Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Specter of Arizona immigration law slowly drains economy
July 29, 2010 12:11 p.m. EDT
Jairo Tellez (back row, center) runs his seafood distribution business with his wife and kids. He says business is off.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Anecdotal evidence indicates mere specter of immigration bill is slowly paralyzing economy
- Hispanics make up 30 percent of the state's population
- Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill in April; jobless rate has risen each month since
- Real estate agents, restaurant owner report big slowdown in business
Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Jairo Tellez's seafood distribution business is a family affair. In the industrial warehouse that houses J and V Mariscos on the west side of Phoenix, his wife, Vicki, and four of his seven children load trucks, take phone calls, enter data and help care for his infant grandson, who has a playpen in Tellez's office.
But with portions of Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law set to take effect Thursday, the business is in limbo.
"If people are not eating, we're not selling," said Wendy Cisneros, a family friend who works in the back office. "We've lost 60 percent of sales, and right now the future's uncertain. We don't know if we're going to stay in the state; we don't know if we're going to close the business. Everything's up in the air."
Most of their clients cater to the Latino community, which has effectively gone into hiding amid concerns that they may have to leave the state as soon as the bill becomes law, Cisneros said.
A key part of Arizona's immigration law was temporarily blocked by a judge Wednesday. This means police won't be required to ask people about their immigration status.
Toobin: What does Arizona immigration ruling mean?
But for the Tellez family business and others like it, the damage from the controversy already is done. Reduced spending in restaurants, grocery and retail stores has triggered a domino effect among businesses in the metro Phoenix business community and throughout Arizona.
To stay afloat even as their clients disappear or reduce inventory orders, the business has reduced employees' hours and cut back operations in the industrial warehouse, home to several large freezers and forklifts and an office sparsely decorated with posters of illustrated fish and cuts of meat.
Perhaps the toughest decision was to halt lines of credit to customers, even those with good history, she said.
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"We can't really offer credit anymore because we don't know if next week they're going to close the business," Cisneros said. "But it's also a downside because some customers need that credit to operate."
Firm numbers illuminating the economic fallout of SB 1070 are hard to come by as the bill has yet to take effect. Also, summer tends to be slow for business and tourism in Arizona because it's so hot.
But anecdotal evidence from business owners, real estate agents and community leaders indicates the mere specter of the bill has created a culture of fear among Hispanics in Arizona that's slowly paralyzing sectors of the economy. Hispanics make up 30 percent of the state's population.
The state's unemployment rate in June rose for the third month in a row, to 9.7 percent. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill in April.
Traditionally, community groups look to indicators such as the housing market, school enrollment and data from utility companies to track economic fluctuations within a certain group, said Edmundo Hidalgo, president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, a community outreach program in Phoenix.
Based on feedback from clients and preliminary data, Hidalgo said his group estimates that rental vacancies in predominantly Latino neighborhoods will be 10 to 15 percent higher than the normal rate of 12 percent.
"People are scared, and they don't want to wait around to find out what's going to happen with SB 1070," said Hidalgo, whose group offers housing, economic and education services to low-income families and individuals, both undocumented and U.S.-born.
"Regardless of their status, people are frustrated with an environment that's not accepting and potentially threatening, and they're fed up with being targeted and singled out by law enforcement. It's driving them out of the state, and not necessarily to better situations."
Reactions to the Arizona immigration law injunction
The Arizona housing market, which was already suffering from one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, has also taken an extra hit since the passage of the law, according to real estate agents who spoke with CNN.
Some homeowners who purchased property in the past year are looking to unload, according to Saul Pua, a real estate agent who sells residential properties in neighborhoods in Phoenix's Latino communities.
"Most families usually have one person who doesn't have papers, and they don't want to risk being arrested and splitting up the family by staying in Arizona," said Pua, who is married to one of the daughters of Tellez, the owner of J and V Mariscos.
Even during the recession, Pua said business was good because property was cheap, and that in better times, he closed an average of five transactions a month. Since the beginning of the year, however, he has been lucky to sell two properties in a month, and in July, he hasn't closed a single deal.
"I had investors buying properties, but now's who gonna rent them?" he said.
Commercial real estate developer Michael Pollack was in the same situation leading up to Wednesday's ruling. Since April, clients in predominantly Latino neighborhoods across the state had been pulling out of properties or calling to relay concerns over whether they should stay if the law goes into effect.
Today, Pollack said he received several calls from clients expressing relief and letting him know they intended to stay.
"The ruling today has definitely been a move in the right direction for commercial tenants and their customers, who've been scared that Arizona wasn't going be friendly to Hispanic community," he said.
"This gives the federal government to get to work implementing an immigration policy that the American people will support unanimously and deals with the situation at the border, which is where the real problem is."
Phoenix's sprawling concrete landscape bears testimony to the abundance of vacant residential and commercial property.
