The SB 1083 Band-Aid
Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen spoke to her tea party flock of followers Monday night in an attempt to sell her bill, SB 1083, at a cost of $1.45 million, to establish and army of unpaid armed militia to patrol Arizona's southern border.
I was immediately recognized when I entered the building by one of Allen's new lieutenants, and my former tea party leader, known as "Honey." Although Honey appeared to warmly greet me, she was quick to label me an "open borders person who is now aligned with Randy Parraz's group Citizens for a Better Arizona," and adding that "Sheriff Joe is only doing his job, and all this about him racially profiling is just plain wrong".... all in one breath.
My reminder to her that Citizens for a Better Arizona is a bipartisan group, like the tea party used to be before it was taken over by right-wing Republicans, fell on deaf ears.
Senator Allen began her talk with a story about her family during Arizona's pioneering days. After establishing her credentials as an old-time pioneer, Allen went on to attribute Arizona's current problems to the drug cartels in Mexico. Using Jan Brewer's favorite fear-mongering warning of beheadings and dismembered body parts found in the desert.
Unbelievably, Allen gave a shout out to Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's efforts to combat drug runners, but neglected to include that Babeu had to fire Deputy Louis Puroll for making up the lie of the presence of drug runners he found during patrols in late 2010, necessitating the firing of his weapon in a manner he could logistically not explain.
All the fear-mongering, painting the story of unbridled violence attributed to cartel drug-running, was a preamble for Sylvia Allen's introduction of her bill, SB 1083.
What Allen is trying to do is merely apply a Band-Aid on a very serious problem, masking the symptoms, in a belief that securing Arizona's border with Mexico would be all that is needed to eliminate the need for drugs and prostitutes supplied by the cartels.
But applying a Band-Aid, in the form of a group of Hogan's Heroes types of unpaid volunteers-with-guns, would not only fail to cure the real justification for the presence of the cartels, it could potentially create more problems that would only serve to further embarrass Arizona in the eyes of the nation.
Instead of trying to secure the border, Allen neglects to consider the reason for the cartels in the first place: American customers want their drugs and American customers want their sex. The only logical solution to put the cartels out of business would be to decriminalize drugs and prostitution.
Now I realize that this would be no easy feat, because even though Arizona voters voted three times to allow medical marijuana, Governor Brewer and the State's tea party Republicans have been desperately trying to negate the will of the voters. And Senator Allen is part of the radical minority who are controlling the agenda here in Arizona.
But not to be out done with Allen's ideas of the uncontrolled invasion of undesirables into Arizona, someone in the audience suggested placing land mines along the border, and unbelievably, several audience members agreed.
And so it goes .... this is how Arizona Senator Sylvia "Band-Aid" Allen attempted to sell SB 1083, by establishing a group of armed misfit militiamen at the border in order to keep cartel activity out and good god-fearing Americans in. But a Band-Aid is just a Band-Aid. Masking the symptoms will not cure the problem.
Paula, I think "Honey" may be on to something. Anyone that is in Citizens for a better Arizona and listens to Randy Parraz is not a conservative or is serious about sealing the border.
I saw on one of your blogs that you support the Dream Act. That led me to believe that you're not really a conservative.
We could end illegal immigration very easy by not employing illegals,not educating their children, not giving them free health care, and not allowing citizenship to kids born in this country.
BTW, I'm ms15.
Reply to this
ms --
Great to see you still commenting on the blogs. I know quite a few conservatives who support the Dream Act because it is not amnesty. And for the record, CBA is a bipartisan group that believes in securing the border. We just don't agree with enforcement only policies of the now disgraced Russel Pearce.
Reply to this
TO MS15:
It’s Neocon neophyte Teabaggers like you who will wake up next November 7th and wonder why so many of your candidates lost. In an era where most all Arizonans suffer because the Tea Party legislature and governor are more concerned with Social Conservatism than jobs, foreclosures, Education, and Health Care, people like you are more interested in a feeding-frenzy to demonize humans as “illegal”. Attitudes like this are no different than how the Nazis demonized Jews before rounding them up to exterminate the “vermin”.
Charles Darwin postulated that only those who could prove adaptable would survive. This country is built upon the immigrant experience; it is the immigration laws that must be reformed. Patrolling the border will only appear Nativist, isolationist, and backward.
Establishing a group of Weekend Warriors With Guns to patrol the borders does nothing to solve the systematic problems in Arizona or the rest of the country.
Passing The Dream Act would go a long way towards your ability to be adaptable to these changing times, to show that you can “go along to get along”. The Dream Act kids are not drug dealers, delinquents, nor Un-American but quite the contrary as exemplary students who believe in the American Dream. We are going to need people like these Dream Act kids and denying them opportunity will only hinder the progress we need to make in the years ahead.
