What FOX Won't Say About Arizona: Brewer's "Secure the Border" Mantra is Bogus
Last month, Governor Jan Brewer sparked national controversy by signing Arizona's new "papers please" immigration bill into law. Her justification has been that Arizona's border has supposedly been "overrun" with violent crime. Turns out crime in Arizona is down and border security is way up, so the "secure the border" mantra being parroted by Brewer and her friends at FOX has much more to do with empty election-year rhetoric than reality. Even Arizona cops can tell you that.
Well, yesterday Governor Brewer was in Washington, DC to meet with President Obama, and hundreds of picketers took to the streets in front of the White House to say "no" to what is happening in Arizona and "yes" to real, federal immigration reform that actually gets to the heart of solving our immigration crisis -- not exploiting it.
Watch video of one protester -- a woman holding a banner that reads, "We Are All Arizona:"
She argues, "SB 1070 is unacceptable. It puts racial profiling into law."
Well, FOX host Megyn Kelly had NCLR's Clarissa Martinez on to discuss Arizona, and she couldn't agree less (see footage of the picket at the beginning of the clip):
You can see Kelly getting a bit worked up at the end, after Martinez holds her own against the host's one-sided questions and bullying. Not surprisingly, FOX forgot to mention that the Arizona law, with it's false "secure the border" mantra, has become the Gulf Coast oil spill of the immigration debate -- it must be plugged immediately before it wreaks more havoc.
Edward Alden of the Wall Street Journal argues that we have yet to have a rational argument about securing the border, given the major increase in spending on border security in the past few years. The Immigration Policy Center notes, the annual budget of the U.S. Border Patrol stood at $3.0 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 - nine times the FY 1992 budget. The number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the southwest border with Mexico grew to a whopping 16,974 in FY 2009 - nine times the number in 1992.
Finally, as this chart shows, spending by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) skyrocketed from almost $7.5 billion in 2002 to over $17 billion in 2010.
What has all this spending on the border gotten us? Mostly, more demands to "secure the border--" with billions of taxpayer dollars and no attempt to deal with the real issues of supply and demand for immigrant labor.
Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, released this statement after today's picket:
Border hawks like Jan Brewer will never be satisfied. Already, everything that has been done to win over the border-security-first critics has had dire consequences in immigrant communities and made scapegoats of hardworking immigrants, without satisfying the critics' insatiable demands.
It's time for the scapegoating to end and to pass real immigration reform. As the picketers chanted, "Governor Brewer, shame on you. Immigrants are people, too:"
this appointed Gov. Brewski gets elected it'll all be forgotten.
AZ hasn't the money and the Obama Admin aren't going to throw US tax payer's money at a State that doesn't tax the wealthy.
It is 5% for the wealthy. I don't know if the less wealthy pay less, but I do know a wealthy person who just told me this.
you can't spell
Nazi
without
A r I Z o N a
criminal cartels run the border for us. Drug runners, mules, killers, human smugglers, etc.
Good guys all!
you support the Republican solution.
of course that's a pipe dream in this day and age and I'll be condemned as a raving lunatic for suggesting it.
any common sense from the death to America Republican cult that's for certain.
with that.
I don't think I've read word one at this site from anyone (the bloggers, that is, not the commentariat) stating that illegal immingration is a good thing, but that this law in Arizona is:
A).So broadly worded that it makes targets out of everyone, legal immigrants and naturalized (as well as natural-born) citizens included, to the extent that it looks like voter intimidation and/or voter caging, and
B). A much less effective method at solving the illegal immigration problem than going after those who employ illegal aliens
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
..going after the people who hire illegal immigrants. See my other comment below. I was vehemently against the law (not so much anymore) and still think it will lead to unnecessary and discriminatory profiling but Arizona had to do something and they chose to do this. It really is a stick in the eye of Congress for doing nothing. Between the trash of the people who cross, the drugs brought in by mules, the crime (down or not), the kidnappings in Phoenix, something needed to be done.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
as I know that SB1070 has nothing to do with closing or protecting our borders. The problem with SB1070 is exactly what you say, "it will lead to unnecessary and discriminatory profiling but Arizona had to do something.." That's why it is unconstitutional. This is a very broad law that does more than just allow people to be asked for "papers" (and we know who those people will be). If you could identify an illegal immigrant by looking at them, or by the clothes they wear, and know for sure that they are illegal, fine. But you can't. So when a US citizen who happens to be of Hispanic descent is stopped, their rights are being violated, rights guaranteed by the 4th amendment that protects all of us. But all of us aren't being stopped.
