Salisbury University



[4 short articles on Education, Immigration enforcement, and Policing in Arizona—Count as 1 rdg. for RDP’s and Notes]

Arizona bans ethnic studies in public schools

By the CNN Wire Staff

May 12, 2010



(CNN) -- Fresh on the heels of a new immigration law that has led to calls to boycott her state, Arizona's governor has signed a bill banning ethnic studies classes that "promote resentment" of other racial groups.

Gov. Jan Brewer approved the measure without public statement Tuesday, according to state legislative records. The new law forbids elementary or secondary schools to teach classes that are "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" and advocate "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment toward a race or class of people."

The bill was pushed by state school Superintendent Tom Horne, who has spent two years trying to get Tucson schools to drop a Mexican-American studies program he said teaches Latino students they are an oppressed minority. There was no immediate response from the Tucson Unified School District, the law's main target.

Brewer's signature comes less than a month after she approved a state law that requires immigrants to carry their registration documents at all times and allows police to question individuals' immigration status in the process of enforcing any other law or ordinance. Critics of the law say it will lead to racial profiling, while supporters say it involves no racial profiling and is needed to crack down on increasing crime involving illegal immigrants.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council overwhelmingly approved a boycott of Arizona-based businesses and governments unless the state repeals the new immigration law.

The city's legislative analyst reported that Los Angeles currently has $56 million in contracts with companies headquartered in Arizona.

Several other California cities, including San Francisco and Oakland, have already adopted resolutions requesting city departments to not sign any new contracts with Arizona companies.

Arizona’s “banned” Mexican American books

by Roberto Cintli Rodriguez

Tucson Citizen

January 19, 2012



First, the Tucson school district came for the Mexican American studies program. Now, it’s come for its books

In the aftermath of the suspension of the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American studies department, TUSD has confiscated and continues to confiscate MAS teaching materials. Besides artwork and posters etc, that includes books. This move came in response to an unconstitutional measure, HB 2281, which was specifically created to dismantle the highly successful MAS-TUSD department.

Amid a massive backlash, TUSD officials have backpedaled, claiming that the confiscation of the books that took place after the 10 January MAS suspension does not constitute a banned books list. While TUSD claims that only seven book titles were ordered boxed and carried off, the fact is that the confiscation – in some cases, in front of the students – involved more than the seven titles. But the seven books that are “not banned” (but merely “confiscated”) are:

• Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

• 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martinez

• Message to Aztlán, by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales

• Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement, by F Arturo Rosales

• Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire

• Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow

The MAS-TUSD curriculum comprises some 50 books. All have been or are being removed or confiscated from every classroom; teachers are being told to turn in the books that have not been “confiscated”. This might strike the average person as odd: it’s as if the presence of these books inside classrooms constitutes a distraction or bad influence. Apparently, students should not be able to even see those books in the classrooms.

Officially, the 50 books (listed at the end of the independent Cambium report () which actually gave the MAS-TUSD program a big thumbs up and recommended that it be expanded) are not banned. But it could be said that their apparent status is now that of “undocumented books”.

As a result of the banning of the MAS program, there has been much unrest. One action involved a walkout and march from Cholla High School to the TUSD headquarters, a distance of five miles. When the marchers reached TUSD headquarters, they were met by several bureaucrats, including administrator, Lupita Garcia, an opponent of the MAS program who oversees the district’s ethnic studies programs. She unabashedly told the students that racism has nothing to do with color and that Mexico is where Mexican studies is taught, not America!

This was, of course, inaccurate: what was suspended by HB 2281 was Mexican American studies, not Mexican studies. When students asked why European studies has not been banned, nor any other area studies discipline, the administrators had no response.

Cop had to take stand and fight SB 1070

Ernesto Portillo Jr. Arizona Daily Star

May 9, 2010



Sitting in a downtown coffee shop, relaxed and casually dressed in civilian clothes, Tucson police Officer Martin Escobar is serious.

Up until less than two weeks ago, Escobar was an obscure 15-year veteran on the TPD patrol beat, working nights on the south side. Married, a father of two, Escobar kept a low profile, dedicating himself to family and work.

But in the wake of the April 23 signing of SB 1070, which forces police officers in Arizona to question suspects' citizenship if they have "reasonable suspicion" that person may be in this country illegally, Escobar emerged as an unlikely hero to the law's opponents - and has been eviscerated by the law's supporters.

Escobar, 45, filed a federal lawsuit - one of the first - against SB 1070, which has ignited a maelstrom over the role of local police in enforcing federal immigration laws. A second police officer in Phoenix also filed a lawsuit.

