Phoenix, Arizona. May 17, 2010. Last month I was sitting in my office, enjoying a visit with a former
student and waiting, with a knot in my stomach, for the Arizona Governor’s announcement regarding
SB1070. Surely she would do the right thing and refuse to sign this insidious and un-American piece of
legislation that makes being an illegal immigrant a crime and empowers state and city police officers to
determine the immigration status of noncriminals if there is a ‘reasonable suspicion’ they are
undocumented. Surely a 21st century governor in America would veto any legislation that had the
potential to institutionalize racial profiling? But in an instant, Governor Brewer showed the world that
the lessons of history simply don’t apply to her. Swiftly and proudly, she signed this inhumane bill into
law, and the world finally paid attention to an Arizona that, measure by measure, continues to make life
unlivable for immigrants.
What saddens me most, as an immigrant from Northern Ireland living in Arizona, is this prospect of
carrying my green card, having my papers in order. After all, it’s not that long ago that I was routinely
handing my driver’s license over to an RUC officer or a British soldier at random checkpoints. I clearly
recall one snowy afternoon, at the top of the Ligoniel Road in Belfast. A student teacher, I was moving
out of the halls of residence at Stranmillis College, so my little Honda Civic was weighed down with
textbooks and essays, clothes and toiletries, boxes of pictures, a collection of concert posters wrapped in
elastic bands, and my violin. I must have looked less like a university student and more like an IRA
terrorist because, even though I had my license and could answer the young soldiers’ questions about
where I had been and where I was going, I still had to step aside while they went through the entire
contents of my car, looking under the seats and in the boot, emptying out my make-up bag, rifling
through the box of student essays. All in the name of security I know, but I always questioned the
randomness of it. Not out loud of course, but I wondered what it was about me that would cause a
policeman or a soldier to have me step out of my vehicle and search its contents? Did I fit some profile?
Did I look like a terrorist? What was the ‘reasonable suspicion?”
Fair questions I think for the police officers whose charge it will be to enforce SB1070 in the sunny
southwest. Governor Brewer and her supporters have indicated that law enforcement officers will
receive training so there is no racial profiling. I, for one, am interested in the curriculum that will
guarantee those results for the one or two police officers who might just harbor anti-immigrant feelings,
the one or two who can, under this new law, simply say they had ‘reasonable suspicion’ when they went
out to investigate too much noise coming from a party that the residents inside were illegal immigrants.
Arizona State Senator, Russell Pearce, who authored this piece of legislation, says it simply “takes the
handcuffs off of law enforcement and lets them do their job.” But there’s nothing simple about it. Those
police officers who are honorable and interested only in keeping the community safe now find themselves
between a rock and a hard place, because SB1070 also includes the disturbing provision that citizens can
sue to compel police agencies to comply with the law. Further, no city or agency can create a policy
directing its workers to ignore the law.
We all understand that illegal immigration is a problem of monumental proportion for these United
States, but SB 1070 is not the answer. It is not the answer, for example, for those immigrant children
who are in Arizona because their parents brought them here in search of that dream of America that also
drew me to these shores. Children who, hand on heart, pledge allegiance to the United States flag
every day in elementary school. Children who have committed no crime but who are criminalized
nonetheless because they don’t have papers. They don’t have papers because there is no legal pathway
to citizenship for them. They would have to ‘go back’ to their country of origin, a country now foreign to
them, for all intents and purposes, a country that will place them at the back of the line to apply to return
to the United States (the only country they know), a line where the wait is about 10 years.
Commenting on SB1070, Archbishop Desmond Tutu raised the specter of apartheid, where black Africans
could be jailed for being in their own country without their papers, degraded and deemed less worthy
because of the color of their skin, “Abominations such as Apartheid do not start with an entire population
suddenly becoming inhumane. They start here… They start with stripping people of rights and dignity –
such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Not because it is right, but because you
can.”
