10-1 Oppose SB-1070 – Saturday’s rally numbers debunk the polls

Crowds estimated at 50,000 marched fromSteele Indian School Park to the State Capitol Saturday morning to protest Arizonas new anti immigrant law known as SB-1070.

The crowd of protesters stretched more than a half mile through the city streets as the throng of people banged drums, chanted slogans asking President Barack Obama to intervene and waved American flags as they made their way toward downtown Phoenix. Organizers were scattered throughout the protesters picking up trash and providing water to the marchers as the day got progressively hotter.

The rally was peaceful as are the majority of rallies pushing for immigration reform. People attending this event came from as far away as New York and Texas and as close as California.

Speakers at the Capitol, included AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, spoke to the crowd about the climate of fear Arizona’s immigration-enforcement law has created.

“Immigrants are not the cause of Americas problems and (Senate Bill) 1070 is not the answer,” Trumka said.

Sandra Castro, an organizer with Puente and senior at ASU, said the crowds so far were larger than expected and protesters were being bused in from Texas, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Eric Ruder, 40, flew in to Tucson from Chicago after learning of the protest online last week and said the influx of protesters from around the country shows the nation’s interest in Arizona’s legislation.

“The criminalization of immigrants is a scary direction that this country is heading in,” Ruder said.

But for some protesters, the Arizona legislation hits particularly close to home.

Marlene Vazquez, 18, said she came to the country illegally 16 years ago with her family. They stood together at the park Saturday morning concerned about the impact the legislation could have on their lives.

Like many opponents of the bill, Vazquez is concerned that it will lead to police targeting Hispanic-looking residents in an effort to root out illegal immigrants.

“There’s no way that they’re not going to racial profile,” she said. “How does someone look illegal?”

As Vazquez spoke, crowds were forming in corners of the large park, listening to mariachi bands and organizers calling out instructions on bullhorns.

Sarahi Uribe, a member of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, said the group is participating in the Phoenix march to send a message to Washington, D.C.

“We have a very clear demand that President Obama stop senate bill 1070,” she said.

Meanwhile from the darkside, another event was held in Tempe
Supporters of Arizona’s new immigration law put the rest of the country and Mexico on notice Saturday: We’re standing steady; you can’t shake us from our beliefs.

“Together we will secure our border and get our nation back,” Pam Stephenson, director of the Arizona Tea Bagger, told a crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

The “Stand with Arizona” event, organized by “tea bagger” groups, of which ALIPAC President William Gheen was not invited, featured speeches and music and came after a peaceful march in Phoenix of those who oppose the law.

Larry Wachs, an Atlanta radio station host, gave the Tempe group a rallying cry: “Can you hear us, now Mexico? Can you hear us, now? Because this land is not your land. This land is our land,” he said. “I pay for it. We work for it. We have our credentials; where are yours?” (What a buffoon. Of course it’s our land. More fearmongering)

And there was a boo hoo moment when Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Pearce spoke. Pearce, the son of anti-immigrant bill sponsor Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, was shot by an undocumented immigrant in December 2004 while serving a search warrant at a Mesa home. The shooting was one of the events that drove the senator’s effort. Or so he says.

And of course Sheriff Joe “Payaso” Arpaio had his moment on stage to ensure the crowd he has no intent of following the law and intends to continue terrorizing the Hispanic community in Maricopa County.

The new law is now a state law,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told the crowd. “If we catch anyone here illegally, we will arrest everybody and book them into jail. I’m not going to turn them over to ICE.”

And in Mexico, Protest at the United States Embassy

More than 300 opponents of Arizona’s new immigration law are protesting at the U.S. Embassy, chanting “Obama, keep your promise” and demanding legalization for undocumented Mexican workers in the United States.

“Many of us have relatives or friends in the U.S. and we must now stand up and speak out on their behalf,” said Elvira Arellano, a prominent Mexican immigration advocate who gained international attention in 2007 when she was deported without her U.S. citizen son.

“We are calling on President Obama to sign an executive order stopping deportations until U.S. Congress passes comprehensive immigration reforms,” she said.

Mexico City’s demonstrations coincided with protests in California and Arizona on Saturday, where thousands of marchers spoke out for and against an Arizona law that requires police to ask suspects about their immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that they’re in the country illegally. The law is set to take effect July 29.

Mexico’s president has blasted the law aimed at deporting illegal immigrants as “discriminatory,” and President Obama says the law is the product of “people’s frustrations about the border” but doesn’t solve problems there.

So all in all, 50,000 protesting against the law compared to 5,000 attending a rally in support of the law. That pretty much blows the polls out of the water, including ALIPAC’s silly “certified” polls that show 80% of “Americans” want all Mexicans out of the country.

Related posts:

1. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rejects Gov. Brewer’s Challenge, Upholds Injunction of SB 1070