By: Daniel Nardini
Just when you thought Arizona was safely out of the news…Arizona State Senator Steve Smith has proposed legislation to have the state build an actual wall on the Arizona-Mexico border. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer supports building such a structure. It is not likely to be built because the money for such a barrier is not there. In order to build such a structure, it would cost an estimated $425,000 a mile. The total cost would be at least $23 billion. Senator Smith says that he has raised so far $225,000—far from even building any part of such a wall. Again the whole idea is for the State of Arizona to create such a barrier because “the federal government has failed to act.” Interestingly enough, many people in Arizona support building a wall across the Arizona-Mexico broder (fortunately many people do not. They see it for what it exactly is—a waste of money, resources and manpower).
What is sad is that these same politicians who are trying to disenfranchise the Latino population and use scare-monger tactics about the “Mexican invasion” are doing next to nothing about Arizona’s housing crisis, the unemployment situation, the growing poverty rate, and the soaring number of homeless people. These issues far outweigh the problem with illegal immigration and one of the reasons why former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce eventually was kicked out the door by his own constituents. Bread and butter issues have trumped the bogeyman of “illegals” that some of the extremists have thrown in front of people to keep people in fear. Yet even with so many Arizona residents beginning to reject the bogeyman image thrown up by these extremists, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and ilk have not stopped using this dead horse.
More to the point, this is not only an attempt by the state to create a barrier that will be a waste of money (the border fence now in place is not working, so why should this?), but also another attempt by Arizona to usurp federal jurisdiction. The issue of the border with Mexico is the federal government’s domain, and no state can touch it. One has to wonder whether Arizona is truly trying to become a sovereign country? Just as equally important is the issue of private property. This state wall, if it ever goes up, will go through a lot of private property. Many farmers do not agree to this, and most certainly none of the Native Americans agree to have their lands physically divided. At this time I am not worried that a physical wall will ever be constructed. There just is no money for it. However. it is just one more crazy and insane attempt by the same group of extremists who had concocted the state immigration law, banned ethnic studies, and had proposed withholding U.S. birth certificates for children of the undocumented born in Arizona hospitals.
The Arizona Wall
By: Daniel Nardini
Just when you thought Arizona was safely out of the news…Arizona State Senator Steve Smith has proposed legislation to have the state build an actual wall on the Arizona-Mexico border. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer supports building such a structure. It is not likely to be built because the money for such a barrier is not there. In order to build such a structure, it would cost an estimated $425,000 a mile. The total cost would be at least $23 billion. Senator Smith says that he has raised so far $225,000—far from even building any part of such a wall. Again the whole idea is for the State of Arizona to create such a barrier because “the federal government has failed to act.” Interestingly enough, many people in Arizona support building a wall across the Arizona-Mexico broder (fortunately many people do not. They see it for what it exactly is—a waste of money, resources and manpower).
What is sad is that these same politicians who are trying to disenfranchise the Latino population and use scare-monger tactics about the “Mexican invasion” are doing next to nothing about Arizona’s housing crisis, the unemployment situation, the growing poverty rate, and the soaring number of homeless people. These issues far outweigh the problem with illegal immigration and one of the reasons why former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce eventually was kicked out the door by his own constituents. Bread and butter issues have trumped the bogeyman of “illegals” that some of the extremists have thrown in front of people to keep people in fear. Yet even with so many Arizona residents beginning to reject the bogeyman image thrown up by these extremists, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and ilk have not stopped using this dead horse.
More to the point, this is not only an attempt by the state to create a barrier that will be a waste of money (the border fence now in place is not working, so why should this?), but also another attempt by Arizona to usurp federal jurisdiction. The issue of the border with Mexico is the federal government’s domain, and no state can touch it. One has to wonder whether Arizona is truly trying to become a sovereign country? Just as equally important is the issue of private property. This state wall, if it ever goes up, will go through a lot of private property. Many farmers do not agree to this, and most certainly none of the Native Americans agree to have their lands physically divided. At this time I am not worried that a physical wall will ever be constructed. There just is no money for it. However. it is just one more crazy and insane attempt by the same group of extremists who had concocted the state immigration law, banned ethnic studies, and had proposed withholding U.S. birth certificates for children of the undocumented born in Arizona hospitals.