Archive for the 'Immigration' Category
July 23rd, 2009, 11:27 am by Le Templar
 Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies (and along with Pinal County deputies) have started another “crime suppression sweep” across a wide swath of the East Valley. Today just happens to be Mesa’s formal goodbye party for the city’s police chief, George Gascon, who is leaving for San Francisco.
Given the story about Gascon that the Tribune printed online Tuesday night, I have no idea how Arpaio says the following this morning and expects anyone with a modicum of intelligence to believe him:
“I don’t care about this guy,” Arpaio told Tribune writer Gary Grado. “I don’t know his birthday, I don’t know his last day.”
This contrasts with what was sent on Twitter Wednesday to followers of @RealSheriffJoe:
“I wish the Mesa police Chief a safe move to San Fran,and if I’m ever in san Fran? maybe he’ll invite me to an italian dinner.”
Arpaio has gone out of his way to tell people that this is his real Twitter account. So he can’t pretend now that he didn’t say it. Whether or not Arpaio was being sincere on Twitter, clearly he cares about Gascon’s departure.
And today’s crime suppression sweep is no coincidence.
Posted in: Immigration • Maricopa County sheriff • Pinal County • George Gascon • Joe Arpaio | 4 Comments »
July 2nd, 2009, 10:21 am by Le Templar
 U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (far left) was part of a White House meeting in February with President Barack Obama in this photo posted at whitehouse.gov by the Obama administration. With the state budget crisis on hold until Monday, I can take a moment to mention other tidbits that have happened in the past week or so. Here’s a few items that caught my eye:
- Janet Napolitano, one-time governor and now U.S. Homeland Security secretary, was named by President Barack Obama to be his lead negotiator with Congress on immigration reform policies. Obama revealed this after a high-level June 25 meeting at the White House intended to jump-start an effort to finally resolve the nation’s broken immigration system. Napolitano received a huge amount of media attention when the swine flu pandemic was first identified. She seemed to be on my television news every day for weeks. Now, she it’s likely she’ll be back in the spotlight this fall on an issue that, until the economy collapsed, had been one of hottest domestic topics especially among talk radio and television and certainly here in Arizona.
- Have you taken the Tribune’s Fourth of July quiz yet? And you passed, right? Of course you did, that’s why you read this blog! But if you are, say, under 30, you are likely to be in a shrinking minority who actually understand basic American civics. Tribune writer Mandy Zajac used questions from the official test given to all immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens. The Goldwater Institute used the same test when it recently surveyed 1,350 Arizona public high school students and found nearly 97 percent couldn’t pass the exam! The institute’s Matthew Ladner suggests high schools should require the citizenship test for graduation, or colleges should require it for admission. I’ve got to say, if we expect foreigners in this country to have this knowledge, how we can fail to demand it from everyone else?
- The Associated Press reported on a Republican candidate for Maine’s governor who appears to have “borrowed” the Obama campaign logo from last year. I’m detecting a pattern here, as we noticed a similar concern in April with John Paul Mitchell, a Republican candidate for Arizona governor.
Posted in: Election issues • Immigration • Journalism • Presidential campaign • Barack Obama • Goldwater Institute • Independence Day • Janet Napolitano • John Paul Mitchell | Post a Comment »
April 22nd, 2009, 9:53 pm by Le Templar
 Republican Chris Simcox launches his bid Monday for the U.S. Senate at the state Capitol in Phoenix (Capitol Media Services). I didn’t attend the press conference today at which Chris Simcox formally began a campaign to defeat U.S. Sen. John McCain in the 2010 Republican primary. But I’m not surprised his announcement was dominated by the issue that has kept him in the spotlight for the past four years: stopping illegal immigration. Simcox gained attention in political circles after he founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and took his cause nationwide with the 2005 call for civilian patrols based in Tombstone that inspired new chapters and copycat organizations across the country. Even though McCain was the 2008 Republican candidate for president, his popularity has slipped within his home state party in part because of his support for comprehensive immigration reform, which critics see as code for immigrant amnesty. The issue is likely to heat up again this year as President Barack Obama has pledged to seek passage of immigration policy changes that have failed in Congress recently.
But as McCain began his bid for president, he retreated from comprehensive immigration reform to support a “secure the border first” stance. He repeats those words no matter how hard he’s pressed now (scroll down to the 8 a.m. hour on April 15).
Simcox will have to become competitive on other issues, or he’ll never be a serious threat to McCain. Here’s my evidence as to why:
- Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, Calif., was Simcox’s partner in 2005 when the Minuteman movement got underway. Later that year Gilchrist ran for the U.S. House as a third-party candidate during a special election in his conservative district. He did relatively well, but he never really challenged the eventually Republican winner.
