'Hispanic panic' as Arizona immigration crackdown bites

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) — One month after Arizona introduced a law cracking down on businesses which employ illegal immigrants, Latino workers are fleeing the state and companies are laying off employees in droves, officials and activists say.

Arizona has become one of the frontlines of the US immigration debate and broke new ground on January 1 with a law that threatens to put of business companies which knowingly hire undocumented workers.

The effects of the law have been immediate, according to businessmen, workers and rights activists who spoke to AFP, with companies driving up wages to attract labor while being forced to part company with prized employees.

Even though a federal judge ruled last week that there will be no prosecutions under the law until March, it has done little to prevent a phenomenon being dubbed "Hispanic Panic."

"There's a lot of fear and some people are leaving," said Salvador Reza, an immigrant-rights activist who runs a day labor center in Phoenix.

"The fear is not only at the worker level, it's at the employer level. I've never seen that before in my life."

Workers are going back to Mexico or to other states, Reza said. He predicted small businesses forced to lay off skilled employees like welders will now pay them in cash, creating a black economy.

"The underground economy is going to take hold now, and there will be less money for the state," Reza said.

Ten men were laid off at Ironco, a steel fabrication company in Phoenix which builds large-scale construction projects.

"We had to let them go," president Sheridan Bailey said. "Unfortunately some of these people were our best workers. This is terribly tragic."

Two out of three men who apply at Ironco, a construction firm that specialises in buildings and parking garages made with heavy steel, are Hispanic or foreign-born Hispanic, the company said.

Ironco has raised steel fitters' wages 30 percent from a year ago, according to Bailey. "We've raised wages, competing for a diminishing supply (of workers)," he said. "We?ve been on a campaign of quality improvement, training, scouring the waterfront, so to speak, for American vets, ex-offenders trying to find their way back into society."

A crew leader who worked for Rick Robinson?s Phoenix landscaping company left the state because his wife is an illegal worker. The worker was scared his wife would be deported.

"I've talked to other companies who have said they can?t find anybody," Robinson said. "I've heard they're going to Utah or Texas or New Mexico because they don?t have a law like this. We and other landscape companies are uncertain as to how far-reaching it will be. People don't know what they can and can't do. The whole thing is confusing, gross, and unfair."

David Jones, head of the Arizona Contractors Association, said he knows of three construction companies which have laid off 30, 40, and 70 employees respectively since the beginning of the year.

"They can't stand the risk of losing their license," Jones said. Many workers are heading to neigboring Nevada to find jobs.

"We've created a climate which will make Arizona?s construction industry subordinate to Nevada," Jones said.

"We're all frustrated (with illegal immigration), but I don?t think this is the right approach. If we don?t have a functional guest worker program in this country, we?re going to be in trouble."

Businesses feel exposed to discrimination lawsuits and anonymous malicious complaints from competitors, said Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce vice president Todd Sanders.

"What we?re hearing from folks is a level of uncertainty because there are some loose ends in the law," Sanders said.

The ripple in Arizona?s economy has spread to other sectors. Real estate agent John Aguero Sr. said he gets four to seven calls each day from people asking about what they can do with their homes.

Fifteen out of 100 people who call Aguero "are just walking away from their property," he said.

One man called and asked how long the foreclosure process would take if he skipped his 1,600 house payments. Aguero told him four months.

"Well, I?ll save that and just go home (to Guatemala)," Aguero said. "His wife is a citizen but he's not. The whole family will pack up and leave. He has three children, all of whom were born here."

Royal Palms Middle School serves a largely Hispanic and immigrant area of the city. Three or four students have formally left the school since the beginning of the year. Twice that number haven't shown up to school in ten days. Attendance is down five percent.

"We've tied what we're hearing to attendance," said principal Lenny Hoover.

An announcement was made to students that police cannot come into the school and seize them. "What I have noticed is a great deal of student mental diffidence about it," Hoover said. "They?re worried about it, and kids don?t worry about a lot."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQouzi...eZXHy1HuYogzGzw

[kaydee457 13]

So be it....It's just tough love. They'll get over it, both sides, and hopefully they've learned something, such as obeying the law....DUH

[pedroh 21]

hispanic panic.. lol.. that's a fun name..

mhh.. enforcing the law, or allowing a black market economy??

