Photograph: George Steinmetz/Corbis
Pro-immigration groups across the US expressed despair today after Arizona passed the toughest bills in the country which they say are aimed at forcing out hundreds of thousands of Latinos living illegally in the state.
Arizona has long been a flashpoint in the debate over immigration, with tensions heightened by the murder last month of a popular rancher, Robert Krentz, in a remote spot used by groups smuggling people from Mexico to the US.
“The Mexico-Arizona border is out of control,” said the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association in a statement accompanying a report yesterday that claimed the impact of illegal immigration was so great the state could qualify for disaster relief.
