You Got My Attention!

I was in the middle of the street.  I was jay-walking when I heard someone shout at me: “Hey, you know it’s against the law to jay-walk.  Be careful!”  I was in Phoenix, attending the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly.  It was hot – every day the temperature was over 105 and as high as 111.  I was between air-conditioned buildings; I was trying to hurry.  But she was right - I was breaking the law.  Here in Annapolis, I wouldn’t have thought much about my actions, but later I fully understood that in Phoenix, as elsewhere, this could pose a very large problem (even death).

            You see, in Arizona getting stopped by the police – as in getting a ticket for jay-walking – can lead a police officer to asking for your “papers,” that is, proof that you are a U.S. citizen.  Later that day I was one of many asked during an Assembly meeting: “How many of you, right now, could prove you are a U.S. citizen?”  I couldn’t; neither could 98% of the people in the hall where thousands had gathered.  Honestly – and let’s be honest about this –I have the wrong skin color and the wrong accent to be asked for my “papers.”  But, if I had been asked and failed to show U.S. identification, I could be “detained” and once this process is started I would lose many of the legal rights I’ve always assumed I have – like a phone call and legal representation.  You see, the immigration process and detention system is very different – the rules as we have come to know them just don’t apply.

            On Saturday night of the Assembly, we gathered outside Phoenix’s infamous “Tent City” where thousands of detainees are being held by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  None of those living behind the fence have been convicted of anything – they are being housed in tents without air-conditioning awaiting processing (the evening we were there, it was 102).  Last year, 122 immigrants died in detention facilities – waiting for the government to decide their status, which is to say, some/many/most were in the wrong place at the wrong time, didn’t have papers, were detained, and ….  (One of the speakers noted that just down the street is the county animal shelter where the “guests” have air-conditioning and spotless living conditions.)

             At the Saturday night “witness,” I was among the crowd who gathered in the heat to ask that Tent City be shut down and that Arizona SB 1070 be repealed.  My participation had taken on more meaning when the GA organizers got my attention asking: “Show me your papers!”  I couldn’t and I realized that I could be confined in Tent City, filling the “Vacancy” advertised by Sheriff Arpaio.  A simple act of jay-walking could have put me detention.

            The U.S. Supreme has ruled on the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070, leaving the door open for further hearings and litigation on one key part of the law.  In the meantime, my week in Phoenix was an eye-opener; it was unsettling.  “You got my attention,” I told several on the GA planning staff.  What will it take to get yours?

             Take care and see you soon,

                        Fred