HISPANICS FLEE ARIZONA

This is a bit difficult to say, but was Arizona actually onto something?

It hasn’t even been formally enacted into law yet.  But the mere threat from just over a month ago that the State of Arizona would soon start checking the immigration status of random citizens on its streets, is already proving to be surprisingly effective.  Suspected illegal immigrants have been pulling their children out of school at an alarming rate and disappearing across the Arizona border for greener and friendlier pastures.

Could it be an anomaly?  Or could it be that Arizona knew all along what it was doing? THAT is the million dollar question.  But the fact remains, Arizona set out to fix their illegal immigrant problem and their plan somehow seems to be working.  Schools in Hispanic neighborhoods are reporting abnormal drops in enrollment, while businesses that serve Hispanics say their business is down.  The bad U.S. economy and lack of jobs had already slowed the heavy flow of illegals wishing to cross the border for lucrative work opportunities in America.   But, according to Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington: “If you have a bad economy and a hostile environment, then that’s likely to cause people to think twice about coming, and possibly even to leave.”  And leave they are!

But Arizona’s good fortune means bad news for bordering states, where illegals seem to be racing toward. So it has become a displacement issue.  Still, critics warn that the Arizona law could lead to racial profiling of Hispanics, which could force an exodus of scared immigrants – legal and illegal. But should every state enact the same law Arizona did so as to rid the state of illegal immigrants sucking up resources? Or is this whole mentality still just as bad as it was the day we first heard about it?