The Battle is Won, the War Continues

By Michael Bryan

With Judge Bolton's ruling enjoining enforcement of the core provisions of SB1070, the battle to stop Arizona from becoming a mini-sovreign (a tyrannical one) for the purposes of immigration is won, but the political and legal war between two visions of American immigration policy is just warming up. However, it is time to take down the battle banner that flew on this blog for the past several weeks. This is still 'El' Blog For Arizona until Arizona's insurrection is finally put in the political graveyard, but things are returning to a bit of normalcy as the election season gears up and the process of appeal to higher courts rolls along.

Arizona is likely to remain a central front in that war due to its geographic position and the political power of those determined to keep this issue at a boil to enhance their own electoral prospects in what might otherwise, and ought to be a very unfavorable year in Arizona for the GOP.

Thanks in large measure to the emotion and distraction created by their political gamesmanship on immigration, a party that should be looking at electoral defeats due to their gross incompetence and mishandling of Arizona's financial position is instead looking well-positioned to remain in power over all major organs of government. A Governor that lacked any mandate and was headed for political ignominy, now appears to be certain of her party's nomination and is strongly positioned for the general election. The Arizona GOP has pursued a transparently cynical strategy, and has succeeded beyond any expectations.

So what are the two visions of American immigration policy I alluded to? 

The vision espoused by the proponents of SB1070 is merely politically motivated hate- and fear-mongering. Seal the border. Find and deport all the aliens. Make it illegal for undocumented aliens to work, travel, or even exist in our state. That vision has all the sense, compassion, and logic one has come to expect from the crypto-fascists of the American right.

All the objective study of the issue indicates that immigration from Mexico is good for our economy, lowers the crime rate, enhances our quality of life, and injects needed people, energy, and cultural ideas into our nation's blood stream. If you listen to the anti-immmigrant right, however, (and it is increasingly hard to not hear them) you would come to believe exactly the opposite; including that wild-eyed Mexicans are prowling our border cutting the heads of any gringo who strays from the heard. 

It is exactly such hyperventilation and half-truths that betrays their real concern; not that immigrants are threatening our security and prosperity, but that the right's power is threatened in a state that is evolving demographically, economically, and politically away from GOP rule. They look at a state like Colorado that was for decades a GOP stronghold and is now solidly blue because that state's GOP lost touch with the real concerns of the citizens, and they have fever dreams of it happening here. And it will. But their desperate ploy to scare Arizonan's into continuing to vote for them looks likely to work… for now.

The other view – my own view and that this blog's authors – is that immigration is, like any other large and complex phenomenon, both a challenge and an opportunity. If we devise a rational immigration policy that maximizes the benefits and minimizes the harms, we can make our immigration policy work to everyone's benefit. We must reduce the demand for black-market movement of people and labor – because ultimately those who prosper from black markets are criminals. We must police the border more effectively and more intelligently – because there are genuine national security interests at stake. We must integrate the large pool of undocumented workers currently in the country into the legitimate sector of our economic and decide how give them a legal status that benefits both them and us – because regardless of the fascist aspirations of a few, this is not a nation that rounds up and deports 10 million or more people who have become integral parts of our communities.

'El' Blog For Arizona will continue to provide fact-based and fine-grained news, analysis and viewpoints on this controversy, but until Democrats come forward with a plan that can appeal to the broad majority of Americans who want to see a rational response to our broken immigration system, extremists like Pearce and Brewer will continue to control the terms of the debate. And that does no one any good at all.