The Cinco de Mayo from Hell

By JONATHAN J. COOPER

Associated Press Writer -

Rumors circulate of an immigration raid at Cinco de Mayo festivities. Markets normally bustling with customers preparing for the celebration are quiet. Family picnics are scaled back.

Many Hispanics in Arizona — both legal and illegal — are increasingly anxious about being targeted under the state's tough anti-illegal immigration law. Some are afraid to leave their homes, even on the day when the nation celebrates Hispanic heritage.

Some have left the state, and some of those who remain wonder if they should follow.

"They don't want to go to the park or clubs to celebrate because they're scared," said George Cortez, a 24-year-old U.S. citizen from Mesa, as he took a break from sweeping hair clippings at Eagle's barbershop in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in this Phoenix suburb.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., for example, said he'd support deporting U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. He added "it takes more than walking across the border to be an American citizen.

All of it has left some Hispanics to wonder about their place in the country.

On a day that commemorates an out-manned Mexican army's victory over larger French forces in 1862, talk in Mesa focused not on celebrations but about what will happen to the burgeoning Hispanic community here and the economy.

Standing outside a restaurant, legal immigrant Gilberto Reyes, 56, of Mesa, worried that Hispanics leaving the state will mean fewer customers coming into the supermarket where he works. He said it's usually busy on Cinco de Mayo, but not this year.

"People are scared to go out and celebrate because he might start a raid," he said in Spanish, referring to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's well-publicized illegal immigration sweeps that have instilled fear in the Hispanic community.

The restaurant, Taqueria Cajeme, has already seen a drop off in the number of patrons in the days since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law.

The owner, Francisco Meza, 41, a legal immigrant living in Mesa, said he has a good idea why: that more people are afraid to leave their homes, fearing that they will be swept up by police, and that others have already left the state.

Meza said he may have to leave Arizona, send his family back to Mexico and go to Colorado to find work.

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This is how fascism, and extermination begins the world over.  We are on step 6, or preparation.

1. Classification - "People are divided into "us and them"

2. Symbolization - "When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups..."

3. Dehumanization - "One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases."  Or in this case un-American.

4. Organization - "Genocide is always organized... Special army units or militias are often trained and armed..."  Groups of citizens are already patrolling the border in Arizona.  The state is organizing against them with police.

5. Polarization - "Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda..."  Fox News, press conferences by the governor.

6. Preparation - "Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity..."  Clearly, a factor as the law encourages profiling.

7. Extermination - "It is "extermination" to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human."

8. Denial - "The perpetrators... deny that they committed any crimes..."  Not quite to this step, but there is already denial.

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