As I see it, SB1070 needs to sit on a shelf along with the pass laws of Apartheid, the Internment Act Law
in Northern Ireland, and that book of laws in Nazi Germany prior to World War II that required Jews to
carry papers and citizens to prove they weren’t Jewish. As of this writing, the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) MALDEF, and the National Immigration Center are doing all in their power to legally
challenge SB1070. Important to note what MALDEF did in California some years ago, successfully
challenging Proposition 187, a voter-approved initiative that required proof of legal status to access
virtually all public services. As fear and suspicion grew following the enactment of 187, schools and
communities were torn apart and the state wasted tens of millions of dollars in an effort to defend an
unconstitutional law which eventually was struck down.
Without a doubt, SB1070 has reawakened in many of us the spirit that defines the transcendent struggle
for human rights. I recall the late 1980s when I first came to the United States and found myself in an
Arizona that refused to create a legal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember Bono refusing
to play until that recalcitrant state legislature approved the holiday. An economic boycott was key in
forcing the legislature to honor Dr. King’s legacy. Over two decades later, we find ourselves considering
similar strategies in Arizona, including a boycott. Just this week, the local newspaper, The Arizona
Republic reported the following groups who have announced travel boycotts:
• Service Employees International Union
• United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
• National Council of La Raza
• Asian American Justice Center
• Center for Community Change
• League of United Latin American Citizens
• National Puerto Rican Coalition
• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Across the United States, a handful of cities have already approved the boycott with Los Angeles
becoming the largest city yet to boycott Arizona. The City Council voted 13-1 to bar Los Angeles from
conducting business with Arizona unless its new immigration law is repealed.
And I think it’s worth repeating the oft-quoted words of Marin Niemoller, “ In Germany they came first for
the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and
I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was
a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
student and waiting, with a knot in my stomach, for the Arizona Governor’s announcement regarding
SB1070. Surely she would do the right thing and refuse to sign this insidious and un-American piece of
legislation that makes being an illegal immigrant a crime and empowers state and city police officers to
determine the immigration status of noncriminals if there is a ‘reasonable suspicion’ they are
undocumented. Surely a 21st century governor in America would veto any legislation that had the
potential to institutionalize racial profiling? But in an instant, Governor Brewer showed the world that
the lessons of history simply don’t apply to her. Swiftly and proudly, she signed this inhumane bill into
law, and the world finally paid attention to an Arizona that, measure by measure, continues to make life
unlivable for immigrants.
What saddens me most, as an immigrant from Northern Ireland living in Arizona, is this prospect of
carrying my green card, having my papers in order. After all, it’s not that long ago that I was routinely
handing my driver’s license over to an RUC officer or a British soldier at random checkpoints. I clearly
recall one snowy afternoon, at the top of the Ligoniel Road in Belfast. A student teacher, I was moving
out of the halls of residence at Stranmillis College, so my little Honda Civic was weighed down with
textbooks and essays, clothes and toiletries, boxes of pictures, a collection of concert posters wrapped in
elastic bands, and my violin. I must have looked less like a university student and more like an IRA
terrorist because, even though I had my license and could answer the young soldiers’ questions about
where I had been and where I was going, I still had to step aside while they went through the entire
contents of my car, looking under the seats and in the boot, emptying out my make-up bag, rifling
through the box of student essays. All in the name of security I know, but I always questioned the
randomness of it. Not out loud of course, but I wondered what it was about me that would cause a
policeman or a soldier to have me step out of my vehicle and search its contents? Did I fit some profile?
Did I look like a terrorist? What was the ‘reasonable suspicion?”
Fair questions I think for the police officers whose charge it will be to enforce SB1070 in the sunny
southwest. Governor Brewer and her supporters have indicated that law enforcement officers will
receive training so there is no racial profiling. I, for one, am interested in the curriculum that will
guarantee those results for the one or two police officers who might just harbor anti-immigrant feelings,
the one or two who can, under this new law, simply say they had ‘reasonable suspicion’ when they went
out to investigate too much noise coming from a party that the residents inside were illegal immigrants.
Arizona State Senator, Russell Pearce, who authored this piece of legislation, says it simply “takes the
handcuffs off of law enforcement and lets them do their job.” But there’s nothing simple about it. Those
police officers who are honorable and interested only in keeping the community safe now find themselves
between a rock and a hard place, because SB1070 also includes the disturbing provision that citizens can
sue to compel police agencies to comply with the law. Further, no city or agency can create a policy
directing its workers to ignore the law.
