United Methodists join protest against Arpaio
Demonstrators march in Phoenix to protest crackdowns on illegal
immigrants by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. UMNS photos by Kathy
L. Gilbert. |
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
March 2, 2009 | PHOENIX (UMNS)
United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño offered a blessing and words
of peace to thousands gathered to march in protest of the treatment of
immigrants by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
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United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño joins the Feb. 28 rally.
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“Help us, O God, help us to move the people of this country toward a
reformation of these unjust laws of immigration,” said Carcaño, United
Methodist leader of the Phoenix area. “We pray you will touch the heart
of Joe Arpaio, that you will turn it from stone to a living heart of
justice.”
Her words stirred strong emotions in a crowd of up to 5,000 that
gathered at Steele Indian School Park on Feb. 28 to participate in a
“March to Stop the Hate.” The march ended about four miles later at the
federal courthouse, after passing more than 100 Arpaio supporters
gathered at the Wells Fargo Tower where the sheriff has his office.
Arpaio supporters held up signs that read, “We Support Joe” and “We
Support 287g Enforcement” while thousands streamed by carrying signs
declaring, “Arpaio is Not My America,” “Revoke Arpaio’s 287g” and
“Reform Not Raids.”
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Protesters march to the city’s
federal building.
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Several United Methodists from the area joined Carcaño in the march,
carrying red signs proclaiming, “The United Methodist Church supports
Immigrant… Civil… Human… Rights!”
The protest was organized after Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County,
marched more than 200 detained immigrants dressed in prison stripes
through the streets of Phoenix to a tent city facility in the desert
earlier in February.
Arpaio and his deputies have contracted with the federal Department
of Homeland Security under a program identified as 287g that allows
local police officers to enforce immigration laws. The sheriff has said
he is enforcing the laws that he was elected to uphold.
“But we believe he has gone beyond the law, beyond the contract,
certainly beyond the civil and human rights and constitutional rights
of these people because even undocumented immigrants have human and
civil rights and certain rights under the constitution of this
country,” Carcaño said in a United Methodist News Service interview
before the march began.
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United Methodists are among the thousands of demonstrators.
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The United Methodist Church has a clear stand on immigration that is based in Scripture, she said.
“Holy Scripture says we should walk with the immigrant, we should
welcome them as our own, we should love them as we love ourselves,” she
said.
“Jesus calls us to be compassionate toward the immigrant, to love
our neighbor without condition, and so we come to this task out of our
biblical understanding of Christian discipleship.”
‘We Are Human’
After praying in the park, Carcaño joined other religious and
community leaders at the head of the crowd holding a banner, which
read, “We Are Human.”
Men, women and children walked in the hot Arizona sun for several hours holding signs, chanting and calling for change.
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Carcaño prays for the immigrant
detainees housed in the Maricopa
County sheriff's S.M.A.R.T.
Tents outside Phoenix.
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Activist Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state lawmaker, stood beside
Carcaño during the march and praised her for her stand on immigration
reform.
“This is the fundamental message of Christianity isn’t it?” he said.
“How one treats another human being, that is the fundamental message.
What we have here is a sheriff who is using the laws to abuse -- in
increasingly horrendous ways -- a particular community, the Hispanic
community. He is doing it on the basis of race. He is using the excuse
of law and abusing it for the purposes of exploiting a particular group
of people in Arizona.”
Zack de la Rocha, who described himself as a “poet, activist and
singer” with the rock group Rage Against the Machine, also took his
place in the front of the march. Speaking through a megaphone after the
march ended, he read a prepared statement about Arpaio’s actions.
"By parading human beings shackled in chain gang stripes in a
misguided effort to collectively humiliate and to dehumanize an entire
population, he reopened the wounds from which we all still suffer, by
invoking the painful memories of the era of slavery and segregation.
... By doing so, he has not only brought shame upon the state of
Arizona, but is bringing shame upon the entire nation."
Stand for justice
Carcaño said she hoped the march would bring attention to the
sheriff’s actions in Maricopa County and open people’s eyes to abuses
that may be happening in their communities.
“We are hoping people across the country will see what is happening
here and notice that perhaps it is happening in their communities and
join us in facing these very racist actions that we are experiencing.
“We are hoping our march will bring attention to the violation of
human and civil rights that can so easily lead to the violation of all
our human and civil rights. We are hoping we will inspire persons of
faith to join in taking a stand for God’s justice.”
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio
Zack de la Rocha: He is bringing shame on entire nation.
Alfredo Gutierrez: This is the fundamental message of Christianity.
Video
Bishop Carcaño
Renee, protest participant
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Resources
United Methodist Desert Southwest Conference
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office | 
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