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Arizona Daily Wildcat
The independent student voice of the University of Arizona since 1899 wednesday, april , dailywildcat.com
tucson, arizona
Vote Smart leaving By Luke Money ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Protesters put their rights to peaceful demonstration into action against Senate Bill 1070 at the northwest corner of Congress Street and Granada Avenue on Tuesday. Community members protesting the bill held signs encouraging people to support a veto by honking.
Immigration bill protested By Matt Lewis ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
UA students and other members of the community protested Senate Bill 1070, which would allow local officers to arrest undocumented immigrants for trespassing and require local police to enforce federal immigration laws. On Monday, the Arizona Senate approved SB 1070, and now the bill only needs the signature of Gov. Jan Brewer to become law. Brewer has said she will review the bill “completely” over the course of the next few days before making a decision. U.S. Sen. John McCain showed support for the bill after the Senate approved the measure. “I think the people of Arizona understandably are frustrated and angry,” McCain said Monday. “It’s also a commentary on the frustration that our state legislature has that the federal government has not fulfilled
its constitutional responsibilities to secure our borders.” Arizona would be the first state to criminalize illegal immigrants if Brewer signs the bill. Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, sponsored the bill. “Illegal is not a race, it’s a crime,” Pearce told the Senate on Monday. “Why in the world do (illegal immigrants) think they have a right to break the law? And we are the bad guys for insisting that the law be enforced? The public doesn’t agree with that.” Protesters camped out in front of the Arizona State Office Building at 400 W. Congress St. in downtown Tucson. They started off with a march from Armory Park to the state office building at 11 a.m. There were about 40 people who took part in the march. Their numbers dwindled during the early afternoon, but picked up again around 3:30 p.m. By about 4:30 p.m.
there were more than 60 people at the corner of Granada Avenue and Congress Street. Once the protestors got to the state offices, they sent people in every hour to see if they could talk to someone from Brewer’s office. Brewer was in town Tuesday according to her deputy assistant Tim Bee. One of the protesters finally got to speak with Bee and requested and audience with Brewer. Bee asked what they would do if she approved the bill. Their response was that they would continue to protest and even ramp up their efforts. The majority of protesters were wearing white T-shirts for unity, since there were several different human rights and Hispanic groups represented at the protest. Derechos Humanos and the Border Action Network organized the protest by mostly by sending out Facebook and text messages. UA groups that organized people
included the St. Thomas More Catholic Newman Center, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs. “This (protest) is at least 90 percent students, if not more. There’s a few adults … there’s students from (various) high schools, Pima Community College and the U of A,” said Ray Almanza, a philosophy junior and a brother in the Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity. Almanza is also a member of the Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs and the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America. Protesters, armed with megaphones, signs and the support of some passing cars, made their message of opposition heard. They chanted phrases like “It’s time for justice” and “We won’t go until we
After three years at the UA, Project Vote Smart has decided to leave Tucson, the city in which it was founded. The project — a non-partisan research organization that focuses on candidate accountability — is leaving after budget cuts forced the university administration to make changes to Vote Smart’s contract, namely charging rent for the project’s on-campus headquarters. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out” said Vote Smart President Richard Kimball. “The university has run into a lot of difficulties lately, and, apparently, they weren’t interested in the experiences and services we offered to students and the community, so we had to go somewhere that would.” Vote Smart will continue operations at the UA until December, when it will officially move operations to its new satellite offices at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California. According to Kimball, Project Vote Smart tried repeatedly to contact university administrators over an eight-month period but was unable to get in touch with them. “We are looking at growing and expanding our services now, which requires a larger commitment from the university we choose to partner with,” Kimball said. “UA has other priorities they were focusing on and was just no longer a good fit and we had a lot of schools anxious to have us.” Johnny Cruz, UA assistant vice president of communications, cited the issue of rent for Vote Smart’s on-campus headquarters as the main reason for the split. “We’ve experienced unprecedented reductions in state funding so, like any institution, we had to make some tough decisions,” Cruz said. “Vote Smart is a great organization and we were happy to have them at the UA and we wish them luck and success in the future.” VOTE SMART, page A5
PROTEST, page A3
ASUA to Group wants to amend Constitution hear Pride Alliance By Jonathan Prince ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
By Laura E. Donovan ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT The Associated Students of the University of Arizona will listen Wednesday to informational presentations on ASUA Pride Alliance and Safe Ride. “Those two groups will present to the senate what they have done this semester,” said Administrative Vice President Emily Fritze. The senate will also review old business as well as the consent agenda. Administrative Vice President-elect Brett Ponton will also present bylaw changes, Fritze said. Ponton was originally scheduled to speak at last week’s meeting. Sen. Tyler Quillin said he would talk about the Peer Mentorship program conference, which took place on Saturday. “The information was solid; I was happy that we did it,” Quillin said. The Peer Mentorship conference, which provided high school students information on the college ASUA, page A5
David Cobb, the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, gave a presentation at the UA Law School on April 13 describing why citizens should be working towards amending the Constitution. “I am a proud, patriotic and pissed off American,” Cobb said. Cobb’s talk challenged the audience to answer a specific question: Should corporations have the same rights as individual citizens? The Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission that corporations could use money to support or oppose election candidates. “Corporations have assumed the rights of people. They have taken human beings rights, used them and have caused them to become undemocratic,” said CJ Jones, the event coordinator. “Is that where we want the country to go, and, if not, what do we do about it? The answer is a constitutional amendment.” He defends his statement that corporations should not obtain rights by asking the audience how many times the word people is stated in the constitution compared to the number of times corporations is stated. Cobb expressed the need to re-evaluate the country’s democracy and the laws upon which the nation was built. He deconstructed the word democracy to its Greek origin, demo-kratia, which means the people rule. “At the end of the day, we are supposed to be in a democracy,” Cobb said. Many legislators are opposed the ruling as well. “I disagree with the decision of the Supreme
Valentina Martinelli/Arizona Daily Wildcat
David Cobb, activist and 2004 Green Party nominee for U.S. President, spoke at the James E. Rogers Law School on April 13. His lecture encourages Americans to take advantage of their constitutional rights and have more say in their government and the laws it passes.
Court,” said Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson. Patterson supports House Bill 2788, which states that no corporations may contribute money to a candidate’s campaign. The talk was sponsored by local chapters of the
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Alliance for Democracy, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Democracy for America and the Student Chapter of the DEMCRACY, page A3
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