Arizona Now ‘Dangerfield’ Country

If Rodney Dangerfield — the comedian who complained, “ I don’t get no respect”— were alive today, he might feel at home in Arizona. No respect is what Governor Jan Brewer says her state and its people have received from the President of the United States. The Republican governor said she has sent five letters to the White House about the problem of illegal immigration in her state and all have gone unanswered. Then the President called the controversial bill the governor signed last week to crackdown on illegal immigrants “misguided” and ordered the Justice Department to monitor its enforcement to ensure that civil rights were not being violated.

“I’ve spoken to the President personally in regard to that,” Brewer said about the unanswered letters, calling the non-response a “complete and total disrespect to the people of Arizona. I mean we don’t even get an answer back.”

The bill that has sparked an outcry in Arizona and around the nation makes it a state crime for illegal immigrants to be in Arizona and requires police during lawful stops to question people they have reason to believe are aliens. [The law reads: "For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person."] The law also authorizes the police to arrest suspects who cannot show evidence of their legal status. The law has been roundly denounced in protest demonstrations by people who say it will result in police harassment of people of color or who speak with an accent. An Arizona congressman is among those who have called for a nationwide boycott of conventions and other events in the state to protest the new law. Arizona has been the target of boycotts before. In the early 1990’s the state lost a Super Bowl bid when the National Football League decided to bypass the state for not making Martin Luther King Day a state holiday.