"For sale" signs in English and Spanish adorn brown, sun-scorched lawns and dilapidated parking lots alike, from the heart of downtown Phoenix to as far as Chandler and Mesa -- the district of SB 1070's sponsor, Republican Sen. Russell Pearce. Boarded-up big-box stores loom large in their vast emptiness, and rows of abandoned strip mall storefronts outnumber those that are occupied in some parts.
Not only businesses targeting the Latino community are suffering. Economic boycotts adopted by other states and cities have hit Arizona's meeting and convention business.
Since groups nationwide began announcing boycotts of the state because of SB 1070, at least 40 meetings have been canceled. That's resulted in the loss of $12 million in lodging alone, according to Kristen Jarnagin, spokeswoman for the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association.
Summer is typically the low season, she noted, and pointed out that tourism was up 8 percent statewide in June 2010 compared with June 2009, which was one of the "worst summers ever" because of the recession.
Despite that slight uptick, more telling is the lack of inquiries for future bookings, she said.
"What we're hearing from meeting planners now is they won't and can't consider Arizona for 2011, 2012 meetings not necessarily because of their own stance on SB 1070 or the boycott but just because they want to avoid the controversy and don't want to risk losing attendance," she said.
The absence of meetings and conventions not only affects the hotel industry and its 200,000 employees, but also ancillary businesses such as restaurants, retailers and taxis, Jarnagin said.
It seems that not even fast-food joints are immune to the encroaching economic fallout of SB 1070.
As the four Tellez children stood with their parents in their office Wednesday, recounting tales of friends and relatives who have left town or seen families torn apart, daughter Nikki noted her surprise at seeing a shuttered Burger King.
"I was driving down Camelback with my dad and Burger King was closed, and I was like, when have you seen that? Like Burger King -- everybody goes to Burger King, and that was closed down."
Friday, June 25, 2010
Immigration News June 25
| Business groups craft response to Arizona |
New York Times - 12 hours ago
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, making good on an inaugural pledge, has stepped up to help lead the national battle for immigration reform. ...
Napolitano: Obama wants immigration overhaul
By IVAN MORENO (AP)
DENVER — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano blamed a "bitterly divided Congress" for failing to create an immigration bill but assured Hispanic political leaders on Thursday that the president remains committed to overhauling the nation's immigration laws.
"Make no mistake about it. President Obama and the administration are committed to comprehensive immigration reform," Napolitano said to cheers and applause of participants at the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a nonpartisan group that represents more than 6,000 political leaders. "But I think we can all recognize, and you as elected officials can recognize particularly, that some reform takes time."
Napolitano highlighted President Barack Obama's effort to make it easier for legal immigrants to become citizens and said Obama has taken a tough approach to securing the U.S.-Mexican border.
She did not mention Arizona's tough new immigration law, which takes effect July 29 if it survives legal challenges. It requires police to question people about their immigration status while enforcing other laws if there's reason to suspect someone is in the country illegally.
Napolitano also provided no details of what an immigration bill would look like, but said that it would be a "big goal" requiring bipartisanship.
"We need partners on this one because the administration's own commitment and even the commitment and the desires of so many groups around the country (who say), 'Do something, do something, do something.' That alone doesn't provide us with the bipartisan legislative agreement that we need to reach," she said.
Napolitano stressed that the administration was committed to tough enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border while working to formulate a bill. This week, Obama asked Congress for $600 million in emergency funds for 1,000 more Border Patrol agents.
Napolitano said lawmakers who say the border needs to be secured before a new immigration bill is introduced "keep moving the goalpost."
"And the word secure really becomes, effectively, 'seal' the border," she said.
Nicolas Dominguez, 54, a trustee at El Paso Community College, said he was satisfied with Napolitano's speech, but added, "I think these speeches need to be followed up by actual actions." He also said he wanted more details about what an immigration bill would look like.
Rosa Varela, a school board member from San Luis, Ariz., said she wanted Napolitano to address the state's new immigration law.
"I'm from Arizona and I would like to see what they are doing. This law is affecting our people," she said.
Sylvia Garcia, the president of NALEO, said the group is trying to get people to understand that an immigration bill may take a while. More than 700 Hispanic political leaders are in Denver for the group's conference, which ends Saturday.
"We're just telling people to be patient," Garcia said. "We have to have faith and patience."
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Immigration Policy in Own Hands
Lawmakers across country taking immigration policy into own hands
By Michael W. Savage
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2010
With widespread attention focused on Arizona's tough new law against illegal immigration -- and a measure approved this week in the small town of Fremont, Neb. -- similar proposals are under consideration across the country.
THIS STORY
- U.S. sending aerial drone to Texas as part of border effort
- States, localities take immigration policy into own hands
- Full Coverage: The Battle Over Immigration
Five states -- South Carolina, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Michigan -- are looking at Arizona-style legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. NDN, a Washington think tank and advocacy group, said lawmakers in 17 other states had expressed support for similar measures.
Since it was adopted in April, the Arizona legislation, which gives law enforcement officers the power to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, has triggered bitter debate and been challenged in court by advocacy groups. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last week that the Justice Department plans to sue Arizona over the law, although a department spokesman has said the matter is under review.
