Side by Side, but Divided Over Immigration -- Arizona (30% Hispanic) & New Mexico (45% Hispanic)
From The New York Times:
As the Arizona Legislature steamed ahead with the most stringent immigration enforcement bill in the country this year, [New Mexico's] House of Representatives was unanimously passing a resolution recognizing the economic benefits of illegal immigrants.
They may sit side by side on the border, they may share historical ties to Mexico; they may have once even been part of the same territory, but Arizona and New Mexico have grown up like distant siblings.
Why the difference?
First, New Mexico (population two million) has the highest percentage of Hispanics of any state — 45 percent, compared with 30 percent in Arizona (population 6.5 million) . . . . The New Mexico Legislature is 44 percent Hispanic, a contrast to the 16 percent in Arizona . . . .
The flow of drugs and illegal immigrants over the sparsely populated, remote border [in New Mexico], moreover, pales compared with that in Arizona, whose border, dotted with towns and roads facilitating trafficking, registers the highest number of drug seizures and arrests of illegal crossers of any state.
The estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, whose population explosion of the past few decades has been a magnet for low-wage work, is more than eight times that of the estimated 55,000 here in Albuquerque, where the economy turns more on government, military and high-skill jobs.
New Mexico’s patience could be tested, and some fear that the Arizona law will push more illegal immigrants into the state, though they typically go where the most jobs are found.
As the Arizona Legislature steamed ahead with the most stringent immigration enforcement bill in the country this year, [New Mexico's] House of Representatives was unanimously passing a resolution recognizing the economic benefits of illegal immigrants.
They may sit side by side on the border, they may share historical ties to Mexico; they may have once even been part of the same territory, but Arizona and New Mexico have grown up like distant siblings.
Why the difference?
First, New Mexico (population two million) has the highest percentage of Hispanics of any state — 45 percent, compared with 30 percent in Arizona (population 6.5 million) . . . . The New Mexico Legislature is 44 percent Hispanic, a contrast to the 16 percent in Arizona . . . .
The flow of drugs and illegal immigrants over the sparsely populated, remote border [in New Mexico], moreover, pales compared with that in Arizona, whose border, dotted with towns and roads facilitating trafficking, registers the highest number of drug seizures and arrests of illegal crossers of any state.
The estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, whose population explosion of the past few decades has been a magnet for low-wage work, is more than eight times that of the estimated 55,000 here in Albuquerque, where the economy turns more on government, military and high-skill jobs.
New Mexico’s patience could be tested, and some fear that the Arizona law will push more illegal immigrants into the state, though they typically go where the most jobs are found.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 6:40 AM
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