Showdown in Arizona, Where Mariachis and Minutemen Collide - NY Times

[groovedaddy]

Showdown in Arizona, Where Mariachis and Minutemen Collide By LAWRENCE DOWNES

Want to see America unraveling? Come here, to Thomas Road and 35th Street, to M. D. Pruitt’s furniture store. Come on Saturday morning and stand near the eight delivery trucks barricading the parking lot, like the wall of an urban Alamo.

For the last seven weeks, a sidewalk protest here by Latino immigrants has blossomed into a feverish reality show, attracting Minutemen, mariachis, children dancing in Mexican folk costume, white racists, United Nations observers, Phoenix police officers and Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies.

The weekly confrontation — strident and stalemated — perfectly mimics the national debate. But it’s a sideshow to something uglier: what happens when immigration’s complexities are handed to local law enforcers sympathetic to the fury of one side.

Thomas Road has lots of Latino day laborers, or jornaleros, who hustle for work near Home Depot. A few months ago, the Phoenix police shooed them away. They dispersed to streets nearby, angering local businesses. One of the biggest, Pruitt’s, hired off-duty city police officers to keep jornaleros at bay. The city put a stop to that, so Pruitt’s turned to the county sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/opinion/10mon4.html?th&emc=th

[Jim__]

1. “Monkeys coming through!”

There is an RW morning radio host in Denver who talks about the problem with illegal immigrants everyday. He claims there is absolutely no racism involved. He's very selective about the problems that he sees.

[PDJane]

2. And Arpaio is the last person

I'd want to have handling a confrontation of any kind.....well, unless I was planning to nuke the opposition.

[tired]

3. Sheriff Joe horrible

Like the article says "Unfortunately, they’ll probably wake up when they bankrupt the state". What people like the Minutemen don't realize is how important migrant workers are for the economy here. It is easier to hate than to work towards a viable solution.

[BridgeTheGap]

5. Fear of the unknown drives far too many people to heinous acts

You are right about the economy. There was an article in the NY Times a few weeks back about towns in New Jersey that passed ordinances that ran off those without "papers." The local economy plummeted in the wake of the exodus. The local governments rescinded the ordinances in hopes of pulling the migrants back in.

[immoderate]

4. I wonder if Joe will enforce the new law. He's a corporate tool.

I recently had a row with a conservative friend of mine. He chided me for not acknowledging "all the good that Sheriff Joe has done.":rofl:

I answered back with the 1500 law suits against the county for the poor supervision of Tent City, Joe's jail, and the high crime rates and recidivism rates that plague Maricopa County. "What 'good' are you talking about?" I asked three weeks ago. I haven't heard from him since.

--IMM