By Quinn Allen-Wardell
Staff Writer of Gloucester Daily Times

One local woman's story is causing many people to think critically not just of our immigration policies, but of our nation's ethical responsibilities as well.

Margery Leach of Gloucester has published "Sanctuary in Phoenix: A Narrative History of the Valley Religious Task Force on Central America and its Role in the Sanctuary Movement in Phoenix from 1981-1998."

In the book, Leach describes in detail the efforts of a group from Phoenix aimed toward helping Latin American refugees escape from their war-torn countries.

"If you see a person suffering and asking for help," Leach said, "what do you do? Do you sit by and watch the person suffer, or do you give a helping hand? These were difficult questions that many people in our country were thinking about during the '90s. Our group, the Valley Religious Task Force, had a definite answer."

Leach wintered in Phoenix for almost a decade, and documented all the cases she witnessed. When she finally moved back to Gloucester in January 2006 she read over her old stories, and decided to compile them into a book.

"I started to see articles about the issues I faced, in Phoenix, popping up all over the news, and I instantly thought of the Task Force," she said. "I knew I had to publish my book."

"Sanctuary in Phoenix" will be on sale today during the Christmas Fair, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at Trinity Congregational Church, 70 Middle St. in Gloucester. All proceeds from the book go to the Trinity Congregational Women's Scholarship Fund.

Leach hopes her book will generate a lot of hype, and urges people to take these issues seriously.

"(Immigration issues) are still reoccurring problems that aren't addressed nearly as much as they should be," she said. "Avoiding this situation will only worsen it, and we cannot afford to let that happen."

Copies of "Sanctuary in Phoenix" may be ordered for $10.50 by sending a check to:

Margery Leach, Harvest Publications,
179 Western Ave.
Gloucester, MA 01930

Filed 6 de Diciembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

By Michael Lacey
published: November 27, 2008

Consorting with anti-immigrant enforcers, indulging rank opportunism, and adhering to failed policies seem an unlikely recipe for change we can believe in. And yet this very cocktail of mediocrity — stirred by an early endorsement of Barack Obama — has thrust Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano into the heady midst of Washington's inaugural speculation.

She finds herself on the president-elect's short list for a cabinet seat, as well as on Saturday Night Live's hot seat for parody.

The governor captured the front page of American journalism this month with the announcement that she is the frontrunner to take over the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano must protect this nation's borders and ensure our safety from terrorism and natural disasters while overseeing billions of dollars in contracts in service of theses goals.

Janet Napolitano has considerable experience failing at administrative oversight.

But it is her role in securing Arizona's frontiers that bears scrutiny.

Confronted with a border state's unavoidable immigration challenges, Napolitano defended the citizenry with a devil's pitchfork. Her multi-pronged strategy: embrace the nation's most regressive legislation; empower a notorious sheriff using cynical political calculations; employ boots on the ground.

And yet she remains beloved by Democratic apologists. Those who cling to Napolitano point out that the alternative to her tepid, and occasionally disgraceful, leadership would be a Republican. That sends her partisan supporters to the fainting couch.

Her faithful base, supine with the vapors, is in no position to consider the record.

Here, quite simply, is the situation.

According to September's GAO report, Homeland Security squandered $15 billion in the past five years on contracts that failed, fell behind schedule, or were over budget. From Katrina to airport security, federal money grew on stunted trees.

And there is little reason to believe this is the sort of mess Napolitano can untangle.

In Arizona, the Department of Transportation, which Napolitano oversaw, bungled billions, the largest contracts in the state's history, by hiring firms embedded with the state agency's former employees and cronies. The ballot proposition that made all this possible was financed, of course, by the very corporations that stood to benefit. The glaring favoritism in the roadway contracts precipitated expensive litigation ("Friends at Work," Sarah Fenske, June 1, 2006).

Furthermore, Homeland Security, like every government agency, is under acute budgetary pressures having little to do with malfeasance.

Facing similar revenue shortfalls in Arizona, Napolitano ducked hard choices, refused to tighten the state's belt and opted for accounting gimmicks: highway radar to raise funds with increased ticketing of motorists; future lottery money diverted to current funding gaps.

