Update: The Justice Department has officially filed a lawsuit against Arizona over the state's anti-immigration law.The immigration debate has gotten increasingly contentious in recent months, especially with the signing of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 into law. At times the discussion has become juvenile such as Cardinal Roger Mahoney comparing the law with Nazism and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer claiming that “most” undocumented immigrants are “drug mules.” Unfortunately this disrespectful rhetoric has even pervaded one local veterans group.
Members of Arizona's largest American Legion Post in Apache Junction voted to bar the group’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Of the 26 veterans involved in the vote only one- ex-Army corporal Harry Robert Warren- voted against the measure. As Warren told one local news source, the decision was "retaliation" against the demonstrations by some Latino groups in protest of SB 1070. "It brings animosity between the different races," added Warren who hopes that the decision can be put up for a new vote in a few months.
“It caught me by total surprise,” mentioned Post Commander Felix Gonzalez to The Arizona Republic in response to the group’s vote. Additionally:
Gonzalez, the son of a Mexican-American father and mother with Spanish roots, said he was powerless to block or postpone a vote, despite his position as the Post's top administrative official.Though Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican national holiday it is observed in several regions. Furthermore, the day commemorates Mexico’s military victory over France in the Battle of Puebla and may have prevented major French help of the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.
The official reason given for the vote was that because Mexico does not celebrate Cinco de Mayo as a national holiday, there is no reason for the Post to celebrate it, Gonzalez said.
Image- San Francisco Sentinel
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Huffington Post, USA TODAY, CNN, abc15.com, The Arizona Republic, Wikipedia
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ReplyDeleteits a straw man argument to characterize this as an immigration issue.
ReplyDeletevery few americans are "anti-immigrant"
and a reasonble case can be made the people backing this bill are not anti immigrant
what this is about for the sake of clarity is illegal entry into the united states., it is an issue of open or closed borders.
and what should be expected from new commers to america.
it is not unreasonable to expect newcommers to america to learn our language and our history and adhere to our cultural norms in critical matters. for example muslim immigrants should be punished severly for honor killings on girls, or cliterectomies, not ignored or explained away.
but back to arizona, it is not unexpected for people living in a border state getting over run by people with no legal right to be in this country causing mayham and costing them money to get upset. the feds refuse to enforce the border and the chaos in mexico is spilling over the border and people are dying.
they feel rightly or wrongly under siege becuase of this uncontrolled influx and lawless border.
what the arizona law says is simple, it is a re-iteration of the federal law, that is all, and the feds under obama are saying we dont want to enforce the law and we dont want you to either.