Furniture store becomes center of immigration debate in Phoenix

Carolyn Hileman* | December 23, 2007

Filed Under Crime Criminals Justice, Immigration

By Chris Kahn
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX – Every weekend, the battle lines are redrawn outside an old furniture store in east Phoenix as the city confronts a generations-old problem with illegal immigration.

On one side of the street, Hispanics and civil rights activists come with hand-drawn banners and megaphones. Together, they announce their right to gather along the narrow sidewalk, and, if they want, to ask for work without someone challenging their immigration status.

On the other side, businessmen, bikers in leather vests and others fed up with illegal immigrants spread out holding American flags the size of bed sheets.

“We are not criminals!” shout the Hispanics.

“Go back to Mexico!” the businessmen and bikers reply.

Illegal immigration has become an especially personal issue in Arizona, where more people cross into the U.S. illegally from Mexico than any other state. While businesses benefited from a flood of cheap labor, many residents have blamed illegal immigrants for property crimes, identity thefts and a perceived drain on social services.

As their communities became flush with increasingly vocal Hispanics, state voters denied the children of illegal immigrants the right to in-state college tuition and the Legislature passed a measure that punishes employers who hire illegal workers. Meanwhile, the Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group patrols the southern desert and the U.S. Border Patrol is busily building a border fence across the Mexican border to keep them out.

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