Watch the video below as Jose explains why he chose to enter the United States illegally. Also, Jose shares his views on Arizona’s controversial immigration law SB 1070.

“Russell, this is really going to make you mad, but Sean was shot by an illegal alien.”

The words of an Arizona state senator’s wife in December 2004, as quoted in a Reuters article, could be credited with inspiring the legislation behind Arizona’s newest and very controversial immigration law SB 1070, which was partially blocked by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Already a fierce opponent of illegal immigration, Senator Russell Pearce, Sean’s father, began firing off one legislative proposal after another to curb illegal immigrants’ access to employment, voting, bail and public benefits.

Then came SB 1070, which has gotten the most widespread attention of his initiatives. This legislation was jointly crafted by Pearce, the anti-immigration organization the Federation for American Immigration Reform, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law professor Kris Kobach.

“Government has blood on their hands when they ignore the damage to this country and the killings and the maimings, while they defend lawbreakers and refuse to enforce the law,” Pearce said in the Reuters article.

Granted Pearce is talking specifically about illegal immigrants, but it made me wonder if there is a link between immigration and crime.

More immigrants, less crime

According to a University of Colorado at Boulder study that came out in May, more immigrants actually mean less crime. The research “suggests that, controlling for a variety of other factors, growth in the new immigrant population was responsible, on average, for 9.3 percent of the decline in homicide rates, and that growth in total immigration was, on average, responsible for 22.2 percent of the decrease in robbery rates.”

Articles in The Wall Street Journal and The Arizona Republic report that Arizona crime rates, including those of major cities and border towns, have fallen since the 1990s.

The author of the Colorado study proposed that immigration lowered crime because “immigrant communities are often characterized by extended family networks, lower levels of divorce, and cultural and religious beliefs that facilitate community integration.”

I agree with Pearce that more immigration enforcement could have prevented his son (who survived) from getting shot. But after a bit of research, I would have to say that inculcating values in young people would create a bigger impact on lowering crime than stricter immigration laws.

The woman whose car had hit hers stopped to see if the receptionist, in her totaled car, was OK. The woman mentioned that she had a suspended license. When she saw the police arriving, the woman got back into her car and drove off. The police were unable to catch up with her.

This new law in Arizona requires law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect is an illegal immigrant. Not having the correct paperwork could mean jail time, a misdemeanor charge and possible deportation.

If legal and illegal immigrants are nervous about the police checking them for immigration paperwork, what will happen if they cause a car accident? In 2003, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported that hit-and-run drivers killed 1,550 people. Causes for fleeing car accidents can be attributed to lack of insurance, drunkenness, immaturity, previous crimes and plain old selfishness.

A 2005 Arizona Daily Star article states that “[t]he seven states with the highest rates of fatal hit-and-run crashes are also the seven states that have the most illegal immigrants, according to two think tanks.”

Arizona is in the top five of these states estimated to have the most undocumented immigrants, but is second after California in terms of the highest percentage of fatal hit-and-run crashes.

Is there a connection between hit-and-run drivers and illegal immigration? We can’t know for sure, but if it is the case, it’s just another sign that the system of legal immigration should be repaired so that we won’t have to battle the undesirable symptoms of illegal immigration.