Arizona Governor: Critics are Overreacting
by Robert M. Engstrom

05/03/2010


The polls indicate 70% of Arizonans support the toughest state immigration law ever passed, and 60% of Americans favor tougher immigration enforcement, yet protests that began last week in Arizona’s capitol have quickly spread to Tucson, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities.

The list of opponents to Arizona’s action, many threatening lawsuits to stop the new law, received more publicity than those favoring the state’s response to the federal government’s ongoing failure to address the crisis on the Mexican border.

Arizona’s new law grants the state’s law enforcement agencies the authority to enforce federal immigration regulations identical to the duties of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Swift condemnation, threats and hyperbole from pro-immigrant groups, politicians and the Mexican government followed the signing of the law.

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the Democratic chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force which backs amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the United States, called the law a “serious civil rights catastropheâ€