ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW REVISED BY GOVERNOR, MEANWHILE, MEXICO SAYS YA BASTA, NAZIS SHOW UP FOR SHERIFF JOE, AND A DEPUTY IS SHOT WITH AN AK47.

Friends so much has happened  today, just one week since Jan Brewer signed Arizona’s controversial  immigration law, a lot probably escapes the  national news. For instance, the Nazis are back in Phoenix. I‘ve written about them before.

Today, local neo-Nazis showed up  to support  Bill Montgomery, whom Sheriff Joe Arapio endorsed for the upcoming Republican primary for Maricopa County Attorney. Montgomery was embarrassed, according to this account of the event. I took the photo below when Nazis demonstrated against thousands of human-rights marchers in the spring of 2009.

In the meantime, activists say they’re serious about boycotting Arizona, and officials from our neighboring Mexican state of Sonora declined to attend a scheduled meeting for the  Arizona-Mexico Commission.  A few days ago, I asked Margie Emmerman, who heads the pro-trade, pro-business commission, how she felt about the new immigration law, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed less than a week ago.

Emmerman declined  comment.

This is a copy of the letter about the Sonoran refusal to attend the meeting.

End of letter.

I just read that at a Pinal County sheriff deputy (Pinal County is right next door to us, some folks live there and commute to Phoenix) says he was shot with an AK-47 by suspected pot traffickers. (The United States is the largest consumer of Mexican Pot in the world. This stuff likely came from Sinaloa.)

Vice President Biden is coming to town this weekend, just as Sheriff Joe continues his fifteenth raid of the Phoenix area in search of undocumented immigrants.

And Governor Jan Brewer, who was secretary of state of Arizona and replaced  Janet Napolitano when she was named secretary of the department of Homeland Security, signed a revision of  Arizona’s immigration law. Some say it makes it more difficult for cops to racially profile, others say it makes it easier to have cause to arrest undocumented immigrants for minor city and county ordinance violations.

CRAWLING OUT OF A  HOLE 

From time to time, I’ll post photos taken as I report and write my book. I recently shot this photo of a culvert on the Arizona-Sonora border. The heap  of plastic water bottles on the Sonora side indicates plenty of folks took advantage of the obvious. What do you think of the quality of this photo? I shot it with a video camera.

Photo by Terry Greene Sterling