Republican Lies About Immigrant Law

As you must know by now, Arizona has passed a new anti-immigrant law. The racist and unconstitutional law would force Hispanics to carry identity papers or risk going to jail (even those who are citizens), and would force Arizona police officers to engage in racial profiling. Much of the country has condemned the new law and boycotts of Arizona and Arizona products have been organized.

In an effort to defend the new law, some Republicans have been doing what they do best -- lying. And one of the biggest and most ridiculous of these lies is that a large percentage of Arizona Hispanics actually support the law. Here's a sample of what they're saying:

Marco Rubio (Republican candidate for Florida governor)

"Polling has shown that Americans of Hispanic descent in Arizona support this bill just as strongly as the general population does."

J.D. Hayworth (Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Arizona)

"Interestingly, a majority of Hispanics agree that this law should be enforced here in Arizona."

Bill O'Reilly (Fox News right-wing pundit)

"I'm not buying the fact that Hispanic-Americans en masse are against the law."

It should be obvious to even a dimwit that such statements are not even remotely near the truth. But it seems the Republicans don't care how big a lie they have to tell to defend their right-wing nuttiness.

Yesterday the largest Spanish-language newspaper in this country, La Opinion, exposed the lie. They printed the results of a new study done by Arizona State University (see chart above). The study showed that the huge majority of Hispanics oppose the law, and this holds true for the first generation in this country right through the fourth generation. This just makes sense. Why would they support a law that discriminates against them?

In addition, it looks like the support for the law among the general population is falling like a rock. On April 21st, a Rasmussen poll showed that 70% of Arizona voters supported the anti-immigrant law. But a poll released a few days later by the Behavior Research Center in Phoenix showed the support has dropped to only 52%, and the only groups supporting it are Republicans, Caucasians and those over age 55. Here are some of the numbers:

OVERALL

Support....................52%

Oppose....................39%

REPUBLICANS

Support....................76%

Oppose....................15%

CAUCASIANS

Support....................65%

Oppose....................28%

DEMOCRATS

Support....................30%

Oppose....................58%

HISPANICS

Support....................21%

Oppose....................69%