Community Alliance of Lane County, in concert with local, regional and national allies and citizens, completely opposes and condemns the Arizona legislation of SB 1070. This state senate bill empowers police officers to stop and interrogate every individual in the state regarding citizenship status and make it a crime to be an undocumented person in Arizona. The bill contains no safeguards against racial profiling and increases the likelihood of arbitrary arrest and detention. These are all gross violations of the International Declaration of Human Rights, of which the United States is a signer, and which we believe is unconstitutional. The lack of political leadership, for decades now, at the local, state, and national levels is contributing to the deterioration of the nation's social fabric and creating a political environment that discriminates against people of color, women, and children based on class, sexual orientation, race, religion, and ethnicity. We call on our political leadership at every level to enact comprehensive immigration reform that is fair, humane, and economically sound, now! Racism and hate masquerading as political dialogue is not the answer.    

"The divide of race has been America's constant curse. Each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction, are no different. They have nearly destroyed us in the past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of terror. They torment the lives of millions in fractured nations around the world. These obsessions cripple both those who are hated and, of course, those who hate, robbing both of what they might become."

                                                                   -Bill Clinton
Sincerely,

Jorge Navarro
Co-Director, Programs and Development