We all understand that illegal immigration is a problem of monumental proportion for these United
States, but SB 1070 is not the answer. It is not the answer, for example, for those immigrant children
who are in Arizona because their parents brought them here in search of that dream of America that also
drew me to these shores. Children who, hand on heart, pledge allegiance to the United States flag
every day in elementary school. Children who have committed no crime but who are criminalized
nonetheless because they don’t have papers. They don’t have papers because there is no legal pathway
to citizenship for them. They would have to ‘go back’ to their country of origin, a country now foreign to
them, for all intents and purposes, a country that will place them at the back of the line to apply to return
to the United States (the only country they know), a line where the wait is about 10 years.
Commenting on SB1070, Archbishop Desmond Tutu raised the specter of apartheid, where black Africans
could be jailed for being in their own country without their papers, degraded and deemed less worthy
because of the color of their skin, “Abominations such as Apartheid do not start with an entire population
suddenly becoming inhumane. They start here… They start with stripping people of rights and dignity –
such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Not because it is right, but because you
can.”
As I see it, SB1070 needs to sit on a shelf along with the pass laws of Apartheid, the Internment Act Law
in Northern Ireland, and that book of laws in Nazi Germany prior to World War II that required Jews to
carry papers and citizens to prove they weren’t Jewish. As of this writing, the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) MALDEF, and the National Immigration Center are doing all in their power to legally
challenge SB1070. Important to note what MALDEF did in California some years ago, successfully
challenging Proposition 187, a voter-approved initiative that required proof of legal status to access
virtually all public services. As fear and suspicion grew following the enactment of 187, schools and
communities were torn apart and the state wasted tens of millions of dollars in an effort to defend an
unconstitutional law which eventually was struck down.
Without a doubt, SB1070 has reawakened in many of us the spirit that defines the transcendent struggle
for human rights. I recall the late 1980s when I first came to the United States and found myself in an
Arizona that refused to create a legal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember Bono refusing
to play until that recalcitrant state legislature approved the holiday. An economic boycott was key in
forcing the legislature to honor Dr. King’s legacy. Over two decades later, we find ourselves considering
similar strategies in Arizona, including a boycott. Just this week, the local newspaper, The Arizona
Republic reported the following groups who have announced travel boycotts:
• Service Employees International Union
• United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
• National Council of La Raza
• Asian American Justice Center
• Center for Community Change
• League of United Latin American Citizens
• National Puerto Rican Coalition
• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Across the United States, a handful of cities have already approved the boycott with Los Angeles
becoming the largest city yet to boycott Arizona. The City Council voted 13-1 to bar Los Angeles from
conducting business with Arizona unless its new immigration law is repealed.
And I think it’s worth repeating the oft-quoted words of Marin Niemoller, “ In Germany they came first for
the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and
I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was
a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
New Arizona Law Polarizes Race Relations in the U.S.
PROTESTS SB1070 needs to sit on
a shelf along with the pass laws of
Apartheid, the Internment Act Law in
Northern Ireland, and that book of
laws in Nazi Germany prior to World
War II that required Jews to carry
papers and citizens to prove they
weren’t Jewish.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza/Barriozona
a shelf along with the pass laws of
Apartheid, the Internment Act Law in
Northern Ireland, and that book of
laws in Nazi Germany prior to World
War II that required Jews to carry
papers and citizens to prove they
weren’t Jewish.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza/Barriozona
Yvonne Watterson is the principal for Alhambra College Preparatory High School,
in Phoenix, Arizona, editor of the book Documented Dreams, and the recipient of
the City of Phoenix 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Living the Dream award.
Contact Yvonne Watterson
in Phoenix, Arizona, editor of the book Documented Dreams, and the recipient of
the City of Phoenix 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Living the Dream award.
Contact Yvonne Watterson
I wondered what it was about me that would cause a policeman or a soldier to have me step out of my
vehicle and search its contents? Did I fit some profile? Did I look like a terrorist? What was the
‘reasonable suspicion?”
vehicle and search its contents? Did I fit some profile? Did I look like a terrorist? What was the
‘reasonable suspicion?”
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