{"id":560,"date":"2010-05-02T20:28:44","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T01:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bnhr.org\/?p=560"},"modified":"2010-05-02T20:28:44","modified_gmt":"2010-05-03T01:28:44","slug":"el-paso-times-on-saturdays-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/el-paso-times-on-saturdays-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Times on Saturday&#8217;s protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id=\"articleTitle\">Arizona law condemned: Protestors in El Paso say justice tossed aside<\/h1>\n<p><!--subtitle--><!--byline--><\/p>\n<div id=\"articleByline\"><a href=\"mailto:chrisr@elpasotimes.com?subject=El%20Paso%20Times:%20Arizona%20law%20condemned:%20Protestors%20in%20El%20Paso%20say%20justice%20tossed%20aside\">By Chris Roberts \/ El Paso Times<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--date--><\/p>\n<div id=\"articleDate\">Posted:\u00c2\u00a005\/02\/2010 12:17:40 AM MDT<\/div>\n<p><!--secondary date--><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elpasotimes.com\/portlet\/article\/html\/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=2990070\" target=\"_new\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/extras.mnginteractive.com\/live\/media\/site525\/2010\/0501\/20100501__0502-B1-protest_400.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>Miguel Miranda, right, and Luis Romo protest against the new Arizona immigration law Saturday in the 6000 block of N. Mesa. (Victor Calzada)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"articleViewerGroup\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n                \t\t\t\t\tvar requestedWidth = 0;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO &#8211; Horns honked in support of demonstrators on Mesa Street on Saturday afternoon, nearly drowning out their calls to repeal a controversial Arizona state law requiring police to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.<\/p>\n<p>One woman in the crowd of about 400 people lining both sides of Mesa north of Sunland Park Drive shouted, &#8220;This is the civil-rights movement of the 21st century.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Many held signs denouncing the law. A chant of &#8220;Justicia, Ahora,&#8221; or &#8220;Justice, Now,&#8221; rose and fell.<\/p>\n<p>Critics have said the Arizona law requires police to racially profile Hispanics because most undocumented immigrants in the state are from Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The demonstration, organized by Border Network for Human Rights, was part of a nationwide May Day protest against the law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a strong condemnation of the Arizona law,&#8221; said Fernando Garcia, Border Network&#8217;s executive director. &#8220;It&#8217;s very clear this law criminalizes race. It&#8217;s a racist law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Demonstrators gathered in front of the city&#8217;s Republican Party Headquarters. An elevator in the building would not stop on the floor where the office is located, and stairwell doors were locked.<\/p>\n<p>However, Jaime O. Perez, who is running as the Republican candidate for El Paso County judge, said he believes the law can be enforced fairly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think all of those are exaggerated claims,&#8221; Perez said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n<p>The law will be used to arrest cartel members who have created &#8220;lawless&#8221; conditions on the border, he said, not an undocumented &#8220;grandmother who is coming to do somebody&#8217;s laundry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the intention,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s what they want to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, a Democrat running against Perez for the county judge position, attended the rally to show her support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have long been an advocate for responsible, comprehensive immigration reform,&#8221; Escobar said. &#8220;The fundamental issue here is the lack of either of those things in the Arizona law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Escobar said the federal government has failed to confront the issue, which pits communities and states against each other. She said immigration is a federal issue that should not consume state and local government resources.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is irresponsible to use our precious local tax money on enforcing federal laws,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>County commissioners will take up a measure on Monday that would prohibit spending county money on Arizona goods and services. Escobar said she has mixed feelings on the proposed boycott.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I stand with the folks who say, &#8216;This is unacceptable and we&#8217;re not going to support it,&#8217; &#8221; she said. &#8220;But I don&#8217;t want to harm our local economy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She pointed to a Peter Piper Pizza across the street, noting that a local person bought a franchise from the company, which is headquartered in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These are local franchises that employ local people and pay taxes into local coffers,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Abigail Arredondo, an El Paso native, said in Spanish that she came to show support for fellow Hispanics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our families have mixed cultures, and we want them to respect that according to the Constitution,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The law needs to protect everyone equally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Later Saturday, Perez announced he was submitting an immigration-reform proposal to Congress, in particular Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. He said his plan is a middle course.<\/p>\n<p>It would record undocumented immigrants without deporting them but would deny them employment and health care. It would, he said, create a guest-worker program for those who want to return home as well as &#8220;a pathway to normalizing their status&#8221; for those who want to stay.<\/p>\n<p>A mainstay of the program would be enforcement, he said, including a &#8220;massive increase of Border Patrol.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is naturalization and enforcement,&#8221; Escobar said. &#8220;There will be no different outcome if we continue to focus on enforcement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Escobar said she is not in favor of amnesty. &#8220;I am certainly not an open-borders person,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes.com; 546-6136.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona law condemned: Protestors in El Paso say justice tossed aside By Chris Roberts \/ El Paso Times Posted:\u00c2\u00a005\/02\/2010 12:17:40 AM MDT Miguel Miranda, right, and Luis Romo protest against the new Arizona immigration&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bnhr.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}