Echo opinion letter from Flagstaff Arizona ~ Stop illegal immigrant family separations

Community must speak out about illegal family immigration separations, an echo opinion, letter to the editor, published in the Arizona Daily Sun

Family separation doesn't only happen at the border. It happens within our city of Flagstaff through the Sheriff's cooperation with ICE (US Immigration) & enforcement of racist policies.

We need to join those speaking out against the separation of families locally, regionally, and nationally, and hold Sheriff Driscoll and city officials accountable to the families who live here. 

As determined by a recent court ruling, Sheriff Driscoll is not actually required to work with ICE, but is free to choose, and is actively choosing to separate families.

The laws and agencies that enable family separation are not just. Those who enforce them are not protecting our diverse communities, they are breeding fear and distrust.

The idea that government enforced family separation, detention and deportation doesn’t happen to “good” immigrants, but is needed in order to keep “criminals” out of our country, is white nationalist propaganda. We live in the wake of the Movement for Black Lives. The label “criminal” has a violent history, and it is used to distance white people from and dehumanize and justify violence against people of color in this country. 

Specifically, this criminalization has been used by our state (Arizona) in strategic attempts to destabilize and destroy migrant and indigenous communities.

We can work to challenge this criminalization and separation of families at the city and county level, by holding city and county officials accountable to our communities, pushing without compromise for the repeal of racist laws and policies, and building community networks of care and defense that work to disrupt state violence in our communities.

Mara Pfeffer, Flagstaff, Arizona