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bluboy1313 [2010-06-11 10:54:56 +0000 UTC]

What if Arizona's new law causing illegal immigrants to leave the state?

Posted: 06:00 PM ET

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Arizona's tough new immigration law doesn't even go into effect for another seven weeks, but lots of the state's 460,000 illegal aliens are leaving now.
USA Today reports that records from schools, businesses and individuals suggest that many worried legal and illegal Latinos are fleeing Arizona.

Schools in Latino neighborhoods show big drops in enrollment.

In one elementary school, 70 kids have been pulled out by their parents in just the last month... that's compared to seven students who left the school in the same period last year.

The superintendent says "they're leaving to another state where they feel more welcome."

That was pretty much the point of the Arizona law, wasn't it?

The new law requires police to ask for immigration papers if someone is stopped for another crime - you know, just like police ask for your driver's license when you're stopped for a traffic violation.

Businesses that serve primarily Latino areas say things are much slower.

The head of a chamber of commerce for Hispanic business owners says it's because illegal immigrants are holding onto cash as they prepare to leave the state.

Other small business owners say they will have to move elsewhere because business is "completely dead."

Governor Jan Brewer's office says it's hard to know how many people are leaving because of the law; but she says "if that means that fewer people are breaking the law, that is absolutely an accomplishment."

In 2007, when Arizona passed another law that imposed tougher penalties on businesses that hired illegal aliens - about 100,000 of them left the state.

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