The Arizona Law
An excerpt of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 as amended by House Bill 2162:
For any lawful contact stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released. The person’s immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c). A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution.
BISBEE, Ariz. — The frustration is palpable. It’s on the faces of ranchers who work within arm’s reach of loaded rifles for their own safety, and who shake their heads when they talk about the effectiveness of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Some of them work in fear after a rancher was shot to death on his property in March by a suspected illegal immigrant.
The problem is visible: hidden cameras show hundreds of people streaming through the desert on a regular basis. Some carry what police say are 80-pound bundles of marijuana; others are young males and females looking for a better life.
The next day, piles of water bottles and backpacks litter the ranches in spots where they stopped to rest. On Monday, May 25, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office picked up yet another dead body just two miles from the border.
The fear is audible: in the words of Hispanic residents afraid an over-reaction will lead to a police state, where they can be harassed simply for being Hispanic.
And the motivation for the immigrants is understandable. Those from Mexico said wages there are as low as $5 a day. If they can find a job.
All this makes the solution elusive. A recently passed Arizona law that gives local police and deputies new powers in enforcing immigration laws, and makes being in the country illegally a state crime, has met opposition.
Some fear it will open the door to racial profiling, though the measure was amended to say law enforcement “may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing” it.
Others worry about the cost to local police budgets, and undermining the trust the Hispanic community has in law enforcement.
These fears and frustrations from Cochise County, Ariz. are emerging in Butler County, Ohio, more than 1,000 miles from the steel fence that lines the desert border.
Jackrabbits, rattlesnakes and drug smugglers
The two counties are vastly different, but the sheriffs of both agree that something must be done to stem illegal immigration.
Of the 556,041 people arrested last year trying to enter the country illegally, 17 percent had a prior criminal history, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“The question has always been, how many get away? There’s no way of knowing,” said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, who estimates it could be five times the number that are caught.
Roughly half of them enter the country in the Tucson sector, which includes Cochise.
Dever is an archetypical western sheriff with his white hat, boots and a calm, unwavering voice. His county covers more than 6,000 square miles and shares an 82-mile border with Mexico, much of it populated only by “jackrabbits, antelope or a rattlesnake or two, drug smugglers and people smugglers,” he said.
In his 14 years as sheriff, Dever has seen the drug smugglers and “coyotes” — human traffickers who often exploit those they’re transporting — get more sophisticated. “Virtually everybody that comes through here now has a guide,” he said.
And he’s glad that Arizona’s new law has launched a national debate about an issue he faces every day.
“I’m glad to see the conversation and the dialogue elevated to the level it needs to be,” he said.
The problem
Ten miles of various types of fence. Floodlights. Five camera towers. More than 100 ground sensors that can detect foot traffic. A road along the fence allowing Border Patrol to cruise in at up to 70 mph.
And still, untold numbers of people get through the 10-mile border John Ladd’s cattle ranch shares with Mexico just outside of Bisbee.
Since he had a dozen cameras hidden on his property, Ladd said the Border Patrol is finally stepping up its work in the two-mile stretch around his home. Plus, the patrol is less likely to smash his fences and accidentally kill his cattle.
“You don’t need immigration reform. Reform Border Patrol,” Ladd said.
The 14,000-acre San Jose Ranch, just outside of Bisbee, shares a 10-mile border with Mexico. Ladd estimates roughly half a million people have been arrested trying to cross the border on his property in the last 15 years. It didn’t used to be this bad, said Ladd, whose family has run the cattle ranch for four generations.
“We didn’t lock our doors until we had a little (Mexican) girl camped out in our living room,” he said.
She was 19, Ladd said. He called the Border Patrol, but they told him to call the sheriff’s office. He didn’t feel like dealing with criminal charges. So he gave her some water and sent her on her way.
Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones was upset when he saw the footage from Ladd’s cameras and heard the frustration with the Border Patrol.
“They’re having to do it themselves, and it makes me angry,” Jones said. “It doesn’t seem like the government is willing to fix it.”
Sheriff Dever agreed. Cameras and fences don’t stop people, he said — the fence “slows grandma and grandpa down, it slows the little children down. But it doesn’t stop them” — what’s needed are people.
“We want to see Border Patrol (on the border),” Dever said.
They don’t generally blame the agents for the inaction. They blame Washington, D.C.
The politics
President Barack Obama and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are saying they may not take those arrested under a law such as Arizona’s.
But under increasing pressure to do something since the state law was passed, Obama announced this week he’ll send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the border, and will request $500 million for border protection and law enforcement.
Meanwhile, many are attempting to pressure Arizona financially with a boycott of vacations or products made in the state. This includes the mayor of Columbus, who barred city employees from attending any training in Arizona.
