Dear Governor Napolitano,
I am first and foremost a proud American. I was born in America. I served in the Armed Forces for 6 years. My dad is a retired military veteran with three tours of duty in Viet Nam. Both of my parents legally immigrated from Peru in the sixties. I pay my taxes, and I exercise the right to cast my vote regularly. My two kids are both honor’s students in school. Our entire family has never been in any sort of legal trouble, and we love living in Arizona (since 1989).
However, and it’s a big however, I am beginning to question if I wish to continue living in Arizona. Namely the actions of Joe Arpaio’s saturation raids are forcing me to examine if living in Arizona might deter my family’s pursuit of happiness. Because of my Hispanic heritage, I have a fear that my kids, my brother, or I might get caught up in Arpaio’s dragnet. I find myself ensuring our vehicles are washed, clean, and serviced at all times in order to decrease my chances of getting pulled over. I intentionally avoid any potentially ethnic areas of the city, and I am constantly preaching to my family to make sure they don’t forget to bring any ID cards along– just in case.
Having to live like this with the threat of getting racially profiled by officers of the law distresses me. I don’t mind complying with the law. In fact, my best friend from my military days in Georgia moved to Arizona in the early 90′s and presently is an officer in MCSO. I just don’t want my kids exposed to this sort of racism. The ends do not justify the means – especially to innocent, law abiding Arizona citizens.
I have read in news articles of your opposition to Arpaio’s tactics, and I applaud it. The purpose of this letter is to add one more voice of opposition and ask for your continued leadership in making Arizona a great state.
Respectfully,
George M. Velez
George,
This is an excellent letter. I hope the Governor listens.
I have been following all of the incidents of racial profiling and the antics of Sheriff Arpaio over the last few months and have reported about him on my Blog.
We citizen Latinos should stand up for ourselves and make our voices heard! You are doing a great job!
Here is my blog address. Please feel free to visit me at any time.
http://immigrationmexicanamerican.blogspot.com/
If its ok with you I would like to post your letter on my blog as another example of the impacts of these restrictionist laws, sweeps on Latino citizens.
Dee
dee_perezscott@yahoo.com
george.
this is a great letter!
i have one suggestion for revision.
it’s a little unclear to me why you keep your car washed – this may be the privilege of a person who is not in danger of being profiled by arpaio’s men, so i recognize my position here.
what is the advantage of having a clean car? can you make that point more forceful by saying so? is the ‘illegal immigrant’ driving a dirty car?
and (okay, i have to suggestions), you might consider quoting a story from the arizona republic or other credible source that describes joe’s tactics. or maybe one of his notoriously thoughtless responses to such critiques.
jo