Arizona Employer Sanctions Law Goes Into Effect - Or Does It?

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Arizona Employer Sanctions Law Goes Into Effect - Or Does It?

I try hard to imagine it. Virginia, 18th century, and a bunch of white folks, standing around in the streets, with homemade signs, demanding their right…to be, uhm, slaves. Yeah, slaves. Git Yer Arse Back to Africa! the signs would demand, for the white folks would be livid because they believed the slaves to be doing jobs that they, the undocumented British settlers of this "new" country (that had inconveniently been inhabited by human beings for at least 10,000 years before they showed up in their pilgrim shoes), should have been doing instead.

Bueno. Hard as I try, I just can’t get the visual. I close my eyes, crunch my forehead like a big Nathaniel Hawthorne fist. I breathe deeply, open my chakras one at a time - pop, pop, pop. Eh. Nah. Still nothin’. And I’m a fiction-writer, for Chrissakes. Some things, I suppose, are just too far-fetched to conjure.

Or are they?

Driving past the towering palm trees and lush, unnatural lawns of my neighborhood in Paradise Valley (near Phoenix, Arizona) last weekend, that is more or less the scenario I came across. A motley group of white people, mostly bikers (as in Harleys and the occasional ill-advised leather chaps) waddling around outside of the mall at the corner of Tatum Boulevard and Cactus Road. They waggled their homemade signs to the traffic, their meaty heads wrapped up tight in American flag scarves. (This to, one supposes, display their patriotism, in spite of the fact that Section 8d of the nation's flag rules and regulations states "the flag should never be used as wearing apparel.)

The signs the thirty or so protesters displayed demanded, in essence (and often misspelled) an end to “illegal immigration”. The group that organized the protest-ette call themselves (oddly to my ears, but I'm a fiction writer who ironically values truth in advertising) the "American Freedom Riders". They, like the editors and publishers of the local mainstream newspapers, want the estimated 500,000 “illegals” in Arizona “go home,” wherever that might be, and so long as that home was not any sort of rental property in this state that might, I dunno, generate income and property tax money, at a time of record foreclosures and bankruptcies in the state.

The evening news, the night before this itsy-bitsy protest, blared and droned on and on, with breathless anticipation, about the demonstration, evidence, they told us, that the public was fed up with "illegals". They predicted a turnout in the hundreds. They were wrong. But you wouldn't know that unless you were there. Just like you wouldn't know that some people can affix teddy bears to Harleys and still be hateful, unless you saw it with your own eyes. Some things you just have to actually witness, rather than read about in the paper, or watch on TV.

Anyway, presumably, all these well-fed Hell’s Angels types, with their $20,000 recreational road hogs, were themselves jumping at the chance to take the jobs that will be left vacant when the migrants supposedly leave; jobs that pay below the minimum wage, but nonetheless contribute an estimated $29 billion to the state’s economy each year. I mean, why else would they come out in what the media dubbed "droves" (perhaps this referred to the handful of angry bikers having droved themselves to da mall; perhaps 'tis I who erred, assuming an assertion of "droves" to have been a predictive quantitative assessment?)

But here I get confused again. The bikers are pissed that the "illegals" have taken everyone's jobs, right? They bellow about it from behind their wooly moustaches, warble about it from within their jowly scowlies. But if you question the paltry attendance at their events (which, in spite of paltry attendance are broadcast from every media mountaintop in the Valley of Sun as being significant and even monumental), the Freedom Riders will tell you their numbers are low because...wait for it, wait for it....because their members are “patriots,” and, says the group’s leader, “most patriots have jobs.”

Wow. Oookay. So, let me see if I got that right, head bike bitch Danny Smith, media darling, president of the invisible minions and droves. You are protesting because patriots’ jobs are being taken by “illegals,” but no patriots can show up at your rallies because…they’re working?

Holy guano on a stick, Batman! Dude's braindead. C'mon Danny boy, come up with a better argument than that. My six-year-old son could come up with a better argument than that, without looking up from his Nintendo DS, in English and Spanish.

Anyway, to the point: The bizarre bikers' bazaar was related to the fact that on January 1, 2008, the New Year was rung in here in my adopted home state with the enactment of the nation’s most punitive law aimed at undocumented workers, a cause celeb for those Nativists (read: dumbasses) among us who seem to think asking a half million workers (and $29 billion in the state economy) to disappear all at once, even though there are not nearly enough “legal” workers to replace them, and even though the companies that employ them would rather move to another state than pay more wages, is a good thing.

