SB 1070 Inspires Protests — On Both Sides Of The Border

By Simone Hilliard

With Arizona's SB 1070 set to take effect this Thursday (July 29), protests surrounding this tough new immigration law are happening on both sides of the Mexico – United States border.

Mexican Photojournalist Irineo Mujica Arzate recently went on a hunger strike, after he was beaten and robbed while working on a documentary about the train crossings of Central American migrants heading to the United States.

Irineo Mujica
photo credit: Víctor Hugo Rojas / EL UNIVERSAL

The train Mujica was riding in was intercepted by Mexican immigration agents who, according to the journalist, mistreated him and the migrants. Mujica said agents took his cameras, cell phone, and money.

To protest, Mujica is on day 9 of a hunger strike, according to El Universal. The journalist also chained himself outside of the National Institute of Migration offices in Puebla, but police forced him to leave.

Both the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Against Freedom of Expression and the National Human Rights Commission (NCHR) are investigating this complaint.  

On the other side of the border, the United State's immigration enforcement agency has not confirmed whether it will cooperate with police who are trying to enforce SB 1070.

Without cooperation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), SB 1070 would become largely unenforceable since police would have no way of determing the legal status of suspected illegal immigrants as Arizona's state law requires.

As a result, local police officers might have to release suspected illegal immigrants if they can't determine their status.

University of Arizona's Gabriel Jack Chin weighed in:

"If the Department of Homeland Security says, 'SB 1070 is unconstitutional, don't cooperate,' . . . then much of what is going on here shuts down. Not necessarily all of it, but a lot of it."

Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol, has refused to disclose the agencies' plans for dealing with SB 1070, only stating they are monitoring a federal lawsuit that is seeking to block the law.

According to AZCentral.com, a coalition of groups has initiated a weeklong protest of Senate Bill 1070, culminating in a National Day of Non Compliance on July 29.

The group -- which includes the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Somos America and Puente -- is urging people not to carry ID, not to work and not to buy anything on July 29.

It is demanding that the federal government refuse to cooperate with SB 1070 and end 287(g), and requesting that all cities, towns, police departments, schools and businesses "publically (sic) state that they will not comply and will not cooperate with SB 1070."

Are you protesting SB 1070? Share your stories in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags hunger strike, Immigration, Irineo Mujica Arzate, latin, MTV NEws, National Day of Non Compliance, Politics, SB 1070, Tr3s