opinion
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s a law of nature, and that law may well be unleashed in Arizona this election season. The freneticism being ginned up around the 2020 election is well underway. And this year for President Trump, it’s all about immigration.
In Arizona, the state Legislature is jumping on the bandwagon, and Gov. Doug Ducey is encouraging a statewide referendum on the ballot in November to stop the formation of “sanctuary cities.”
The timing of this is no coincidence.
Trump is making his way to Phoenix on Wednesday for his next campaign rally, and Arizona is one of the battleground states for key national, statewide and legislative elections.
For Trump, it's a re-election strategy
During his recent rally in New Hampshire, Trump said:
“They want open borders. They want thousands and thousands of people to pour into our country, many of whom are not exactly what we’re looking for, OK? I mean murderers, rapists, and some other things. They’re going to be poisoning our children with drugs, including right here in New Hampshire, and you have one of the drug problems in the country.”
He theatrically recited the poem, “The Snake” a parody of “the other” that serves to fear-monger people against immigrants and people of color.
Politicians, particularly Trump, understand quite clearly that pitting groups against one another is an effective election strategy. The argument is as old as time, and as we know, it works to energize many who see a group of people – in this case immigrants and people of color – as the root of the problem.
Yes sir, the xenophobic anti-immigrant narrative is the front and center of Trump’s campaign, and with the Arizona legislature in lockstep, this vitriol, once again, is spilling over into our state.
How did Arizona not learn this lesson?
Make no mistake, putting a ban on sanctuary cities on the ballot in Arizona in 2020 is designed for one thing and one thing only: to create an emotional reaction to immigrants and drive fear-mongers to the polls.
You would think that Arizona politicians would have learned a lesson. We just marked the 10-year anniversary of Senate Bill 1070 that cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in just the first year alone and devastated the reputation of our great state around the world.
The sanctuary city referendum proposed by the Arizona Legislature is a legal nothing-burger. Under present law, nothing prohibits any state or municipal police force in Arizona from actively referring to ICE the identity and location of any undocumented immigrant when they are otherwise stopped for probable cause for violating the law.
Nor is ICE prevented from setting up any sting operation or concerted enforcement effort in Arizona, as they see fit, to apprehend and initiate deportation proceedings for undocumented immigrants found in Arizona. Indeed, as we speak, the Trump administration is legally free to throw whatever sums it deems appropriate of its present budget to such efforts in Arizona – or any other state, for that matter.
Latest effort could have real effects
Legally, these nothing-burger anti-sanctuary city efforts are like a surgeon waiving a scalpel in mid-air; it cuts nothing. But, to our political fabric and image in the world, it cuts deep.
We need to see the proposed sanctuary city referendum for what it is: a dog whistle to certain segments of the Arizona electorate, not a solution to a real problem. Instead, it’s a solution manufactured in an election year in search of a legal problem that doesn’t exist.
But the referendum will create real problems for Arizona. The Arizona Legislature is just picking at the scabs of old wounds and disregarding the lessons from SB 1070.
Arizona is in a much different place today than we were 10 years ago, including our increasingly diverse demographic and political makeup. The reaction to this ballot initiative may well be fierce, swift, and the fallout to our state potentially very serious.
In Arizona, we’ve experienced the effects of political strategies designed to win elections that pit people against one another, institutionalize racial profiling, compromise public safety and health, and cause devastating effects on our economy.
SB 1070 should have taught us that while such ill-conceived laws may advance myopic political agendas of certain politicians, it loses the war for the rest of us.
Lisa Urias is the president and CEO of Urias Communications and a member of The Arizona Republic's board of contributors. You can follow her on Twitter @lisaurias1.
"tactic" - Google News
February 18, 2020 at 08:00PM
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Don't be fooled: A sanctuary-city ban is nothing more than an election-year tactic - AZCentral
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