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<font size=4><b>Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras Statement of Support For
the<br>
National Human Rights March To Challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio<br>
Saturday, February 28th - Phoenix, Arizona<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
<b>Stop Arpaio!<br><br>
</b>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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Indigenous Peoples and the Border<br><br>
</b>Across the borderlands, anti-immigrant issues have also profoundly
affected Indigenous Peoples.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
Indigenous Rights and Immigrant Rights are HUMAN RIGHTS!<br><br>
WE DEMAND THAT ARPAIO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!<br><br>
HIS WILD WEST TACTICS ARE UNACCEPTABLE!<br><br>
A Nation that is governed based on the Rule of Law Must Respect Human
Rights!<br><br>
! Human Rights do not need Documents !<br><br>
******************************<br><br>
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples<br><br>
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th, 2007<br><br>
Article 36<br><br>
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.<br><br>
2. States, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall
take effective measures to facilitate the exercise and ensure the
implementation of this right.<br><br>
<br><br>
<b>Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras<br><br>
</b>Contact: Jose R. Matus, Project Director Tel:
(520) 979-2125<a href="http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org"><br>
P.O. Box 826 Tucson, AZ 85702</a><br>
<a href="http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org">
www.indigenasinfronteras.org</a><br><br>
Links:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html">
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/rapporteur/" eudora="autourl">
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/rapporteur/<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.tonatierra.org">www.tonatierra.org</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.puenteaz.org/" eudora="autourl">www.puenteaz.org<br>
<br>
</a><a href="http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/">
http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org</a><br><br>
<br>
Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras: Statement of Support - National Human
Rights March Sat February 28 Phoenix<br><br>
<br>
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