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Q&A: Terry Greene Sterling

Courtesy Terry Greene Sterling.
Courtesy Terry Greene Sterling.

Terry Greene Sterling is the writer-in-residence at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and author of the recently published, "Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone." She will be speaking about the book at the ASU Downtown campus's Must See Mondays speaker series September 27.

State Press Magazine: How do you think Arizona is perceived nationally and globally? Terry Greene Sterling: I think Arizona is seen in two ways. It’s seen by many as a sort of feisty libertarian free-thinking state that takes over when the federal government fails to secure the border. Others see Arizona as racist, led by demagogues who bash the powerless to get elected. The Obama administration claims that many border towns have relatively low crime rates, which contradicts election-year tales of beheading "narcotrafficantes" swarming across the southern border to prey on innocent Americans. Narcos are coming across the border, but so far they haven’t beheaded anyone. There’s a reason they’re coming. The United States is the largest consumer of Mexican marijuana and Mexican cocaine in the world.

SPM: You write about cases in which undocumented workers are treated as criminals. Do you think it would be beneficial for the legal system to treat them as victims? TGS: No. I write about cases in which unauthorized immigrants are criminalized because Arizona laws permit Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas to go after undocumented immigrants who are just workers and charge them with felonies for working with false IDs or riding in the back of a truck with a coyote. When you arrest people and make felons out of them for riding in the back of the truck or working at a car wash with false documents, it bolsters the crime statistics for prosecution and imprisonment. The question is, do you want to use your resources to go after these undocumented workers or do you want to spend your money going after the really bad guys?

SPM: You write about the Phoenix Spanish-language radio station, Campesina. What role do you think the media plays in the immigration debate? TGS: Major role. Campesina, like a lot of Spanish-language media, is an information source for immigrants. They announce the location of immigration raids and where to get free medical services, for instance. People who don’t have access to social services listen to Campesina because they trust it. It’s sort of their go-to information source. Mainstream media takes a different role. You have Fox News interviewing the borderlands ranchers over and over again and highlighting dangers on the border, and making a star out of Jan Brewer. Then you’ve got all the cable networks covering this, with all sorts of talking heads with different points of view. The net result is that immigration has become a key election-year issue, more so than the economy.

SPM: You also write about the DREAM Act. As an educator, what do you think of the DREAM Act? TGS: I knew nothing about the DREAM Act before I wrote my book. The DREAM Act is a proposed federal law that would allow high school graduates who came to the United States illegally, who have been here for ten years and are under the age of 35, it would allow them to serve in the military or go to college and get temporary residency. Criminals don’t qualify for DREAM Act relief. The DREAM Act has been wrapped into comprehensive immigration reform and now there’s a lot of talk in Washington about making it a stand-alone law because both democrats and republicans could support it. I got to know a lot of "DREAMers". They are remarkable kids. They struggle in ways most of us could not even imagine. Many came over illegally as children. Some remember their desert crossing. They embrace the American culture and self-identify as Americans. They learned English like that (snaps fingers). They’re really hanging on by their nails. The really interesting thing about the dreamers is that they’re so American in their sensibilities that they’re getting to be really fearless. They’re doing things like meeting with Joe Arpaio and saying, “Hey, we’re undocumented,” or walking miles from Florida to D.C., saying, “Come get us.” They’re not willing to live in the shadows. They’re fighting to be Americans.

SPM: What do you hope people take away from reading your book? TGS: More than anything else, I hope they enjoy reading it. I hope they say: “Wow this is a great read. I didn’t realize these people lived here and I learned so much about them.” My main goal was just to have a fascinating, truthful, honest set of profiles. My characters are human; they make a lot of mistakes. They either grow from their mistakes or are destroyed by them. They’re complicated people. I wanted to get away from the stereotype of the noble landscaper and the beheading narco.

SPM: Any last comments? TGS: I think that immigration policy in the United States is Byzantine and contradictory. But the bottom line is that it affects people’s lives and it doesn’t just affect the lives of immigrants. It affects all of us. And how unauthorized immigrants in Phoenix deal with this Kafkaesque policy each and every day is the stuff of human drama.

Contact the reporter at melissa.silva@asu.edu.


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