Blog Archive

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Arizona based group responds to Governor Jan Brewer’s joint statement

Tuscson Citizen
April 12, 2011

It is unfortunate that Governor Jan Brewer will not uphold the conservative decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals with regard to Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law. Two of the three judges in the panel were appointed by Republican Presidents. Judge John T. Noonan, an appointee of President Reagan, wrote that Arizona had clearly tried to create its own immigration and foreign policy, and Judge Carlos T. Bea, an appointee of President George W. Bush, was a partial dissenter. It is irrational for the United States to have 50 different versions of immigration law as rogue states continue to try to implement their own.

State Senator Russell Pearce was the chief sponsor of SB 1070 where he has on numerous occasions spoken passionately for “Operation Wetback” policies, therefore, we must not allow his bigotry and emotions to guide us into situations that clearly violate our Constitution. We have a responsibility to uphold the Constitution and we must continue to defend it, but we cannot defend it when we introduce laws that violate it. Even though we recognize that the immigration system is broken, two wrongs do not make a right with implementing and signing laws that clearly violate the Supremacy Clause.

In March 2011, Arizona Republican legislators sent a clear signal that they wanted to be solution-makers in Arizona as they stayed clear of pushing for criminalizing civil offenses when they voted against five immigration laws recently. It is unfortunate that Governor Brewer is unable to depart from the issue that once made her popular.

We believe we can solve this issue without violating our Constitution with a Secure Borders and Legal Immigration Plan. GOP state legislators across the nation have blamed the federal government and the Obama administration for not addressing this issue. These state legislators have been disingenuous when they say Obama has not secured our borders because under the current administration, more undocumented immigrants have been deported than former President George W. Bush. We believe it is time for the Obama administration and federal lawmakers to fix the broken system in a true bipartisan manner that will secure the borders and provide legal immigration benefitting Americans.

The Arizona SB 1070 law not only violates the Constitution, it has left our state in economic shambles. Our tourism industry has lost millions and millions of dollars. The agricultural industry has experienced labor shortages and deficits. The housing industry is a disaster as foreclosures continue to rise, and small business owners have seen a tremendous loss in their profits that is upwards of 38%. The Republican Party is supposed to be pro business and pro growth, but all this law has managed to do is the opposite of that.

SOMOS REPUBLICANS urges President Obama to fix the broken immigration system that has bipartisan Senator support because Kansas Secretary of State – Kris Kobach will continue to architect numerous unconstitutional laws that have not surpassed any of federal court systems. Kobach introduced and supported laws in California, Arizona, Nebraska and so forth costing states millions and millions of dollars to defend. The Arizona SB 1070 law so far has cost the state of Arizona approximately $4 million to defend and we cannot afford to defend – nor is it fiscally responsible to defend these unconstitutional laws.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-hispanic-republicans/2011/04/12/arizona-based-group-responds-to-governor-jan-brewers-joint-statement/