Thread: Arizona defiant over immigration law

As the federal court blocks part of Arizona's tough new immigration law, Philip Sherwell in Phoenix finds a state determined to continue the fight. By Philip Sherwell in Phoenix, Arizona
Published: 7:40PM BST 31 Jul 2010
In the state where US marshal Wyatt Earp and his friend Doc Holliday gunned down outlaws in the legendary shoot-out at the OK Corral, justice has long packed the punch of the Wild West.

So it is no surprise that a portrait of John Wayne dominates the Phoenix office of Republican state lawmaker Russell Pearce, a barrel-chested former deputy sheriff who sponsored the tough Arizona anti-illegal immigration bill that has ignited a national firestorm.

Mr Pearce last week pledged to take his battle against undocumented foreigners from the predominantly Hispanic barrios of western Phoenix to the marble steps of the United States Supreme Court, after a federal judge blocked the law's strictest provisions.

"We are circling the wagons against the illegal immigrants who are responsible for a crime wave in our state and stealing our jobs," he declared defiantly in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. Adding a lawman's metaphor to his cowboy comparisons, he added: "The handcuffs are coming out."

And Mr Pearce escalated the explosive debate by calling for children born in the US to be denied citizenship if their parents are there illegally. That attack on "birthright" citizenship would require a change to the constitution, but has growing support among conservatives.

The judge's partial injunction suspended a requirement on police to check individuals' immigration status during routine stops if they were suspected of being in the US illegally – and Jan Brewer, Arizona's Republican governor, filed an immediate appeal against it.

President Barack's Obama's administration had argued that immigration policy was a federal responsibility, not for implementation by individual states.

This dust-up in the desert ensures that the political hot potato of immigration will be a major issue in the November elections that will determine whether the Democrats keep control of Congress.

In Phoenix, tempers raged as the temperatures soared past 100F. Pro-immigrant protesters converged on the city and there were more than 30 arrests, while an uncompromising police chief launched fresh sweeps targeting illegal immigrants.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, often dubbed "America's toughest cop", dispatched dozens of officers and volunteer posse members on what his department called a "crime suppression/illegal immigration" operation.

"It's still the Wild West here," he said. "In the old days, the sheriff would swear in the posse to go after horse thieves. Now I swear them in to go after car thieves. My mission is to enforce the law and nobody's going to tell me how to do my job. If we find any illegals in the process, we'll pass them on to appropriate authorities."

His teams – armed and equipped with black bullet-proof police vests, though often ageing and sporting paunches – were sent to mainly Hispanic districts to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy on traffic offences.

If motorists were stopped, their criminal histories would be checked, thus usually establishing their immigration status. His men have arrested 932 people in such operations since March 2008, of whom 708 were in the US illegally.

Mr Pearce was once Mr Arpaio's deputy and reveres Wayne, who often played lawmen, as a "red, white and blue hero who always stood up for the good guy". Visitors to his offices in the state capitol last week had to pass protesters chanting "We will not comply" – a response to another blocked provision of his bill that would require immigrants to carry paperwork proving their status.

In an interview, he attributed a litany of ills on illegal foreigners and lambasted Mr Obama for "pandering" to his party faithful on immigration and failing to secure America's borders.

"In Arizona, we see the deaths, the maimings, the kidnappings and the gang activity that is the consequence of ignoring the rule of law," he said. "Illegals are the same as any other criminals and we should arrest every one of them we can.

"I suppose the police officers killed by illegal immigrants and the rancher executed by human smugglers were just collateral damage for those who oppose implementing the law."

He knows first-hand about the risks after losing part of a finger from a shoot-out with illegal immigrants. And his son, also then a policeman, was shot in the stomach when serving an arrest warrant for murder on a suspect in the country illegally.

Mr Pearce and his former boss Sheriff Arpaio – the son of legitimate Italian immigrants – see themselves as defending not just the rule of law but America's way of life.

Their foes range from pro-immigrant groups who accuse them of racism to other Arizona police chiefs who say the law would be unenforceable.

But the major criticism is that their approach is not part of comprehensive immigration reform, does not reflect the reality that an estimated 12 million people are in America illegally and simply lumps in the many law-abiding undocumented workers with criminal elements. That this fierce showdown is playing out amid the rugged Arizona landscape of deserts, canyons and mountains is no surprise.

The population of the south-western state has been boomed in recent decades, bolstered by the influx of two very different demographic groups – white retirees seeking a place in the sun and Hispanic immigrants. Its desolate border tracts have been targeted by Mexican crime gangs who smuggle people [Hispanics] across routes where hundreds die from dehydration and exhaustion each year.

Many new arrivals are economic migrants supplying the US demand for cheap day labour.

But their ranks also include hardened criminals and the trafficking business is controlled by the murderous drug gangs that also bring cocaine into the US.

Along parts of the frontier, the government has erected a fence, to little avail, and vigilante groups go on patrol when "broken borders" are in the headlines.

Two weeks ago, Mr Obama's administration said it would order 500 Arizona National Guardsmen to the border from today to help block illegal migrants. But last week it emerged that there were not yet enough trained volunteers.

As the controversy rages, Sheriff Arpaio is making his own preparations for the Pearce law – making space for new inmates in his "tent city" jail in the desert near Phoenix.

He originally used army surplus tents to reduce jail overcrowding, but convicts in black-and-white hooped uniforms and chain-gangs are now a trademark of his tenure.

"I've got a message for the illegals of Arizona," declared the sheriff. "We'll always have a bunk for you."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... n-law.html

I think Arizona's next step should be to draft legislation against employers and in that legislation should be marked the words 'igonrance is no excuse for the law'. Make e-verify the law of the state.