This week, the spotlight shifted to rural Fremont, which narrowly passed an ordinance that would outlaw hiring illegal immigrants or renting property to them.
In the first three months of this year, legislators in 45 states introduced 1,180 bills or resolutions dealing with immigrants, an unprecedented number, according to the NCSL. By the end of March, 107 laws and 87 resolutions had been adopted by 34 states, with 38 bills pending. Not all of the proposals were designed to clamp down on illegal immigrants. Ann Morse, director of the Immigrant Policy Project at the NCSL, said they represented "a spectrum" of pro- and anti-immigration measures.
"When I talk to legislators about what they're doing in the state, they say this is their way of signaling they want federal immigration reform to happen -- that they care deeply about the issue, they're working within the parameters they have and sometimes at the edge, trying to get federal attention," she said.
Last month, the Massachusetts Senate amended its budget bill to require state contractors to confirm that their workers are in the country legally. Earlier, the Massachusetts House narrowly rejected a proposal to restrict public benefits to illegal immigrants.
In Pennsylvania, an Arizona-style bill is in the pipeline. Although police officers must have a separate reason to stop someone, the proposal would direct them to "attempt to verify the immigration status of suspected illegal aliens."
South Carolina is set to discuss an almost identical measure next year. And in Albuquerque, Mayor Richard Berry instituted a similar policy, which was upheld by a council vote.
Anti-illegal immigrant measures in Hazelton, Pa., and Farmers Branch, Tex., are being challenged in the courts.
In Fremont, those on both sides agreed that the town's new ordinance, which will take effect in July, marked a national pattern of local communities taking immigration policy into their own hands.
"I'm afraid this is part of a larger, nationwide trend, most obviously typified by what has happened in Arizona," said Amy Miller, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Nebraska, which is seeking an injunction against the Fremont law. "There is no rational reason for Fremont to be worried about protecting our border. But it is a community, like many in rural Nebraska, where the only population growth has been in new immigrants, many of them people of color."
"What will this lead to? Other municipalities in other states enacting their own laws," said Fremont council member Sean Gitt, who said he decided to support the measure after it was approved by the community.
"Fremont is an example of 'If Washington won't, Nebraskans will,' " said Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports tougher immigration enforcement. Others note that the economy may determine whether other jurisdictions follow Arizona's lead.
"The big, overriding issue for nearly every state is the state of their budgets," said Morse. "Taking on additional law enforcement costs and court challenge costs is not at the front of their task list."
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Immigration Fight in Nebraska
- JUNE 22, 2010, 11:59 AM ET
By Clifford M. Marks
Arizona isn’t the only jurisdiction taking the fight against illegal immigration into its own hands.
Fremont, Nebraska–a place most of you have probably never heard of–voted yesterday to ban illegal immigrants from renting property or landing a job in the 25,000-person town, the AP reports. The law requires town officials to evaluate the citizenship status of any person renting property, while employers must check the status of would-be hires using a federal database.
The vote could make the Cornhusker state meatpacking town the latest battleground in a national fight over immigration ignited in April by an Arizona law that would allow law enforcement officials to stop people they think might be in the country illegally.
The ACLU has already vowed a court challenge to the Fremont law, with the head of the group’s Nebraska branch decrying the measure as a violation of federal law. The Fremont ordinance, she said, is “completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality.”
Some town residents interviewed by the AP had a different take. “I don’t think it’s right to be able to rent to [illegal immigrants] or hire them,” said Trevor McClurg. “They shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
But if past experience is any guide, McClurg may be out of luck. Federal courts have a track record of rejecting similar ordinances, including a Hazleton, Pennsylvania provision that would have penalized landlords and businesses for dealing with illegal immigrants, according to the AP. And a federal judge also rejected a Farmers Branch, Texas ban on renting to those in the country illegally.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Why dont they come legally? They can't.
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 29, 2010
Why don't they come legally? They can't
By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
After my last column criticizing Arizona's xenophobic immigration law, I got an avalanche of readers' comments. Most of them were angry anti-immigrant tirades, but some made important points that deserve an answer.
I won't waste your time responding to those that reek of racial prejudice. Instead, I will try to respond to some of the most common criticisms made by intelligent, well-meaning people whose arguments can't be dismissed as coming from the lunatic fringe.
Denise, who describes herself as a ``white Anglo who has lived in Miami all my life'' and wonders ``how much longer I will be able to live in the town I grew up in,'' writes: ``I am already a minority who is discriminated against and often feel that I live in a foreign country because of the huge population of Latins who insist on speaking Spanish.''
Read More...
Immigration Articles
U.S. | April 26, 2010
Growing Split in Arizona Over Immigration
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Immigration has always polarized the state. But the new law has widened the chasm in a way few can remember.
U.S. | April 24, 2010
U.S.'s Toughest Immigration Law Signed in Arizona
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill aimed at identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants, reigniting the battle over immigration reform.
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