Arizona Calls For Crackdown As Immigrants Protest
By David Schwartz
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Arizona, a fast-growing border state that is the biggest U.S. entry point for illegal immigrants, called for a crackdown on undocumented workers on Monday, as millions nationwide protested to demand new rights and respect for foreign residents.
Republican legislators prepared to introduce potentially one of the toughest state anti-immigrant proposals, a $100 million package that would deploy National Guard troops to the desert border with Mexico and use radar to track anyone trying to sneak across the border.
“I am not just going to stand by while this country is being destroyed,” said state Rep. Russell Pearce, a Republican and outspoken opponent of illegal immigration.
Hundreds of people protested in Phoenix, the nation’s fifth-largest city, joining millions across the United States who took to the streets and boycotted work and shops to focus the nation’s attention on the contribution of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers to the economy.
As the 2,000-mile (3,219-km) U.S. border with Mexico has been fortified in heavily-populated areas, immigrants increasingly have entered the United States by crossing the Arizona desert.
Arizona recorded more than half of the 1.2 million arrests made last fiscal year along the frontier.
Arizona is finally taking the steps many border states should’ve taken a long time ago - securing the border. Illegal immigrants must understand they cannot just walk across the United States border and break entry laws without consequence. By placing National Guard troops at the state border, Arizona lawmakers would give border control agents much needed help in enforcing immigration law, while sending illegal aliens a message that it is illegal for them to break our entry laws. The protection of the homeland must be first and foremost in our lawmakers’ minds and the first step to securing our homeland is to close the border of this great country to illegal entry from Mexico.