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Boo hoo! Maybe they're come up here to Colorado and commit voter fraud to change the laws. Our legislature just voted along party lines not to require id to prove eligibity to vote in the state. Dems for voter fraud, Repulicans against voter fraud. Our illegals are loved and well-cared for . . . blah.

[no name 1]

Nice to see immigration laws *DO* work...

[isleta521 5]

Nice to see immigration laws *DO* work...

Definately a concept that people will have to get accustomed too.

[peejay 327]

Boo hoo! Maybe they're come up here to Colorado and commit voter fraud to change the laws. Our legislature just voted along party lines not to require id to prove eligibity to vote in the state. Dems for voter fraud, Repulicans against voter fraud. Our illegals are loved and well-cared for . . . blah.

They did the same thing here in Texas. The Democrats even dragged a legislator out of the hospital to defeat it. It is not only along party lines, but along racial lines. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the reason why. It is because illegal voters are likely to vote Democrat.

Mario is back

Ailing state Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, has a hospital bed set up in the sergeant's office -- about a 100 feet from Gallegos' Senate chamber desk, Monday so that he could help block a contentious voter ID bill from debate.

"I'm hurting. I'm hurting," Gallegos said a few minutes ago as the Senate went into session.

Gallegos went through a liver transplant surgery earlier this year and had a follow-up procedure on Friday.

Doctors wanted Gallegos to stay in Houston. But doing so would have given Republicans enough votes to pass a voter identification bill.

Gallegos and every Democrat oppose the legislation, contending that it's part of an orchestrated campaign to suppress voting of low-income and elderly citizens.

Gallegos had a blood test taken this morning.

"They could call me back this afternoon," he said.

In the meantime, Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, is monitoring Gallegos' health. Deuell is a physician.

http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archi...io_is_back.html

Here is the result:

Noncitizens likely voted in Bexar County

DA investigating as many as 330 people in election fraud case

09:27 AM CDT on Sunday, June 10, 2007

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO – Dozens of non-U.S. citizens may have voted in Bexar County elections, a county elections official reported, prompting an investigation by federal and local authorities.

The names of 330 noncitizens on the voter rolls were reported by Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen.

Those named had received jury duty summonses but told the court they weren't eligible to serve because they were not U.S. citizens.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security, requested Mr. Callanen's report in an administrative subpoena. And the Bexar County district attorney's office is investigating whether as many as 41 of those noncitizens voted in more than a dozen local, state and federal elections since 2001.

"You bet your bottom dollar we'll prosecute ... if we find people voted illegally in violation of the state election code," Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed said.

The 330 names have since been removed from voter rolls, Mr. Callanen said.

Investigators with customs enforcement are trying to locate and interview those named.

The agency also is looking into false citizenship claims, said spokeswoman Nina Pruneda.

Federal authorities also requested similar voter data from election officials in Harris, Tarrant and El Paso counties, Mr. Callanen said.

But Ms. Pruneda declined to discuss the scope of the federal inquiry.

It wasn't immediately apparent whether questionable voting influenced the outcome of an election, Mr. Callanen said.

A bill to require voters to show photo identification or two other forms of ID before casting ballots died in the state Senate without a vote.

Democrats said the identification requirements would suppress poor and minority voters and vowed to filibuster the bill – and threaten other bills – if it came up.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other Republicans argued the measure is needed to combat voter fraud. It had already passed the House.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n1.4454f8d.html

Apparently the honor system isn't working, is it? Illegal aliens have no qualms about checking off the unverified question, "Are you a citizen of the United States?", when filling out their voter registration cards in Spanish. They break numerous laws while being in the USA illegally anyway...what's one more lie and law broken?

So the Dems are worried about disenfranchising the poor and elderly? Bullshit! Why aren't they worried about disenfranchising everyone else by promoting illegal votes that primarily benefit their party? I'm sure you can figure it out along with their pro-illegal alien positions that include mass blanket amnesties and pathways to citizenship for almost all illegal aliens.

If you can't win elections with US citizens...import votes! Talk about sleaze!

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

"The underground economy is going to take hold now, and there will be less money for the state," Reza said.

complete and utter bs.