Previously, The Ball Monitor asked if Assemblyman Greg Ball would side with mainstream Republican leaders in opposing Arizona's extremist immigration law or if he would resort to his usual demagoguery. We now have our answer. Here is the latest from the desk of Greg Ball, Ball Pushes 'Arizona Law' to Deport Criminal Illegal Aliens:
Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I - Patterson) announced on the floor of the New York State Assembly that he will re-introduce a revised version of his 287(G) Immigration Legislation. Ball announced his intentions during a floor debate of Assembly Resolution 1282, sponsored by Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, to denounce Arizona's new immigration law, S1070.
Electing Greg Ball to the New York State Senate will bring our great state one step closer to abandoning the New York tradition of tolerance and becoming a racially polarized community. Before casting their votes, residents of the 40th Senate District should think very carefully about what this will mean.
Throughout his career, Assemblyman Ball has couched his anti-immigrant crusade in terms of protecting the public from "criminal illegal aliens". However, it is far from clear that immigration, even illegal immigration, is associated with actual street crime. The Associated Press reports that "the top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin, according to a new FBI report. And an in-house Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities."
Indeed, a ham-fisted crackdown on immigration will be counterproductive. In his overheated public statements, Ball conveniently fails to consider the probability that his proposals will only make areas with illegal immigrant populations more dangerous by further isolating those populations from the larger society and discouraging any kind of cooperation with the police. This is a point made by law enforcement professionals across the country, including none other than the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, the career police officials that would be responsible for executing Arizona's flawed policy.
In order to satisfy anti-immigrant zealots, Arizona has passed an ineffective law to address a non-existent problem. For it's troubles, The Grand Canyon State has become a pariah and the City of Phoenix alone reports that boycotts spurred by the new law have already cost them $90 million, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Greg Ball seeks to bring the same derision down upon New York with his attempt to impose an unfair immigration law here. While it might be good for snagging appearances on NBC, immigrant baiting is bad for immigrant and native New Yorkers alike.
