The Great Phoenix Exodus: Newsweek Outraged That Sheriff Joe’s Immigration Law Enforcement Is Working
Falsehood: If there were no Mexicans on planet earth, America would be unable to farm or man factories. Repeatedly we’ve seen factories raided of illegal immigrants, only to see droves of legal citizens line up for the jobs the next day. Beware he who says the sky is falling.
Besides, I thought the left’s whole mantra was “Just enforce the laws we have, we don’t need new ones.” Okay, so Sheriff Joe is doing nothing more than what you asked. Sorry if this place is about to look like Idaho, to all you anti-white racists.
Newsweek:
A year ago Roberto promised to pay a smuggler $1,400 for safe passage from the Mexican border to Arizona, where he heard there was plenty of work. After a punishing three-day trek through the desert, the 30-year-old Mexican citizen arrived in Phoenix and quickly obtained two jobs, one as a baker and one as a dishwasher. With his $580 weekly earnings, he paid off the smuggler and began sending money home to his wife and two children. He expected to live and work in Phoenix for years.
Like many of the state’s estimated 450,000 undocumented immigrants, Roberto (who asked that NEWSWEEK withhold his last name) is reconsidering his plans. The reason: in January a controversial state law went into effect that harshly penalizes the 150,000 businesses that employ illegal workers. First offenders face a 10-day suspension of their business license, and second offenders may have their licenses revoked permanently. Meanwhile, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been targeting illegal immigrants in a series of recent sweeps in the Phoenix area. The law—and the sheriff—have harsh critics. On April 4 Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the sheriff for potential civil rights violations. Arpaio’s sweeps are “publicity stunts in an election year,” Gordon tells NEWSWEEK. “But they endanger the welfare of citizens and policemen alike.”
Since the employer sanctions law went into effect, Roberto has been fired from one job because he had no documents. He quit his other job to seek higher-paying day labor, but that never panned out. Now he earns less than the meager $120 a week he made as a construction worker back in Mexico. Roberto and others like him are leaving the city and moving to other states or back across the border. While reliable statistics are impossible to come by, area businesses are starting to feel the resulting labor shortage.
The law isn’t Roberto’s only foe. Anti-illegal-immigration activists have targeted the north Phoenix day labor center where he and others look for work. One of the activists is Al Roglin, 54. For the past few weeks Roglin and several other protestors have been using video cameras to record the license plate numbers and car makes of anyone driving into the center who they suspect might be a prospective employer. Roglin hands the information over to Arpaio’s office. “There isn’t a single person here who is opposed to legal immigration,” insists Roglin, who says illegal immigrants are “vermin” invading the nation.
Both sides of the politically charged immigration issue see the Arizona law as a test case. Business groups and immigrants’ rights activists are challenging the constitutionality of the law in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Julie Pace, a Phoenix attorney for business groups, says the law encourages businesses to use an unreliable federal database, called E-Verify, that wrongly passes some undocumented workers through the system, thus allowing them to work, while blocking other workers who actually have legal status. But the law’s sponsor, state representative Russell Pearce, says the system is accurate and that the criticism is unwarranted. Pearce believes Arizona’s new law will eventually be seen “the most effective and nondiscriminatory” anti-illegal-immigration law in the nation.
In the meantime, local businesses are suffering from an already tight labor market. Ann Seiden, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, says the new law has had a “significant impact” on the migration of workers out of the state. “I can’t emphasize enough that the labor shortage has been severe and continues to be severe,” she says.
For example, David Jones, president of the Arizona Contractors Association, says about 35 percent of Arizona’s 280,000 construction workers are Latinos, and even with a downturn in housing construction, it’s hard to find workers. “We have created an atmosphere in which Latinos, whether legal or illegal, no longer feel welcome here,” he says. The sheriff’s sweeps involve deputies in unmarked and marked vehicles, on motorcycles, on horseback and in helicopters. Cars with Latino passengers are often stopped for minor violations, like broken taillights.
