A few weeks ago, a child was born at Tucson’s University of Arizona Medical Center. The mother is a migrant from Guatemala, fleeing abject poverty and physical abuse. She joins hundreds of others who have been dropped at our local Greyhound Bus station by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the instruction that they find their way to friends or family and, within 15 days, report to ICE for a deportation hearing. Her baby is now a United States citizen.
Faith-based nonprofits have joined with members of the community to form Project Mariposa, an organized response to receive and assist in transitioning the migrant families through Tucson. The stories I hear consistently paint the picture of women who have been subjected to domestic violence and abandonment in their home country, lied to at each border they cross about what awaits them in America, robbed and oftentimes raped during transit and left abandoned at the U.S. border by coyotes who are getting rich on this human tragedy.
Shortly after they’re dropped on the U.S. side, these women and children are arrested by the Border Patrol, processed for status and delivered to our intake center at the Greyhound Bus station. They arrive confused, scared and worn out. Our volunteer group is charged by our own human-ness to receive these families with compassionate hearts and show them the love we would hope to expect were we to find ourselves in similar conditions.
I watch in disgust and amazement the protests going on in Murietta, California, and now in Oracle and areas of Texas. They remind me of incidents that occurred in Selma, Alabama, back in 1961, when mobs surrounded Freedom Rider buses with an ugly hatred that does not reflect the soul of who we are as a nation. In the ’60s, the nation recoiled from such overt displays of bigotry. We can do no less when faced with the images coming from Murietta today. We’re a better and more compassionate people than that.
The women and children sitting on those buses have been victimized by gang violence in their home countries. They have fled in an effort to find a new life. They are not scholars who have studied the intricacies of the U.S. Constitution and looked for ways to evade its rules. They must sit on the busses, see the angry mobs outside and wonder where on this earth they can turn to find a simple welcoming hand that will receive them as refugees coming from a violent land.
As a member of the Tucson City Council, I’m proud to represent the residents of Tucson who have stepped up and offered to be that welcoming and compassionate hand. We don’t confront the broken hearts with arguments about comprehensive immigration reform or international economic-development initiatives. Those are issues to be sorted through by the national leaders of each of the countries involved. What these women and children need is a blanket, some food and the most basic of human kindness.
Frustrations are running deep all across the nation. We see members of Congress who are caught up in casting blame and positioning themselves for election campaigns. We see decades of dysfunctional public institutions throughout Central America failing their own citizens, the collateral damage from which is the out-migration of their own people. The buses that are arriving in Tucson don’t carry the causes of these failed institutions. They carry the effects. And those arrive at our Greyhound station as simply people looking for hope.
There was a new U.S. citizen laying in her mother’s arms in a Tucson hospital last month. Welcome to America, little one. It’s my hope, and that of the Project Mariposa volunteers, that by the time you’re old enough to understand, the Murietta and Oracle protests will be as anathema to your fellow countrymen as those that occurred in Selma are to us today.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2014.
To compare these illegal peons with the civil rights workers in Selma is an insult to all black CITIZENS of the United States. Their relatives fought for their freedom in the Civil War and in many wars since then.
Kozachik you are a patsy for President Obama. Clean them up, feed them, check their medical status and sen them home on a first class airline ticket to their home country. It will be a lot cheaper than spending billions of dollars. In 6 months you will never see these people again. Obama loves them because they will be future Democratic voters.
You wanted us to be an “Immigrant Welcoming Community” now you have it. Hope you enjoy it.
Not only are you a patsy you are a fool. The only fools are also the people who voted for you the first time you ran for City Council.
Fraser, I know everything I need to know about you by your use of the word, “peons.” It’s obviously too subtle a point for you to grasp that you, like the racists of whom Councilman Kozachik speaks, view these people as lesser humans, and thus entitled to less legal protection that you are. No, they are not citizens. But they are fully entitled to the protection of the laws governing their treatment that the Congress of the United States has passed.
