Supporters: Arizona immigration law protects citizens' safety [View All]

Source: Arizona Republic

Supporters of Arizona's new immigration law put the rest of the country and Mexico on notice Saturday: We're standing steady; you can't shake us from our beliefs.

"Together we will secure our border and get our nation back," Pam Stephenson, director of the Arizona Tea Party, told a crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered at Tempe Diablo Stadium. The "Stand with Arizona" event, organized by "tea party" groups, featured speeches and music and came after a peaceful march in Phoenix of those who oppose the law.

Larry Wachs, an Atlanta radio station host, gave the Tempe group a rallying cry: "Can you hear us, now Mexico? Can you hear us, now? Because this land is not your land. This land is our land," he said. "I pay for it. We work for it. We have our credentials; where are yours?"

"The new law is now a state law," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told the crowd. "If we catch anyone here illegally, we will arrest everybody and book them into jail. I'm not going to turn them over to ICE."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/05/30/20100530airzona-immigration-law-supporters.html

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Not to hard to tell which side that the tea parties are on - big government that will arrest you, book you, and not turn you over to ICE. Not sure if the "not going to turn them over to ICE" is part of the Arizona law or Joe is making this stuff up as he goes along. (And I'm not sure which is scarier: a law that empowers Joe to do this or Joe doing it without regards to what the law says.)

Stephenson got "secure our border" in her soundbite, so McCain, Kyl and the rest of the republican strategists will be happy with her. But she didn't get "no amnesty for illegals" in there, so she's going to lose a point or two in their scorebook for that. repubs and tea baggers are supposed to get "secure the border", "amnesty" and "illegals" in every sound bite, so Stephenson has to improve a bit before she goes "big time".