Maricopa County sued over anti-smuggling law; Mexico links

A potential class action lawsuit has been filed by various groups against Maricopa County, Arizona (home of Phoenix) concerning a state law designed to stop human smuggling. Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas have been using that law to arrest and charge illegal aliens with smuggling themselves into the country. Since starting that earlier this year, they've managed 180 convictions (two by jury) out of 360 arrests.

What's interesting here is those on the other side; for instance, one of the lawyers involved has at least three links to the Mexican government. In addition to six Mexican citizens, the plaintiffs include (descriptions from the first link, notes in brackets):

* We Are America/Somos America Coalition of Arizona [has some sort of link to the AZ Democratic Party; whether they're part of the We Are America Alliance is not known.]

* the community organization Friendly House

* state representatives Kyrsten Sinema, Steve Gallardo (1,2) and David Lujan [slightly positive note here; he wanted immigration marchers to carry American flags to supposedly show pride in the U.S.]

* Arizona State University sociology professors Cecilia Menjivar [co-editor of "When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror"] and LaDawn Haglund [author of "You Can Jail the Resistors, But You Can't Jail the Resistance"]

The lawyers are:

* Phoenix attorneys Dan Ballecer, Antonio Bustamante, and H. Michael Clyde

* Ray Velarde of LULAC in Texas

* Peter A. Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. As discussed at the links, he has at least three links to the Mexican government.

Other tags: league of united latin american citizens

Immigration · Wed, 11/22/2006 - 05:05 · · Importance: 1

Comments

War in the courts, soon to be war in the streets. If bush were president in 1941, he would still be pleading for amnesty and guest worker status for the Japanese, even after Pearl Harbor. The mexican government has moved their military to the border, where is ours? (go to kvia.com for the story). Our backdoor is unlocked, wide-open, and bush holds out the"welcome" mat, while our troops are still scattered across the globe. He is a madman and traitor of the highest order.

Posted by: Jeebie at Nov 22, 2006 10:57 AM

24Ahead.com

Independent, in-depth coverage of immigration, politics, and media bias since 2002. Also: multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

If you can't find what you're looking for, see the About page or use the navigation features to the right.

Start here