Koz was elected as a Republican in a heavily democratic ward because that talentless shill Trasoff had to go. Steve is acutely aware of his position since he became a Democrat. His compassion position is certainly unique for his prior party affiliation and he’ll get to see how that flies next election.
The fact still remains that shrill, angry white people trying to obstruct a bus of illegal aliens whom the Feds have granted rights too is just another feather in the cap of conservative haters that have given the state – and now the county – such a bad reputation.
We are a country composed of immigrants, like it or not. Some immigrants and generations of their decedents exhibit racism believing they were entitled to things future immigrants are not entitled to. Xenophobia, paranoia, and racism are symptoms of ignorance, insecurity, and fear. The US has some responsibility for this current humanitarian crisis which is a symptom of NAFTA, and our lust for illegal drugs.
The notion that the Democratic party is sowing seeds for future support is laughable. The Democratic party has trouble tying their own shoes, much less imagining and planning a future voting base that would challenge or even dominate the conservative talking head machine. This mentality is also naive because it is not individual votes in this country that gets one elected, it’s super pack money and corporate cronyism. Politicians here are bought especially at the highest levels. We can thank our Supreme Court for that sad fact. So let’s let hundreds of thousands of the worlds poorest, most disenfranchised citizens and by default they become Democrats? This would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. I wonder how many church going Christians are spitting vitriol and protesting this situation?
Great moral analysis, Councilman. If we can’t even show compassion to little children, then what are we good for?
Fix the $%#@^&*N roads. That’s what you were elected to do!
Such fine sentiments Steve. I guess you picked up the $15,000 tab for the birth too. Right?
Buffcone:
American citizens have rights. Illegal aliens who have “arrived” into the USA during this “crisis” just need to go home. Feed them, house them and take care of their medical needs until the plane arrives to take them home. How does that make them less human.
In 6 months you will never find them for their “hearings”. They will have dispersed into the country. All waiting for the amnesty that Obama will try to give them. Am I harsh. Yes. I have no problem with my position. How would feel if you went through all of the procedures to become a proper citizen just to see Obama ignore that and let these peons into the country. (hope I just pissed you off because thats what they are).
By 2045 or so you will wonder why I have this position when you see that this is no longer the United States. I do not believe that it is right that we allowed millions of illegal aliens to stay. We did not protect the border, company owners who needed cheap slave labor and Progressives who needed more bought votes wanted this. I don’t think allowing millions of Central Americans into the USA will make this a better country. If you do you are a fool.
First class airline tickets back home is not cruel or inhumane.
Civil disobedience has long been the great equalizer in US politics, Civil Rights, the Vietnam demonstrations, even the New York Draft riots
Name calling is infantile. By calling someone a “peon”, or any other derogatory/racist term is to demonize them. It labels a person or an entire culture to simplistic levels. Even the poorest and most disenfranchised are complex humans who I believe given a chance may contribute more than votes.
In a rapidly evolving world culture that extends beyond the Tucson sector, things change. There is a cause and effect characteristic to what’s happening now, and looking at history with clear vision suggest we are on a rebound from the brief “white bread honeymoon” that the likes of Fraser are already missing. This thinking is regressive and non productive, and most importantly it won’t fix anything. Build a bigger wall? More drones, technology, thousands more BP? Looks like you’ve already lost this war…since “they” aren’t going anywhere, and this immigration has been going on for 200 years or more, perhaps those with paranoid racist tendencies, should take over an island where they can force out a few underdeveloped indigenous inhabitants and create their ideal white society where everyone has Anglo names and pinkish white skin and listens to Rush. Sound familiar Fraser?
Nothing wrong with immigration from many countries. That “white bread honeymoon” has brought you the level of lifestyle you now enjoy. Things like the Declaration of Independance, Constitution, technology, economy, democracy, defeat of forces like Nazis, Japanese Imperialism, Communism. You seem to welcome the change of America to a Hispanic based culture.
