Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

3/29/03  News Report -- The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

PHOENIX -- Arizona won't stop illegal immigration until the government does something the business community opposes: a crackdown on employers who hire the workers, the state's junior senator said Friday.

Jon Kyl, in a wide-ranging discussion of issues related to the war in Iraq and domestic security, said he has every reason to believe there already are terrorists in the United States -- and in Arizona. He said just the ease of getting into this country makes that obvious.

"If I were a terrorist wanting to get into the United States, it wouldn't take me long to hire one of the coyotes in northern Mexico and come in," Kyl said. "I mean, our border is so porous that you'd have a pretty good shot of making it the first time."

Kyl said some of the problem results from the fact that large stretches of the border on the U.S. side are national monuments, Indian reservations and other areas where the Border Patrol has been restricted from going off roads.

But Kyl conceded the problem does not stop at the border. He said there is a "lack of willpower" to enforce immigration laws throughout the rest of the state.

"There are elements of business who rely upon labor that is, to a large extent, we believe here in the United States illegally," said Kyl. "It is horribly hypocritical and inconsistent for us to be expending so much in the way of resources to be protecting the border at the border and yet not seem to care very much at all about the employment, illegally, of people who came here illegally.

The idea of a crackdown did not sit well with Farrell Quinlan, lobbyist for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm not sure that punishing businesses for being attracted to immigrants is the way to deal with the issue," he said. Quinlan said the problem is that it's just too easy to get into this country.

"Punishing businesses for our failed border policy is short sighted," he said.

But Quinlan acknowledged the business community is ambivalent about truly controlling illegal immigration.

"The problem is that the United States is the beacon of the world," he said.

Quinlan said the problem is not the restaurants, the hotels, the golf courses and the farmers who hire people willing to work for the wages these employers are offering.

In fact, Quinlan said, if the government were actually to crack down on companies that hire those not here legally the result will be "a lot of disruption."

"What things won't get done in this country without that workforce?" he asked.

Kyl, who used to be a volunteer lobbyist for the Phoenix Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce before running for national office, expressed little sympathy.

"This nation needs to decide whether we are a nation of laws, whether we want to enforce our laws, whether we believe in the rule of law, and if so we should enforce these laws -- or change them," he said. "But we don't seem to have developed a consensus yet of the direction we want to go."

Kyl said there is some evidence that federal officials will go after "the worst abuses," though success has been mixed.

He cited the charges brought against Tyson Foods that the company and its top managers conspired to hire illegal immigrants. On Wednesday, however, a jury acquitted the remaining defendants -- two managers had pleaded guilty -- accepting the company's defense that any actions were done by a few rogue plant managers.