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The Grand Canyon, as viewed from Mohave Point. NPS photo.
Are you rethinking that trip to the Grand Canyon or Saguaro National Park due to the approach Arizona officials are taking towards illegal immigration?
Arizona's move to require police to check anyone's U.S. residency status if it might be in doubt is drawing quite a bit of criticism. Already there's some evidence that folks from outside Arizona who oppose the law are canceling trips to the Grand Canyon State.
Are you?
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Comments
Which one? I had two. The first was that drug and human smuggling isn't going to be alleviated with the simple deportation that might be accomplished by this statute. Anyone actually caught for drug/human smuggling could be facing serious jail time. Anyone who might be a human/drug smuggler but is only caught without the proper documents is probably just going to be deported to Mexico where the cycle can repeat.
The other one was simply to say that human smuggling isn't only a problem at Arizona's border with Mexico.
And CAPTCHA for today is "thing crackdown".
When a person is found to be illegal in this country, tell them they have a choice to return to their country or to be given full citizenship with the condition that they be drafted into one of the armed forces of this country for a certain amount of time. They'll be given a crash course on how to be a US citizen, educated, employed and we'll boost our defences at the same time.
I planned a trip to AZ & UT several months ago and my trip is for personal pleasure, not political reasons. The hotel owner and shop owners I will support along the way will be looking forward to my influx of out of state cash. I have no plans to cancel it.
I live in Upstate NY were you have to have a passport or an enhanced License to go to the Canadian side of the Falls -something we have been doing without anything my whole life.
I think all the people who are complaining about this law and how bad it is should consider visiting or even moving to AZ. I would say that unless you are there you have no idea how bad the problem might be. I’m sure the AZ government did not just pull this out of the air to see if they could anger people on the liberal east coast.
I am a Canadian snowbird and have a passport to get into the country. Does this mean I have to carry it with me at all times even when hiking? They don't give out visitor visas at the border and where we stay, we were asked at one of the numerous border checks if we had proof of our citizenship. We usually lock up our passports so they don't get stolen for identity theft reasons. What to do? Perhaps tatooing is the best answer--we could just show our numbers on our wrists. Perhaps then gas stations would then take our Canadian credit cards at the pay before you pump gas stations, too.
I am sure you have your reasons for cancelling your travel but I can not imagine why any tax-paying American citizen would protest the new legislation when it is protecting the people of Arizona and the millions of tax dollars they pay, many of which go to support ILLEGAL immigrants who are here taking full advantage of our taxpayer-sponsored government programs and their children are receiving free educations, etc. The ILLEGAL problem has become a national CRISIS and a strain on OUR government. Too many 'bleeding hearts' have looked the other way for too long. Those ILLEGALS need to be sent back to their own countries and if they can not come here LEGALLY, they should not be allowed to come here at ALL! The new legislation, in fact, makes me WANT to visit AZ; at least THAT state is taking action, something our whole country needs to do instead of wimping out. Way to go, Arizona!!!!
Hello people on this strand,
Rick,
I understand your reticence I, too, am not very fond of drug smugglers and coyotes. However we are pretty sure that Ranger Paul Fugate was, indeed, killed by drug smugglers on Janyary 13, 1980. They were not illegals, however, but people from this side of the border. As you might suspect, I am not too crazy about firearms being legal in the National Parks.
I used to ride my horses all over the Chiricahuas in the 1970's with no concern but now it has become very dangerous in some places. Still, Cochise County has always been a dangerous area far before it was Cochise County and murder has always been common there. It pays to be circumspect when hiking there.
Dody
the law does nothing of the sort have you read it?
As an American Indian, I have to say that I find it absolutely STUNNING the number of Americans on this site who refer to the history of conquest and domination of Indian peoples and lands as "the proper legal channels." There was nothing legal or proper about it. Decolonize your own history before you start throwing handcuffs at people who scare you.