New Mexico Bishop, Sheriff, Professor Tell Their Views On Arizona Immigration Law

Arizona’s new immigration law has sparked an outpouring of response in New Mexico.

Dr. Jose Garcia, New Mexico State University government professor, says the law should not only punish illegal immigrants, but employers who hire them as well.

?It?s become socially acceptable to demonize the migrant,? Garcia said.

Racial profiling, community distrust, and overall fear among immigrants ? whether illegal or not ? are among protestors concerns.

Arizona?s state law as it stands now would require police to determine whether people are in the U.S. legally.

But Garcia says it is time employers who hire illegal immigrants are sanctioned enough to deter them from continuing to hire.

“The employers have political clout,? Garcia said. ?They’re able to exert that so the enforcement doesn’t happen on them – they don’t get any of the demonization.?

When an illegal migrant is hired in the United States, two people have broken the law ? the illegal and the employer, Garcia said. And cracking down on undocumented residents, Garcia says, will not curb illegal immigration.

?As Hispanics, I think we’re especially sensitive to the grave injustice, the really serious injustice that’s going on in demonizing the Hispanic illegal migrant but not demonizing the employer or anybody else,” Garcia said.

Dona Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison says the issue needs to be recognized at the federal level.

“If it’s illegal, it’s illegal,? Garrison said. ?It has to be illegal on both sides – it can’t be ok just because you get cheaper labor – it has to be fixed on both ends.”

New Mexico?s three Catholic bishops are voicing concern as well.

?Right now there are some laws that make it illegal for employers to hire illegal immigrants,? Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces Catholic Diocese said. ?So if it’s the law it has to be enforced.?

Garcia says he believes if some of the large wholesale employers for illegal immigrants were arrested and put in jail for 15 or 20 years – it would show a real deterrent very quickly. But Garcia emphasizes, there needs to be a law where employers cannot claim they did not know a worker was illegal at time of hire.

?Checking documents of Hispanics is not going to do anything to solve the ultimate problem if you have a huge vast infrastructure that continues to supply workers into a labor market that’s never policed enough to stop business,” Garcia said.

If Arizona?s immigration law is not overhauled, it is set to take effect in late July or early August.