QUESTION: Will Arizona’s new immigration law help or harm the state?
When I logged onto Facebook a few weeks ago, I was blasted with invitations to join the group “1 Million Strong AGAINST the Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070.” I didn’t join it.
SB 1070, signed into law by Governor Brewer Friday, is the result of Arizona’s patience wearing thin in regards to the federal government’s continuing apathy towards our hardships caused by illegal immigration.
Though it’s hard to see directly, illegal immigration negatively affects our daily lives in big ways. The Democrats want illegal immigrants for cheap votes and the Republicans want them for cheap work, so the saying goes. But what about regular Americans? What do illegal immigrants cost us? Let’s look at the numbers.
Immigration Counters, a website that collects data on the cost of illegal immigration to the United States, provides everything we need to know. Cost of social services for illegal aliens since 1996: $397 billion. Cost of illegal aliens in public schools since 1996: $14 billion. Cost of incarcerations of illegal aliens since 2008: $24 billion.
Illegal immigrants can sometimes benefit small businesses that cannot afford to hire legal employees who demand to be paid higher wages, but since that tactic also raises the unemployment rate, we find that the problem can be solved so much more easily by lowering taxes.
It baffles me how we use our military to police the world while our own borders are left insecure. It’s common knowledge that Mexico is not safe territory unless you’re traveling to a five-star resort with Blackwater as security. Mexico’s danger and instability is a direct result of its own government’s unwillingness to defend its law-abiding citizens — something we’re trying to do with this bill. I don’t blame Mexican citizens for not wanting to live in Mexico, but I do blame them for coming into the United States illegally.
Under SB 1070, it is a state crime to illegally reside in the Arizona. Immigrants unable to provide documentation can be arrested, placed in jail for up to six months, and fined $2,500. It also makes it illegal to hire or transport illegal immigrants. Is any of this really a problem?
Will it lead to racial profiling? It might. Let’s not kid ourselves — border patrol agents aren’t looking for blue-eyed, blonde-haired Germans crossing the border illegally, but nothing else has been done to stop the problem. So this is where we are. And this is where we will be until our government comes up with reasonable solutions. Looser gun laws for border farmers and ranchers. A border wall that isn’t made out of a block of wood and floss. Anything.
According to a Rasmussen Reports poll, 70 percent of likely voters in Arizona are in support of the bill. I include myself in that 70 percent. I would be proud to prove my citizenship if a police officer pulled me over. I love my country and I don’t feel that having to prove my citizenship in such a great place is offensive at all. It’s simple — the more protected our borders are, the freer we can feel in our own country. And that’s something on which everyone can agree.
Reach Brian at brian.p.anderson@asu.edu
