{"id":6178,"date":"2010-05-24T07:39:44","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T12:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=6178"},"modified":"2010-05-24T11:30:54","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T16:30:54","slug":"arizonas_new_im","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/24\/arizonas_new_im\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona’s New Immigration Law Affects All of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Immigrant Rights Rally, Union Square Park, New York City, May 1, 2010<\/i><\/div>\n\n

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“For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town, or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town in this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released” (Revisions to Arizona’s laws from SB1070<\/a> and HB2162<\/a>).<\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n

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Ten years ago, a Tucson police officer “lawfully stopped” me when I wasn’t doing anything.<\/div>

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It was the summer after I graduated from high school; college was set, classes were over, and life was goooooooood. I had started to rediscover the parts of living in Tucson, Arizona that I’d loved as a child but that just weren’t cool enough for me in my early teens: starry nights, sunsets, hikes, and the tranquility of the desert.<\/div>

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I remember one spot at the eastern end of Broadway Blvd. where I had my first cigarette, miles away from my father’s long nose and longer lectures.  Frightened into submission by years of anti-smoking ad campaigns about additives and unfiltered cigarettes but also intensely curious, I’d visited a tobacco shop, bought rolling tobacco, papers, and filters, and headed out into the middle of nowhere to figure out what all the hype was about. It took me forever to figure how to roll the damn thing, and even longer to figure out how to do it with a filter. I lit it up, took a few puffs, and about five seconds later mistook the buzz and high heart rate for imminent lonely-wilderness-death. I got the hell back to town in a fright and promised myself I’d never do that again.<\/div>\n\n

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A month or so later I was back in that same spot – this time without any tobacco and with two of my friends: Maggie, whose family had come to the U.S. from Mexico several years before when her father got a job teaching at the University of Arizona, and Brian, whose family had recently moved to Tucson from Maryland.<\/div>\n\n

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