Arizona Crimes: Who has the right?

Crime riles Arizonans bent on immigration crackdown

Tim Gaynor

MESA, Arizona
Thu May 6, 2010 10:31am EDT

(Reuters) - Following a tip, a police SWAT team closed off the street, put a school on lock-down and then burst through the door of a shabby house where dozens of illegal immigrants were sheltering.


The sheriff's deputies caught three men who took off running and arrested 24 people they suspected of being illegal immigrants recently arrived from Mexico.

"There were fire and police people going back and forth, the road closed off ... It was chaotic," said Virginia Mongold, who watched the operation unfold on Monday, the 56th such raid in the Phoenix valley this year.

Illegal immigration and border-related crime have residents like Mongold and their elected officials riled enough that Arizona passed the United States' toughest immigration law last month -- unleashing a fiery debate over crime, racial profiling and policing that reverberated far beyond the state's borders.

The law seeks to drive illegal immigrants from the desert state, the principal corridor for unauthorized migrants entering the country from Mexico, and a busy entry point for Mexican cartels smuggling drugs to a voracious U.S. market.

Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer charges the federal government has failed in its duty to secure the border with Mexico, and says the state law is needed to curb violence and cut crime stemming from illegal immigration.

As examples of border-related crime, Brewer singled out "drop houses," where smugglers routinely beat migrants to get their money for guiding them over the rugged border, as well as kidnappings linked to the drug trade.

"There is no higher priority than protecting the citizens of Arizona," she said. "We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of the drug cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life."

'MIGHT AS WELL BE MEXICO'

Almost two-thirds of Arizona voters and a majority of voters nationwide agree with her and support the law, polls show.

But as border crime grabs headlines in Arizona and beyond, U.S. government figures show that arrests on the Arizona-Mexico border have been falling since 2000. Violent and property crimes across the desert state have also declined, suggesting the picture is not as dire as Brewer claims.

In the sleepy street in Mesa where the police carried out their raid, residents grappled with their feelings about illegal immigration and border crime -- who is to blame for it and the best way to respond to it.

Mongold, a young mother who works at a small packaging store nearby, backs the law and blames Washington for failing to secure the border and stem illegal immigration from Mexico.

"I'm angry, I'm frustrated, I might as well be in Mexico there's so many of them," she said, referring to the 460,000 illegal immigrants estimated to live and work in the state, many as day laborers, landscapers, maids and restaurant cooks.

At the Mesa Preparatory Academy, which police locked down in the recent raid, principal Robert Wagner was more cautious about the threat posed by crime and immigration.

"It's somewhat disconcerting that it's going on in our neighborhood, but I don't believe that we are living or operating in fear," he said, choosing his words carefully.

"It is important to look at the facts before drawing a conclusion, and that's part of what we teach in this school." He declined to say whether he supported the law.

The Arizona state law catapulted immigration back to the forefront of U.S. politics and piled pressure on President Barack Obama to deliver on an election promise to Hispanics to overhaul immigration laws and create a path to citizenship for the country's estimated 10.8 million undocumented immigrants.

Obama said on Wednesday he wanted to begin work on immigration reform this year and that federal officials would mintor the new law in Arizona for civil rights implications.

Local law enforcement agencies in Arizona are divided over the measure, which requires state and local police to arrest those unable to provide proof they are in the country legally.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik from the southern county of Pima, slammed it as "unnecessary ... a travesty, and most significantly ... unconstitutional."

The view echoed misgivings by Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris who said that determining immigration status detracted from the main job of curbing violent and property crimes.

The tough law is set to come into effect in late July, but faces legal challenges from a variety of plaintiffs, including police officers, civil rights groups and city councils.


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from another Reuters article:


Polls show the measure has the backing of almost two-thirds of Arizona voters and majority support nationwide. The law has prompted legal challenges and hurled immigration back on the front burner of U.S. politics in this volatile election year.


'NO PLACE FOR BIGOTRY'

"Laws that make suspects out of people for no other reason than the color of their skin have no place in our country," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Mexican-American, told marchers packing into the city center.

"We must show that bigotry has no place in the United States of America," added Villaraigosa, a Democrat who is one of the most powerful Hispanics in U.S. politics.

Invoking race much?  No, there are by some estimates nearly 500,000 illegals in Arizona.  Of the nearly 500,000 somewhere around 490,000 are from ... here are some choices:  a) Canada, b) Sweden, c) Denmark, d) Russia, e) Mexico ???  Take your time, we can wait.  So, if you were looking for illegals from choices A through C, you would have to check ALL white residents.  However, because we know that 95+% are from Mexico, we can narrow our search, make it more focused, and not open it to every person who appears to be Mexican, just those who are stopped on any average typical and usual day.  Why not.  It is not bigotry nor is it hateful - it is realistic and reasonable.  OR we could simply require EVERY citizen to be asked at the time they are stopped.  If that is preferable, perhaps we should go down that road.  It is your choice.


Kellie Morrell, a waitress at a New York City restaurant that she said employs several illegal immigrants, was among a few thousand activists who took to the streets of New York.

"They work really hard and they deserve to not have to live in fear of arrest or being thrown into prison, or even worse," she said.

  She is a stellar example of people who should not breed.  So these illegals in Arizona - the police stop them for a crime, and ask for ID ... they are arrested for the crime, and being illegal, and will be deported UNLESS the crime is serious in which case we will pay over 40,000 a year to store them.  If it is minor, we will deport them with a free bus or plane ticket back to Mexico.  FEAR of being arrested?  If you are illegal.  Thrown into prison - draconian.  One reason they want to reduce the number is to reduce the number of illegals in the prison system - NOT increase it.  OR EVEN WORSE?  As in, killing them, as they do in Mexico if you are an illegal from Guatemala or elsewhere - and that is the police, forget about anyone not involved in law enforcement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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