Arizona crackdown driving out illegal immigrants

Associated Press ^ | AMANDA LEE MYERS

[Dubya]

PHOENIX — Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states.

For months, immigrants have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the state's new employer-sanctions law, which takes effect Jan. 1. The voter-approved legislation is an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for illegal immigrants in Arizona, the busiest crossing point along the U.S.-Mexico border.

And by all appearances, it's starting to work.

"People are calling me telling me about their friend, their cousin, their neighbors — they're moving back to Mexico," said Magdalena Schwartz, an immigrant-rights activist and pastor at a Mesa church. "They don't want to live in fear, in terror."

Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.

"I don't want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment," he said. "I'll be better in my country."

He called the employer-sanctions law "absurd."

"Everybody here, legally or illegally, we are part of a motor that makes this country run," Herrera said. "Once we leave, the motor is going to start to slow down."

There's no way to know how many illegal immigrants are leaving Arizona, especially now with many returning home for normal holidays visits. But economists, immigration lawyers and people who work in the immigrant community agree it's happening.

State Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the author of the employer sanctions law, said his intent was to drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona.

"I'm hoping they will self-deport," Pearce said. "They broke the law. They're criminals."

Under the employer sanctions law, businesses found to have knowingly hired illegal workers will be subject to sanctions from probation to a 10-day suspension of their business licenses. A second violation would bring permanent revocation of the license.

Nancy-Jo Merritt, an immigration lawyer who primarily represents employers, said her clients already have started to fire workers who can't prove they are in the country legally.

"Workers are being fired, of course," she said. "Nobody wants to find out later on that they've got somebody working for them who's not here legally."

When immigrants don't have jobs, they don't stick around, said Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University who specializes in illegal immigration.

She said the flagging economy, particularly in the construction industry, also is contributing to an immigrant exodus.

"As the jobs dwindle and the environment becomes more unpleasant in more ways than one, you then decide what to do, and perhaps leaving looks like a good idea," she said. "And certainly that creates a problem, because as people leave, they take the jobs they created with them."

Pearce disagreed that the Arizona economy will suffer after illegal immigrants leave, saying there will be less crime, lower taxes, less congestion, smaller classroom sizes and shorter lines in emergency rooms.

"We have a free market. It'll adjust," he said. "Americans will be much better off."

He said he's not surprised illegal immigrants are leaving the state and predicts that more will go once the employer-sanctions law takes effect next month.

"It's attrition by enforcement," he said. "As you make this an unfriendly state for lawbreakers, I'm hoping they will pick up and leave."

[rodguy911]

I’m just wondering if this story will have any legs at all, will it really get out? If it does it could change everything.!!

[glmjr]

MINUTE MEN of America

NRA of America

 We want to know.....what are you waiting for?

Your endorsements could make the difference in the upcoming elections.  If you haven't noticed, you have the perfect candidate in the race.  The future of stopping illegal immigration and the individuals right to bear arms are at stake.  Failure to give your support to the right person could cost all freedom loving Americans dearly.  Your members want you to endorse a person that will stop illegal immigration and secure our rights to bear arms.  A true conservative is the only choice, no liberal republicans or democrats need apply.

Call your NRA headquarters / Minute Men headquarters today and voice your opinion.  I did.

 

"When I am president, I will build a fence."

"My idea of gun control is a good, steady aim."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AmericanInTokyo]

DUNCAN HUNTER BUMP!!!!

[TheLion]

More proff you don’t have to deport them, just support them and make their life difficult. They will leave on their own.

[TheLion]

Sometimes I wish you could erase a post. This should have read:

More proof that you don’t have to deport them, just don’t support them and make their life difficult. They will leave on their own.

[Niteflyr]

Believe it or not, we are even seeing a difference here! No longer are we the only ones speaking English at the mall, and we can understand the takeout attendent at the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, and they us. They now speak English without an accent, and the order is finally filled correctly. This has been noticeable since summer’s end. My husband refused to rent a property to two who could not show legal papers. They are getting the message, as are the employers.

There is a Burger King I stop at for coffee in the high desert (CA) that had a lot of it's advertising in Spanish....they quit doing that....there must have been a reason....

