An former fence setter on Arizona’s immigration law gives the reasons for climbing down and taking a side:
One was reports of illegals fleeing Arizona, even before the measure became law.
Another was watching folks suddenly start obeying other laws. A case in point was a car with a Mexico license plate that was about blast out of the left turn lane to cut off all traffic at an intersection of Miracle Mile – until he saw a cop car pulling into the intersection across from him.
The driver then instead stayed in the lane and turned left. Sure, he may have just made an illegal turn farther down the road and sure, it was only a minor traffic violation, but at least he didn’t break the law for a moment or two.
A third were the sob stories. My mom mentioned one that aired in Michigan about the sad fate of one illegal alien and his family who had been living in Arizona for years. The brood had to sadly uproot – to move to a different state. Never mind leaving the country or trying to get legal status to stay here – he just went on to live illegally somewhere else. Oh, the inhumanity.
The fourth, and perhaps most decisive factor, was the uproar against the measure. I’ll agree SB 1070 first struck me has having some murky issues, but after attending the AzPOST training session with Pima County Sheriff Department deputies, rereading the text 62 times to make sure I didn’t miss any hidden clauses that said racial profiling was OK, and hearing how the law would be enforced, I had confidence all hell would not break loose.
Also, if you’re interested, the article concludes with the official statement issued by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, another staunch supporter of the law.