Pinal County, famous for the “complete the danged fence” ad he shot with John McCain—tarred this year for certain…indiscretions, and now on the defensive with both his current post and his race [...]
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04/11/12 The immigrant-bashers in Arizona just can’t help themselves. Despite all the negative fallout from S.B. 1070, including the recall of the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Russell Pearce, the immigrant-bashers just can’t stop. The latest flareup comes from a GOP Senate candidate, Wil Cardon, who has launched a negative ad using immigrants to attack his primary [...]
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04/10/12 Breaking news from Phoenix: Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his onetime deputy, Lisa Aubuchon, were stripped of their law licenses today as a disciplinary panel handed down the toughest sanctions possible for ethical violations in a case that attracted national interest. The panel also suspended Rachel Alexander, another Thomas deputy, from practicing law [...]
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04/05/12 The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been in the news a lot lately. As we've reported, a lot of activists, including some of our allies in immigration advocacy, have been trying to expose ALEC and its shady dealings for awhile. It's working. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have ended their sponsorship of ALEC
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04/04/12 Negotiations between the U.S. Department of Justice and Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio have broken down. DOJ, which accused Arpaio of racial discrimination, says the Sheriff is "wasting time and not negotiating in good faith."
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03/29/12 Sixty-eight House Congressmen joined forces today in a charge against Arizona's arch-anti-immigrant law SB 1070, releasing an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court which argues that immigration is a federal rather than a state priority.
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03/29/12 Sixty-eight House Congressmen joined forces today in a charge against Arizona's arch-anti-immigrant law SB 1070, releasing an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court which argues that immigration is a federal rather than a state priority.
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03/21/12 Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio might call himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," but he was first to blink yesterday after a serious standoff with undocumented youth from the DREAM Activist movement.
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03/21/12 Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio might call himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," but he was first to blink yesterday after a serious standoff with undocumented youth from the DREAM Activist movement.
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03/16/12 Kobach, a leading anti-immigrant voice, is the architect of Arizona's SB 1070 and Alabama's HB 56. But, he's got a day job as the Secretary of State for Kansas. And, people in Kansas are wondering if where his priorities lie: With the people of Kansas who pay his salary or with his anti-immigrant work.
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03/16/12 Kobach, a leading anti-immigrant voice, is the architect of Arizona's SB 1070 and Alabama's HB 56. But, he's got a day job as the Secretary of State for Kansas. And, people in Kansas are wondering if where his priorities lie: With the people of Kansas who pay his salary or with his anti-immigrant work.
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03/12/12 Lawrence Downes writes a thoughtful piece in the NYT, outlining the impact that Arizona's SB 1070 has had on immigration politics, noting that since SB 1070, 31 states have introduced legislation "imitating all or part of S.B. 1070."
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03/02/12 Breaking news: Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not just extremist, vindictive, and corrupt—he's a full-fledged, flaming, deny-the-facts birther as well. We wrote, last September, about how he assigned a five-member "Cold Case Posse" to investigate the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth certificate.
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03/01/12 Today in Atlanta a three judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will hear arguments over Alabama's and Georgia's anti-immigration laws. In mid-April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about Arizona's "show me your papers" law S.B. 1070, the precursor to the Alabama and Georgia anti-immigrant initiatives.
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02/29/12 Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) turned a Mitt Romney debate line around on its head today with a speech on the House floor denouncing the idea that Arizona and its SB 1070 anti-immigrant law could be "a model" for the nation.
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02/29/12 It's no coincidence that Barack Obama's 2012 campaign will open its fourth Arizona office in the middle of the heavily Latino neighborhood of Glendale. Betting on the increase in eligible Latino voters, and on the mobilization generated by anti-immigrant politics here, Democrats are hoping that Arizona won't just be competitive in November, but that it will swing to the Democratic column.
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02/29/12 Yesterday, in Phoenix, AZ, undocumented youth and allies with the DRM Capitol Group, the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition and others delivered approximately 8,000 petitions to the Arizona Republican Party headquarters, urging Republican candidates to stop opposing the DREAM Act and to change their rhetoric on immigration.
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02/28/12 We've compared Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio to the hottest girl at the prom, but at the moment he's sounding like the dumped boyfriend who never quite realized that his girl doesn't love him.
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02/27/12 Mr. Manuel Ramírez Chávez was born in Michoacán, Mexico, but arrived in the United States when he was eight years old. Fifty-six years later, at the age of 64, he's finally becoming a citizen. He didn't do it earlier, he said, "because I'd never seen as much discrimination as (I see) now, so much racism, so much persecution against Hispanics."
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02/27/12 Jan Brewer is one very busy governor. The Arizona Governor has been in town for the National Governors' Association 2012 Winter Meeting, with a schedule so booked up that she's had to decline invitations left and right.
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02/24/12 In order to win over the most conservative, extremist voters in the Arizona Republican primary (which will be held Tuesday, February 28th), presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the state's immigration policy a "model" for others to follow.
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02/24/12 Remember Wednesday night's GOP debate in Mesa, Arizona, where the Republican candidates proclaimed that Arizona and its extremist SB 1070 anti-immigrant law was a model for the country?
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02/23/12 At the GOP debate in Arizona, Mitt Romney took his pandering to new heights and praised that state's "papers, please" law, SB 1070, as "a model" for the nation. We beg to differ. Arizona is a model for both bad policy and bad politics.
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