"I didn't do this for me," said Escobar, who in addition to his police career is a martial-arts champion and owner of a jiu-jitsu studio.

Escobar did it for the Latino residents he has served his whole career who he believes will be racially profiled. He did it for his fellow officers, who he believes will find policing more challenging under the new law. He did it for his Mexican-born parents, legal residents who immigrated to Tucson to build a new, strong life for the family.

"My mom and dad speak with accents. They could be racially profiled," said Escobar, a naturalized citizen.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the law that is due to take effect in late July unless blocked, rejects claims that SB 1070 will lead to racial profiling. She and proponents of the law argue local police officers will not be allowed to use racial identity as a reason to question someone under the law.

But Escobar, who grew up in South Tucson, flatly rejects that argument. While the vast majority of officers are good, he said, "there's that 1 percent who will abuse the law."

Moreover, he said, the law will inspire fear within the Latino neighborhoods and make policing more difficult. He fears Latino residents will report fewer crimes and be less willing to emerge as witnesses.

"We have worked hard to achieve a greater level of cooperation," he said. "I'm proud of my police work."

Escobar and his five siblings, one of whom is also a Tucson police officer, were raised by their divorced mother in a small house on West 30th Street.

His mother cleaned motel rooms, made tortillas and worked at Garcia Cleaners and Laundry on East 22nd Street, not far from the Escobar home. The family didn't have much and "I didn't notice it much," he said.

But even as a kid, he noticed racial profiling.

As a student at Safford Junior High School, Escobar recalls the day he was stopped by Border Patrol agents near his home. They asked him for his immigration papers.

Scared and unsure, he told them truthfully he was in the country legally and that he didn't have immigration papers. "It struck a chord with me," he said.

That chord has played over and over again in Latino neighborhoods where American citizens and legal residents have been asked to prove their legal status, Escobar said. That happens now, without SB 1070, he said. It will only increase if the law takes effect.

While he wasn't looking for public attention, Escobar is confident he did the right thing in contesting a law he believes will interfere with his work as a cop on the beat.

"There was a great cause and it's not about me," he said. "I just want people to stand up when something is wrong."

Ariz. sheriff illegally discriminated against Hispanics, Justice Dept. alleges

By Jerry Markon,

Washington Post



December 15, 2011, 12:14 PM

The Justice Department on Thursday accused a controversial Arizona sheriff known for tough immigration enforcement of widespread discrimination against Hispanics, saying Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s department illegally detained Hispanic residents and denied them critical services in jail.

Arpaio, the longtime sheriff in Maricopa County, oversaw a pattern of unconstitutional conduct that targeted Hispanics and retaliated against others who criticized the practices, the department said in an investigative report.

Justice officials were unsparing in their criticism of Arpaio, a former D.C. police officer whose unusual methods have put him at the epicenter of the controversy over the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Once seen as a quirky figure who has inmates dress in pink underwear and forces them to work on chain gangs, Arpaio has in recent years become a kind of folk hero to those who favor his heavily publicized “crime sweeps,” mostly in Hispanic neighborhoods.

But civil rights groups have long acccused America’s self-styled “toughest sheriff” of racial profiling, and the Justice Department agreed. Its investigation, which has lasted more than three years and is continuing, found civil violations which could lead to court-enforced reforms. Arpaio has also been under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury in Phoenix, sources familiar with the inquiry have said.

“We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department - a culture that breeds a systemic disregard for basic constitutional protections,’’ said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights. He laid the blame at Arpaio’s door, adding: “These issues go to the highest levels of the department.’’

Arpaio and his attorneys have long denied any racial profiling and derided the investigation as politically motivated. “These actions make it abundantly clear that Arizona, including the Sheriff, is Washington’s new whipping boy,” Arpaio said after the Justice Department sued him last year over his alleged lack of cooperation with the inquiry.

Arpaio’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

The findings are the latest step in the Obama administration’s efforts to ramp up civil rights enforcement efforts, especially against local police, to see whether officers are guilty of brutality or discrimination against Hispanics and other minorities. All told, Justice’s Civil Rights Division is conducting 20 probes of police and sheriff departments - the largest number in its 54-year history.

The report is also likely to heighten tensions nationally over the bitterly divisive issue of immigration, ahead of next year’s presidential election. A different Justice Department division has sued four states over their tough new immigration laws, and the first such suit was filed against Arizona. The U.S. Supreme Court this week said it will review Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, which inspired similar state efforts across the country.

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