Thread: Arizona immigration law an unpleasant reminder of Chandler's

Arizona immigration law an unpleasant reminder of Chandler's past

Police and Border Patrol agents detained U.S. citizens and legal residents along with illegal immigrants in 1997. Many fear the new law will make history repeat itself.

L.A. Times
June 5, 2010
By Anna Gorman

Reporting from Chandler, Ariz. —

In late July 1997, police officers fanned out across this Phoenix suburb searching for illegal immigrants.

Working side by side with Border Patrol agents, police demanded proof of citizenship from children walking home from school, grandmothers shopping at the market and employees driving to work.

At the end of what became known as the Chandler Roundup, 432 illegal immigrants had been arrested and deported.

But during those five days, local police and federal officers also detained some U.S. citizens and legal residents — often stopping them because they spoke Spanish or looked Mexican.

Now, as Arizona prepares to enact SB 1070, the controversial new immigration law, many of Chandler's Latino residents say they are reminded of those terrifying days — and fearful of a repeat of the past.

"SB 1070 just brought home the point: If you are Hispanic or Mexican, you are just not wanted in Arizona," said Joe Garcia, 65, a U.S. citizen who owned a video store in downtown Chandler and helped form a civil rights coalition to demand answers after the roundup.

The state attorney general later determined that authorities had engaged in racial profiling and violated the rights of residents.

The new law, which will take effect July 29, during the 13th anniversary of the sweeps, requires police to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop for another lawful reason and suspect is in the country illegally.

It also makes it a state crime to lack any proper immigration papers.

Gov. Jan Brewer has said that racial profiling will not be tolerated under the law, which is supported by a majority of Arizona residents.

Though not well-known outside Arizona, the Chandler Roundup wasn't unique.

Throughout U.S. history, raids conducted by local police and federal immigration agents have resulted in the deportation of U.S. citizens, according to Francisco Balderrama, a Chicano studies professor at Cal State Los Angeles.

In the 1930s, beginning with a dramatic raid in Los Angeles at La Placita Olvera, federal agents and police arrested more than a million people in operations around the U.S. and sent them to Mexico.

By researching records at Mexican consulates, Balderrama estimated that as many as 60% of those deported were U.S. citizens.

Other deportation efforts, including the infamous Operation Wetback, continued into the 1940s and 1950s.

Balderrama said that history accounts for some of the unease in the Latino community only about SB 1070.

"It underscores the situation that your skin color and your surname are used as ways of measuring if you are American or not," he said.

Teresa Rodriguez, 69, knows what it is like to be singled out. Although she — and her parents — were born in the United States, Rodriguez was stopped three times by Chandler police and Border Patrol agents during the roundup.

In one incident, she was speaking Spanish to a friend while walking to the store to pick up medicine for her grandson.

A police officer on a bicycle came up on one side of her, an immigration officer on the other. She recalled one saying in Spanish, "You don't belong here, do you?"

When Rodriguez, who speaks English, answered in Spanish that she was a citizen and that her birth certificate was at home, they didn't believe her.

She said the police officer grabbed her arm and forced her to sit on the curb until she finally convinced him she was a citizen.

"They made me feel like I was being stepped on, like I was an animal," she said.

Garcia, a retired Mesa police lieutenant, and his wife, Rosalia, said they were still disappointed and angry about the way officers behaved during the roundup.

Rosalia remembered customers fleeing into the video shop and police officers on bicycles arbitrarily stopping people.

"They were literally sweeping, coming through the sidewalks" until finally, she said, the streets were empty.

"Police officers, knowing full well what probable cause they needed, just ignored the law and took the law into their own hands," Joe Garcia said.

"If you were Hispanic, you were a target," he said. "Especially if you had a dark complexion."

Arizona State University professor Mary Romero, who specializes in social justice issues and has written several articles about Chandler, said authorities even used reports with some information completed in advance: nationality, Mexican; skin color, medium; hair color, black; occupation, laborer.

