Arizona Sheriff Collared, Bad Policy Still at Large

by flickr user cobalt123 used under Creative Commons license

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Infamous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio—subject of scorn and New Yorker profiles, who flaunts his brutal treatment of undocumented immigrants in Maricopa county—may be smarting since his deputies were stripped of their power to arrest and detain suspected immigration offenders last week. But the bad policy he epitomized is far from gone.

In fact, the program is expanding, despite ample evidence that it undermines local police work. Known as 287(g), the program is meant to snag gang bangers, coyotes and narcotraficantes.  In practice, however, it grants local cops the authority to begin deportation proceedings over a speeding ticket, or to aid ICE in home raids, or to generally intimidate whole immigrant communities, documented or otherwise, into avoiding law enforcement altogether. Though the Obama administration has revised the program’s most contentious aspects (participants will have until October 15th to sign off on watered-down privileges), the most basic problems remain. 

“We have seen, in late spring, the release of additional 287(g) agreements. [The administration] promised a review of those agreements, but in the process there has been an expansion to additional localities,” said Gabriela Villareal, advocacy coordinator for the New York Immigration Coalition. “Any enforcement of immigration law should be placed in the hands of the federal government. [287(g)] creates an additional level of distrust in the community.”

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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