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Arizona’s Gov. Makes Unfounded Claim That Most Undocumented Immigrants Are Drug Smugglers

Posted June 26, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer continued to stoke the fires of hatred against Latinos by claiming that most undocumented immigrants are involved in illegal drug smuggling. When she was asked for the source of her statistic, she could not give a single citation.

Brewer, who saw her political fortunes soar when she signed the state’s racial profiling law against immigrants, has been mounting a concerted campaign to stir resentment against Latinos. Her smear came just days after a white Arizonan was indicted for the hate killing of a Latino man immediately after the passage of SB 1070, the anti-immigrant law. Here is part of CNN’s report on the story:

A labor union representing nearly 20,000 border patrol agents and staff Friday disputed comments made by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer that most illegal immigrants coming across the southern border are smuggling drugs.

Brewer initially made the comments earlier this month during a debate of Republican gubernatorial candidates. She repeated them Friday when asked by a reporter for the basis of the claim.

“Well, we all know that the majority of the people that are coming to Arizona and trespassing are now becoming drug mules,” Brewer said. “They’re coming across our borders in huge numbers. The drug cartels have taken control of the immigration.

“So they are criminals. They’re breaking the law when they are trespassing and they’re criminals when they pack the marijuana and the drugs on their backs.”

T.J. Bonner of the National Border Patrol Council told CNN that Brewer’s claims were “clearly not the case.” And besides, he said, if what Brewer said were true, there would be many more prosecutions for drug smuggling.

Brewer’s comments, Bonner said, don’t “comport with reality—that’s the nicest way to put it.”

Brewer doubled down on the comments later Friday, however, issuing a statement reiterating them.

Tags : arizona, arizona boycott, brewer, sb 1070

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