Interestingly, even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of “stories” on the Internet and elsewhere, heralding the “fact” that “illegals” are leaving Arizona in droves (ah, there's that word again, whipping the Nativist scumbags into a slimy sort of xenophobic ecstasy) there is absolutely no proof that that whatsoever.

A recent piece in the Arizona Republic – the lead story on A1, no less – trumpeted the “fact” that “illegals” were streaming back to Mexico to stay. A full read of the piece revealed the only source for this determination to have been interviews at the border with Mexican nationals returning home for the holidays, all of whom claimed not to be coming back. Uhm, hmm. Okay. Let’s see. Imagine you’re in the US illegally, and some reporter dude comes up to you at the border, in Mexico, and says he’s from the Phoenix paper, and wants to know your name, and whether or not you’re coming back after Three Kings’ Day. A photographer snaps endless shots of you and your kids. Do you say yes? (Cue the Homer Simpson “Doh!”; fade to black.)

The Legal Arizona Worker’s Act, dubbed “the employer sanctions law” by the mainstream press, is meant to make it impossible for businesses in Arizona to “knowingly or intentionally” hire undocumented workers. If they do, they risk having their business license revoked. They also risk hefty fines. The new law requires all employers here to check the legal status of their workers through something called E-Verify, a free Homeland Security computer program that, like so many other Bush-era missteps, seems to be riddled with fundamental problems and confusion. Word on the street is that it's almost as effective, focused and intelligent as having people take their shoes off at the airport.

So, now, here we are, past January 1, and I’m wondering: How useful will the employer sanctions law (ie: piece of paper) actually be in achieving its primary goal? In my opinion, not very effective at all.

For starters, the law is supposedly going to be enforced only by Arizona’s 15 county attorneys. Yep. You heard me right. Fifteen people, versus...a half million. And most of those half a million people reside really in only one county. Which means the task will fall to one man.

One busy man.

You might have heard of him. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas. You know, the one who spent most of his recent time battling the genuine groundswell movement to recall him – for "Disobeying and violating the United States Constitution and abuse of power,” no less. He's a busy man. He's busy kissing the pinky ring and puckered sphincter of Sheriff Joe Arpaio (who recently said being compared to the KKK was an honor). He's busy dealing with the fallout of having authorized the wrongful (and humiliating for Thomas) arrest of the publisher and editor of the Phoenix New Times for their having exercised good journalism that make Thomas and Arpaio look bad. He's real busy getting bitch-slapped by the bar association. So, you got Thomas, essentially a flaccid douchebag in a nice suit, against hundreds of thousands of workers.

Eso.

I like to think I'm a good mom; I often tell my son not to believe what he sees on TV. I usually refer to Pokemon. But lately, I've referred to the news. Especially in Phoenix. Especially about Phoenix. And Arizona.

You see, even with all the media chest-beating (and Lou Dobbs’ very personal, oh dear Lord – how do I say this delicately? – meat-beating) about “illegals,” it seems that the general public simply cannot be whipped into the frenzy of fear and loathing our media brokers would like. Nah. The general public is essentially ambivalent about the whole thing. Then again, ambivalence might very well be the national pastime, anymore, right up there with Britney-bashing and Resurrecting the Osmonds.

This all shows, to me anyhow, the enormous extent to which the entire “issue” (read: non-issue) of “illegal immigration” is a recent fabrication of the US corporate media (and political) machine – in a nation which has slipped, under George W. Bush, from having one of the freest presses in the world to having the 48th-freest.

Well, in the best-case scenario, that's what it is - manipulation on the part of the corporate media machine. In the worst-case scenario, there are thousands of paid American operatives (probably outsourced to India, but whatever) whose sole job it is to try to weave anxiety and hatred toward "illegals" into the fabric of our national consciousness. Who knows? I would not be surprised to learn that there is a hive of them somewhere, trolling the 'net for any tidbit, swarming over and peckering the whole thing with comments designed to make editors and other semi-conscious media creatures believe there is a groundswell beneath us, of people fed up with "illegals" taking jobs from Americans. I mean, they show up everywhere, with their comments. As if, right? As if this kind of person reads. C'mon.

