Full Effect

[Transcript: Caption on Screen: Tucson, Arizona: On August 2, 2010 around 3:15 p.m. Officer Zinn and Officer Koontz of the Tucson Police Department called Border Patrol on a woman during a traffic stop. Border Patrol came and took her into detention.

Woman to camera: They said they pulled her over because she ran a stop sign, and so they asked for her documentation and they said that she had a citation before in 2008, and that she said that she did have a traffic citation before but she took care of it in court. There was two officers, and I have their names; Officer Zinn and Officer Koontz, and they said they have every reason to believe that it was right to call Border Patrol because they needed to verify her identity, so right now she's going into detention. Explained that to the Border Patrol that her lawyer was en route but he said that he didn't want to wait, and so he took her. And she said he was asking her questions about her citizenship, about where she was born, and she said she didn't want to talk to him; that she wanted to talk to her lawyer. And I gave her a "Know Your Rights" card so she has that information.

Caption: This is Arizona.]


Digby:

In practice, this amounts to ethnic cleansing. Sure, they don't say "Latinos" but even if you are an American citizen of Latino descent you have to ask yourself whether or not it's worth it to stay in Arizona if you're going to be subjected to this kind of harassment. Plenty of them are leaving (although it's up in the air whether it's the law or a combination of the law and general economic conditions.) I don't blame them. But it's hard to see how this ends well. We are, after all, always going to share a border with Mexico, which is a very different thing than any of the earlier "assimilation" controversies.

Of course, it's entirely possible that that is what the Arizona legislature intended all along but didn't have the guts to say outright: Let's get rid of all the Mexicans. (Ironic, since the Mexicans were in Arizona a long time before the Anglos and the snowbirds showed up.)

Crossposted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.