IN DEFENSE OF ARIZONANS- - -Some Facts Libs and Conservatives Alike Need to Know

Early this past week I received an e-mail from a cousin. It was one of those e-mails you just know right away is zooming around the 'net at warp speed. The e-mail, defending Arizona Senate Bill 1070 which when signed into law last week created a political firestorm, claimed to be the words of Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen. Knowing full well that Conservatives can be just as guilty as Liberals when it comes to embellishment, spin and word crafting my natural skepticism kicked in so I set about finding whether State Senator Allen actually said those things. In fact, I was skeptical that she even existed. A few well worded queries at "Google" proved me wrong and connected me to a blogsite for "The Tucson Citizen" a 139 year old newspaper. With another quick query I found the article written by State Senator Sylvia Allen explaining why she supported the new and highly controversial law. Her article was word-for-word accurate with the e-mail my cousin sent me. A little more digging led me to a phone number for Senator Allen's office. I called and talked to a staffer who was helpful. Then on a whim I asked if I could talk to Senator Allen. Without hesitation the staffer connected me to Senator Allen. After explaining that I was just an amateur blogger from Tampa, Florida she agreed to talk with me and spent the next 35 minutes giving me an "insider's view" for what has been happening in Arizona. Here are some of the things she told me. I have no reason to doubt her narrative. Ranchers living near the border are afraid for their property and their lives. Land that has been in their families for generations becomes a war zone each night as illegals come across the border at will accompanied by gunfire from rival drug gangs and leaving behind a trail of debris, vandalized property and, all too often, dead bodies. Gunfire and vandalism are the rule each night not the exception. Ranchers are afraid to stay in their homes but even more afraid to leave them for fear they will be taken over by the drug gangs, other illegals and their “coyotes” - -the people who guide them across the border. Six weeks ago Arizona rancher Bob Krentz was murdered. The rancher met a cruel end after he went out in the middle of the night to investigate strange noises. The assassin killed Krentz and his dog before running across the Mexican border, according to authorities. Contrary to popular belief the US Border Patrol is not at the border. Their checkpoints are set up 60 miles north of the border and are powerless to stop the invasion. And while they do patrol the border in SUVs and ATVs they are not allowed, says Senator Allen, to use force in stopping anyone entering illegally. However, if they “get their hands on them” she says, then they can take them back across the border. Over the past 5 years 80% of all Arizona law enforcement officers wounded or killed were wounded or killed by an illegal. The lure of amnesty has escalated the daily traffic of illegals across the Arizona border from 300 a night to over 1,200. The make up of those people has changed from “Jesus and Maria” just seeking a better life to “Hector and Carlos”, violent drug kingpin wannabees armed to the teeth and willing to kill to establish a drug-selling territory of their own.The federal government does almost nothing to stop them and the ranchers are forced to defend themselves and their property on a daily basis. There are an estimated 500,000 illegals in Arizona alone. They pay no property taxes (the funding source for public schools) and the children of those illegals are swelling the school system and depleting the State Education Budget. Several hospitals in Arizona have closed because the state has no funds to reimburse them for the cost of treating illegals and other uninsured persons and the federal government ignored their request for financial assistance. The State of Arizona is $3.5 billion in debt and by all definitions is bankrupt and still the feds will not honor their responsibility to protect our borders, says Senator Allen. The mainstream media has sensationalized the "fallout" from all of this. Senator Allen wants everyone to know that meeting and convention cancellations have been "very few in number" and there is "no measurable effect from the so-called boycott of Arizona based businesses." When you look at all this can there be any question that the people of Arizona were and are at their wits end and enacted SB 1070 out of total desperation? Still, tens of thousands of people across the country are demonstrating daily against the law and calling the citizens of Arizona racists, Nazis and worse. It’s a pretty good bet that somewhere in the range of 99% of those carrying signs and screaming about racism and human rights have never read the law. Yes, it is printed in English so that’s a problem for a lot of them. But unlike the 2,000 plus pages of the healthcare bill, Arizona SB 1070 is only 16 pages long and you don’t have to be a lawyer to read it. In fact you need only read the first page to understand that the intent of the bill is to allow Arizona peace officers to more readily enforce the federal laws already on the books and to align Arizona’s laws with the federal laws. The majority of the rest of the bill is aimed at getting tougher with employers who knowingly and repetitively hire illegals. You’d think a group like the ACLU, populated with a plague of lawyers, would be able to understand something so simple and obvious. But they don’t. Finally, as much as Conservatives are tempted to lay all this at the feet of Liberals- - -especially the open-borders idea- - -the failure to secure our borders, preserve our language and keep traditional American culture from disappearing has been a purely bi-partisan debacle. George Bush 41 ignored it. Bill Clinton looked the other way. George W. Bush paid lip service to it and Barrack Obama wants to punish Arizonans while doing nothing to protect them. Perhaps Senator Allen was right when she said, "We have allowed ourselves to get to the point where we no longer live under Constitutional Law. . .maybe we just are not worthy of freedom any more." What do you think? For the complete text of Senator Allen's published article go to: http://tucsoncitizen.com/the-cholla-jumps/2010/05/01/state-senator-sylvia-allen-responds-to-sb1070/ And to get a copy of Arizona SB 1070 go to: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf