SB1070 - A Lobbyist's Dream Come True?

[IBCoupe]

NPR recently explored the origins of SB1070, and it points largely to a collusion between some Arizona legislators and private prison corporations. Because the debate has died down and fallen out of the spotlight, this might be the perfect time to take a good look at the law.

But while the debate raged, few people were aware of how the law came about.

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

...

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.

...

The 50 or so people in the room included officials of the Corrections Corporation of America, according to two sources who were there.

Pearce and the Corrections Corporation of America have been coming to these meetings for years. Both have seats on one of several of ALEC's boards.

And this bill was an important one for the company. According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in "a significant portion of our revenues" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants.

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.



"There were no 'no' votes," Pearce said. "I never had one person speak up in objection to this model legislation."

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."

...

Asked if the private companies usually get to write model bills for the legislators, Hough said, "Yeah, that's the way it's set up. It's a public-private partnership. We believe both sides, businesses and lawmakers should be at the same table, together."

It's a good read, and I encourage y'all to go beyond just the exerpts I've posted here.

[audtatious]

How about poison candy instead of prisons?

[IBCoupe]

Sounds reasonable. I wonder if a law like that would be just as representative of how every-day Arizonans have had enough, though. You know, how fed up they were that they came together and made SB1070.

O wait

[heliochrome85]

DAMN YOU ISAAC WITH YOUR FACTS AND REASON. WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA SO MUCH? WHY?

GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!

this concludes today's random outrage.

[IBCoupe]

I'm so shamed! I'm going to crawl back to my Jewcave and munch on the bones of goyish children to cheer myself up.

[heliochrome85]

YOU WIN THE DAY SIR. WIN. THE. DAY.

[audtatious]

If you two don't like it here, don't let the border hit you on the way out

or something?

(yes, it's a joke)

[AZhitman]

Good find, IB.

However (and I'm not saying this to be flippant), I'm not seeing the problem with it.

Politics as usual. Or, as you'd say, "Yawn".

[telcoman]

DAMN YOU ISAAC WITH YOUR FACTS AND REASON. WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA SO MUCH? WHY?

GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!

this concludes today's random outrage.

I like your sense of humor

Telcoman

[IBCoupe]

Good find, IB.

However (and I'm not saying this to be flippant), I'm not seeing the problem with it.

Politics as usual. Or, as you'd say, "Yawn".

What bugs me is the blatant display of "Government for Sale."

Also, the fact that it undermines the "populist rage" argument that tried to justify the bad law tickles me.

[stebo0728]

Government IS for sale, whats wrong with being blatant about it?

[IBCoupe]

Tact, that's all.

[AZhitman]

I'm not disagreeing here, but I'm with stebo: You see "blatant" here, and I see "blatant" in other cases... Which is worse?

On a side note, there's no "tough new laws". We're weary of uneducated and uninformed criticism, honestly. Go pick on one of the states that actually PASSED their new immigration law.

[IBCoupe]

What?

Cryptic response is cryptic.