Immigration Frustration Adaptation: AZ SB1070

Immigration
This blog post has been brewing for sometime. I have told myself that my purpose here is to expand perceptions about homeschooling so avoid the political. I just can't though, and here's why: I feel it's the same fight! People forming opinions about other people before they know anything about them. Profiling. You are brown so I have "reasonable suspicion" to believe you are here illegally. Your kids are homeschooled so they are pasty, maladjusted oddballs. At times I find it hard to believe it's the year 2010, and we're STILL dealing with these same issues. Here are some "Landmarks in Immigration History" from a history website we like: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm.
This timeline clearly shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Yes, there is also evidence that illegal immigration is actually down:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=53
http://www.immigrationforum.org/blog/display/in-arizona-its-politics-not-crime-driving-border-insecurity/
http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/04/26/bad-land-why-hysteria-has-won-out-in-arizona-4-26-10

And that the law is unconstitutional and too expensive for Arizona to enact:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/arizona_facts.html

And that cops should not have to function as immigration officers, and that this function will lead to mistrust within the communities they serve:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/29/arizona.immigration.lawsuit/index.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/20/opinion/op-varsanyi20

And a whole host of other misconceptions about immigration:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/MythsandFacts.pdf
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/summer/paranoid-style-redux/getting-immigrat

Frustration
But what this law is really about is TOLERANCE and DIVERSITY. It seems like as our American population gets larger, and as the media can bring faraway places to our living rooms and increased air travel can actually take us to the faraway places, the reverse is actually happening, and we are becoming more segregated as a nation. You live in a blue state or a red state. You Believe or you don't Believe. I could go on and on. This goes for BOTH sides of SB1070 -- for or against.

Don't boycott Arizona because they passed a law that you don't agree with! Come here and let's talk! In 1995, when I lived in San Francisco, a friend of mine in a longtime lesbian relationship moved to the deep south right in the middle of their adoption proceedings to become new mommies. I remember asking her what she was going to do down there with the difference of opinion, and she said, "What good am I here in San Francisco where everyone feels the same way I do!" Whether you agree or disagree with the politics behind that, you have to agree that it doesn't make sense for everyone to have to congregate together based on their belief system. I have held onto that gem for the almost 13 years that I have now lived in Arizona and encountered many wonderful people that just have different opinions from mine. People of San Francisco: they think differently down here! This is the land of Wyatt Earp and block wall fences. You can live here 13 years and never see your next door neighbor -- it's easy! San Francisco County is 46 square miles and Maricopa County is 9,226 square miles. Where San Franciscans interact with their neighbors on a daily basis, Arizonans have sufficient space to hide from them. So tell me how it's going to help to boycott our state? Arizonans WANT to be left alone -- don't let them! Other cities have followed suit with boycotts of Arizona: San Diego, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, El Paso, Austin, Boston, St. Paul, and Boulder -- not to mention the sports teams and civic organizations.

The Arizona House of Representatives passed the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" (AZ SB1070's true name) with a 35 Republican to 21 Democrat straight party-line vote. The Arizona State Senate voted 17-11 with just one Republican voting against the Bill. It's easy to see what's going on here -- there aren't enough Democrats in this state to fight this thing. The ones that are here don't vote because they feel their votes won't count. Call yourself a "Moderate Republican," a "Libertarian," or an "Independent" if it makes you feel better, it doesn't change the fact that when Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, was governor of Arizona for six years before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, similar immigration bills came to her desk, and she vetoed every one of them. Now we have Jan Brewer, a Republican, in office a little more than a year, and we now have a "misguided" immigration law that does nothing to actually "support law enforcement" or "create safe neighborhoods." I actually WANT to support this bill for the mere fact that I don't advocate doing anything illegal. I'm a very law-abiding citizen! But we have 4 million kids in the United States that have atleast one illegal parent. One in seven kids in Arizona schools are sitting in that classroom either directly or indirectly due to illegal immigration. Estimates are that there are already 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. So how is our local law enforcement supposed to fix a problem of this magnitude? Certainly not by profiling Latinos and risking a lawsuit later on for doing that. We're setting law enforcement up to fail.

I'm sure this is quite a huge mistake to post about this subject in my homeschooling blog, but I can't help but draw parallels between my struggles. When you hear that I homeschool my kids, instead of thinking of all the things that could be WRONG with homeschooling, why not think of all the things that could be RIGHT with homeschooling. When you think of illegal immigrants, instead of envisioning drug lords and human smugglers, which are the vast minority of illegal immigrants, why not think of the person that picked your produce and built your house! I grew up in Encinitas, California, the self-proclaimed "Flower Capital of the World," home to Paul Ecke and his famous poinsettias -- the plants that define Christmas. Well who do you think picked all those flowers and Christmas plants? LEGAL immigrants? Think what you want, but I can tell you a sad past-time of Encinitas teenagers when I was growing up was to go down by the donut shop early in the morning when "immigrants" were lining up for work, and yell "La Migra" and watch people scatter into the hillsides. Do you know anyone that WANTS to do farm labor? Aren't they filling a gap in our economy? I can also tell you that later on when I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) classes that I far preferred teaching immigrants to any other students for their determined motivation to learn and their gratitude that I was helping them. Now, as a nurse, I can work anywhere I want, but I CHOOSE to work at the County hospital where I am taking care of the under-served, many of them illegal immigrants, that have no place else to go.

Adaptation
As a footnote to this post, I want to mention how I have no plans to leave Arizona anytime soon despite it's crazy politics. Anytime I want, I can hop in my car and 20 minutes later be kayaking amongst dramatic canyon walls with only a Great Blue Heron following me. On my way home from work, I can drive alongside orchards with the heady smell of orange blossoms coming in my car window. Every spring I can hike in the hillsides around my town and see yellow Mexican Gold Poppies, purple Lupines, and orange Globe Mallows on display. Every late May, I can look outside my living room window and watch my Saguaro change from bud to beautiful blossom. Every summer, I get to watch amazing thunderstorms and later be rewarded with the smell of wet Creosote. Every fall, I can drive 20 minutes and sit under a grove of red and yellow Pistachio trees. Every winter, I can drive a little more than an hour and play in the snow. And most importantly... Arizona is homeschool friendly! So when I contemplated whether or not I wanted to speak out about something that I feel is so grossly wrong, I remembered that to remain silent is to fear losing rights that you may hold dearly.