What are they going to “contribute”. Obama wants them to eventually vote. If you don’t think so you are at least a naive person. If you like a one party system good luck. The immigration has been going on for 200 years. But thats the legal immigration. How many Central American illegals do you want here. How many other illegals will make you happy.
Fraser, you are clearly not an attorney so you may not know that even foreign nationals who enter this country illegally have legal rights. Among those rights is the right to claim refugee status. Congress created an expedited return policy for immigrants who are citizens of contiguous nations: Canada and Mexico. This was an alteration of the policy that applies to other nations’ citizens. They may all be the same to you (“peons”) but under the laws and Constitution of the United States, which conservatives like to brandish like a weapon but rarely actually read, these people do indeed have legal rights. The Tea Party-controlled House of Representatives has refused to alter the law to implement expedited return, and also refused (so far) to fund the processes needed to expedite their hearings and pay for their care. I’m sure you would be happy to have them chained together and marched into the desert to meet their fate, but at least so far we haven’t implemented a death penalty for undocumented immigration and even if we did THEY WOULD STILL HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS. Get it? You might read up on this and educate yourself. http://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5813406/expla…
The poor fellow who calls himself Jon Justice not his real name, famous for a dog drowning hoax in Michigan is upset at this commentary by his arch enemy, not a right wing radio fan but love to hear them rant and rave, knowing they are running their blood pressures up to near premature cardiac arrest when someone of whom they feel is not a die hard extreme right winger says something they go bonkers over! It takes no rocket scientist to see the analogy of 1960’s Selma Alabama and these racist protests we see today on illegal immigrants, refugees, pick the name which allows you to sleep at night, but their only real crimes for most part is being born poor, in countries rampant with crime, corruption! The good thing is Jesus will sort these racists out on judgment day, eternity is a long time to pay for a momentary minute of joy excercising your racism!
In 1960’s they had Sheriff Bull Conner’s who died unrepentant, in a wheel chair, his boss “Governor Wallace” did in his later years repent, he to died in a wheel chair only difference one repented one did not, one ended in a wheel chair due to a assassins bullet, the other due to a stroke, we have our modern day version up in Phoenix thank god he does not work in Tucson, Sheriff Arpaio and his tent cities, denial of medical care to his charges, costing Maricopa county tax payers hundred of millions in lost civil suits, judgments to pay for his addiction to Marquis De Sade practices, as well as his apparent genetic defect of skin tone intolerance! But he has his fans, and they richly deserve one another, and one day they will spend all eternity on the lake of fire debating why they ended there but then it will be to late, only the crying, gnashing of the teeth and claw will be something they can truly share together!
Wherever the English went, prosperity. Where ever the Spanish went, poverty.
Buffcrone:
Send them home.
My friend is a great person. Kind, warm, blonde, big breasts. Though she talks a lot. I don’t know what to think about busses. Do they scare me in the day? Only as much as cactuses aren’t allowed to be picked up near the restaurant. I laugh when I think of peppermints disappearing from the bowl. And ha ha ha he will never shut his mouth. In conclusion I want to thank her for listening. yipeedog.wordpress.com/
Racists have always been amongst us, they know no particular color, race, culture, they are a mere mental attitude of “we are better than your kind”, they always expose themselves in the words which proceed from their very own mouths, all one has to do is give them the verbal rope and they always hang themselves with it! The good thing is their final destination is in that lake of fire for all eternity, we do have to live with them here on this old earth for a time, but eternity is a long time to pay for ones genetic defect or sick dark soul! I guess even God will have pity on them in one way he says he alone can destroy a soul, he will not destroy them just sentence them to a eternity of misery to reflect on their earthly bad choices!
Is it racist not to allow all of the world’s poor into the country.
Is it racist not to allow all of the world’s poor into the country?
I thought Steve Kozachik’s commentary was the most heartfelt and beautifully written piece I’ve read in a long time. We should all strive for the kind of compassion he shows in this article. It can only make us a better people.
