Woman in the News

by Suzanne Gould, BBC News, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

Published: April 24, 2010

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The governor listened patiently, Mr. Woods recalled, as he laid out his arguments against the bill: that it would give too much power to the local police to stop people merely suspected of being illegal immigrants and would lead to racial profiling; that some local police officers have been abusive toward immigrants; and that the law could lead to costly legal battles for the state.

When he hung up, Mr. Woods knew he had lost the case. “She really felt that the majority of Arizonans fall on the side of, Let’s solve the problem and not worry about the Constitution,” he said.

Locking on a position, sometimes confounding members of her party, and letting the chips fall where they may have defined Ms. Brewer’s style since she unexpectedly vaulted from secretary of state to governor 15 months ago when Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, left to join the Obama administration as homeland security secretary.

To the public, Ms. Brewer, 65, is a smiling, deeply tanned, affable “cheerleader type,” as one friend described her. She may fumble and grimace her way through news conferences, but she genuinely likes shaking constituents’ hands and startling state employees on field visits by chatting them up.

To aides and insiders, she is a meticulous political scorekeeper who may not grasp the finer points of policy — opponents wonder if she is in the sway of consultants — but sweats details like whether campaign volunteers have the right shirts on and relishes proving doubters wrong.

Until now, she had rarely made waves — supporters struggled to name one headline-grabbing thing she was known for before becoming governor — despite spending more than 25 years in public service. And opponents wonder whether her coterie of aides has undue influence, noting she had never made immigration control a passion until it was clear that she was running for election.

She did not even mention the border or immigration in her January 2009 inaugural speech, which focused squarely on the biggest problem on her hands, the imploding economy and a state budget in tatters.

But Ms. Brewer in her short tenure may already be remembered for shaking up the political order, even before her decision on the immigration bill.

First, to help close a $2.6 billion budget deficit and avoid harsh cuts, she shocked and angered the conservative flank that had buoyed her by pushing for a 1-cent increase in the state sales tax.

Chuck Coughlin, a political consultant who worked on her transition team, recalled how Ms. Brewer, as she contemplated the tax increase last year, spent 20 minutes in a meeting explaining how she could not stomach expected deep cuts in education.

“She knew the tax was the only option on the table,” Mr. Coughlin said. “I told her she will have no friends, that not even the Democrats will help you because they want you to roast in the fire. But she did it.”

The proposal, Proposition 100, goes before voters on May 18.

Then, what is accepted as the country’s most stringent immigration enforcement law, allowing the local police to stop and check the immigration papers of noncitizens and making it a state crime not to have them, was making its way through the Legislature.

Legislators said Ms. Brewer, who is seeking a full term, was long prepared to sign such a bill, and her closest opponents in the primary all backed it. But her staff members hashed over the details with Senator Russell Pearce, a Republican who has made driving illegal immigrants out of the state his passion.

Though not closely allied with Mr. Pearce, she took up his mantra that the law would help the police weed out criminals.

“Border-related violence and crime due to illegal immigration are critically important issues to the people of our state,” she said on Friday after signing the immigration bill. “We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of drug cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life.”

Ms. Brewer said she had pushed for language that explicitly bars the police from racial profiling, though that failed to mollify civil rights groups who complained that Latino citizens would inevitably be harassed or mistaken for illegal immigrants.

As Arizona secretary of state, Ms. Brewer supported Proposition 200, an initiative passed in 2004 requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

But as a more a business-oriented, “country club” Republican, she never made the issue a central theme.

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AP – Edgar Rios, left, and Marcos Gonzalez, both of Phoenix, join hundreds of protesters as they rally at …

• Slideshow:Immigration Reform Debate
• Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama: Financial system must be overhauled AP
• Play Video Barack Obama Video:Ariz. Governor Signs Tough Immigration Bill CBS 13 / CW 31 Sacramento

PHOENIX – Civil rights advocates vowed Saturday to challenge Arizona's tough new law targeting illegal immigration, saying it will lead to racial profiling of Hispanics despite the governor's assurance abuses won't be tolerated.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill that supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation's busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico and home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants.

The law requires police to question people about their immigration status — including asking for identification — if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. It's sparked fears among legal immigrants and U.S. citizens that they'll be hassled by police just because they look Hispanic.

Opponents of the law lingered at the state Capitol Saturday morning. Others gathered in Tucson outside the campaign headquarters of U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who this week called on businesses and groups looking for convention and meeting locations to boycott Arizona. Grijalva said his staff was flooded with phone calls this week, some from people threatening violent acts and shouting racial slurs.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association announced it would move its September conference from Scottsdale, Ariz., to another state.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the state Capitol Friday shouting that the bill would lead to civil rights abuses. But Brewer said critics were "overreacting."

"We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act," Brewer said after signing the law. "But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation."

Earlier Friday, President Barack Obama called the Arizona bill "misguided" and instructed the Justice Department to examine it to see if it's legal. He also said the federal government must enact immigration reform at the national level — or leave the door open to "irresponsibility by others."

"That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," Obama said.

Current law in Arizona and most states doesn't require police to ask about the immigration status of those they encounter, and many police departments prohibit officers from inquiring out of fear immigrants won't cooperate in other investigations.

The new law makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. Immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months and fined $2,500.

It also allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws and toughens restrictions on hiring illegal immigrants for day labor and knowingly transporting them.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund said it plans a legal challenge to the law, which it said "launches Arizona into a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions."

William Sanchez, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders Legal Defense Fund, said his group is preparing a federal lawsuit against Arizona to stop the law from being applied. The group represents 30,000 Evangelical churches nationwide, including 300 Latino pastors in Arizona.

"Millions of Latinos around the country are shocked," Sanchez said.

Brewer ordered the state's law enforcement licensing agency to develop a training course on how to implement it without violating civil rights. The bill will take effect in late July or early August, depending on when the current legislative session ends.

"We must enforce the law evenly, and without regard to skin color, accent, or social status," she said. "We must prove the alarmists and the cynics wrong."

Many of the demonstrators at the Capitol complex booed when Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox announced that "the governor did not listen to our prayers."

"It's going to change our lives," said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen from Phoenix. "We can't walk to school any more. We can't be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we're illegal immigrants."

Mexico warned the proposal could affect cross-border relations, with Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa saying her country would have to "consider whether the cooperation agreements that have been developed with Arizona are viable and useful."

Francisco Loureiro, a pro-migrant activist who runs a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, called the new law "racist" and said it would lead to more police abuse of migrants.

"Police in Arizona already treat migrants worse than animals," he said. "There is already a hunt for migrants and now it will be open season under the cover of a law."

Loureiro said about 250 deported migrants have been arriving at his shelter every night and that most tell him they were detained by police.

On Thursday, Mexico's Senate unanimously passed a resolution urging Brewer to veto the law.

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