While I have been very quite about my views on AZ's new law as the media is not portraying other positive aspects of the law (human smugglers), this just makes me sick!!! It is so common as well as many other things these smugglers have done. With AZ's new laws there are some hefty penalties for these smugglers and I agree wholeheartedly.

(Incidently, we are on high terror alert right now for Somali terrorists being or attempting to be smuggled in to the US via Texas. Guess the word is out - don't go through AZ.)

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911...ves/207732.asp

" . . .Investigators with the Pacific Police Department and ICE launched the investigation in May 2009 after a 7-year-old girl told her school counselor that an older man had been molesting her, according to the ICE statement. The Pacific Police Department followed up on the claim and it led them to Gonzalez Guerra.

Detectives were told Santos-Gonzalez had been tying up the girl's younger brother and beating him with a stick, according to the ICE statement. When authorities questioned the parents of the two children, they learned the family had paid the defendants to be smuggled into the United States . . .

At the hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman said, "[Ms. Santos-Gonzalez] took their money, put them in circumstances that were dire ... children went to bed hungry ... [she] took advantage of these people ... in many ways it was a form of modern-day slavery... it is at the fundamental core that you cannot take people and grind people down... this is not the way to treat other people... you need to treat them with respect, you need to treat them with dignity."

My SIL and BIL live in Phoenix...and don't agree with the new law. They feel that it is an attempt to reign in the crime in AZ, but it's not the illegals who are doing the crime...it's the legals, in their opinion.

My son works at one of the state prisons in Arizona and I can tell you that there are a large percentage of prisoners who are illegals.

The Mexican Mafia controls the prison gangs and if these crooks didn't exist our prisons would be much smaller.

There is a program on the National Geographic or History channel called, "Gangland" which details gangs in our country.

It is a real eye opener for people who think that the illegals don't contribute much to our crime problems. To say that the problem is scary is a definite understatement.


gmi

Debbie - It is a really complex issue with so many different parts to it. Not all illegals are criminals. It is wrong to make that assumption. Those that stick closer to the border probably are, IMO. On the radio this morning they were saying that since October 600,000 pounds of marijuana totally $5 million has been seized along the border. The cartel is everywhere - Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, etc.

There are parts of the law that no I don't agree with. But the trafficking and smuggling as well as penalties now put on employers, I do agree with. Something has to be done for these poor innocent people. They come expecting a better life. Instead they get abused. Some are sold in to the sex trade, others employers (who by the way don't have to pay taxes, insurance - regular & worker's comp., pay them wages that are lower than minimum, etc. when they hire them) use as basically slave labor, and others are held for ransom such as the Salvadorian children that were recently found in Phoenix. Even worse, some of them are smuggled in and just left in the desert, with it's extreme weather, to fend for themselves no food, water, or shelter and many die in right there in the desert. This is where I have my biggest issue.

A man in Phoenix was just sentence to 42 years in prison for running a smuggling/trafficking ring. They held the people in drophouses, threatened them with death, were violent, and even held some for ransom among other things. I think 47 people were involved in this huge "ring" and it just makes me sick as it is so cruel and inhuman.

I know that eventually, fake IDs will be given to those trying to cross the border. Look at that Somalian man, who has links to terrorist groups and has been smuggling people in to the U.S. They all had fake IDs. How this can be prevented is beyond me - that's why we have ICE.

Of course, this is only a portion of the bill. This issue has been going for years and is only getting worse.

I am so proud of our Governor for taking a stand against illegals when others tiptoe around and pretend we have no problems with illegals.

I am proud to be an Arizonan and an American citizen.

Go home illegals; my family and I are tired of supporting you and your families. You sneak in this country illegally with your hands out wanting everything we have had to earn.

If you spent as much time studying to become a citizen as you do marching in the streets complaining we would all be better off and I would welcome you as would others.

Yeah; I am a crabby old lady, deal with it.