The Arizona immigration law was drafted by corporations:
It was last December at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. Insiders call it ALEC.
It’s a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country.[…]
In the conference room, the group decided they would turn the immigration idea into a model bill. They discussed and debated language. Then, they voted on it.[…]
Four months later, that model legislation became, almost word for word, Arizona’s immigration law.
They even named it. They called it the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.”
“ALEC is the conservative, free-market orientated, limited-government group,” said Michael Hough, who was staff director of the meeting.
The corrupt, racist teabagger who sponsored the legislation in the Arizona State Senate was at that meeting where the bill was drafted, so it was a true public/private partnership.
Smurfhole
Democracy in action.
Zifnab
Just to be clear, Arizona is the state running a couple billion dollar deficit and refuses to pass a penny increase to the sales tax, correct?
You can’t get blood from a stone. How does this state plan to fund a for-profit prison system containing several hundred thousand new inmates? Are we moving to the Thunderdome business model?
Dennis SGMM
@Zifnab:
Because Shut Up! is the plan.
Capri Sun-Bagger
Smurfhole: and we will get it good and hard!
Fun will be had by
alla privledged few.Scuffletuffle
@Zifnab: Kind of a shame no one thought to investigate this prior to the bill’s passing, ain’t it. I would have thought that would have been the job of local journalists. Guess I was mistaken.
Sorry Zifnab, I didn’t mean to direct this at you.
martha
Wow. This takes my breath away. It shouldn’t, because I’m a cynical, cynical person. But this makes me irrational. Corporate welfare.
Edit: Good on that evil lefty (hah) NPR for the story. Kudos to them. Heavens knows the MSM couldn’t ferret it out and the local media is useless.
FoxinSocks
What I think is interesting is that this supposedly pro-business group drafted a bill that is killing Arizona’s tourism industry.
Even though the law is on hold, I know that many groups no longer can consider Arizona as a site for conventions and such. Note that the NFL, when they came out with their list of future Superbowl sites, did not list Arizona. That can’t be good for business.
Ross Hershberger
While we’re hating on these clowns let’s not over look the use of ‘orientated’ by the Staff Director.
JohnR
@FoxinSocks:
Ah, you naive young optimist, you. How long do you think that will last? The Gulf oil spill is old news already, Katrina is ancient history and this won’t be particularly memorable in a year or less. Things will be back to “normal” before you know it.
Capri Sun-Bagger
JohnR: And yet “noun+verb+9/11” is still reasonably succesful. Who says that Americans have selective attention . . .
. . . squirrel! <points>
soonergrunt
Added to what mix said about the author of the bill being a member of this group, so too are something like 30 of the 35 co-sponsors this bill had in the Arizona House and so too is Governor Brewer.
All of them got donations from the group after they signed on to support the bill.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
This sounds an awful lot like the workings of a legislature. And of course the purely proforma official state legislature then rubber-stamped the bill which had been debated, marked up, and voted on by the real government of Arizona. A government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.
R-Jud
Whenever I see this name, I remind myself to buy a gun so I can reach for it the next time I see the name. CCA is an evil bunch of motherfuckers.
It doesn’t surprise me that they’re among those behind it. I was somewhat surprised that they actually helped draft the bill, as opposed to merely lobbying for it. But hey, corporations are people, too! Since they can now openly influence elections and even write legislation, it’s just a matter of time before they start running for elected office.
Linda Featheringill
Sigh. Somebody tell me. What is the working definition of corporatism?
Pangloss
They won. It’s all academic now. The day America died was the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision. I can still see the reporters rushing down the steps of the Supreme Court toward the cameras to tell us all that America Is Dead.
Punchy
@Zifnab: I suspect they’re going to eBay the Grand Canyon before 2012 hits.
Dork
After Arizona, can we please discuss Indiana’s fucked up shitbaggery ?
Southern Beale
I won’t blogwhore myself anymore, it’s embarrassing, but I wrote about this back in June a little bit. CCA is based in Tennessee so it was just a matter of connecting the dots between the privatized prison industry and the push for things like tougher sentencing laws and, now, jailing illegal immigrants in detention facilities.
Also, ALEC has been really big on all of the state initiatives to repeal healthcare reform. They’ve written some boilerplate legislation which is actually on their website. Of course, they’re industry-funded so naturally their interests are “free market” and pro-corporate. Aw hell, here’s the post I did on the healthcare stuff, there’s links over there for anyone who want to pursue this some more.
ThinkProgress and MoJo I think did the investigative work. Surprised more liberal bloggers haven’t picked up the anti-ALEC effort. I expected this to become our ACORN. But, sadly …
madmatt
Strange, you seem more than willing to accept a healthcare bill written by the scum in the insurance companies…why the diff attitude….both fuck over citizens for the benefit of corporations….hypocrisy much?
