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Home Front: Politix
AZ Weighs Options for Border Patrol
2006-02-11
As public frustration grows over the state‘s porous border with Mexico, the once-rejected notion of using state police to supplement federal patrols is gaining traction.

"I‘m not putting the handcuffs on. Whatever they need to do, they need to be doing," said Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, the plan‘s sponsor.

Arizona has been dogged by a heavy flow of illegal immigrants since the government tightened enforcement in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego during the mid-1990s. The Border Patrol apprehended 725,093 illegal border crossers in Arizona in fiscal year 2000, though the numbers declined after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to an increase in border security.

In the past, a few police agencies have won federal approval to train some state or local officers so they can arrest illegal immigrants, but the idea of major state border aid was often resisted by officials who believed that illegal immigration should be the sole province of the federal government.

Advocates for state and local action in Arizona said the idea will not cure the state‘s immigration headaches, but would discourage some people from sneaking across the border. Opponents say racial profiling could increase if officers unfamiliar with immigration law began trying to enforce it.
How familiar do you have to be? "Hey, yew ain't from 'round here, are yew?"
They also say investigating crime in immigrant communities could become more difficult, because fewer migrants would cooperate with police for fear of being sent home.
Gee, people breaking the law are not willing to cooperate with the police. Will wonders cease?
Local officers also lack understanding of complex immigration law, they say.
And of course they're too stupid to learn, why it goes without saying.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, whose jurisdiction includes 50 miles of border, said taking on illegal immigration would overwhelm his department, even if the state gave him money to catch and detain illegal immigrants. The Department of Public Safety and an organization that represents 950 of its employees declined to comment.

What Pearce‘s proposal won‘t do, one opponent says, is confront the central motive for workers to sneak into the country: the prospect of a better life. If the proposal works, it‘s only going to shift the flow of immigrants to other states, said Democratic Rep. Ben Miranda.
Or back to Mexico, thereby to force the Mexican government to fix things at home.
Posted by:Pappy

#12  Ditto RWV.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-02-11 22:33  

#11  TW, there was a time when people worked their own gardens, cleaned their own homes, and in general did the things that illegals do now. I even remember growers recruiting high school students in Iowa to pick strawberries in California. Adherence to the rule of law and the Constitution is the glue that holds the United States together. If we decide that we don't have to pay attention to our laws because we feel sorry for all the illegals that we exploit, then we don't have long as a nation.
Posted by: RWV   2006-02-11 22:19  

#10  ..but they like being able to buy less expensive houses,..

Not going to make any difference here in CA, where housing that would be "less expensive" would still largely be unaffordable.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2006-02-11 22:16  

#9  Yes, everyone is against illegal immigration, but they like being able to buy less expensive houses, pay less for gardeners, cleaning ladies, daycare, and restaurant meals. On the other hand, the illegals put their children in taxpayer supported public schools, use taxpayer supported hospital emergency medical care, and so forth. Once the flow is stopped, America's economy is going to be a while rationalizing --perhaps the better part of a decade of pain as some things cost more, and others less.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-02-11 20:22  

#8  Americans agree. Bush is not doing enough against illegal immigration.
Posted by: 2b   2006-02-11 14:36  

#7  Illegal immigration is a major threat to national identity and cohesion, both in Europa and in the USA, with the added feature of cultural and religious (muslim) secessionism for the former (can't tell how it works for the USA with latin immigrants, since the country has no Nanny-State to feed hostile "guests", I'm sure hispanics are not welfare-magnets).
Oil money has been bankrolling muslim immigration into Europe, is doing so in South America... this has a purpose, and I wouldn't be surprized if there was some kind of "second thought" from Mexico regarding mexican immigration into Southern USA.

I've already said I was ok with GWB in his international work, but from an outside pov,I have the impression he's not doing enough regarding illegal immigration when it comes to his domestic work, but then again I might be reading WND too much.

I've yet to read the Huntington essay ("Who we are" IIRC, had already enough trouble understanding the "clash"), but this issue should top the domestic agenda, even more so when it collides with terror, as with hate/separatist groups like la raza (IE paleostinian problem brewing, with invented people and "liberation struggle")
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-02-11 14:31  

#6  "They also say investigating crime in immigrant communities could become more difficult, because fewer migrants would cooperate with police for fear of being sent home."

So the only way to ensure cooperation with law enforcement is "don't enforce the law"?

I wish the IRS would employ this doctrine.

"Local officers also lack understanding of complex immigration law, they say."

If that's true,then simplify it."If you're here illegally you're under arrest and will processed back to Mexico." See? That wasn't hard.
Posted by: patrol   2006-02-11 14:08  

#5  Texas is also doing the same thing: Perry wants more DPS for border
Posted by: ed   2006-02-11 11:54  

#4  The border is a mess, but what about the millions already here? I was encouraged by a recent meth bust bagged 30 illegals in Colorado, using sheriff's deputies, state police, Homeland Security, and ICE, but only after local citizens were fed up with the drug influx affecting their children. If the law was changed from requiring federal law enforcement only for immigration problems, the local sheriffs would love to take care of business. Congress has handcuffed itself.
Posted by: Danielle   2006-02-11 10:18  

#3  
dittos,

Mo national guard, mo police, mo citizen volunteers, mo look down shoot down bumble bees....
Posted by: RD   2006-02-11 05:07  

#2  Build that fence.

This is the season of faster, higher, stronger. Go for it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-02-11 01:01  

#1  If the proposal works, it‘s only going to shift the flow of immigrants to other states, said Democratic Rep. Ben Miranda.

Whereupon those states will presumably take their own action to deal with the increase in the "flow". Once all four border states have similar measures in place, where is there left to go?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2006-02-11 00:23  

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