Tucson, AZ September 9th, 2015
| The discriminatory intent and effect is not “speculative” |
| Tucson AZ, September 8th, 2015 – Arizona communities who have borne the brutal brunt of SB 1070’s “legalized” racial profiling, now face the most recent blow to their efforts for justice in the Courts. In a 23 page opinion, Judge Bolton dismisses the Plaintiffs’ (including Derechos Humanos’) claim that the law is discriminatory against Latinos, indigenous, and Mexicans, finding that the law is “facially neutral,” and that there is no evidence that the law will be enforced by law enforcement officials “differently for Latinos than a similarly situated person or another race.”
“It is truly incredible that we have lived, and continue to live, in a highly policed environment, where police officers have targeted the Latino and Chicano people to detain, question and arrest, where families have been destroyed after the SB 1070 stop, and now to be told that this law is being enforced equally and applied to everyone, is in direct contradiction of our lived reality,” stated Amanda Garcés of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos. “The law was designed and enacted with one purpose, and that was to create a hostile environment by focusing law enforcement efforts on specific racial/ethnic communities, with elected officials’ correspondence and public statements clearly demonstrating that SB 1070 was designed to be discriminatory,” she added.
Though the day laborer sections were summarily struck down, Section 2 guarantees that their rights to work will nevertheless be impinged. “With this decision, the Constitutional rights of thousands of workers and their families will be subject to violations under a make-believe theory that the law is applied equally to both white and brown people,” continued Garcés, “hurting not only specific people and their families, but the national conversation that continues to be poisoned by the statements of Trump and the other GOP presidential contenders.”
The decision to permit the “show me your papers” provision to survive is a direct attack on our rich and beautiful community’s history and presence. Our community will continue to fight SB 1070 and similar laws and policies until Arizona and this country is truly worthy of its people.
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