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As I said before, I have NO PROBLEM with the police, upon contact with citizens, checking to see if they are in the United States legally and, if they are not, arresting and removing them from the United States. NO PROBLEM with that. But the LAW should apply to EVERYBODY that the police stop- not merely one race of people for whom the policeman is "suspicious". If the policeman stops ME and I fail to produce ID and a legit SS number that he can use to verify my identity and my lawful presence in the USA, the procedures should be the SAME- he should arrest and detain me until my identity can be verified.
I see you haven't read the AZ law either, you might want to give it a try.
Arizona lawmakers say their new immigration enforcement law will help them fight an illegal immigrant crime wave that is sweeping the state, a claim that is backed by studies and statistics that suggest border states have a disproportionately high number of criminals who are illegal immigrants.
"We've been inundated with criminal activity. It's just -- it's been outrageous," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told Fox News.
"Crime is off the chart in this state," added Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, president of the Arizona Association of Sheriffs.
Critics have called Arizona officials racist, intolerant and downright unconstitutional for passing the law, which makes illegal immigration a state crime and allows police to demand documentation from anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant.
While the correlation between illegal immigrants and crime is almost impossible to quantify precisely, the available numbers indicate that Arizona -- as well as California and Texas -- are dealing with increased crime as a result of high illegal immigrant populations and activity.
Part of this is because some of those immigrants are being arrested based on immigration-related charges. A Pew Hispanic Center report last year said "increased enforcement" of immigration laws accounts for part of the trend. But there are other crimes, many of which are drug-related. Furthermore, illegal immigrants and smuggling organizations have been linked to some specific violent crimes in Arizona. Local officials frequently cite the rash of kidnappings in their state in defending the new law. The Department of Justice's latest National Drug Threat Assessment says there were 267 kidnappings in Phoenix last year and 299 in 2008. The report said the victims usually have a connection to immigrant smuggling groups or drug traffickers.
The report also showed that assaults against U.S. law enforcement on the southwestern border are on the rise. The report found that the number of attacks on Border Patrol agents increased 46 percent to 1,097 incidents in fiscal 2008. The report said the assaults were mostly related to immigrant smuggling. Together, Arizona, California and Texas are now home to 4.7 million of the 11 million illegal immigrants the Department of Homeland Security estimates are in the country. Other states with high illegal immigrant populations -- like Illinois -- do not have a lot of illegal immigrant prisoners. Federal statistics show the illegal immigrant population is actually underrepresented in Illinois prisons. But a comprehensive study released late last year from the Center for Immigration Studies cited federal law enforcement data showing that illegal immigrants made up a disproportionate share of the state prison populations in California and Arizona. In 2004, the year when the data was most recently available, 12.4 percent of California prisoners were illegal immigrants, as compared with an estimated 6.9 percent of the state population. In Arizona, 11.1 percent of the prison population was undocumented, compared with 7 percent of the overall state population. In Texas, the percentage was also slightly higher in the prisons than it was statewide. A Government Accountability Office study from 2005 also found that most illegal immigrant arrests were happening in California, Texas and Arizona. The study sampled a prison population of more than 55,000 illegal immigrants, and found that 80 percent of all the arrests were in those three states.
"What the FBI chart actually shows is that the incidence of violent crime in Arizona declined dramatically in the last two years. After a spike in 2006 and 2007, the number in Phoenix dropped to 10,465 in 2008 and to 8,730 in 2009, which is lower than it was six years ago."
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Great, you just proved my point. CA has an estimated 2.2 million illegals, that's most than the bottom 10 or 15 states combined. Can anyone really be crazy enough to claim that US states all have about the same illegal immigration problem?
Great, you just proved my point. CA has an estimated 2.2 million illegals, that's most than the bottom 10 or 15 states combined. Can anyone really be crazy enough to claim that US states all have about the same illegal immigration problem?
My point was that AZ is not unique, despite their hyperbolic claims to the contrary.
"What the FBI chart actually shows is that the incidence of violent crime in Arizona declined dramatically in the last two years. After a spike in 2006 and 2007, the number in Phoenix dropped to 10,465 in 2008 and to 8,730 in 2009, which is lower than it was six years ago."
El Paso, where one can literally walk from the U.S. to Mexico.
And by the way, I live in a border state, in a city that is a mere 45 miles from the U.S./Mexico border.
I also live in a border state, one with about 1 million illegals whereas your state has an estimated 39K (all based on 2000 census numbers so YRMV). Everyone is aware that overall throughout the country crime has dropped over the years, that's no big surprise. That has nothing to do with the fact that illegals still commit a large number of crimes against US citizens all over this country every year, many people die because of our failed border security policy and the inaction of the current administration to enforce the laws of this country.
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