- Closer to home, Don Goldwater (nephew of Barry Goldwater) ran for the Republican nomination for Arizona governor in 2006 and was supported by Simcox because Goldwater made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. But he lost by a wide margin to Len Munsil, whose comments on the issue were more moderate (as far as Republicans go).
- Former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., also lost his bid for re-election in 2006 after a well-publicized shift to the right on immigration issues during the prior two years. Hayworth routinely claims that Democrat Harry Mitchell actually had TV campaign ads that were tougher on illegal immigration than Hayworth’s own campaign. But I have yet to speak to a voter in the 5th Congressional District who so confused in 2006 as to believe that Mitchell was closer to Simcox’s views than Hayworth.
- State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, has to be the best known Arizona politician who campaigns for really tough immigration policies, after Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Pearce has been urged by Simcox and others to run either for governor or the U.S. House. But Pearce has backed off from both after he realized that an immigration-centered campaign wouldn’t capture enough voters and also would turn away many would-be donors who want more expansive immigration policies.
Simcox’s best chance is voter turnout for the 2010 primary could be incredibly low, as first noted by blogger Greg Patterson. That means only the most active and loyal Republicans will cast ballots, and some of McCain’s loudest critics come from that crowd. But any Republican who upsets McCain likely would be vulnerable to a Democrat in the general election, which is why I expect most of the Republican Party machinery to unite behind the senator. That will leave Simcox sitting at home after the 2010 primary, assuming he makes it that far.
Here’s a short video clip of Simcox’s press conference:
Posted in: Congress • Election issues • Immigration • 2010 • Chris Simcox • illegal immigration • John McCain | Post a Comment »
March 17th, 2009, 12:23 pm by Le Templar
It’s hard for a lot of people in Maricopa County to understand why there’s so much national consternation about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his tactics for arresting illegal immigrants. I suspect one reason behind the gap between local and national views is because we are simply so close to the issue. “Illegal immigration is a huge problem here. Sheriff Arpaio is trying to do something about it. What more do we need to know?”
Well, I came across a story over the weekend that provides an analogy for why it’s important to not simply take Arpaio at his word and to independently determine if the rights of American citizens and foreigners are being trampled under the guise of cracking down on illegal activity.
Tenaha is a tiny town of 1,046 on the Texas-Louisana border that appears to have an official policy of forcing black travelers to turn over their money and their vehicles to the police to avoid facing drug charges. The Chicago Tribune reported on a federal class-action lawsuit filed against the town. The leading lawyer says only about one in four cases did Tenaha actually charge someone with drug possession from 2006 to 2008. Nearly three-quarters of the time, the police seized anything they could put their hands on without finding any drugs, or at least without charging the “suspects” with a crime.
The police tactic described is particularly chilling. Imagine traveling by motor vehicle to a distant part of the country. You are carrying extra cash, maybe because you are going to gamble at a casino, or maybe you just don’t trust credit cards. You are pulled over in a small town by the local police and they come up with a reason to search your car. Then, you are shocked when told they found some drugs hidden under the seat or in the trunk. You are facing felony charges and potentially serious jail time.
The police say if you will “voluntarily” turn over your money and some other possessions, they will let you go and the justice system will look more favorably on you if this eventually goes to court.
You know the police are lying about finding any drugs. But if you say “no,” you have to come up with bail money and you will be fighting this dark cloud far from home for months. Say “yes” and you lose your belongings, but at least you can walk away.
Officials in Tenaha say they are using state drug forfeiture laws as a tool to challenge a large amount of drug trafficking that passes through their community.
“We try to enforce the law,” Mayor George Bowers told the Chicago Tribune. “We’re not doing this to raise money.”
So, do you buy the mayor’s explanation? I sure don’t.
Add in the fact that police have pre-printed forms because they handle this type of “transaction” so often, and the evidence that blacks seem to be targeted beyond all rational proportions, and it seems like something sinister is going on.
The Tenaha mayor’s explanation has some eerie similarities to what the sheriff’s office said when it tried to convince Tribune reporters last year that deputies weren’t violating anyone’s civil rights while making illegal immigration stops, despite what those reporters saw with their own eyes.
It’s good that the federal government is taking a close look at what Arpaio is doing. What kind of long-term success can we hope to achieve against the dangers of illegal immigration if we have to sacrifice liberty and freedom from police abuse in the process?
