Today, President Barack Obama buffaloed tens of thousands of activists demanding immigration reform in Washington, D.C., appearing via video on jumbo screens, and telling the masses, according to the New York Times that,
"I have always pledged to be your partner as we work to fix our broken immigration system, and that's a commitment that I reaffirm today."
What lame, pathetic, empty rhetoric.
Here in Sand Land is where the rubber meets the cactus stump. On the Arizona-Mexico frontera, the Border Patrol has carte blanche to do whatever it wants to whomever it wants in the name of national security. The closer to the border you get, the more like a federal police state Arizona becomes, with checkpoints, drug-sniffing canines, and BP vehicles outfitted like human cages.
Up here in Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues to do anti-immigrant sweeps with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as his willing partner in his jails. ICE also assists in picking up those undocumented not charged with a crime under state law.
Despite the fact that Arpaio's being investigated by the turtle-like U.S. Department of Justice for civil rights violations, and despite the fact that ICE has suspended Arpaio's federal 287(g) authority on the street, these unconstitutional dragnets continue. And ICE allows Arpaio to keep 287(g) in his vast incarceration complex.
The total tally for the two-day sweep that ended Friday was 111 people, 78 of whom were suspected of being undocumented. Arpaio's press release for day one indicated that twenty individuals were turned over to ICE. There were likely more by the end of day two.
Why does ICE continue to partner with a man who is being investigated by a federal grand jury as well as the US DOJ? And why hasn't U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department done anything about Arpaio after a probe of more than a year?
That's what Phoenix civil rights leader Sal Reza wants to know, which is why he demanded a meeting with Eric Holder while he and other activists from Arizona were in D.C. for the big pro-immigration rally this weekend.
Reza was turned down, though Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division assured Reza that Holder was "aware of the situation" in Mari-Kafka County.
Swell. I reckon he'll be even more familiar with it Monday morning as Reza and other members of his Puente Movement demonstrate outside the Department of Justice in D.C. at 11 a.m., Eastern Time.
That's splendid that Reza and his merry pranksters are going to hold signs in front of Holder's office. Hunky-dory even.
They need to be raising some serious Cain, because they'll soon be returning to this antediluvian state, where Hispanics are second-class citizens and everyone's civil liberties are subject to suspension.
D.C. is a long way from Phoenix, metaphorically and every other way. Injustice is a way of life in Arizona. And Barack Obama's platitudes and promises are worth less here than a fur coat in August.
Personally, I'm tired of listening to the guy's malarkey, and the constant excuses for why something hasn't been done about Arpaio, as the investigations drag on and on....
