Promote Justice for Mexico and the Borderlands

We don't typically take action on state-level legislation. However, we find a bill recently passed by Arizona's state legislature and currently on its way to Governor Jan Brewer's desk –- SB1070 –- so dangerously misguided that we feel we cannot sit back silently.  And you shouldn't either!

If allowed to pass into law by Gov. Brewer, SB 1070 would effectively force police to engage in racial profiling, criminalize unauthorized migrants for 'trespassing' into Arizona, and permit anyone to sue local agencies if they believe that the law isn't being adequately enforced.  Such policies are as sweeping as they are dangerous.

Earlier this week, Arizona state legislators voted in favor of legislation that – if signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer - would institutionalize discriminatory and dangerous policies by effectively pressuring police to engage in racial profiling, criminalize unauthorized migrants for 'trespassing' into Arizona, and permit anyone to sue local agencies if they believe that the law isn't being adequately enforced.  Such policies are as sweeping as they are dangerous. 

Charles Bowden’s Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields is an unflinching look at the violence on the U.S.-Mexico border and the failing solutions by both countries to address it.  With an intense sympathy for the many victims but also a degree of understanding even for a contract killer who finds God, the author doesn’t let the reader find comfort in anything.  The book, just published by Nation Books (New York: 2010), can be found at your local bookstore or online distributors.  Here are a few selections from this devastating catalog of violence.

If you ascribe to the old saying that "actions speak louder than words," then March 21st, 2010 may become a historic moment. On that day, an estimated 200,000 plus families, students and concerned individuals from Delaware to Oregon participated in the "March for America" in Washington D.C. to remind Congress and President Obama that we're tired of empty promises and want to see action towards immigration reform - and we want to see it now!