Yell all you want about how much crime there is, or the kidnapping rate, or a dozen other things. Pass laws to address those problems, but don't institutionalize ethnic or racial discrimination, when your real fear is simply that there are just too many brown people and it threatens your sense of well being.
do mean all of us, whether we are illegal, legal, or born here. It is simply unacceptable, and deeply racist.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
Give me a break.
Crime is down in AZ. Down every year since 2005.
Drug crime will be unaffected by immigration reform.
If you want illegal immigration to stop, you have to stop the demand; i.e., the companies that love to hire workers at illegal salaries and under unsafe and illegal conditions.
The canard of "Americans won't take these jobs" is true: Americans know there are laws guaranteeing a minimum wage, overtime, safety regulations, etc. Undocumented workers don't know the laws or are too afraid of deportation to fight for their rights to a safe work environment.
Illegal immigration harms the immigrants. You stop it by fining and jailing companies and their owners who violate the law by hiring people under the table.
random strip searches for anyone who looks vaguely Muslim?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
..for anyone who looks white? Like most of our notorious serial killers are?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
When is anything a Republican says NOT political rhetoric or lies?
Republicans are bad for America, STOP REPUBLICANS!!
Ditto that .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
He knows how to win wars, but he won't share that information unless he wins election.
The Randy Newman song "Rednecks" comes to mind.
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it. -- Mark Twain
People at work think I want to be left alone with my thoughts.
Little do they know I only have one thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raq8maAutAE
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I'm reading an excellent book on the subject. "Coyote Capitalism," by Jeffrey Kaye. This is not a new problem. It's just the faces and names that have changed. Until there is no incentive for corporations to seek the cheapest labor possible, and for governments to support such corporations, this problem will not go away. Fences and border patrols will not work. We can spout rhetoric about crime and the like, but most of these people are just trying to make ends meet. In the process they are demonized, their families are broken up, and we think we have a problem. Check out the history of Hazelton, Pennsylvania. See where ousting immigrants got them. It led to a huge economic downturn for the city, but hey, the illegals were gone!
has been grossly misreported. In a study done by the State of Arizona, conclusions were that illegal immigration actually led to a net gain of over 960 million dollars per year for AZ. Illegals pay taxes (try to avoid a sales tax, or a rental tax), most pay income and SS taxes (which they never redeem), and the purchases they make help to keep businesses running and people employed (the trickle up theory).
In turn, they use far less services than legal residents, including medical, police, etc. They are underrepresented in jail in relation to their numbers. They certainly have an incentive to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble.
A quick Google will confirm the statistics, and to a state already suffering from income lost because of a depressed building industry, and declining tourism, it seems an ill time to kiss off that extra BN dollars per year.
That's for damned sure , I could not agree more , you called it right .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
I say we line the Rio Grande with boom, and solve two problems at the same time.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
preventing terrorists from crossing via Mexico? I haven't seen that argument in a few years. While it's a legitimate concern, the solution is amnesty, also something that hasn't been discussed here, which leads one to believe that this law is more about "getting" people than it is about safety or employment.
Other than no taxes , no regulation and no rules for Corporations , Wall Street and the very wealthy , what issues are there that the Repugs actually care about ? Seems to me that's it ... except they do love their invasions , occupations , wars ... and empire building too . Today's Republicans are anti American traitors and saboteurs , they should all pay the price . If only law and justice was practiced in this country , but they managed to do away with that obstacle too !
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
..they do love to torture.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
bankrupt the economy and send all the good jobs to other countries, then point their finger at the people who make the least and say it's their fault they took all your jobs.
God I hate the GOP!
... "There is no racial profiling in the bill (isn't it 'law' effective in August?)"
I am sure there was no 'cops assaulting Rodney King' in any Los Angeles law, nor is there 'sexually brutalizing a black man with a toilet plunger' in New York's law.