And why, praytell, might such a scapegoating frenzy be desired? Oh, geez. You really have to ask? Take your pick of issues those in power would rather not have any of us pay attention to. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tanking economy. The dollar's continued state of erectile dysfunction, inspired by Chairman Mao's naughty little striptease. The loss of a free press. The enormous gap between rich and poor, and the way it keeps getting bigger. The deficit. Jesus, do you really need me to go on? I mean, what better? Those of us who pay attention to all that other shit end up bogged down doing blogs like this, about a non-issue, while - while what? Tell me. TELL me.

Etc, etc.

So, in the end, what do we have, here in Arizona? I’ll tell you what we have. We have a tiny group of radical and misinformed racists (some of them in chaps, God help us all), rallied together by a tiny group of corporate media leaders with a vested interest in the status quo, declaring war on an enormous population of (mostly) productive undocumented workers, leading to an almost certainly unenforceable law being passed by cowardly and ill-informed politicians, and that law being trumpeted now by the same tiny groups who started the whole ball rolling, as “success”, even though there is no proof to back up the claim.

We have a city – Phoenix – that is two percentage points away from having a Latino-majority (cue Borat, whining "high five", baby!) and a white already-minority that hates losing power the way a toddler hates losing a lollipop after it fell on the ground. A walk through the Arizona Mills Mall, or on Tempe Lake, or a bike ride though the “pedestrian freeway” of parks and lakes in Scottsdale, only proves what no one in the media wants to admit: Phoenix has become like Miami, like New York, like Los Angeles, like Chicago; Phoenix is a Latino city. A Latino city with some hangover lameass racist leaders who know, as we do, that their days are numbered and soon they'll simply have to haul ass to Idaho. Some people fear this. I am not one of them, obviously. That is probably because I like to think of us Latinos as human beings – just like the people who were here before us, and the ones who came before them. Etc, for ten-thousand years.

Whether or not the employer sanctions law will actually change anything in Phoenix remains to be seen. (How's that for an imitation of the mainstream media voice, eh? Mad props to me, yeah.) And whether those changes look like the changes we have been led to expect, also remains to be seen. It could just be that all this immigrant-bashing and tantruming will have the same sort of result as any other tantrum. The offending screamers will be sent to their rooms.

Oh, wait. They already did that.

When the Freedom Riders chose to move their protest from the Latino neighborhood of Pruitt’s furniture shop in Phoenix, to the lily-white neighborhood of the Paradise Valley Mall, they pretended it was to effect a quicker change, just as they pretend all their members who lost jobs are at work and can't come to protest for jobs. But they know the truth as well as I do: Their change of locale signaled nothing less than the inevitable retreat of this state’s pipsqueak racist minority, they being gracefully and vastly outnumbered by a quiet, sleeping giant of people who value freedom and hard work. It was the Krybaby Klan, going to their white-washed room, to cry in the hopeful yet helpless way of children, among familiar things they will soon be forced to outgrow.

Meanwhile, the paper this week had another story, about the "important" protests another group of nativists have been waging in town. A quick read of the story revealed that the important protest was attended by...twelve souls. In a city of 4 million.

And that's news.

At least, that's all the news that someone, somewhere, deems fit to print. Question is: Who?

Posted at 7:07 AM, Jan 02, 2008 in Civil Rights | Immigration | Media | Permalink | Comments (12)

Comments

So you include New York in your list of "Latino cities" - does that mean the other 70%+ of us have to leave? you sound pretty racist yourself!

Posted by: nick | January 3, 2008 12:59 PM

she clearly didn't mean that non-latino people have to leave, she meant nativists. next time read a little better.

Posted by: ivette | January 3, 2008 02:21 PM

Even if I did say all non-Latinos must leave (which would be pathetic and absurd, and I am mystified at this interpretation of my thoughts, but what else is new) I could not have been "racist" for saying so, for the simple fact that Latino is NOT A RACE! Look it up. The US census made up this designation, and defines it was people "of any race" who have roots in a Spanish-speaking nation anywhere on the earth, any number of generations back. Ironically, this definition would likely include some nativists whose ancestors were in AZ when it was part of Spain and Mexico. The ignorance in the general public about Latinoness (ie: you cannot "look" like a Latino) is staggering and heartbreaking and terrifying.

