Giant Sucking Sound in Arizona

Migrants sell up, flee Arizona ahead of crackdown

The 'tough' state immigration crackdown starts on Thursday!

Reuters is reporting a boom in yard sales as migrants sell off their belongings, and legal residents, meaning their US-born children, are joining the scramble to leave.

The story starts with a Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks [sic, that should be hocks] a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

A few paces up the street, [because the reporter wants us to think he walked, in Phoenix? Yeah, right!] her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving," said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. "We have no alternative. They have us cornered." No, cornered would mean you're headed back to Nicaragua, right?

The U.S. government estimates 100,000 unauthorized migrants left Arizona after the state passed an employer sanctions law three years ago requiring companies to verify workers' status using a federal computer system. There are no figures for the number who have left since the new law passed in April. -- because they're un-documented - perhaps?

Some are heading back to Mexico or to neighboring states. Others are staying put and taking their chances. Best not break the law, then, eh, Pedro?

In a sign of a gathering exodus, Mexican businesses from grocers and butcher shops to diners and beauty salons have shut their doors in recent weeks as their owners and clients leave -- or perhaps these folks are part of the exodus too?

"They wanted to drive Hispanics out of Arizona and they have succeeded even before the law even comes into effect," said Aguilar, 28, a mother of three young children who was also offering a few cherished pictures and a stereo at one of five sales on the same block.

She said she had taken in just $20 as "everyone is selling and nobody wants to buy."

LEGAL RESIDENTS FLEE - too.

Arizona straddles the principal highway for human and drug smugglers heading into the United States from Mexico.

The state's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, signed the law in April in a bid to curb violence and cut crime stemming from illegal immigration. -- AND, no one mentions, that Texas, New Mexico and California have beefed up their borders, AZ has been a bit behind to catch up, which to me says that AZ is the hole in the fence?

Opponents say the law is unconstitutional and a recipe for racial profiling. It is being challenged in seven lawsuits, including one filed by President Barack Obama's administration, which wants a preliminary injunction to block the law - which, if the Federal Government would perform it's duty, the State wouldn't have had to make that law - hey, just sayin'!

So, bottom line - if you're looking for work - there's some cheap ass apartments and a crap load of landscaping jobs opening up in AZ this week!