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
it becomes effective June 29th.
FREE MARKET
..Congress' a$$ to enact federal immigration reform, I'm all for it. The desert south of Tucson is being turned into a dump or 'recycling center' and the illegal drug trade is flourishing. Too many people in this country think the little bit of weed they buy is OK and Not hurting anyone but it is.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Supposedly crime has gone down in Arizona, contrary to the claims that the law was needed to stem the tide of crime. Yet Brewer instigated this awful law as an election-year political football. Hope she fumbles this one, big time.
..and is second only to Mexico City in the world.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
as they do in Phoenix every person picked up in a drop house as a kidnap victim. A lot of the illegals are held in drop houses after they paid to get here, while the coyotes demand more money from their relatives. Absent the "kidnapped" illegals, Phoenix wouldn't have any greater kidnap statistics than most other US cities.
It's always empty election year rhetoric. You never hear about "illegal immigrants" any other time.
.
FEAR the Hispanics... (Gypsies)
FEAR the Muslims... (Jews)
FEAR the Gays... (DUH!)
SAME CHIT...
... Different generation.
What happened to the America that once put down a totalitarian regime that required from it's people, "PAPERS PLEASE"?
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
This is a joke
But here are a few words from a Rancher on the border:
"Large amounts of trash, cut pasture fences, floats broken off in water troughs, water lines cut and precious stored water lost, trails made by humans so deep that they start gully erosion, forest fires that are started by campfires or perhaps even deliberately and the corresponding ramping up of the Border Patrol response which has caused a tenfold use of ranch two track roads and the county dirt road; all of this has cost ranchers dearly in repairs, extra cattle work, and destruction of the landscape. Still, most ranchers just continued to try to live with it.
In the last three years to five years, however, the character of the crossers has taken an ominous turn. They often wear black and paint their water jugs black. They pass by our ranch house so close at night that you can hear them talking between the barks of our dogs. We, who live in a deep east-west canyon and had never had a break-in, had two occur in 2009. Neighbors to the north who live in north-south facing canyons, or in the valley, have experienced many more."
And:
"The Border Patrol also began regularly attending meetings of the Malpai Borderlands Group, an organization that was formed by the ranchers and some conservationists 16 years ago to support the beautiful open-space landscape of the area against subdivision and has become a model for cooperation in public and private land management. It was at one of these meetings, when the discussion turned to the fact that some crossers were now armed with automatic rifles, and were becoming increasingly brazen, that Rob Krentz, whose family has also ranched here for 103 years, made the observation that if things continued as they were, it was inevitable that someone would be killed. On March 27, Rob went out on his All-Terrain Vehicle to check the waters in one of his pastures. He never came back. His body was found late that night. The tracks of the killer were followed to the Mexican border.
Since his death, things have hardly slowed down. Recently, a bird watcher trying to enter Horseshoe Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains, across the valley from the Peloncillos, was turned back by an armed drug smuggler who warned him to stay out. It’s public land, but it’s dangerous for the public to use. The number of such incidents and the actual crimes per capita are enormous considering the small population that resides here. Forest Service employees and many others who work for government agencies now can only go out on the land in pairs."
http://www.douglasdispatch.com/articles/2010/...
The "wall" is/will represent the greatest failure of democracy, christianity, and capitalism! We will spend 100 billion dollars on a 10 billion dollar wall so that we won't loose 1 billion dollars to illegals getting health care and less than minimum wages. Mexico is a christian, capitalistic, democratic country, if anything they are our prodigy (or we are their's,, a democracy run by the rich),, and we are building a wall between us? wow The real issue worldwide is the lack of understanding that there isn't enough jobs for everyone and that necessitates welfare states. What we need is a "happy" (survivable) apocalypse to help us understand that humanity's survival is our core goal and the basis of a secular ethic. We need to stop that asteroid from hitting us in 10 years so governments can print money without borrowing. If a government controls 70%? of the economy (triple the number of teachers, police, pay people to go to college, etc,,) it can thereby control inflation tendencies and yes,, you will need to take cash out of the system too,,, tax 50% on anything over $100,000 income or mandate job or charity expenses.
The law says nothing about race.
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