Arizona: Ground Zero in Immigration's New Race Wars

By George Ciccariello-Maher, CounterPunch. Posted December 26, 2008.

ICE Responds

For Repeal Coalition member Taryn, one objective of the coalition’s sanctuary city resolution was to test Flagstaff’s liberal credentials. After all, this is an area where undocumented workers had been relatively free to live out in the open without fear of ICE or local vigilante "posses," and where local political and police leaders had openly opposed the sorts of repressive measures deployed elsewhere. But as it turned out, Repeal would not need to wait for the resolution to be introduced for those liberal credentials to be tested.

On Nov. 19, the Repeal Coalition mobilized a large show of support for a rally in Flagstaff, and the very next day, Flagstaff was under full ICE assault: doors were kicked in, community members were arrested, and as tends to be the case in ICE raids, families were torn apart. While ICE’s stated purpose in the raids was to arrest only "alien absconders," or undocumented migrants with outstanding criminal warrants, witnesses insist that officials didn’t stop there. Many of the enforced warrants were only issued for overstaying visas, and some were up to a decade old, but ICE was seen making arrests even in cases where the individuals sought had moved out years ago. There are also reports that, contradicting stated policy, Flagstaff police aided ICE in gaining entry, and even allegations that family members have been detained as a sort of ransom until the targets of arrest turn themselves in.

While ICE has insisted that the raid had been in the works for a while, activists associated with the Repeal Coalition are skeptical of such convenient timing.

Taryn says: "It could have been strategic on their part to launch the raids the day after we had this rally, telling people to stand up and resist. … But I know it was good that we had all the contact information." As soon as Repeal was tipped off about the raids in progress, their organizational structure kicked in, and the coalition was able to help spread word among the undocumented community that ICE was in town. When they received the additional tip that ICE was planning to make arrests when parents picked their children up from Killip Elementary School, they mobilized a significant bloc of 50 documented members to warn of the raids and serve as a buffer between ICE and threatened community members. This bloc then developed and strengthened into a public rally on the streets outside Coconino County Jail to protest ICE’s presence.

As dusk fell, the Repeal Coalition joined forces with the local Copwatch, creating an ad hoc "ICE-watch" that patrolled the streets of Flagstaff to ensure that ICE was neither making indiscriminate arrests nor brutalizing those it was detaining. According to participants, this quick response managed to break up two ICE raids that were being conducted without warrants, despite ICE’s insistence that they were seeking only alien absconders. Furthermore, despite the explicit policies of Flagstaff police and the insistence of local officials that they were as surprised by the raids by anyone, witnesses claim local police were aiding ICE’s entry into residences.

"People had felt that Flagstaff was a safer community than Phoenix," Katie told me, "city officials had said that they wouldn’t ask immigration status, but this showed that immigrants aren’t safe in any part of Arizona."

Press Demonization and Misrepresentation

In the immediate aftermath of the ICE raids, press coverage of the Repeal Coalition’s role was positive on the whole, with the Arizona Daily Sun publishing a largely sympathetic piece. But by the very next day, the same author had evidently received his talking points from Flagstaff police, penning a new article with the intentionally damaging subhead: "The activists trying to stop the arrests ended up frightening students." This, however, was not how Repeal members and many in the undocumented community saw it. According to Taryn, this was merely a "nasty article … none of that happened." Repeal member Joel Olson responded with a letter insisting that:

See more stories tagged with: immigration, arizona, ice, arpaio

George Ciccariello-Maher is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, Calif., where he is completing a people’s history of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, "We Created Him". He can be reached by e-mail at gjcm@berkeley.edu.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Immigration! Sign up now »