Private Prison Lobby Behind Arizona's Immigration Law

Bigotry. Xenophobia. Demagoguery. All help explain the origins of Arizona's draconian immigration law, which allows law enforcement in the state to harass and lock up anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally. But an investigation by NPR reveals what just might be the true driving force behind Arizona's authoritarianism: greed.

After months of reviewing campaign finance documents and corporate lobbying records, NPR discovered that while Arizona Senate Bill 1070 may have been signed into law in Phoenix, its roots actually trace back to a meeting in Washington, DC, between the right-wing drafter of the law and the private prison company that stands to reap the benefits.

“It was last December at the Grand Hyatt,” NPR reports. “Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council,” or ALEC, whose members include both the chief sponsor of SB 1070, state Sen. Russell Pearce, and the private prison firm that stands to gain the most from such laws: Corrections Corporation of America. And it was at that meeting that Pearce presented his plan.

"I did a presentation," Pearce told NPR. "I went through the facts. I went through the impacts and they said, 'Yeah.'"

The 50 or so members of ALEC in attendance -- ExxonMobil is a member, as is the National Rifle Association -- including at least two from the private prison firm soon endorsed Pearce’s draft bill as a model for the country; since Arizona passed the measure, similar proposals have been offered across the country, including in states such as Florida and Maryland.

“There were no 'no' votes," Pearce said. "I never had one person speak up in objection to this model legislation."

And for good reason: tough anti-immigrant legislation is seen as a potentially huge moneymaker for those who profit from depriving people of their liberty.

Indeed, documents reviewed by NPR show that executives with Corrections Corporation of America see detaining immigrants in the country illegally as “their next big market.” In a 2009 report, officials with the company said they expected “a significant portion of our revenues” to come from imprisoning immigrants.

And, through ALEC, they were willing to work hard to ensure that market became a reality. “As soon as Pearce's bill hit the Arizona statehouse floor in January, there were signs of ALEC's influence,” NPR reports. “Thirty-six co-sponsors jumped on, a number almost unheard of in the capitol.” Of those co-sponsors, two-thirds either attended the December ALEC meeting or were members of the group.

If that sounds unusual, businesses working hand-in-hand with lawmakers to ensure their revenue streams, well, welcome to the USA, where the people-powered democracy you read about in civics class has been supplanted nothing less than rank, unadulterated corporatism.

"Yeah, that's the way it's set up,” Michael Hough, who was ALEC’s staff director at the time the Arizona law was first discussed, told NPR. “It's a public-private partnership. We believe both sides, businesses and lawmakers should be at the same table, together.”

And it’s a “public-private partnership” that has a distinct ideology, Hough explaining that ALEC is a “conservative, free-market orientated, limited-government group.” And Hough is an embodiment of the melding of corporate interests and government: though he still works for ALEC, he’s also running for public office in Maryland, where if elected “he plans to support a similar bill to Arizona's law.”

For being “free-market oriented,” though, it’s awful odd that ALEC’s members seem to make most most money off the government, isn't it? But then that what’s always been the glaring, fatal flaw with the conservative and right-wing libertarian argument for privatized prisons -- while groups like the Koch-funded Reason Foundation defend outsourcing incarceration by citing Adam Smith and the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism, they skip past the uncomfortable truth that any good capitalist will do whatever it takes to increase their profits. And when a business is dependent upon using the power of the state to deprive people of their liberty, that means the smart businessman will have a damn strong interest in pushing for policies that take away more and more people’s freedom.

Photo Credit: Todd Ehlers