This article serves as a counterpoint to Margaret D. Stock’s article Arizona’s Attempt to Enforce Federal Immigration Law: “Force Multiplier,” or “Ball and Chain”?, published in Volume 11, Issue 3 of Engage, available here: http://www.fed-soc.org/doclib/20101223_StockEngage11.3.pdf.

Faced with escalating murders, rapes, drug trafficking, gang activity, and one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world, exacerbated by a lackluster federal immigration enforcement effort and a sanctuary city movement by some Arizona cities, the Arizona legislature passed SB 1070 in April 2010, a measure that in virtually all significant respects incorporated the actual provisions of relevant federal immigration law. An author of the bill, Senator Russell Pearce, expects that SB 1070 will accomplish “attrition by enforcement” as job opportunities diminish and illegal immigrants are deterred by the real prospect of detection and deportation...