How SB 1070 inspired a decade of social justice art in metro Phoenix.
"It was such a racist time in our history,” recalls Carmen Guerrero. “We knew all of us, not just undocumented immigrants, would be affected.”
Guerrero, a Mesa artist, is referring to SB 1070, the controversial law that put Arizona on the map for racial profiling, leading to boycotts throughout the state. Adopted in July 2010 — exactly a decade ago this week — it required legal immigrants to carry their registration papers and gave law enforcement officers the power to ask people they stopped for other reasons to show their immigration papers if the officers suspected they were in the country illegally. It also gave officers the power to arrest immigrants suspected of deportable offenses without a warrant, and prohibited undocumented immigrants from soliciting work.
The key figures in SB 1070’s creation — Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, who sponsored it; Governor Jan Brewer, who signed it into law; and SB 1070’s perhaps most famous supporter, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who later fueled the Obama “birther” conspiracy theory — are all gone from office now. The Supreme Court gutted much of the law in 2012.
But despite various efforts, SB 1070 has never been officially repealed by the Arizona Legislature. And the law’s impact on Arizona’s collective psyche is evident in the culture here. It’s present in the works of artists like Guerrero and others who protested 10 years ago, and all those who’ve made works addressing immigration, racism, and border politics in the decade hence. “Looking back, SB 1070 was bigger than we thought,” Guerrero says. “It launched an art movement that’s still going strong today.”