[preacher]

Maybe some of them will come to Arkansas where Huckabee helped set up a Mexican consulate in Little Rock.

Legality of Huckabee’s Mexican consulate deal questioned
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58455

[Arrowhead1952]

"It's attrition by enforcement," he said. "As you make this an unfriendly state for lawbreakers, I'm hoping they will pick up and leave."

Gee, who would have ever thought that we could make ILLEGALS leave by enforcing our existing laws? I just don't know why we have to have NEW laws, when existing laws already make it criminal to be here ILLEGALLY.

[FreeReign]

Nancy-Jo Merritt, an immigration lawyer who primarily represents employers, said her clients already have started to fire workers who can't prove they are in the country legally.

Oh Boo Hoo!

[FreeReign]

Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years. "I don't want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment," he said. "I'll be better in my country." He called the employer-sanctions law "absurd." "Everybody here, legally or illegally, we are part of a motor that makes this country run," Herrera said. "Once we leave, the motor is going to start to slow down."

If that is the case and I don't know if it is, then create more legal visas. Then give the visas to people who apply for them in the correct manner, from outside the country.

Bye-bye cheater.

[ridesthemiles]

I just love this:
The ILLEGALS “don’t want to live in fear, in terror”

How come it seems to be OK for AMERICAN CITIZENS BORN HERE who built this country to live in fear and in terror from the heavy percentage of criminal element that is coming north??

[ridesthemiles]

” ... because as people leave, they take the jobs they created with them.”

Complete and utter horse squeeze. Illegals don’t ‘create jobs’. They TAKE jobs from hard working and skilled Americans. What they DO create is overcrowding, high healthcare costs, higher taxes for education and incarceration and a lawless subculture that totally undermines the Rule of Law.”

AMEN

Read
Repeat
Repeat again.

[purpleraine]

Greetings from California. $14 bill deficit, $10 bill in services to illegals.

[Eye of Unk]

I hope we don't get a bunch of Mexicans trying to get into Alaska after they saw The Simpsons Movie and they think just crossing the border automatically gets them a $1,000.
It does NOT work like that.

[ridesthemiles]

“If unsuccessful, Arizona will become a sandbox with a lot of empty taco bells.”

So- explain to me the downside of this statement?

I personally have not bought anything I could ID as “Mexican” since these fools marched in the streets of Los Angeles last year. No meals in a Taco Mell or any kind of “Mexican” restaurant. I don’t make meals at home with a Mexican flair.

The only thing I know I eat that comes from Mexico is broccoli. We hardly grow any in America anymore, and I like broccoli.

[ridesthemiles]

Arizona is one of the states where the housing bubble has been a major factor driving residential over-building. There has been a cushion in the loss of construction jobs, now that the bubble is burst, because so many of the laid off construction workers were illegal aliens. If there is indeed a mass exodus of illegals from AZ, however, this will further depress the demand for housing services, which will make the downturn more severe, and longer lasting.”

The downturn in housing is much more due to the creative mortgages that many people got sucked into.

That has NOTHING to do with who is weilding tha hammers when building the houses.

Besides the meat industry, I predict the next place for ICE to do their raids is in the Mfgd Housing companies and the same companies build RV’s. Fleetwood is one of the biggest abusers. I have been told that their mfgd house plant in Fairfield Calif is employing more than 80% illegals.

[Magic Fingers]

“If unsuccessful, Arizona will become a sandbox with a lot of empty taco bells.”

That was a quote from message #8, and my question to the poster was “by what process would that happen?” Whether you eat Mexican food at restaurants or at home has nothing to do with my question.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping and all of your pings. Good news, good thread. Thanks to all contributors. BTTT!

[mamelukesabre]

They’re probably all going to texas, oklahoma, colorado, new mexico, and kansas.

If you had to choose between the obove places and mexico, WHAT WHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Yeah, I thought so.

[Niteflyr]

I personally have not bought anything I could ID as “Mexican” since these fools marched in the streets of Los Angeles last year. No meals in a Taco Mell or any kind of “Mexican” restaurant. I don’t make meals at home with a Mexican flair.

Yeah something about hordes of marauding invaders carrying foreign flags will do that to one....