False ‘Border Security’ Debate is Immigration’s Oil Spill, Obama Will Meet With AZ Governor Brewer

America's Voice Blog

Posted 06/03/10 at 09:26am

It's like a raging oil spill, but without those fancy underwater cameras.

Lack of comprehensive immigration reform has allowed an untenable situation to explode into dangerous platitudes, scapegoating, and solve-nothing politics. It has enabled fearful Republican politicians in the heat of challenging midterm elections to exploit the thorny issue of immigration. Ironically, research shows that if politicians would demonstrate a real plan for federal immigration reform, these same officials would see a major boost in support among the majority of voters, who desperately want illegal immigration solved.

For now, like an out-of-control oil slick, Arizona's controversial new law is poised to spread in a big way -- to two dozen other states in the coming months, in the absence of a federal fix. Unlike an out-of-control leak, however, there is a well-documented solution that the majority of Americans support.

Today Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (who's getting heat in the blogosphere today for wrongly claiming her father was killed fighting Nazi Germany) has secured herself a White House meeting with the President, scheduled for this afternoon. A range of local and national organizations that support federal reform plan to demonstrate in front of the White House, beginning at 1 pm, with a message that the Arizona law must stop in Arizona.

To the Governor's dismissal of civil rights abuses that could result from the law, conservative columnist Ruben Navarette makes this compelling case:

Here are the facts: (1) Arizona lawmakers have boxed police officers in with a law that requires them -- under threat of litigation -- to check the citizenship of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally once they make contact due to an alleged infraction; (2) the list of "infractions" is broad enough to include everything from trespassing to vagrancy to soliciting work to attending a party where the music is too loud; and (3) police officers are going to do everything they can to fulfill their obligations under the law.

And, as human beings, those officers will find it difficult not to give in to their prejudices. Take it from the experts. Among the critics of the Arizona law I heard from is a Latino police sergeant in a major U.S. city who, after more than 25 years on the job, knows how this game is going to play out.

"You're right," he wrote, "in the real world of policing as a peace officer on the street, any tool will be used to gain an advantage during any contact. It's our nature to be proactive."

Which is why the rest of us have to be just as proactive in pointing out what an indefensible law this is -- especially to those who are determined to defend it.

Navarette's sergeant is one of dozens of police chiefs and local AZ cops, who are growing sick of the do-nothing politics of immigration getting in the way of their sworn duties: risking their lives to keep us safe and secure. Just yesterday, the city of Tuscon joined police in a lawsuit against Arizona's SB 1070, the controversial immigration law set to take effect at the end of July.

In her discussion of today's meeting, Governor Brewer will likely continue to assert that Arizona is experiencing a vast uptick in violence that warrants this kind of law, and which could be solved by simply stationing more troops on the southwest border. It's a convenient soundbyte, but it is out of touch with reality -- crime is down and immigration enforcement spending is way up. The Wall Street Journal's Edward Alden argues that, amidst broiling politics on all sides, we have yet to have a rational argument about securing the border, given the major increase in spending on border security in the past few years.

Consider these simple facts:

As the Immigration Policy Center notes, the annual budget of the U.S. Border Patrol stood at $3.0 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 - nine times the FY 1992 budget;
The number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the southwest border with Mexico grew to 16,974 in FY 2009 - a nearly five-fold increase since FY 1992;
As this chart shows, spending by interior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) skyrocketed from almost $7.5 billion in 2002 to over $17 billion in 2010.

Now consider that despite these massive expenditures of taxpayer dollars, our immigration issues have not been solved. Why? Because simply shoving more money into a failed system is not a real solution. The real solution, as articulated by Senator John McCain himself, is comprehensive immigration reform.

Senator John McCain himself said in 2007:

“Our nation’s immigration system is broken and is badly in need of repair, but without comprehensive immigration reform, it is a fact that our nation’s security will remain vulnerable,” and, “The most effective border protection tool we have is establishing a legal channel for workers to enter the United States after they have passed background checks and have secured employment.”

Maybe President Obama should print out this chart and hand it to the Arizona Governor during his meeting, asking her to get her Arizona Senators on board with a comprehensive immigration reform plan that plugs up Arizona's gushing, out-of-control immigration debate and our nation's dysfunctional and unjust immigration system.

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