Both sides of AZ’s debate use same crime argument
Protesters gather outside the Arizona Capitol Saturday, May 1, 2010 in Phoenix to protest Arizona's controversial new immigration bill. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Statistics show foreign-born residents commit fewer crimes, but backers of an illegal immigrant law say public safety is their key motivation:
“By many measures, Arizona has become safer since illegal immigrants began pouring into the state in the 1990s.
Crime has dropped all across the country since then, but the decrease has been as fast or faster in Arizona. The rate of property crimes in the state, for example, has plummeted 43% since 1995, compared with 30% nationwide.” Read the full L.A. Times story.
Arizona’s Economic Losses
“A recent University of Arizona study found that Arizona’s immigrant workers paid an estimated $2.4 billion in state taxes, and accounted for $44 billion in economic output that created 400,000 full-time jobs. And experts say that losing hundreds of thousands of these workers may compromise the state’s long-term economic recovery. In the interest of leading the nation sharply to the right on immigration policy, it seems that Arizona’s lawmakers are willing to take the risk.” Read Monday’s full Huffington Post story.
Subscribe to the comments for this postWill other states join Arizona?
It’s no surprise that state lawmakers in Utah and Iowa want to follow Arizona’s lead to require local law enforcers to question and detain those they believe are in their state without documentation.
The Arizona Republic put out a pretty clear-eyed editorial analysis this weekend of the key players in the immigration debate. As state officials pander to public fear and federal officials abdicate their duties to the border, all that results is a state law that intimidates Latinos while doing nothing to curb illegal immigration. The two most interesting “failures” on their list? From the Republic:
JANET NAPOLITANO came down with amnesia after she abandoned her job as governor of Arizona and moved to Washington, D.C., to be Homeland Security secretary. Ensconced in a Democratic administration, she forgot all the arguments she once used to demand that the Bush administration address immigration reform and reimburse Arizona for the costs of the broken border. Put in charge of Obama’s effort to craft immigration reform, she couldn’t get the thing out of neutral.
JOHN McCAIN, the one-time maverick and former champion of comprehensive immigration reform, also came down with a convenient loss of memory and principle. Facing a primary race against J.D. Hayworth, whose demagoguery on this issue is practiced and predictable, Sen. McCain became a man afraid of his own record. He locked himself behind a door marked “Do not disturb until the border is secure.” Here’s some straight talk the senator should understand: The border cannot be secured as long as the current irrational border policies remain unchanged.
Also, glad to see the news today that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s not running for governor … I didn’t even know he was considering it, but, phew, what a relief!
AZ Immigration Law Generates First Legal Challenges
Dozens attend a news conference where it was announced that The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, with the support of several other activist groups, had filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the new Arizona immigration law at the Arizona Capitol Thursday, April 29, 2010, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Three lawsuits were filed Thursday in response to Arizona’s new immigration law by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian leaders and one each by police officers in Tucson and Phoenix — were filed to block the state’s legislation from taking effect. Listen to the full NPR story.
Kansan Kobach pens AZ law … Sunflower state next?
According to the Lawrence Journal World today, Kansas Secretary of State candidate Kris Kobach is not only getting paid to train the Maricopa County, AZ, sheriff’s department $300 per hour to train law enforcement how to arrest suspected illegal immigrants, but told the newspaper, if elected, “he would help draw up a similar bill in Kansas only if asked by a state legislator and if he had some spare time.”
Wow. I don’t think that is news our local law enforcement officials would like to hear. When the Arizona law first passed earlier this month, I talked to our chief of police, James Hawkins, who expressed dismay at the news. Hawkins said local law enforcement officials “just don’t care” whether someone is here illegally or not: The job of the GCPD, he said, is to keep the community safe by working with everyone.
Justice Dept. could sue AZ — WashPost
From the Washington Post today:
“Officials in the Obama administration are urging the extraordinary step of suing Arizona over its new immigration law, and the Justice Department is considering such an action to block the legislation from taking effect, government officials said Wednesday.
The Arizona law criminalizes illegal immigration by defining it as trespassing and empowers police to question anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” is an illegal immigrant. President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have blasted the legislation, with Obama saying that it “threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness.”
“The president had strong words to say and the attorney general had strong words to say,” said one law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. “Considering that it’s signed into law, and Arizona is doing a lot of pomp and circumstance, do you see a friendly way out of this?”
Read the full story.