Dan Finck, co-owner of the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, said his business is on par with previous seasons, despite the boycott. In fact, two women there cancelled a trip to San Diego to come to Bisbee because of the law. “We were going to the ocean, the beach,” said Oregon resident Angie Pedro.
The implications of Arizona’s new law are unclear, and elements are being tested in court. But in the meantime, the state has become a flashpoint in this heated issue.
“Our national network of activists have been working overtime trying to help the state of Arizona and the brave Arizonans who have passed this bill,” said William Gheen, president of the national Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. “We will not stop until all states are protected from invasion as required by the US Constitution.”
On the local level, Cochise County politics are very different from Butler. Unlike highly conservative Butler County, Cochise is about evenly split between registered Democrats and Republicans.
And the two are generally united on the issue of increasing enforcement of the border.
“Almost everybody, I think, to even the most liberal thinkers, agree the border needs to be secure,” Dever said. “The problem doesn’t know party lines.”
Police chiefs concerned
The main disagreement arises over what to do with the millions of people already in the country illegally, and how immigration laws should be enforced miles from the border.
The city council of Bisbee, a liberal enclave in Cochise County, recently voiced its opposition to Arizona’s new law. It joined other cities across the state.
And police chiefs in major cities across the country have blasted the law as an unfunded mandate that could make legal and illegal Hispanics less likely to cooperate with police and report crimes for fear of being investigated themselves.
Hamilton Police Chief Neil Ferdelman said it’s too early to tell what kind of impact such a law would have on his department, and its relationship with the community. “We’are as tight as I have ever seen us in terms of the number of employees our agency has,” Ferdelman said. “My concern is that if someone is going to give me increased responsibility, I need increased resources to meet them.”
Despite Hamilton police’s efforts to gain the trust of the Hispanic community, “They don’t call the police, because the first thing they say is they need to see ID,” said a Hamilton man who said he was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico.
Jones, whose office is already facing a $2 million revenue shortfall this year, said the cost of enforcing such a law would be no more than the current cost of dealing with illegal immigrants.
There are an estimated 14 million illegal immigrants already in the United States. National polls say most people favor the Arizona law, and an overwhelming majority agree some kind of reform is needed.
National leaders such as U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., have said it’s unlikely the Democrat-controlled Congress will take the issue up before midterm elections this year.
In the meantime, Combs and Jones are forging ahead with plans to put a statewide initiative for an Ohio law like Arizona’s on the ballot. The soonest it could go before voters is next year.
“The citizens of this great state are very capable and can decide for themselves on what is happening in Ohio; and how they want to prevent or stop the drugs, the human smuggling, the violence, and the jobs being taken and many other issues created by the illegal’s presence in Ohio,” Jones said in a statement after returning from a tour of Cochise.
‘It’s a war zone’
“It scared the hell out of me,” Rancher Roger Barnett said of the March 27 killing of neighbor and fellow rancher Robert Krentz. “I was expecting them to shoot me first like that.”
Barnett made national news when he detained 16 Mexican nationals on his property while waiting for the Border Patrol to pick them up, and now faces a $32-million lawsuit for allegedly violating their civil rights.
Krentz, on the other hand, stayed clear of those crossing his property. But he always carried a loaded gun, Barnett said. He and his dog were both found shot to death near his truck on his 34,000-acre ranch.
“He said keep your hand on your gun and be ready to use it, because you might need to,” Barnet said. “It’s a war zone.”
No arrests have been made in the Krentz killing, but Dever said they may be close. “There was no visible or apparent reason for the killing,” Dever said. “There was no drugs involved, no confrontation.”
“We tracked the guy southbound to the border and that’s all we know,” Dever said. “The highest probability...is that it was either a people or a drug smuggler.”
In the Cochise County community of Portal, Ariz. one in four homeowners were burglarized last year, on average. All of the 53 burglaries reported last year in this collection of 200 homes are attributed to illegal immigrants by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies say they can tell because of the items stolen: food, water, clothing. Big-screen televisions are left behind.
Through March this year, Cochise County sheriff’s office officials said, there have been two homicides, five robberies and 22 burglaries reported in Cochise that are attributed to immigrant traffic.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t track crimes by immigration status. But records do show it arrested 68 people last year who were foreign-born, had no Social Security numbers and were thus turned over to immigration authorities.
Some of those people came to Butler County from Cochise, according to Jones. And they bring drugs and crime with them, he said.
Combs said this is why a problem more than 1,000 miles away is important to Butler County.
“It’s not the workers, and the people that are struggling for survival, it’s the drug lords and the drugs. They are poisoning our children,” Combs said. “They are destroying our youth, and basically that pipeline is right here.”
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