SAN DIEGO -- Arizona was already crazy. Now it's getting creepy. An enemies list? Really?
The state that has become America's problem child took a Watergate-like twist recently when a Phoenix television station reported that state Senate President Russell Pearce -- the author of Arizona's tough immigration law -- has put together a "blacklist" of individuals barred from the Senate building.
The allegation comes from two Democratic state senators, and apparently all you need to do to get on the list is publicly criticize Pearce or challenge the law.
The legislator told The Arizona Republic that there is no list and that he never provided specific names to law enforcement. He blamed the story on media-generated "misinformation."
But a recently released report by the Arizona Capitol Police contradicts Pearce. It says that the lawmaker asked officers to "identify and photograph" members of the audience during a raucous committee meeting last week and deny them access to the Senate building in the future. It also says that "several subjects had been restricted from entering the Arizona State Senate building by Senate President Russell Pearce due to disorderly and disruptive behavior" and that "names and descriptions" were provided to Senate security.
Those who have been barred entry to the Senate building include Salvador Reza. The Phoenix-based immigrant advocate has been arrested three times since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law in April 2010. And while some people deliberately try to get locked up to protest unjust laws, that doesn't seem to be the case here. Rather, it appears that Reza has been labeled an irritant and singled out for arrest by law enforcement.
I've known Reza for 15 years, and I consider him a friend even though his politics are far to the left of mine. For instance, only one of us supports the deportation of illegal immigrants -- and it's not him. Still, I respect the man. In an immigration debate filled with empty words, he is willing to stick his neck out. He doesn't play partisan games, and he doesn't give a pass to feckless Democrats the way many Latinos do.
"I don't give a (expletive) if they're Republicans or Democrats," Reza told me. "If they're wrong, I'm going to tell them."
I spoke to Reza shortly after his most recent arrest, which was for the "crime" of trying to enter the Senate building to meet with a lawmaker. He said he was confronted at the front door and told by police that he couldn't enter the building by order of the Senate president. They told Reza to leave or he'd be arrested. He refused and wound up in handcuffs. The charge: "suspicion of trespassing."
Welcome to the new Arizona, where "constitutional" is just another big word.
"When you have the Senate president barring people from public buildings because of their political views," Reza said, "then it's a police state." Reza insists that he is no activist, and he doesn't seem to have much respect for that tribe.
"They get activated and then un-activated," he said. "I'm a community organizer. We're organizing communities that are not supposed to be organized, and that makes us dangerous."
As the head of Barrio Defense Committees, what makes Reza dangerous is that he organizes immigrants -- legal and illegal. Unlike other Hispanics who become assimilated, move into nice neighborhoods and quickly distance themselves from foreigners, Reza can't be bought off.
At the moment, he is furious at another community organizer -- the one who now occupies the White House.
"We're trying to blame the state and they deserve it," he said, "but we should also blame the Obama administration. (President) Obama has talked about human rights in Egypt, but he hasn't said a single word about human rights abuses in Arizona."
And why does he think that is?
"It's political expediency," Reza said. "Obama doesn't want the tea party to run against him, so he's moving to the right. The Obama administration avoids dealing with (Maricopa County Sheriff Joe) Arpaio and they'll never confront Pearce."
Specifically, Reza believes that the Justice Department's investigation of Arpaio should have been wrapped up by now and resulted in an indictment. At the very least, he thinks Obama should use the bully pulpit to publicly condemn what seems to be happening now in Arizona: political intimidation and false arrest.
It's one of the newest chapters in the Arizona immigration drama -- and one of the darkest.