Fear and Misperception in Arizona

This past week, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) unabashedly joined the jingoist wing of his party. Supplementing his earlier support for Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, “The Maverick” launched a television advertisement shamelessly catering to militarists. In the video, McCain, accompanied by a local sheriff, argues that if we swell the ranks of the U.S. Border Patrol  with 3,000 new agents, deploy the National Guard, and complete  the 700 miles of “danged fence” between the U.S. and Mexico, trafficking, trespassing, and murder in Arizona will inevitably disappear. The man-who-would-have-been-president assures us: “It’ll work this time.”

Contrary to Senator McCain’s suddenly aggressive arguments, enforcement-only legislation will do little to decrease crime and violence, especially in the wake of recent events. Cries for state militarization and mass deportation are not only ineffective and inhumane but also dangerous in the current social climate. Folks who support SB 1070 and “completing the danged fence” in the spirit of law and order misunderstand the situation; without addressing the other dimensions of unauthorized immigration, bringing down the hammer right now will threaten public safety.

Much of the pressure behind SB 1070 is rooted in myths about crime and undocumented immigration. Contrary to conventional wisdom, crime rates have been decreasing in Arizona for years—and it’s not because of draconian policing laws.  Undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the average citizen for fear of being deported. This is why the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police has opposed SB 1070: It compromises their ability to do their job. The law makes no distinction between drug traffickers and a 25-year-old mother or father searching for a day’s work, and as such, it is a threat to effective community policing. Furthermore, many officers have argued that undocumented immigrants will fear to report crimes and emergencies as a result of SB 1070. Perhaps worst of all, officers will be compromised by lawsuits from vigilante citizens who don’t believe they are working hard enough to arrest the undocumented.

As for the argument that a rapid build-up of federal forces will prevent unauthorized immigration and violence on the border, that claim is debunked by the factual history of enforcement. We’ve been beefing up the border for years: Since 1990 the number of Border Patrol agents has grown from 4,000 to over 20,000, more than doubling since 2005.  Since 1986, through the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, the Border Patrol has implemented a more aggressive strategy, heavily garrisoning urban entry points and pushing migrants into the desert in the hope of halting crossings. It hasn’t worked.  Instead, the undocumented immigrant population has ballooned to 12 million, while the causes of emigration from Mexico persist.

Given Arizona’s current tensions, more enforcement-only legislation can only provoke violence. There’s something sinister going on: an unholy and unreasonable alliance between actual bigots and citizens understandably concerned  about jobs and safety. When politicians like McCain generalize undocumented immigrants as violent threats, they cement the coalition. Tensions are high: McCain is fighting for his political future against a strong right-wing primary challenger, talk-show radio host J.D. Hayworth, a man who speaks of the undocumented immigration debate as a battle to “stand up for our culture” and teach Latino immigrants “the right way to live.” The author of SB 1070, State Senator Russell Pearce, has been openly linked to white supremacist groups. In a maneuver that has little to do with the law or the economy, the Arizona legislature recently banned ethnic studies programs and barred teachers with heavy accents from teaching certain courses. In this climate, it’s easy to cause fear among people who don’t look and sound alike with myopic action. Despite their self-stylization as defenders of law and order, politicians like McCain do nothing but threaten us with chaos.

Raúl A. Carrillo ’10, a Crimson editorial writer, is a social studies concentrator in Lowell House. He is an active member of the Harvard Latino community and a native of the U.S.-Mexico border.