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GOP hiding facts about immigration law

By Guest Opinion

Published: June 18, 2010 at 7:16 am

Gov. Jan Brewer and her Republican friends have been running around Arizona dismissing concerns about Arizona’s new immigration law, S1070.

Republican House Speaker Kirk Adams wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, “The truth behind Arizona’s immigration law,” in which he noted that people haven’t taken the time to read the facts about the bill.

Republican Sen. Sylvia Allen sent an e-mail with the subject line: “I want to explain S1070.”
All have failed to explain any real facts about the new law.

It’s typical of Brewer and her Republican friends who consistently have failed to crack down on the violent and criminal acts that accompany illegal immigration. Their patchwork policies do nothing to solve the real problem that Arizonans experience every day.

They failed to point out that the new law will do nothing to stop the coyotes, human traffickers and dangerous drug and arms dealers who cross our border every day.

They don’t mention that the new law is an unfunded mandate and gives police no resources or money to implement the new law. Brewer and Republicans took police officers off the streets when they massively cut public-safety funding this year.

Law enforcement also can be sued if they don’t enforce the law and no doubt will be sued if they do. The law unwisely ties the hands of police officers instead of enabling them to protect our communities.

We need a tough solution to border security and immigration that includes more security along our border. We must crack down on the criminal cartels that deal in weapons and narcotics and stop the human suffering and trafficking by coyotes. We need to sanction employers who hire illegal immigrants.

And we need a tough solution at the national level. This means requiring immigrants to pay back taxes and a fine, learn English, and pass criminal background checks on the path to legalization.
We also need to make sure those who are here legally are treated fairly and respectfully.

Attorney General Terry Goddard is working to keep Arizona safe by cracking down on criminal cartels and smuggling rings. In fact, Goddard’s historic settlement with Western Union in February helped cut off the pipeline of cash to the criminal cartels. Arizona’s economy cannot handle the expense of a law that does not provide a real solution to the problem. We need to focus on laws that actually do something to combat the violence.

Republicans this year repeatedly ignored House Democrats’ bills that directly addressed violent crime and immigration in Arizona. For example:

HB 2201: Would have given authorities better tools to combat weapons trafficking and increase public safety by making it a felony to purchase weapons under false pretenses.

HB 2149: Would have cracked down on the use of drop houses and human smuggling across the border.

HB 2354: Would have made it a Class 3 felony to commit forgery in connection with purchase, lease or renting of a dwelling used as a drop house.

— Daniel Patterson is a Democratic state representative from District 29 in Tucson.

GOP hiding facts about immigration law | phoenix.rssible.com Says:
June 18th, 2010 at 7:42 am
[...] around Arizona dismissing concerns about Arizona’s new immigration law, S1070. AZ Capitol Times Go to Source Back to Feed Share | This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 9:36 am and [...]
KATHRYN KOBOR Says:
June 18th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Daniel Patterson is based in Tucson in district 29, and as
a result is on the side of illegal immigration. In order to keep his job, I feel
he must pander to illegals.

He has his head in the sand as far as what is happening in our state
with the massive influx of illegals.

Bill 1070, is another tool that we have added to our repetoire of
tactics to use in fighting illegal immigration.

It is not the totality of tools that we have to use in our fight against
drop houses, gangs, kidnappings, drug smugglers, human smugglers,
overcrowded schools, prisons, jails, healthcare, destruction of our
environment, and infrastructure.

This bill has broken open, “the nut”, if you will, of the horrendous
problem we have with massive illegal immigration into our state.

This bill simply helps make it safer to be a citizen, of any ethnicity,
in Arizona
Twitter Trackbacks for Arizona Capitol Times » Blog Archive » GOP hiding facts about immigration law [azcapitoltimes.com] on Topsy.com Says:
June 18th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
[...] Arizona Capitol Times » Blog Archive » GOP hiding facts about immigration law azcapitoltimes.com/blog/2010/06/18/gop-hiding-facts-about-immigration-law/ – view page – cached Gov. Jan Brewer and her Republican friends have been running around Arizona dismissing concerns about Arizona’s new immigration law, S1070. Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['coldblue_steele'] = {“photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/991118085/PB270012_normal.JPG”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/coldblue_steele”,”nick”:”coldblue_steele”}; coldblue_steele: “RT @Lahdee_F: RT @kbondelli: GOP hiding facts about immigration law http://bit.ly/a6co2F ||Interesting Commentary. #az, #p2, #azgop, #AZDem ” 29 minutes ago retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['lahdee_f'] = {“photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/980851494/Sheeta2_normal.png”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/lahdee_f”,”nick”:”lahdee_f”}; lahdee_f: “RT @kbondelli: GOP hiding facts about immigration law http://bit.ly/a6co2F ||Interesting Commentary. #az, #p2, #azgop, #AZDem ” 31 minutes ago retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['kbondelli'] = {“photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/516844284/icon2_normal.jpg”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/kbondelli”,”nick”:”kbondelli”}; kbondelliHighly Influential: “GOP hiding facts about immigration law http://bit.ly/a6co2F ” 1 hour ago retweet Filter tweets [...]
Jim Williams Says:
June 25th, 2010 at 8:33 am
1070 will be useless in the fight against criminal activity because Latinos will refuse to help local police to identify and arrest criminals out of fear of being arrested themselves.
1070 is cover for Arpaio’s racial profiling sweeps and the sharply increasing crime rates in his district.
Meantime, te state has lost millions in tourism and has become a laughing stock internationally. The cost ot local police to implement the law will be millions in unfunded revenues and become a huge burden on local jurisdictions.
1070 is nothing more han a ploy by Republicans to stir up conservative votes during an election year.