Monday, April 26, 2010

An American Sees & Speaks - ARIZONA UNDER MEXICAN OCCUPATION

There are bars on the windows of homes in regular neighborhoods, (threat of violence. Most carry weapons. )

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Date: 2010-04-24, 10:09AM MST
Reply to: see below

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Arizona has suffered more than most. More people and drugs come illegally through the Sonoran Desert that straddles northern Mexico and southern Arizona, from Nogales, Mexico, west to Yuma, Ariz., than through any other border state. Phoenix and Tucson, especially southernmost Tucson, are cities which feel themselves to be virtually under siege.

"There is a sense of strong anger at not being able to contain and put an end to this invasion of America," Martha L. Day, a hospital systems consultant who calls herself a liberal-leaning independent and lives in Phoenix, told me. "My friends really feel inadequate in their ability to protect themselves and their families against the continual threat of violence. Most carry weapons. There are bars on the windows of homes in regular neighborhoods, border patrol and police are all over the place . . . everything seems to be bolted down so it can't be stolen and sold."

She went on to enumerate the economic and social problems illegal immigrants bring to the state. "One in five prisoners in Arizona jails is an illegal immigrant who committed a felony crossing over; schools are filled to the brim with their children using up resources of the already depleted education system; hospital systems are inundated and have to care for these illegals and absorb their expenses, expenses that will not go away with the national health care change because these folks are not citizens; and huge numbers are needed in police forces for safety and to control the growing number of people coming across the border.''

Another left-leaning independent, Matt Hardin, a window-and-door salesman who lives in Tucson, said, "We need to create a situation where it is simply not worth the risk to come here illegally. In addition, we need to institute policies that make taking the legal route toward citizenship a more attractive option than the illegal option."
Both Hardin and Day see themselves as tolerant, reasonable Obama supporters. Yet on this one issue, at this one place, they've become convinced that something radical has got to be done. Day, referring to the burdens of illegal immigration, said, "These things really fuel the fire of anger and make folks want to do a clean sweep and clean Arizona of the folks from the south. I can see why Arizonans are looking to repeal the concealed weapons permit requirement, why guns are now allowed to be carried into bars, and why the anti-immigration law has been proposed."

And so in Arizona, the anger, the frustration, and the fear have built up over time and spread like wildfire, threatening to consume nearly everything and everyone in its path.

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