I live in Arizona, which these days is like saying one is from Germany circa 1939 or Mississippi in the 1960s. You're probably familiar with our draconian immigration laws, including the implications for racial profiling, expanded police powers and a general attitude of exclusion and intolerance. When we consider these trends, there are actually strong parallels with the treatment of homeless people in America. Whereas Arizona's anti-immigrant stance has yielded national outrage, and rightly so, far less attention has been paid to the fact that homeless people are treated this way every day in cities across the country. Here are a few similarities to consider:
"Show us you papers." Homeless people experience routine ID checks, police stops and profiling based on external criteria including physical appearance. In fact, they will often have their IDs taken or destroyed with the implicit intention of making their lives more difficult to navigate. One of the basic struggles of homelessness actually is possessing the proper credentials and identification in order to access services and potential opportunities for education, employment or housing; without the right papers, one can get caught in a self-perpetuating state of disempowerment, as immigrants often experience here.
Posted via web from Firesaw
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