Hypocrisy in the Immigration Debate?

Theimmigration issue has become so heated and twisted that those who benefitgreatly from the surge of illegal immigration are among the biggest supportersof Arizonans who want it all to stop.

A look at campaign finance statements shows that industries that rely on thelabor of undocumented immigrants are also heavy contributors to staunchillegal-immigration foes.

For instance, Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, has introduced several bills aimedat making life difficult for those here illegally. Yet he has received $1,000from a home-builders association, $480 from a hotel group and another $280 fromgrowers.

“I take NO money from anyone that I know that employees ‘illegal’aliens,” Pearce wrote me in an e-mail.

But it is no secret which industries thrive on this underground labor. Somebusinesses will speak abstractly about the “shortage of workers” topick crops, for example. Or you can ask the migrants themselves, as the PewHispanic Center did.

In a study released late last year, immigrants reported working inconstruction, manufacturing, agriculture and hospitality.

With home-building being such a big industry here, it’s no surprise the HomeBuilders Association of Central Arizona spends a lot of money on legislativeraces. Some $32,353 went to 37 Republican candidates. The list contains thenames of those who have been sponsors and supporters ofanti-illegal-immigration bills: Sens. Karen Johnson, Thayer Verschoor, BarbaraLeff and Dean Martin and Reps. Chuck Gray, John Allen, Pamela Gorman and RickMurphy.

The home builders have also donated $68,000 to the Republican Party and closeto $50,000 to Republican-front organizations. Most money spent on Democrats wentto the party, not individual lawmakers.

The Western Growers Political Action Committee also contributed to thecampaigns of Pearce, Martin, Gray and Leff.

The Hotel and Motel Political Action Committee spread contributions around thatsame group, including Pearce, Martin and Leff.

Debbie Johnson, president of the Arizona Hotel and Motel Association, saidPearce probably got campaign cash because he controls the House AppropriationsCommittee, which helps decide the state’s tourism budget.

She did say donations might be aimed at keeping some lawmakers at bay.”Some people we donate to and work with so they are – how do I put this? -so they are not anti-tourism or anti-this issue,” Johnson said.

Meaning that they don’t support sanctions on businesses that hire undocumentedworkers, at least not until there’s a proper guest-worker program in place.

When Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, introduced a bill that would haverequired businesses to verify the Social Security numbers of their new hires,the hotel lobbyists contacted friendly lawmakers, including Leff, Johnson said.

“We got her involved,” Johnson said. The bill died in a committeewhose chairwoman was Leff. “It’s important for us to have a comprehensiveprogram.”
Source: Arizona Republic, Mar. 20, 2006

bh