[Commentary and link to news story from Rodolfo Espino, professor at Arizona State University].

Napolitano has just vetoed a bill mandating local police to check immigration status:

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/236453.php

Her explanation: this is an unfunded mandate that the state of Arizona cannot afford during tough economic times. Keep in mind this is the same governor that, a couple years ago, declared a state of emergency on Arizona’s border counties (just on the heels of Gov. Richardson doing the same in NM) in order to release federal monies to pay for the overtime of local sheriff’s offices to deal with the influx of immigrants in those counties. Nothing inconsistent here: her veto message today stated that this issue is a federal issue and the federal government has not provided enough funds to support this bill.

Tough issue for the governor to face in Arizona. And tough issue for the voters, too.

In a poll conducted by ASU last fall, the overwhelming majority of Arizona respondents viewed undocumented immigration as a serious or very serious problem. However, when asked if they would be willing to pay more for goods and services to keep those individuals out, 43.78 percent of Arizonans indicated they would be willing to do so, whereas 48.68 percent indicated they would NOT be willing to do so.

This is a key point that has been lost in the discourse among politicians and journalists on this issue, as of late. The framing of immigration is presented such that immigrants to the US are viewed as depressing wages for other workers. Evidence is mixed on this. I am sure with the tough economic times that still lie ahead, we will see more of this argument. However, let’s accept, for a moment, that immigrants do work for less wages and benefits. This would then make the cost of those goods/services cheaper to consumers. If not, then the companies (owners/shareholders in those companies) are making more of a profit. This is a perfect opportunity for any of the candidates to draw more attention to the benefits derived from importing labor as opposed to exporting it. No such luck.

The point is that the American public will tend to be told to view immigration as a problem that costs them; but not enough of a problem to actually want to pay more to fix it. Recently, I had to field a question from the general public about that particular survey question. The individual called me biased and stupid for the question wording and then called the respondents just as biased and stupid for responding the way they did. I guess facts produced by simple cross-tabs can be hard for some individuals to digest causing them to kill both the message and the messenger.

No doubt, Napolitano will soon have her share of sticks and stones to dodge.