Arizona Law Pressures [Illegal] Immigrants to Move

[MountainDon]

We'll see how this plays out...

PHOENIX (AP) -- Parents are pulling students out of school. Construction workers are abandoning their jobs. Families are hastily moving out of apartments.

Two months after Arizona enacted a law punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, the law is already achieving one of its goals: Scores of immigrants are fleeing to other states or back to their Latin American homelands.

Gaby Espinoza, who has been unemployed since November, is among those affected. She gave up looking for a job because of the law and may have to return to Mexico.

Espinoza's husband works here legally, but the law means that employers must ask her for papers, and she faces the daily fear of being deported.

"There's no work over there in Mexico," said Espinoza, who has three U.S.-born children. "People there live so poorly. Here, my kids have health insurance and Medicare. Over there, there's nothing."

Jose Perez Leon, a laborer in Phoenix who wants to return to his home in Mexico City, said jobs were plentiful when he came to Arizona about 18 months ago but began to dry up in the last three months.

"I don't like it here anymore because of everything that's happening," he said. "There's no work."

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano approved the law last summer out of frustration with federal efforts to curb illegal immigration. It took effect Jan. 1.

The law suspends or revokes the business licenses of violators and was intended to reduce the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak across the border. Illegal immigrants account for an estimated one in 10 workers in Arizona, which is the nation's busiest gateway for illegal immigration.

Business groups have challenged the law. While awaiting a ruling, prosecutors agreed to hold off bringing cases to court until at least March 1.

Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce designed the law to reduce spending on educating and providing health care for illegal immigrants and their families, and to encourage them to leave Arizona.

"Why in the world do (illegal immigrants) think they have a right to break the law? And we are the bad guys for insisting that the law be enforced? The public doesn't agree with that," Pearce said.

Many school officials believe the law has played a role in falling enrollment. The state's struggling economy and slumping housing market are other factors. Several districts reported losing more than 100 students at least in part because of the law.

The Isaac School District in central Phoenix, with a student body that is 96 percent Hispanic, lost 500 students, said district spokesman Abedon Fimbres.

The departure of so many students upsets people like Jackie Doerr, who is principal at Andalucia Primary School, which is in a separate district in west Phoenix. She said teachers had made progress teaching English to many of the children.

"They have to leave and start all over again. It's just so frustrating when you see how far they have come," Doerr said. "They are probably going to lose it, especially if they go back to Mexico. They are definitely going to have problems."

The law has also contributed to rising vacancies in Phoenix. The slow economy and a market overloaded with rental homes have exacerbated the problem, said Terry Feinberg, president of the Arizona Multihousing Association, a rental housing industry group.

Even so, property managers have reported that the law has also driven away Hispanics who are legally in the country, Feinberg said.

The construction industry says some of its workers are leaving, too, for California, Nevada, Colorado or Texas.

Veronica Avalos, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Arizona for 13 years, has been caring for her three children alone since January. Her husband's Arizona employer closed its doors. He now works in San Antonio building swimming pool decks.

Avalos and her children plan to join him in the coming months, but she worries how the move will affect her 11-year-old son, who is partially blind and has mild mental disabilities.

"We need to look for a school, services and programs for him. He has all those things right now," Avalos said. "But I don't know what will happen in Texas."

[desdawg]

It's working.......
My stepson has had a difficult time finding work lately and he is not Hispanic. The job market has dried up for all flavors of construction workers. Hispanic crews were getting the work at a lower rate of pay and our honky workers were doing without. The entire housing market is in the pits.
Many hispanic people that I have met tell me healthcare is better in Mexico than here and much less expensive. Lots of gringo's go to Mexico for prescriptions to save money. Some of the sob story arguments in that article are pretty lame.

[glenn kangiser]

That's right -- My daughter had an earache in Mexico once and we just went to the pharmacy and bought the medicine -- no doctor, prescription or problem.  Very cheap.

[MountainDon]

Some of the sob story arguments in that article are pretty lame.

What do you expect from the liberal media.

[Sassy]

There's a huge market at the border of Mexico for dental & medical care...  people are even going down there for plastic surgery - the care is as good, if not better & much cheaper than in the states... this business that there is no health care for the citizens in Mexico... they just have to pay like most US citizens have to do in the states...  no free handouts... 

[benevolance]

I think it is a great idea to punish the businesses that purposely circumvent the law on hiring illegals...their greed in my opinion is a huge part of the problem to begin with...As long as they are offering great jobs to the illegals there is never going to be a way to stop people from getting across the border....

Sort of like trying to stop the drug trade....As long as people here will pay a fortune to get high and as long as they can make billions and trillions shipping drugs into america... they will find a way to get the drugs into this country... If people stopped buying the product they would stop sending it...

Without easy to get high paying jobs it is not worthwhile for Illegals to sneak across the border...

[muldoon]

I do feel some level of empathy for these people who come here looking for a better life.  However, they are being exploited and I do not think the majority of them even know it.  As long as the law is as it is I agree that punishing the business's who follow these practices is absolutley the right thing to do.  If the law is bad, change it (except theres not a politician in this country that can do it without getting booted out and that is what SHOULD be the deciding factor on this as they represent us and we have a voice).  Yes, it will hurt many families and it is clearly unfortunate, however the unfair playing field is already hurting many american families and municipalities.  Mexico is a wealthy country, however the wealth is very poorly dispersed.  I think people should be encouraged to fix their country instead of bringing the quality of life in ours down.  I mean no disrespect to our immigrants, my family comes from a German and Czech background; we went through the same thing at one point in time and to be fair, we likely did bring alot of baggage with us at the time. 

[benevolance]

well america relies on immigrants... the birth rate in this country has lowered and we need immigrants to maintain the population levels and to keep stocked with young people to work...

However I maintain that they should try to enter legally so that they can contribute to things like social security...So that the rest of the people do not have to give them free health care and education at our expense.... When you work legally the city county and state benefits in the form of taxation... While I would argue that our taxes are too high.... This country cannot have 15 million illegals making billions per year in salaries and paying no taxes of any kind and then sending the bulk of that money out of the country to Mexico or South America. It is killing our economy....And straining what existing forms of socialization in retirement healhcare and education this country has in place.

All should be welcome...Let them come!...But make them become residents that pay taxes and pull their weight.