Day by day West

OCT. 12: In-depth look at Arizona documentary visit

To learn more about what the crew is learning as it films, read a commentary by the director of A Hard Road: Travels in Trump’s America published Friday at StatehouseReport.com:

Big wall might mean bigger ladders, more

Commentary by Andy Brack, editor and publisher, Phoenix, Ariz.  |  An old joke around here is that if there’s ever a 30-foot border wall built to thwart illegal immigrants, it won’t be long before a lot of companies start building 32-foot ladders.

Former Congressman Ron Barber of Tucson talked with interviewer Bruce Hawker about reforming gun laws at the Safeway market where he an 18 others were shot in 2011.

While the national furor over immigration reached a fever after candidate Donald Trump launched xenophobic campaign rhetoric to build a wall, immigration politics is old hat in Arizona, cropping up year after year as a political hot button.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan pushed through immigration reform that allowed amnesty for undocumented workers.  In turn, families moved north to be with undocumented workers who decided to stay. Then came the September 11 attacks that fueled fear and worry about border security, which led to searches, traffic stops and more of people with brown skin. Nowadays, it’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television without the politics of immigration rearing its head.  Meanwhile, the northerly flow of people, now mostly from Central America, heading into the United States for better opportunities continues.

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