I admit it. I covet my neighbor’s putting-green-quality yard. A professional landscaping service is there weekly, mowing, weeding, and seeding it into PGA perfection. If I took the time to go to the corner of Mesa Drive and Broadway Road in Mesa (a bedroom community of Phoenix) any morning of the week, I could find a solution for my pitiful lawn problem. There are people there who are hard workers, would charge much less than my neighbor’s professional company, and are always looking for a job. Of course, there’s also a good chance that they’re illegal aliens. But I could have a nice lawn, and the men could make a few extra bucks for their families back home.

America was built on the sweat of immigrants—my ancestors and yours—right? Everybody would come out ahead. That is, unless Sheriff Joe decided to pay me a visit. But that’s how life runs here in Arizona.

Though many in our state were sad to see Janet Napolitano prepare to leave to assume duties as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we believe she will be bringing a breath of realistic fresh air to Washington, DC. We expect Napolitano to bring her in-the-trenches experience to DHS, which out here seems hopelessly out of touch with our on-the-border realities. Napolitano understands how immigrants—both of the legal and non-legal variety—keep Arizona’s economy rolling. But she is also realistic—and quite outspoken—about keeping the bad apples out; which is why many people thought our governor was the perfect choice for President-elect Barack Obama’s administration.

Arizona has been dealing with a distilled version of the nation’s immigration and border patrol problems for a long time, even before Napolitano came to the governor’s mansion in January 2003. In the almost six years that she was our governor, she had more realistic practice dealing with immigration and homeland security issues than many of her Beltway colleagues.

The 52-foot solution

“You show me a 50-foot wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works,” Napolitano told the Associated Press in 2005 when the proposal for a national border fence gained momentum. As the quote became a trite sound bite, many Arizonans stood—and still stand—behind Napolitano’s criticism of building a giant fence along the border.

“It’s a crazy idea to say we’re going to put up a fence but not have anybody man the fence,” a Customs officer in the Yuma area told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. He also agreed with Napolitano’s insistence that the National Guard be dispatched to Arizona to help overstretched border patrol agents and customs officers man the fence. “I do think troops need to be on the border. There is just too much desert out there for us to man.”

The officer said he hoped Napolitano would bring this “enforcement-minded attitude” to Washington, DC with her. Many locally-based law enforcement officers and border officials feel their hands were tied by the last administration’s rules and regulations, he maintained.

“There are lots of laws on the books, but we aren’t allowed to enforce them,” he said. He also criticized lawmakers for putting economics over safety. Many lawmakers are more concerned with keeping the flow of goods and cheap labor coming over the border than keeping the border safe, in his view. “I wish people would work at the border for a week. They would see all the fraud and crime—what we see—in a short time.”

Napolitano understood the complex intertwining of border safety and immigration issues, not only at the border towns but all over the state. Just as the Customs officer has seen a sharp rise in violent crime, 185 miles northeast of Yuma, in Phoenix, so has the Phoenix Police Department. According to one veteran Phoenix police officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, drug cartels on the border are training members and sending them to Phoenix to conduct their deadly business as usual.

“We just had a cartel come [up to Phoenix] and start doing home invasions.” The officer said, and the men admitted to being trained by the cartel and given assault rifles, body armor, and shirts with police markings on them to get the job done. “They’re hitting known targets,” he said.

Like the Customs officer in Yuma, the police officer felt like his hands were often tied. “Unless they’re committing a crime, they are ‘hands off,’” he said. Officers are not allowed to question someone’s nationality during a routine stop, and can only call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they suspect the person is here illegally. The police officer was not much of a Napolitano fan, was glad to see Napolitano go, and doubted how much efficacy she would have in her new position.

“It’s Congress who decides what’s going to happen. And now it’s all going to be one-sided,” he said and then added, “Sheriff Joe is the only one doing stuff with the illegals.”

America’s toughest sheriff, Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Someone who was a constant thorn in the former governor’s side was Maricopa County’s larger-than-life, John-Wayne-channeling Sheriff Joseph Arpaio (R), or “Sheriff Joe” to the locals. Nicknamed “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio proudly lives up to the name. In 1993—when Napolitano was appointed US attorney for Arizona by President Bill Clinton—Arpaio was busy constructing the nation’s largest “Tent City” for convicted inmates. Even in the blistering summer months, those doing time with Sheriff Joe can expect canvas tents, only two meals a day, pink underwear to go with their black-and-white striped uniforms, and hard labor on a chain gang—men, women, and even juvenile offenders.

And while a significant number of Arizonans support him—he’s been re-elected to an unprecedented four 4-year terms—Arpaio has become a lightning rod with civil liberties groups, human rights activists, and immigration activists.

Arpaio not only butted heads with Napolitano, but also with other state and local officials. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon (D) and Sheriff Joe routinely make headlines together. In March 2008, Gordon publicly blasted Arpaio at a luncheon—ironically honoring the late, Yuma-born, Mexican-American, labor leader César Chávez—for dispatching 200 deputies and posse members the night before to do sweeps for illegal aliens. In his speech, Gordon said, “They locked up brown people with broken tail lights. How does that make our community safer? It doesn’t.” Gordon then praised his own police department saying their sweep the week before had gone after “the worst of the worst,” getting dangerous criminals of all colors and nationalities off the street. Gordon challenged Arpaio to “Go after criminals—not a teenager driving with a broken tail light.”

