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Guadalupe's Struggle Empowering Residents
Guadalupe, Arizona — Organizers and residents from the town of
Guadalupe are turning negative experiences with the agency in
charge of their law enforcement into a positive effort to look for
options to maintain dignity and respect for their community. With a
set goal “to better understand the changing immigration issues as it
relates to law enforcement,” members of the Guadalupe Public
Safety Committee recently invited several community organizations
to speak to residents and business owners about civil rights and
liberties. The meeting took place in the Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church.
At least 70 people attended the June 25 meeting to listen to a panel
of experts invited by the committee. The panel was composed by
members of various organizations, a government agency and a
Spanish radio station. Representatives from the American Civil
Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, Respect/Respeto, Tonatierra, KSUN 1190
AM, NAACP, and Los Abogados, shared relevant information to
attendees, who had the opportunity to present testimonials and ask
the panel questions.
Due to a growing concern about how the MCSO was conducting law
enforcement in Guadalupe, the committee was founded and began
working in October of 2007. A partnered effort, the committee brings
individuals together from various organizations, including Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church, Centro de Amistad, Valley Interfaith Project, as
well as private citizens from the community.
Committee members set to the task of obtaining information on the
interaction between the Maricopa County Sheriff Office (MCSO) —the
contracted agency providing law enforcement services in
Guadalupe— and residents. To achieve this goal, several meetings
were conducted in homes and public locations, where citizens shared
information regarding law-enforcement incidents which occurred in
the community.
The committee also met with the MCSO’s Guadalupe branch officials,
and with members of the Town Council. A workforce analysis of
sheriff deputies assigned to Guadalupe since the year 2000 was
conducted. Guadalupe’s officials received the information on the
committee’s activities and progress through formal presentations.
As the Guadalupe Public Safety Committee began looking for ways to
improve the relation between residents and the MCSO, an event
triggering a more determined reaction from the community in
Guadalupe unfolded the evening of April 3, when the sheriff arrived
in town to carry out one of their actions theoretically dubbed as
“crime suppression operations.”
In real application, these operations consist of patrolling the streets
to stop motorists with the purpose of detecting people living in the
country without legal documents. The sheriff then proceeds to turn
suspected undocumented individuals over to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation procedures.
The operation in this town of about 6,000 residents was the third of
its kind to be implemented by the MCSO consecutively. A couple of
weeks prior to their arrival in Guadalupe, Maricopa’s sheriff had
conducted similar actions in Central East and Northeast Phoenix, in
neighborhoods predominantly populated by immigrants from Latin
America.
Groups of protesters and counter-protesters gathered around the
sheriff’s mobile operational centers in Phoenix, set up in public
parking lots to function as provisional headquarters of the
immigration sweeps. Emotions ran high during the demonstrations in
Phoenix, where verbal confrontations among antagonistic groups of
protesters generated a hostile environment bordering in physical
violence.
The MCSO’s operation in Guadalupe prompted the town’s residents
and public officials to gather in protest around the mobile command
post set up in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store, located on
Guadalupe Road, just east of Avenida del Yaqui.
As the numbers of protestors grew, MCSO’s personnel became
virtually boxed in between the angry crowd and the store’s building.
Unlike the two prior operations in Phoenix, counter-protestors did
not show up in Guadalupe.
The protest reached a boiling point when Guadalupe officials
criticized and confronted the head of MCSO, accusing him of coming
to their town under the pretense of doing a “crime suppression
operation,” when evidently the plan was to arrest undocumented
people.
Guadalupe’s Mayor, Rebecca Jimenez, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio became
involved in a brief, heated altercation, abruptly ending when the
sheriff responded to the mayor’s request to recall the scheduled
second day of operation, by assuring her his department would
return the next day in “full force.”
However, on the following day —April 4— the MCSO did not set up
the mobile command center as they had done the day before. The
parking lot of the Family Dollar store, as well as the surrounding
area, was mostly deserted of sheriff’s special vehicles and
protesters. Only television channel’s trucks and MCSO’s patrol
vehicles were seen around the streets of Guadalupe.
During the second day of the immigration crackdown, the sheriff
department resumed their tactic of enforcing traffic violations, mostly
non-moving infractions. Nevertheless, the announced “full force” was
reduced to sheriff’s vehicles cruising around the streets of Guadalupe
and stopping motorists. The MCSO utilized its facilities in the
Maricopa County Southeast Regional Campus instead —a few miles
east of Guadalupe— where they processed motorists arrested in
Guadalupe.
