VALLEY RALLIES,
A who’s-who list of Arizona’s conservative leaders mingled with a few hundred President Donald Trump supporters on Saturday at the “Trump Unity Rally — MAGA in the Park” event in north Phoenix.
The event featured Republican U.S. Senate candidates Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio.
Speakers included Mary Ann Mendoza, the mother of former Mesa Police Sgt. Brandon Mendoza who was killed on his way home from work in a wrong-way driving crash involving a drunken driver living in the country illegally.
Mendoza has become a vocal advocate against illegal immigration since her son’s 2014 death.
She has spoken at Trump campaign rallies and visited the White House last year with a group lobbying for stronger immigration-enforcement laws.
Though the event featured political candidates, organizers said “MAGA in the Park” was less of a campaign event than a conservative pep rally, celebrating Trump’s first year in office.
The rally also drew protesters whose chants at times drowned out speakers and spurred verbal clashes with the crowd.
Flag-clad Trump supporters and armed security guards
Patriot Movement AZ, a local grassroots group with about 1,700 supporters on Facebook, organized the rally.
The free event drew the usual groups: Flag-clad Trump supporters, armed vigilante security guards, masked protesters and a few dozen police officers.
Attendees were invited to check out the well-known speakers, candidate tables, food, music and “a good old fashioned flag waving and Patriot Rally.”
One of the unifying themes of the day was the crowd’s aversion to illegal immigration.
Ward, who is running against Arpaio in the state’s Republican Senate primary, included a nod to Mendoza in her speech.
“I care deeply about the families who have lost loved ones at the hands of all the people who should have never been in this country in the first place,” she said.
Immigration hardliners often cite crime rates as a reason for tighter border security and stronger enforcement of deportation orders.
However, studies conducted by academics, policy analysts and nonpartisan research groups over the years have failed to substantiate the position that immigrants are more crime-prone than the population at large.
A 2017 analysis of incarceration rates released by the libertarian Cato Institute indicates immigrants are far less likely than native-born U.S. citizens to commit serious crimes
Lesa Antone, one of the organizers, said she hoped the event would “fire up” conservatives to get out and vote in November’s midterm elections.
One of the event’s platforms, she said, was criticizing California, which was just sued by the Justice Department over its so-called “sanctuary state” laws that shield immigrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We need to start voting to keep our rights,” she said.
Protesters jeer Arpaio and exchange insults
At the rally Saturday morning, a handful of black-clad and masked protesters exchanged insults with the Trump supporters.
A few carried flags for the anti-fascist movement, a collective of far-left-leaning activists who see themselves as the line of defense against hate groups, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
One of the protesters, a young woman who said her name was Assata Garvey, stood with a group of “fellow antifascists.”
Garvey said she showed up to voice her opposition to both Arpaio and Trump.
“We’re here to say that they can’t just come here and meet comfortably and meet without opposition,” she said.
The protesters went largely ignored until one of the event’s organizers called for a moment of silence.
At that moment, the protesters took the opportunity to chant, “Who’s illegal on stolen land? You’re illegal on stolen land,” eliciting heckling from the 250odd people attending the rally.
The competing chants spilled into Arpaio’s speech, nearly drowning out the beginning of it. Arpaio lost his bid for a seventh term in office in 2016, and has been replaced by Sheriff Paul Penzone.
Arpaio’s speech followed a familiar thread, including self-deprecating humor about his age; insults for the Justice Department and liberal billionaire donor George Soros; and praise for Trump, his long-term ally.
Each portion of Arpaio’s speech, on cue, drew the cheers or jeers he sought from the audience.
“I will be supporting the president’s agendas and policies, and I’ve been with him since day one,” he said, to a roaring crowd.
In January, Arpaio announced that he would seek Sen. Jeff Flake’s Senate seat.