Zack de la Rocha Returns to Phoenix

Phoenix New Times – The folks that put thousands in Phoenix’s streets February 28 to protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the 287(g) program are ready to do it again May 2, with Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha slated to participate as he did before.

The difference this time is that the anti-Arpaio march will start at the Wells Fargo Building downtown, where the sheriff keeps two pricey floors of executive offices. It will end with stops at Joe’s Estrella and Durango jails.

“It’s to highlight the 287(g) agreement,” explained Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza of the decision to march to Joe’s gulags. “And how 287(g) is being used in the jails. It’s not good in the jails or in the streets. It’s also to highlight all the abuses that are going on in there, like with the broken arm lady, the broken jaw lady, and anyone else who as been abused in there.”

Reza’s referring to the fact that the 287(g) program has deputized 160 of Arpaio’s men to enforce federal immigration law. Arpaio not only uses these men in his anti-immigrant hunting sweeps and in his worksite raids, but also in the jails, where they often coerce and sometimes physically injure undocumented immigrants who are being held pending their transfer to ICE custody.
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