'Not going anywhere': Immigrant rights activists rally against HCR 2060 at Arizona Capitol
Outside the lawn of the Arizona state Capitol on Saturday, Gina Mendez reflected on the 18-year battle she and others have waged against legislation they consider anti-immigrant and racist.
The 33-year-old Mexican American and south Phoenix resident walked out of Cesar Chavez High School as a freshman student in 2006 to protest an immigration enforcement bill ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano.
The bill was an iteration of 2004's Protect Arizona Now — a proposed law that would have blocked services to undocumented immigrants and was a precursor to Senate Bill 1070, which was aimed at driving that population out of the state by "attrition through enforcement" means.
Mendez, who acts as organizing director for Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), was joined by more than 100 activists from multiple organizations in a rally decrying House Concurrent Resolution 2060.
"It's scary," Mendez said of HCR 2060, which is likely to be approved Monday by Republicans as a ballot measure in the general election.
The activist shared that the ballot is creating a climate targeting people like Mendez's mother, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico and is Spanish monolingual.
"I think about how this law will directly impact her, and how police can harass her and ask her for her status, even though she's a citizen," said Mendez. "And that's just based on the skin color and her language."
She said racial profiling has led to her and fellow organizers being stopped by border patrol when traveling between the organization's Cochise County and Phoenix offices.
"We are here to say, 'No more. We're not doing that anymore'"
HCR 2060 would cut off public welfare programs based on residency status. Amendments made Thursday include requiring prisons take in detained migrants. The law would remove, by court ruling, the exemption in place for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, who are those brought in as children and are commonly referred to as "Dreamers" after failed legislation called the DREAM Act.
LUCHA's chief of staff, Abril Gallardo, 33, is herself a "Dreamer."
"This bill is worse" than SB 1070 because of its targeting of DACA recipients, Gallardo said.
Still, Gallardo expressed resolve. She participated in high school walkouts against SB 1070, but argued immigrant rights activists are better organized than in 2010.
"We are here to say, 'No more. We're not doing that anymore,'" Gallardo said. "We're not going anywhere. We're stronger than ever."
Gallardo mentioned LUCHA plans to knock on a million homes to campaign against the ballot.
"Our movement has grown since the last time that we saw a bill like SB 1070. Our political force is bigger. The political landscape in Arizona has transformed," said Raquel Terán, a former state senator and Arizona Democratic Party chair who is running for the U.S. House in the 3rd Congressional District.
Terán remembers rallying against SB 1070 at the Capitol.
"The engagement is at a different level. Most importantly, bills like this are bad for the community, they're bad for the state and they're bad for business," Terán said.
The nonpartisan think tank Grand Canyon Institute found HCR 2060's border enforcement provision would cost the state $185 million a year. Mendez pointed to the report's figures as she lobbied against state lawmakers she said "push legislation to criminalize undocumented people."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Immigrant rights activists rally against HCR 2060 at Arizona Capitol
