Arizona

We’ve finally found something to debate that at least some Republicans and some Democrats can disagree on equally. Arizona's tough new law targeting illegal immigrants seems to have stirred up a raging bipartisan political inferno. Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill that requires police to question people about their immigration status if they have reason to suspect that someone is an illegal alien. The Governor insists that the bill will be implemented with no tolerance for racial profiling, but it’s causing fears among some legal immigrants and some U.S. citizens that they'll be targeted by police just because they look Hispanic. (I rather doubt that Arizona’s cops have so much spare time that they’ll be out hassling “Hispanic looking people” just to pass the time!) Supporters of the bill claim it will take the handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration and drug smuggling from Mexico. Arizona is the nations most heavily traveled entry point for both human and drug smugglers, while being home to an estimated half a million illegal immigrants. Maricopa County’s Attorney General reveals that in 2007, illegal immigrants accounted for: 10% of sex crimes convictions, 11% of murders convictions, 13% of stolen cars convictions, 13% of aggravated assaults convictions, 17% of those sentenced for violent crimes, 19% of those sentenced for property crimes, 20% of those sentenced for felony DUI, 21% of crimes committed with weapons, 34% of those sentenced for the manufacture, sale or transport of drugs, 36% of those sentenced for kidnapping, 44% of forgeries, 50% of those sentenced for crimes related to “chop shops”, 85% of false ID convictions, and 96% of smuggling convictions. Illegals make up 19 percent of those convicted of crimes in Maricopa County and 21 percent of those in county jails, while being an estimated 9 percent of the county’s population. The estimates are that each violent crime cost the county $20,000, and property crimes cost $4363 per offense. That’s a lot of taxpayers dollars being wasted on a problem that the US Government should have solved years ago! Gov. Brewer said that; "We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act. But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation." The feds in the meantime claim the new state law is “overreacting”, “premature”, and “ill-conceived”. At the same time, Mr. Obama has ordered a federal investigation to determine if the law is illegal.

I applaud the Governor of Arizona, for with the stroke of the pen she has brought to a head the festering boil that no administration, and certainly not our “do-nothing” congress has had any desire to deal with. Certainly I don’t think that the question of illegal aliens is something that the individual states should have to deal with. But as the federal government will not make an effort to control the situation, then the individual states will have to. I have no animosity towards legal aliens, or Mexican immigrants (or any immigrants for that mater). But, as the situation in Arizona indicates, our nation is being inundated with illegal aliens, and that is just what these people are, ALIENS, not immigrants! Immigrants are by definition here legally, while illegal aliens are not.

We are told that they take the jobs that “Americans don’t want”. Yet how many Americans, immigrant or natural born, are literally pleading for jobs, any jobs, today! Personally I know several of those Americans who would be quite happy with any job, low paying or not. The trick is that the illegals hold those “low paying jobs”, with the low pay being held that way artificially by employers who well know that these people are not going to complain to the NLRB! The vast majority of them do not pay taxes, but they enjoy the benefits of living in this country. The LA Times claims that over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers. 40% of all workers in L. A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes, because they are predominantly illegal aliens working without a green card. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegals. At the same time, 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally. (All of these facts were published in the Los Angeles Times) Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare.

Arizona’s new law makes illegal immigration a state crime and gives police the authority to question people about their immigration status. Now of course we have any number of “Do-Gooders” and “Bleeding Hearts” proclaiming that Arizona’s action is oh so terrible in that it will lead to profiling, and forcing suspects to show proof that they are in this country legally. The Mexican government is upset, assorted congressmen are upset, and the leftist media has opened the floodgates in the crocodile tears department. News reports of rioting leftist protestors don’t mention that most of those “protestors” were Hispanics bussed in from southern California, as the vast majority of Arizona residents support the bill. I also seem to recall that AZ has a quite large population of legal Hispanics… just how did they let their legislators pass a law to enforce immigration policies, unless they don't like illegal immigration either? Rev. Al $harpton has said that he will go to Arizona to lead a civil disobedience demonstration, and I’d suspect that Rev. Je$$e Jack$on will probably show up as well.

We certainly live in interesting times, but there's no doubt Americans are fed up with "business as usual" in Washington. Are Americans beginning to feel in 2010 that our government is treating us unfairly, as did the Confederate citizens of a hundred and fifty years ago?