"One of these grotesque laws enacted by referendum was Proposition 100, an amendment to the state constitution denying bail to those presumed to be in the country illegally, who have committed a "serious felony offense," defined by the Legislature as a Class 4 felony or above.
In 2006, Prop 100 received a 3-to-1 endorsement by the electorate. Never mind that bail for all but the most serious crimes is a cherished privilege protected by parts of the Arizona and U.S. constitutions."
A Woman Was Held in Jail Because Authorities Thought She Was Illegal
Recently, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office alleged Briseira Torres, a shy, 31-year-old single mom from Glendale, was here illegally and that Briseira Torres was not her real name.
She was accused of three counts of forgery, in part because her driver's license had her real name on it, which the MCAO thought was bogus. Following her arrest, she was held without bond in Estrella Jail for 4 1/2 months.
Torres lost her home and car because she couldn't make the payments as she endured Estrella's harsh conditions, lousy food, and detention officers.
Worst of all, she was separated from her 14-year-old daughter, who stayed with Torres' friend Amy Diaz while her mom was behind bars.
Torres' eyes well up as she recalls the days her daughter came to visit and had to see Torres in county stripes.
"It was really hard, especially the first time," Torres tells me in the offices of her attorney, Delia Salvatierra. "She was very sad."
Torres was released on August 3, after the MCAO was forced to dismiss the case.
Salvatierra, a well-known immigration attorney, along with the aid of criminal attorney Antonio Bustamante and Johnny Sinodis, a counsel in Salvatierra's office, went to battle on Torres' behalf.
In the pile of paperwork they provided to the court, to the prosecutor, and to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was a silver bullet: a sworn statement from Arizona's Office of Vital Records attesting to the legitimacy of documents on file for Torres.
Among these docs is Torres' birth certificate, showing she was born August 14, 1981, in Avondale (Avondale is a western suburb of Phoenix, AZ).
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-08-09/news/a-woman-was-held-in-jail-because-authorities-thought-she-was-illegal/
So basically a bunch of redneck, clumsy, wetback huntin' public officials in Maricopa County (home of wingnut Sheriff Joe Arpaio btw) fucked up, and for whatever incompetent reason, believed a 31 year old Hispanic single mother with a 14 year old daughter to be in the country illegally for allegedly forging her AZ state driver's license. They held this poor lady in jail for nearly 5 months, separated from her daughter, and caused her to lose her home and car. To add insult to injury, after the woman's attorneys presented irrefutable proof that the Arizona Vital Records dept. indeed had a valid birth certificate for the woman on file, the Maricopa County Attorney then tried to accuse her of forging that document as well.
A big thank you to the pin-headed Arizona voters who voted for this medieval law to begin with and for the moronic and xenophobic public officials tasked with enforcing it. You all should be fucking ashamed of yourselves. If it were up to The Gadfly, he would have every single one of you lizard-brained bastards forced to take a basic civics exam - and if you fail - we deport your dumb-as-a sack-of-doorknob asses to some poor African country like Burundi or the likes thereof for a minimum period of 5 years where you shall remain before you are allowed to re-take the U.S. civics and citizenship exams and re-enter the country.
Oh and btw -- we dirty fucking hippie liberals predicted shit like this was going to happen with these laws - and once again we were proven right. The Gadfly ponders -- how often do conservatives get to keep making all of these fuck-headed wrong governing decisions before we just simply suspend their right to vote until they start learning all of the provisions in the constitution instead of just that single one about letting them keep their stupid goddamn guns?
The Gadfly dearly hope Ms. Torres sues the living fucking daylights out of Maricopa County and the State of Arizona for false imprisonment, false arrest, slander, mental abuse and emotional distress.
It's the least they deserve.
----TFG
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