Chief among matters of public policy the Legislature is wrangling with this year is the impact illegal immigration has on the state.
Even before Governor Napolitano tied her approval of a budget to a comprehensive immigration plan she can sign, the state’s role in illegal immigration and border security has been the most divisive issue in the Legislature this session.
While one side says the issue is ultimately a federal responsibility and the state should encourage policy that does not harm the immigrant backbone of Arizona’s economy, the other says America is a nation of laws that need to be enforced and people who break the law don’t deserve to be rewarded.
The 90 legislators come from all corners of the state and a disparate variety of backgrounds, factors that no doubt shape how each one views the policy decisions made daily at the Capitol.
Three Republican lawmakers share a unique perspective on combating illegal immigration and, especially, the notion that this is a nation of laws that require enforcement. Combined, Reps. Tom O’Halleran and Russell Pearce and Sen. Chuck Gray have more than 50 years of experience as police officers, and have firsthand experience with how the criminal justice system handles illegal immigrants.
And, yet, despite the similar backgrounds, the three have different ideas about what the state should do.
As a deputy for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for 27 years, Mr. Pearce, a District 18 member of the House, said he has seen the impact illegal immigration has on Arizona neighborhoods worsen over time. While, in the past, those who sneaked across the border came to work hard and assimilate, those who have come in recent years are a burden on society, who disrespect the law and have no desire to be American.
“They march in our streets — they’re here illegally, demanding stuff,” he said, disgusted. “It’s an insult.”
Mr. Pearce, who is one of the most visible lawmakers on the immigration issue both locally and nationally, says bureaucrats, from the federal government all the way down to local police chiefs, are to blame for not enforcing immigration laws already on the books. The feds, he says, haven’t adequately secured the border and many cities have sanctuary policies in place that forbid police officers from detaining someone for being here illegally.
“There’s no excuse for what’s going on today,” he said. “It’s a failure of their oaths of office.”
Mr. Gray, a former House member who replaced the late Sen. Marilyn Jarrett earlier this year, says his decade-long tenure as a city of Mesa police officer and detective gives him the ability to recognize “misinformation,” especially when it involves people claiming to speak for the officers patrolling our neighborhoods.
“I think that my law enforcement perspective comes into play when you hear that police officers don’t want to arrest illegal aliens,” he said. “Bureaucrats don’t want to because of politics. The police officer on the street knows that 60- to 80 percent of the crime is committed by illegal aliens.”
The provisions of the recently vetoed S1157, which would have allowed illegal immigrants to be prosecuted for trespassing, would be a useful tool for police officers, Mr. Gray said. If an officer comes across someone not here legally, not much can be done, he said.
Trespass law
“The last thing a police officer wants to do is find an illegal alien that is up to no good and have to release them back to the neighborhood because there’s no trespass law,” he said.
The intimate knowledge of how the criminal justice system works — namely, how time consuming and expensive it can be — leads Mr. O’Halleran to a slightly different line of thinking.
“We don’t have to make 500,000 people criminals,” the 13-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department said.
The state’s prisons, he said, can’t handle the influx of inmates expected by some if the trespassing provision becomes law.
Mr. Pearce refutes that argument, saying the federal government estimates more than half of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants will self-deport in five years if a national trespassing law is enacted and $5 billion is provided to enforce border laws. He said the effect would likely be similar if Arizona did the same on a state level, calling it “attrition by enforcement.”
Mr. O’Halleran, though, says the same will happen without a trespassing law if the feds secure the border effectively and establish a fair employer sanctions program. Border enforcement is the key, he said, and should be a top priority for Congress.
“Until the border is secured, this is a revolving door game,” he said.
A guest worker program being bandied about in the U.S. Senate often draws sharp criticism among Republicans — Mr. Pearce included — because it is seen as a way of rewarding those who broke the law to live here.
“I don’t support any form of amnesty — code word: guest worker program,” Mr. Pearce said.
Guest worker program
Of the three former cops, Mr. O’Halleran was the only who favored a guest worker program. But, he insists, only if there is no chance those who came here illegally can eventually become citizens.
“Anybody that came into this country illegally should never be allowed citizenship,” he said.
He also said Congress should examine the criteria for citizenship because children of illegal immigrants should not become U.S. citizens — and automatically obtain all the rights, protections and services that citizenship grants — just because their mother came into this country illegally to give birth.
“I don’t know of another country in the world that does that,” he said.
Mr. Gray said he understands why governments, both nationally and locally, have been loath to tackle immigration issues, despite the mounting frustration among citizens.
“It’s too much of a political hot potato,” he said.
As poll after poll shows illegal immigration as the No. 1 issue among most Arizonans, the Republican-led Legislature has endeavored in recent years to curb the negative effects brought on by the immigrants.
The three former police officers may all be from the same party, but each has their own views on how best to solve the problem. Despite those differences, they want the same end result — one that hasn’t changed much from the days when they worked a beat: a safer Arizona where the rule of law is respected and enforced.