In the aftermath of the sheriff’s operation in Guadalupe, town
officials immediately moved to explore the possibility of ending the
contractual relationship they had with MCSO to receive law
enforcement services. Since the town lacks its own police agency,
the sheriff’s department has functioned as Guadalupe’s only police
since 1990, a service costing the town $1.2 million a year.
A month after the April 3 incident, the committee organized and held
a community-wide meeting, where residents had the opportunity to
participate and express their ideas on issues such as what would be
the most needed service for law enforcement in Guadalupe, and the
desired attributes police officers working in Guadalupe should have.
Among the desired police officer’s characteristics presented by
Guadalupe residents were, respect of community and religious
customs; officer’s close involvement in community’s activities versus
only patrolling the streets; and, an effort to get acquainted with
citizens. In addition, the community felt the officer need to speak
both English and Spanish to interact effectively with residents.
Community feedback gathered at this meeting was presented three
weeks later to the Town Council.
According to the Guadalupe Public Safety Committee, no formal
recommendation on what direction the town should take about the
law enforcement issue has been made. But the committee has
stressed several times to public officials the necessity of including the
community’s input on their decisional process, as well as to keep
residents informed. For the committee, Guadalupe’s residents should
have an active role in deciding what they think is best for them in
terms of the type of law enforcement agency they need.
Nine months since the committee was established, searching for law
enforcement options is not the only change Guadalupe is seeking to
make. The negative experiences in dealing with sheriff deputies —
particularly after the turmoil of the MCSO’s operation on April 3— and
a reportedly growing harassment from deputies patrolling their
streets, Guadalupe is moving forward to increase the level of
community awareness and involvement, as well as disseminating
useful and contextualized information to residents.
The efforts beyond just finding professional law enforcement
alternatives sensitive to Guadalupe’s cultural and demographic
identity have resulted in constructive improvements, such as
educating and informing residents about civil rights and liberties. The
town’s pursuit to be served and protected by a law enforcement
body respectful to its traditions, culture, religion and peculiar
demographic challenges is resulting in a growing opportunity to
empower the people within, as well as to promote understanding of
the people living in other bigger surrounding cities.
Guadalupe are turning negative experiences with the agency in
charge of their law enforcement into a positive effort to look for
options to maintain dignity and respect for their community. With a
set goal “to better understand the changing immigration issues as it
relates to law enforcement,” members of the Guadalupe Public
Safety Committee recently invited several community organizations
to speak to residents and business owners about civil rights and
liberties. The meeting took place in the Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church.
At least 70 people attended the June 25 meeting to listen to a panel
of experts invited by the committee. The panel was composed by
members of various organizations, a government agency and a
Spanish radio station. Representatives from the American Civil
Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, Respect/Respeto, Tonatierra, KSUN 1190
AM, NAACP, and Los Abogados, shared relevant information to
attendees, who had the opportunity to present testimonials and ask
the panel questions.
Due to a growing concern about how the MCSO was conducting law
enforcement in Guadalupe, the committee was founded and began
working in October of 2007. A partnered effort, the committee brings
individuals together from various organizations, including Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church, Centro de Amistad, Valley Interfaith Project, as
well as private citizens from the community.
Committee members set to the task of obtaining information on the
interaction between the Maricopa County Sheriff Office (MCSO) —the
contracted agency providing law enforcement services in
Guadalupe— and residents. To achieve this goal, several meetings
were conducted in homes and public locations, where citizens shared
information regarding law-enforcement incidents which occurred in
the community.
The committee also met with the MCSO’s Guadalupe branch officials,
and with members of the Town Council. A workforce analysis of
sheriff deputies assigned to Guadalupe since the year 2000 was
conducted. Guadalupe’s officials received the information on the
committee’s activities and progress through formal presentations.
As the Guadalupe Public Safety Committee began looking for ways to
improve the relation between residents and the MCSO, an event
triggering a more determined reaction from the community in
Guadalupe unfolded the evening of April 3, when the sheriff arrived
in town to carry out one of their actions theoretically dubbed as
“crime suppression operations.”
In real application, these operations consist of patrolling the streets
to stop motorists with the purpose of detecting people living in the
country without legal documents. The sheriff then proceeds to turn
suspected undocumented individuals over to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation procedures.
The operation in this town of about 6,000 residents was the third of
its kind to be implemented by the MCSO consecutively. A couple of
weeks prior to their arrival in Guadalupe, Maricopa’s sheriff had
conducted similar actions in Central East and Northeast Phoenix, in
neighborhoods predominantly populated by immigrants from Latin
America.
