SB1070 Update: News tidbits

by David Safier

Lots of stuff is happening about SB1070 in Arizona and around the country. Here are a few tidbits.

• Florida's conservative darling Marco Rubio was against SB1070 before he was for it. Likewise Florida Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum.
• Russell Pearce was for boycotts (of opponents of his 2004 ballot initiative, Protect Arizona Now) before he was against them (related to SB1070).
• Before he was a Supreme Court Justice,  William H. Rehnquist, pleading a case in front of The Supremes, called Mexican immigrants "wetbacks." Thurgood Marshall objected, but Rehnquist said the term was commonly used where he came from — Arizona.
• About 5.5 illegal immigrants came to the U.S. legally and overstayed their visas.
• The widow of slain Phoenix police officer, Nick Erfle, is furious at Pearce for using her husband's name to support his anti-immigrant agenda and asked him to stop as long as 3 years ago. She doesn't support SB1070, and doesn't think the law would have prevented her husband's death.
• Arizona and New Mexico have wildly diffeent approaches to immigration. Interesting discussion of the reasons.
• "The Associated Students of the University of Arizona approved a senate resolution opposing Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s new immigration law."
• A Chicago high school girls' basketball team won't be traveling to Scottsdale as planned, according to administrators. Sarah Palin disagrees with the decision.
• LA City Council is boycotting Arizona, but not completely. There are too many ties, like Arizona's US Air, that flies to LAX.
• The GOP blinked, though they won't admit it, and decided to hold its 2012 convention in Tampa instead of Phoenix. Of course, it had nothing to do with the outrage over SB1070.