"Fuera, Polimigra."

It was about 8:30 pm. Heather, Amy Beth, and I were sitting on the couch, sharing photos of our friends and family back home, expecting Amy Beth's brother for his single-night visit. This may be his only chance to visit, or he may land the job from tomorrow's interview and start work in Tucson, once again close to his little sister.

Amy Beth had seen our housemate Steph, YAVA (YAV alum) who is well-connected in the immigration activist community and with the Southside Worker Center (organizes and defends the rights of day laborers and their families), post a little earlier on Facebook that one of the workers had been arrested. We collectively wondered how she was doing, so we all three texted her to check in. 

A little after 8:30, Amy Beth's brother, Andrew, arrived! We gave him the brief house tour, made plans for ping-pong on the back porch later, and plopped ourselves in the living room to chat. 

Heather received a text from her boyfriend who is an elder at Southside, saying that something happened. And soon, Amy Beth got a frantic call from Steph. While she insisted she was fine and could drive home, no. We introduced Andrew to Tucson by piling into his rental car and driving to Southside to pick up Steph and drive her back home.

 Everything was dark including the members of the crowd still lingering. Everyone was in the dark, but the media were still there.

Apparently this is what we missed, and Steph was in the thick of things: Southside Worker Center Border Patrol protest

As we found her, "Don't touch me, I got pepper sprayed," she said. "They started shooting us with como... pistolas de goma." Rubber bullets. She's Puerto Rican, so sometimes we communicate in Spanglish, and how would you ever find the words in your second language when you're shaken up. 

We tried our best to put the pieces together as the last people from the 80-plus-member crowd began to head their separate directions. An immigration lawyer was also on the scene, and people were exchanging information. 

In preparation for an upcoming immigration justice action this weekend, two separate groups had been meeting in different parts of town, and the Samaritans, a humanitarian aid group for migrants, all happened to be meeting tonight when Steph found out about Agustin's arrest. She was one of the first there, and because all of those groups were already together, it was easy to get over 80 activists there in a snap. 

Amy Beth went over to Eleazar, the parking lot coordinator of the Worker Center who helps connect day laborers with employers and fair wages, and Heather and I joined them. His wife, Rosita, had been detained as well. The lawyer assured him that they have a case and will definitely get Rosita out of detention, and it seemed like the shock had warn off enough for him to acknowledge there was nothing more that could be done at this point other than to go home and shower. What struck me was how he told us, "You just cannot trust anyone, even people you think are there to help you." In the middle of everything, it seemed like a few people had joined the protest and chatted, chistosos (joking), but they turned out to be ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in plainclothes. All I could do was shake my head. Trust is something Arizona desperately needs. This is just days after California signed remarkable Trust Act legislation, and Eleazar for one feels he cannot trust the police, nor the government, nor people in plainclothes on the street, nor those who seem they are there to help.  

We drove Steph home and continued to debrief her experience of this madness. The media reported:
Traffic stop turns into immigration protest, TPD uses pepper spray
"The police officer conducted a records check and discovered the driver has never had a license in the United States or in Arizona. According to Hawke, SB 1070 law then required the police officer to  'mandatory impoundment' of the vehicle, arrest the driver and also required to call the Border Patrol."

That's actually false. SB1070 does not require police to call Border Patrol. In fact, it allows for discretion. That is precisely why protesters shouted "Fuera, Polimigra." Get out, Polimigra. Polimigra: policía + inmigración. The cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities under Secure Communities legislation (Secure Communities Wiki) that leads to people being stopped for minor traffic violations, Border Patrol being called, and ICE starting deportation proceedings. The intention for this policy was greater cooperation for the deportation of people committing actual crimes, but it has served to drive even more fear into immigrant communities who were legitimately wary of authorities before, and now are even less likely to report crimes for fear of their own deportation. Who is secure? How is this healthy for communities when people live in fear and real crimes, not just traffic violations, are not reported?

On Facebook, Tucson News KVOA posted:
"A traffic stop turned into a protest on the south side. TPD says Border Patrol took a driver and passenger into custody, when police learned they were undocumented immigrants. But more than 100 people gathered around the scene near 22nd St. and 10th Ave. TPD did use pepper spray against some demonstrators police say were acting aggressive. But police say no one was seriously injured."

And later, this news clip:
KGUN9

Four community members were taken away tonight. Agustin, for not having a light on the front license plate of his truck. And side-note, he is undocumented. Mari, an activist and protestor. Another worker named Arturo, whose supposed offense I did not hear.

And Rosita, Eleazar's wife, a loving woman who took Steph in for the holidays last year and fed her homemade tamales, for sitting on the curb and being undocumented. "She's sick, Rosita is sick, and they took her away..." Steph recounted with heartbreak.

For resisting Border Patrol non-violently, protesters were pushed to the ground, and for continuing to resist, clouds of pepper spray came their way, inducing screams. Norma, the silver-haired volunteer doctor for the Samaritans, ended up with scratches all over her arms and legs. Steph said, "I'm what, 115 pounds, and he pushed me to the ground, saying, 'Oh you're so tough...' They pepper-sprayed a lot of people in the eyes... They just pepper-sprayed me all over... And he touched me, so I spat at him. I know that's considered violent, but I was just so angry." 

No matter how much you read in the news that this is happening, that while the government is shut down, they are still deporting 1000-plus people a day because that is a necessary matter of national security, it rocks our world when this actually happens to people you know. Welcome to Tucson, Andrew. Holding Steph's hand,  making sure she ate, drank water, and showered the pepper spray and the feeling of him touching her off, and being there for her was all we could do. Tomorrow, we get up and we continue the work laid out before us. Community organizing, educating, and working in solidarity. 

Please stay tuned. There will be an emergency press conference tomorrow at noon at Southside. Ironically, Southside's Pastor Allison is currently in Washington, D.C. advocating for immigration reform while all of this is unfolding right outside her church. We're working all the angles, folks.