Home to the busiest border crossing for illegal immigration, Arizona has been the nation's hotbed for several laws targeting illegal immigrants, including the much-publicized SenateBill1070 that is now being challenged on constitutional grounds in federal court because one of its controversial provisions allows racial profiling by police, critics charge.
Elsewhere, in the Cesar Chavez Building, graduate student Francisco Baires sits in a windowless office that could have been a closet in a previous life, immersed in a different kind of work: He is sending a statement condemning Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law to the media and other opponents of SenateBill1070.