By Tommy Acosta : One thing for certain, there is no clear cut majority of opposition or support for Immigration Reform Bill SB1070.
At the may 12 Council meeting, though the room was stacked with Latinos from the community who would be most impacted by the legislation, it was obvious there were numerous members of the non-Latino Sedona community who were there as well and who were in support of the bill.
The pleas were impassioned for the council to send a strong message to the state Sedona was dead set against the bill, which mandates law enforcement officials be proactive in enforcing immigration laws, meaning officers can demand identification or naturalization papers from suspects during legal traffic stops, detainments or arrests.
At the same time, there were those in attendance who felt the new law was good and a first step towards real immigration reform in the country.
There was a lot of rhetoric on both sides that the legislation is reminiscent of Nazi Germany or that the legislation was needed to stop murderous drug gangs hell bent on destroying America from crossing the border.
Somewhere in the middle the truth lies.
There will be lawsuits, demonstrations, a lot of division and angry exchanges on this issue because it is an emotional one as well as a real-time problem.
For one, when this economy really gets down to the business of imploding itself, many Americans who would never think of taking the menial jobs undocumented workers do, will be fighting to have them. That means the undocumented immigrants are going to be further kicked down the economic ladder and will need to uproot and go back to their old country.
There will be hate-filled competition. There is no need to argue who will win.
But the bottom line of this legislation is it places responsibility for its enforcement directly on the shoulder of the cop on the street. It is up to him or her to utilize their reason and discretion as to who warrants probable cause or reasonable suspicion to be forced to produce papers.
How will the Sedona Police Department management interpret the new law and direct the officers on duty to conduct themselves on the streets is anybody’s guess.
But the character of Sedona will be measured there at the street level by officers in contact with the local population. How will these officers, most who don’t live in Sedona, act? Will they utilize discretion? Will they profile people? Will they act with the highest good of Sedona in mind or will they make sure Sedona is known as a police state throughout the state, country and world by rigorously enforcing the new law and deporting quotas of people back to Mexico?
Unless this law is deemed unconstitutional by the courts it will all boil down to how the PD conducts itself on the street. Word of mouth, media, will spread the news throughout the tourism industry.
Will we be painted as a racist community? Or will we be known as a pillar of American values following the new law to the hilt and acting as an example for other American communities to follow on our country’s path to true immigration reform?
Again, we look to our cops on the streets to define us. What’s it going to be? American values or American law?
An Open Letter to Mayor Adams and Council,
This commentary is not about this writer’s personal politics, nor yours. It’s about Sedona’s fate. National and Arizona polls are showing, consistently, that between 64% and 73% of Americans support Arizona’s SB1070 while the great majority of the people in Sedona who just voted for you support the new law as well. By allowing the Surber’s to import 70% of the anti-SB1070 demonstrators from outside Sedona on May 1, and by allowing Spanish-speaking public forum speakers to denigrate, ad hominem, our Governor and the nation’s most respected Sheriff at last night’s Council meeting, and by allowing Councilor Surber to commandeer the City’s Council Chambers tonight to conduct another “perceived-as-orchestrated” demonstration inside City Hall, you are causing a groundswell of anger to rise amongst the general populace of our town just when you’ve been given the opportunity to become Sedona’s most effective, and possibly, most respected Mayor.
I have, while trying to reason with him privately to no avail, sent pictures to Councilor Surber of California high school students in the process of taking down their school’s U.S. flag and replacing it with a Mexican national flag while re-appending the US flag below the Mexican flag upside down. People across the U.S. have seen these pictures on the Internet. Do you think that the students of Sedona Red Rock High School haven’t seen these pictures (as well as their parents)? I have sent to Councilor Surber, privately, pictures of Arizona anti-SB1070 demonstrators carrying picket signs promising to “kill Arizona police officers” until their demands are met. These pictures have been posted on various police fraternal organization websites around the country and in Arizona. Do you actually believe your own City police officers haven’t seen these pictures and aren’t wondering what you’re doing supporting the anti-SB1070 demonstrators and Councilor Surber?