Posted in: Immigration • Maricopa County sheriff • Chicago Tribune • Joe Arpaio • Tenaha | 7 Comments »
September 19th, 2008, 5:57 pm by Le Templar
RUSSELL PEARCE
I wasn’t able to attend Thursday’s legislative candidate forum for District 18 in Mesa. But reading between the lines in Tribune writer Sonu Munshi’s coverage, I think Pearce still wishes he was running for Congress this fall instead of the Arizona Senate.
Pearce seriously considered challenging incumbent Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in the primary because Flake has been a proponent of immigration reform that would provide an opportunity for otherwise law-abiding immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally to remain here. But Pearce found out when he tested the waters that running for Congress is a whole different ballgame than running for the Legislature. Access to cash, and lots of it, is much more important in a congressional campaign, although some East Valley Democrats want to believe I don’t know what I talking about.
Flake’s warchest is well-stocked and Pearce learned he would have a tough time matching it. So Pearce ran for the Legislature again, and even took public campaign funds to help fend off the heavy attacks from business-friendly critics.
Meanwhile, Flake isn’t taking any chances and he has launched a new fundraising tool called the Pork Parade. Technically, the site is supposed to be devoted to building support against pork-barrel spending and earmarks. But given its emphasis on the use of Twitter and its relative lack of content, the real purpose likely will be to build up Flake’s personal image and gather contact information for future donation appeals, ala Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Congress • Election issues • Immigration • 2008 election • Congress • earmarks • Jeff Flake • pork-barrel spending • Russell Pearce | 3 Comments »
August 28th, 2008, 4:39 pm by Le Templar
TOM HORNE
Arizona schools superintendent Tom Horne had a startling announcement today: some school districts adopted the state’s new English immersion program for Spanish-speaking students a year early, and these districts already have made dramatic improvements in bringing those students into the mainstream.
A news release from Horne’s office today says these school districts have at least doubled their pace for removing students from the status of English language learners. That includes the Florence Unified School District, which went from a “reclassification” rate of 15 percent to 38 percent this fall.
Horne has emerged as the leading champion of immersing ELL students in four hours of language instruction each school day until they can read and write as well as their classmates who learned English as their first language. Horne has clashed publicly with school superintendents around the state, including Mesa’s Debra Duvall, who claim the state has pushed an untested program too fast with too little funding.
Unless the results reported today are a short-term aberration, this is great news for taxpayers as the state spends a signficiant amount of extra money to help ELL students — but the state is still trapped in a federal lawsuit that is seeking even more funding. Horne soon might be able to crow about finally implementing the intent of state voters who approved an English-immersion initiative in 2000 as a better way to address the problem.
Related story:
ELL problems go beyond funding
Posted in: Immigration • Schools | Post a Comment »
June 25th, 2008, 2:15 pm by Le Templar
JOHN SHADEGG
Democrats are trying to score political points against Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., for a recent quote to a health care industry lobbying group picked up by the Yellow Sheet from Arizona Capitol Times. Here’s the quote as printed in a news release from Shadegg’s Democratic opponent, Bob Lord:
“It’s important to note, Shadegg said, that contrary to what many believe, no one in this country goes without health care.”
Lord’s campaign manager goes on to say this shows Shadegg doesn’t understand the crisis facing many Americans.
But Shadegg made an accurate statement that puts the debate about the future of health care in some context. I constantly turn away comments that claim some white American can’t get any health care because “illegal Mexicans” are getting it all for free at the emergency rooms. The truth is every American can receive a wide variety of medical tests and treatments from emergency rooms at reduced costs or for free if they don’t have health insurance and can’t pay for it on their own. (Illegal immigrants can only receive true emergency care).
It’s expensive, and treating emergency rooms like a doctor clinic is creating lots of problems for the health care system. But Americans simply aren’t denied live-saving care for a lack of money or health insurance.
Update:
Sarah Muench, Bob Lord’s communication director, sent me a response to this post and she gave me permission to put it up as well. Here’s her response in full:
“I understand your argument, but there are millions of Americans who don’t have access to any kind of real health care. There’s a big difference between emergency treatment and real health care. Treatment at an emergency room may include a wide variety of medical tests and emergency care, but when it comes down to someone who has a long-term illness like cancer, that person can’t go to the emergency room for
chemotherapy. And that’s what’s so disappointing about Shadegg’s argument, just think of the 47 million Americans and 9 million children out there without access to real health care. John McCain recognizes this and notes that at any given moment there are tens of
millions of Americans who lost their health insurance because they lost or left a job. Friends of mine have younger siblings who had cancer before they were 10 years old. If they did not have real health care, they would not have gotten the treatment they needed.”
