Blaming Arizona for Washington's Failures

The Grand Canyon State’s legislators are not arbitrarily mean-spirited and racist; rather, they are struggling to find their own solution to the very real problem of lax federal border enforcement.

Since Arizona passed its tough new immigration bill last week, many liberals and some conservatives have been ripping apart the Grand Canyon State.

Critics of the law’s usefulness and legality are correct: the new statute is not the answer to Arizona’s immigration woes. It is difficult, for instance, to foresee how Arizona can enforce the statute without the unintended consequence of racial profiling.  Though Arizona police cannot pull over individuals solely to check immigration documents, many policemen will undoubtedly use traffic violations as a pretense to check immigration statuses, much like Sherriff Joe Arpaio and company already do.

But amidst liberals’ breathless calls of racism/Nazism/Maoism and the sometimes ugly cultural chauvinism of conservatives (like John McCain’s opponent JD Hayworth), there has been dishearteningly little discussion of what got Arizona to this point to being with. The Grand Canyon State’s legislators are not arbitrarily mean-spirited and racist; rather, they are struggling to find their own solution to the very real problem of lax federal border enforcement.

The poor state of border enforcement is not a terribly controversial issue in Arizona and its neighboring states. Border state Republicans and Democrats recognize it. In 2005, for instance, two big-name Democratic governors of Border States -- Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Bill Richardson of New Mexico -- declared states of emergency as a wake up call to Washington D.C. and as a means to earmark money for border enforcement.

Since then, border state representatives in Washington have been active in pushing action on immigration reform. For Arizona’s part, Senator McCain, Senator Kyl and Representatives Jeff Flake, Jim Colbe and John Shaddegg have all, at some point, taken the lead on immigration and border reforms. They know that illegal immigration is more than conservative racial fear mongering (as liberal commentators seem to see it), but it is a legitimate public policy dilemma.

Unfortunately, Arizona’s new law is not a solution this dilemma. Instead, it is one local government’s ugly attempt to deal with a problem that some conservatives, most liberals and seemingly all of Washington D.C. view fatalistically.