Fraser is white first, human second.
Lingo Head:
So you think that letting in hundreds of thousands of Central Americans is a great thing on top of the millions of other illegal aliens who come across the border to add to the other millions who have come here and settled here. I feel sorry for the other immigrants who have come here legally and have done their paperwork and waited patiently. I also feel sorry for the Border Patrol staff who are being betrayed by the Obama Administration and have become nothing more than babysitters and wiping the asses of these illegals. I also feel sorry for America who will become a third world cesspool filled with peons. If you think these Central Americans are anything more than uneducated, under-skilled breeders then you are naive. I wish they were Indian computer engineers or Korean steel workers. But you seem to revel in the fact they will make the USA a Hispanic-ized third world third rate country. Your world view is flawed. It will destroy this country if it hasn’t already.
Sadly Arizona has become a magnet for social misfits/racists from all over the USA, we had the minute men formation, one of their illustrious leaders is now in jail awaiting trial on child molestation, the Neo-Nazi commander who hob knobbed at cook outs with booted state senate president and Mormon elder who baptized him into his congregation, who committed murder/suicide killing a infant as one of his victims! The two rogue minute men on death row Forde/Bush for murdering a Hispanic man and his 9 year old daughter, allegedly to finance their minute man operations! Here in Tucson we have our infamous Mexican flag burner who assaults 15 year old boys for the crime of video taping his 8 person posse protest! These are just the ones who are so famous I do not have to even mention their names they are known by their actions, we have those who comment on line who expose their inner demons of racism, we have those who use the media outlets such as one particular radio station famous for a fellow who often denigrates non-whites, he is a transplant from his former residence in Michigan where he was famous for a drowned dog hoax, which cost him that job, then there is the fellow who works on same radio station who denigrates his fellow blacks as lazy, shiftless, etc., I often joke he is a white person trapped in a non-white persons body dreaming if only he denigrates his fellows enough he will magically wake up white, kind-ve like the old Pinoccio fairy tale of the puppet wanting to be human! The good thing is these social misfits hurt themselves much worse than those they hate, since eternity is a long time to pay for ones darkness in their souls!
Now as bad as things seem in Arizona, one consolation exists, is the right wing white supremacists have tried to infiltrate Tucson, Southern Arizona and turn it into a GOP/Tea Party conversion with little to no success, their mouth pieces on one trivial little known radio station has fizzled election after election, the thing about the political system in America is nationally 32% register Republican, in Arizona its about 34%, a majority is 50.1%, thank god these lunatics have no real majority and have to cheat and commit fraud to win elections, deceive etc., then the old corny saying of you can fool some of the people all the time but not all the people all the time applies!
Don’t feel bad Ralph Hill. The Progressive Liberals own central Tucson. The Conservatives/Right Wing don’t want to live there. You can have it. The Right Wing would not want to “infiltrate” that area.
Republicans are a minority in Tucson that is why they control little to nothing but are full of hot air and fake bravado!:-) They do control Phoenix, which has their racist mirror image of Alabama’s Sheriff Bull Conner’s aka Sheriff Joe
Arpaio, and are paying untold millions in lost civil judgments for him to run their city, county! Guess the angry right wingers could migrate to Phoenix if they are so unhappy in southern Arizona! The consolation I repeat is Arizona has no majority electorate in republicans, they win by deception, fraud, and voter apathy, but this does change since we have in past had democrat rule in Governors office and Attorney generals office, they live in delusions of grandeur and the sun does not shine on one dogs tail all the time it has to shine on some other dogs tail some of the time!
Perhaps you could google ACORN?
