PVCC Puma Press: November 2004

Editors Note: The following is the second of a three-part series exploring the controversy surrounding the Macehualli Work Center, 16801 N. 25th St. The third part will focus on supporters of the center.

Guards detain illegal aliens at a border crossing between the United States and Mexico. Thousands of illegal aliens cross the border unchecked into the states every day.
Opposition to the Macehualli Work Center has been fierce from the moment it opened for business on Feb. 1, 2003 with $120,000 in taxpayer funds.

Opponents to the center have argued first that the center exists for the use of illegal immigrants in open opposition to federal law. Second, they argue that the center encourages more illegal immigrants to flee Mexico in search of jobs in the United States. Third, they maintain that illegal immigration causes an unnecessary burden on the American taxpayer, and anything that encourages it is a detriment to taxpayers.

In addition, opponents claim that the work center is not the overwhelming success that its proponents claim.

Kathy McKee, state director for Protect Arizona NOW, helped lead early opposition to the work center. McKee points out that day labor centers are for the benefit of illegal workers only.

“Legal immigrants can go to the Department of Economic Security job centers and dozens of legitimate temporary labor agencies throughout the Valley,” she says. She points out that the work center’s support of undocumented immigrants is in direct opposition to federal law.

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‘What a disgrace. These filth need to be sent home.’
—Phoenix Businessman Doug Quirk
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In an “Arizona Republic” article from July 6, 2003 McKee wrote, “INA § 274 states that encouraging "an alien to . . . reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such residence is or will be in violation of the law," or who "aids and abets the commission of any of the preceding acts" has committed a federal felony. Obviously, helping illegal aliens find work is ‘encouraging’ them to ‘reside in the United States.’ So why isn't the entire Phoenix City Council, which voted unanimously for the day labor center, being prosecuted and sent to jail?”

McKee argues that the work center is just another instance of the government turning its back on a big problem. "Our government has opened the gates and put up a 'welcome here' sign,'' she says.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports approximately 283,000 illegal immigrants living in Arizona alone as of 2000, its last attempt at a census. This staggering number is the largest in the U.S.

The costs are high. Arizona hospitals spend $150 million annually to provide care to undocumented immigrants, according to the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association. The tax-paying community currently carries this burden. Some hospitals in rural counties have had to scale down or discontinue some services for the general population in order to continue to pay for care for undocumented immigrants.

FAIR maintains that Cochise County alone spends one-third of its healthcare budget on care for undocumented immigrants. In addition, Mexican nationals account for 10 percent of Arizona’s prisoner population.

Health care and crime aren’t the only issues. FAIR reports that Arizona spends $187 million annually to educate illegal immigrant students.

Tim Richardson, a self-described activist and frequent poster to immigrant-focused Internet websites, shares McKee’s concerns and outrage with the current system. Richardson maintains that border guards and Immigration & Naturalization Service agents need to solve the problem.

“Control the border and those factors become extinct,” Richardson says. INS claims that its job is to protect the border from terrorists, not to stop immigrants from crossing the border. Richardson wonders how they tell the difference.

Richardson continues, “If it is not these people’s job, whose job is it? I may be naïve but it would seem to me that when someone tries to drop loads and loads of illegal immigrants at my door, I might just want to make a cursory check for terrorists.” Richardson goes so far as proposing a tent city for undocumented immigrants. He, too, claims the work center is illegal.

“If the people using this city facility were to go to the U.S. Employment Service, they would be asked the question: ‘Do you have the legal right to work in this country,’" he says. “If they answer ‘no,’ then they would not be allowed to use the services. If they answered ‘yes’ and were later found out to be lying, they could be prosecuted for falsifying a federal document.”

Richardson, a resident of Cochise County, is concerned as well about what he calls “damage and destruction caused by these people on their travels (to Phoenix).” He claims that the existence of the center alone causes more immigrants to leave Mexico in hope of work in Phoenix.

As for opponents’ contention that the center is not accomplishing what it was created to do—keep day laborers off the area streets—despite rules at the work center that require workers to spend most of the day there and not seek work outside the facility, they still congregate in the area, albeit not the masses that used to.
Altogether, the center is a failure, says Richardson. “We ought to be locking these people up or sending them home,” he says.

Unfortunately, this attitude is common among those who have other reasons for opposing the center and other efforts to deal with the illegal immigration issue. One organization, “Stop the Invasion,” calls for an “Operation Wetback” to deport all undocumented immigrants. In addition, they seek a moratorium on all legal immigration as well, saying that new immigrants “don’t share our respect for the law.”

Businessman Doug Quirk of Phoenix shares this opinion. Looking out at a group of more than a dozen day laborers in front of a gas station at the corner of Cave Creek and Bell Roads, Quirk can barely hide his disgust.

”What a disgrace,” he says. “These filth need to be sent home.”
Kathy McKee hopes attitudes like Quirk’s don’t cover the fact that most in opposition to undocumented immigrant services are not racists. “Illegal immigrants are draining Arizona's coffers by fraudulently obtaining government services,” she says. “Our government has a responsibility to uphold the laws of the land.”
She has since gone on to direct the group that sponsored Proposition 200 (Protect Arizona NOW), under which government workers would face a $750 fine and up to four months in jail for failing to report people who illegally apply for government aid. The measure also requires people to produce proof of citizenship when registering to vote.