Stephen Montoya, a lawyer who represented U.S. citizens and legal residents in a lawsuit against the city, said the new Arizona law paves the way for more such raids.

"It knocks down the wall and legitimizes a constant, statewide roundup of those here illegally," he said.

Chandler authorities, who conducted the sweeps as part of a plan to revitalize the city, settled the lawsuit with 29 plaintiffs for $400,000 and pledged to not let it happen again.

And in 1999, the City Council adopted a policy saying police could only ask about the immigration status of people arrested on suspicion of felonies and certain misdemeanors.

Mayor Boyd Dunn, who was on the City Council at the time, said in an interview that "mistakes were made" and that some officers engaged in racial profiling.

But he said the department has since conducted extensive officer training and outreach to the Latino community.

Earlier this year, in anticipation of SB 1070 becoming law, the council unanimously repealed the 1999 policy and gave police more freedom to ask the immigration status of all people arrested.

"We need to give police officers discretion and tools to make sure the bad guys are caught," Chandler Police Chief Sherry Kiyler said.

Dunn said the policy change, which he considered the "closing chapter" on the roundup, was necessary to bring Chandler up-to-date with other Arizona cities.

Dunn said SB 1070 will not result in anything like what happened 13 years ago.

"We will protect not only our citizens, but their rights," he said.

Chandler, once a small agricultural town, now has a population of 250,000 and is home to several high-tech factories.

The city is 21% Latino.

The downtown square is surrounded by new condos, shops and restaurants, including a tea house and an upscale bridal store.

A few blocks down Arizona Avenue, however, day laborers still wait for work, as they have for years.

One of the workers, Nasario Ramos, 38, said he was deported to Mexico during the roundup and sneaked back into the U.S. days later.

Ramos said he worries that the calm that had prevailed in Chandler for 13 years was about to end. "It's going to be worse than '97," he said.

Illegal immigrants like Ramos continue to be a sore point for some residents of Chandler. Fred Blevins, 62, said that although he believed police went too far when they stopped U.S. citizens in 1997, something had to be done. He supports SB 1070 as a way to get more illegal immigrants out of Arizona and believes local police will do it the right way.

"Chandler learned its lesson," he said. "They got slapped."

In addition to the legal settlement after the sweeps, Chandler authorities also formed a human relations commission to promote dialogue and started several cultural events to celebrate the Latino community.

Chandler community activist Juanita Encinas said the city made efforts to build bridges with the Latino community but a level of distrust remains. "The scars will never go away," she said.

For Rodriguez, who said she received about $27,000 of the cash settlement, a reminder of the roundup is never far away. Whenever she leaves the house, she brings along her birth certificate.

anna.gorman@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 5717.story

Hmmm ... okay, lets do the math. The sweep cleared the streets since they were "empty" of illegal aliens. The police arrested and deported 436 illegal aliens. They mistakenly questioned 29 citizens in the process because they were speaking Spanish on the street, probably to an illegal alien, and a woman who had to sit on a curb for a few minutes to convince officers she was a citizen, was paid $27,000 for her trouble and the others got an average of $10,000 each for theirs in 1997 funds.

So what's the problem again?



I'll gladly let a police officer sit me down on a curb for a few minutes while I explain to him that I'm a US citizen for $27,000 adjusted for inflation since 1997. Any day, any time, anywhere.

Bring it on!!

I think I'm going to darken my hair, buy a big hat, pink lipstick, J-Lo perfume, get a good tan this summer and practice que pasa and gracious with the right accent.

The lady got 27 K ? what is this world comming to ? and she has deep emotinal scars ? geez for 27 K you can throw me in a cell for 3 days in return for that kind of money !

while it's unfortunate that american citizens were detained , 400 something illegals caught is well worth the hassle ..

we need MORE of this , not less

You have got to be kidding me. I wish I got 27 Gs everytime I was fasely accused of something. Why would the city fork out 400 Gs when an apology and a gift card for 50$ to TGI Fridays should have suficed. Just another example of why lawyers should be burried up to their heads in sand.

