LatinaLista — A quick review of this week’s legislative schedule for Arizona’s state legislators is disturbing and disheartening in how xenophobia and prejudice are being masqueraded as justice and law.
For example, today SB1308: interstate compact; birth certificates was to be discussed. It authorizes and directs the Governor to enter into an Interstate Birth Certificate Compact (Compact) with other states.
Also, today was discussion of SB1309 – Arizona citizenship which establishes criteria for Arizona citizenship. As well as, SB1465 – valid identification; consular cards; prohibition — prohibits acceptance of consular cards as legal form of ID.
Other bills up for discussion today and the rest of the week include:
SB1490 – food service workers; authorized presence: self-explanatory
HB2077 – federal agencies; registration with sheriff:
It requires any federal agency that comes into a county to conduct authorized business to register its presence with the county sheriff.
SB1342 – Arizona rangers; border security activities: This commissions a civilian border group at the request of the Gov.
SB1406 – Interstate compact to build border fence: The Governor may enter into a compact with other states to provide for the construction and maintenance of a secure fence along the Arizona-Mexico border line that is located on private property if landowners consent. The Governor may enter into such a compact as part of any broader compact relating to the same or similar issue.
After reading the mission of each bill, it’s easy to see the true intent of such mean-spirited legislation that will do nothing to help the economy of Arizona and its people and merely serves to satisfy the faction of anti-immigrant extremists who have infiltrated Arizona’s government.
Reading these bills, and these are only for this week, and just a sampling of the bills to be presented, it would be easy for anyone who truly believed that the United States stands for justice for all people to be highly disillusioned with what this country has become.
That’s why the news of what the police chief in Fort Worth, Texas is doing is such a deliverance of fresh air that it renews hope that this country will find its way back on a path that made the U.S. a country once upon looked up to with admiration from the international community.
Last week, Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead signed a special order
“prohibiting police employees from taking into consideration “race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, disability, economic status, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, transgender status, membership in a cultural group or other individual characteristics or distinctions” while performing police duty.”
It’s being referred to as the “no-bias rule.”
Lt. Paul Henderson, a police spokesman, said those who violate the policy will face harsh discipline “in the form of termination in most cases.”
“This policy differs from racial profiling, which is mainly directed at prohibiting traffic stops based on race,” Henderson said. “The bias-based policing policy prohibits any prejudice from entering into the decision-making process. We may not be able to change a person’s behavior at work completely, but we sure can change their employment status if they bring their prejudices to the workplace.”
The new rule also encourages employees to report violations to their supervisors.
In light of what is happening in Arizona and other parts of the country, the no-bias rule is a positive step in seeing America as we really are — one nation of many people.
(Editor’s Note: Research on the schedule of Arizona’s bills for this week was taken in part by research done by Lydia Guzman of Somos America in Phoenix, AZ)
