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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Outraged defender of border

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... rce10.html

    Outraged defender of border

    Pearce's belief in 'the rule of law' drove him to become a co-author of Proposition 200

    (Arizona, illegal aliens, laws, campaigns, Republican, illegal immigration)

    Robbie Sherwood
    The Arizona Republic
    Jul. 10, 2005 12:00 AM

    When Rep. Russell Pearce stepped to the microphone to address backers of the Minuteman Project at a recent state Capitol rally, he was met with a rock-star cheer from hundreds of sign-waving supporters.

    Just as fervently awaiting his appearance was a group of protesters. Objecting to his hard-line approach to illegal immigration, they used a hand-held siren and drums to all but obliterate his words.

    Afterward, Pearce just shrugged. Such is the life of the man who has become the most tenacious face of the anti-illegal immigration movement in Arizona. Pearce exemplifies the force that has consumed Arizona politics since voters passed Proposition 200 last year.

    "Nobody likes to be the bad guy, especially when you are standing up for America," he said. "These are people who are demanding that we ignore broken laws. It's outrageous."

    Pearce, 58, moved to the forefront of the illegal immigration backlash first by co-authoring Proposition 200, then by sponsoring a string of bills attempting to shut off an array of state and municipal services to undocumented immigrants.

    A man who consistently speaks his mind, he denounced as borderline traitors anyone who doesn't agree with his wishes to close the borders by mobilizing police forces and National Guard troops to turn back the immigration tide.

    All this has made him an object of scorn to Latino activists and a courageous defender of traditional American values to people alarmed by Arizona's recent wave of illegal immigration.

    Pearce commands instant credibility among his many supporters at such events. They say he is so persistent and passionate not because he dislikes immigrants, but because his belief in "the rule of law" is absolute and unwavering.

    The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that he has become the foil for many on the other side of the immigration issue. But he says his motivations have either been misunderstood or misrepresented.

    Pearce says ethnic or racial bias plays no role in his activism, noting that he has a Hispanic daughter-in-law and Hispanic grandchildren.

    "I'm not anti-immigration, I'm anti-illegal immigration," Pearce said. "I believe in the rule of law. That's why I went into law enforcement. I don't believe someone has the right to break into your house. I don't believe someone has the right to break into your country."

    Pearce co-authored the state's anti-illegal immigration initiative, Proposition 200 out of frustration. He felt that the initiative would prevent widespread welfare and voter fraud, but its effects since passage have been minimal.

    The law did succeed in tapping into a long-simmering public frustration with illegal immigration that crossed ethnic and party lines.

    Since November, Pearce has seen his political star rise to the point where supporters are pushing him to seek a larger stage: the Governor's Office or perhaps Congress.


    Pearce for governor?
    Pearce dismisses talk of taking on Gov. Janet Napolitano, saying his wife, LuAnne, would make him "a single man" if he ran. He doesn't know yet where his political future lies, but he is contemplating a major next step.

    "Of course you think about it, but have I decided? No," Pearce said. "Do I want to stay engaged in policy? Yes."

    Pearce isn't shy, however, about taking shots at Napolitano's record on immigration, which he calls abysmal. He has persistently dogged Napolitano's positions on immigration as "pandering to pro-illegals" while calling her recent plans to use state police to work with the U.S. Border Patrol a copycat move of his ideas.

    "If I was the governor, the first thing I'd do is put the National Guard on the border in a modest manner, assign patrols and really beef it up. She can do that today," he said. "I'd declare an emergency under federal law because of the impact of a billion-dollar cost to the criminal justice system, to the health care system and the education system."

    Republican state Sen. Karen Johnson of Mesa, a close Pearce friend and frequent carpool buddy, said the movement to push Pearce into the governor's race is real and strong.

    "Believe me, I'm not the only one," Johnson said. "If his wife would say go for it, he'd be off an running. I think she's concerned about what the race would do to his health. But we're all working on her."

    A former high school wrestler, Pearce still has the barrel-chested countenance of a former athlete. But he suffered a minor heart attack shortly before winning office in 2000, and a year after that he had a minor stroke. He has made a full recovery from both, though his strength and stamina aren't what they once were.

    Arizona's Republican National Committeeman Randy Pullen, whose own political rise was directly attributable to his role as spokesman for the Proposition 200 campaign, said Pearce's persistent and unwavering belief in the rule of law definitely merits a larger stage.

    "I'd like to see him run for Congress. He'd be great," Pullen said. "I'm encouraging him to do that."


    Says bias not a factor
    The Minuteman rally at the Capitol on July 1 brought out extremists on both sides of the issue. One young girl among the protesters stood next to members of a young Communists league. She held a sign that read "(expletive) the Minutemen!"

    On the other side of the Capitol Mall, a bearded, longhaired man mingled among the Minutemen supporters in a T-shirt that said, "It's not illegal to be White . . . yet."

    Slogans like that and other enflamed rhetoric have led to accusations from Latino activists that the anti-immigrant movement is fueled by racial prejudice. That kind of talk rankles Pearce, a Mesa native who grew up in largely Hispanic neighborhoods. Pearce said race has nothing to do with his passion for cracking down on illegal immigration.

    He said he strongly favors legal immigration, but he considers anyone who ignores the crime associated with illegal immigration to be treasonous.

