Citizens for Immigrants
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Showing posts tagged Arizona
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25 Days In Federal Prison For Littering? Border Patrol Cracking Down on Human Rights Activists
Link above about Walt Staton via Alternet
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US Citizen Children Go Without Health Benefits under New AZ Law
via Immigration Prof Blog: “The new Arizona Law, HB 2008, which requires the Department of Economic Security DES employees report anyone in the country without authorization and who tries to apply for public benefits, is being applied to undocumented parents who has sought health benefits for their US citizen children. Click here for the story in the New Media. The law’s chilling effect on such applicants means that citizen children otherwise qualified for benefits are not receiving them. As applied, this law conflicts with federal law on welfare benefits for immigrant and violates equal protection and should be delcared unconstitutional.”
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”On a faith level, [stressing immigration reform] means heeding the command to welcome strangers and care for the vulnerable. It means recognizing the social costs of current laws that make undocumented mothers afraid to apply for benefits their U.S. citizen babies need or attend student-teacher meetings about their U.S.-born children. It means realizing that allowing the undocumented population to earn legal standing creates more wealth for everybody as these people build better lives, pay more taxes and buy more goods.
Opinion in the Arizona Republic: Interfaith group to ‘raise moral voice’ on issue
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JRS-USA: On Assignment in a Federal Detention Center
Fr. Peter Balleis, the International Director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Rome, recently visited a federal detention center in southern Arizona where JRS staff members serve as chaplains. Fr. Balleis wrote this reflection on celebrating Mass for the detainees on the Feast of Christ the King.
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Churches Will not Comply With Arizona Immigration Law: Jim Wallis of Sojourners on MSNBC
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Dr. Warren H. Stewart of First Institutional Baptist Church speaks out against Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB1070, in Phoenix on April 24th.
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via Rachel Maddow from a viewer in Tucson: “I was teaching (at the university) when Gov. Brewer signed the bill. I found out when I got off work. I was biking home so angry, so upset, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach, and then I saw this protest, and I just wept uncontrollably. This is why I still love Arizona. These people.”
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And as always, it is the young people that first and foremost exert their right to be fully human. Over the last few days we have witnessed thousands and thousands of students assembling at the state capital in Arizona. They raise their voices for freedom, justice, and dignity. Understand that this is more than a political protest. It is a cry for life and a cry for a secure and free future for all people.
We must support their energy and their insistence on solidarity with their families. They have grown up, as generations before them, witnessing the daily indignity that their families suffer. They have seen the pride of their fathers, grandmothers, brothers, and cousins broken by the crushing force of history upon them, by the weight of their birthplace and skin color. They have seen years of hard work undervalued by fear and their wealth lost to laws that protect exploiters. They have watched the concern in their mothers’ eyes for their safety,for their futures, for any signs of hope, and for all signals of danger. The mothers say: Cuidate. Please, be careful my child.
Gihan Perera, Executive Director of the Miami Workers Center, writes for the Huffington Post: “The Time is Now - A Declaration for a Free Arizona” -
”There are times in scripture and history when God looks at unjust laws and calls people of faith to stare them down and break them… This is our day. It is time to march. It is time to make some serious noise. We must speak up and out and make it known that we will not lie down. We will not comply with injustice. We will not let hate and fear govern our nation. No! We have come too far for that! Too many people have bled and died and paid severe costs for us to trample on their sacrifices with unjust laws like SB1070.
Lisa Sharon Harper writes for Sojourners/ God’s Politics blog: “From Fear to Fact: U.S. Citizen Arrested for ‘Driving While Latino’ in Arizona”. Lisa is the executive director of New York Faith & Justice and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat -
”The Arizona law and the outpouring of condemnation from the faith community underscores the urgency of enacting humane, comprehensive immigration reform.
Jen Smyers, associate for immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service as quoted in CBS News report “Religious Leaders Mobilize Against Arizona Immigration Law” -
”As a black person, I’m always against any form of discrimination or racial profiling… I think that we need to do two things. Living in Arizona, I’m disappointed that we came up with the law. But we need to do two things. We need to find a way to get these immigrants their citizenship, that’s the first thing, is to find a way to help them get citizenship. I’m very disappointed in John McCain. He used to be somebody I really admired and respected… Most of those immigrants here are busting their hump, doing a great job, and to go after them every couple years because you want to raise hell doing something to get re-elected, that’s disrespectful and disgusting.
Charles Barkley as quoted by Racewire in “Charles Barkley Joins Chorus of Black Voices Condemning SB 1070” -
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“Los Suns Slam Arizona Law” via The Nation & Democracy Now:
For last night’s basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns donned their “Los Suns” jerseys usually worn for their Noche Latina program. But to everyone watching, the jerseys positioned the Suns as jointly condemning Arizona’s recent anti-immigration law. Point guard Steve Nash’s interview on ESPN has now reverberated throughout the sports world. “I think that this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties,” he said. “I think that it opens up the potential for racial profiling and racism.”
Dave Zirin, The Nation’s sports correspondent, appears on Democracy Now! discussing how Arizona’s teams have taken a political stance to the law and how fans have responded in support. Yet one team—the Arizona Diamondbacks—have been publicly protested at numerous of their baseball games. The D-backs’ owner, Ken Kendricks Jr., and his family gave more than $1 million to the Republicans Party Committee in 2010. John McCain and his wife Cindy McCain were also minority owners of the Diamondbacks. “He’s got to put his money where his mouth is.’ ” says Zirin. “We’re saying we want to see Ken Kendrick actually in front of cameras saying, ‘You know what? The spigot has been turned off and the state Republican Party will not get one more dime from my bottomless pockets until SB-1070 has finally been overturned.’ ”