Bender
The law in question was passed according to the rules of Arizona government. Nothing illegal occurred. A solid majority (60-70%) of Arizonans support the law. If they don’t, they have the right to try to vote out the representatives who enacted the new guidelines.
So, which party do you guys think will lose power in Arizona at the polls next week — the party that supports the enforcement of immigration laws, or the party that opposes them?
Hurraaaaaaaay, Democracy!
kay
They’re going to bill the federal government. ICE.
PurpleGirl
@JohnR: Actually, this will have an effect for some years to come. Major conferences and trade shows have to be planned and booked several years in advance of the event. (A small event like the school year opening rally for volunteers of the organization I worked for had to be booked a year in advance, typically the day of event we signed for the next year; Luna Cons — NY regional science fiction conventions are booked 5 years at a time; a World Con gets booked 3 or 4 years in advance; etc. )
And there will always be an organization member who remembers and will protest the placement of an event in AZ.
DanF
Just what the hell is “limited-government” about SB1070? Oh … I see. They cut government involvement out they wrote the bill. Clever.
PurpleGirl
@Southern Beale: I welcome your blogwhoring (wish there was a nicer sounding word). I usually read your blog before coming over to BJ. You’ve written some kick-ass pieces. Yay, SoBe. Keep up your work there and commenting over here.
PurpleGirl
@Zifnab: Arizona, IIRC, sold their capital building and are renting it back.
The idea is that they pay the for-profit company with the money they “save” not having to pay the corrections officers and other prison expenses. (And as someone else said, bill ICE.)
kay
@Bender:
Undocumented are fleeing Arizona. Once conservatives put a prison-based economy in place, they’ll need inmates.
Where do you think they’ll get them?
If they build them, Bender, they’re going to fill them, and it ain’t gonna be with Mexicans.
Nice state you got there. A growth industry based on an ever-expanding inmate population model, with laws that will inevitably dry up demand. What do they do then?
Brewer got paid, so she probably didn’t look past next quarter.
Poopyman
I wonder how corps like ExxonMobil could ever afford to fund these things?
Poopyman
Also, too, “orientated” is a sic ‘cuz Michael Hough don’t know no English.
Tsulagi
I bet ALEC liked that Citizens United ruling. Shit, maybe they wrote that too.
Dennis SGMM
@PurpleGirl:
They’re floating the same notion here in California only they want to sell off numerous state-owned buildings and then lease them back. Two studies, one by our legislative budget analyst and another from UCLA both stated that the deal would cost more than it saved over the life of the leases but, as far as I know, the idea is still out there.
mattH
Shoulda known.
Bob L
@PurpleGirl: So this bill is pretty much buisness as usual for Arizona. Already in the Third World and who says America isn’t a diverse country?
@kay: hehe, the same kind of logic they could give people home loans who couldn’t afford them and it would be profit forever!
You can imagine the cascade effects, piles of prisons that aren’t needed, devastated tourism industry that will never recover because the low end workers (the Mexicans) are to terrified to work there and a growing population of retirees. Golly Gee the future durn look bright for Arizonia. Maybe a tax cut will solve the mess?
Chyron HR
@Bender:
You’re a paragon of law and order, Bender, so please don’t get four of your buddies to hold me down while you kick me in the head.
FoxinSocks
What @purplegirl said. I know that in my own office, you can no longer hold any sort of offsite meeting in Arizona. It’s unthinkable. If the CEO or a board member got harassed while down there (our BOD is very diverse), the event organizers would catch hell. They could even lose their jobs, so why take the risk?
Unlike Katrina and the Gulf oil spill, Arizona passed a racist bill targeting a very specific population. People tend to remember things like that, because the threat is still there. If you go to Arizona and you have a nice tan, bad things can happen to you. Unless you’re blonde and blue eyed, who would vacation there or hold an event there? Even the Republicans, who were poised to pick Phoenix as the site of their 2012 convention, chose Tampa instead.
Anyways, my point stands. I find it ironic that this pro-business group is hurting business.
RalfW
I reluctantly accepted my denomination’s decision to go ahead with their General Assembly in Phoenix next year, using a “constructive engagement” model.
But I cannot think of any sane way to constructively engage with an organization like ALEC that gets funded by the likes of Exxon which will rake in some $25 or 30 BILLION dollars in net income in a single year.
They don’t give the slightest, most infinitesimal crap what a few thousand religious liberals think. With that kind of free cash lying around, they can buy the whole damn state. Hell, they’re making a down payment on all of D.C. while they’re at it.
James E. Powell
Show of hands, who did not know this from the beginning? Who doesn’t know that legislation is written by lobbyists who represent businesses and people who will make money from the legislation, or whose wealth and power will be protected by the legislation. Really. Does anyone not know this?
