Thread: Arizona county helping illegals, critic charges

Arizona county helping illegals, critic charges
Alleges malfeasance by political, judicial, economic leaders

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=55059

Posted: April 6, 2007
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


The population of illegal aliens already in the United States has been estimated at 12-20 million, with a crowd of another two million arriving each year, including thousands through the lengthy and largely remote border Pima County, Ariz., shares with Mexico.

One activist says the reason is the power structure in the county actually endorses such immigration – because the workers provide a source of low-cost labor for the region's booming construction industry, and what's good for business is what's good for everyone.

But Roy Warden objects to the premise, believing the illegals are exploited in Mexico before they leave, they are blackmailed on their way into the U.S., and they are exploited after they arrive.

The solution, he said, is for Mexicans to remain in Mexico and stage their own revolution, to improve conditions there, and he's going to federal court to be allowed to continue to raise his strident voice in condemnation of those he believes facilitate the immigration.

Already, he's faced a crackdown by authorities in Tucson when he burned a Mexican flag in protest of illegal immigration and authorities' stance on it, and now he's told WND he's trying to bring the issue to the attention of the nation, and local authorities don't want that either.

"I come from a liberal background, as a student radical in the '60s, not knowing any better. I became very much intoxicated by street demonstrations … but then spent several years in Third World countries. … [It] was a unique forum to reflect back upon America and the protected rights of individuals to stand up in public and point a finger of condemnation at the malfeasance of a public servant," he told WND.

So, believing federal immigration laws aren't being adequately enforced, he's staged public burnings of Mexican flags, and created the Tucson Weekly Public Forum, a time when he reserved public land "within earshot" of several thousand public and business leaders in Tucson, and used a bullhorn to announce his condemnation of what he saw going on.

Eventually he was arrested for pushing back when a counter-protester barged into a roped-off area where he was planning a flag-burning and convicted of disorderly conduct, and his bullhorn at his Public Forum earned him a couple of noise citations before a judge ordered him to stay out of the entire area.

Now he's fighting back both with a lawsuit against local court officials who he alleges illegally deprived him of his constitutional free speech rights, and with an appeal of his sentence for the disorderly conduct claim.

The appeal, which is being handled by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, challenges the conviction on a long list of legal grounds, including a claim an order he stay away from "public demonstrations" violates his First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.

And it puts the local courts in the same position as the "segregationists in the 50's," because "the trial court now seeks to censor the speech of a political activist who does not profess the 'politically correct' viewpoint," according to the appellate filing.

The ban on participating in such demonstrations "precludes Mr. Warden from exercising his own constitutional right to speak freely and express his opinion about current political issues… Civil rights demonstrators have practiced this principle since the birth of this democracy," the filing said.

"Mr. Warden has been singled out based on his political beliefs. Such blatant disregard for the United States and Arizona Constitutions should not be tolerated. This is the exact type of suppression of ideas that the First Amendment seeks to prevent," the filing continues.

Warden told WND that he is convinced from his years of observation and investigation illegal immigrants are abused throughout their journey. In their own country, those with money and in power prevent them from earning a satisfactory wage, they are blackmailed with a variety of "fees" by those who smuggle them into the United States, and once in, they are forced to work for substandard wages and without protections or benefits because of their status.

Warden, in fact, sympathizes with their situation. But he says the solution is not for them to come into the United States illegally, disrupting this nation's ability to serve its own citizens and compounding their own problems by putting themselves under the thumb of those who would abuse them here.

"Poor people in Mexico are exploited there by horrific economic conditions. I support Zapata, who called for a violent revolution in Mexico. "They (immigrants) are exploited there, and raped and robbed and murdered on the journey here. Once here they are exploited by rich white employers who have contracts for cheap wages.

"In general, they're a sympathetic group of people," he said of the illegals. "But somebody will hire them for less than the going wage." He said many jobs in the county usually are relatively high-paying, such as electricians, roofers and framers, and the illegals' lower wages "satisfy the greed of local employers."

Meanwhile, left-leaners want to exploit the illegals in their attempts to foster racial division, and create a region of the world that belongs to Hispanics, and no longer is part of the United States, he said.

"The whole point is they're invited (into the U.S.) by a certain class of Americans – builders and politicians – for economic exploitation. I want to stop the exploitation of Mexicans," he told WND.

His solution? Have they stay in Mexico and take care of their own problems, "just like we did here in 1776."

"There needs to be a fundamental change in Mexico's policies," he said.

His protest, arrest and conviction stemmed from a 2006 event at which he planned to burn a Mexican flag in a protest.

"Mr. Warden roped off an area to protect the speakers and to maintain public safety during the flag-burning portion of the demonstration," the appellate filing said. "Mr. Rodriguez, along with his brother and his nephew, arrived and rapidly approached the demonstration… Mr. Warden greeted the three men and told them he was having a peaceful demonstration and that he did not want any violence. Mr. Warden went so far as to invite them to speak their views at the conclusion of the demonstration."

Rodriguez' response, however, was to threaten Warden's mother with an obscenity. Then he "crossed the rope barrier," and Warden told Rodrigeuz to "step back and to stay on the other side of the rope."

"That didn't stop Mr. Rodriguez. He persisted to push up against the rope attempting to reach the speakers … at that point, Mr. Warden, fearing for his own personal safety and the safety of the speakers, pushed Mr. Rodriguez back away from the roped off area," the filing said.

Both sides called police, and Warden was arrested, and later convicted at a trial from which he was banned because of a court order keeping him away from one of the lawyers he alleges conspired to deprive him of his free speech rights.

Those free speech rights are the other subject on which Warden is voluble. He alleges that local police and court officials simply they decided they didn't want his politically incorrect opinion being promulgated, so they imposed a series of restrictions on him based on his viewpoint. For example, they told him he wasn't allowed to hand out political brochures in public areas, and in fact at one point detained him so he couldn't do that.

He explained that at another point, he saw police officers actually training a group of Hispanic radicals "on how to disrupt our communication and speech."

Warden told WND that his option, under those circumstances, was to take the issue to federal court, because the free speech issue is not something local courts have authority to restrict.

The next filings will be within the next week or so, he said, and then the arguments will move to the next level. Meanwhile, he'll keep preaching his message, anywhere there's a listener, he said.

He expects positive results, because he doesn't believe all of Arizona is the same. In fact, the state Legislature at one point considered a plan that would have jailed – for six months – any first-time violator of national immigration laws.

Where's the ACLU when you really need them.