Thread: Time for Arizona to File a Lawsuit of its Own

Time for Arizona to file a lawsuit of its own
by Laurie Roberts, columnist - Jun. 27, 2010 09:10 PM
The Arizona Republic

President Barack Obama's emissaries are expected in Arizona on Monday to meet with Gov. Jan Brewer.

When they arrive, I hope she has some suitable gifts on hand to welcome them to the Grand Canyon State. A bola tie perhaps, and maybe one of those handy scorpion paperweights.

And definitely a bill for $750 million.

This week, it's widely expected that the United States of America is going to sue the state of Arizona. It seems we rank right up there with Osama bin Laden and British Petroleum as enemies of the state.

So I'm thinking we ought to return the favor.

For a couple of months now, we've been the nation's punching bag as politicians across the country have proclaimed us the spawn of Hitler, given this state's embrace of Senate Bill 1070. It doesn't help when state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, pops up on TV every other day, talking about alien invasions.

Me? I don't like SB 1070. It opens the door to profiling and even if it didn't, it just seems silly for the cops to be chasing around town busting landscapers while heavily armed drug smugglers march through our deserts and into our neighborhoods. But I understand the frustration that led a majority of this state's residents to look to people like Pearce for answers, because the feds seem far, far away from Arizona - both in mileage and mind-set.

These days, even Janet Napolitano - who just two years ago was asking her predecessor in Homeland Security to leave National Guard troops at the border - is repeating the new mantra that the border is more secure than it's ever been. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management is posting signs in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, about 80 miles south of Phoenix, warning visitors about drug and human traffickers passing through the area.

I remember the good old days when then-Gov. Napolitano was sending bills to the Justice Department, asking to be reimbursed for the hundreds of millions of dollars Arizonans pay to house illegal immigrants who are in our prisons because the feds aren't doing their job.

"Arizonans already pay a high price for illegal immigration," she wrote in a 2005 letter accompanying an invoice. "I'm demanding that the federal government live up to its obligations and stop pushing the burden onto the taxpayers of Arizona."

I don't think she ever got much response out of the Bush administration and Team Obama doesn't seem anymore inclined to pay its bills. In fact, Obama last year recommended eliminating funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which is intended to reimburse states for their costs associated with jailing illegal immigrants. In the end, Congress defied him and allocated $300 million to the program.

In Arizona, 6,100 of the state's 41,000 prison inmates are here illegally, according to Tasya Peterson, a spokeswoman for Brewer.

The last time the feds kicked in to help, she said, was in 2008. According to figures provided by the state, it cost Arizona $120.4 million to incarcerate illegal immigrants that year, not counting the expense of arrest and prosecution. The feds picked up about 10 percent of the tab: $12.8 million, leaving Arizona taxpayers to shoulder the rest of a burden that exists because the federal government can't - or won't - do its job.

Brewer last week informed Obama that we are now shelling out $150 million a year to incarcerate illegal immigrants.

Instead of our own government suing us this week - what, five lawsuits over SB 1070 isn't enough? - perhaps the Justice Department might like to conserve its resources and pay its bills which, in Arizona, are long, long past due.

According to Brewer's office, the feds now owe us $750 million to cover prison costs dating as far back as 2003.

Who knows? Maybe Obama's staffers will be bringing a pile of gold today when they meet with Brewer, to satisfy their debt. If not, was I governor I might be inclined to toss in one more gift for Obama's staffers to deliver to the White House . . . a summons.

Maybe it's time for us to file a lawsuit of our own.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8635. Read her blog at robertsblog.azcentral.com.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... berts.html

I think members of our government should be tried for dereliction of duty and treason. This is the worst our government has ever been and we are teetering on the brink of ousting our sitting (cough, choke, gag) "President".

I think Obama, and each member of Congress need to be sued for the damages they have each so irresponsibly done to this country, including George Bush, Chaney and the Clintons.

They owe a lot more than $750 million.