On Saturday, Palin spoke at a news conference with Gov. Jan Brewer [R-AZ] in an effort to discourage the growing boycott of Arizona due to SB1070, the immigration law enacted in Arizona earlier this month.
Palin defended the law by declaring President Obama responsible for the lack of secure borders, said lack "forcing" Arizona to take action to defend itself and secure it's own borders.
Okay, so here are a few FACTS for Ms. Palin:We're all Arizonans now. And in clear unison we say, 'Mr. President: Do your job. Secure our border”.
The crime rate in border towns has not increased for a number of years.
Despite the drug war that has claimed thousands of lives in Mexico, communities along the U.S. side of the 2,000-mile southern border have shown virtually no increase in crime for several years.
There are dozens of towns, counties and cities along the border and no single measure of crime along the whole frontier. But a review of crime statistics for the largest communities and interviews with law enforcement officials from Texas to California show that, despite a widespread perception that the violence in Mexico has spread north, U.S. border communities are fairly secure. Some have even become safer.
"It's not spilling over to our side of the border," said William Lansdowne, police chief in San Diego, where violent crime has dropped 8% in the last three years. "We police it really well."
At a Senate hearing last month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — who, as Arizona governor, called for the deployment of National Guard troops to control the border — said the border was "as secure now as it has ever been." [bolding mine] [......]
Arizona was warned about the boycotts immediately after the law passed the Arizona House on April 19, and Governor Brewer signed the legislation in to law on April 23 in defiance of the warnings, including warnings from her own tourism officials.
Scottsdale CVB CEO Rachel Sacco – “the passage of this bill will have unintended, damaging consequences on this industry sector that has a $3.6 billion economic impact on the city of Scottsdale.”
Arizona Tourism Alliance President and CEO Debbie Johnson – “Continuing to pull tourism into these political battles only furthers our state’s economic decline and hurts the hundreds of thousands of tourism associates who rely on visitors to support their families.”
Greater Phoenix CVB Director of communications Douglas MacKenzie - “The missing factor is people have choices and they are not always going to tell us or express them.” What Douglas Mackenzie is referring to is that the boycott calls and negative publicity will add more damage than can be quantified, since Arizona will be removed from consideration by many prospective visitors and convention planners, and no one will know about it.
The threatened boycotts have now reached tsunami proportions as real boycotts, The City of Los Angeles has voted to boycott Arizona to the tune of $56 million. And that is likely to be a drop in the proverbial bucket. Phoenix alone is projected to lose $90 million due to boycotts.
The law requires the use of racial profiling in order to enforce it, and is racist.
The law makes it a crime to walk the streets without clutching your passport, green card, visa, or state I.D. It not only empowers but absolutely requires cops to demand paperwork if they so much as suspect a person of being undocumented. A citizen can, in fact, sue any police officer they see not harassing suspected immigrants. The bill would also make it a class one misdemeanor for anyone to "pick up passengers for work" if their vehicle blocks traffic. And it makes a second violation of any aspect of the law a felony. [bolding mine] […..]
The law is most certainly unconstitutional.
President Obama has not pushed for immigration reform because Republicans are likely to do what is necessary.
Reid said he would like to move comprehensive immigration reform, but stressed that some Republican support would be necessary, a difficult prospect in the current political environment.
In fact, you may recall that the Republicans blocked Bush's immigration bill in 2007.
RELATED:- Russell Pearce, Original Sponsor of Draconian Arizona Immigration Law, Has Ties to White Supremacists
- Arizona Legalizes Racial Profiling
- Arizona Legalizes Racial Profiling, Ctd
