Of all the dead horses Arizona politicians and activists like to beat, the issue of immigration will always be a favorite.
A $10 million plan called the Arizona Border Control Initiative was instituted in Tucson last week by Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson for border and transportation security.
According to Copley News Service, it is one of the largest crackdowns of its kind along the border as the Bush administration plans to shift hundreds of Border Patrol agents to the Arizona border with Mexico "to stem the flow of illegal immigration and reduce migrant deaths."
My Spanish ancestors had it easy getting into this country. When they left southern Spain in the 1840s to settle in Mexico, they had little knowledge that their land around Tucson would eventually be swept up into the U.S. by another $10 million plan called the Gadsden Purchase.
No such luck exists for those desiring to enter our country today, and a group called Protect Arizona Now is on a crusade to make sure that non-citizens don't "reap the benefits of citizenship at the expense of law-abiding taxpayers." This proposed initiative would deny any social services to undocumented immigrants in Arizona.
Many people are in favor of more stringent immigration laws in our state. Protect Arizona Now, however, is a group that will not place its initiative on the November ballot without any cries from the opposition. Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez is leading a group called the Statue of Liberty Coalition that has already mobilized efforts to defeat the initiative.
Protect Arizona Now claims to be non-partisan. Nevertheless, all but one of the 29 state legislators who support the initiative are Republicans. The lone Democrat is Kayenta Rep. Sylvia Laughter, who is also the only minority.
"Anytime you attempt to enforce immigration laws, some groups will call you racist," said Rusty Childress, treasurer for Protect Arizona Now. Race is a different issue, but how about being 97 percent Republican and claiming to be non-partisan?
The group spares no effort to say that the United States is "overrun" by "illegal aliens." According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, only 12.8 percent of Arizona's 5 million people are foreign-born citizens. Not even half of that percentage is illegal. Geez, I'd hate to be overrun by such a small number.
Words and phrases like "invade" and "war on immigration" are used throughout Protect Arizona Now's Web site. Protect Arizona Now claims that this initiative is targeted toward all illegal immigrants regardless of nationality. Since they want to protect Arizona's borders, they are obviously targeting Mexico more than any other. Childress even went so far as to say in a debate, "We are no longer a sovereign nation."
As the ueber-conservative Protect Arizona Now takes its turn with the whip, it has lost sight of what it's really looking for: a simple solution to an anything-but-simple problem. The organization has been reactionary in promoting its initiative, rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. It will most likely get on the November ballot, and in due time, democracy will show its true colors as the people of Arizona cast their own votes to decide.
All of this immigration talk makes me restless. Anyone up for a trip to Canada?
John Ronquillo is a descendant of Spanish, Mexican, Italian and Irish immigrants. Reach him at johnron@asu.edu.
