Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

As Arizona grapples with the state’s large undocumented immigrant population, Gov. Janet Napolitano last Monday vetoed a bill that would have required all police officers and sheriffs to enforce immigration laws by partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, or by receiving immigration training. Napolitano said the hefty price tag, which could top $100 million, would burden the state because there was no guarantee of federal funding to implement the bill.

The veto comes on the heels of the decision by lawmakers in Prince William County, Va., to stop offering some services to undocumented immigrants and to require police to check the immigration status of crime suspects (see our blog post of May 2). The Washington Post reported Monday that Prince William’s County’s new rules have pushed out undocumented immigrants, who fled to nearby counties.

In Arizona’s Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has already trained 160 officers, the biggest in the country, to target Latino neighborhoods (see our blog post of March 18). Despite Arpaio’s immigration sweeps, 63 percent of county voters said the sheriff is doing an excellent job or a good job, as reported in The Arizona Republic.

While Napolitano stood against the views of some Arizona residents, a Wednesday editorial in The New York Times applauded the governor’s stance as an act of reason at a time when immigration raids and curtailing services have been seen as solutions for many. “She is standing up for what is right for her state and for what is right,” The Times editorial said. “The search for a rational immigration system will not be resolved by simplistic, predatory enforcement schemes.”