Also, you say "the other 70 percent of us" as though that 70 percent were homogeneous. Latinos are not the majority in NYC, but no one is. It's a very diverse city; Latinos (whatever that means) just happen to make up the largest piece of that varied pie.

Posted by: alisa | January 3, 2008 02:27 PM

wow you're a real loon - you can't even get your facts correct. it is not a 'tiny' group that is for the sanctions law. the majority of arizonans (including many hispanics sans open-border nuts like yourself) are overwhelmingly in favor of this law. EVERY single poll indicates this. even if you could show me a poll that indicates otherwise, it was most likely conducted in south phoenix by hate groups like 'la raza'.

also, at every election every anti-illegal alien proposition (i.e. no bail for illegals, no in-state tuition for illegals) passed with flying colors. face it - you lost this year: we defeated the amnesty bill, the dream act TWICE, denied driver's licenses for illegals in NY and Michigan, oklahoma's and arizona's employer sanctions laws have both stood up in court so far and now many more states and following suit.

YOU need to wake up and smell the coffee - you illegal aliens are you no longer welcome in this country. and since you love mexico so much why dont you 'self deport' along with the rest of the illegals who left for good this year. there you can wave the mexican flag and shout "la raza", "si se peude" or whatever other anti-american unintelligible garbage you spout out of your piehole.

Posted by: phoenix dave | January 4, 2008 04:00 AM

Wow. Did you actually just call me an "illegal" and invite me to self-deport? Amazing. This proves my theory that the entire hysterical "anti illegal" movement is rooted in nothing more substantial than hate for Latinos. I'm the 8th generation in my family to be born in New Mexico; my mom's family tree traces to Ethan Allen and Roger Conant, meaning I could join the Daughters of the American Revolution if I wanted to. To 'self deport' I would have had to have been IMported at some point. You can beat your chest all you like, my friend. But the truth is, you will not win this issue. Ever. Bigotry and fascism never prevail for very long. The human condition is tilted toward the tolerant and humane. Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon this week gave a speech basically apologizing for having caved in to nutjobs like the above commenter, emphasizing the fact that this city is overwhelmingly tolerant. Finally, I will remind you that your fear of Mexican nationalism in the US is unfounded. People come here because they love THIS country, silly. The chant you reference, "Si Se Puede," was coined by Cesar Chavez - a native Arizonan. I suggest you either tell the truth about your own prejudices toward Latinos (regardless of where they were born), or straighten out your facts. You are not part of some grand majority, and you never will be. I'm wondering, too, where you got your "fact" that I "love Mexico so much". What a stupid thing to say. Mexico, from the two vacations I've taken there (and my Latino background is NOT Mexican) were okay; it strikes me as a nation of enormous inequities and corruption. We are becoming more and more like Mexico every day, yes, but not because of Mexican immigrants, who are more American than you are; we are becoming like Mexico because of corruption and corporatism. No, I don't love Mexico. I doubt the people who uproot their entire lives to seek a better future elsewhere particularly love it, either. But since you asked (or didn't, but oh well) I shall tell you: What I love? Humane, rational thought. Freedom. Democracy. An egalitarian approach to society. Intelligent discourse. Free press. All those things the founding fathers trumpeted, and which you and your paranoid pals seem to have forgotten.

Posted by: Alisa | January 4, 2008 08:08 AM

Well said Alisa. Phoenix Dave sounds like a composite of many people who post on websites about illegal immigration / immigration in general. They think that "gettin' rid of the illegals" will make their world better because there'll be less Spanish speakers, less brown people, less diversity. They hate diversity and blame all their problems on it. Unfortunately, Phoenix Dave, even if all those "illegals" left, there will still be black, brown, yellow and all kinds of different people in this country. You are like Don Quixote tilting at windmills looking for any excuse to get rid of people who are different to you, when in reality, it is you who are different.

Posted by: Jay I | January 4, 2008 06:16 PM

Alisa,

you're a beautiful woman inside and out.

Posted by: kevin | January 8, 2008 09:09 AM

Just because the news doesn't fall in line with your extremist left wing lies y propaganda by no means that it isn't free. As a person who has lost his job because of a greedy business owner wants to raise bottom line by people who are in this country unlawfully. I'm going to bet I know many more illegals then you. None that I know work for less then min. wage. Calling those who disagree with you racist shows the weakness of your arguments. 70% of those in AZ disagree with illegal immagation. That is a fact. If you want to make an argument. Make it of feelings sorry for these people. Name calling and stereotyping is not the path to winning people over.

