Just as critics of Arizona’s tough new anti-illegal-immigration law were gearing up for angry and even violent protests against the measure, something happened that showed why the law is needed: A deputy sheriff in Arizona was wounded in a gunfight with drug smugglers who had come up from Mexico.
Three people believed to be in this country illegally have been arrested in connection with the incident, in which the officer was shot in the back.
Sadly, it is not the first time law enforcement officers or other U.S. citizens have paid a high price for our nation’s failure to enforce its immigration laws. Back in 2007, two police officers in Phoenix were killed by illegal aliens. And recently, an Arizona cattle rancher whose land is near the Mexican border was killed by a drug smuggler.
As a matter of fact, while illegal aliens make up about 10 percent of the population in the area around Phoenix, they account for 20 percent of the inmates in the local jail.
Mark Spencer, a spokesman for the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said illegal aliens are selling hand grenades on the black market. “It may be safer in Beirut than Phoenix,” he told the Los Angeles Times.