The Economy

In Arizona everyday the economic situation has worsened. As an individual who assists clients with their legal problems, I hear daily from those currently losing their homes or having vehicles repossessed. After much analysis I have come to a very clear conclusion as to why we are in this economic dilemma and in particular in Arizona. I have been screaming this every day and very few listen. After all, I am simply an insignificant citizen of this great country. Perhaps being of Hispanic descent may not help based on my theory and final conclusion.

You see here in Arizona that attack on the Immigrant and the undocumented Immigrant is horrendous. This attack started a few years ago and spread throughout the United States like a vicious cancer. Elected officials created anti-Immigrant laws which included employer sanction laws. The elected Maricopa County Sheriff who was previously interested in dressing prisoners in pink underwear and black and white striped jail uniforms found a new way to get media attention and started and has continued to have road blocks set up in primarily Latino neighborhoods which essentially allows him and his deputies to stop individuals they suspect of minor traffic violations (i.e., broken tail lights, broken windshields, etc.). In executing these stops those individual who are stopped are asked what their legal status is in the United States. It is important to note that those asked are 99% Latinos and many that have been detained and released have been U.S. Citizens or Legal Residents. This is tantamount to racial profiling. All this while there is 45,000 plus outstanding felony warrants to be executed in Maricopa County, Arizona alone. This activity has caused those undocumented individuals to go further underground in their communities. In essence hiding from further persecution. They have left their jobs or have been terminated based on the employer sanction laws. This means individuals who had several family members contributing to the payment of a mortgage have essentially been forced out of a job, which means that mortgages were not paid and foreclosure proceedings were commenced. Many have returned to Mexico or their country of origin, yet others have taken cash jobs and are not earning what they were previously earning. Essentially less money spent by the cash spending undocumented Immigrant interprets into less sales for retail stores. Even those who were not servicing the Latino Community are affected based on the fact that those who were servicing the Latino Community no longer have the incoming revenue and cannot purchase or trade with the Non-Latino servicing businesses. This means that those mainstream U.S. Citizens are no longer able to pay their bills and they have defaulted on their mortgages based on layoffs etc.. Cause and effect. This is a no brainer!!! Now, multiply that throughout the United States as the Anti-Immigrant movement gained velocity and the cancer spread throughout many key states. It is obvious that we have a domino effect occurring here. Recently I saw an article in an Arizona newspaper which quotes an Economist as saying that the lack of money spent by the Undocumented Immigrant has greatly impacted the economy in Arizona. That any burden on the system by the Undocumented Immigrant was far outweighed by their contribution both in the form of a stimulus by spending cash and by paying sales taxes which obviously helps the state of Arizona.

The question here is…..When will the U.S. Economists come to the same realization and come out publicly to explain this cause and effect that has so greatly affected this great nation of ours? Will we have to wait four, maybe five years for statistics to be gathered and conclusions to be drawn? The question is, where will we be then? In a full blown depression? When by a simple act of congress we would have been able to pass an Immigration Reform Bill that would allow these millions of contributors to come out of the shadows, pay taxes and assimilate into these great United States.

Of course I'm not an Economist I'm just another U.S. Citizen with an analytical mind and eyes and ears, oh, and of course, an opinion.


Professionally,

Carlos E. Galindo
www.projectletters.com
www.proyectocartas.com