Oct 03 2012
State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Showdown Over the American Dream
Arizona governor Jan Brewer announced this week that she intends to fight a federal ruling against part of her state’s controversial immigration law SB 1070. The ruling, made on September 5th, blocked the enforcement of that part of SB 1070 that would have made illegal the transportation or harboring of undocumented immigrants by citizens. Meanwhile, immigrant rights advocates have forcefully denounced the enforcement of the so-called Show-me-your-papers provision of the law which went into effect some weeks ago.
Since the introduction of SB 1070, Arizona has been seen nationally as the vanguard for the sort of anti-immigrant legislation that hard right conservatives have long dreamed of. Authored by Republican State Senator Russell Pearce and signed into law by Governor Brewer in 2010, the law has faced numerous legal challenges but has also spurred copy-cat laws in other many other states. Citing President Obama’s inability to enact “comprehensive immigration reform,” Arizona and other states have allowed for unprecedented power in the hands of local police to target undocumented immigrants.
The story of Arizona’s disturbing hostility to immigrants goes back to the history of its statehood. In his new book, Arizona-based journalist Jeff Biggers relates that history to his state’s current political climate in an effort to understand not only where the hostility originates, but what may be in store for the rest of the country – what he calls the Arizonification of America.
GUEST: Jeff Biggers, award winning author; his earlier books include the United States of Appalachia, In the Sierra Madre, and Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland. His latest book is called State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Showdown Over the American Dream
Visit www.jeffbiggers.com for more information.
Jeff Biggers will be speaking at the following events:
3 Oct: San Diego
SDSU Lecture Series
7pm, SDSU Library
4 Oct: LA/ Santa Monica
7:30 pm, Benefit Reading for Santa Monica Youth Center
Thelma Terry Center, 2200 Virginia Ave. Santa Monica
5 Oct: Oakland
ARISE High School
6 Oct: San Francisco
6:30pm
CultureStrike Celebration, Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94103
8 Oct: Palo Alto
12noon, Stanford University Reading
8 Oct: San Francisco
One Response to “State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Showdown Over the American Dream”
No mention of the mexicanization of AMERICA!