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If you want to understand how Arizona’s SB 1070 came about, all you have to do is follow the money. A recent NPR investigative report delves into the relationship between corporate interests and legislators in the creation of the Arizona immigration law. In this case, with input from the “the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country.”
According to the NPR report, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce first discussed his ideas for what eventually came to be known (almost word for word) as SB 1070 — not with any legislative body or other legislators — but with corporate interests that were brought to the table via an organization know as ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council).
NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.
The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.
I have no issue with a state legislator seeking feedback from constituents and corporations, in other words, from citizens and businesses that are part of a community with shared interests and who play a part in the betterment of their localities. After all, businesses are a big contributor to the well-being of any community and they should play a part in the responsible debate that leads to the creation of new legislation. But when a state legislator seeks feedback from the very corporate interests who stand to gain the most from the legislation, well…I would argue that whether that legislator understands it or not, there’s a conflict of interest at issue.
And in this case, I think that there is a definite conflict of interest:
And this bill was an important one for the company. According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in “a significant portion of our revenues” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants.
Listen to (or read) the full investigative report by NPR: Part 1 and Part 2…and tell us what you think.