My Arizona

I guess I’m going to say something about the illegal immigrant law in Arizona. It's really been weighing on my mind. I know it’s a hot button. How could it not be? And as far as Constitutionality or enforceability, I think it’s probably a big waste of time. If it doesn’t get shot down in the courts as discriminatory, then any aid that it might render in identifying and deporting illegal immigrants would be rendered virtually useless to the police by the amount of contortions they’d have to go through to not violate civil rights laws.

But having lived over 10 years in Arizona, and most of my life in border states, I do understand the place where it’s coming from. Take just about any issue in the last 10 years, and Arizona has taken the brunt. The tech bubble hit Arizona hard. The housing bubble has created one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. The stock market crash has deeply affected the incomes of a state that is known as a retiree haven. The unemployment rate is through the roof. The healthcare situation is magnified by a population that has heavy populations of the elderly, the very young, illegal immigrants and, currently, the unemployed, all of whom have less healthcare coverage than they need. The state takes up the slack. And everything you’ve heard about violence and lawlessness in Mexico spills over the border into Arizona. All of that leads out to a very stressed state government, and by extension a very stressed population.

And I won’t say that Arizona is any more or less prejudiced as a state than any other in America. You may hear stories about new Mexican communities in Ohio or Nebraska, but that has never not been the case in Arizona. Arizonans know very well the difference between someone who is there to work hard and make a life for their family, and someone who is there to take advantage of the system. They have seen both. Up close. Where many cities in the country have a barrio, Arizona is much more likely to be street by street. You go to the grocery store with Hispanic women. Your kids go to school with Spanish speaking kids. The Mexican guy who mows your lawn may only live a few blocks away. The ultra-white guy you work with may speak dirty-down street Spanish because he needs to communicate with his in-laws. Familiarity may breed contempt in some. But in others it births understanding.

Like many of the “fly over” states, Arizona feels like it’s been left swinging in the breeze by the Federal government. It always seems like federal tax dollars are going somewhere else. And the lack of movement in either immigration reform or enforcement is probably the most obvious area where they get shafted. And I think that the attitude has become, “If you won’t do anything about this, we will.” Did they pick an effective method? Doubt it. Am I surprised that they made a desperation move? Not at all.