A Year After SB 1070, the Deportation Pipeline Still Begins in Washington

by Seth Freed Wessler
Monday, April 25 2011, 10:52 AM EST

INVESTIGATION: DEPORTATION HORROR

One year ago, late on the Friday night in April when Arizona’s governor signed SB 1070 into law, I found myself looking north at that state. I’d travelled to see some friends on the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca and was there while the infamous bill became law. Almost every conversation I had included at least a passing comment about SB 1070: a sense of disgust, confusion or fear. Sitting in plastic chairs at a food stand on the edge of the city’s colonial center, one friend, a young Oaxacan political nerd and student, said, “It’s amazing that they despise us so much.â€