Might I remind you that it was Republicans who proposed The Dream Act? Might I remind you how impossible it is to try to deport 12 million people in this country? Might I remind you that tackling American’s desire for drugs and sex would eliminate the need and existence of the Mexican Drug Cartels?
NAFTA created the North American continent as a whole economic entity of resources. Establishing an ad-hoc group to patrol the border is not only a step backwards, it will in no way solve the problems that created the Mexican Drug Cartels in the first place. Those olden days are gone, Bub. Get over it and get with the program. Get modern. The cartels aren’t going to go away because, as Paula Pennypacker observed, Americans like their drugs and sex. And The Dream Act kids aren’t going to go away because their parents and grandparents were invited to come here and work, thanks to the corporations who invited them and Reagan’s 1986 grant of amnesty.
Adapt or die.
Reply to this
For the record: Co-founders of Citizens for a Better Arizona, do not support "open borders."
Reply to this
Paula, this blog you wrote about our meeting we had with Senator Allen to address the issues of illegal immigration, particularly the problems we face in regards to the violence from the drug cartels is SO DISHONEST!
Your misleading and mischaracterizing comments about my organization, our conversation, who I am and Senator Allen's concerns bill she has sponsored is unprofessional and disgusting. You are muddying the waters here with your distorted description of the tea party, me, those who attended, Sen Allen and the intentions of your new friends "Citizens for a better arizona" led by the progressive Randy Parazz.
Your bright idea about legalizing drugs as a solution to stop the cartel violence is precocious and naive. Anyone with half a brain knows that if you SECURE the border, as it has been done along the California border, you will STOP ALL illegal traffic and violence that comes with it...This is what Senator Allen is trying to accomplish because Randy Parazz's friend OBAMA isn't doing his job.
Honey Marques
Executive Director
Arizona Mainstream Project
Reply to this
Sorry, Honey Marques . . . Paula Pennypacker's description of Senator Allen's SB1083 meeting is entirely correct. I,too, was in attendance. I overheard every word you said to Pennypacker and I think her characterization of all the things you said "in a single breath" was quite accurate. Additionally, during the meeting, I clearly heard you lump "Randy Parraz, Communism, Marxism, Socialism, and Obamacare" all in the same utterance in an attempt to identify them as equally oppositional to your Tea Party members. During the meeting, Senator Allen used fear-mongering to stir up the crowd and justify the establishment of this ad-hoc group of gun-toting volunteers.
I also agree with Pennypacker's assessment that securing the border is merely a band-aid and will do very little to cure Arizona's problems.
But there is also one more piece of misinformation I heard come out of your mouth and out of Senator Allen's mouth about Randy Parraz and the CBA . . . that of their position on the borders. Indeed, you are spreading misinformation because at no time has Parraz and CBA ever expressed an open-borders position. In fact, the border has never been an issue for the CBA and "former" Senate Candidate Parraz took a "Secure Boarder" position, as expressed on his website.
I challenge you or anyone in your organization to cite any reference that can prove Randy Parraz or CBA has ever been in favor of open boarders.
So before you accuse Paula Pennypacker of being dishonest, I think you owe it to your entire organization to stop spreading misinformation.
In other words . . . I do not think YOU are doing YOUR job.
Reply to this
So Paula, tell us what solution does "Citizens for a Better Arizona" have to stop illegal immigration and the drug cartel's infiltration into our State and Country.
Reply to this
Please tell me Sylvia's pistol pack'n posse won't get real real guns and ammo! Do they get a tin badge? Enquiring minds want to know. Nordine
Reply to this
Paula, I have to disagree. The Dream Act is amnesty as any "comprehensive immigration reform" would be amnesty. Illegals should not be rewarded for breaking our laws. The good thing is the Dream Act and immigration reform will never pass in the congress.
Reply to this
Congratulations goes to Mike Slater for reiterating the Tea Party mantra "What part of illegal don't you understand?"
I apologize. I wasn't home-schooled. Instead, I learned in the public school system so I am not familiar with how set-in-stone our laws should be, according to the Tea Party School of Law. But I do know that an attitude of "illegal is illegal" would have maintained slavery in this country and paralyzed Americans from doing anything about it. The same goes for Labor Laws, Women's Rights, Civil Rights, and a whole host of other things I guess we should not even think of changing. Right?
In other words: Comprehensive Immigration Reform WILL pass and there ain't a damn thing you will be able to do to prevent it . . . unless you want to clone more closed-minded people like you who yearn for the olde days.
Reply to this
Lou, The Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform have been discussed and voted on in Republican and Democrat congresses for years and has never passed nor will it ever be.The American people would never stand for it.
Reply to this