Worse yet, however, have you given any serious thought, whatsoever, to the huge number of the national and Arizona supporters of SB1070 who are tourists and potential Sedona second-home buyers who will boycott Sedona once this City joins litigation against the state. Even our two highly popular Senators are publicly supporting the new law. The only reason Tucson is supporting litigation against the state is that it does get a great many Mexican national tourists, but Sedona does not. Flagstaff succumbed to its collegiate community while Sedona has no such influential community. Otherwise, no other Mayor in Arizona, including Phil Gordon of Phoenix, after he saw the handwriting on the wall, is willing to join this absurd proposed lawsuit. If you, in Sedona’s behalf, pursue this course of joining those two cities in litigation against the state, you will hang Sedona out to dry all by itself! You are about to cause a catastrophic hit to Sedona’s all-ready seriously ailing tourism and real estate industries if you continue to pursue your current course of action. Meanwhile, you will be responsible for further dividing this small town just when it doesn’t need further division. This is a no-win, loss-only probability, scenario for Sedona. What can Sedona possibly hope to accomplish by joining in this lawsuit? Doing so only presents this town with a downside. There is no upside…period! Why are you putting your newly elected Council in this tenuous situation? What are you thinking? This is a battle to which Sedona must stay on the sidelines. Your tack should be to explain to the public that you personally, the new Council, and Staff cannot involve our City in this litigation because of the risk to its tourism and real estate industries and its own placid character. Neither your personal feelings on this issue, nor anyone else’s, should enter into your personal decision making process. Please reconsider your current chosen course of action.
J. Rick Normand
Why must litte Sedona become involved in yet another devisive issue which ultimately will be decided outside the confines of city limits?
At least the three members out of a City Council of seven showed the good sense to limit their authority by simply deferring the issue to a future council agenda.
At a time when many of us are hoping for intervention by Governor Brewer to convince ADOT that a “river of lights” on West SR89A isn’t in the best interest of Sedona, one of the State’s major scenic attractions, how wise would it be to oppose this highly controversial measure?
Remember, newly elected council members, you all pledged to remain steadfast in your positions to repeal ADOT’s determination to install the lights.
Given the opportunity to remain neutral, why not do so and take the middle road on this one?
Surly Eddie is right to defend the no light issue and warn us to remain neutral in an effort to stay in favor with our Governor. The no lights on 89-A is far more important than our civil rights and the racial profiling of our Latino community. So what if an American with a Hispanic heritage is stopped by the police for going 5 miles over the speed limit then is asked to prove he is in his country legally? This is just a small sacrifice of our civil and constitutional right in order to protect us from drug smugglers, open borders and terrorist. I am very sure if Dr. Martin Luther King was with us today he would have followed Eddie’s advice and remained neutral on SB 1070.
Kudos to you, Bobbie! Eddie has a convoluted thought process. Why give up our civil rights for FEAR that we might insult the governor, who just signed the worst bill in the nation? Obviously, Eddie is prejudiced and doesn’t realize the real criminals don’t stay.
Wow, wonder what Ms. Surber, wife of Councilman Dan Surber who brought the issue to the table, and “ateela” would have said had I taken more than a middle of the road position on SB1070? Even if I’d written in support of the Bill, it wouldn’t mean I’m prejudice. My question was,and remains: Isn’t Sedona’s plate already over- filled with pressing issues? Why fracture the community to an even greater extent with what, ultimately, proper judicial legal process, not within Sedona City Limits, will determine whether or not SB1070 has merit? As President of the School Board, Ms. Surber previously attempted to achieve endorsement of the 89A lighting from that governing body, even though school buses obviously make their trips during daylight hours. I do believe the majority of the School Board used good judgment and avoided a resolution in direct support of the lighting. My interpretation of that is a sensible approach, which I believe would be true if the City of Sedona remains neutral on SB1070. Simple as that but . . .oops . . . more convoluted thinking? Go figure . . . A word of caution. Direct accusations may be subject to libelous interpretations. The statement made by “ateela”: “Eddie has a convoluted thought process” would be subject to verification in a court room. My opinion . . . consult with an attorney prior to making personal accusations unless you have absolute proof the allegations are true and factual.
Tommy, what in the world are you doing? Have you or anyone else posting here read SB 1070? Has anyone read the Federal legislation that says almost exactly the same thing? In fact, our public safety officials in Arizona have been following the same “screening” process for people who are stopped for traffic issues for a long time. They check the vehicle plate for validation before they even approach the driver. They legitimately request to see the driver’s license, the vehicle registration and the insurance information. If that all checks out OK with the statewide database and national databases, the officer then deals with the initial reason for the stop. IF IT DOESN’T, THE OFFICER MIGHT HAVE REASON TO CONFIRM THE DRIVER’S CITIZENSHIP (to protect the public from people who are in this country illegally and who might do other illegal things)! This is not controversial! It is their job . . . PUBLIC SAFETY!