The “climate of fear in Arizona” has also caused longtime agricultural workers to leave, says Joe Sigg, director of government relations for the Arizona Farm Bureau, a statewide coalition of farmers and ranchers. In the Yuma area, where agricultural workers earn from $10 to $19 per hour, farmers couldn’t find enough laborers to harvest their lettuce crop, Sigg says. Other farmers have stopped planting labor-intensive vegetables like lettuce in favor of mechanically harvested alfalfa and wheat, and some farmers are considering selling out altogether, he says. “If the agricultural industry can’t get laborers, the land will be converted to other uses and we’ll put our food production at the mercy of other countries,” Sigg predicts.
The law’s effects can also be seen in once thriving neighborhoods. Tom Simplot, a realtor and Phoenix City Council member who represents a heavily Latino district, blames the employer sanctions law and the fear caused by the sheriff’s sweeps for driving immigrants out. Immigrant homeowners have “moved out in the middle of the night,” he says, leaving behind empty houses that now attract vandals and drug dealers. Although there’s no hard data yet, the sweeps have caused more migrants to leave the Phoenix area than other parts of the state, contends Michael Nowakowski, a Latino city council member. “It’s scary and confusing and a waste of tax dollars,” he says.
It will take six to nine months for the hard data from housing foreclosures and apartment rentals to confirm the exodus, says Phoenix economist Elliot Pollack. The true effect of migrant flight on the state’s already tight labor force may be masked by the fact that Arizona is in the grips of its worst recession since the 1970s, Pollack says. “We know people have left town, but we don’t know the effect, because the economy is weak anyway,” he says.
The sheriff, who has concurrent jurisdiction to enforce laws in Phoenix and other towns in Maricopa County, says such criticism is unfounded; he’s simply enforcing the law. Arpaio, who has worked out an agreement with federal authorities to catch undocumented immigrants, has turned over more than 11,300 illegal immigrants to the feds. Many of these immigrants were already in the county jail and were discovered during routine document checks. Arpaio’s deputies have themselves arrested about 1,826 illegal immigrants. “I won’t stop arresting illegals,” Arpaio tells NEWSWEEK.
A proposed law allowing guest workers from other countries to enter the state legally is winding its way through the Arizona legislature. But it may not come soon enough for Roberto, who plans on returning to Mexico in a few weeks if he can’t find work.
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Hell, I’m outraged that a rag like “Newsweek” is still in business.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pmSheriff Joe for President!
And for the idiot who complained about being pulled over for a broken tail light, I’ve been pulled over for that or less, and you can tell I’m white from a mile away.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pmWell, this is a great area where the Dept. of Labor/Employment can fill these jobs left empty with people who are collecting unemployment. Or how about using the prison population and pay them minimum wage to harvest these crops? Let’s get our current citizen minority communities to start filling these construction/labor jobs to get some skills that would be beneficial to their future economic independence.
Lots of solutions but everyone too short sighted to see them. If these jobs were filled by legal citizens could you imagine how low unemployment would be?!? Let’s get that 4-5% who are unemployed out there working!!
April 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pmNewsweek sucks…
April 18th, 2008 at 12:14 pmI voted for Sheriff Joe - will contiue to give him my support!
April 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pmFuck Yeah Sheriff Joe.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:23 pmPeople like Roberto would benefit if we actually enforced our immigration laws and kept our visa and guest worker programs up to date. If we increased the amount of legal immigrants we allow in from certain countries depending on the types of jobs that need to be filled and the skills those workers offer, then people like Roberto would have the ability to ask for better wages, and maybe even a better future for his family. Sadly, our chicken-shit lawmakers are too afraid to touch this immigration issue. I’m about ready to just let McCain do his thing just to get the ball rolling and adjust the details later. In addition, our tax revenue would skyrocket with the millions of new taxpayers, and our hospitals wouldn’t be going bankrupt. This modern slave trade is immoral and dangerous for the stability of our economy.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pmReign in Blood
your points make too much sense for the government to understand. That would be a great resolution though.
