Arizona Immigration

Obama's Reelection Has Spurred a GOP Paradigm Shift on Immigration Reform

One of the conventional criticisms of President Obama's first term was that he failed to live up to the "Hope!" and "Change!" rhetoric on which he campaigned in 2008. Many Obama supporters, even ones who concede this point, defended him by stressing the partisan gridlock and the key policies the pre ... More >>

San Francisco Has Mixed Feelings About Arizona Immigration Decision

In April 2010, Supervisor David Campos issued an official resolution to boycott the state of Arizona to demonstrate his opposition toward the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which gave cops the authority to check the status of residents without probable cause. Campos wanted to "stand in soli ... More >>

Days of Rage: Immigrants and Allies Must Fight Back

Bordering on Revolution: America's War on Mexicans Has Gone Too Far

Distraught Father Fights Bill That Lets Unlicensed Drivers Keep Their Cars

California State Assembly Bill 1993, introduced by San Francisco Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, would prohibit police officers from impounding or towing an unlicensed person's car if the car can be parked nearby or if a licensed driver can come and pick it up. The idea behind the bill is that the current ... More >>

Cindy Chang, Sunday School Teacher, Released After Three-Week Detention at Arizona Immigration Checkpoint

​Cindy Chang was driving from San Jose to Phoenix for a friend's wedding early this month when she was stopped at an immigration checkpoint in Eloy, Ariz. These structures are common this close to the border. Chang, a 26-year old Sunday school teacher who has lived in the Bay Area since her f ... More >>

Kamala Harris Says Arizona Can't Boot Illegal Immigrants from Country

​California has the largest number of illegal immigrants and undocumented laborers in the country. So it should be no surprise that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined the fight against Arizona's unfriendly immigration law.Yesterday, Harris filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the ... More >>

Mexican Border Crossings Lowest in Decades, Study Finds

​A new study by researchers at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs upends a lot of the conventional thinking about the effects of U.S. immigration policy -- most notably the contention that harsher security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border have kep ... More >>

CafePress Pulls "Racist" Shirt From Online Store

Hunting season is over​CafePress, the Bay Area-based online retailer, has officially removed from its store what some have deemed offensive t-shirts and stickers that advocated for immigrant hunting.The items for sale were designed to look like permits to allow people to hunt illegal aliens. The s ... More >>

Governor Jerry Brown Signs Slew of Illegal Immigrant-Friendly Bills

​While the federal government stagnates on any immigration reform, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bevy of illegal immigrant-friendly bills that will make their under-the-radar way of life less of a headache starting January 1, 2012. Opponents have already started filing in. Perhaps th ... More >>

Five Things We Won't Miss About Southern California

When we read the news this morning that one California lawmaker is attempting to break the state in two (for the umpteenth time), we couldn't help but laugh ... and then dream.How great would it be if we didn't have SoCal conservatives weighing us down? At least we know gay marriage would be legal. ... More >>

"A Better Life": Illegal Immigrant Melodrama Too Sudsy By Half

Alexandra Pelosi Talks to SF Weekly About Her New Film Citizen U.S.A

Taylor FriedmanThe other Pelosi's take on immigration​Documentarian Alexandra Pelosi -- yes, that Pelosi -- has doled out heaps of patriotism in her latest film and companion book, Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip. So much so, we imagine former naysayers will go out to buy American flags for t ... More >>

Carlos Santana Criticizes Georgia's New Immigration Law

"Really, Georgia?"​Beware, people of states with drastic immigration laws: Santana is angry with you.  Days after Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed off on a new Arizona-style regulation, Carlos Santana brought the immigrant-friendly spirit of Bay Area liberalism to baseball's yearly Civil Righ ... More >>

Will Arizona Boycott Keep Tasers Out of San Francisco?

This Will Stun You​In Police Chief George Gascon's rush to arm cops with Tasers, he seems to have forgotten one important thing: The company that manufactures Taser weapons is squarely located in Arizona. And the Grand Canyon State is a place San Francisco is ostensibly boycotting.Arizona last yea ... More >>

Return to Sender

How Would Immigration Reform Look if the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

Mexican Macroeconomics

FAIR-y Tales

Fantasy Voter Fraud

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

Arizona Immigration Law Has Sucked $141 Million From State Economy, Report Says

​Remember the Board of Supervisors' tepid boycott of Arizona to revolt against that state's strict "papers please" immigration law? Many lambasted our city's boycott as yet another symbolic, feckless meddling in affairs far afield of San Francisco's issues.  But San Francisco was not alone in ... More >>

Court Rules Undocumented Students Can Pay In-State Tuition. Great, But a Job?