Hey Cole:
The governement can look anywhere it wants but it can’t look everywhere at once. Fact is, it all boils down to the cop on the street and his/her reasonableness. Their discretion or lack of will determine if Sedona will be known as a “racist” city (regardless if it is not true) or not. The media has run away with this. People are sheep. The flock is panicked.
Also, the government never really had to worry about getting court approval for wire taps and such because in the real world those papers are not worth the ink on them and whoever is in power can do what they want no matter what the law says.
It was when those wire taps were made legal on the books that everyone freaked out on privacy issues. Sure law enfoercement has been doing it all along as you say. Now, its on the books and people are reacting. Nothing’s really changed. It’s just out in the face of the public.
Same thing with concealed weopons. Criminals couldn’t give a hoot about the law. They carried guns with impunity. Now its legal. Big deal.
Discourse is healthy. Good to see people commenting and sharing their points of view.
Not any of those that I have asked on the left have even read this bill yet they complain about how bad it is. I’m sick and tired of the left using racism in every issue. They can’t stand on the issues so they use the race card or attack people personally, anything but speak to the facts. I was a liberal for 30 years and know what I am talking about.
This bill only mirrors the federal one and even goes further in it’s protection against descrimination. But the left doesn’t care about the truth. Ideology is all that matters to them even if it destroys this great country that gives them so much yet that they seem to hate so. This bill finally brings some sensibility to the immigration problem. It’s a great first step. The poll a few weeks ago on the Red Rock News website said 70% of Sedona’s residents support the bill, a clear majority, yet why isn’t that reflected in the council?
This isn’t immigration. We are turning into a third world country. I see people coming into this country that don’t respect it’s laws, that don’t want to learn English, that drop out of education and seem to care little about what a Republic is and becoming part of that. That don’t care about personal responsibility and are all to eager to take advantage of our naive entitlement system.
That’s what is different with this immigration than the immigration of the past. In the past immigrants merged with American culture and made America better. They brought their own unique diversity and added to the whole but they respected the culture that was already here unlike what I see happening today. So many of the immigrants now don’t care about that, they want to surplant their culture on to ours and I’m tired of it.
When I go to a foreign country I should be respectful of their laws and abide by them as it’s their country and I’m a guest. They built up that culture before I was there and I have no right to come in and change it. If I’m not willing to learn their language or respect their culture I shouldn’t be there. Why is that so much to ask in return when coming into America especially if you do it illegally? A liberal would say this is racist. It’s fact and you can’t solve a problem if you don’t recognize it first. The left lives in an ideological fantasy land and doesn’t care about the real world and will have us all suffer the consequences for that naive and myopic way of looking at things.
Arizona is spending billions on immigration matters. This isn’t sustainable. We can’t take care of the whole world. By letting Mexico be dependent on the US you are cheating them of the experience of rising forth and correcting the corruption in their own country, of improving their economic situation so they can be self sustaining and not dependent on the US. We had that in our past and it’s not right to cheat Mexico from the same experience as it is what is needed for them to evolve into a more democratic state and to gain a more prosperous and stable economic system.
We are fine with legal immigration, it helped make this country but at a rate that is sustainable without placing an undue burden on the culture already here, including many legal immigrants. We want those coming into America to have an attitude of self-responsibility and not entitlement We want the people that have respected our immigration laws and have waited years to come to this country to be the priority. They have earned it and respected our laws and show they deserve their citizenship first.
Listen to what the people of Sedona are saying council. We are in the clear majority with the rest of Arizona and we support this bill and our governor.
I totally disaagree with the law sb1070 and i dont care what anyone has to say about it. This law is splitting up so many families, ruening so many dreams and practically making them leave the country. Its the worst law ive ever heard about and the dumbest too. And the people that say its not rascist trust me it is. Im only 15 years old and i see the reality. Its making me see how bad people can be. Making other people leave because of there race. What if the government said all the whites should leave? or the African Americans should leave? I dont think its a fair law. I want to one day be somebody powerful so i can stop all unfair laws. Im not saying all Mexicans are good and im not saying there bad but Mexicans make up about 40% of the popularity here in Tucson Arizona and they’ve made a big difrence here. And if the law is passed and when all the Mexicans have to leave, then i want to see all the other people that wanted this law to stay, there going to be begging them to come back. I have so many Mexican friends and i have lost alot of them because of this law and if you dont want Mexicans here in the United States then we dont want you in Mexico either. Seriously, everybody that wants this law to stay, just grow up. If you doont like one Mexican person that doesnt mean you have to hate all Mexicans and be racist against them. I am a United States citizen and have lived here all my life but i am also Mexican and even if i wasnt i wouldnt agree with this law.