

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Ambushed by a suspected drug smuggler on March 27 as he worked an isolated corner of his 35,000-acre cattle ranch, Robert Krentz became the symbol of the violence that illegal border crossing is inflicting on the people who live along Arizona’s border with Mexico.
The Cochise County rancher’s murder galvanized public support for S.B. 1070, the Arizona Senate’s tough anti-illegal immigrant bill. Public outrage at the shooting was enough to win the bill a majority in both houses of the Arizona Legislature and receive Gov. Jan Brewer’s signature, which transformed it into the state’s controversial new law.
That supporters of the legislation selected Krentz as a symbol and focal point for that outrage was an ironic choice. An overflow crowd of more than 1,200 friends, relatives and local and state dignitaries from both sides of the border, led by Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, attended his memorial service. They remembered a man with compassion for anyone, including illegal migrants, in need of his help.
Father Bob Carney, the longtime pastor of St. Luke’s Catholic Church in the southeastern Arizona border town of Douglas, where Krentz and his family were parishioners, said Krentz was always ready to assist any migrants who got into trouble on their trip north. When the migrants were hungry, he provided them with food and when they were thirsty, he gave them water.
“He was a good and a gentle man,” Father Carney said, “and he helped where he could.”
Father Carney said he wasn’t surprised that the smugglers, who use the immigrants as their cover, probably killed Krentz. Drug cartels, he said, “are completely unscrupulous. They use any opportunity to further their own interests.”
Krentz helped ranchers south of the border who were threatened by the gangs, such as Hector Ortega, who attended Krentz’s memorial. “He knew the cartels don’t care about human life,” said Father Carney.
Father Carney said, “Since 1995, when the Border Patrol tightened the blockade at El Paso and San Diego and forced the immigrants into the Sonoran Desert, he saw the increase in the violence from the cartels. He saw that everyone was caught in a vise.”
The bill that Krentz’s death helped propel is called the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. It was introduced by state Sen. Russell Pearce, the Republican representative for District 18 in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
The legislation makes it a misdemeanor to be unable to provide government-issued identification proving legal residency, such as a driver’s license, tribal enrollment, state identification card or military identification card. It makes it a crime, punishable by a fine of at least $500 and up to six months in jail, to be an illegal alien living in or traveling through Arizona. S.B. 1070 also requires law enforcement officers to require proof of legal residency from anyone they have reason to suspect is not legally in the state.
When Government Leaves a Void
The law also forbids anyone from hiring day laborers from a street corner — a traditional means for seeking employment without identification — or helping, in any way, in the transport, housing or concealing of illegal immigrants. Violators are subject to vehicle confiscation and felony prosecution.
It is the third law of its type approved by Arizona’s legislators. The first, approved in 2006, makes it a state crime for any employer to hire workers without proper documents.
The second, approved in 2008, makes it a crime to provide any government-funded services, including school enrollment and medical treatment, to anyone without proof of citizenship.
The new law, along with the previous efforts, has drawn condemnation from advocacy groups and individual Catholic bishops but enjoys broad public support. A Rasmussen poll, commissioned by The Arizona Republic newspaper, reported that 60% of Americans favor S.B. 1070. The approval rises to 70% among Arizona residents.
Response from law enforcement agencies has been mixed. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix called the law “just what we needed,” but Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnick in Tucson condemned it for making people afraid to talk to law enforcement, which undermines community-policing efforts, and putting the burden on local police to enforce federal rather than local laws. “It’s the worst [law-enforcement legislation] I’ve seen in 50 years,” he said.
“It’s what happens when the federal government leaves a void,” said Bryan Griffith, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., almost half from Mexico, and an estimated 500,000 living in Arizona.
Griffith said that no matter how many legal immigrants the U.S. lets in, it could never be enough. “You have to draw a line somewhere,” he said. “As long as the federal policy is to have a 100-mile buffer with the Border Patrol — and if you can get through that, you can get a home, a job, a bank account and bring your family to join you while you wait for amnesty to become a citizen — then the U.S. won’t have an immigration policy that works.”