Mere corruption, greed, and the cupidity of boondoggle bookkeeping in hard times — these are simple things to understand, if not sanction, within a state government.

But when the Valley of the Sun was in crisis, when the community was torn apart by the worst human-rights tragedy in the state's history, the central villain owed his political power to Janet Napolitano.

And when Arizona became the epicenter of anti-immigrant fever, when armed militiamen patrolled our southern flank with Mexico, our governor followed the advice of a notorious outlier congressman, an anti-immigration foghorn of despair.

She militarized the border.

Continue reading Pheonix New Times' Janet Napolitano’s Sorry Service in Arizona Makes Her a Terrible Choice for Homeland Security Secretary

Filed 1 de Diciembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

The following story appeared on the Phoenix New Times' website:

By John Dickerson

Juan Mendoza Farias was handcuffed and alone in a jail cell when guards opened the hatch on his cell door and fired more than a dozen paintball-like pepper balls at him. Then they fired Taser electrical stun guns — more than a dozen times, by one guard's account — into Farias. Next came "the Devastator," a fire extinguisher-like mace sprayer, then an electronic crowd-control "stun" shield and more Tasers.

Juan Mendoza Farias
(Source: Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner)

Juan Mendoza Farias, Lower Buckeye Jail, jail deaths under Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Two hours later, during a separate altercation with 11 other guards, Farias stopped breathing and then died.

Those details come from Maricopa County Sheriff's detectives' investigation of the incident. On November 14, the Sheriff's Office released nearly 5,000 pages of jail records — four months after New Times requested them, wrote a story about the sheriff's stonewalling, and filed a lawsuit to secure them.

The lawsuit was filed in October. Without a court order or ruling, sheriff's attorney Michelle Iafrate volunteered to release most of the records — about one week after Arpaio won re-election.

New Times first reported on Farias' death in September ("Dead Again," September 11). At that time, the sheriff refused to hand over a single public record regarding Farias. New Times based its story on photos of Farias' beaten body, as well as an autopsy and jail guard reports, secured through a public-records request made to the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner.

The limited records secured in September revealed that Farias stopped breathing on December 5, 2007, when 11 guards pinned him face-down on a concrete "bed" in the Lower Buckeye Jail. When the guards pulled a "spit mask" off Farias' face, they noticed blood coming from his mouth.

The release of additional records reveals a fuller and even more disturbing scene. According to eyewitness reports from guards and inmates inside the jail, guards violently subdued Farias three different times. Jail guards say that Farias was violent, but testimony from inmates contradicts that. It's difficult to even see what Farias is doing in video footage because so many guards piled on him and the video has no sound. The altercations included two different groups of guards on different shifts.

The altercations lasted from approximately 8:30 p.m. to 11:10 p.m., when Farias urinated, stopped breathing, and began bleeding from his mouth and nose. By that time, Farias — naked, with his legs shackled — had been moved through three different isolation cells. Doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital pronounced him dead early the next morning.

Finish reading Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Own Records Raise Serious Questions About Inmate Juan Mendoza Farias' Violent Death

Filed 22 de Noviembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

The following article is from the15rounds.com website.

By Norm Frauenheim

Unknown Jorge Marquez, unbeaten and undocumented, works nights to support a wife and four young kids. By day, he trains at a Phoenix gym for what he hopes will be his real job.

But Marquez is an apprentice without a trade, which is another way of saying he is an immigrant without papers or a potential purse because of the biggest fight these days in Arizona, once a busy and productive boxing market.

“There are a lot of guys, guys like me, wanting to fight,’’ Marquez, a junior-welterweight, said during a workout at Central Boxing near downtown Phoenix. “It’s not that they’re afraid to fight. It’s that they can’t. They don’t let us. We’re not legally here.’’

