A Glendale Mom Was Falsely Imprisoned; Now the State Wants to Cancel Her U.S. Birth Certificate

Briseira Torres, a U.S. citizen with an un-canceled U.S. birth certificate, despite the bumbling efforts of the Office of Vital Records. Photo by Stephen Lemons

The eagerness of the state of Arizona to drive all brown people — legal or illegal — from its territory leads to some really backward moves on behalf of officials, high and low.

Add bureaucrats’ inherent inability to concede an error to this official policy of ethnic cleansing, enshrined in Senate Bill 1070’s dictate of “attrition through enforcement,” and you’ve got a bizarre huckleberry hybrid of a government that resembles Redneck Island crossed with Commie Russia.

Take, for example, the colossal boneheadedness displayed by state officials in the ongoing case of Briseira Torres.

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But once Torres was released August 3, following her 4 1/2-month wrongful imprisonment in a Maricopa County jail, I figured Arizona would leave the Glendale mom alone, especially after my column on the case went viral (“Woman Held Because Authorities Thought She Was Illegal,” August 9).

Torres, a U.S. citizen with the birth certificate to prove it, had been collared by Arizona Department of Transportation investigator Chris Oberly on March 14 and charged with three counts of forgery.

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I suspect the OVR and the AG’s Office want to continue with this travesty in hopes of minimizing the state of Arizona’s liability for arresting Torres and keeping her in stir.

But I think it is just making things worse — and further burdening Torres with this game of legal Whack-a-Mole.

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I wrote about this case last August. That Page was also based on Stephen Lemons’s work. Read the whole article, he writes well.

Briseira Torres is suing, and she seems to have two good lawyers. I hope she wins and can get back to her life as it was before the Arizona racists interrupted it.

If the National Republican Party can’t convince the Arizona Republicans to drop their overt racism, the whole party will continue to suffer. Demographic reality will not be denied.