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

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