    "To this day some of my best friends are Hispanic," Pearce said. "That's what makes it so hard when we have these battles and they make it look like we are against a certain people."

    To the contrary, Pearce said he loves the Hispanic culture.

    "Hispanics, I think, are some of the finest people I've ever known," Pearce said. "I'm not talking about the gangbangers and the little punks, I'm talking about the ones who have come across legally, good people, humble hard-working people. I'm grateful that they are pro-life and pro-family. They share many of the values that I share. Why would I be against that?

    "But we are a nation of laws," Pearce added. "And if we ignore those laws, we become a lawless nation."

    State Rep. Ben Miranda, who has often sparred with Pearce about immigration issues, said having Hispanic friends and relatives doesn't justify such a single-minded focus in policies that disproportionately affect Latinos.

    "Just because you eat tacos doesn't mean you are sensitive to immigrants and Latinos," said Miranda, D-Phoenix, of Pearce. "I get along with him on a personal basis, I'm not intimidated by him. But when you put yourself out there on the speaking circuit talking about how much of a threat the immigrant is to this country, and you associate with people who do espouse racist views, then you invite people to characterize you as a racist as well. That's free game in politics."



    Pearce's childhood in Mesa was central influence on many of his core beliefs, from get-tough law enforcement policies to a do-it-yourself stand against welfare and other government anti-poverty programs.

    Pearce grew up poor. His father was a severe alcoholic who bounced from job to job, moving his family from one seedy rental home to the next. He lived in seven houses on Mesa's Macdonald Street alone. Pearce's mother had to work to support the children and his father.

    "He was a good man, but he was very weak," Pearce said. "He wasn't a dad, he wasn't a father. My mom raised him along with raising us. He would steal from us, steal from my mom, be gone for days at a time."

    Pearce said his mother was "a saint," who made the family's clothes and adamantly refused charity.

    Tears filled his eyes and he had trouble speaking when he recounted how, as a child, he came home with his family and discovered that a good Samaritan had left some groceries in their kitchen.

    "We were not allowed to touch those groceries because my mom did not want to take a handout," Pearce said. "The integrity of my mom. Her sense of personal responsibility. It was her job to raise her family, not somebody else's. My mom never took a penny from government or anybody else."

    Pearce's youth - colored by hardscrabble poverty, a substance-abusing father, a saintly but long-suffering mother - parallels that of another American politician. Pearce as a youth had a lot in common with President Bill Clinton.

    But the similarities ended after childhood. As an elected official, Pearce has crusaded against government spending, likened taxation to "stealing" and advocated deep cuts to social services and other programs as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

    Ironically, almost every job he has had has been funded by taxpayers. He has been a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy and administrator, a justice of the peace, director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, director of the Motor Vehicles Division and now a legislator.

    "If you really want to reform government, it's easier from the inside than the outside," Pearce said. "Every where I've been, I've been responsible for major reforms to make government easier and less burdensome, and more rooted in common sense."


    Shooting fuels passion
    Unable to afford college, where he had wanted to study medicine, Pearce opted for his next choice. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office hired Pearce as a deputy in the early 1970s, the start of a 23-year career in law enforcement.

    Pearce won the department's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, in 1977 when he survived a gunshot to the chest with a .357 Magnum.

    Pearce had stopped to question a trio of teens suspected of drinking near a store in Guadalupe when the boys jumped him, took his gun and tried to kill him. The shot also tore off the ring finger on Pearce's right hand but did not stop him from radioing for help and attempting to pursue the teens who had assaulted him.

    Another police shooting 27 years later would hammer home why Pearce gets incensed that some might consider illegal immigration "a victimless crime."

    An undocumented immigrant shot and severely wounded Pearce's son Sean, a member of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office SWAT team, and two other deputies who were trying to serve a search warrant on a homicide suspect in December.

    Sean is one of two children from Pearce's first marriage. Pearce and his wife, LuAnne, have three children together, and he has seven grandchildren.

    Pearce was speaking out against illegal immigration in Washington, D.C., at a Brookings Institute event when he received the call that Sean had been shot and was in critical condition. Later that night, during a layover on his way home, officials told Pearce that the suspects were undocumented.

    "So, does it make you mad?" Pearce said. "Yeah, because of the government's failure, we have citizens being punished and hurt.

    "They say illegal immigration is a victimless crime. That offends me."


    The Pearce solution
    How Russell Pearce would solve illegal immigration in Arizona.

    Pearce opposes legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate by John !McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., calling for a temporary worker program that could lead to permanent residency. He opposes any plans allowing permanent residency.

    Pearce would like to see the governor order the National Guard to the border "in a modest manner" to patrol and drill. And he would fully empower local law enforcement to arrest and turn over illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol.

    Pearce also supports expanding the reach of Proposition 200 beyond just welfare services and elections to deny undocumented immigrants child-care subsidies, adult classes, public housing, higher education and other government-funded benefits.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    This article has been added to the alipac homepage.

    http://www.alipac.us/article-527-thread-1-0.html
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
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    Way to go!! What a brave and steadfast man. Wish we had thousands more in politics rather than the parasites we have.

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

  4. #4
    Senior Member greyparrot's Avatar
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    Now THIS is an American we need to back!

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