Acorn? Is that like them mysterious WMD’s? Or the fake pimp from Breitbart.com? I think the right wing is so amusing either they are rhinos or cannibal tea partiers, either way one is dining and one is dinner!:-)
Phoenix has their Sheriff Arpaio a devotee of the Marquis De Sade! Tucson has a right wing radio station which hosts a has been from Michigan whose most infamous act was running a drowned dog hoax and has migrated to Tucson to sell right wing cure all that ails you snake oil via the radio waves!;-)
Now we do have another notable citizen well known enough no one has to even mention his name, the infamous “burner of Mexican flags” whose greatest achievement is assaulting a 15 year old boy for daring to video tape his 8 person posse! The lone lady in that posse disguised herself to go to her gal pals murder trial for killing a Hispanic man and his 9 year old daughter, her pal is on death row now the rogue female minute man leader, Forde! We do have some real characters, Phoenix has theirs to, the late Neo-Nazi JT Ready who has pals in this area to, he used to hob knob with his buddy booted state senate president Russell Pearce at cookouts, Pearce even baptized him into the Mormon cult, sadly he killed himself, 4 others one a infant! Then there is the minute man founder in jail now for child molestation, guess we just seem to attract some strange characters to Arizona for some odd reason, Timothy McVeigh of Oklahoma city bombing fame had his bunker up in Mohave county, where one of Forde’s pals fled when he got wounded in that tragic situation, birds of feather tend to flock together, and so do folks with similar mind sets!;-)
Hey Ralph Hill:
The Conservatives/Republicans do live in the Tucson area. Vail, Foothills, Oro Valley etc. Just not in the central Tucson area. Check the political maps first.
Facts are facts democrats dominate in Southern Arizona especially Tucson, republicans in Northern Arizona especially phoenix! What parts of Tucson have the greatest numbers of republicans is pretty insignificant, its like the myth that all republicans are rich and all democrats are poor, if this myth were true it does not explain the Kennedy’s, Pelosi, Kerry etc., this list is long the 2% truly are divided fairly equally, the 98% who are two pay checks away from homelessness are divided into both major parties, with some in the independent category! One can find a rich republican and a poor one, I was once in Kingman a seriously heavy republican county, in front of me was a auto about 20+ years old, smoking black smoke, looked like days to go till the junk yard, on bumper was vote for McCain, I was riding in a new vehicle with no political stickers to identify me as a democrat! I think some folks live in delusions of grandeur!
98% of Americans are in one of three major categories, paper rich with mortgage, debts up their proverbial necks, lose that job and in two weeks they are in dire straights, next is middle class whom are often in same category, then the working poor who often rent some do have mortgages one can find folks in all categories living in one of them upside down mortgages, doubt the lenders care which party one belongs to miss them payments whether it be upside down or right side up, they want their money! I truly find folks amusing who think they are in the 2% category when they are there only in their fantasies!
Is this how rich republicans become rich? I found this story so amusing! It has political bend to it to boot!
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/…
So you find one person that commits a fraudulent act and you paint the whole party with the same brush?
Ever heard of “cattle futures?”
Careful now. You bias is showing.
Hey Ralph Hill:
Maybe the Republicans like Phoenix because that’s where the jobs are. Or better yet that’s where THEY create jobs. People like you keep bitching about the 2%. I have worked for the 2%. Have you. Because of their ambition, drive etc they have created the jobs that I have held. They treated me pretty good. So who do you work for?
The Progressive Liberal mentality has made it so our young people can’t get a decent job here. To make matters worse idiots like Steve K and the Hispanic lobby here make it so the wages are low. You can’t have an “Immigrant Welcoming Community” and wealth at the same time. Any city that has 40% or more Hispanic population will not prosper. And will have a lot of crime. Prove me wrong. Just read the papers tonight and see who does the crime.
All the Progressives in central Tucson want to do is seel each other tie dyed T-shirts and beads at 4th Ave, drink at bars in Downtown Tucson and debate who has the best Sonoran Hot Dogs. Good luck with that and getting a good job.
Thank you Steve! I will be sending a donation to Project Mariposa to show my support since they have been stepping up to the plate and doing what I refer to as “The work of Jesus” (AKA helping the poor and down trodden) in regards to the immigrant/refugee situation in Tucson.