The Arizona Daily Star today wrote an editorial against SB 1070.  While that is no surprise to anyone on the planet, their arguments against SB 1070 can be examined with a critical eye. 

They employ another flawed strawman argument when they claim that SB 1070 won’t solve the problem of illegal immigration.  I don’t think anyone thinks it will.  It will help reduce the impact of it upon Arizonans. 

They claim that Cinco de Mayo festivities (on a Wednesday, by the way) were “chilled” this week citing an Arizona Republic article that cited a downturn in Hispanic businesses from fear of a raid.  One might also argue that business is down because we’re in the second year of a deep recession.  300,000 job losses and this is causing people to spending less or prioritizing what they spend their money on.  I don’t know much about the specifics of Arpaio’s immigration sweeps (you are free to comment on them below) but azcentral.com reported that

Under the 287 (g) program, Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies have arrested 1,434 people for immigration violations, often after they had been encountered by deputies investigating state crimes, Arpaio said.

If anything, the new law specifies that any check for immigration status come after the law enforcement officer is investigating a crime and it calls out civil rights provisions.  If anything, I would think that the new law provides MORE safety to the from the possibility of some random raid than is the current situation in unincorporated Maricopa County.

The Star says that the state will suffer economic impact of loss of business because the law “portrays the state as a place hostile to any kind of non-white person.”  Well, that portrayal is based on mischaracterizations or outright lies that are spread by Congressman Grijalva, by Sheriff Dupnik, by the Arizona Daily Star, by the Democratic Party, by the President of the United States, by Mayor Walkup and Councilwoman Regina Romero  The national media picks up on this dialogue and regurgitates it. 

Opponents of the bill, such as the Star, often cite the cooperative relationship that law enforcement has with the Hispanic community then they say that because of this law that police will all of a sudden start will turn into a bunch of racists harassing everyone because they look Hispanic.  The critics can’t have it both ways.  Either they think law enforcement officers are racists or they don’t.

The Star tried to insinuate that law enforcement will target Hispanics under the new law.  “Members of the public, let alone the police who are charged with enforcing this nebulous law, have no real way to know what officers will use as ‘reasonable suspicion’ that will prompt the inquiry into a person’s legal status.”  Mark Spitzer, with the Phoenix Law Enforcement Assn,  in testimony to the Arizona Senate made an excellent counter point to this for the Phx PD:  past performance is indicative the reasonableness with which the law will be enforced and that it will be enforced against criminals and not victims or witnesses.  So unless the Arizona Daily Star wants to start throwing the race card against southern AZ law enforcement, then they must rely on past performance of the various agencies that they say have developed good relationships with the Hispanic community.

The Star said that the new law makes the job of the law enforcement officer more dangerous.  To the Daily Star, I can only ask this:  if this law is going to make a police officer’s job (already a hazardous one by the way) unduly dangerous, why are the following law enforcement organizations, organizations who represent working cops, supporting the law?  Here is the list of law enforcement officer associations endorsing the law:

• AZ Police Assn
• Glendale Police Assn
• Mesa Police Assn
• Tempe Police Assn
• Chandler Police Assn
• Phoenix Law Enforcement Assn
• Fraternal Order of Police
• Az Hwy Patrol Assn.

You think if this law put them in harm’s way that they’d oppose it.  

The Star closes with “The Arizona law does nothing to fix the root of the problem, and that is its greatest sham.”   Again, perhaps this is the most preposterous argument the Star makes and again it is based on a complete strawman fallacy.  Of course it won’t fix the root of the problem of illegal immigration.  That’s the federal government’s job to secure the border.  It will, however, go a long way to solving the impact of failed federal policy on our state.

The Star editorial did not cite one shred of evidence that the bill’s provisions are racist.  So the only argument they have is that police will become racists now the law has passed.  The Star’s only evidence of damage from the bill is of it’s “perception” locally and nationally and that “perception” is based upon a widespread mischaracterization of the bill that the Star is fueling.