Why SB 1070 is needed
By Linda Bentley | May 5, 2010
‘Maybe it is too late to save America. Maybe we are not worthy of freedom anymore'
PHOENIX – Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Dist. 5, from Snowflake posted an explanation online why SB 1070, which she voted for, was needed.
SB 1070 makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally by mimicking federal immigration law.
Allen mentioned the murder of rancher Robert Krentz a month ago and her subsequent participation in a Senate hearing about violence along the border.
Allen provided some highlights from those who testified at the hearing and said, “The people who live within 60 to 80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico border have for years been terrorized and have pleaded for help to stop the daily invasion of humans who cross their property.
One rancher testified that 300 to 1,200 people a DAY come across his ranch; vandalizing his property, stealing his vehicles and property, cutting down his fences, and leaving trash.”
Another rancher testified how drugs are brought across his ranch in a military operation with a point man toting a machine gun followed by fully armed guards one-half mile behind, followed by those carrying drugs one-half mile behind, followed by more guards one half mile behind.
Allen stated, “These people are violent and they will kill anyone who gets in the way. This was not the only rancher we heard from that day that talked about the drug trains.”
Another rancher spoke about two illegal aliens that came upon his property – one shot in the back and the other shot in the arm by the drug runners who forced them to carry drugs.
Ranchers talked about the gunfire they hear every night, while testifying it’s not safe to leave their families alone on the ranch and it’s not safe to leave for fear of nothing being left when they return.
According to Allen, the border patrol is not on the border but 60 miles away “with check points that do nothing to stop the invasion” and border agents that are not allowed to use force.
Citing illegal aliens comprise 35 percent of the federal prison population and 20 percent of Arizona’s inmates, Allen pointed out 80 percent of our law enforcement officers killed or wounded over the past few years were at the hands of illegal aliens.
Ranchers also pointed out a change in the people coming across the border and said the people coming aren’t just looking for work and a better life. “The majority of people coming now are people we need to be worried about,” said Allen.
Because the federal government refuses to do anything to help border states, Arizona has become overrun with illegal aliens.
And, once they are here, Allen stated, “[W]e have the burden of funding state services that they use,” including billions of dollars for education and health care.
“Our state is broke,” said Allen, who referred to the $3.5 billion deficit. “The border can be secured. We have the technology – we have the ability to stop this invasion. We must know who is coming and they must come in an organized manner legally so that we can assimilate them into our population and protect the sovereignty of our country. We are a nation of laws. We have a responsibility to protect our citizens and to protect the integrity of our country and the government” under which we live.
Allen says the problem with granting amnesty without first securing the borders is thousands will come behind them and “we will be overrun to the point there will no longer be the United States of America but a North American Union of open borders.”
She wrote, “I ask you, what form of government will we live under? How long will it be before we will be just like Mexico, Canada or any of the other Central American or South American countries?”
Allen noted, “We have already lost our language; everything must be printed in Spanish also. We have already lost our history; it is no longer taught in our schools. And we have lost our borders.”
Allen chastised the “leftist media” and its distortion of what SB 1070 will do, stating, “It’s not going to set up a Nazi Germany.”
She found it incredulous that the ACLU and activist judges will do everything to protect those here illegally, while 70 percent of Arizona’s citizens support efforts to stop illegal aliens from setting up shop, gaining employment and receiving state services, and giving local law enforcement the ability to determine if someone is here legally when there is probable cause, such as during a traffic stop.
In conclusion Allen laments, “Maybe it is too late to save America. Maybe we are not worthy of freedom anymore. But as an elected official I must try to do what I can to protect our Constitutional Republic. Living in America is not a right just because you can walk across the border. Being an American is a responsibility and it comes by respecting and upholding the Constitution, the law of our land, which says what you must do to be a citizen of this country. Freedom is not free.”
On Monday, Tucson activist Roy Warden, known as the “notorious Mexican flag burner,” said, “Ever since Governor Brewer signed SB 1070 into law last week … the wailing of Tucson and Pima County officials who inspired the new law in the first place has been music to my ears.
“It is noteworthy that Sheriff Clarence Dupnick has disparaged the law as ‘racist’ while Tucson Police Chief Villasenor has stated he believes his department can implement the new law without unnecessary constitutional distress.”
Warden cheered Villasenor but had words for the Pima County Sheriff and Tucson City Council for their continued preferential treatment toward illegal aliens over citizens and said, “SB 1070 was written to stop you!”
It was also written for Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who believes he is “celebrating diversity” with his open borders, sanctuary city policies.
When Gordon realized he couldn’t get enough council votes to file a legal challenge on the city’s behalf against the new law, he withdrew the agenda item and claimed he had the authority to initiate a lawsuit on the city’s behalf on his own, without council approval.
However, City Attorney Gary Verburg issued a memo on Monday saying Gordon, as mayor, does not have such authority and wrote, “That authority rests solely with the city council.”
Gordon is seeking another strategy to stop the law from being implemented.