SB 1070 defense fund draws donations from across nation, globe

Friday, Oct. 28
By Uriel J. Garcia
Cronkite News


Crossing borders to defend borders


Explore the donations from various places to Keep AZ Safe, the fund set up to fight legal challenges to SB 1070, Arizona's sweeping immigration crackdown measure:



by Brittny Goodsell

The following areas also donated to the legal defense fund for Arizona's SB 1070:

• $1,631.00 - U.S. Armed Forces in Europe, Middle East, Canada
• $1,215.00 - Armed Forces Pacific
• $1,176.00 - Unknown
• $615.00 - Puerto Rico
• $230.00 - Armed Forces, Americas
• $120.00 - Guam
• $100.00 - Costa Rica
• $100.00 - Saskatchewan
• $56.33 - British Columbia
• $50.00 - Australia
• $45.00 - Federation of Micronesia
• $30.00 - Virgin Islands
• $5.00 - Palau

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Top 10 states for donations to the SB 1070 legal defense fund:
• Wyoming: $1.55 million*
• Arizona: $379,528
• California: $328,841
• Texas: $202,888
• Pennsylvania: $126,867
• Florida: $118,439
• New York: $65,396
• Washington: $60,679
• Virginia: $53,167
• Illinois: $52,525

* Includes single $1.5 million Timothy Mellon donation.

Data from Governor's Office of Arizona

WASHINGTON – When Gov. Jan Brewer asked private donors last year to help pay legal fees to defend the state and its controversial SB 1070 immigration law against lawsuits, thousands of Arizonans responded.

And so did thousands of people from other states. And other territories and other countries.

Donations to the fund, which totaled $3.8 million as of Sept. 1, have come from all 50 states in the nation, several territories, the District of Columbia and countries as far-flung as Canada, Costa Rica and Micronesia.

Those donations have swamped the contributions from Arizonans, who make up about 15 percent of the 45,402 donors and about 10 percent of the total donations.

Supporters of the law say the broad reach of the donations is proof of the popularity of SB 1070.

“The geographic diversity of donors to the (fund) is a point of pride for the governor,â€