One Arizona politician has made a vow to make illegal immigrants powerless — literally. Republican Barry Wong, a candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, an elected body that decides public utility issues, says he would require the utilities to check the immigration status of customers, he told the Arizona Republic…. “I’m sure there will be criticism about human-rights violations,” said Wong, who held a temporary spot on the five-person Commission in 2006. “Is power or natural gas or any type of utility we regulate, is that a right that people have? It is not a right. It is a service.” Cutting electricity, water, natural gas, even telephone lines at the homes of illegal immigrants, he said, would lower costs for the rest of the state’s customers. He believes the population spike caused by illegal immigrants forces the state to build new power plants and then raise rates for customers.
Greetings from Arizona, where using immigration as a bludgeon has become a cottage industry. Listen to most any Arizona politician these days, and you’d be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that all of the state’s myriad problems are related to, or caused by, illegal immigration. Yes, I understand that as a border state, Arizona has some unique and difficult issues to deal with. Hey, I lived in Texas for 10+ years; I get it. You could take a nine-iron and hit a golf ball in any direction anywhere in Houston and be virtually guaranteed to hit an illegal alien. Then again, who do you think was mowing our lawns, paving our roads, and collecting our garbage…among other tasks that most Americans won’t do?
Of course, every now and again a politician in Arizona comes up with a truly unique and creative (if totally off the wall and unworkable) solution to this problem. Enter Barry Wong, who has a seemingly easy way to hit illegal immigrants where they live- literally. His idea? Just cut off utilities to homes where illegal immigrants live. Simple, eh? Problem solved. Good night…game over…drive home safely. Right??
Except it’s not nearly as easy and simple as Wong thinks it is. The obvious privacy considers aside, locating homes inhabited by illegals is neither a cheap nor simple proposition. Glossed over by Wong, if he even thought about it at all, were the costs associated with hiring and training people to sift the customer database home by home to determine the residency status of the customers. Then there’s the revenue lost once services are cut off to customers identified as being illegal aliens. The increased costs and lost revenue would do nothing to lower rates for legal Arizona residents; in fact, the likely result would be that customers would see increased rates. That’s what happens when you spread fixed costs over a smaller customer base.
Yes, we need comprehensive immigration reform (Anyone care to hip Congressional Republicans to this?). Yes, people in Arizona and other border states are frustrated the the federal government has continually kicked this issue down the road (Thanks, Republicans!!). Even so, Wong’s idea is just…well, wrong. Leadership means coming up with creative solutions to difficult problems, NOT pandering to the fear and ignorance of the American Sheeple with simplistic and wholly unworkable “solutions”. Then again, Barry Wong may just be the sort of pandering ignoramus that Arizona voters deserve.
