A Backlash in Phoenix over Immigration from Mexico

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

We continue now our series on Phoenix, Arizona. We've examined how middle-class people have flocked there. Today, how immigrants are also making that city a laboratory for the American dream. Phoenix may be the nation's biggest urban hub for Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal. Unlike its southwestern neighbors, Phoenix had a little history of assimilating large numbers of Latinos, which has made this transition a rough one.

NPR's Ted Robbins reports.

(Soundbite of a crowd)

TED ROBBINS reporting:

Friday morning at the Phoenix Greyhound Bus Station, people come and people go. But as they do, they're asked an unusual question.

Ms. SHANA STEVENS (Border Patrol Agent): Your citizenship, where were you born?

Unidentified Man: Oh...

ROBBINS: We're 175 miles from Mexico, yet the Border Patrol is here, because Agent says this is an unofficial port of entry.

Ms. STEVENS: The Phoenix area, basically, is going to be used as a major transportation hub for illegal immigration, because it's going to be the first major city that they get to after crossing illegally.

ROBBINS: The Border Patrol watches the Phoenix Airport as well, looking for people with one-way tickets, especially late at night. Here at the bus station, Stevens says they've caught about 1,700 undocumented immigrants since last October, often just by asking.

(Soundbite of men speaking Spanish)

ROBBINS: Jesus Esquiro Martinez readily admits that he's in the country illegally. His ticket says he got on the bus in Dallas, and was headed to Oakland, he says, to look for work. Agent Chris Hallet handcuffs him. Martinez will be taken to a processing center. If he has no criminal history, he'll be put on a government bus and returned to Mexico.

Mr. LOUIS CORTRIGHT (Border Patrol Agent): Good morning, Sir, United States Border Patrol. Are you a citizen of the United States?

ROBBINS: Agent Louis Cortright checks another young man's document. The man takes them back and scurries on to a bus. He, too, was an illegal immigrant, but he was from El Salvador, not Mexico. So, his case requires a court date. He was supposed to be held, but the detention center was full.

Mr. CORTRIGHT: And he's been released on his own recognizance until his immigration hearing. And he's headed to Los Angeles.

ROBBINS: What are the chances you're going to, he's going to disappear and...

Mr. CORTRIGHT: It's all up to his own--it's him. It's kind of like the honor system, you know. But who knows?

ROBBINS: Phoenix may be a way station for immigrants, but it has also become a place for them to settle.

(Soundbite of music)

ROBBINS: This is the Central Phoenix Ranch Market, part of a supermarket chain catering to the area's fast growing Spanish-speaking population. Census takers show the percentage of the Hispanic population here nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000, from 13 to 25 percent. No one knows what percentage are here illegally, or even from Mexico. But it's a largely a population of families helping to make Arizona the fifth youngest state.

Ms. CANDACE ROBB: Hi, how are you?

ROBBINS: Thirty-five-year-old Alicia arrives at Candace Robb's house in the North Phoenix neighborhood. It's her second day working here.

Ms. ROBBS: When you come on Tuesday morning, this is how it's going to be.

ROBBINS: Alicia cleans houses for a living. We've agreed not to use her last name, because she's here illegally. She says she likes her work.

Ms. ALICIA (Illegal Immigrant): I like when the kids say, mom. Come, Alicia. Come on, Alicia. Why? Because the house is clean. I like.

ROBBINS: Her employer, Candace Robb, is a longtime Phoenix resident and a business owner. She says she's had to adapt to the changing culture.

Ms. ROBB: I think it's become a very bilingual city. Even myself, in business and at home, have had to learn more and more and more Spanish, so that I can speak to, not only, you know, customers, but employees and friends.

ROBBINS: But not everyone in Phoenix is adapting so willingly to this demographic and cultural shift. Despite the good times economically and the demands for workers, there's a big backlash against immigrants, at least the ones here illegally. Activists say the undocumented are holding down wages, costing taxpayers millions for healthcare and education, and contributing to crime.

Mr. RANDY PULLEN (Anti-Illegal Immigration Activist): They're coming here, and we're basically having to educate them and train them to get them to a level where they can be assimilated into our society.

ROBBINS: Randy Pullen is among the most visible activists. He led the successful fight to pass Arizona's Proposition 200, which restricts some public benefits from the undocumented. He cites a claim often heard locally, a statistic Pullen says he heard from Phoenix's former police chief.

Mr. PULLEN: In his opinion, 80 percent of all violent crime in Phoenix could be attributed to illegal aliens. Interestingly enough, they don't keep official records of that information.

ROBBINS: There's actually very little solid information to support many assertions about illegal immigration. But this is a debate driven by emotion rather than data, and emotion is translating into political action. At least two-dozen bills are in the Arizona legislature to further restrict the rights or benefits of undocumented immigrants. Almost all the bills are sponsored by Phoenix-area lawmakers.

Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University, says both sides are using the issue to their advantage.

Ms. DAWN MCLAREN (Research Economist, Arizona State University): On the pro- immigrant side, you have the Spanish-speaking population as being a huge economic factor in Phoenix, and that they need to be paid attention to. And then you have the anti-immigrant side that says, look how big they are, and they're committing all the crimes. So, for both sides, it's a political win, because they can look at it and play it in their favor on both sides.

ROBBINS: But the Spanish-speaking population in Phoenix has not gained a political foothold. Despite being a quarter of the local population, no one on the Phoenix City Council, for instance, is Hispanic. Of course, only citizens can vote.

(Soundbite of traffic)

ROBBINS: Alicia cannot even legally drive. Arizona requires proof of legal residence for a license. But she drives anyway, because Phoenix is spread out. With spotty public transportation, it's the only way she can get to work. When she comes home to a small, rented home in Central Phoenix, she heats up dinner, and then she and her husband help their three children with their homework.

Unidentified Girl: Jan brings a rabbit.

Ms. ALICIA: No, rabbits now?

Unidentified Girl: Ba.

Ms. ALICIA: Ba.

ROBBINS: The family lives in the neighborhood of immigrants who protect one another. They are mindful, she says, of the sentiment against them.

Ms. ALICIA: (Through Translator) It isn't pleasant to live, as they call us, illegal. We're not making any problems. We're contributing. We're doing good things. We didn't come to take anyone's money. We want to contribute. Our desire is to work.

ROBBINS: It's the same reason most people have moved to Phoenix for the last 50 years, whether from Wisconsin or Oaxaca--basically, to start anew and build a better life.

Ted Robbins, NPR News.

MONTAGNE: Tomorrow, retiring to Arizona's Sun City. Hear the first story in our series on how Phoenix has grown and grown at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.