Arizona immigration law ripples through history, U.S. politics

Arizona immigration law ripples through history, U.S. politics
by Dan Nowicki - Jul. 25, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

In just three months, Arizona's controversial new immigration law has shaken the national political scene, viewed either as a civil-rights abomination or the symbol of a state stepping up to do a difficult job that the U.S. government refuses to do.

The law, which goes into effect Thursday unless a federal judge says otherwise, has drawn criticism from President Barack Obama and put Arizona into a historic legal showdown with his administration. The Justice Department is suing to stop its implementation.
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SB 1070 appeared to strike Washington and the rest of the country like a thunderbolt when Gov. Jan Brewer signed it on April 23. But in Arizona, it was years in the making, just the latest manifestation of an increasing political antagonism toward illegal immigration. It was spurred by a perception that the federal government wasn't taking action on the issue. That frustration likely was exacerbated, some say, by economic anxiety amid the recession and the still-unsolved March 27 slaying of longtime Cochise County cattleman Robert Krentz near the border.
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"When the economy's tough, is it easy to believe that these people are coming across the border and taking jobs away from Anglos that want them?" said Bruce Merrill, a veteran Arizona political scientist and pollster. "Well, sure, even though that's not what the evidence shows."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/07/25/20100725immigration-law-history-politics.html#ixzz0uj0Omtd8