Stories of abuses through racially profiling, beatings and killings in jail, and arrests for opposition against the Sheriff were retold by this community under threat. These were people seldom seen in the media that had been working for justice and to end Arpaio’s human rights abuses. This documentary interview with Jason Aragon is the harrowing story of a community’s fight against Arpaio during his time in office. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in September 2017. During his tenure as sheriff, which ended in 2016 after he lost his campaign for reelection, Arpaio allowed crime rates to soar in Maricopa County while he focused his department’s energies on federal immigration law. In a lawsuit, he had been accused of racially profiling Latinos and detaining them on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally. Joe Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt in July 2017 for defying a federal court’s demand to stop detaining immigrants without sufficient grounds. Interview and video by Chelli Stanley and Will Wickham Or, return to the Border Militarization Resource Guide main page. ICE Agents Carry Out Military Style Raids in Arizona by James Jordan
Under Arpaio: An Interview with Jason Aragon
#Martial law coming movie
These are reasons people in the rest of the country really need to pay attention to the border: what is being developed here is coming soon to a theater–and we don’t mean a movie theater–near you…
The reality is that border militarization and enforcement, along with the ever-growing prison industry, are front lines for implementing control mechanisms of populations affected by massive disruption, displacement and unrest. The federal government also plans on cutting down screening steps to streamline the hiring process for new border patrol agents, even with the organization’s history of abuse. Most recently, the Trump Administration has moved to increase the size of the Border Patrol, end DACA, strategize ways to build the border wall, and drastically cut down legal immigration into the United States. (This, despite the fact that none of the hijackers entered via the US-Mexico border–and that all came here with official permission.) The increase in political repression was preceded by a wave of racism against undocumented workers and Latino immigrants that coincided with the introduction of NAFTA but reached a fever pitch with the aftermath of the events of 9/11/01. These include immigrant rights activists, anti-war and solidarity activists, protesters, environmentalists, and Anarchists “guilty” of owning certain reading material. Since 2010, there has been an increase in our country of the number of people hounded, infiltrated, entrapped, investigated, spied on and jailed for their political activities. This was the largest operation in ICE’s history and took place on the very day that the Arizona legislature passed SB1070. In the article included by AfGJ’s James Jordan, we read about a siege of Arizona communities by more than 800 local, state and federal law enforcement personnel, coordinated by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Arizona’s SB1070 only extends federal policies. Federal programs such as Secure Communities and 287g already blur lines and turn local and state authorities into agents of immigration law.
The physical facts of border militarization are girded and institutionalized through the legal facts: laws adopted at both state and federal levels to enshrine the security state. And while it would be hyperbole to say we live under fascism, it would be irresponsible not to recognize when policies and practices are adopted that could provide the infrastructure should it ever emerge. But there is nothing temporary in the way the border wall is being constructed–which goes hand in hand with the build-up of troops, drones, surveillance blimps, and various components of a “virtual fence”. Martial law, by definition, is not meant to be permanent. Quite possibly we have misnamed this lesson. You may recognize Chelli’s name from the video work she has done elsewhere for this guide. Jason’s video also gives us an inside look at the popular resistance in Arizona.Ĭelli Stanley’s article, Palestine and Arizona sheds light on the connection between two similar struggles, many miles apart but close in spirit. Jason Aragon’s video, Under Arpaio, is a feature-length documentary that takes us to Phoenix, Arizona to see the former and infamous Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, in action. That presence increasingly takes on aspects that are felt and experienced by many as being all too much like martial law. The dominant feature of life in the US borderlands is one of a growing and pervasive presence of law enforcement.
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