Native Americans and Chicanos:  “Can the SCOTUS do more than we have?”*

Tomorrow, Congress will hold a “hearing” on Immigration, and with the particular subset that is Arizona’s SB 1070, and followed on Wednesday, when the SCOTUS hosts the oral arguments on SB 1070. And for the political cognoscenti, the dearth of over 100 “friend of the court” briefs or famously called the amicus curae will be seriously considered by Members and their respective legal staffs, and thusly, the ‘recognized’ will given more heft than is necessary. And absent from these briefs from private individuals, organizations, nations, and states, is amply recognized for understanding that no “brief” either in support or opposition to SB 1070 was espoused by the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). As such, these two national organizations have “defaulted” on our behalf.

And it’s from this lack of a brief from military vets, that I come to this subject area, given that military vets, and in particular, “minorities” for having worn our nation’s uniform and relative to the specific and particular that is “national security and defense.”

Consequently, my future is ‘invested” in the brief filed by the eminent gris that is the former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright of the Clinton administration and with respect to foreign policy. And more on point, our Brothers and Sisters–Native Americans and Chicanos alike will be subjected to more racial profiling since we all look alike to law enforcement personnel, and which broaches the tangential subject area that presumes the adequacy of our law enforcement efforts. Therefore, we will become diminished as well as tarnished, given that the current clones that are the “Jump Out Boys” will continue to practice this egregious behavior in the future. And the only alternative is for us to join the existing class action lawsuit underway and for being “racially profiled” by our local law enforcement agencies. As such, the practice for self-restraint is not on the horizon when it comes to the accountability for “probable cause.”

Furthermore, the chain of command of local law enforcement agencies readily refuse and staunchly reject any perceived “oversight” by any officially established Civilian Review Boards. Equally important, the passive approach by the federal government and to the “insertion” of a state’s rights mentality into the arena that is immigration will not “enhance” our national security and defense schematic, either at the federal, state, and local levels for self-governance, but has opened the door for more criminal stupidity, while creating the opportunity for spending more monies on “border security” as well as for having the private sector spend inordinate amounts of public dollars for crafting a more regimented ‘surveillance state’ apparatus the reduces both our privacy and our security, since neighbors will become encouraged to turn on neighbors and who are legitimately demonstrating their gusto for life, such as having three vehicles parked in the front yard of a domicile that includes two or perhaps, three families, given today’s economic circumstances.

Unfortunately, the conservatives espouse their “primal scream” for any anti-passive schematic for immigration enforcement, and yet, these same conservatives are either unwilling or unable to hear my “primal scream” in opposition to their self-imposed intellectual laziness since the always evident “unassailable” facts speak in contra to the conservatives and for their egregious behavior.

Regardless, all that is and will be written about Arizona’s SB 1070 and now before the SCOTUS, comes our easily understood “yardstick” and which is, “Can the SCOTUS do better than we, the military veterans from the Sonoran Desert?”

To wit, we effectively understood and equally important, put our lives in jeopardy when it came our time to serve and defend the 500 words that embody the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Of course, our Freedom has a cost, and now, is the SCOTUS up to “our challenge”? I think not!

And of a lesser note, here is roster of organizations with the filed “briefs” at the SCOTUS. And no, not their skivvies!

In Support of SB 1070:

• Arizona State Legislature
• Freedom Watch
• Minutemen Civil Defense Corps
• Committee to Protect America’s Border
• Secure States Initiative
• Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Gun Owners of America
• English First Foundation
• Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence

In Opposition to SB 1070:

• American Civil Liberties Union
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• National Immigration Law Center
• Asian American Justice Center
• Anti-Defamation League
• American Jewish Committee
• National Congress of American Indians
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
• American Subcontractors Association of Arizona. 

*Note:  Originally posted on the web site of the Chicano Veterans Organization.
 
Respectfully Submitted,

Jaango