Thread: Business groups fight conservative border plan

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The Business Journal of Phoenix - 2:50 PM MST Wednesday
Business groups fight conservative border plan
Mike Sunnucks
The Business Journal
The bitter immigration debate going in Arizona and at the national level is straining relations between business interests and Republicans who oppose a guest worker program and favor tougher penalties against employers who hire illegals.

That could create some significant opportunities for Democrats to make inroads, both with business groups and Hispanic voters worried about stricter immigration policies coming from the Republican right.

Arizona Democrats are also quick to point out that illegal immigration and border security are federal responsibilities and the GOP controls the White House, Congress and eight of the state's 10 congressional seats.

Arizona and national business interests are fighting hard against an enforcement-oriented federal immigration bill that looks to punish illegal immigrants and employers but does not include a guest worker program. There is also a conservative push to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.- Mexican border.

Business interests, the Bush administration and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are among the key backers of a guest or temporary worker program. Top Arizona Democrats -- including Gov. Janet Napolitano and Valley real estate developer Jim Pederson, who is looking to unseat GOP U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl -- also back a guest worker plan

However, conservatives, including Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth, strongly oppose a guest worker program and anything that allows illegals already in the U.S. to apply for legal status. Kyl supports a guest worker program but wants the estimated 11 million illegals already in the U.S. to return to their home countries and then apply for legal status.

There has also been substantial snipping and infighting in Arizona Republican ranks, including between business allies and border hawks as well as between Hayworth and East Valley Congressman Jeff Flake, who favors a guest worker program.

Hayworth has voiced some of the strongest get-tough-on-the-border rhetoric in Washington of late, including disagreeing with President Bush on a temporary worker plan. He has called the illegal immigration problem an invasion. Flake recently compared Hayworth to controversial Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, a leading border hawk, according to published reports.

Business groups are siding with moderate Republicans such as McCain and centrist Democrats like Napolitano on the immigration issue.

"An 'enforcement only' bill that is a tougher version of the current failed system is no solution," said Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry vice president Farrell Quinlan.

The state chamber is a leading business backer of a guest worker program to license and document immigrants wishing to work in the U.S.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Associated General Contractors and other national business groups are also opposing the enforcement bill.

Quinlan is hopeful a compromise will be worked out that will include a guest worker plan.

"Let's wait to see where an inevitable conference committee report comes out on comprehensive immigration reform. I am optimistic that a compromise bill can be developed this congressional session," said Quinlan.

At the state level, top business advocates are also fighting against measures that would suspend or revoke business licenses and corporate charters. That is creating for some major tension between business leaders and conservative immigration hawks at the state Legislature.

Arizona Democratic Party spokesman Seth Scott said the immigration issue will be a top one for his side of the aisle in the 2006 elections in Arizona and elsewhere.

"Losing control of the border happened on the President's watch, and on (U.S. Sen.) Jon Kyl's watch, and the deflect blame strategy Republicans have tried to use on this issue isn't resonating anymore," said Scott.

"This will be a very large part of our 2006 strategy. We're going to talk frankly about the federal government's failure at the border, and we're going to make the case that people like Jon Kyl who have been in Congress for 20 years have failed to secure the border," Scott said.

Kyl has strongly defended his border record, saying he has worked for years to bring more resources to bear at the border and toughen up immigration law enforcement. Kyl has authored a tough immigration package with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and has been pushing for increased border guards and technology. The latter has been included in some recent federal appropriations.

Scott said tough Republican immigration proposals could also turn off moderate swing voters as well as Hispanics who make up a quarter of the state's population and are an increasingly important voting bloc.

Republicans, such as State Rep. Russell Pearce, Kyl and Hayworth, counter that the border needs to be secured and immigration laws enforced for security reasons and voters prefer their get tough approach.

They are critical of Napolitano on the immigration front also though the Democratic governor has made border matters a top priority in recent months, stressing it's the federal government that needs the improvement.

The governor is up for re-election next year against a Republican who will likely offer a more get-tough approach to immigration and the Mexican border.

Hey Business!! Listen up...you get your butts back to work and stay out of our politics.

If you can't figure out how to run a business legally in the United States, then maybe it's time you resigned and closed your doors. There are 250,000,000 Americans who know how to operate an American Business Legally? You want competition? Well, you got it. Now shut up or get out.

We're sick of your whining, we're sick of your betrayals, we're sick to death of all your 'ilk" to end our nation; deflate our wages; and cater to foreign nationals over American Citizens all the while expecting American Citizens to underwrite the survival of your cheap labor and their big families.

We've had it; we're done with illegals and we're done with you.

DON'T SPEND, SAVE!!

Afterall, all any American really wants for Christmas is their country back.

All together now in unison:

"All I Want for Christmas Is My Country Back"

BOYCOTT COMMERCIAL CHRISTMAS.

They all need Christmas to make their sales and end of the year reports. Blow it off; keep your money; do not buy Christmas presents on a charge card; if you really want to save your nation---don't buy anything, but if you do buy something....buy it with cash or forget it. If you don't have the cash to buy, then you can't afford it to begin with.

Christmas is about more than presents. Christmas is about Hope and Peace. Without a sovereign, strong America....Hope and Peace are impossible here or anywhere else in the world. Fight world tyranny by fighting illegal immigration. Do this one simple thing:

Make this Christmas the year you saved your country and told these whining, illegal, lyin' cheatin' traitor businesses to TAKE A HIKE!!

Turn Your Backs On Them. They turned their backs on you.

And, they need you far more than you need them.

In fact, You don't need them or their stuff....at all!

"All I Want For Christmas Is My Country Back"

Tell your kids what you're doing. Believe me, they will understand. Children have intuitive instincts for survival. They already know something needs to be done and are wondering why in the world American Adults haven't already DONE SOMETHING.

DO IT!! Make this the Year.....Christmas saved the United States.