By the Time We Get to Arizona -- Again

By the time you finish reading this, the tension surrounding the immigration law passed by the governor of Arizona will have reached a fever pitch. The Arizona law criminalizes illegal immigration by defining it as trespassing. It empowers police, to question anyone they have a "reasonable suspicion" of being an illegal immigrant. President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have blasted the legislation, with Obama saying that it "threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness." The President, not surprisingly has come under fire from the right for calling the law misguided. Folks on the left and even moderates have characterized the law as modern day Nazism. A number of city councils across the country have called for a nationwide boycott of the state. San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera has asked Major League Baseball, to move the 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix. MLB has not yet responded to the request, but Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, has said that he would protect the interests of his 40-percent Latino membership. The historically African American fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, whose membership in the past has included Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the former prime minister of Jamaica Norman Manley, has decided to move its annual national convention from Phoenix, in protest of the new law. The Obama Administration is hard at work now crafting an immigration reform bill that could supersede any such laws like the one signed by Governor Jan Brewer. To say we do not have an illegal immigration problem would be naïve but that same type of naïveté is at play when a law is put in place to go after, detain or question those, who" look" illegal. There are some hard truths and long term ideas and solutions that need to be put forth, if we are going to hammer out an immigration policy, which is just and fair.

One of the hard truths we must come to grips with is that immigration reform must start with fixing and strengthening the border. The gaping holes along the border have become in recent years a two-way/partnership styled gateway of sorts. On one hand, the violence of the drug cartels has spilled on to our side of the border. Meanwhile, guns from the United States have made their way across the border and have armed many of the deadliest of cartels. Mexico must get control of the drug violence in its own country and to do so they will need help from the US. The help the United States lends must be two-fold; phase one must take the form of working with their law enforcement and helping their police to reform themselves in order to stop the violence. Phase two must take the form of stopping the proliferation of guns from the US to Mexico and taking a hard look at US gun laws or lack thereof. While this in itself is a tall order it still only takes to task a portion of the illegal immigration issue. There is yet another two-way relationship that must be dealt with when it comes to immigration reform.

Not withstanding the drug violence, the vast majority of immigrants from Mexico come to the southwestern portion of the United States for economic reasons. The majority of illegal immigrants come to the US in search of jobs and for good reason. It is understood that hotels, restaurants and other big businesses are willing to pay substandard wages to illegal immigrants in exchange for cheap labor. Businesses would rather do this than pay a decent wage to poor native born Americans. Big business knows what it's doing and it turns a blind eye to this phenomenon as does the GOP. If the Republican Party truly wanted immigration reform they would carve out a way to economically sanction those businesses that entice and hire illegal immigrants. This could stem the flow of folks across the boarder. The GOP and their business constituency are not the only individuals however who know and understand this relationship. Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox knew all too well about this shadow, economic relationship between his citizens and the US. The former president seemed to be ok with it. His in action to comprehensively deal with his countries poor, led many to believe his solution for his people was simply; go north. Mexico's current president, Felipe Calderon has said he would make illegal immigration a top priority, but he has openly been opposed to strengthening the border. Once again, these shadow relationships must end. Mexico as a country must be forced to deal with its economic situation and both Democrats and Republicans must start to punish businesses that break the law in the name of cheap labor. These are the complex relationships and issues that need to be dealt with when it comes to immigration reform, and these are the critical issues that the Arizona law does not address. A sense of history should have come into play with regards to the signing of this trouble filled law. In 1990 Arizona was the subject of tourism boycotts for not honoring/observing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. The National Football League saw fit to move the Super Bowl from Arizona in 1991, and the state became lyrical fodder for the militant rap group Public Enemy, with the release of their incendiary single/video "By the Time I Get to Arizona". Twenty years later Arizona finds itself again, the target of economic sanctions for taking a surface level stance on a much layered issue.

In the weeks to come Governor Brewer will try to soften the language of the law by writing a series of amendments to the law. She has gone on record, saying that her amendments will make racial profiling illegal and that profiling will not be tolerated in her state. This however may be too little too late. Latino Americans have become a powerful voting block in the US, and a much needed constituency to the GOP. If Latino voters look at this law as yet another Republican slap in the face and if the Obama Administration can carve out an immigration reform plan that speaks of safety, economics and fairness, by the time we get to Arizona, the GOP may not have a "pierna" to stand on.