So I roll back into town today, happy to return to the land of low humidity, and be free from the muggy swamp of D.C. I’m hoping to have a low key day, and save the venom for another time. But then I check out this clip of MCSO Sergeant…
The difference between Mesa Police Chief George Gascon and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is like the difference between Barack Obama and Geoge Bush. Brains versus bluster. The former LAPD assistant chief is a policy wonk with a cop’s toughness. He out-classes Arpaio. Too bad Gascon isn’t our sheriff instead of what we’re…
As an indication of the effectiveness of Mesa Police Chief George Gascon’s testimony, Republican minority attack dogs went after him like a hunk of raw hamburger. This was after the Congress members returned from the floor of the House after a quick vote on an unrelated matter. Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe…
After the second panel of witnesses was seated and introduced, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren cited the Southern Poverty Law Center letter about witness Kris Kobach mentioned in my first live blog. She said she had decided to allow Kobach to speak, but noted the SPLC’s objection. The first speaker was David Harris, professor of law at University…
Avondale, Arizona, resident Julio Mora was the first witness for the House Judiciary Committee after it came back from it’s break for voting. Mora is a U.S. citizen. His father is a permanent legal resident. Mora was driving his father to work at HMI Landscaping in Phoenix, when his car was stopped more than…
Things are just getting under way here in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building for the House Judiciary Committe’s 287(g) hearings. There’s a packed house, with plenty of representation from Arizona, including Mesa Police Chief George Gascon, civil rights activist Salvador Reza, and lawyer/activist Antonio Bustamante. California Congresswoman Zoe…
PUSILLANIMOUS PRELATE One of the more dramatic moments of the recent Reform Not Raids Summit in Phoenix occurred on the second day of the national conference on immigration, shortly after moderator Danny Ortega opened up the floor to a volatile debate about whether the Phoenix diocese of the Roman Catholic…
Stepping off the plane in Washington D.C. this afternoon was like my first trip to New York many moons ago. The cab driver is Russian. The hotel front desk guy is from someplace in Africa. The room service waiter is from El Salvador. In other words, D.C. shows us to…
I paid another visit to the sad hellhole of Estrella Jail last weekend to talk to one more target of Arpaio’s ethnic cleansing raids: Alejandra Alvarez, a 31-year-old mother of four American children who was arrested during the MCSO’s raid on Handyman Maintenance Inc. this February 11. She was one…
I just received the witness list for Thursday’s 287(g) hearing from New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler’s office. At this point, it’s highly unlikely that the Republicans will try to call Sheriff Joe Arpaio because the Dems are running the show, and Arpaio would be walking into a hostile environment.As previously…
What a difference a few hours make. I just received confirmation from Mesa Police Department PIO Edward Wessing that Police Chief George Gascon has been contacted by the House Judiciary Committee, and that he will testify Thursday, April 2 during the committee’s 287(g) hearing.In other words, it’s on like Donkey…
Several credible sources in the pro-immigrant activist community have informed me that they believe the House Judiciary Committee is afraid of taking on Sheriff Joe Arpaio directly, and is wary of having him become the centerpiece of the hearing.These sources, who do not wish to be identified, say they’ve been…
Props to the Arizona Republic’s Richard Ruelas for looking into Sheriff Joe’s Fox Reality show boondoggle, Smile…You’re Under Arrest! Ruelas, a former Rep columnist whose byline is far too infrequent these days, sought to find out just how much Joe’s lame-o reality show cost Maricopa County. Alas, the MCSO stonewalled…
I just saw this report in the Washington Post indicating that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put the brakes on some pending ICE raids, as part of a new policy that will supposedly target employers more than workers. The Post cites the pressure being put on the Obama administration…
Trying to get info out of Washington, D.C. from here in Sand Land is like attempting to obtain cheese directly from the cow’s teat sometimes. Nevertheless, I’m in receipt of scuttlebutt from folks in the immigrant rights community locally, who’ve been telling me about the joint hearing to be held…
If you’re tired of my crappy, digital point-and-shoot angles, try out the magazine-like stylings of photographer Deanna Dent, whose slideshow of Joe Arpaio’s circus-come-to-Guadalupe is now up. How she avoided getting me in the shots is a mystery, as I was the ony fat man in a loud Hawaiian shirt on…
Just how many deputies does it take to protect Sheriff Joe Arpaio? 50? 100? 200? Yes, Arpaio did return to Guadalupe to address the town council Thursday night, almost a year after terrorizing Guadalupe with an immigration sweep on April 3 and 4 of 2008. But in doing so, he had to…
CASTRO THE FIGHTER The Bird winged his way down to Nogales the other day to meet with Arizona’s only Mexican-born governor, Raul Castro. Sand Land newbies, who know the Grand Canyon State as a reservoir of hatred and discrimination toward anyone brown, may figure this finch finally has gone Froot…
As I reported in last week’s Bird column, Guadalupe’s lickspittle Mayor Frankie Montiel has invited Sheriff Joe back to his square-mile town for Thursday’s town council meeting, and perhaps a meal of Mexican seafood. Arpaio’s return comes one year after the MCSO ran roughshod over that town in an anti-immigrant sweep,…
What the hell has gotten into Prensa Hispana, the Spanish language freebie you always see in racks at Mexican restaurants and grocery stores? In today’s March 25th edition, and teased on the cover, is a full-page puff piece on MCSO Deputy Chief Paul Chagolla, the much-despised former flack for Sheriff…
Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George could school Phoenix’s Bishop Thomas Olmsted on moral courage when it comes to the subject of immigration. While Olmsted refuses to condemn attacks on immigrants in his flock by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, ICE, and other law enforcement entities, Cardinal George had the gonads recently to demand…
The latest issue of the League of American Orchestras’ trade magazine Symphony features a cover story on Michael Christie, the 34-year-old conductor of the Phoenix Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As is the case with most trade magazine stories, the article is flattering in the extreme. So much so, Christie…
