Sheriff Arpaio Talks it Out With DREAMers

Fearless DREAMers Go Directly Into Belly of the Beast

                                
DREAMers in press conference after talking it out with Sheriff Arpaio.


Four college students, three of them undocumented met with the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona on Tuesday, June 1 to discuss the DREAM Act and other immigration issues.

The DREAMers criss crossed the country prior to their arrival in Arizona. They completed a four-month, 1,500 mile walk from Miami to Washington D.C. telling their stories along the way and calling for Congress and the Obama Administration to cease deportations and introduce immigration reform.

Known as the “Trail of Dream Walkers,” the four students consisted of immigrants from Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador. Of the three, only Juan Rodriguez from Colombia was a naturalized citizen.

The students said their meeting with Arpaio and their caravan across the U.S. was meant to humanize the immigration debate and denounce SB 1070.

Gaby Pacheco, of Ecuador, asked Sherriff Arpaio to align himself with the DREAMers, citing that as a sheriff, he could hold more weight in public debate of the suggested immigration policy. In turn, Sheriff Arpaio would cast himself as a mere, elected public official serving his constituency. The sheriff said he does have compassion and understands the plight of undocumented students, but he has a job to do and will enforce the laws of the country and continue to do so. “I was elected to do a job,” Arpaio said. “My job overrides my compassion.”

The students wanted a face-to-face with one of the most controversial figures in the immigration debate raging on in Arizona and the rest of the country. Their plan was to engage with Arpaio, as almost being the bait, and provide a humane aspect to the issue which sometimes get muddled in hyperbole. Surprisingly, the man, known to be as the toughest sheriff in the country said he has compassion for undocumented student.

It’s not clear in the story cited whether or not Arpaio knew that three of the four students who met with him were in fact undocumented. But one could argue that it is inherent that the sheriff knew of their undocumented situation of the students who traveled across the country, but yet decided not to arrest any of them.

It is at least a sign that perhaps he is a compassionate person. Or perhaps, Arpaio knows that to act upon or to arrest those students would have been a grave tragedy. That if he were to deport DREAMers, it would only detract from his arguments that undocumented immigrants are a parasitic burden to society. That to deport DREAMers would create a moral crisis within this country’s psyche, one which would only impel the immigration debate be treated as an issue devoid of lawbreaking statutes or economic factors, but one based on the humanity of the subjects. Only by establishing a moral crisis at the heart of every American will the immigration debate in this country cease to be touted with quasi-clichéd remarks such as “I’m not against immigration, only illegal immigration.” It is important to direct the dialogue of the immigration rights and reform movement away from xenophobic rhetoric, away from the duality of only lawful and unlawful immigration and like “Trail of Dream Walkers” did, it is important to engage in dialogue with anti-immigrant and to elevate that dialogue.

Well, Arpaio, will continue to tear families apart with the enforcement of the laws because after all, he was “elected to do a job.” And maybe, just maybe, after meeting those four DREAMers a moral crisis, may have begun burgeoning within him.

- fher