Published: May 14, 2010
Updated: May 16, 2010 12:05 a.m.
Does Arizona immigration law discriminate?
BY DAVID WHITING

dwhiting@ocregister.com Story Highlights
COMMENTS 426

The stocky locksmith with the buzz cut eyes me warily when I ask how old his kids are and where they live.

There is an uncomfortable pause in the cramped rear of the old red and white truck that serves as home for his business. He finally shares his kids are 14, 18 and 21. I offer that my kids are 22, twins.

But we're in Nogales, Mexico, and the air remains thick with suspicion. There is none of the usual connection between two dads, despite my sense I've met the locksmith before, his resemblance to another father in Orange County so strong it is uncanny.

Such is the way of life in Mexico's border towns south of Arizona, where traffic – going north and south – has slowed since the state adopted the nation's toughest and most controversial immigration law.

The law, which takes effect July 23, requires law enforcement officers, "when practicable," to determine immigration status when there is reasonable suspicion the person is an alien. It also requires police to charge immigrants with a crime if they are without documents.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever welcomes the law. In an interview, he tells me it is the tool his department has been begging for.

It's also worth noting Cochise County is where beloved rancher Robert Krentz was shot and killed March 27 by someone most believe was an undocumented immigrant, an event many agree was the tipping point in the law's favor.

But Clarence Dupnik, the sheriff of Pima County, which includes Tucson and abuts Cochise, is against the law. He says his department already arrests undocumented aliens, and that the law could lead to racial profiling and costly lawsuits by both advocates and opponents.

Such is the way of life in Arizona, where a visit last week found a state in turmoil and a debate raging over whether the law offers solutions to one of its biggest problems, or will create even more.

To vote: Does the law discriminate? Scroll to lower right.

•••PollArizona immigration
Does Arizona's immigration law discriminate?
Yes 10 %

No 89 %

Not sure 1 %

Total Votes: 852

Sheriff Dupnik has been sheriff in Pima County for decades, longer than my parents have lived in Tucson – and they moved there in 1982.

Time and location make a mark on people. When my mother arrived in the high desert from Michigan, most would've labeled her a liberal. She marched in Washington, D.C. during the 1963 civil rights march.

But labels don't wear well in the shimmering desert heat. Alice Conroy Whiting believes in American jobs for Americans, wants immigration reform and brands illegal immigration for exactly what is it is: "illegal."

If she sounds hard, consider the context. While in Arizona this week, I heard far more, um, permanent solutions for dealing with undocumented immigrants. It is a state where fear – and anger – has become very real as the murderous violence of the Mexican drug cartels spreads, particularly in Tucson and Phoenix.

Dupnik views the immigration problem similarly as my mom. But where she is fuzzy on the law, the Pima County sheriff is firm. He tells me the bill will encourage citizens to sue police departments for not enforcing the statute while, at the same time, it will prompt others to sue because it encourages racial profiling.

"It puts taxpayers in an impossible situation," Dupnik says.

The sheriff points out that most months his department turns more than 100 suspected illegal immigrants over to the border patrol. "We already have this authority."

But repetition of authority is the least of Dupnik's concerns. He points out there are two million legal Hispanics in Arizona and, in his view, the new law has "overnight" made them "second-class citizens."

"Eventually," Dupnik says of those who pushed for the new law, "they're going to want to put swastikas on (my deputies') armbands."

•••

Outgunned, undermanned, and with vast swaths of land in Cochise County accessible by nothing but trails and dirt roads, Sheriff Dever faces an impossible job. Undaunted by rugged mountains that make our San Gabriels seem gentle, endless scrub and countless arroyos, Dever's mission statement reflects the challenges. It includes a quote from Winston Churchill:

"It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required."

By all accounts, Krentz, the slain cattle rancher, was like the stand-up cowboys John Wayne loved to play. He had a white handlebar mustache, even favored a white hat.

Krentz and his brother, Phil, worked hard, squeezed a living out of land most would flee and lived the Cowboy Code. Despite being burglarized, Krantz was known to give water to struggling immigrants.

Then came a shooter worse than a horse thief.

Many believe Krentz's killer worked for the cartels or was forced to carry drugs, something which is becoming more frequent.

Whatever the motivation for the shooting, Dever hopes the new immigration law will reduce the numbers of people migrating illegally and drug traffickers.

•••

The locksmith's colorful truck dates from the 1940s, has been in the family business for 50 years. It's parked on a side street in Nogales, Sonora, just blocks from the main drag and the quiet shops where tourists once crowded.

Less than a half-mile away is the 18-foot-tall border fence. On it, artists' murals commemorate immigrant struggles and white crosses bear the names of those who have died trying to get into the United States.

The truck has two giant keys on top – five-feet long, two feet high – and a dozen cartoon characters plastered on its sides.

And, on a cracked window, there is a new sticker. It reads "Made in Arizona" with the alpha-numeric "SB 1070" embedded in a bar code. Below, it states: "No Compro a los que me discriminan," or "I don't buy from those who discriminate against me."

The sticker draws me inside the truck.

"Where do your kids live?" I ask the locksmith, attempting to overcome the tension.

"In the United States," he replies in perfect English, adding the U.S. also is where his wife lives.

He doesn't need to mention it may be a very long time (or an exceedingly short one) before there is a family reunion, depending on circumstances.

It's possible the locksmith's relatives could get a free ride to Mexico, courtesy of the border patrol. But one thing is certain, the locksmith, a Mexican citizen, won't be heading north any time soon.

"A lot of people are scared. They could be pulled over by anybody," he explains. "A lot of people are not going to America."

That might not be bad news for folks like Susie Morales who, according to the Tucson Weekly, lives 2.5 miles from the Nogales border, sees drug mules 75 yards from her home and packs a. 357 magnum.

But how will a law enforcement officer tell a drug mule from a visiting locksmith from an Orange County dad?

David Whiting's column runs News One on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays and in Sports/Outdoors on Tuesdays; dwhiting@ocregister.com.

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