The Selma of Immigrants' Rights

By Andrew Stelzer, In These Times. Posted November 25, 2008.

At the same time, the number of undocumented immigrants in Arizona may be dwindling.

"They're leaving," says Bernasconi, who had trouble finding subcontractors to finish building his daughter's house in Guadalupe earlier this year. "They don't have the people for laying the tile, putting in the carpets, putting in the cabinets. ... They are going to other states or they are returning to Mexico."

Annie Loyd, an independent candidate for a local congressional seat, points out that Arpaio's sweeps are the second recent hit to local business. The first came in January, when a new state law came into effect, fining employers for hiring undocumented workers, and eventually shutting down those businesses.

"Our employer sanctions law created an un-level playing field for us as a state in comparison to other states," Loyd says. "Immigration is a federal issue and needs to be resolved at a federal level ... because it is supposed to be applied equally, across-the-board, throughout the country."

In the end, it may be the business community that determines if the Maricopa crackdown will continue unabated.

"I consider myself a conservative voter," says Bob Sitesburg, the owner of Golden Sky Construction in Phoenix. But he says laborers have become increasingly hard to find, and adds that the immigration issue could affect his vote in November. "I'm in an industry where we need those workers," Sitesburg says.

In January, Arizona became the first state to legally require employers to use E-verify, a Homeland Security system that verifies new employees legal status. President Bush followed suit in June, signing an executive order that mandates all government agencies to use E-verify.

But the system is widely criticized by government officials and business owners, for its 4.1 percent error rates, and for the fact that participating in E-verify doesn't protect a business that is caught employing illegal immigrants, even if those workers were cleared by the system. It's just the latest burden for Arizona businesses, which have put a proposition on the November ballot that would loosen the new employer sanctions law.

Local businesses in Phoenix have become increasingly concerned, as well. People moving away or hiding at home means fewer customers, and the bad press associated with nativist groups squaring off against immigrants in the streets doesn't help the local chamber of commerce attract new business to the area.

Nathan Newman, policy director for the Progressive States Network, who authored a September report titled "The Anti-Immigrant Movement That Failed," says workplace sanctions, in particular, have raised bipartisan opposition.

"It's probably the only [issue] I could see," he says, "where you end up with the chamber of commerce, the head of labor unions, religious groups and human rights groups, all so unanimous in saying 'This is the wrong approach.' "

Newman's study found that the majority of states haven't jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. And because of business concerns, he doesn't believe they will.

"It's not like these waves of anti-immigrant legislation are new things in American history," Newman says. "This comes in waves, and states have gone through this sort of hysteria in the past. California went through this in the early '90s. And they looked at it and said 'Yeah, well, we don't think so.' "

But Arizona is not California, and there was no Sheriff Joe in Sacramento 15 years ago. Joan Koerber Walker, CEO of the Arizona Small Business Association, compares Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the United States, to Detroit, which held that rank in the '60s.

"Law enforcement [in Detroit], with the best intentions, went into heavily racially concentrated areas, specifically looking for felons and lawbreakers," she says. "The community became polarized, eventually violence broke out, and the businesses in the city of Detroit, many of them never reopened and never recovered."

She adds: "I would hate to see Phoenix go the same way." 

See more stories tagged with: immigration, arizona, arpaio, maricopa county

Andrew Stelzer, a freelance journalist in Oakland, Calif., is a producer at “Making Contact,” a weekly public affairs radio program.

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