I’d be curious to know the last legislation of any significance that was drafted by a senator, congressperson, or staff person.
burnspbesq
OK, somebody needs to help me understand how any of the corporations mentioned in that article (other than CCA) benefit from this legislation, cuz I am just not seeing it.
Scott
I’m wondering what on earth is the benefit for Exxon and Reynolds? CCA gets more prisons, the NRA gets to shoot brown people, but what do Exxon and Reynolds get?
dude
Arizona has always been my home and I hope I’ll die here one day.
But these fuckers are perverting it and our opposition is meager.
It’s scary in AZ lately and that fat fuck Pearce and his teabagging allies will make it dangerous to be anything but old, fat, white, reactionary and praying for the day Jesus comes back to kill us all.
sparky
@madmatt: yeah, amusing, ain’t it?
@James E. Powell also, too.
exhibit A:
wanna guess who said this?
no?
Pharma!
Bob L
@burnspbesq: Probably not directly. Though some of these companies are so diverse they are involved in prisons one way or another. More like horse trading along the lines if CCA gets this prison bill, Rennalds gets a tax break on tobacco sales in Arizona, stuff like that.
You know, Democracy.
Ash Can
@burnspbesq: The best I can possibly figure is that either the heads of these corporations are simply bigots who are getting their jollies from passing laws like these, or they want to punish what they perceive to be a Democratic voting bloc for siding with the would-be regulators. Either way, though, it’s just weird.
ETA: Bob L has a point.
Suffern Ace
What Exxon gets is democrats out of power and “immigration reform” that is favorable to business. The basic principle of this law is that the workers who work illegally bear the brunt of the law and not the companies or individuals that hire them knowingly.
danimal
Burns – the other corps don’t benefit directly, but they support the measure as a part of the club. When it’s their turn, they call in their chits and have an ally. It’s a mini-K St strategy.
PurpleGirl
burnspbesq #37 and Scott #38: I reread the article, these companies are mentioned mainly as being members of ALEC and having representatives at a particular meeting. Exxon Mobile and Reynolds probably don’t benefit from SB1070 directly but they do benefit by being members of ALEC and having a say in what that group does and supports.
James E. Powell #36: Right, this is not news. Laws at all levels have been written or inspired by corporations and other organizations for a long time. I think what is important here is that ALEC is so open about what it does and who its members are.
Zifnab
@kay:
I don’t even know. They very well could raid across the border for foreign future illegals. Better to arrest them over there…
And, in all fairness, they don’t have to fill the prisons so long as someone is getting paid. I’m sure CCA would be more than happy to administer empty facilities so long as the checks continue to clear.
Poopyman
Do they even have to limit their occupants with people convicted in AZ? Could they not contract with, say, CA to “house” some of their population? A privately-owned prison is free of the restrictions that constrain a state-owned prison.
Bob L
@Zifnab: Oh that would be beautiful “we arrested 1,000 potential illegals in Mexico today”. Arizona get us in a war with Mexico.
Bender
@kay:
Well, first of all: Illegal aliens flee AZ? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! All laws should be this efficacious.
Secondly, “prison-based economy?” I think the skunk-weed is making you paranoid. One would think that if a prison were under-utilized, then it would be treated as an economical matter, just as the dozens of other under-utilized prisons in the US. Or, one could be a crazy person and throw out tin-foil half-theories of the coming Thunderdome. I see you’ve made your choice.
Third, I suppose even after the coming Demo-ocalypse, there will still be more than enough Democrats in Arizona to fill up the work-camps, errrrrr, prisons.
There, I thought I’d throw you a bone at the end.
suzanne
One of the funnier aspects of this story is that Phoenix just finished building a huge multi-million-dollar convention center and light rail system in order to boost tourism. Sigh.
Yanno, this is my adopted home, and I don’t love it like I do with my birthplace. But I’ve come to respect the desert, and now that I’m here, I want to fight for it and make it a good place to live. And it’s, without a doubt, the weirdest place I’ve ever been. Some parts of it are deep, deep teabagging red, while others are equally blue.
Just remember that some of us are fighting for it. And with that, I’m off to GOTV for Goddard, Mitchell, and Grijalva. See y’all latah.
Pangloss
“But…. but…. Jimmy Carter is history’s greatest monster.”
Mnemosyne
@Suffern Ace:
I think that’s it. Exxon and Reynolds will be able to abuse their illegal workers any way they please, because they’ll be able to hold the threat of incarceration over them. Having a virtual slave labor force available is good for bidness!
Bender
@Chyron HR:
Come on, check the tape. It never takes more than one to hold down a rampaging Maddow Madcow. It just took a few seconds to work out who got the unenviable task on having skin-on-skin contact with such a person.