Though the raids continued, later that spring Arpaio had to start doing them on a smaller budget. In May 2008, Governor Napolitano signed an executive order prompting the state police to cancel a $1.6 million dollar agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The money stripped from Arpaio went instead to create a fugitive task force. Arpaio immediately cried foul, but Jeanine L’Ecuyer, a Governor’s Office spokeswoman, denied that the governor was trying to weaken efforts to stop illegal immigration. According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, there were about 59,000 outstanding, unserved felony warrants in Arizona in May 2008, and a majority of them were in Maricopa County. Critics challenged Arpaio to spend less time on illegal aliens and more time on the thousands of felony warrants piled up on his desk. Arpaio called the cuts “political payback” and some in the community agree.

Asked if he thought the budget cut was a punishment, the Phoenix police officer replied, “Yes, very much so.”

Phoenix attorney Stephen Montoya questioned why local law enforcement officials were so worried about enforcing federal immigration law when they had so many other issues on their plates. Montoya, who lives in Phoenix, said that drug deals and prostitution take place openly and with regularity in the city of Phoenix. He said that once the crack houses and methamphetamine labs were shut down, and there was a significant reduction in rapes, robberies, drug dealing, and prostitution, then they should think about enforcing immigration law.

In October 2008, another mayor in Maricopa County, Mesa’s Scott Smith (R) blasted Arpaio after a group of 60 deputies and posse members—in bulletproof vests and carrying semi-automatic weapons—stormed City Hall and a public library about 2 a.m. targeting a cleaning crew. Arpaio said a former city employee had contacted the sheriff’s illegal-immigration hotline and reported that the City of Mesa was hiring illegal aliens. Sixteen arrests were made during the sweep—10 on suspicion of identity theft and six for potentially being in the country illegally. Smith insisted that most of the janitorial workers at the public buildings were either US citizens or were legal aliens.

Napolitano looked for the middle ground

Not all Arizonans agreed with Sheriff Joe and his immigration policies. Others preferred a more centrist view on immigration like Napolitano’s. Dani Cutler, an award-winning political podcaster from Arizona, thought Napolitano did a good job as governor.

“She tried to look at everybody’s perspective. She was willing to listen to the hard core ‘build that fence as high as you can, and keep them out,’ but I think she was also for amnesty and immigration rights,” said Cutler, who worried that Napolitano might not be able to keep such a neutral stance in her new position. “She’ll have to deal with a national audience. She may have to be stricter on immigration, because she will have more people to appease.”

Cutler, who started the Truth Seekers podcast in 2006, worried that Arizona would lose its political balance with Napolitano’s departure. As Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican, is expected to move in to fill Napolitano’s position, she will join a Republican-dominated legislature.

“My fear is that we will lose that balance [Napolitano had], and some of the things that shouldn’t be passed, will be passed easier,” said Cutler. She wondered if the new governor would “restrict a lot of our personal choices” that Napolitano—who flexed her veto power quite regularly—kept from happening.

Though Napolitano has a reputation for taking the middle ground, she surprised some by signing one of the nation’s strictest employer-sanctions laws in July 2007. The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008, targeted employers of undocumented workers and the more than quarter-million undocumented workers believed to work and reside in Arizona.

Another federal program Napolitano is expected to review is 287 (g)—which allows local and state law enforcement officials to take on immigration duties. In an interview in the Arizona Republic on Nov. 21, 2008, Arpaio promised that even if Napolitano altered or scuttled the 287 (g) program, that he would still enforce the state laws and continue arresting illegal immigrants under the state’s anti-smuggling law.

But the undocumented farm worker or hotel maid trying to earn an honest living may be the least of Napolitano’s concerns as she comes into her new national position. The recent escalating and gruesome violence at the Mexican border will have to take priority. The Customs officer in Yuma was surprised that there hadn’t been any tourist warnings to keep Americans—especially land-locked Arizonans who like to cross the border to beach towns like Rocky Point—out of Mexico.

“It’s very dangerous, and people are finding that out the hard way,” said the Customs officer.

The Phoenix police officer said he had been warned not to go down to the border in a marked car or wearing identifying equipment. Even if he is vacationing across the border, he was warned not to divulge his profession, even in passing, because it would put him and his family at risk.

Though terrorism overseas gained prominence with the Mumbai, India attacks, some residents of Arizona worry that the federal government isn’t taking the realistic threat of terrorism on US soil seriously enough.

“Our country is very forgetful,” said the police officer, warning that it was going to take a terrorist attack to get things to change. He had this advice for Napolitano: “We shouldn’t be so worried about terrorists on planes. Any terrorists could come right into Mexico and walk across the border.”

* * *

So while the Customs officer and police officer are busy trying to get rid of the bad apples, let’s come back to my lawn dilemma. As I drive by Mesa Drive and Broadway Road in Mesa one more time, I notice some savvy business owner has come up with a way to capitalize on Napolitano’s strict employer-sanctions law. Amongst the clumps of men looking for day labor is a man holding a sign touting his legal status and the name of the company he works for. As I sit at the traffic light, someone drives by the guy, honks, and gives him a thumbs up.

Hmmm. Maybe I can now finally have a nice lawn without having to worry about receiving a personal visit from Sheriff Joe. Meanwhile, life in Arizona rolls on. HST

Sara Francis-Fujimura lives in Arizona. Her most recent article for HSToday was “Operation Jump Start: Watching Me, Watching You” in the August 2007 edition, available online at www.HSToday.us.