A View on Immigration

The immigration focus lately has been on how those of us who want to enforce the laws and stop the "guest worker" program idea, must be racist. I had thought that legal immigrants probably aren't too happy about all the illegals either. They worked hard to get here, to follow the law and to take the necessary steps to become U.S. citizens and here are these people sneaking over the border and taking the jobs that they need. I just didn't see any news reports about what the legal immigrants must think. Not all that surprising, really. But here is at least a bit of information on what the minorities of Arizona thought.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities and the poor overwhelmingly favor a get tough approach on illegal immigration - as they proved just two years ago by supporting Arizona's Proposition 200 in a landslide.

As the 2004 election approached, the immigration crackdown, which proposed denying state services to anyone who couldn't prove they were in the country legally, was decried by critics as "draconian" and "xenophobic."

Unfortunately, the money was with the advocates of guest worker programs, amnesty and easing immigration laws.

The proposal was trashed by Arizona's business community. All the state's big newspapers came out against it. Governor Janet Napolitano, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jon Kyl echoed their opposition. The Chamber of Commerce and the labor unions opposed Prop 200 as well.

Proponents of the measure were outspent by almost two to one in the final days of the campaign.

But Prop 200 passed, despite all the money spent by the opposition. The strongest support came from Blacks, Hispanics and the poor.

Exit polls showed that 65 percent of blacks, Native Americans and Asians backed Prop 200. But they were pikers compared to the working poor.

Among those with family incomes of $15,000 or less, 72 percent wanted Arizona to use Prop 200 to crackdown on illegals.

What about Hispanic voters, who pundits repeatedly warn will punish illegal immigration foes in Washington by withdrawing their support?

Almost half of Arizona's Latino voters - 47 percent - cast their ballots for Prop 200. NewsMax

We, who oppose guest worker programs, amnesty and the easing of immigration laws, need to garner the support of these groups because stopping the inflow of illegal immigrants is in all of our best interest.

Tags: immigration