We win one in Arizona

Yesterday was a rather amazing day here in Arizona. Enough Republicans joined minority Democrats to defeat Senate President Russell Pearce's bills that would have:

* denied citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants
* required hospitals to check if people coming for help had papers
* kept undocumented people from registering their vehicles
* made it a crime for an undocumented person to drive in the state
* kept anyone who could not prove citizenship or legal residency out of universities and community colleges
* made cities and towns evict all residents of any public housing unit if even one person was undocumented
* required parents to show proof of citizenship or equivalent papers to enroll their children in school

Part of the reason behind the No votes was pressure from over 60 Arizona CEOs (including those of hospitals and construction companies) and the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. (Long ago César Chavez showed us the power of the boycott. He was right then and he is right today.)

Of course the Pearce gang will not give up. They will probably take these same bills to the voters in whom they continuously instill senseless fear, and they still hope the July 28 federal court decision against the infamous, racial-profiling SB 1070 will be reversed.

In the meantime, Pearce has cut our Pima Country sheriff off from new funds to fight border crime. The senator had a fit when Sheriff Dupnik linked the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords to crazy right-wing rhetoric and called Arizona "the mecca of prejudice and bigotry."

Pearce is not going to give up. But yesterday was big.