IAC Caravan Participants Witness Successful Arizona Protest of 20,000!

On January 16th at 1:45 AM three vans left the International Action Center/Bail Out People Movement office in Los Angeles to make a 7-hour trip to Phoenix, AZ to join with 20,000 activists protesting racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Union staff and members rode along with student activists, anti-war activists and immigrant rights organizers to show their solidarity with the immigrant communities targeted by Arpaio. The sheriff, under federal investigation for civil rights abuses, runs a fascist-style prison camp and chain gang in the Arizona desert and - through Homeland Security's 287(g) program - uses the Maricopa County Sheriffs to conduct anti-immigrant sweeps, profiling and arresting hundreds at a time, leading to deportations and the separation of families. Arpaio, who told Lou Dobbs on CNN that being called a KKK member was an "honor," has been allowed to conduct blatant racial profiling, endanger lives of children, force an immigrant woman to give birth in shackles and commit many more atrocities, especially against Mexican immigrants.

IAC banner at march photos: Bob McCubbin

Congratulations to the community organizations responsible for organizing this event. The turnout that far exceeded expectations sent a clear message, not only to Arpaio, but also to his enablers in Washington, DC.

Report from Phoenix Protest

20,000 march against racist sheriff

By Paul Teitelbaum

“¡Se ve, se siente! ¡El pueblo está presente! (You can see it! You can feel it! The people are here!)” This was one of the many popular chants that reverberated through the streets of Phoenix on Jan. 16 as 20,000 people expressed their outrage and disgust with Joe Arpaio, the racist, immigrant-bashing and terrorist sheriff of Maricopa County.

Phoenix protest

The marchers made their way through various working-class neighborhoods and commercial areas where people came out of their homes and businesses to express their support. Motorists who had to stop while the mile-long, pro-immigrant march passed by also showed their solidarity with smiles, honking horns and raised fists.

The marchers represented many sectors of the workers and oppressed. There were Latino/a, Black, white and Indigenous peoples. Some participants had traveled from areas as distant as California and Oregon to attend the protest. Marchers were young and old and in between and included families with children in strollers and a lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer contingent chanting “We are queer and we are here!” There were seasoned veterans of political demonstrations and people for whom this was their first protest ever.

The march concluded at the Maricopa County Durango Jail Complex. This is the home of the infamous Tent City Jail where Arpaio forces the most inhumane treatment upon detainees: temperatures in excess of 130 degrees during the summer months, the serving of spoiled food, and nonstop racial slurs and abuse at the hands of sheriff’s deputies.

Zack de la Rocha lends support

Speakers addressed the crowd as they gathered near the complex. Isabel Garcia, a leading southern Arizona immigrant rights activist and May 1 organizer, announced from the stage that the march was so long that she could not see the end of it. “This march is historic and unprecedented in Arizona,” she said. “The people are not going to be complacent and will no longer let Arizona be used as the incubator for anti-immigrant legislation and policies.” This march, she continued, “captures the political conditions of the border” and exposes them for everyone to see.