Groups of protesters and counter-protesters gathered around the
sheriff’s mobile operational centers in Phoenix, set up in public
parking lots to function as provisional headquarters of the
immigration sweeps. Emotions ran high during the demonstrations in
Phoenix, where verbal confrontations among antagonistic groups of
protesters generated a hostile environment bordering in physical
violence.
The MCSO’s operation in Guadalupe prompted the town’s residents
and public officials to gather in protest around the mobile command
post set up in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store, located on
Guadalupe Road, just east of Avenida del Yaqui.
As the numbers of protestors grew, MCSO’s personnel became
virtually boxed in between the angry crowd and the store’s building.
Unlike the two prior operations in Phoenix, counter-protestors did
not show up in Guadalupe.
The protest reached a boiling point when Guadalupe officials
criticized and confronted the head of MCSO, accusing him of coming
to their town under the pretense of doing a “crime suppression
operation,” when evidently the plan was to arrest undocumented
people.
Guadalupe’s Mayor, Rebecca Jimenez, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio became
involved in a brief, heated altercation, abruptly ending when the
sheriff responded to the mayor’s request to recall the scheduled
second day of operation, by assuring her his department would
return the next day in “full force.”
However, on the following day —April 4— the MCSO did not set up
the mobile command center as they had done the day before. The
parking lot of the Family Dollar store, as well as the surrounding
area, was mostly deserted of sheriff’s special vehicles and
protesters. Only television channel’s trucks and MCSO’s patrol
vehicles were seen around the streets of Guadalupe.
During the second day of the immigration crackdown, the sheriff
department resumed their tactic of enforcing traffic violations, mostly
non-moving infractions. Nevertheless, the announced “full force” was
reduced to sheriff’s vehicles cruising around the streets of Guadalupe
and stopping motorists. The MCSO utilized its facilities in the
Maricopa County Southeast Regional Campus instead —a few miles
east of Guadalupe— where they processed motorists arrested in
Guadalupe.
In the aftermath of the sheriff’s operation in Guadalupe, town
officials immediately moved to explore the possibility of ending the
contractual relationship they had with MCSO to receive law
enforcement services. Since the town lacks its own police agency,
the sheriff’s department has functioned as Guadalupe’s only police
since 1990, a service costing the town $1.2 million a year.
A month after the April 3 incident, the committee organized and held
a community-wide meeting, where residents had the opportunity to
participate and express their ideas on issues such as what would be
the most needed service for law enforcement in Guadalupe, and the
desired attributes police officers working in Guadalupe should have.
Among the desired police officer’s characteristics presented by
Guadalupe residents were, respect of community and religious
customs; officer’s close involvement in community’s activities versus
only patrolling the streets; and, an effort to get acquainted with
citizens. In addition, the community felt the officer need to speak
both English and Spanish to interact effectively with residents.
Community feedback gathered at this meeting was presented three
weeks later to the Town Council.
According to the Guadalupe Public Safety Committee, no formal
recommendation on what direction the town should take about the
law enforcement issue has been made. But the committee has
stressed several times to public officials the necessity of including the
community’s input on their decisional process, as well as to keep
residents informed. For the committee, Guadalupe’s residents should
have an active role in deciding what they think is best for them in
terms of the type of law enforcement agency they need.
Nine months since the committee was established, searching for law
enforcement options is not the only change Guadalupe is seeking to
make. The negative experiences in dealing with sheriff deputies —
particularly after the turmoil of the MCSO’s operation on April 3— and
a reportedly growing harassment from deputies patrolling their
streets, Guadalupe is moving forward to increase the level of
community awareness and involvement, as well as disseminating
useful and contextualized information to residents.
The efforts beyond just finding professional law enforcement
alternatives sensitive to Guadalupe’s cultural and demographic
identity have resulted in constructive improvements, such as
educating and informing residents about civil rights and liberties. The
town’s pursuit to be served and protected by a law enforcement
body respectful to its traditions, culture, religion and peculiar
demographic challenges is resulting in a growing opportunity to
empower the people within, as well as to promote understanding of
the people living in other bigger surrounding cities.
By Eduardo Barraza July 8, 2008
Organizers and residents from the
Town of Guadalupe, Arizona are
turning negative experiences with
the agency in charge of their law
enforcement into a positive effort.
View Photo Gallery
Photo by Eduardo Barraza | Barriozona
Town of Guadalupe, Arizona are
turning negative experiences with
the agency in charge of their law
enforcement into a positive effort.
View Photo Gallery
Photo by Eduardo Barraza | Barriozona
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Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
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