Tucson Protests the New Immigration Law
The immigration reform rally on Friday, April 23, was definitely one to remember. While peaceful, unlike some of the rioting taking place at the state capitol building in Phoenix, I didn’t see one face on the corners of Granada Avenue and Congress Street that was for Arizona Senate Bill 1070.
The protestors had pretty strong opinions, and pretty loud signs as well. Standing on the side of the road on all four corners downtown, students of all ages and adults in the community held up signs and yelled at cars, who would honk back in return. Some signs had pictures with Nazi and white supremacist inferences, while others simply said “Veto SB 1070.”
By the time that 1:30 p.m. rolled around, and people started hearing that Governor Jan Brewer signed and passed the bill in Phoenix, Tucsonans were not ready to quit. Words were tossed around that people were not going anywhere and their fight would continue. One Arizona native said, just because it’s a law doesn’t mean that it’s right.
People that I talked to were hopeful about the support that the community was showing against the bill. They were impressed with the amount of people, especially students that were there, and they didn’t show doubt that they would lose a fight with that kind of support from the community.
All the rallying and protesting has shown that communities in Arizona care about our state, but they have not shown legal advancement away from the passage of the senate bill. We’ll have to see what kind of legal battles come of this bill, and also how many more protests will arise.
To see some of the protesting and people’s thoughts against SB 1070 from Friday, watch this video.
Reaching Hands Across Boundaries 