Illegal immigration becomes Arizona state crime

By Jim Kouri

Arizona is the first state in the U.S. to make illegal immigration a crime — and illegal aliens and their advocates aren't happy about it.

While the pleas from American citizens in Arizona and other states fall on deaf ears in Washington, DC, the violence and crime at the U.S.-Mexico border continues unabated.

In yet another example of violence spreading north of the border, a deadly Mexican gang is actively plotting to kill U.S. law enforcement officers and their families in Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security alert that warns U.S. cops to wear body armor and vary routes to avoid being tracked.

The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to fight Mexican drug cartels yet they continue to be the nation's largest supplier of illicit narcotics and violent Mexican gangs have expanded into every region of the country, including idyllic rural areas.

"This is hardly earth-shattering news since Mexico has long represented the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S., despite Uncle Sam's multi billion-dollar effort to halt the northbound flow of narcotics. The costly investment has failed miserably, according to a federal report that reveals Mexican heroin production has actually doubled in the last year," state officials from the public-interest group Judicial Watch.

In the absence of federal enforcement a Mexican border state — Arizona — drowning in an illegal immigration pandemic has passed legislation that bans "sanctuary city" policies and makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.

The law marks an unprecedented effort by an American state to take immigration matters into its own hands since immigration offenses are currently violations of federal law that cannot be enforced by local police. But lawmakers in Arizona are fed up with the enormous toll that illegal aliens are having on their state as the feds sit idly by and fail to secure the southern border, according to a Judicial Watch report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

In the past few years they've chipped away at the crisis with other measures, though this is by far the most hard-hitting and definitely among the country's toughest immigration enforcement laws. The measure, passed this week by the Arizona House and previously approved by the Senate, grants police the power to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone suspected of being illegal and requires foreign nationals to carry proof of legal residency. This includes the man known as "America's sheriff" Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.

Sheriff Arpaio has been targeted by the Obama Justice Department and Democrats in his own state because of his tough immigration enforcement policy.

Illegal aliens will be charged in state court with trespassing and anyone — documented or undocumented — seeking work from a road or sidewalk will also be criminally prosecuted. Drivers who pick up illegal alien day laborers will also be punished when the law kicks in.

Predictably, immigration advocates are incensed and have called on Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto the measure which they assert is racist. The legal director of an influential national group La Raza that represents day laborers calls it an "unconstitutional, unwise and odious bill" created by "demagogue leaders" who have become folk heroes for "white supremacists" throughout the country.

Arizona lawmakers have long searched for ways to curb the colossal impact that illegal immigration has had on their state. A few years ago they enacted a law that punishes businesses that hire illegal immigrants, though the state has not penalized a single employer. Legislators allocated the sufficient funds (about $5 million) to enforce the law but a chunk of the money remains largely unspent by counties throughout the state, according to the JW report.

© Jim Kouri