Arizona Immigration Bill Roils Politics at the State Level
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed what the New York Times calls “the nation’s toughest bill on illegal immigration” into law on April 23, 2010. The law requires legal immigrants to carry their immigration documents with them at all times, and authorizes local law enforcement officers to detain people they suspect are in the country illegally. The law is scheduled to take effect one month before Arizonans go to the polls in late August for the primaries, ensuring the measure will be a hot topic of conversation during the run-up to the election.
The major races in Arizona this year include the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John McCain and the Arizona governorship held by Republican Jan Brewer. Both these sitting officeholders withheld their support for the bill until the last possible moment, with McCain issuing his endorsement on April 19, while Brewer remained silent until she signed the bill into law four days later.
McCain faces a tough primary challenge from radio talk-show host (and former congressman) J.D. Hayworth. Recent polls have shown McCain with only a small lead over Hayworth, and according to Rasmussen Reports, that lead has eroded over time, from 22 percentage points in January to seven points in March, to five points as of April 16. However, given that McCain was already perceived as soft on illegal immigration by many conservatives due to his support for the comprehensive immigration reform bills of 2006 and 2007, Hayworth seems unlikely to gain additional traction over this issue.
Brewer, who stepped up to the governor’s chair when Janet Napolitano was selected to head the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, faces three challengers for the GOP nomination to retain her job. She has been cursed by the anti-incumbent sentiment facing many current officeholders, and remains vulnerable both in the primary and the general election. However, she moved up strongly in the latest Rasmussen poll, from a virtual tie with her competitors in March to an eight-point lead in April. The poll was taken before Brewer signed the immigration bill; logically she should do even better next month. That’s because likely Arizona Republican voters overwhelmingly favor the bill. According to Rasmussen, the bill is supported by 84% of GOP partisans.
John McCain has been behind the curve for decades. When he isn’t reacting he is taking the wrong side of every debate, McCain voted for the last “Immigration Reform” bill and failed to follow through with securing the border after the last amnesty. Failed to secure the border after 9/11. He spent so much time ” reaching across the isle” that he forgot that his job in the Senate is not to get along and compromise with the likes of Teddy( the dead) Kennedy. Mr. McCain needs to go home and drink Bud Lite.
The Arizona statute was carefully crafted, and Barack & Co. are as far out in left field (and as preemptive in their assessment) as they were in the Henry Louis Gates affair.
From Obama to Holder and everyone in between, a sovereign state stepping up to perform a duty the federal government has clearly failed to perform makes them downright apoplectic. That old 10th amendment (1791) really sticks in the craw of the entire crowd of transnationalists & socialists currently holding court in Washington DC.
How dare a state step up to the plate ?! It must be racism ! (Hispanics aren’t a “race” to begin with, but who cares about accuracy when you can sling a convenient epithet ?)
Illegal Aliens: Law and Sovereignty in Arizona
John McCain has come rather late to the “protect the border” idea. His new found intensity may well be related to the fact that his future in the Senate is somewhat tenuous these days.
@tanstaafl —
Thank you for the link to Andy McCarthy’s superb article, “Illegal Aliens: Law and Sovereignty in Arizona.”
Everyone should read it!
As a regular PJM reader Pat Curley is a breath of fresh air and welcomed addition. Finally some informed insights on the ground from a southwesterner who didn’t just move to Maricopa Co to cash in on the gold rush the credit bubble represented and then bolt when the bubble burst.
I hope PJM gives Curley the space to fill in the background on how Arizona’s arrived at this juncture. Namely, that from the moment Janet Napolitano endorsed Obama over Hillary, and openly courted an exit from state gov to a higher pay grade/national profile, her selfish decision to leave in the midst of a devistating economy (a decision she NEVER hesitated on given the states sorry condition) has led to a complete dysfunctional meltdown in governence at the state level.
Immigration is at the core of what ails this state today – and the overwhelming reason why more time is spent litigating in court between liberals and conservatives rather than running the peoples business.
Yet the craven way that the MSM is exploiting – without even devoting even the most remedial efforts to report what has actually happened here prior to this recent law passing – exemplifies just the latest irresponsible manifestation of partisan journalism pushing an agenda rather than serving to inform the public.
Perhaps some kind American can explain something to me. Presumably the southern borders of California, Arizona & Texas are also the southern border of the USA. Why don’t the Republican governors of these 3 states just build a bloody great fence along THEIR southern borders.
Because much of that land is owned by the Federal govt, and you have to get the Feds permission to do anything on the land. Beyond that, you have to get the permission of the EPA before you can sneeze, much less build a 1000 mile long wall.
Didn’t I read somewhere about a rancher building a fence on the US side on his own land? I can quite see why an Israeli-type wall might be a step too far at the moment. But how about a series of interlocking fences, not walls, on private property? Isn’t it interesting that in the UK & the US, control-freakery governments don’t seem to bothered about controlling the borders?
As for CA, whether or not the gov calls himself a Republican, the legislature is very heavily Democrat, and they would have to approve the expenditures before a wall could be built.
Michael, in case you’re curious, the Arizona Bill can be found here.