Originally Posted by marquis

The lady got 27 K ? what is this world comming to ? and she has deep emotinal scars ? geez for 27 K you can throw me in a cell for 3 days in return for that kind of money !

while it's unfortunate that american citizens were detained , 400 something illegals caught is well worth the hassle ..

we need MORE of this , not less

I'd sit in a cell for 3 months for $27,000.

From the article, no one was actually "detained" as in arrested and put in jail. She got more than her fair share for sitting on a curb for a few minutes so they were just asked and maybe accused and then sent on their way.

This is just more La Raza fear-mongering crap dramatizing for the ignorant who can't read the articles in English or ... do the math.

I don't know about anyone else, but EVERY SINGLE TIME I HAVE BEEN STOPPED BY A COP I HAVE HAD TO SHOW ID. Sometimes I've been required to show I have car insurance. I show ID when I write a check. I show ID when I withdraw money from a bank. I show ID when I register my car. And, I've been described as "really white".

So, the issue is, what KIND of ID? I'm so sick of hearing this garbage. If you are not breaking the law, don't worry. Stop whining and get legal. Our police forces are so overburdened right now. Seldom do they have the time to just stop someone unless there is valid reason. So, GET LEGAL AND SHOW YOUR ID LIKE THE REST OF US. Or, is it only "really white" people like me who have to do this?

Originally Posted by laughinglynx

I don't know about anyone else, but EVERY SINGLE TIME I HAVE BEEN STOPPED BY A COP I HAVE HAD TO SHOW ID. Sometimes I've been required to show I have car insurance. I show ID when I write a check. I show ID when I withdraw money from a bank. I show ID when I register my car. And, I've been described as "really white".

So, the issue is, what KIND of ID? I'm so sick of hearing this garbage. If you are not breaking the law, don't worry. Stop whining and get legal. Our police forces are so overburdened right now. Seldom do they have the time to just stop someone unless there is valid reason. So, GET LEGAL AND SHOW YOUR ID LIKE THE REST OF US. Or, is it only "really white" people like me who have to do this?

Exactly. You know what this shows? This shows there these people whining about this think they're special people with special rights who don't have to comply with the law whether they're citizens or non-citizens. They're gypsies who think they're above the law. I've no sympathy at all, really. If they didn't have all their relatives pouring in here illegal over the border, we wouldn't have to waste our time and money trying to keep them out or getting them out after they get in.

All "Latinos" are doing with their La Raza complaining is highlighting their role in illegal immigration and their refusal to take responsibility for it, which is an insult to their fellow Latinos who came here legally, support our nation, support our laws, abide our laws and want our laws enforced.

lol...my office is in Chandler and I drive Arizona Avenue 5-days a week and this reporters statement

"Working side by side with Border Patrol agents, police demanded proof of citizenship from children walking home from school, grandmothers shopping at the market and employees driving to work."

is a big fat joke and lie. Chandler for many years was absolutley known for being a sanctuary city and when they started to try and deal with the huge problem of day labors in the 100's hanging out in front of the Pep Boys and Circle K leaving all there trash and smoking their dope openingly to a point it was interfering with local businesses.

Local businesses were losing customers who refused to drive through the throng of illegals much less get out of their car to walk into the Circle K
store. I used to mess with them dudes when I had a pick-up truck and pull into the parking lots and yell I have work and watch them in my mirror running towards my truck and when they were almost there I would pull away giving them all the finger.

This worked for about a week until they smartened up and would throw their cups and stuff at me as I drove by their locations with a high salute from the drivers windows.

Anyways, what caused the roundup was the illegals got to a point where they just flaunted the fact they were illegal and it pissed eneough citizens off overtime that the pressure from lawful citizens to the town council and the police department that they finally had enough and requested border patrol to bring a bunch of agents and go on patrol with them.

