Is it hyperbole?

A Unitarian minister, Rev. Peter Morales, describes his arrest for protesting Arizona’s new immigration law, and concludes:

I was a journalist before entering seminary to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. I like to think of myself as less naïve than many of my colleagues. I have lived in Peru and in Spain under Fascism. Yet I found the situation in Arizona appalling and deeply disturbing in ways I did not anticipate.

I am honestly surprised that such systematic denial of basic civil rights (the beating, the arrest for no cause, the denial of use of toilet facilities, the targeting of Latinos) can go on openly in a major American city. This is not a nutty sheriff and a handful of deputies in a small town. This is a law enforcement body in a major urban area.

And I wonder at the absence of forces that are supposed to defend the rights of the helpless. Why in the world has our federal Justice Department not taken action? How much evidence do they need? Where, for that matter, are the usual champions of civil liberties like the ACLU?

Other states are considering copycat legislation based on Arizona’s SB 1070. Republicans are advocating a constitutional change that would deny citizenship to children born in the U. S. if their parents are not citizens.

We are witnessing the early stages of ethnic cleansing. Todos somos Arizona.

To see why he feels that way, read the rest.