5 de Mayo and and AZ SB1070: "We have exhausted all domestic remedies."

 Marcha Abya Yala de 5 de Mayo en Phoenix

"We have exhausted all domestic remedies."

Background:

Friday August 3, 2012

Ms. Sarah Lopez, Investigator
US Department of Justice

Dear Ms. Lopez,
Thank you for your call last week regarding this issue.  Yesterday I attended the last trial day of the Melendres v. Arpaio case. We have not heard nor seen the evidence or testimony by either side of the case on the policies, practices, or patterns of discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in Maricopa County, particularly those which systemically victimize our Nican Tlacah (Indigenous Mexican) communities.  Categorizations of patterns of discrimination in the case by experts from both sides, have simply referred to "Hispanic", "Latino", "Hispanic Surname" etc. in the statistical analysis of discriminatory police practices by the MCSO.  As Indigenous Mexican peoples, we have been racially profiled into invisibility legally.  If we are invisible in the courts, can we ever hope for justice on the streets?

Please send us the dated copy of the response to our initial letter of February 7, 2012 from Mr. Sergio Perez, Trial Attorney Special Litigation Section to my email.  It would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Tupac Enrique Acosta
TONATIERRA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tupac Enrique Acosta <chantlaca@tonatierra.org>
Date: Mon, May 14, 2012 at 10:59 AM
Subject: TONATIERRA: Memorandum to the US Justice Department
To: phippsll@state.gov, Eric.Wilson@bia.gov

Date: Monday May 14, 2012
To: Ms. Laurie Shestack Phipps, Team Leader - United States Mission to the United Nations
From: Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh - Nahuacalli, Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
Re: Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous PeoplesThe Law of Exceptions and the Case of Racial Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in Maricopa County, Arizona

Dear Ms. Shestack Phipps,

It was a pleasure speaking with you last week at the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples in New York, at UN headquarters.  I also was privileged to make direct contact with your colleague Mr. Eric Bruce Wilson, International Affairs Coordinator of the US Department of the Interior Indian Affairs office with whom I also shared the attached February 7, 2012 memorandum to the US Justice Department regarding current investigations, and now law suits - being realized in Maricopa County, Arizona by the US Department of Justice.  To date, we have not received response nor acknowledgement of this communication from the Department of Justice. 

Please review and channel this information towards the appropriate officials in the Department of Justice, and the Universal Periodic Review Workgroups. 

Here is the text of the memorandum:

February 7, 2102

Memorandum to the US Justice Department

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Sir:

I has come to our attention via reports in the media today that the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be opening up an office of community ombudsman to address issues of concern by the public relevant to the scope of law enforcement policies and operations of the agency.

We were also informed this morning that officials of the Justice Department are meeting with community leaders and organizations to discuss the current status of the US Justice Department Letter of Findings regarding the investigation of the office of the Maricopa County Sheriff, J. Arpaio.

The long march in defense of civil rights for All Peoples which began with the dismantling of discriminatory racial profiling practices that benefited the European American "white" constituencies with ethnic preferences in electoral, educational, economic, and legal systems has many chapters, but it begins with the basic recognition of universal Human Dignity and compassion.

The crossing of the Edmund Pettus bridge and the anguish of Bloody Sunday on March 7, 2005 are significant mileposts in this journey, and must be recalled now to contextualize the actions of yet another Sheriff in yet another state, for as Martin Luther King said after Selma in 1967 and before his assassination in 1968:

"We have emerged from the era of Civil Rights to the Era of Human Rights."

Human Rights are inherent.  The United States of North America is a signatory of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  These two facts are realities that must be brought to bear to evaluate the scope of the issues mentioned at the beginning of the memorandum, but there is more.

On September 13, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  The US was one of four governments that opposed the declaration including the anglophile states of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who as derivatives, represent immigrant sovereignties that are residuals of the colonies of the British Empire.

Governor George Wallace of Alabama and Sheriff Clark of Selma also opposed the tides of justice,  and in the name of the "Rule of Law" committed acts of atrocity and brutality that have left lasting wounds on the visage of the the concept of America as "Land of the Free".

Therefore, in light of the fact that the issues of racial profiling and discriminatory policing that have begun to be addressed in the US Justice Department Letter of Findings regarding the Maricopa County Sheriff's office and the Melendres vs. Arpaio decision by the US Court of Justice HAVE NOT mentioned the systematic practices of racial profiling against Indigenous Peoples in particular as fundamental to the overall violations of Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Indigenous Rights within the scope of law enforcement operations in Maricopa County:

We now request a meeting on the ground with the representatives of your department to discuss and explore venues to address this ongoing and pervasive pogrom of "ethnic cleansing" under the guise of the "Rule of Law."

Please contact me at your convenience to discuss this proposal.

 Sincerely,

Tupac Enrique Acosta. Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
TONATIERRA

*******

"Stopping Mexicans to make sure they are legal is not racist.  If you have dark skin, you have dark skin! Unfortunately, that is the look of the Mexican illegal."
Files of Maricopa County Sheriff J. Arpaio,
quoted on page 28 of US District Court Case 2:07-cv-02513-GMS
Document 494 12/23/11

La Familia by Joaquin Chiñones