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070h.htm
Arizona’s problem has, reportedly, increased as the illegal traffic moved East after San Diego built a really effective barrier and is, thus, no longer the major crossing point it was formerly.
(tunnels connecting from Mexico for purposes of drug/people smuggling had even built under the border crossing south of San Diego)
Afew years ago, Texas reportedly took it upon itself to build an effective fence for at least a portion of its long border with Mexico.
The failure of both political parties to effectively address illegal immigration is so longstanding as to have practically become a joke. The notion that the impetus for inaction on enforcing federal law is that neither party wants to lose or offend the Hispanic voting bloc is…pathetic.
The Democrats evidently feel there is still some power left in the “racism” battery, but all I hear is the starter grinding away.
For a good look at the ground level impact of illegal immigration and drug smuggling in Arizona:
“Following The Amnesty Trail”
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/following-the-amnesty-trail/Content?oid=1086828
The article is from 2007 and NOTHING has changed.
I wonder how would liberal types would like to have the conditions of the “Amnesty Trail” running through Yellowstone Park or the Blue Ridge Parkway?
Mayor ‘Richpiggy’ Bloomberg describes the new illegal immigration law in Arizona as anti-immigrant and national suicide. The law is neither of those things. It is an anti-crime and anti-invasion law. Bloomberg and Newsome and all those other meddlers should mind their own business. Arizona is not their business.
Exactly what kind of “hardship” is it to ask individuals to carry iderntification. What about a “Green Card?” Following is what
happens in just a few other countries. Entering the U.S. illegally is ‘ILLEGAL!” Hard working Americans are sick and tired of not only supporting millions of lazy, uneducated people who are citizens, let
alone have to continue to support millions of ILLEGALS!
IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR……
IF YOU GO INTO RED CHINA ILLEGALLY, YOU’RE CONSIDERED A SPY AND GET HARD PRISON TIME…..
IF YOU GO INTO GERMANY ILLEGALLY, YOU GET A HEFTY FINE, WORK IT OFF OR PAY IT OFF, THEN DEPORTED………
IF YOU GO INTO ENGLAND ILLEGALLY, YOU ARE JAILED IMMEDIATELY AND DEPORTED………
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY….
BUT, IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. .. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET:
1. A DRIVERS LICENSE
2. A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD
3. FREE WELFARE
4. FREE FOOD STAMPS AND
5. FREE HEALTH CARE?
Horses’ Petuzzis Ride into Arizona
“Three Border Patrol agents are assaulted on the average day at or near the U.S.A border. Someone is kidnapped every 35 hours in Phoenix, Ariz., often by agents of alien smuggling organizations. And one-in-five American teenagers last year used some type of illegal drug, many of which were imported across the unsecured U.S.-Mexico border:” http://bit.ly/9wExK1
That excerpt of a CNS report based on DOJ figures doesn’t even mention the number of assaults and murders of both civilians and law enforcement officials, the high-speed chases of criminal suspects, the school over-crowding, the closed hospitals, the high costs across the board for Arizonans to be the unwilling hosts of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from Mexico.
Yet, Mexico treats undocumented visitors traversing its Third World environs en route to the USA as invaders and condemns Arizona’s new immigration law which is far more lenient than Mexico’s and simply codifies on a state level already existing and unenforced federal laws.
As expected, the Commander in Chief in Charge of Defending Illegality jumped into the Arizona controversy as did San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome who declared Arizona off limits as did the usual agitators such as Al Sharpton, all insisting that Arizona be blacklisted as a pariah state which should be shunned by all civilized peoples.
Perhaps the worst attack has . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1653)
Way to go Az. Love what you’re doing. I wish Ca would do the same thing.
This is the number to I.C.E. report them before they get amnesty.
I love it. The democrats just introduced a comprehensive emigration bill that requires a national biometric ID card. Yup, can’t wait. Yet The same democrats are having a sissy fit over a state, Arizona, enforcing a state law that mimics federal laws on arrest and due process procedures; a law against trespassing by aliens within the state without a federal license. My god, the fascists!!! The police are actually going to be required to ask for ID and Federal immigration papers in the course of normal law enforcement when establishing identification and legal residence. So we’re to believe that the new biometric national ID card will be used to actually enforce immigration laws and police a border democrats think are illegitimate barriers to diversity? Meanwhile in Santa Clara County California the board of mommy supervisors banned the serving of children’s toys with happy meals on the theory that junk food promotes obesity among the future league of vagina voters. I guess this means the children will have to bring their own toys to eat Big Mac.
SB 1070: Arizona’s Illegal Alien Law
With the continuing and worsening uproar over Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, it might be worthwhile to actually read said law before demonstrating or rioting over it.
Aside from the incongruity of the spectacle of illegal aliens protesting against a public law not scheduled to go into effect for months, a look at the text of that statute might alleviate some of their overreactive concerns.
It’s a simple law, really, as far as laws go, and largely devoid of the legalistic jargon that often obfuscates what politicians write. The section titled, “Article 8. Enforcement of Immigration Laws.” and subtitled, “Cooperation and Assistance in Enforcement of Immigration Laws; Indemnification,” represents a straightforward piece of legislation: . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1655)
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