Arizona protestor: 'Good day to be arrested'

By Silvia Ayuso Jul 30, 2010, 12:35 GMT

Phoenix, Arizona - Alfredo Gutierrez, a former majority leader in the Arizona State Senate, found himself in handcuffs on the first day that a new law to discourage illegal immigration took effect in the south-western state.

'It's a good day to be arrested,' Gutierrez said Thursday as he tried to enter the federal courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona.

The arrests took place as the former politician and scores of demonstrators defied police outside the government building. The group was protesting Arizona's SB 1070, which partially took effect Thursday despite a judge blocking parts of the law on Wednesday.

'We're going to challenge this law,' Gutierrez said. 'We're going to keep up the fight.'

Federal Judge Susan Bolton set off celebrations among the well- organized opponents of the law when she temporarily suspended the most hotly debated measures in the law, including a requirement for police in the state to check the migration status of people who provoke 'reasonable suspicions' that they might be in the United States illegally. The law would have only allowed checks of people already stopped by police for another reason.

Activists called the court order a 'partial victory' and vowed to continue their protests.

The initial court victory, which sets up a possible hearing with a panel of appeals judges.

Gutierrez told the German Press Agency dpa before his arrest that Wednesday's court ruling was 'just one moment,' in which is likely to be a longer confrontation.

'The reality is that this atmosphere of hatred - that this state's government officials who want to crush our community, who want to deport us and to force us out of our state, are still in power,' he said.

Since Wednesday's ruling, Bolton has received hundreds of threats, according to a spokesman for the US Marshal's Service, which protects federal judges.

On Thursday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer formally appealed the court suspension.

'Nothing's changed,' Gutierrez said. 'We only got a momentary win.'

Several immigrant and religious groups persisted Thursday in their protests over the implementation of SB 1070.

After protesting overnight outside the state Capitol in Phoenix, hundreds of people marched Thursday to the city's Episcopal Cathedral, where an ecumenical service was held against SB 1070 and in favour of an amnesty for the millions of people already in the United States illegally.