Waiting tables, Ben. Waiting tables. Wave of the future. ​ The California Supreme Court upheld a law yesterday that allows illegal immigrants who've attended California high schools for at least three years to pay in-state tuition at the state's public universities. Well, that's great news for the ... More >>

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesnít Work

Pinalcchio: Renowned Forensics Experts Say a Pinal County Deputy's High-Profile Tale About Getting Shot After Encountering Drug Smugglers Doesn't Add Up

White Nationalist Group To Protest 'Machete' Movie With Machetes This Weekend

Whitey, beware? ​A group of white nationalists will protest the new Robert Rodriguez movie Machete  -- which depicts a Mexican renegade attempting to assassinate an anti-immigrant senator played by Robert DeNiro -- at Bay Area cinemas this week. This gets even more interesting: The protesters ... More >>

Held Captive

Coyotes who smuggle immigrants torture and extort their victims, helped by out government's failure to enact immigration reform.

'Secure Communities' Deporting Low-Level Criminals and Innocents, Opponents Say

Jaywalking? That'll get you deported, hombre​The majority of illegal immigrants deported by a controversial federal program known as Secure Communities are not the "high threat" criminal immigrants the Feds claimed the program would ensnare, according to statistics released today by civil rights o ... More >>

Arizona Immigration Law's Appeal Will Come Through San Francisco

The immigration debate is coming our way...​In the wake of Arizona's passage of the draconian and controversial SB 1070, San Francisco kick-started the boycott bandwagon and Mayor Gavin Newsom forbade city officials to travel to the Grand Canyon State. Now that Arizona law will be traveling to San ... More >>

Tom Ammiano Mangles Profane Spanish at Unique Immigration Rally (PICS)

Tom, what are you saying?​As promised, San Franciscans came out against Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law today, in a protest also aimed at the federal identification program known as Secure Communities ("S-COMM for short"). A picturesque group positioned in front of the Federal Buil ... More >>

Arizona and America Join Joe Arpaio in Rushing to Inquire: Are Your Papers in Order?

ILLEGAL from Terry Greene Sterling

Read a penetrating chapter from former Phoenix New Times investigative reporter Terry Greene Sterling's book: ILLEGAL: Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone

Immigration Activists Set to Rally Downtown Tomorrow

Jerry, we have a complaint! ​Buoyed by a federal judge's decision to block the "papers please" components of the Arizona immigration law that goes into effect tomorrow, San Francisco activists and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano are now turning their wrath on California Attorney General Jerry Brown. At a ... More >>

The Education Trap

In California, many undocumented immigrants are offered cheap college tuition, only to find they can’t get jobs after they graduate.

Welcome to Mi Pueblito, Washington

The small-town, family-farm lifestyle that we love to celebrate is being preserved — thanks to Mexican immigrants.

Police Chief George Gascon Says Arizona Immigration Law Lets Thugs Run Wild

...Gascon says Arizona law will lead to lawlessness​San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon -- known for locking horns with anti-immigrant demagogue Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County while Gascon served as chief of police in Mesa, Arizona -- said the Grand Canyon State's much-maligned immigra ... More >>

Alto Means "Cut It Out?"

Worlds Apart

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law.

Cowboy Down: Rob Krentz's Family Talks About the Life and Death of the Murdered Arizona Rancher

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Is San Francisco Not a 'Rule of Law' City?

​Future illegal aliens dreaming of living the good life in Costa Mesa, Calif. are in for a rude surprise. Yesterday, in a symbolic slap at the notion of "sanctuary cities," the Orange County suburb passed a resolution declaring itself a "Rule of Law" city. "I have a lot of concerns with cities cal ... More >>

Gay Realtors Say They've Nixed S.F Conference Due to Arizona Boycott

The purported head of a gay Realtors' group said he'd much rather hold his conference in Arizona than the City by the Bay​A man claiming to be the executive director of a consortium of gay Realtors has told the city he is canceling a planned conference in San Francisco in protest of the city's boy ... More >>

Oakland Beats S.F. to the Punch on Arizona Boycott

They'll be boycotting cacti across the bay in Oakland. But not here in San Francisco. Yet.​San Francisco's proposed boycott of the state of Arizona drew a national spotlight. But the distinction -- be it positive or negative -- of actually enacting a boycott goes to Oakland, which can add that lau ... More >>

A Report from Juarez, the Bleeding Front Line of the War on Drugs

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Amongst Us

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's reign of terror becomes Arizona policy, thanks to state Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer

SF Weekly Parent Company to Underwrite Legal Challenge to Arizona Immigration Bill

​Last week, there were some murmurs among local bloggers about whether SF Weekly would suffer as a result of a proposed city boycott of Arizona businesses because of the Grand Canyon State's harsh new immigration law. Editors at SF Appeal and SFist raised the prospect of city officials refusing to ... More >>

Bookie Site Lays Odds on Controversial Arizona Immigration Law

Can I get some action here? ​If the 9-11 tragedy didn't prove Americans' indomitable will and heroic ability -- to make a buck off anything, this will. The bookmaking site youwager.com has commenced laying odds and taking bets related to the controversial Arizona immigration law that inspired San ... More >>

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Just Back From Arizona, Doubts Wisdom of Boycott

Richard BuiJeff Adachi hasn't jumped on the boycott bandwagon​San Francisco politicians' push to boycott Arizona following the Grand Canyon State's adoption of a harsh new immigration policy popped a lot of flashbulbs, and earned a lot of ink. But now some city leaders are questioning the wisdom o ... More >>