Undocumented Students aka the Trail of Dream Marchers Confront Sheriff Joe Arpaio

The other day while doing our daily Hard Knock Radio show we were blessed to have Felipe Matos, Carlos Roa and Juan Rodriguez from the Trail of Dreams come to the studio to talk about their historic meeting with Sheriff Joe Arpaio over immigration. Also in the studio was former Minister of Culture of the Black Panther party Emory Douglass.. Wow what a moment.. Intergenerational, cultural and just seeing freedom fighters old and new break bread...

In what many will call a stunning move the 4 undocumented students who have trekked 1500 miles to bring attention to the plight of immigrants showed up in the Belly of Beast -Arizona. Not only did they show up there, but they sought out and met with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Wait it gets better..

Not only did they meet with the self proclaimed 'Toughest Sheriff in America', they gave him a hug and he in return encourage the students to continue their fight...

On their twitter they told the America's Voices blog;

“Yea! First step to beat hatred in our enemies is to acknowledge humanity in them so they may witness the humanity in us.”

on their own site Trail of Dreams Here's what they wrote:

During the civil rights movement, many perpetuators of oppression convincily agreed that segregation was necessary in order to maintain civility in society. After a 1962 landslide Gobernatoral victory, demagogic Gov. Wallace of Alabama during his inaugural speech spewed "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Towards the end of his life, Wallace acknowledged his wrongdoings and recanted his old views on segregation. To the anti-immigrant of today: your words too have been documented, and so shall you shallow your own words one day. 

Today we have Wallaces of a different sort and they have found a new scapegoat. We have Sheriff's, like Joe Arpaio of Maricopa county, who terrorize our undocumented communities with draconian tactics through the exorbitant use of law enforcement. They have used that arbitrary authority to promote backwards-minded xenophobic fear, hate, and oppression through criminalization.

Hence, to confront these realms of negativity, we must first begin by changing ourselves together. By embracing our love for humanity, we will thirstily seek to reclaim it. The desert of Arizona is a strange land, foreign to anything I have seen before. The people of the desert have altered my views on the microcosm of life and have propelled changes in the way I view our struggle..... Peep the rest of this on the Trail of Dream blog