Local 26 Blasts Baja Sol’s Owner, GOP Head Sutton for Hypocrisy

[annm4peace]

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2010/may/local-26-blasts-baja-sol%E2%80%99s-owner-gop-head-sutton-hypocrisy

(with so many incredibly good Latin restaurants on Lake street why would anyone go to yucky Baja Sol in Uptown)

In a series of protests at the Uptown restaurant, SEIU Local 26 members and organizers rallied to call attention to a critical contradiction – Baja Sol is a fast food restaurant that sells Mexican food and employs Latino and Latina workers yet owner Tony Sutton openly supports politically extreme anti-Mexican legislation.

As Local 26 highlights, this blatant hypocrisy means that enthusiasm for one popular facet of Mexican American culture is financing the politics of Mexican-American exclusion and criminalization. Baja Sol did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.

Americans were stunned by Arizona’s punitive and highly controversial legislation, SB 1070, which requires law enforcement to institute racial profiling. Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer publically praised the Minnesota copycat bill calling it “a wonderful first step.”

Rep. Drazkowski, a Republican representing Zumbrota, Kenyon, Wannamingo and the euphoniously named Rollingstone, introduced copycat bill HF3830, which uses the same wording as the Arizona bill. His rural district in Southern Minnesota, according his official legislative website’s information, is only 1.1% Hispanic.

SB10170/HF3830 have already had serious implications for Eduardo Caraballo, who was detained by federal officials for in jail for a whole weekend. He was asked to show papers, and did so, but since he looked Latino (he has lived in the United States since moving her from Puerto Rico in infancy) his drivers license and birth certificate were assumed to be fake.

This example shows the real world consequences of this inherently flawed legislation. It makes appropriate law enforcement difficult, prompting a number of Arizona police chiefs to publically denounce the law. It also means that people who look “the wrong way” must be prepared to prove their citizenship with papers at all times and then have the time and money to then validate those papers if they are not believed.

In situations like Carabello experienced, people could lose their job if they can’t show up for work because they are being held while papers are verified.

Local people are mobilizing against this trend that they say criminalizes our communities. BAM! -- Boycott Arizona – Minnesota! Is an alliance of émigrés and allies opposing the copycat bill in Minnesota, “fighting existing programs already tearing our families apart, and terrorizing anyone who looks "suspicious” and working for comprehensive immigration reform. BAM! is rallying support for the national day of action, May 29, to oppose anti-emigree measures from the right.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Did this bill get passed?? Signed??

[CubFan7125]

2. Factual Error

I would like to point some factual errors in your post. SB1070 had nothing to do with Mr. Caraballo's arrest.

1) SB1070 does not take effect until July 28, 2010.
2) SB1070 is a local Arizona law. Mr. Caraballo was arrested by ICE agents in Chicago, not local authorities in Arizona.

If you want people to be sympathetic to your argument you should use correct facts. You lose credibility when you mis-represent facts, which you pretty much did here.

[geardaddy]

3. He moved here from Puerto Rico?

Is he a Puerto Rican resident? If he is, then he's a U.S. citizen.