Immigration Fact-finding Mission 2010
Arizona Immigration Work: Good, Bad & Ugly
By Michael Waddoups
President of the Utah Senate
On Monday and Tuesday (September 27th and 28th), I traveled with Lt. Governor Greg Bell and 11 of my legislative colleagues to learn what we could of the political, economic and social implications of Arizona’s SB 1070 and their ongoing experience with immigration issues.
Our constituents are demanding action on immigration issues. I thought it would be wise to understand the good, bad & ugly of Arizona’s experience as we work our way to a Utah-appropriate solution.
We attended briefings from the Capitol in Phoenix to Tucson, to the border fence outside of Nogales, from the following:
* AZPOST (Arizona Peace Officers Standards & Training Board)
* Arizona Governor’s Office staff
* Arizona Legislative Leadership
* Phoenix Chamber of Commerce
* Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association
* Senator Russell Pearce (sponsor of SB 1070)
* Religious leaders
* U.S Border Patrol
I expect our experience there will educate and give context to many future conversations as we work to craft laws that makes sense for Utah.
A few bullet points from the notes I took:
* We need to do more than just pass a SB 1070 clone. Our approach needs to address employment, law enforcement tools, public engagement, and more – including spurring congress to act.
* Arizona’s response wasn’t just SB 1070 – their work included Proposition 200, SB 1372 (re: human trafficking), and HB 2779 (Fair Employment Act), etc.
* Racial profiling is wrong and will not be tolerated. Arizona has taken steps to ensure no state agency tolerates racial profiling – over 100 agencies have gone through training.
* The employers association reminded us that one of the problems is a cash economy. People paid in cash aren’t paying Social Security or income tax.
* E-Verify might not be a safe harbor – penalties still apply.
* Phoenix officers are being killed and maimed in the line of duty by illegal immigrants, mostly in association with the drug trade.
* Illegal immigration is not a race issue, it’s a crime issue.
* Costs to the state are manifest in three primary areas: education, Medicaid, and incarceration.
* Arizona officials mentioned that the recent federal lawsuit is the first time in American history a president has sided with a foreign government against one of the United States.
* Phoenix is now the #2 city in the world for kidnapping. #1 is Mexico City.
* Officials said the Arizona law enjoys wide popular support – maybe 3/1 favorable.
* Stats show America hosts illegal immigrants from 133 nations. 17 to 20 percent of them have U.S. criminal convictions, mostly drugs, ID theft, and human trafficking.
* The USA now allows more legal immigrants than all other nations in the world combined.
* The Border Patrol serves a humanitarian as well as law enforcement role. Officials report 200 deaths of would-be immigrants this year alone. 650 more would have died but were rescued.
* Representative Wilcox also took some good notes.
Of course there was too much information to give a full report here but I do have notes and some presentation material I’d be willing to discuss. The senators with me on this mission were Scott Jenkins, Margaret Dayton, David Hinkins, Karen Mayne and Luz Robles. House members were Representatives Brad Daw, Ryan Wilcox, Jennifer Seelig,Rebecca Chavez-Houck, John Mathis, and Brad Last. I bet they’d also be willing to discuss what they learned.
Here are a few (hundred) photos.
I appreciate the Arizona Secretary of State and others, including our Lt. Governor, for the work they did putting this together.
Also here are some links to several articles from the Salt Lake Tribune (Arizona law sponsor urges Utah to act, too; Utah legislators get a look at border) also here are some live tweets
