The law, which was signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer last month and will take effect on July 29, 2010, is the strictest immigration measure enacted by any state. It makes the failure to carry proof of immigration status a crime. It requires police or other local law enforcement officers to determine the immigration status of anyone they have "reasonable suspicion" to believe is an illegal alien. And finally, it allows individual residents of Arizona to sue local governments if they believe that the law is not being enforced.
How did Arizona get to this point? Arizona lawmakers would tell you that it had to be done. Last week in an interview, Governor Janet Brewer stated that, "We are out here on the battlefield getting the impact of all this illegal immigration, and all the crime that comes with it." The bill's primary, stated goal is "attrition through enforcement," meaning that Arizona is actively seeking to keep illegal immigrants out of its state and to drive out the ones that have already settled there. This strategy will surely work, although whether or not it is constitutional is a matter that will be settled in the courts. But does this strategy achieve anything positive for Arizona? Will it decrease the crime rate and make the state a safer place to live?
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that approximately 500,000 undocumented immigrants lived in Arizona in 2008 and that they accounted for 10% of the state's workforce. I'll grant you: that's a significant portion of the state. And naturally, where there's an illegal immigrant population in a border state, crime reigns supreme, right? Not so fast.
A recently released FBI study shows that the top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin. You read that correctly, Governor Brewer's hometown, Phoenix, was one of them. Compare El Paso's murder rate for 2009: 4, with Washington D.C.'s rate in the same year: 66. And the Customs and Border Protection agency released their own in-house study, which shows that Border Patrol Agents are at less risk of harm than police officers in most big cities. Only 3 percent of their agents were assaulted last year (and most assaults involved rock throwing), versus 11 percent of police officers and sheriff's deputies assaulted during the same time frame.
So what's really at play here? Arizona is a state in crisis, that's true,but it’s an economic crisis. Housing foreclosures are soaring and businesses are closing their doors. Hard-hit by the recession, the state itself is facing a $1.6 million dollar deficit and budget woes have forced massive pay cuts and layoffs for state employees, and cutbacks in social services programs and assistance to Arizona families in need. If history has taught us anything, it’s that xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments rise when the native population feels threatened by outsiders. Today, it’s the largely-Hispanic immigrant population in Arizona that faces an unwelcoming and hostile native population, whereas 200 years ago it was the recent immigrant populations from Germany, Italy and Ireland. These trends are cyclical, but it doesn’t make them justifiable.
Another argument that has been made in Arizona is that they are simply enforcing federal law, where the federal government cannot or will not. Recently, Governor Brewer met with President Obama at the White House. The White House press release says that their meeting was good and that the President and Governor Brewer discussed the President’s decision to deploy up to an additional 1,200 requirements based National Guard troops to the border and his upcoming request to Congress of $500 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities as part of that integrated strategy. So that should alleviate any lingering concerns that Arizonans have about border security affecting their local crime rates.
What I found more encouraging about the White House’s press release was that the President underscored that security measures alone won’t fix the broken borders. President Obama reiterated that there needs to be comprehensive immigration reform that includes: “lasting and dedicated resources by which to secure our borders and make our communities safer; holding unscrupulous employers accountable who hire workers illegally and exploit them and providing clear guidance for the many employers who want to play by the rules; an requiring those who have come here illegally to pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English, and get right with the law.” It is only through comprehensive and fair immigration reform that as a country, we will move forward and leave behind laws that are based in misunderstanding and in fear.
