There is absolutely no evidence to support Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer's series of inflammatory statements in the last two weeks that the majority of illegal Mexican immigrants entering Arizona are drug smugglers and hardened criminals and that beheadings are now occurring in Arizona.
Brewer's statements only hardens opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, which is absolutely necessary to protect the U.S. from a terrorist attack. The immigration chaos on the Mexican border is unnecessarily providing cover for our enemies.
In the midst of a tough Republican primary for governor, Brewer told Fox News in a June 17 interview with Greta Van Susteren "we cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime and to the drugs and the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings..."
Beheadings?
In Arizona?
If anybody's lost their head in the Grand Canyon State, it's Brewer.
Contrary to Brewer's self-serving and untruthful statements designed to whip Arizonans into a racist frenzy as the election approaches, illegal immigration is declining and 85 percent of the aliens arrested along the border are seeking low-wage jobs in the United States and have no criminal background.
Last Thursday afternoon I visited the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol headquarters in Yuma, AZ and was presented with an entirely different assessment of conditions on the border by CBP public affairs officer Ken Quillen.
First, Quillen said the United States has made tremendous strides in reducing illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexican border. In 2005, CBP arrested nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens along the Mexican border. That number dropped by 50 percent in 2009 to slightly over 556,000 and is expected to be down even more this year.
Conditions have improved even more dramatically in the Yuma sector, which stretches 126 miles east from this town in the far Southwestern corner of the state. Last year, CBP arrested 6,900 illegal aliens, a precipitous decline from 138,000 in 2005.
Quillen said tripling the number of CBP agents, erecting triple fencing in urban areas, adding surveillance cameras and aggressive prosecution of illegal aliens by the local federal magistrate in Yuma County are credited for the reduction in illegal immigration.
Despite Brewer's irresponsible claims, illegal immigration is getting better, not worse.
Second, Quillen said wannabe lettuce pickers, landscapers, hotel workers and other low-wage job seekers make up about 85 percent of the illegal immigrants caught at the border. These nonviolent immigrants, Quillen said, are a huge distraction in the CBP primary mission to secure the border from terrorists and hardened criminals.
CBP officials consider job-seeking immigrants to be "clutter" that gets in the way of their primary mission to protect the U.S. from serious danger.
It is clearly a matter of national security to immediately pass comprehensive immigration reform that will allow for an orderly flow of low-wage and fully documented workers to enter and leave this country to meet economic conditions.
A documented immigrant workforce, combined with strict employer sanctions, would go along way to reducing the chaos and underground economy associated with illegal immigration.
The U.S. could also generate significant revenue by charging up to $3,000 for temporary work visas that would assure legal documentation of immigrants and allow tracking once they enter the United States.
Many illegal immigrants are already paying this amount and more to coyotes, who often exploit the workers for more money once they arrive in the U.S.
Contrary to Brewer's contortions, human traffickers inflict the vast majority of their crimes against their cargo of immigrants, not against U.S. citizens.
As long as fear mongers like Brewer -- and this includes Senator John McCain who is refusing to support comprehensive reforms -- continue to misrepresent the facts about illegal immigration, the United States will remain more vulnerable to terrorist attack and less secure.
The United States needs an economic solution to what essentially is an economic problem. And we need it now.
Follow John Dougherty on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnDoughertyUS
Nogales, the main city in the region, which shares a border with the Arizona city of the same name, has had 131 murders so far this year... That includes two heads found Thursday stuffed side by side between the bars of a cemetery fence.
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/world/20100705_ap_
mexicosdrugwarheatsupneararizonaborder.html
Phoenix - Kidnapping Capital of the U.S.A.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6848672&page=1
"In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone.
"We're in the eye of the storm," Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico's drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. "If it doesn't stop here, if we're not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation,"
In fact, kidnappings and other crimes connected to the Mexican drug cartels are quickly spreading across the border, from Texas to California. The majority of the victims are either illegal aliens or connected to the drug trade.
An ABC News' investigation uncovered horrific cases of chopped-off hands, legs and heads when a victim's family doesn't pay up fast enough.
"They're ruthless, so now they're ripping each other off, but doing it in our city," Anderson said.
Be sure to check out the video associated with the article.
The bottom-half of the short bus kids here in Arizona are willing to let any politician lie about anything as long as they harass Mexicans.
So Jan Brewer goes on tv and claims that most immigrants are carrying drugs in. When in reality, if you pull over any suburban mom in Scottsdale, you're much more likely to find coke, meth, or anything else that'll help keep her skinny.
So Jan Brewer claims her father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany when he actually was never in the war and died in California a decade after it ended. In our hearts and minds, didn't we ALL die fighting the Nazis in Germany? Oh, I also died fighting Communists in Vietnam once.
So Jan Brewer claims 87% of immigrants crossing over have a criminal history even though she just made that up. 87% is a magical number, I personally go around saying 87% of SB1070 supporters have the same IQ as a golden retriever.
So she claims SB1070 "doesn't have anything to do with border security" and that it's another tool to get the border under control. http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201006140006
So what.
We Arizonans are the sad girl that's so desperate for a boyfriend she doesn't care if he cheats, lies, and sleeps with other girls.
Her current batch of lies is no different from what they've been spewing all along, but this time she got caught and people are beginning to question her veracity. About flippin' time!
Arizona Democrats are fighting these lying weasels, but we could sure use more help from Democrats and civil libertarians across the country. Donate to a Democratic candidate for Arizona office. Help recruit Hispanic-American voters. Help us get John McCain out of office and bring real reform to our border.
Thanks to John Dougherty for stepping up and running, and for taking the fight directly to McCain. You're giving Arizonans confidence that we no longer have to be held hostage in homage to social radical ideologues!
There is a link on John's campaign website for a secure donations through actblue.com