Of course, she’ll get on MSNBC every day until Rand Paul wins by 8 points… unlike the Republican who got hot coffee thrown on him at a Kirk rally, or the student assaulted by Rep. “WHO ARE YOU?” Etheridge, or the black GOP candidate punched in the back by Steny Hoyer. The media deemed those were Non-troversies! Nothing to see here!
salvador dalai llama
@RalfW:
Aha! A fellow UU! I remember reading the UU World article, and thinking how complicated that whole situation was.
You’re exactly right that ALEC doesn’t give a crap about what religious liberals think. But the political powers-that-were in 1955 didn’t give a crap about what a bunch of Negroes in Montgomery, Alabama thought, either.
And we’re still confronted with the question of what to do, now. I have hopes that the GA will make steps towards answering that question. I think it will probably have something to do with a combination of grassroots activism and legal challenges made in the right venues at the right times. Hm… Where have I heard of tactics like that before?
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow was all over this, connecting the money dots.
Whoever said above that the undocumented were fleeing Arizona, but they’d have to fill the prisons anyway is so right.
kay
@Bender:
Privatizing prisons was just another in the long, long line of terrible conservative ideas.
I look forward to the private for-profit judiciary.
Mnemosyne
@Bender:
Which of the people you listed ended up in the ER with a concussion? Wait, let me guess, the liberal doctors lied about her injuries to make Randy Paul look bad.
Bender
How does the Party of Smart Women back Grijalva, whose Catholic, Papist mouth-breathing can be heard for miles away and whose shoes must always be Velcro and who is so dumb that he called for a national boycott against his own constituents during a recession… against Ruth McClung, an actual ROCKET SCIENTIST?
I thought you guys always liked to pretend that you always back The Smartest Candidate against those dumb stupid snake-charming Republicans? This race must cause quite the cognitive dissonance, eh?
Or are you going to drop the obvious charade and finally admit that you’d vote for a retarded, illiterate, coke-whoring sex-offender, as long as s/he was a reliable vote for the leftist agenda?
El Cid
Thanks all.
Bender
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, right, that’s the difference. Political party has nothing to do with it. Sure. Coincidence, it was! Assault is only assault if you can get Dr. Nick Riviera (D-Ky) to say you have a concussion!
You know what would prove your little theory to be full of shit? If a national news organization (say, the AP) reported on the incident without the concussion diagnosis!
LOL! “A bit of a headache!” Call Dr. Nick!
Of course, she didn’t get a concussion from that incident. Just look at the tape. Her glasses probably cut her temple when that idiot stepped on her, but concussion? That’s a joke.
Though she seems remarkably…soft-headed.
geemoney
@burnspbesq: They get the proceeds from all those illegals buying gas to leave the state.
rickstersherpa
We discover another problem with “privatizing prisons.” It creates a business model to make illegal more and more human behavior so as to keep the industry “growing.”
bozack
“free-market orientated”?!Q!?!?!!?!?!ES@2e
A FREE MARKET WOULD HAVE FREE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE, FOR FUCK’S FUCKING SAKE!
And “orientated” isn’t even a goddamned word!
This is what libertarianism, as it actually exists in this country, really looks like. It’s just corporatism. Libertarian fascism, if you will.
Calouste
@kay:
They already had a for-profit judiciary in a part of Pennsylvania, where judged shipped of juveniles to for-profit detention centers for a kickback.
The basic problem with for-profit detention is that the companies that run it have no incentive to make crime go down, on the contrary. Has there been any CCA sponsored legislation to discourage things like neighborhood watch, because crime prevention is bad for their bussiness.
liberal
Hmm…but anyone who (a) actually wants to stop illegal immigration and (b) has more than two neurons rattling around in his skull realizes that a necessary and sufficient step is draconian employer sanctions.
trollhattan
I’m now recalling the warnings of sentient Arizonans (a small but proud part of the state’s population) that when Napolitano took the cabinet post she’d probably be replaced by a kitchen appliance, and the place would go feral.
Wow, were y’all ever right!
Mnemosyne
@Bender:
Ah, yes, I knew you would pull out the denier card. Have you jumped on the whole “it was all staged and Tim Proffitt is a secret liberal plant who’s trying to make us look bad” bandwagon yet?
Better invest in some more tinfoil, because I don’t think the brand you’re using is keeping out those rays.
suzanne
@Bender:
Papist mouth-breathing? Is that why he criticized the Stupak-Pitts Amendment? And dumb? Is that why he was an assistant dean at the quality educational institution from which McClung got her degree? They both have bachelor’s degrees from the University of Arizona; he’s just as educated as she is.
I would never support McClung because she’s a woman. I support Grijalva because I am. :)
Suffern ACE
@liberal: Yep. The reason that it is channeled through the business first is to make certain that those who might think that you will stop illegal immigration much faster by making it harder to find work don’t head in that direction.