Immigration

By Michael Bryan

As we near the time for arguments before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Arizona's SB1070, the Senate has held a hearing on the law.

Testifying about the bill were recalled former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce (pro at 19:56), retired U.S. Senator Dennis DiConcini (con at 25:30), Arizona State Senator Steve Gallardo (con at 35:27), and Todd Landfried of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform (con at 42:15). Questions begin at 49:05 with Schumer questioning Pearce.

Tellingly, Republican Senators Jon Kyl and John Cornyn both ducked out of the hearing leaving Pearce the sole supporter of the law in the hearing room. He was a bit sore about it, whining to the press, "I didn't get a phone call… I was disappointed. It's not just about supporting me, it's about supporting Arizona."

Kyl released a statement explaining his boycott of the hearing and labeling the hearing "strictly political theater." Governor Brewer also declined to attend and testify. One wonders why, if Kyl and Brewer considered the hearing political theater, they failed to make a curtain call: political theater is their profession, so given a chance to strut the boards before a national audience, why would they refuse the chance at a soliloquy?

UPDATE: (h/t to Bess1919) Apparently, one of Pearce's posse falsely accused Randy Parraz of shoving him after the hearing and was questioned by capitol police. Stay classy, Mr. Pearce.

UPDATE: Listening to Pearce's pressers following the hearing he made some claims that are wholly unjustified by the facts. He claimed that up to 9,000 Americans are killed per year by undocumented aliens. This clearly implies that a murder spree is on. The facts is that there are generally about 15,000 murders in the U.S. per year: Pearce is claiming that 3 out of every 5 murders are perpetrated by undocumented aliens? Bullshit. He also claimed that undocumented aliens commit crimes at three times the rate of "any other demographic". That's simply not true, either. Immigrant populations generally, and Mexican immigrants, including undocumented, commit crimes at a rate lower than any native-born demographic. Finally, Pearce claims to have met with DREAM students personally. I find that claim doubtful. Any DREAM students out there who can support Pearce's claim to have met with your personally, or even in a group?

Watch the hearing after the click…

by David Safier One of these days Mitt will figure it out. Instead of coming up with different positions for different days of the week, he'll just start answering "All of the above." Kris Kobach, the brains behind SB1070, used to call himself an adviser on immigration issues for Romney. That was back when Romney … Read more

by David Safier Get ready for Mitt to go soft on Hispanics after drawing a very hard line in the sand, and on the border. He's distancing himself from Kris Kobach, the brains behind Russell Pearce's SB1070 (You knew there had to be someone with brains behind it, right?) It wasn't always so. In January, … Read more