Latinos, Immigrant Communities Prepared to Voice Objections at Ballot Box
(WASHINGTON)—The Supreme Court today upheld Arizona’s vehemently anti-immigrant “show me your papers” law.
“The Supreme Court dealt a major setback to justice for everyone. The impact of this decision will be an upsurge of racial profiling on a massive scale,” said Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Campaign for Community Change. “The court has made a decision but the ultimate decision will rest with the voters. The author of this law, state Senator Russell Pearce has already been recalled and voted out of office for his efforts and today’s divisive decision will undoubtedly result in record-breaking 2012 turnout in immigrant and Latino communities.”
“While today’s decision properly strikes down the majority of the Arizona law, our communities know that the only real solution is comprehensive immigration reform and we know that the only path forward to heal the country is for communities that are being targeted to mobilize, register and to vote in record numbers,” Bhargava added. “And that’s exactly what we will do in response to this sad day.”
The Campaign for Community Change and other groups advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, including Reform Immigration FOR America (RI4A) and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), will unite in an unprecedented effort to register Latinos to vote to make sure that candidates who champion racial profiling laws are defeated in 2012. That goes for copycat Arizona laws on the ballot this year.
There will be voter registration rallies in many key states; voter education on why people must defeat anti-immigrant candidates and legislation, and; unprecedented grassroots efforts to turnout the largest number of Latinos in history to vote.
“Although the Supreme Court’s decision upheld an egregious law, we will not stop fighting to protect our basic civil rights,” Bhargava said. “We will build more power to demand respect and equal treatment under the law. Now is the time for fair-minded people from across the political spectrum to stand up to lawmakers who champion anti-immigrant, hate-filled policies by registering to vote so we can speak at the ballot box.”
You can follow our efforts on Twitter at #Justice4AZ and #SB1070.
Fair Immigration Reform Movement 