Actually, Marquez has been here, here in Arizona, for most of his life. He met his wife, a U.S. citizen, in Phoenix. Now 22, he has lived, gone to school and worked in Arizona since he arrived from his birthplace in the Mexican state of Chihuahua as a 3-year-old. But Marquez (3-0, 1 KO) hasn’t fought since a Phoenix card in June, 2007 because of immigration legislation that makes a work visa mandatory for any fighter from Mexico or Mars or anywhere other than the U.S. No work visa means no license from the Arizona State Boxing Commission.

The Arizona process ends right there in first-round stoppage that some say has put the sport in jeopardy in a state that is home to Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal and has loomed significantly in fights for Antonio Margarito, Juan Manuel Marquez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya and Rafael Marquez in a legendary lineage that goes all the way back to late icon Salvador Sanchez.

“Right now, in my mind, Arizona is the toughest place in the U.S. to do boxing,’’ said Eric Gomez, vice-president and chief matchmaker for De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy Promotions.

Both expense and bureaucracy are increasingly turning Arizona into a state that lot of promoters might want to avoid, despite a big Mexican and Mexican-American audience. In nearby states, there are fewer bureaucratic steps and none of the attorney fees that are the part of the price of having to jump through all those regulatory hoops. There is California, Nevada, Texas, and New Mexico.

Continue reading "Arizona Boxing must change it’s work visa rules - Part 1" »

Filed 24 de Octubre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

PHOENIX — A van carrying 20-25 suspected undocumented immigrants caused a car crash Monday morning which left the van flipped on its side after slamming into two cars.

Witnesses say that as soon as the van rested on its side, undocumented immigrants sprang from it and ran into a nearby residential neighborhood. Authorities had been chasing the van when they first noticed it driving erratically on the highway. They were in pursuit in hopes that the driver would lead them to a drop house. However, the chase was called off when the van neared an elementary school.

Police caught 21 people and took those with injuries to a nearby hospital.

Filed 13 de Octubre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (1)

PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Sheriff's office, under the watch of Sheriff Arpaio, mistakenly deported an undocumented immigrant facing burglary charges.

Twenty-eight-year-old Luis Garcia-Villegas was offered by law enforcement officials voluntary deportation to Mexico, after he, along with another man and a 17-year-old were arrested by police for burglarizing the South Phoenix furniture store, La Bodega.

Maricopa County officials said they were unaware of the charges against Garcia-Villegas however crime victim Antonio Casillas was infuriated that such a mistake was made.

Officials were reported to be working on finding Garcia-Villegas and returning him.

Filed 26 de Septiembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

PHOENIX — The Town of Guadalupe, which became famous for defying Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts to conduct hunts for undocumented immigrants where 51 percent of the residents are Hispanic and 49 percent are Yaqui Native American, is without police services.

The contract between the Sheriff's Office and the Town of Guadalupe was canceled by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. However, town officials wanted 60 days to negotiate with the Sheriff before deciding definitely to terminate the contract.

Once the contract is on track for termination, the town has 180 days, until March, to negotiate a deal that is mutually agreed upon or the contract will end. The vote to end the contract was instigated by Sheriff Arpaio as a result of his confrontation in April with the Town of Guadalupe's former mayor Rebecca Jimenez.

The new mayor, who was chosen after Mayor Jimenez lost a recall vote, wants to work with the Sheriff since the dissolution of the contract leaves the town without any guaranty of public safety. The cities of Phoenix, Tempe and the state Department of Public Safety have all told Town of Guadalupe officials that due to financial and staffing shortages they are unable to help provide police protection to the Town's residents.

Filed 18 de Septiembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

With Hispanic Heritage Month fast approaching, most media outlets are hard-pressed to come up with a new way to observe the annual celebration.

The editors of the Arizona Republic figured out a way to give the observance a fresh angle while also providing an outlet to hear from some voices that too often get shuffled or muffled aside — and all it cost them was some pizzas and sodas.

Twelve Latino youth gather at the offices of the Arizona Republic to discuss what it means to be Hispanic.
(Source: azcentral.com)

Staff at the newspaper interviewed 12 young people in what they dubbed a "Hispanic Youth Round Table." There were only two ground rules for the young participants — be "honest and transparent."