They expected lawsuits and it was cheaper to settle with a few people then to fight each claim in court. But boy did it have an affect on the illegals that didn't get captured as they moved on up to the next sanctuary city Mesa. You could actually drive down Arizona Avenue and not see day laborors hanging out blocking right-aways and such.

One of the police officers involved in that became the Sheriff last year for Pinal County and he and Sheriff Joe Arpaio work great together as both counties border each other. His was the department that the deputy was ambushed by drug runners about a month ago.

Well sadly to say the illegals have slithered back to Chandler and hang out in the same areas including the Mexican bar. By 11AM those who didn't get a job for the day go across and get all boozed up at the bar. Lots of crime in the area and lots of drugs.

I know this round-up area very, very, well and what this lady wrote has about 10% truth and 90% BS.

Originally Posted by PatriotAZGUY

lol...my office is in Chandler and I drive Arizona Avenue 5-days a week and this reporters statement

"Working side by side with Border Patrol agents, police demanded proof of citizenship from children walking home from school, grandmothers shopping at the market and employees driving to work."

is a big fat joke and lie. Chandler for many years was absolutley known for being a sanctuary city and when they started to try and deal with the huge problem of day labors in the 100's hanging out in front of the Pep Boys and Circle K leaving all there trash and smoking their dope openingly to a point it was interfering with local businesses.

Local businesses were losing customers who refused to drive through the throng of illegals much less get out of their car to walk into the Circle K
store. I used to mess with them dudes when I had a pick-up truck and pull into the parking lots and yell I have work and watch them in my mirror running towards my truck and when they were almost there I would pull away giving them all the finger.

This worked for about a week until they smartened up and would throw their cups and stuff at me as I drove by their locations with a high salute from the drivers windows.

Anyways, what caused the roundup was the illegals got to a point where they just flaunted the fact they were illegal and it pissed eneough citizens off overtime that the pressure from lawful citizens to the town council and the police department that they finally had enough and requested border patrol to bring a bunch of agents and go on patrol with them.

They expected lawsuits and it was cheaper to settle with a few people then to fight each claim in court. But boy did it have an affect on the illegals that didn't get captured as they moved on up to the next sanctuary city Mesa. You could actually drive down Arizona Avenue and not see day laborors hanging out blocking right-aways and such.

One of the police officers involved in that became the Sheriff last year for Pinal County and he and Sheriff Joe Arpaio work great together as both counties border each other. His was the department that the deputy was ambushed by drug runners about a month ago.

Well sadly to say the illegals have slithered back to Chandler and hang out in the same areas including the Mexican bar. By 11AM those who didn't get a job for the day go across and get all boozed up at the bar. Lots of crime in the area and lots of drugs.

I know this round-up area very, very, well and what this lady wrote has about 10% truth and 90% BS.

Thank you for sharing the truth. I've seen the Sheriff from Pinal County on TV and he's great. Very smart, too. I'm glad he and Sheriff Joe work together.

It's a damn shame that woman got $27,000 for sitting on a curb for a few minutes but like you said, it was a cheap solution when you consider the consequences and costs of illegal aliens. But "citizens" like her need an American Civics Course, huh?

its the type of citizenship you get when they earned it by amnesty versus applying the proper way. You wil find two distinct types of naturalized citizens for the most part and one being the amnesty version and the other being the true applied the correct way and the one who did it correctly will usually be 20 times more appreciative of being a US Citizen where the other thinks it was something they were entiltled to just for being here.

So with that being said those two would have two different attitudes as to what it means to be a US Citizen and the repsonsibilties that come with it.

I know, my wife is a naturalized US citizen from Indonesia and she did it correctly 30 plus years ago and she speaks English very well, worked hard and put herself through college, got her degree in nursing, and has been an RN in a surgical unit for a long time. Thats what assimilating trully means and she is completely against any illegal aliens and strongly supports Arizona new law.