What’s Behind Arizona’s New Laws?

by Keith Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, May 13, 2010

There has been much discussion over the last couple of weeks, of the implications of Arizona’s new tough legislation regarding undocumented immigrants. A full picture of the legislation, and the buzz around it, is only possible when one looks at the motivation and politics behind the legislative changes and other actions by the state’s governor and legislature.

Before I get to the important background story, I feel compelled to call attention to a provision in the Arizona House bill to which my brother Gordon refers in his column. He asserts that “anyone who cannot produce a valid form of legal identification like a driver’s license or a tribal enrollment card would be subject to being charged with a state misdemeanor….” While technically accurate, the wording of both House and Senate bills is problematic. In one section of the House bill, a driver’s license is indeed listed as a potential proof of citizenship. However, in another section and in the Senate bill (which is vague on requirements for proof), it states that officers are obligated to verify alien status “pursuant to § 1373(c) of Title 8 of the United States Code” (which would mean consulting the federal Immigration and Naturalization Services). In most states of the country, while driver’s permits constitute appropriate proofs of identification and age, they are not sufficient evidence of legal citizenship. It shouldn’t be assumed that a driver’s license will be accepted as acceptable proof of citizenship.

This is important to note because defenders of the Arizona policy have attempted to minimize the effect of the law by claiming that its enforcement represents nothing more ominous than the obligatory expectations most of us face when we purchase alcohol, cigarettes, or spray paint. The fact of the matter is that the change in expectations has an impact on several American citizens and a diminishing of liberty toward standards adhered to in many European countries, which currently require documentation of citizens and travelers. I find it interesting that the same voices that decried the European influence they saw in the administration’s approach to health care, would applaud such a similarity in Arizonan law.

This brings us to the “why” of the legislative change and why the voices I mentioned above have spoken in its defense. The stated purpose is that Arizona had to do something because crime was rampant and the federal authorities were ineffective in solving the situation.

The problem with this argument is that the crime rate in Arizona has actually declined over the last decade. The current violent or property crime rates of Arizona are below the national average. A comparison between the crime rate of Phoenix, near the Mexican border, and that of Cleveland, Ohio (far from the border) shows a greater occurrence of violent crimes and property crimes in Cleveland. And even if crime were on the rise, there is little evidence of a correlation between undocumented immigrants and crimes not related to immigration laws. In fact, despite bogus claims by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News that over 2,000 people are killed each year by undocumented immigrants, studies show that such immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes.

Also noteworthy is the fact that some law enforcement officials have called the law change unnecessary. Phoenix police chief Jack Harris has argued that he has all the tools he needs to address issues of human smuggling, kidnapping, robbery, etc., that are cited as immigration-related issues. In fact he believes it would “divert our officers from investigating property crimes and violent crimes and divert… …our personnel to enforcing civil portions of federal immigration law…” and that it “takes officers away from doing what our main core mission of local law enforcement is, and that's to make our communities safe and enforce our criminal codes in that effort.” Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik agreed that the law was “unnecessary and that he would not be enforcing it.

So, why did Arizona Governor Janice Brewer and the legislature feel the need to change immigration laws at this point? Certainly, many point to the recent violent death of a rancher as a catalyst. While the killing of rancher Robert Krentz is tragic, it has less to do with the new law than does the political climate in Arizona (and, indeed, the country as a whole).

Governor Brewer faces a tough campaign against Democratic challenger and Arizona State Attorney General Terry Goddard this fall. Brewer and the conservative legislature see the passage of legislation like the toughening of immigration laws and the relaxing of gun laws as a way to mobilize an important base of support. Also, after six years under her Democratic predecessor, Janet Napolitano, who vetoed similar legislation on both immigration and guns, conservatives are seizing the opportunity to strike while the iron is hot.

One should also look at why the actions of one state’s legislature should resonate throughout the country. Certainly Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs have been hard at work “informing” those who would likely ignore the issue in favor of the statuses of American Idol contestants. Whether or not they would choose to take credit for the tempo of rage and fear inspired among a certain sect of conservative Americans, I don’t wish to assign them that much influence.

Instead, I would prefer to ask why the issue of immigration (legal or otherwise) does enrage so many. Perhaps it makes sense to examine our collective psyche. What elements lie at the core of our propensity to scapegoat and discriminate against the “other”? Without investigating this nature within us, it is difficult to explain why we express so loudly our outrage at the immigration dilemma while so vehemently denying any racial or ethnic motivation.