The fact is you are the biggot. I fear that my half latina little girl will hate white people like you. I know you would call your mother an Irish slut. What will she call me if she becomes as hateful as you. The fact is we have to do something. We can't endlessly import poverty. I wonder how racist you would think us if we had Mexico's immagration policy. It's nice to see you claim your Irish side when it helps your argument. otherwise you don't claim them at all.

Posted by: Anthony | January 9, 2008 09:36 PM

Posted by: Anthony | January 9, 2008 09:38 PM

dont think this is a valid argument on either side.
The problem is no one is speaking honestly about the reason we have this problem and what the solutions are.
1) The reason the illegal immigration issue has come to the forefront is not because of the media or distractions from other issues or hatred. The reason is because the number of illegal immigrants flow into this country has become overwhelming. Back in the 80's I lived in Houston where we had illegal immigrants from mainly mexico and some from Vietnam however the differences were: The numbers were much smaller and most of these people assimilated in society alot faster, The asians in particular push education and learning english to their children much faster.
2) Learning English: If people learned english you would be surprised how much more accepting our society would be. It is insulting to have people living here for years and cant speak a word of English.
3) Focus on Jobs: The focus is too much on jobs and not enough on future goals as a society. The majority of white ancestory is from Europe which everyone could agree is modernized,educated and promotes democratic ideals. Mexico and other central and South American Countries on the other hand are 3rd world countries. (Spain from the Middle ages) society. A cast system. Except Brazil (Portugal). These South American and Mexico Countries were colonized by Mideval Spain at the time and never quite moved out of that realm to modernize their societies. (Do we want those values here in the US)?
4) America is not just a job bank.
5) Who Benefits from Illegal Immigration ?
Show me some statistics on pros and cons
Example:
Pros: Cheap labor (How cheap and who benefits from that cheap labor)
Cons: Increased government services: ER visits/Medicaid/Medicare and Transportation
Schooling for Kids,Crime Rates and a population that is mostly uneducated and doesnt want to become educated (for the most part) or learn english but simply wants to work.
To be an American is not just to have a job, you have to push yourself and your kids to be educated,learn english and assimilate into society, become active in local issues to better society. In Mexico it is obvious these people were not active in local issues and chose not to educate themselves so what does that say about them ? Just working is not enough, if it was then it would be enough in Mexico or anywhere else. What separates the US from 3rd world countries is not just "JOBS" its ideals,its inventiveness, its voting for where your tax dollars go and holding people accountable for that. Its educating society, its promoting small business. Most of all its getting involved not just for issues such as a JOB but for society in general.

and yes Latino refers to Spanish-Speaking people.
the funny thing is that is not the original language of Mexico either, that was forced on them by the Spanish hundreds of years ago. People in the US were not forced to speak english, it was voted as the official language and most people who come here want to learn it so they can be an "american".

Thanx

Posted by: doug | January 11, 2008 11:00 AM

WHY THE CUT IN U.S. SENIOR BENEFITS? (or 'This will spoil your day')

'snopes' is provided for doubters:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

Now.................

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until
they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I
have included the URL's for verification of the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each
year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such
as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school
education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of
English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born
children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Fed eral Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare &
social services by the American taxpayers.
http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by
the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two
and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their
children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
http://transcripts.cnn.c om/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that
crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from
Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine
and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland
Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass
deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of
between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'
http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to
their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht. htm

14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes
Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States'.
http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whooping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR !

If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message, but on the other
hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then forward it.

Posted by: DOUG | January 11, 2008 11:23 AM

As a member of the American Freedom Riders, you have no clue who we are or what we are.
Our protest is focusing on the crime that the scum illegals bring into our city. The Chandler Rapist? Perhaps your cousin or uncle?

I am so tired of you left wing liberal socialist wannabe pieces of garbage.

Your illegal alien criminal invader friends and family WILL be leaving the city of Phoenix.

Watch it happen.

Posted by: Keith Lefebvre | January 27, 2008 09:45 PM

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Arizona Employer Sanctions Law Goes Into Effect - Or Does It?

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