The More the Merrier

~The furor over the recent Arizona law intended to catch illegal immigrants has largely died down over here in North Carolina, although with the election in a few days I imagine it’s still an important issue in Arizona.  Among other provisions, the new law (originally Arizona Senate Bill 1070, now the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”) requires police officers to question people they suspect are illegal immigrants, and, if they fail to produce valid documentation, to arrest them. 

Emotions on this law are very strong on both sides.  Some people say this is tantamount to racist fascism, requiring people of Latino descent – even if they are U.S. citizens – to carry documentation (“papers, please”), at the risk of arrest if they are unable to produce it.  But on the other hand, Arizona does have large and increasing problems stemming from illegal immigrants, especially with violence spilling over from the all-out war between competing drug cartels just over the border.  Many Arizona residents feel very frustrated over ineffectual federal border enforcement and increasing drug & gang violence, so their support for tough new rules is understandable.

But regardless of what you think about the new law, it’s very interesting – and revealing – to discover some of the forces behind its drafting and adoption.  As the following story from National Public Radio demonstrates, lobbyists working for private prison companies were a strong influence on Arizona legislators, “suggesting” much of what the bill would eventually become.  The reason is obvious: these companies stand to make (and now, are making) huge amounts of (taxpayer) money by providing prison services to house the many new illegal immigrants to be rounded up as a result of the new law. Read (or listen to) the whole story here:

Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

[...on the other hand, this story is from National Public Radio, which has caught a lot of flak recently over firing a contractor for his remarks on Fox News.  So if you think that because of that (and a asinine comment from the NPR CEO) NPR has lost all credibility, should lose all public funding, secretly hates America, etc., feel free to ignore the above story.  Corrections Corporation of America thanks you for your ignorance.]

Some might argue that if CCA can incarcerate illegal immigrants for cheaper than it would cost to pay for a state-operated prison, then that’s a good thing.  But that’s a very short-sighted view that ignores one of the key underlying causes of more illegals being incarcerated at all.  In this case, private prison lobbyists have pushed laws to generate more business (i.e. imprison more people) then they had been doing before the law was passed.  Regardless of whether of not CCA can incarcerate more cheaply per prisoner, it’s money that they would not get at all without the new, stricter immigration enforcement law.

Would Arizona have passed such a strict law without corporate "suggestions"?  Maybe, maybe not.  Should companies that stand to profit from certain laws being passed be allowed to influence those laws?  Absolutely not.  The bottom line: whether or not you agree with the morality/constitutionality of the new law, the private prison industry has succeeded in extracting a new and potentially very large revenue stream straight from the pockets of Arizona taxpayers.