Here’s an excellent article from the Tucson Citizen:

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona’s new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.

At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora - Arizona’s southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.

The law, which took effect Jan.1, punishes employers who knowingly hire individuals who don’t have valid legal documents to work in the United States. Penalties include suspension or loss of a business license.

Its intent is to eliminate or curtail the top draw for immigrants to this country - jobs.

The Mexican delegation, members of Sonora’s 58th Legislature, belong to the National Action Party (PAN), the party of Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón.

They spoke at the offices of Project PPEP, a nonprofit that provides job retraining for farmworkers and other programs.

The lawmakers were to travel to Phoenix for a Wednesday breakfast meeting with Hispanic legislators.

They want to tell them how the law will affect Mexican families on both sides of the border.

“How can they pass a law like this?” asked Mexican Rep. Leticia Amparano Gamez, who represents Nogales.

“There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona,” she said in Spanish.

“Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems” it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and sending money to their families return to hometowns in Sonora without jobs, she said.

“We are one family, socially and economically,” she said of the people of Sonora and Arizona.  [Emphasis added.]

Indeed, Ms. Gamez?  And exactly who is it who has declared that the people of Sonora and Arizona are “one family”?  Surely that must have been a Mexican person….

Ah, my stomach was turning as I read this.  Notice the focus of the arguments presented by the Sonoran delegation:  HOW BAD IT IS FOR MEXICO AND MEXICANS.  There isn’t one mention of how illegal immigration affects America and Americans.

How typically ethnocentric.

I really don’t need to say more.

Technorati Tags: delegation, state legislators, Sonora, Tucson, Arizona, employer sanctions law, devastating effect, Mexican state, illegal Mexican workers, employers, valid legal documents, suspension or loss of a business license, National Action Party, PAN, Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, Phoenix, Hispanic legislators, Mexican families, border, Leticia Amparano Gamez, Nogales, ethnocentric

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