a round of
:beer: from me too Sheriff Joe
April 18th, 2008 at 12:32 pmIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Arpaio is always going to be criticized by someone because of his no nonsense approach to the growing immigration problem in Arizona. If anything, he’s setting the example that immigration laws can work.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Sounds like some of the best spent tax dollars to me…
April 18th, 2008 at 12:40 pmSheriff Joe, please start a training camp to teach other law enforcement officers where to find their balls. The police force in Charlotte NC has had theirs removed by politically correct policies.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm“For example, David Jones, president of the Arizona Contractors Association, says about 35 percent of Arizona’s 280,000 construction workers are Latinos, and even with a downturn in housing construction, it’s hard to find workers. “We have created an atmosphere in which Latinos, whether legal or illegal, no longer feel welcome here,” he says.
Ahh, poor babies. Try hiring LEGAL immigrants and citizens instead of undercutting legitimate construction firms that follow the law with your low-balling ILLEGAL immigrants, bud.
I’m sick and tired of seeing all of the illegal aliens mowing lawns, cutting trees, and roofing houses. Those jobs should be going to people who live and work in this country legally; end of story.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pmNewsweak
April 18th, 2008 at 12:57 pmWe need sheriff Joe to head up DHS. Then you’ll really see some illegals move back south. I know catch, try them, find them guilty, make them build the fence, then send them home.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:00 pmEverybody wins.
Waaaaaa…
Can’t find anymore illegals to work for 10 bucks an hour picking crops, then you have to pay a legal citizen 15 bucks an hour to do it, boo freakin hoo.
Food price increases will be worth not having Sancho drive his 25 year old beat up piece of ass import with chrome fender trim into me and then drive off because he has no license or insurance.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:04 pmOh, my god its outrageous, How dare a sheriff enforce the laws. he’s obviously a racist.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:31 pmwww.mcsoposse.org
April 18th, 2008 at 4:35 pmSorry that link was to the Maricopa County Sherriff’s Posse Website
April 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pmWould someone tell Michael Nowakowski, a Latino city council member, that for the most part illegals dont pay taxes? If legal citizens filled these jobs there wuld be more tax revenue. Sounds like the only one confused is Michael Nowakowski
Would someone tell me how a latino got a polish name?
April 18th, 2008 at 6:27 pmIf people were really unhappy about Sheriff Arpaio they wouldn’t keep reelecting him.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:31 pmSheriff Joe is the best, I’ve actually met and talked to him in person twice and can tell you he is one straight up guy, there’s just no bullshit when it comes to him he’s the real deal. You watch what happens to the town of Guadalupe now that he is leaving, it’ll turn into one of the highest crime ridden 3rd world shit holes around and we’ll wind up cleaning it up the old fashioned way. But hey the illegals and their traitorous sympathizers won’t be happy until the people rise up and wipe the streets with their asses. But hey maybe it’s just time for the gene pool ti get a nuclear chlorine treatment
April 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pmHe may be the smartest man in Arizona, he gets it.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:14 pmThe Sheriff is making a big difference. Illegals drive wages down and American citizens out of work. With the remove of illegals, or enforcement of laws, American citizens will see violent crime go down, auto accidents go down, medical insurance go down.
With the removal comes cheaper houses to buy or rent.
Higher wages across the board. Employers MAY even have to offer health care and benefits with employment.
Of course government spending will go down because taxpayers don’t have to foot the bills for Mexican citizen.
Could this policy bring America out of recession by providing more money to spend, higher wages and benefits to citizens, lower government spending (inflation), while protecting the safety American citizens?
April 19th, 2008 at 5:25 amWho gives a flying fu*k what the hell Newsweek thinks?
April 19th, 2008 at 6:39 amSheriff Joe for Arizona Gov.!!!!!!!
I love his interviews. He often has the puke-reporter at a loss of words for he tells it like it is and then they are stunned. He wants to move onto the next question. And the reporter is just left scrambling for words.
I wish he was here in San Diego County.