Posted in: Congress • Election issues • Immigration | 5 Comments »
May 14th, 2008, 3:14 pm by Le Templar
From left: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and state House Speaker Jim Weiers at a news conference Monday (Capitol Media Services).
There go those hopes of seeing the next state budget adopted anytime soon.
Stalled budget talks are likely to get caught up in the immediate fallout from Gov. Janet Napolitano’s decision to take away $1.6 million that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been using for illegal immigration enforcement.
One lawmaker with at least some influence was standing next to Arpaio Monday at a hastily called news conference to protest Napolitano’s act. Another lawmaker who knows a thing or two about state budgets was the primary champion of Arpaio’s funding last year.
I expect both of them to rattle all sorts of cages in and around the Capitol unless Napolitano does the unlikely and changes her mind about using the $1.6 million to fund a new statewide fugitive warrant task force. Certainly, Republican leaders will try telling Napolitano face-to-face she has to give Arpaio his money back if she wants budget negotiations to go anywhere.
The governor, a Democrat, has won most budget showdowns with Republicans in the past. Even with the public volatility of the illegal immigration debate, I wouldn’t bet against her this time either. For those who can’t get things done without a deadline, the state budget has to be adopted by June 30 to avoid any risk of violating the state constitution.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor • Immigration • Maricopa County sheriff | 3 Comments »
May 6th, 2008, 1:18 pm by Le Templar
Sen. Jon Kyl
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wasn’t happy about a recent Tribune editorial urging caution in further expansion of the occasions when government can forcibly record a person’s DNA for future reference. The Tribune Editorial Board was reacting to a Kyl-sponsored law that directs the federal government to grab DNA samples from illegal immigrants before they are deported.
Kyl publicly tried to lay a guilt trip on us opinion writers by repeating his argument that the Chandler Rapist would have been caught sooner if DNA from the current defendant had been recorded when he was deported years earlier.
Of course, a close reading of the Tribune editorial will tell you that we weren’t objecting to this specific law, but to government’s eagerness to embrace DNA as a magic tool for solving more and more problems regardless of possible loss of personal and medical privacy.
But Kyl’s main point relies on flawed reasoning – there’s no guarantee that a DNA sample would have led to an immediate arrest after the Chandler Rapist attacked his first victim.
Monday’s news about a possible serial killer in Mesa illustrates this. Mesa police have used a national DNA database to link two murders and a violent assault to the same person. But the police still don’t know who they are looking for, and Police Chief George Gascon held a news conference Monday specifically to enlist the public’s help in identifying possible suspects.
As for the man accused of being the Chandler Rapist, obviously he already was doing his best to avoid the police without fleeing the area. Even if the police had been able to connect crime-scene evidence to a name in a DNA database, that wouldn’t have automatically put a suspect in jail. Investigators still would have had to track the man down.
DNA samples aren’t a silver bullet for criminals. They are another tool for law enforcement, one that must be used carefully and never should be treated causally by policymakers.
Posted in: Congress • Courts • Immigration | Post a Comment »
April 29th, 2008, 1:59 pm by Le Templar
Gov. Janet Napolitano (at www.nga.org)
Recent political events in New Jersey and Arizona illustrate just how strange the whole national debate over illegal immigration has become.
As you’ve probably heard, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday vetoed HB2807, which would have required local police and sheriff’s offices to develop policies for working with the federal government to identify and deport illegal immigrants. The bill encouraged local law enforcement to receive federal immigration enforcement training, generally referred to as the 287(g) program. Napolitano said in her veto message that HB2807 guaranteed the state would pay for such training if the federal government didn’t, which could have cost $100 million when the state faces a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall.
But Napolitano long has been once of those leaders who argue immigration enforcement should be solely a federal requirement and local police should focus on preventing or solving state and local crimes. The governor probably took some solace from comments offered Sunday by Christopher Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Christie pointed out that simply being in the United States without permission is a violation of federal law, but not a crime.
Such immigrants caught in the United States are allowed to be detained only long enough for their status to be confirmed, and then they must be deported as soon as possible. Christie has gotten a lot of criticism from people who want stricter immigration enforcement at all levels, and don’t really care what the law actually says.
Ironically, last year, New Jersey State Attorney General Anne Milgram ordered all police agencies in her state to check the immigration status of everyone charged with a state felony or DUI. That’s Christie standing next Milgram at the August news conference during which she announced the immigration enforcement policy that’s similar to what HB2807 would have required.
Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Governor • Immigration | 13 Comments »
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