[News] National Human Rights March Sat February 28 Phoenix

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras Statement of Support For the
National Human Rights March To Challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Saturday, February 28th - Phoenix, Arizona

The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras joins and stands strongly in 
support of all the people and organizers of the National Human Rights 
March to challenge the Human Rights abuses of Maricopa County Sheriff 
Joe Arpaio.  We believe that the militarization and border 
enforcement policies that have been inflicted upon the territories of 
our eight Nations of Indigenous Peoples divided by the US-Mexico 
border have helped nurture virulent racist nativism in America, and 
politicians have used immigration as a wedge issue that has degraded 
respect for the civil and human rights of us all.

The actions of Sheriff Arpaio extend the militarization of the border 
to the entirety of the metropolis of Maricopa County, where the 
Sheriff's Posse acts as an "uber police" force, overriding 
jurisdictions of civil government and community control.  We 
understand that the 287(g) Agreement now in place with the Sheriff of 
Maricopa County and the federal government has been implemented in 
violation of the constitutional right of Equal Protection and with 
blatant discriminatory enforcement tactics by Sheriff Arpaio, and 
therefore demand that the 287(g) Agreement be cancelled immediately.

We join voices as well with members of the Judiciary Committee of the 
US House of Representatives to call for federal investigation on the 
systematic practices and procedures of discriminatory enforcement 
that Sheriff Arpaio has implemented throughout Maricopa County, and 
that such violations be addressed in the appropriate judicial venues 
and courts of both civil and human rights.  To this end, we call to 
the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Indigenous 
Peoples, Professor James Anaya of the University of Arizona, to take 
into account these procedures of federal investigation now under way, 
and articulate effective measures to address the international 
regional and historical context of the issue as part of a pattern of 
systemic human rights violations driven by transnational government 
economic policies in North America, in reference to the regime of NAFTA.

Stop Arpaio!

The actions of Sheriff Arpaio and his posse have declared open season 
and war on all People of Color, including documented and undocumented 
immigrants, and U.S. Citizens. Public safety and public health have 
suffered as a result.  This situation must brought to an end immediately.

We call upon the Maricopa County Government, citizens and politicians 
to stop the perpetrators of hate and fear that use anti-immigration 
legislation and border enforcement policies as a tool to discriminate 
against People of Color and terrorize our communities! Sheriff Joe 
Arpaio must be stopped!  His racist acts deserve Public Condemnation 
because they polarize Race Relations in Arizona and undermine the 
stability and integrity of our regional economy in the state.

Indigenous Peoples and the Border

Across the borderlands, anti-immigrant issues have also profoundly 
affected Indigenous Peoples.

The cultural and religious ties between our Indigenous Nations and 
communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border precede the 
imposition of the international boundary between the two countries by 
millennia. These ties present a cultural mandate that must continue 
and will continue in spite of the great difficulties of today's 
political climate and economic realities.

The vast majority of immigrants without documents coming to the US 
are Indigenous Peoples of the Abya Yala [the Americas] from Mexico, 
Guatemala and other South American countries.  Indigenous people 
living on or near the border from Texas to California and from 
Coahuila to Baja California, are harassed, subjected to high-speed 
chases, abuse of state authority, and suffer daily violations of 
human and civil rights with impunity.

Southern Indigenous border issues are neglected or ignored by 
politicians and by the U.S. Department of Homeland 
Security.  Indigenous sovereignty and rights of self-determination 
are continuously violated by restrictive and discriminatory border 
crossing enforcement policies.

Southern Indigenous Border Rights and Justice should be dealt with as 
a viable border enforcement issue in order to ensure policy change 
that will respect indigenous rights of mobility and passage, 
preservation of language and cultural rights and indigenous family's 
unification.

The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, founded in 1997, was created by 
and for Indigenous Peoples to address border issues of the southern 
US border with Mexico.  The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras consists 
of individual tribal members from the eight southern border 
indigenous nations with relatives in Mexico. We seek to increase 
public awareness regionally and nationally on how anti-immigrant 
legislation and border enforcement policies daily affect the lives of 
Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Rights and Immigrant Rights are HUMAN RIGHTS!

WE DEMAND THAT ARPAIO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!

HIS WILD WEST TACTICS ARE UNACCEPTABLE!

A Nation that is governed based on the Rule of Law Must Respect Human Rights!

!  Human Rights do not need Documents   !

  ******************************

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th, 2007

Article 36

1. Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international 
borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations 
and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, 
political, economic and social purposes, with their own members as 
well as other peoples across borders.

2. States, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, 
shall take effective measures to facilitate the exercise and ensure 
the implementation of this right.



Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras

Contact:  Jose R. Matus, Project Director    Tel: (520) 
979-2125<http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org>
P.O. Box 826   Tucson, AZ  85702
<http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org>www.indigenasinfronteras.org

Links:

<http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html>http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/rapporteur/

<http://www.tonatierra.org>www.tonatierra.org

www.puenteaz.org

<http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/>http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org


Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras: Statement of Support - National Human 
Rights March Sat February 28 Phoenix



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