Griffith said other states are watching.
“I don’t see 50 other sets of rules coming,” he said, “but if the Arizona law is upheld as constitutional, and it’s effective, and Congress doesn’t act, other states will follow Arizona’s lead.”
‘A Step Backwards’
That’s what concerns Bishop Kicanas. In his “Monday Memo” to the Diocese of Tucson, the bishop said he was asking the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to file a “friend of the court” brief in connection with any legal challenges to the law.
Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Migration for the bishops’ conference, agreed, issuing a statement opposing S.B. 1070. He warned that the bill would lead to “the rise in fear and distrust in immigrant communities.”
It will do that without addressing the “critical need for border security to confront drug smugglers, weapons smuggling and human trafficking,” Bishop Kicanas wrote. “It sends the wrong message about how our state regards the importance of civil rights.”
The law also does nothing to stem the migration, said Erica Dahl-Bredine, country manager for Catholic Relief Services in Mexico. “S.B. 1070 is a step backwards.”
Dahl-Bredine said the migration is fueled by the push from Mexico’s struggling economy, especially in the southern states where jobs are scarce, and the pull from U.S. employers, who need workers.
“It doesn’t help national security to have people running through the desert in the middle of the night or to have 11 million people living in the shadows,” she said. “Contributing to their sense of insecurity, fearing they’ll be deported at any time, doesn’t help either.”
“What we need is significant reform of our immigration policy, recognizing that half the growth in the U.S. labor force is immigrant labor. It’s the key to recovery of our economy,” Dahl-Bredine said.
Ultimately, it’s about the individuals who are suffering, said Jesuit Father Sean Carroll, executive director of the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Ariz., and across the border in Nogales, Sonora. The Kino Border Initiative cares for approximately 200 to 250 people at a time, who are dropped off at the border with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing and money in their pockets.
Father Carroll said he would like to see legislation in keeping with the policies outlined by the pastoral letter “Strangers No Longer” that was published by the U.S. bishops’ conference. “We want to see a path to legalization, a guest-worker program with adequate protection for workers’ rights, respect for due process, and reform of immigration law to reunite families. We would also like to see economic development and reform in Mexico and Central America, so people aren’t forced to migrate to find a better life.”
However, Father Carroll said it’s not just about laws. It’s about “seeing the crisis in the light of Catholic social teaching. Once you can walk with these migrants and learn about the reality of migration, you can approach the problem in a different way, and in that you will find the solution.”
Philip Moore writes from Vail, Arizona.
As long as CRS and Catholic Bishops are encouraging amnesty of illegals, encouraging more and more immigration, while many Americans are suffering without jobs (many of them black Americans) and our own food pantries are going bare, while our government is spending us into oblivion on stupid things (like unneeded signs telling what great things they are doing!) that will take generations to repay, if ever, I WILL NOT BE DONATING ANYTHING TO CRS OR THE BISHOP"S FUND! I will still donate to charities, but small ones directly helping poor people. CRS, go work on helping Mexico spread some of it’s own huge wealth held by a few.
Bishop Wester states ...“the rise in fear and distrust in immigrant communities.” will result from the Ariz Law. Bishop Kicanas wrote. “It sends the wrong message about how our state regards the importance of civil rights.”
Just what civil rights are supported by sending a message to fight and protest this law (mirrored after the federal law by the way)? Are the Bishops and opponents of this law in favor of chaos and the repeal of the rule of law for this country? The federal government has chosen to ignore their fellow citizens in Ariz, yet they, the Bishops and others suggest that Ariz just pick up the bodies and leave it up to the feds. It is true that this is a federal responsibility and failure of the administration to enforce the laws. But it is also the responsibility of the governor of his/her state to protect the citizens of the state. I think the Church would be better served by putting pressure on the federal government and congress to take action to secure the border and provide a guest worker program as needed. A good interim step would be to empower the states to enforce the law and hand the illegals over to the feds for prosecution and deportment and also let the States handle the guest worker program for their state. A principle of subsidiarity would apply here. The current situation and the protests of the Bishops hurt the illegals, the legal immigrants and contribute to the undermining of the rule of law. It might as well be Greece or the middle east at this pace.
