A couple dozen Tucsonans met at 5:30 am this morning at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson to caravan up to Oracle, AZ, as part of a nonviolent counter-protest of sorts, showing support to the refugee children who are rumored to be arriving at Oracle’s Sycamore Canyon Boys Ranch.
By 6:45am, Oracle’s Deputy Sheriff Henry addressed the crowd gathering at the entrance to the campground, handing out a flyer from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu citing Arizona’s guidelines for unlawful assembly under the First Amendment.
All of Tucson’s news crews are here in Oracle as the story made national headlines over the last two days.
Later, Sheriff Babeu himself showed up to speak with local Oracle community activist Mary Ellen Kazda, aka Kaz.
Babeu informed the media that there were several vehicles blocking the camp entrance earlier in the morning but they were asked to disperse and complied. More protesters of the refugee camp have been making their way closer to the entrance, but as of 8:30am, it has been for the most part a peaceful event dominated by supporters. Check back later on The Range for another update.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2014.
I totally understand both sides. What a mess.
Once again AZ is shamed on a national stage.
Were the “guidelines for unlawful assembly” handed out to the anti-immigrant protesters as well?
hardly a clash–we need less sensationalism media.
Reminds me of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School long ago, grown-ups screaming hateful epithets at scared children.
Guess since terrorism holds less terror for us now, immigrants are the new “face of fear” held up to us to misdirect us. Anything to keep us from focusing on dark money buying legislation wholesale, that’s what we need to fear
There is a reason that this particular group of “children” is going to this facility that has housed court-referred juveniles in a relatively remote location. My guess is that they are young males who appear to have been involved in criminal activity with gangs, cartel or age-inappropriate behaviors and better to hold them apart from the others. The criminal element (as well as the governments/or same) of Mexico and the sending countries are laughing at us as they facilitate the illegal flow northward. Better hope that some gang members don’t get sent on to “family” in Iowa or whereever.
Dominated by supporters? Nope. Not even close. They were outnumbered 10 or 15 to 1. And these pictures are not from the campground, they are from the town of Oracle, you guys are only off by 8.4 miles. Clash? How could the two groups clash when they were 3.2 miles apart? Someone needs to scrap this story and start over. Is this what you all call reporting?
By the way, when I saw the photo of the ladies in the white sheets (??!!) I started to laugh so hard that my mouthful of coffee came out of my nose! But without any context (they are copying the volunteers who shielded the funeral processions of veterans from the crazy religious group) I should think that newly-arrived foreign-born people would be terrified by the sight. Perhaps the “angels” are there to escort them out of this life?
Just something to think about from the Gospel according to Matthew 25:34-40
34“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Alot of these so called children are probably not children, but young adults posing as children! In addition, one has to remember the age of consent is anywhere from 12 to 18 for these countries. Therefore, they need to be considered young adults. In any case, 1) they should be cared for and then deported back to their Country of Origin 2) The Foreign Aid we are giving them should be stopped all together and spent on caring for these individuals until such time as they are deported; 3) The border between Mexico and the USA should be closed completed; and, finally the border needs to be secured! All these things can and should be done simultaneously!
There is no clash and Loyal Americans outnumber the La Raza loyal 10 to one!!..This is also happening in Michigan and a couple of other states….Send them home or they will NEVER stop coming..How STUPID do you have to be NOT to know that??
We need more people out there blocking the entrance. Sunday morning as we were driving east on Valencia there were 3 Homeland Security busses at Denny’s. I guess we are taking them all out for breakfast too on taxpayer dollars.
SECURE THE BORDER AND KEEP THESE UNWANTED ILLEGALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.
Laura, block the enterance and you will go to jail or, should the Sheriff not do his job then we WILL have him up on charges for dereliction of duty (to start with).
lizzyg, it’s the same group. Our job as to prevent hatred and violence from occurring in Tucson via protecting children. It was non-political and not violent. I’m not sure why blocking signs with angel wings (specifically created at that height and length to block those signs) is a laughing matter. I’m proud that our group has tried to protect people from hate mongering.
Read about Matthew Shepard if you think the angel wings are so funny. We followed our friend, Romaine Patterson’s, beautiful and peaceful counter protest guidelines. I think trying to fight for good is something we should be proud of and not judge from an outside perspective. I think we’re getting judged enough on a national level because people with anti-refugee calms are yelling at children in a language they don’t understand.
*Our job is
*people with qualms
(Sorry, on a phone).
I wish there was some way to turn the animosity demonstrated by both sides into something constructive and useful.
I am disabled, yet I volunteer at the Southwest Community Center on South Cardinal Avenue. We are desperate for volunteer help handing out food to people in need or preparing the food for our senior lunch program.
It makes me ill to read all this exchange of useless words from people who probably feel they are actually making a difference.
Nobody here is making any kind of difference at all by yakking and spewing venom. How about dropping by the local old folks’ home or community center in your neighborhood and seeing if they could use a helping hand? Just imagine the difference one person can make just by donating two or three hours one day a week. Trust me, it would be huge.
We don’t need online crusaders in America, we need Americans to get off their butts and help those who can’t help themselves.
Hell, just take a walk down any street in our fair city and pick up enough trash to fill an average trash bag. You probably won’t have to go more than half a mile and you’ll help make the world a nicer place.
I just left the protest, a pathetic remnant of flag-draped rednecks and Tea Party duffers. If the protesters have one common denominator it is fear. The organizers live in locked houses inside gated communities and they want to lock down the whole country as well. I am so glad that my life and my opinions are not ruled by fear. Glad also that so many of my Oracle neighbors came out to disown the delusional ranting of our fear mongering Sheriff and the wingnuts who claim to speak for us.
Don’t bus the ILLEGALS around the country. Put them on a plane from the nearest border airport and send them back to the capital city of the country from which they came.
Sounds like a party, I wonder if they served tacos.
Net zero immigration from Mexico you ignorant racists. Do some research
How about we pick up all the homeless AMERICAN children and feed them, give them shelter, medicine, clothing etc. Send those “kids” back to their countries and let them get in line like everyone else. America needs to put America first!
Lucky for the penile county sheriff, he didn’t have to forcibly remove the mad tea naggers from the path of the buses. What irony. Babeau Babeau, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they yell at you? Babeau, Babeau.
I worked with and for children over15 yrs. I am not anti child. Children are being used as propaganda tools -again, as in Syria (Pro invade) as in Sandy Hook (anti second ammendment). Why dont children in Palestine matter? Upshot is, this is not about immigration, its about deliberate instigation of chaos and civil unrest by the executive branch, to justify instituting martial law.
P.S. im not a racist either. The narrative nowadays is if you criticize Obama it means you are intolerant, racist, anti child or anti gay. This effectively scares and bullies liberals into not using their free speech. Social liberalism doesnt mean you want State surveillance, internment camps, loss of right to assemble and free speech, no protection against illegal search and seizure. I voted for him twice, but no social liberal should be for violating the constitution. All Americans should protest Obama’s violation of the constitution, regardless of our different social agendas.