SB-1070 enflamme l’Arizona

SB-1070 enflamme l’Arizona

… SB-1070 est la désignation bureaucratique de la loi anti-immigration qui secoue l’Arizona. J.D. Hayworth, adversaire de John McCain pour la désignation républicaine pour l’élection sénatoriale de novembre, est en pleine ascension et menace le sénateur-mandarin en place à Washington. Il juge que SB-1070 n’est pas assez dure et proclame : «[Illegal émigration] is a national security threat. It is an economic threat and an invasion that must be stopped.»

The Observer (le 26 juillet 2010) publie un reportage de Paul Harris consacré à ce débat qui enflamme l’Arizona et voit la colère populaire s’affirmer de plus en plus en faveur de cette loi. Rien de moins que le triomphe de la société multiculturelle de l’avenir.

«By any standards this is extreme stuff. Yet Hayworth, far from being out on the edge of Arizona politics, is a politician on the rise. He is challenging Senator John McCain in a right-wing rebellion that could turf the Republicans' most recent presidential candidate out of the Senate seat he has held since 1986. That this even seems possible shows just how powerful the fear over illegal immigration has become in Arizona.

»Fear is everywhere in this state, fuelled by a constant stream of scare stories. There is fear of crime and kidnapping, sparked by immigrants. “It's not racial. It is all about the rule of law,” said Bryan Berkland, a 24-year-old pilot in Phoenix who went on to tell stories about massacres and drug smuggling around the Arizona border town of Nogales.

»There is fear of a changing country. Hayworth's wife, Mary, said she feared all of America was under threat. “We are so worried about the direction of America. We want our children to have the same freedom and rights that we grew up with,” she said.

»Or there is a fear that Arizona is now no different to the bloody border provinces of Mexico. “Illegal immigrants are raping and molesting children. We hear about it every day when you turn on the TV,” said Martha Payan, a retired nurse from the Phoenix area. “They are all prostitutes and drug mules.”

»In fact, crime rates across America's southern border are generally decreasing. In Arizona, for example, property crime has fallen 43% since 1995 – the national average drop was 30%. FBI statistics show violent crime in the state is either flat or down slightly. Even the state's hardline governor, Jan Brewer, who regularly paints a dreadful picture of lawlessness, recently admitted that crime in her state was indeed falling. […]

»That economic insecurity cuts across racial lines. Some of the most vocal supporters of SB1070 in the chaotic protests outside court in Phoenix last week were Hispanic themselves. Payan, the retired nurse, was one, waving an anti-immigrant placard as she explained that she hailed from Puerto Rico. At one stage a black woman walked by a group of mostly white students protesting against SB1070 and yelled: “Go home!”. That caused a Chinese-American woman to reply with a shouted “Get out of here!”»

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