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Immigrant rights |
| You can join in opposing an anti-immigrant hotline in Arizona
[7-28-07]
This note comes to us from the Rev. Trina Zelle, who works with
Interfaith Worker Justice of
Arizona – and also serves as Co-Moderator of
the Witherspoon Society
Hi Doug -- I thought I'd send you a copy of
the letter we've been circulating
here in protest of a hotline set up by the County Sheriff so
people can turn in others that they suspect of being
undocumented immigrants. So far we have 40 plus signatures
including the United Methodist Bishop and many clergy. AP has
already picked up a story on it as has the local paper. We are
continuing to gather signatures and will present it to him in
person early next week. If you want to publish it on our website
that's fine. If people want to add their names to it, they can
contact me:
Rev. Trina Zelle
Interfaith Worker Justice of Arizona
2510 Rural Road
Tempe, AZ 85284
tzelle@iwj.org
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Sheriff Joe Arpaio
100 West Washington
Suite 1900
Phoenix, AZ 85033
July 26, 2007
Dear Sheriff Arpaio:
As people of faith and conscience, we
decry your announcement of a telephone hotline to be used by
residents to report information or evidence relating to crimes
involving illegal immigration or smuggling. In setting up such a
hotline and publicly declaring it to be a weapon against illegal
immigration, its worst use will be to incite neighbor against
neighbor.
We come from communities of faith and
conscience wherein law officers serve the important role of creating
peace in the community. Inviting the residents of Maricopa County to
report information about or evidence of crimes related to illegal
immigration creates fear and tension in the community and thus
achieves precisely the opposite effect: far from your role as a
peace officer and in direct opposition to your stated desire to
protect the residents of Maricopa County. As people of faith and
conscience, we believe that a measure of a government is in its
protection of its most vulnerable residents. We believe that by
opening such a hotline to the general public, persons of obvious
ethnic identity will be "turned in" on the basis of little more than
their skin color. Since it has been publicly stated that there is no
current protocol in place for determining the legitimacy of such
calls, the potential for abuses of the human and civil rights of our
most vulnerable residents rises to an intolerable level.
As faith leaders and residents of
Maricopa County, we suggest that citizen crime reporting is already
accomplished under your other hotlines, ones that do not have the
potential to target vulnerable residents. The new mechanism has an
intolerable potential to intimidate and ostracize one particular
ethnic group. During the early phase of the program, while its
details are being ironed out, hundreds of innocent victims will
likely be created, including the dependents of the wrongfully
detained. In all faith understandings, there is a core tradition of
reaching out to help the least among us. How shameful it would be
for your priority, the "crime of the week," focus on harming the
poorest members of our very wealthy county. Our primary objection to
your new program is its inconsistency with the MCSO goal posted on
your website: "the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office prides itself on
serving and protecting the people who live in a huge county…" Part
of your job to protect Maricopa County residents will now include
weeding out cases in which neighbors turn on each other.
We are asking you to please remove
the hotline specifically related to immigration. While our nation
waits for the federal government to fix a broken immigration policy,
it is unconscionable for local law enforcement agencies to launch
headlong into measures such as your illegal immigration hotline that
target our most vulnerable residents.
Yours in faith,
| To add your name to this letter,
please contact:
Rev. Trina Zelle
Interfaith Worker Justice of Arizona
2510 Rural Road
Tempe, AZ 85284
tzelle@iwj.org |
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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Plan now for our 2010 Ghost Ranch
Seminar!
GHOST RANCH SEMINAR
July 26-August 1, 2010
WE’RE ALL IN
THIS TOGETHER
CONFRONTING THE STRUCTURES OF INJUSTICE |
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If you like what you find
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