Ground zero for immigration? Latinos are fleeing Arizona as crackdowns increase in the border state.(FEATURE)

NOTHING BETTER reflects the social tension and cultural clashes of the immigration debate in Arizona than the sidewalk across from Pruitt's Furniture store on the corner of Thomas Road and 35th Street in the heart of Phoenix.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

On a Saturday morning, the old-West, two-story building with white-rimed balconies was fortressed by a wall of eight large delivery trucks. A dozen armed deputy sheriffs secured the empty parking lot. Traffic slowed down. American flags and Che Guevara T-shirts, mariachi and country music collided and sometimes merged on a single sidewalk. "Si se puede," "No se puede," "Deport them all" and "No human being is illegal" were shouted across the street by two antagonistic crowds.

The protests had begun when the business owner, Roger Sensing, hired three off-duty deputy sheriffs in November 2007 to patrol the area and keep day laborers off his property. Latino activists launched an economic boycott and a string of weekly protests.

"It looks like now anyone can hire private immigration police," complained Salvador Reza, member of Tonatierra, a nonprofit organization for community development that started the boycott.

In response, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America," Joe Arpaio, sent extra deputy officers to the area vowing to put pressure on the protesters. In December, his officers arrested more than 60 undocumented migrants during traffic stops in a nearby neighborhood.

This is Arizona today.