Immigration & Arizona: Making a Problem Worse

In addition, the federal government has won several court battles challenging this kind of legislation.  Meanwhile, Arizona’s taxpayers have been footing the bill for expensive lawsuits for a law that state legislators knew would be challenged.

This spring, businesses across the state joined together and successfully forced Arizona’s legislature to hit the brakes on additional immigration-related bills.  An open letter from business leaders stated: “Arizona’s lawmakers and citizens are right to be concerned about illegal immigration. But we must acknowledge that when Arizona goes it alone on this issue, unintended consequences inevitably occur…  Arizona-based businesses saw contracts cancelled or were turned away from bidding. Sales outside of the state declined. Even a business which merely had ‘Arizona’ in its name felt the effects of the boycotts, compelling them to launch an educational campaign about their company’s roots in Brooklyn.”

Closer to home, there was a recent attempt to change the Charter of the City of Nashville, TN to make all government communications English-only.  Many business, government and faith leaders quickly realized that such a proposal was unnecessary, bad for business, bad for tourism, a waste of taxpayer dollars and inconsistent with their values.  Some business leaders issued public statements saying that they might not have chosen Nashville if the law had been in effect.[vi] Ultimately, the amendment failed to win a popular vote.  Nashville remains the thriving and welcoming city that it has been for generations.

North Carolina faces many serious challenges right now, and we’re in no position to make them worse.  Unauthorized immigration is a federal problem with a federal solution.  We can be grateful that Arizona and Nashville have given us hard evidence that demonstrates the ineffectiveness of new punitive state and local laws.  We need our lawmakers to focus on creating jobs and making NC competitive and successful in the global economy of the 21^st century, not the ugly politics of immigrant scapegoating.

At the North Carolina Council of Churches, we hear every day about how our broken immigration system is tearing apart families, hurting small businesses, and driving people deeper into the shadows.  At the same time, we hear in our faith traditions the calling to love our neighbors, to treat everyone with respect, and specifically to welcome immigrants in our midst.  During Holy Week last month, we co-sponsored the annual Pilgrimage for Justice & Peace, in which people walk across the state as visible signs of peace and unity.

We’ve long supported comprehensive reforms to the system that would help families stay together and reward honest employers who want to do things the right way.  Unfortunately, we are still waiting to see bipartisan cooperation and leadership on this issue in Washington.  We’ve seen what happens when states take matters into their own hands, and it isn’t pretty.  In this time of economic uncertainty, we don’t need our state legislators building roadblocks to North Carolina’s future as a global leader.