I agree with Elaine. We should stop all donations to the USCCB charity in light of their misguided response to Arizona’s effort to put illegal aliens where they belong. The bishops need to look at this issue in a more general view and see the damage that unsecured borders are causing to the people who call themselves US citizens. What about all the US citizens who are unemployed and passed up for Mexican illegals when hiring?? My heart goes out to those unemployed not to the illegals causing all this trouble and getting free health care and food stamps that the rest of hard working souls paid for.
Zeb Arrow - thanks for the links.
I am encouraged by the comments written here. The voice of the American Catholic laity is not being heard by the American bishops as the bishops continue to lobby and work with the pro-abortion party to enact legislation contrary to the will of the American people and favorable to the far left’s goals. If the bishops’ so-called “social justice” issues are “rights” then they should work to get those “rights” enacted into the Constitution. That way the American people will come to some agreement of whether they are “rights” or an individual responsibilities.
The only “right” of the bishops’ concerns that is stated in the Constitution is in the Preamble, and that only specifies the right to LIFE|. Arizonians have a Right to Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness. This latest law of theirs is spot on those human rights. The bishops and everybody else should just butt out of the lives of Americans living in Arizona. The bishops and everybody else should fund the illegals with their own money and leave our tax monies to go to defending our nation and paying for the education of American citizens and those here legally.
Are these the same Bishops that kept quiet on pedophile priests?
Try making an unannounced to their offices and raiding their food pantry. I bet that you’d be escorted out with some new bracelets by the police.
What’s the difference between you and the illegals? None, illegals come in all shapes and sizes, and colors.
I’m all for helping the poor and willing to give, but when a poor person reaches into my pocket, the line stops there.
If the USCCB files a “Friend of the Court brief, against the Arizona Law, then we should stop all donations to any USCCB charity, since we will not know how they are going to spend our money.
Arizona has the right to pass laws to protect it’s citizens, including protecting LEGAL Immigrants.
The Obama Administration is not doing it’s required job. Required by the US Constutition to protect its borders.
As an aside, Remember that its a myth that Latinos are mostly practicing Catholics - like it had been 25 years ago.
According to the Vatican both Latin America and the US are in need of Evangelization.
Further most Latinos vote for the “Party of Death” due to other campaign promises made to them.
We would also like to see economic development and reform in Mexico and Central America, so people aren’t forced to migrate to find a better life.”
That is the crux of the problem and what the American bishops should be focusing on. It is also what the Mexican bishops should be focusing on.
This policy is destroying Mexico. Amnesty would destroy America and Mexico.
A few ideas for our government: (1) Invest in people and infrastructure in order to successfully enforce current US immigration laws, (2) incent institutions in the US (e.g., Catholic Church) to humanely and compassionately assist illegal aliens return to their homelands, and (3) incent (or maybe the word should be INSIST) businesses in the US, whether American or not, lead a “return-to-quality” in manufacturing and service by hiring legal residents and Americans.
“Amen, amen I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber.”
(John 10:1)
Arizona Illegal Immigration Law FACT SHEET:
http://cis.org/Announcement/AZ-Immigration-SB1070
Why all Americans should oppose Illegal Immigration and Amnesty
http://cis.org/mortensen/tea-party
Why Arizona Drew a Line
Arizona – Doing the Work the Feds Refuse to Do
Arizona, by enacting a strict illegal immigration law has decided it wants less murders, kidnappings, assaults, rapes, human smuggling, drop houses, home invasions, drugs, welfare recipients; and fewer illegitimate users of their schools, health care and judicial systems. What’s not to like and cheer on about that?
MUCH MORE at: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/arizona_just_doing_the_job_the.html