The newspaper's editors said:

We met Alex Villalobos, who doesn't speak a lick of Spanish but on weekends dons traditional mariachi garb and performs with a Valley Ballet Folklorico dance troupe. And Bianca Ballejos, who wants to be an evangelist and help unite races and cultures, but who until recently was racist against “Mexicans.”

To read what each young person had to say about what it means to be Hispanic to him or her, follow this link and click on the headline Latino youths speak out on being Hispanic in America.

Filed 6 de Septiembre, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

MESA — Republican State Representative Russell Pearce, who has built his infamy on authoring and passing punitive immigration measures, is running for an open Senate seat in the state. His candidacy is being challenged by a fellow Republican, Kevin Gibbons, who is an immigration lawyer making his first run for public office.

Arizona Rep. State Representative Russell Pearce

Gibbons is challenging the four-term state incumbent and is running as an "anti-Pearce" candidate claiming that Pearce's actions in regard to illegal immigration legislature had poisoned the state legislature.

Without asking, Gibbons is being helped by three independent-expenditure committees who have distributed messages portraying Pearce as racist, misogynist and divisive.

The election to decide who wins the Republican slot for the race for the state senate seat is Sept. 2. The winner will then run against Democrat Judah Nativio on November 4.

Filed 15 de Agosto, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

Tucson — The infamous Sheriff Joe, of Maricopa County fame, found time in between staging his "hunts" for undocumented immigrants to write a book.

Protesters beat a piñata in the figure of Sheriff Joe outside his appearance at a Tucson Barnes & Noble.
(Source: azstarnet.com)

The title is "Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else that Threatens America."

It seems Sheriff Joe has been peddling his book at book signings across the state and he found himself in Tucson this past week at a local Barnes & Noble. As to be expected, he was greeted by over 100 protesters who shared the audience with the sheriff's supporters.

Reporters on the scene write that though protesters shouted their displeasure at Sheriff Joe for his tactics in apprehending undocumented immigrants, the Sheriff appeared unfazed by their comments. As one reported, "Arpaio continued speaking, laughing and steadily raising his voice to be heard over Medina (protester), but smiling as he did so. He'd clearly done this before."

Store officials report that the Sheriff's book sold out.

Filed 12 de Julio, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

PHOENIX — The six-month-old chihuahua was named Taco and he was a much loved member of the Medina family. Yet, on Monday, the family was removing Taco's pictures from the walls of the family home because they served as a sad reminder of how grossly Taco died.

Someone cut Taco in half. The family is sure that the crime was racially motivated though police have no evidence yet to prove what was the real motivation.

Yet, as Humberto Medina told MyFOXPhoenix.com, "He was just a little dog. He cannot hurt anybody."

The police is asking for the public's help in solving the crime.

Filed 7 de Julio, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)

PHOENIX — The story of how undocumented immigrants pay thousands of dollars to a coyote to cross them illegally into the country is a common tale. Yet, what has become even more common is the second chapter of this story and the fact that these coyotes, greedy for more money, will hold their clients for ransom.

Arizona is one of the states identified as seeing an increase in this activity. EFE news service reports that each week 2 to 3 kidnappings on average are reported in Phoenix. From the streets to safe houses to the homes of the victims themselves, holding undocumented immigrants until their families pay an additional amount of money for their release is part of a trend that saw 31 people arrested in 2007 for this crime.

Phoenix police say that the clients of these coyotes cease being humans and become nothing more than a meal ticket to extort more money from the family. To press upon the families that they mean business, it's not uncommon for the people being held for ransom to undergo beatings and torture by their kidnappers who call their families so they can hear their screams.

The ironic aspect of these kidnappings is that the kidnappers, in many cases, are undocumented immigrants themselves and work with organized crime rings.

"From this day forward, we want to send a clear message to all these criminal organizations that we will not tolerate these types of activities," said Stacie Derge, spokeswoman for the Phoenix Police Department during a press conference.

Filed 22 de Junio, 2008 | Permalink | View Blog Reactions | Comments (0)