Hooray for Arizona #15--Newsweek Article on the Necessity of the Bill

The following appeared in Newsweek and on Lou Dobbs.com:

Must Read


New AZ Law: Something Had To Be Done

May-05-2010

Newsweek isn't exactly about fair-minded journalism anymore, but columnist Eve Conant wrote this great piece about how if you spend some time in Arizona, and you will see why so many Arizonans want this new law.



We've been reporting since the start that Arizonans overwhelmingly support this new immigration enforcement law. In a Rasmussen poll, 70 percent said they support the bill. Nationally, Gallup reports the American people support the new law by a 51-39 percent margin, and a new poll from Bellweather Research puts that spread at 61-29 percent. But it's Arizona that counts, and outside of the liberal lamestream media's spin, the people really do want this law.



So Newsweek's Eve Conant decided to see for herself, and she says that it's obvious to see why many Arizonans want this new law. Conant writes:



"It's terrifying to live next door to homes filled with human traffickers, drug smugglers, AK-47s, pit bulls, and desperate laborers stuffed 30 to a room, shoes removed to hinder escape. During a month's reporting with police and other law-enforcement agents in Arizona last year, I met many scared people. One man who lived next to a 'drop house' for Mexican workers slept with two guns under his bed, his children not allowed to play in the backyard. The sound of gunshots was not uncommon. 'Four years ago this neighborhood was poodles and old ladies,' he said, too frightened to give his name. 'Now it's absolutely insane.' That morning, authorities had raided the drop house. When the neighbor told me how his kids had been evacuated behind riot shields, he began to cry. Others, too, were unhappy: the undocumented workers taken from the house were exhausted, sweaty, and dead quiet as they sat on a curb with their hands cuffed, waiting to be taken away.



"Within 24 hours I witnessed another bust, this one prompted by a tip from Tennessee authorities. They reported a threat to kill a kidnap victim, and a ransom demand for $3,500. Sheriff's deputies went to a pleasant house with a two-car garage. Inside, they found dozens of immigrants crammed into unfurnished bedrooms, the windows boarded from the inside, shoes and belts piled up in the closet. The search also turned up a Taser-like device, a sawed-off shotgun, and two pistols. Another day, I watched the Phoenix police break up a 'stash house' filled with guns and hundreds of pounds of marijuana. An hour later they raided a McMansion adorned with hunting trophies and Scarface posters; a white SUV jammed with 300 pounds of marijuana was parked out front. (Sixty percent of all the marijuana that reaches the U.S. transits Arizona.) Again, the house was in a high-end development, nowhere near the border."



She confesses that personally she doesn't necessarily think the law is a good idea. But something has to be done: "The overwhelming majority of Mexicans who come here are not criminals. Most are just desperate for honest work. But clearly something needs to be done about the traffickers who bring them to the U.S."